I stood and looked at the door for a long moment, then turned and walked back into the street.

"I don't suppose you can make us invisible?" I asked Yse, as I settled myself into a handy corner and pulled my knees to my chest.

"…No." She scurried across my shoulders, and I repressed a shudder as she brushed my neck. "Not without a full laboratory, some expensive reagents, and three moonless nights."

"Pity." I rubbed my hands on the cobblestones, then on my face. I ruffled my hair and doffed my jacket, draping it crosswise against my body, then leaned on the wall. I hadn't seen many beggars in Crossroads, but they were definitely around; I shouldn't stand out too much. "I wish I had a proper raggedy cloak. How long will your see-invisible-things spell last?"

"It's called Ethereal Eye." There was a hint of amusement in her voice. "And no more than a half hour."

"Alright." I pulled the brim of my cap down over my eyes, and settled in to wait.

"I love it when I'm right," I mumbled.

Our half-hour was nearly up when the target re-appeared.

"Well, it was a straightforward guess." Yse didn't lower her voice, but it took on the directionless quality that meant only I could hear it. She peeked over my shoulder, watching the goblinoid as he dodged his way down the road. "Invisible thief, invisible door." There wasn't much traffic here, but since no-one would move out of his way, the invisible goblinoid served wide around each oncoming traveler with exaggerated motions.

"Yeah, but still just a guess." I waited until he'd passed, then stood, careful to avoid looking directly at him. "He could have stayed in that enclave. Do you think he actually have business there, or was he just using it to shake pursuers?"

"Any business would be something he could do invisible."

"True." I headed after, dodging a few pedestrians but easily closing on him. "Hey, you got a sleep spell?"

"You want to capture him?" Yse thought for a moment, then hummed assent. "I can put him under - as long as you don't want to ask questions."

"Too risky." I shook my head. "I don't want him to even know we were here."

"Alright. Five seconds, then tell me when." I felt her rustle as her incantation began, her forelegs moving to a half-heard chant, and my skin prickled. After a few breaths, she fell still.

"Now," I whispered, stepping up behind the thief. I was surprised when she leaped, landing square atop the target's head. He jerked - but even as he went for his knife, his motions lost cohesion and he slumped unconcious. Hiding the motion with a stumble, I reached out and grabbed the invisible body. He weighed more than I expected, but I heaved him over a shoulder and staggered off the road, stepping around a handy corner and dropping him.

"Now." I dusted my hands off. "What have we got?"

"Loot, loot, loot~!" Yse scurried over the body, cutting purses free with her fangs as I rummaged through pockets. Before I'd even gotten halfway, the body vanished; the Ethereal Eye spell had ended. I finished by feel, coming up with a handful of trinkets before gathering the pouches Yse dropped. She looked rather strange, crawling over what seemed like thin air.

"How long till he wakes?" I leaned against a wall and started poking through the spoils.

"At least an hour." Yse leaped up, landing near - but not too near - my head, before slowly returning to my shoulder. "What did you find?"

"Tokens." I hefted a purse, which clinked gently. "A start for my war chest. Rings and stuff, maybe we can barter them? And this looks like.." I cracked open a slim box, and found it wedged full of papers. I skimmed few. "…Correspondence? Interesting. And then there's this." I held up a thin chain, snapped where I'd yanked it off the thief's neck.

"A chain?"

"Ah, you'd think that." I smiled. "But there's something invisible on it." I reached just below the lowest links, and ran my fingers over the unseen object. "It feels like a key."

"Nice." Yse pointed towards the invisible door. "It must be for the staircase! Let's go see."

"That's… a bit risky." I frowned. "We don't know what's down there."

"And we never will, if we don't check." She tapped her feet on my shoulder.

"What if it's guarded at the bottom?" I asked. "I'm not keen on walking blind into someone's secret fortress."

"Then I'll go," she replied. "I'm small and stealthy, and I can take care of myself."

"Hrm." I rubbed my chin, pondering. "Are you sure—"

"Edmon," she said seriously, "I hunt alone in the jungle, I literally have eyes in the back of my head, and I am a sorceress in my own right. Even if getting in is impossible, I can definitely escape."

"…Fine." I pulled the key off the chain. "Can you cast Ethereal Eye again?

"I was just about to." She moved through the motions quickly, and the door faded into view once more.

It took a moment of searching, but I did find the keyhole eventually. Cracking the door failed to set off any alarms, so I let her slip through. "…Be careful."

"Always." She leaped from to the wall and ran downwards, faster than I'd have thought possible. I guess having eight legs made up for them being short.

I carefully closed the door and leaned against the invisible wall. Glancing around, it didn't look like our actions had drawn much attention; there were enough weird people in this city, I guess dragging invisible bodies around and walking through unseen doors was barely strange enough to draw attention.

Settling in for a wait, I pulled out the packet of stolen correspondence and started leafing through it.

I was only a few pages in, wondering over the fact that it seemed entirely un-cyphered, when Yse got back to me.

"Edmon!"

"Mmm?" I looked up, but didn't see her.

"Come on down! The bottom of the stairs are clear, and you have to see this!"

"No guards at all?"

"This place is huge, there has be more doors… probably too many to guard individually. I bet he was heading further in. Come on!"

I tucked the papers back into my pockets and stood. Glancing around to make sure the coast was mostly clear, I slipped through the door myself and headed down.

Well, kinda.

The stairs were very odd. When I stood at the top, it looked like a simple spiral staircase. However, as I descended, I realized that it had a slight downwards curve. At first, I expected the descent to become steeper, but… after walking for a bit, even though I could clearly see the curvature, it never felt like I was leaning further forwards. It wasn't until I paused and looked up that I realized what was going on.

Crossroads was on its side.

The stairs curled around, the delicate spiral bent in a smooth arc from the 'top' of Crossroads to the 'bottom'. While I walked along them, I never felt like I was turning; some arcane property had kept my frame of reference square with the steps, even as the steps had gradually tipped forwards.

Shaking my head in amazement, I wondered if anyone could see me from outside the barrier; and if they did, what they thought.

"Yse?" I reached the bottom quickly. There was no door, here, just an empty arch. I stepped out and looked around. The bottom of Crossroads was a striking contrast with the top; it was empty, smelling of dust and cast in shadow. The ground was free of buildings but littered with boulders, rocky hills and islands hanging in the void. Without the bridges, buildings, and beings that gave the top its hustle and bustle it struck me as rather desolate.

"Here!" She appeared atop a nearby boulder. "No guards, see?"

"Huh." I shook my head. "You're right, but there's nothing else, either."

"There's a path, though." She pointed. Sure enough, there was a narrow track worn in the dust. "Can we follow?"

"Lets." I held out my wrist, and she scurried up my arm. "But keep your eyes peeled for guards or spells or something. If that thief's paranoia was any indication, whoever or whatever lives down here does not like being surprised."

After tracing the path for a few moments, we found another stair.

"You've got to be right." I inspected the empty arch as we strolled past; it seemed identical to the one I'd come down through. "If there's more of these, too many to guard each one, it justifies the thief's paranoia."

"I wonder how long this has been here?" Yse mused.

"I'm more curious who's behind it."

We walked in silence after that. It was a good hour later when Yse brushed my ear and pointed ahead.

"There. A building."

"…Ah?" I squinted and peered, but it wasn't until I saw a glint of light - probably flashing off armor - that I understood where she was looking. The distant structure looked like nothing so much as a pile of gravel, rough-fit rocks heaped together into a barely coherent whole. Weathering wouldn't really be a concern down here, but still; the place was awfully sloppy. It was big, though. If the clear air wasn't messing with my sense of scale, we were looking at a small castle, or maybe a large keep.

I stepped off the path, picking my way through the dust and boulders. Taking care to keep behind cover, I moved slowly towards the building, peering around rocks and over ledges as I tried to gather information about the place.

Pretty soon, I couldn't get any closer without risking being seen from above. Rocks were great cover from the sides, but weren't nearly spreading or leafy enough to block elevated lines of sight. Since I'd stepped left off the path, I continued around the fort in a clockwise direction.

"So… thoughts?" I stopped just before we returned to the path, leaning on a nearby rock and scratching my head. "What are we looking at here?"

"Obviously someone's secret fortress," Yse chirped.

"I hope you aren't going to—"

"I am in no hurry to wander in there alone. I can smell the alarm spells from here." She waved her feelers.

"Secret fort, huh?" I nodded slowly. "That sounds about right. Gotta say, I'm not sure what I expected when I decided to try making contact with Crossroads underground, but—" I looked around "—I didn't expect it to be quite so literal."

"Hah! What were you expecting?" Yse asked.

"Well, some sort of secret society." I shrugged, and started walking again. "See, as I said, this is about intrigue, right? The dungeon lords do - somehow, sometimes - compete. Hearts change hands. People die, creating power vacuums… and the ones who are prepared step up and take their place. This society is, for the most part, anarchy; but knowledge is power, and there's one particular type of knowledge that people around here would kill for." I unconsciously touched my breast pocket. "Anything that has to do with Regalia or Hearts. Whoever these people are," I nodded at the building, "I'd lay money that they consider themselves kingmakers." I patted the papers we'd stolen. "People who buy and sell thrones - or whatever fragments they can grasp."

"How can you guess all that?" Yse asked, doubtful but not outright scoffing.

"Well, it is just a guess." I shrugged. "But as far as 'illegal', that's basically it. Sure, a thieves guild would probably be reviled, but the higher-ups wouldn't bring enough pressure to bear that they'd end up this far underground. Same for an assassins guild. Not to mention the whole servants resurrecting thing. When your targets have a good chance of coming back to life angry, assassination starts to look like a difficult career path. As for smuggling…" I pondered my previous profession, then smirked. "I'm not sure it even means anything here. As far as I can tell, in Crossroads, if you want it, you can buy it."

"So in the end, it has to be spies?"

"Yeah." I nodded. "Or some sort of hidden power, that just so happens to have lots of spies." I snorted. "We'll find out eventually, I guess. Hopefully before it causes too much trouble." I shook my head, but paused when I glimpsed something from the corner of my eye. "Hey, what's that?"

"Hmm?" Yse scurried from one shoulder to another, looking where I pointed. "A door frame?"

"Or a portal. Like the Sanctuary doors." I began to move closer, but stopped myself, peering around a boulder to scan the walls of the keep. "I want to check it out, but it's a bit close."

"Oh sure, now you want to investigate strange doors. Fine, let me scout." Yse leaped from my shoulder, jumping from stone to stone until she reached the frame. "I think I see a hidden path," she said, turning back to me. "Move to the right, and stay low."

I followed her directions, taking a circuitous route and crawling on my hands and knees. In a few moments, I reached a sort of clearing, if that word applied to a field of boulders. In the center stood what seemed to be a doorframe, with a familiar rough-cut door. This portal, however, had been fitted with a bar and chain, and secured with an intricate padlock.

Checking to be sure I wasn't visible from the castle, I crawled over to the door and stood behind it.

"Huh. There's a plaque here." I inspected the brass plate, covered in dust; it had been nailed directly over where the other doors had sigils and labels. I stared but didn't touch, trying to read the letters. "I see 'Sealed by agreement of' - then this spiky swirl - 'All are forbidden to pass. Setting foot upon the Path of Stars' - that bit's covered in dust - 'all against one, no mercy, no quarter. This is the will of' - and that symbol again. Do you recognize it?"

She leaped to my shoulder - I barely had to suppress my flinch - and went still.

"Yse?"

"I do." Her voice was heavy. "That sigil marks a group calling themselves 'The Convocation'."

"Hum." The name plucked at a memory, and I recalled Cuahuli's journal in the Path of Dreams. 'Analyze' had said it contained his insights on several things; if I remembered correctly, the Convocation had been one. "Who, or what, is that?"

"They were an alliance of sorts." Yse sighed. "I don't know much about who the members were or what their purpose was, but they were continually at odds with Cuahuli. Nothing overt; he was meticulously circumspect in his dealings with them, but… they caused us some problems."

"Interesting." I rattled the chain gently, lifting the padlock. "What do you think they're so interested in sealing away?"

"I wonder."

"Are there spells on this?" I turned the lock over, examining it. "Alarms?"

She inspected it for a moment. "No alarms. But it is spelled to be very tough, and only accept an enchanted key. Are you going to try picking it?"

"You can't pick magical locks." I shook my head. "Or, well, you can, but it's more trouble than it's worth. Thankfully, there's more than one way to skin a cat." I focused for a moment. "Incarnate!" A slim piece of copper fell into my palm. "A lot of locksmiths, they focus on the tumblers and barrel."

I wrapped the soft metal around the shank and started working it downwards into the body. "A bit of lateral thinking, however, will show that the locking bar and the shackle need just as much attention." I wiggled the shim downwards until I felt movement, then summoned another and started on the other side.

"Thankfully, this cleaner than the plaque… Maybe I should have oiled it." A moment later, the second shim cleared the locking mechanism. I gave the padlock a sharp yank, and It fell open with a jingle.

"Clever." Yse hummed in approval. "Shall I scout again?"

"I don't think there's guards behind this." I chuckled. "It's been sealed for years. Watch for spells?"

"Of course."

I pulled the chain aside, freeing the door, and slipped inside.

I was instantly reminded of the Path of Dreams. For a moment I stood in a white void, which 'burned' away. Instead of revealing a wooden room, however, I found myself standing in a black void. There were glowing sparks in the distance that twinkled like stars, but lacked any recognizable constellations. Under my feet was smooth a circle of gray stone, hanging unsupported in the air. It was bordered by more discs, three paths of islands that stretched into the dark, each holding a low structure.

"Another strange place." I drew a deep breath, feeling a sense of wonder touch me.

"Are those pedestals?" Yse wasn't whispering - quite - but I heard a touch of awe in her voice.

"And there's things on them." I walked to the edge and stepped onto the nearest island. The gap was easily crossed, but wide enough to feel slightly uncomfortable. As she'd said, the dimly-seen shapes were pedestals, stone plinths that reminded me of the 'display stands' in the Path of Dreams. This one held a porcelain vase, decorated in delicate red and white tracery. Below it was the sigil of a cleft mountain.

"Voice, audible to Yse. Analyze."

"This was the Fount of Calabria. It was sacrificed to the River of Stars by Seylin, the last Walker."

"…Was?" Yse asked.

"No effects, no alignments? It's no longer a Regalia… interesting. Just what is this place?" I waved a hand towards the pedestal, but found myself blocked by an invisible barrier.

"There's more." Yse pointed towards the next island, and I moved on. The plinth held a different artifact, as did the one after that. Each of them held the same mark.

The next one, however, was empty. It pulsed with a gentle blue light, and waving my hand over it revealed no barrier.

I touched the cleft-mountain sigil. "Analyze."

"The emblem of Seylin, last to walk the River of Stars."

I pointed to the plinth itself, and tried again.

"An altar in the River of Stars, it awaits Seylin's sacrifice."

"So… Seylin was placing Regalia on them. For some reason." I rubbed my chin. "Who's Seylin, though?"

"I have never heard of him." Yse tapped her feet pensively.

There were nine more pedestals after the empty one, for a total of thirteen. At the end, I found another landing where the paths converged, and another door - this one firmly locked. It had a label and sigil, though: a stylized cloud, underscored with the words "The Sky".

"They were working towards this?" I looked back at the three branching paths.

"That is the obvious conclusion." Yse shrugged her feelers. "This definitely looks like part of the domain of Lords. Sacrificing Regalia, though? I wonder what they hoped to gain, beyond that door."

"It feels like a competition." I moved down another path. "Like we're supposed to gather Regalia and place them here."

"The Path of Dreams leads to thirteen steps on the River of Stars, ending in the Sky," Yse mumbled. "There should be a myth connected to this." She fell silent as I jumped from island to island, taking a different path back.

This one was empty for six steps. On the seventh, however, I found another sacrifice.

"Analyze."

"This was the Carcanet of Beautiful Desolation. It was sacrificed by Gyges, who delved deepest into the River of Stars."

"Gyges?" I narrowed my eyes. There had been a regalia related to him in my Path of Dreams.

I stepped back to one of the empty altars.

"An altar in the River of Stars. It awaits the sacrifice of Gyges."

"Any idea who Gyges is?"

"…There were rumors," Yse replied. "He was some sort of bogeyman, an immensely powerful Lord of the Land who attacked others indiscriminately. As near I could tell, he was gone for a good century and a half before Cuahuli came to power; stories about him were already fading. Crossroads was much less developed, and news from other domains was fragmented at best. There was no way to trace down sources. "

"Hmm." I examined the sigil on his altars, a slashed eye. "So, we have… the last to walk this path, and the one who got the furthest?" I had a suspicion about the last path, and headed straight back to the entrance.

"Hold," Yse said, as I turned towards the third set of stones. "Do you hear that?"

I went still.

Ding…

In the distance, a bell was ringing.

"Uh-oh." I dashed to the door, which I'd left open a crack. I poked my head out, and the peals were suddenly much louder; they were coming from the distant castle. "It's an alarm. We need to leave."

Despite my words, though, I turned back to the third path.

"Analyze!"

"An altar in the River of Stars. It awaits your sacrifice." This one was unmarked, and all thirteen altars were empty

"Thought so." I jogged back to the door and slipped out, peeking around the doorframe to examine the fortress.

It stirred like a poked anthill. The gates, set deep in the rough stone walls, had been flung wide. Small groups of men were running in and out, gathering into four-or-five man parties and spreading into the surroundings at regular intervals.

"Did they find us?" Yse asked, a hint of worry in her voice.

"Shouldn't be." I moved quickly, re-looping the chain and snapping the lock closed. I picked up a handful of dust and poured it over the chain and lock, hoping to obscure any scuffs we'd left behind. As soon as I felt I'd covered my tracks reasonably, I dropped to my belly and crawled into the field of boulders. "My guess? The guy we mugged woke up, found his key missing, and raised some sort of alarm."

"You did re-lock the door behind you?"

"Of course," I scoffed, jumping to my feet and picking up the pace, dodging through the rubble. "But it's not like long-distance communication is impossible."

She fell silent, and I concentrated on putting distance between us and the search parties. Once I felt I was far enough, I slowed my pace.

"Hey, this place should mirror the city above, right?"

"I hope so…"

"Alright, good. Don't worry, we'll make it out of this." I shot her a smile and headed towards my Sanctuary portal, taking a moment to re-check my sense of direction, remembering that the city would be flipped upside-down.

"Mhm. I just wish we knew a little more about who they are." She waved towards the keep. "I feel we learned very little, despite uncovering such an interesting secret."

"I dunno." I patted the packet of correspondence I'd stolen. "But I think we've done pretty well. Some of what we've learned might be more useful than you think."