The Lava Monitor was surprisingly tasty.

I'd never eaten lizard before, but that didn't put me off. It was meat, and Coatli had sliced it thin and fried it hot with a handful of gathered greens. The smell had banished any of my misgivings even before he dropped it onto the table, still sizzling, and we picked it from the pan with our knives and blew on it to cool it.

Afterwards, he shoved his chair back and kicked his feet up on the table, picking his teeth with a bone, while I pulled the Heart from my pocket and turned it over in my fingers, watching the eternal sunshine of the white void play across its facets.

"Thoughts?" he grunted.

"I never really considered myself an ambitious man." I tossed the glowing gem in the air, tumbled it over my knuckles, and made it vanish with a flourish of my hand.

"Oh?"

"Mmm. I've had a chance at it, you know." He didn't react, and I suddenly felt defensive. "Not that I was any sort of king or noble. But not long after I washed my hands of the Marglades, I ended up in jail. I was charged on pretenses, and convicted by people who thought it was less work than investigating what actually happened. I got off pretty light, to be honest; a few days in the stocks, which left me more bruised and angry than actually injured." I shrugged.

"I was younger and more hot-headed then. I took it as a personal affront, which, looking back, was pretty dumb. Sure, it was insulting and painful, but hardly personal. No-one really cared about me, which was, in some ways, even worse." I grimaced.

"But it was enough to get me started on a life of crime." I waved my hand, and the gem appeared on my palm. "Afterwards, partly out of pique and partly out of opportunity, I joined some other petty thieves, and we went to work." I looked into the distance. "To be honest, I have a lot of good memories of those days, and those men and women. There's a real thrill to be had when you're going up against someone else, matching your skills and wits against their men and guns, and coming out on top was always rewarding - mentally and financially. Thankfully, I never came out seriously behind - not enough to end up at the gibbet, at least."

Coatli chuckled. "And here I was, thinking you couldn't be any more different from Cuauhli."

I waved his comment off. "I'm sure he was a great guy. I'm not, by many measures. The thing is, we didn't stop there. I pulled together more thieves, we diversified into gray-areas like gambling and racketeering and grift, and in five short years I found myself at the apex of a patchwork guild of criminals." I grinned. "It was sort of fun, at first. I had nearly as much power in that city as a minor lord; I had executions of my own, and I levied a tax, of sorts." I patted my gun. "Picked up some worthwhile tools while I was at it."

"And then?" Coatli, apparently satisfied with his teeth, moved on to cleaning under his claws.

"Then I just… walked out on it." I set the gem on the table and stared at it. "I'm not even sure why. I'd been getting sick of all the backbiting and scheming I had to deal with. Bullets in heads only solve so many problems, you know? I just looked out to sea, and thought 'there has to be something better than this out there'. So I commandeered a boat, and set sail for the sunset. Not long after, I found myself in a another city and realized that, hey, there was money to be made by a man with a small boat who was willing to work around the edges of the law."

"And this?" Coatli pointed to the Heart.

"Well, that's the thing." I poked the gem, watched it tumble. "This thing is pretty powerful. And that's exciting and intriguing. But it comes with boundaries, and I don't think I even know half of them yet." I frowned. "When I count the cost… I'm not certain I won't regret it."

"Mmm." He clenched the bone toothpick between his teeth and crossed his arms, staring into the distance. "Well, thinking ahead is better than thinking back, but… what do you have waiting for you out there?"

"Sunsets." I rubbed my eyes. "The bazars of Cheops, teeming with the scent of spices and cries of peddlers. The red stones of Attica, slicing knife-shadows over burning sand. Dancing girls in Lyban, with eyes like jade and jasmine-scented hair. Irem's toppled towers, rimed in frost. The wind in my sails, and sea-spray on my face."

"Sounds wonderful." He nodded, and his voice went quiet. "And lonely."

"Maybe I'd find myself a crew." I let my dreams unfurl, half-built plans that spun through my mind in the dog-watches of the night. "Save up, buy a bigger ship, take on men. If I had more space, I could go legal; buy myself a few port-passes and stop living life on a knife-edge. I could—"

"Walk out on all of that someday, when it becomes too much trouble to hold together?"

"Ugh." I scrubbed my eyes, trying to sort things through.

"You're right, Edmon. You're not an ambitious man." He gave me a sharp smile. "You just want excitement, adventure, money, power and comrades— without having to give up any of your freedom, or make friends."

"I have friends," I said weakly.

"Of course." He nodded. "Which is why you asked them along when you left, right?"

My shoulders sank.

"Or told them you were leaving?"

I shook my head slowly.

"You, I think, are someone to hold others at arms-length, a self-contained man." He gave his verdict with a careless wave. "Not that that's unreasonable, honestly; I won't judge you. They were criminals. And you wouldn't have been able to sail across the ocean alone, fight off a swarm of Frost Queens, puzzle your way into using a Heart, climb aboard a Behemoth, or let me into your Sanctuary if you weren't the sort of person who measured his strength and looked before he leaped - but leaped anyway, when the time came, trusting yourself to carry through."

Silence fell for a moment.

"The thing is, Edmon… there are some things you just can't have if you take everything seriously. Sometimes you need to jump in with both feet, and hang the consequences. There are things in life that can't be had unless you give up on taking them seriously and just take them as they are. I know it's unreasonable, but…" He frowned.

"The heroes of yore," he said slowly, "were never reasonable men."

"I don't want to be a hero, though." My voice was quiet.

"Well, I'm not saying you should." He leaned back, crossing his arms. "Nor do I think those who simply rush in headfirst should be followed blindly. But for a moment, put aside your fears and doubts. What is it that you truly want?"

"I…" I rubbed my head. "I want it all." I gave him a weak smile. "Maybe I am too ambitious. I want everything; power and wealth and glory and freedom and adventure and friends and a place to call home."

"Are you willing to fight?" He fixed me with his ice-blue gaze.

"…I think so."

"Then," he leaned forwards, palms on the table, "reach out and take it all."

"The thing is," I said, picking up the Heart and rolling it around in my palm, "After hearing some of how this thing works, it's beginning to sound like a gilded cage." I paused. "The question 'who has more freedom: a king or a sailor' is intrinsically stupid. A sailor is only bound by the horizon, but he's a slave to the wind. The king, who can steer an entire kingdom, is just as surely a slave to his position; he's bound by his responsibility as surely as the sailor by his sails. But I know how to sail." I put the Heart down. "And if I'm smashed on the rocks, all I've betrayed is my boat. But the further I go here, the more I feel invisible chains wrapping around me."

"So break them."

I sat and stared down at the Heart. He resumed picking his teeth. Finally, I tucked the gem back into my pocket and stood.

"I'm going to bed. Find yourself someplace to sleep." I waved around. "The place is big enough."

He nodded.

The next day, after a quick breakfast of cold lizard, I set out to survey my Sanctum.

The place had expanded again, becoming even more luxurious. I'd found a half-dozen suites, beds and tables and tall glass windows, before settling myself in the most opulent one. The bed was almost too soft to someone accustomed to a sailor's hammock, but I'd slept soundly despite that.

I toured the premises slowly, not really bothering to familiarize myself with the layout. The place was big, the size of a noble's manor, and had amenities to match. There was even a wine-cellar, sadly devoid of bottles, and cold-room, which did have ice, despite lacking any noticeable spells to power it. I wandered through the orchard out back, wondering at the fact that peaches and apples and plums were all blossoming and bearing at the same time.

Eventually, I found myself back in the kitchen, where Coatli was polishing off the last of the lizard.

"Feel any better?" He put down his knife when I took a chair across from him.

"A bit." I nodded. A night's rest had settled some of my churning thoughts. "I'm going to continue." I shrugged. "I don't know if I can really say I'm committing myself, but… I'm not going to just drop this and run, not yet. And not only because I can't build a ship to get off this island." I poured myself a glass of water and sipped it. "Sure, there's a lot of places I'd love to go, things I'd like to see over the horizon. But there's worthwhile things in here, too." I glanced out at the flat white sky. "Who knows what lies at the end of the Path?"

"Good." He nodded approvingly. "But we will leave eventually."

"Yes." I nodded in return. "For now, I'll think of this place as my base of operations, my new home. But I won't be trapped here."

"Excellent." He stood. "Then we should try that door."

"My thoughts exactly." I stood as well, and followed him out.

The door was standing next to the other two, the entrance to the Path of Dreams and the exit of the Sanctum. It, once again, looked like a simple oak slab framed in rough timber.

"The crossroad, right?" I asked.

"No, Crossroads." He turned the handle and swung it wide. "It's a village."

I stepped through, and stopped. "Woah. More a city, I'd say."

He followed me, and paused as well. "…this place has changed."

In front of us was more colorless void, but in it floated numerous islands, chunks of stone and dirt covered in grass and trees, topped with houses, towers, walls and gates. Soaring bridges linked them, arching through the air like spiderweb where they connected one piece to another. I saw flashes of color as people of all shapes and sizes moved across them, with carts and palanquins and odder contraptions. I could hear distant voices, and even what sounded like the din of a marketplace.

"…I'm glad I saw this." I shoved my hands in pockets and grinned.

"As good as Irem?" Coatli grinned back.

"Mmmmaybe." I shrugged, and turned towards the bridge.

"Let's take a closer look."