Fingers of dark red mist seep out of the vast pit, blood that drips down the veins and arteries of the corridors between Babel's buildings. But where the mist draws closer to the observer, wails and howls of anguish and anger can be heard, and within its flow swirls the forms of doomed spirits … Eeee spirits denied proper rest, crying out for vengeance and oblivion, howling out curses upon those responsible for their state, screaming for a completion of their interrupted lives.

As the reddish mist oozes through the cracks and byways between buildings, faces and features form and melt, within it – the eye of one face becoming the mouth of the next, then dissolving entirely. While familiar features might momentarily surface, the tormented souls have lost their individuality, and form a mob of ghosts, a writhing mass that seeks but does not find, that demands but does not receive.

Upon the slopes of the mountains, shapes pull away from the shadows … dreamers brought here by the memory of this night of shame and horror … brought here by the unsatisfied desire for recompense, for justice, for revenge. Pinpricks of torches mark their places, and the buzz of horribs. A cry comes from Mount Rephath, an unholy sound like a cross between the howl of a wolf and the scream of a woman – the sound of a grok, hunting.

One by one, from the other mountains, similar howls answer the first – initially, from Inala, then Blakat, next Zakaro, and Sunala, then, lastly, Gorphat. As the sound of the grok on Mount Gorphat dies out, the cry is taken up anew, from all at once, filling the air with eerie sound, and with it, the words of a chant can be heard, blurred together and as yet too indistinct to be separated into individual words.

From the slope of the Mount Inala, a lone Exile, her white-and-gold coloration eerily beautiful against the stark backdrop of night, surveys the scene. It is five long years since Rephidim struck at the heart of My people, Inala's voice whispers inside her Avatar's head. Five years that My people have yearned to be avenged. Tonight, on this anniversary of Our greatest injury, We all hunt for the one responsible. He is here, somewhere. And you will help us find him.

Envoy frowns at the scenery … easily the most dreamlike she's yet experienced. "The one responsible. Wouldn't that be the dead Prince, for starting the war? Or the Sabaoth, for dropping the first boomer on Himar and igniting the initial thirst for revenge?"

Do try to explain to me how using the boomer on a neutral country that the Temple cares nothing for ignited their wrath … some other time, My Avatar, Inala answers, her voice a dangerous purr. Tonight we hunt CaptainRockmore, who dropped this weapon … on his own initiative, if you believe Rephidim's lies. But whether you do or not, no one disputes that this Rockmore did the deed. And he has gone unpunished for it. Tonight – that changes.

"Is it justice you seek then?" Envoy asks the mountain. "True justice? Or just petty, hollow revenge? I will help you seek justice, but that means asking Rockmore why he did what he did first."

The voice in Envoy's mind turns dark, and the next words feel like cold slivers of ice in her brain. You are My servant, Envoy. You forget yourself in trying to place conditions and restrictions upon Me! I have been over-tolerant, I see, of your insubordination. I have treated you too kindly, because you rated the highest place in My favor. Know now, My Avatar, that I will tolerate this no longer. I will have your unconditional obedience – whatever I must do to obtain it.

Envoy shivers and wraps her wings around herself. "I … please don't make me kill, Inala. I only seek to know the truth behind this disaster," she says, trying to sound subservient.

I am not the Goddess of murderers, Envoy, the Goddess says, I did not seek a warrior who would mindlessly slaughter on My behalf. What We do tonight is for all of Babel, for all My people, for My very Sisters. They asked My aid, and I will give it. And that means you will give it, too – in whatever form that takes, whatever you must do. Am I understood? You will kill for Me, if the need arises.

Closing her eyes, Envoy recognizes the feeling in her chest as fear. "What do you need me to do first?"

Mists writhe in the distance, swirling this way and then that, by winds that shift more violently and erratically than any would in the waking world, and upon the winds, there are whispers, urgings, cries of anguish, and angry demands, charged with emotion, emotion freed from the confines of the body or of a rational mind.

Gather My people, those who search upon this slope. Organize them, and give them direction. We search the ground and the skies for the fled Captain Rockmore, and we know that he is still here, Inala instructs her. Use that mind so quick to question My will, Envoy, and set it to the task of finding him.

Some of the mists rush by more closely, and Envoy can make out a multitude of shapes within … Eeee, mostly, though it's possible there may be other forms, so indistinct are they, seeming to form and dissolve with each motion the mists make. "Rockmore," comes a whispered chorus, a sigh, a gasp, echoing Inala's admonition.

The Aeolun stares at the spectral mob, and then out over the city, and on up the length of the Tower. "There are too many places to hide. It would be easier to let him find us instead." To the mob, she says, "I need a garden, one with easy access but which you can keep the other searchers away from."

Living bats … or at least less obviously spectral ones, are also about, and they turn their heads at her request – paying more attention than the red mist does. "There is a garden in a Temple of Inala," one white-furred Eeee says. "The others will probably not go there – it's remote and an unlikely hiding spot for our prey." He takes to the air, beckoning to Envoy. "Follow me. I will lead you to it, Avatar."

Envoy spreads her own wings and follows the white Eeee.

Some moments later, they come to a high-walled garden, with lookout points stationed at regular corners, though if anyone watches them, they do not challenge the pair. The gardens within feature colorful flowers and shade trees, a green and pleasant place, normally, though the darkness of the night and the eerie wails of distant groks and dead spirits do not add to that effect.

Selecting a spot near the center of the garden, Envoy sits down and composes herself. "Inala," she asks the air, "I need you to shine through me. Light me up like a beacon."

The Aeolun feels the radiance in her mind that she associates with Inala, spreading out to her face like the rush of blood from an intoxicating drink, then to the rest of her extremities. The Eeee with her gasps – whether with surprise or pleasure isn't clear – as a wave of joy ripples through her and transforms to a palpable glow. The radiance builds, enhancing her features from ordinary beauty to something divine … and keeps on growing, filling the garden with a white light as bright as sunshine. The flowers turn their faces towards her, opening for Envoy's light and adding their own beauty to the display, while the Eeee beside her drops to his knees and bows his head in reverence.

Remembering how the effect will amplify all of her emotions, Envoy begins to sing. Her first song tells of a war-weary soldier travelling back to his home, full of the thoughts and memories of his family and how he misses them, and how these were the only things that kept him sane against the horrors of battle. But in the end, he finds his home razed to the ground, and his family dead. She tries to make herself feel what the soldier would, the sense of the ground dropping away beneath him into a bottomless pit. And this she pours out into the radiance of her glamour.

The bat beside her starts to sob as she sings, burying his face against his arms and shaking, while the flowers themselves droop their blooms. Trees stretch upwards, reaching for the heavens as if for relief from their grief. The radiance spreads across the landscape, and the grieving spirits as well as the living hunters both seem to draw strength from it, from the sense of understanding and the grounding that it gives to their pain.

Moving on, Envoy's song changes tone as it plunges into madness. She sings of anger and revenge, and the need to fill up that bottomless pit with the blood of those who brought the soldier to this state. The enemy have become monsters, caricatures of tormenting evil that haunt him in his madness until he must lash out against them!

The soldier's heart fills with the madness and hate, and the warrior nurtures it further, until it has become a weapon in itself. Envoy sings of the final revenge, of loosing the horrible heart upon the soldier's enemies until they burn and writhe with the same pain he has felt. And after this blow is struck … numbness and silence. Envoy's voice fades for a moment.

The garden brightens, swelling with the hate that the Aeolun sings of, and the incandescent aura around her extendsfurther still, touching on the distant figures of airborneEeee, illuminating the undercarriage of first one skyship … then another.

Finally, the song continues again, in the gentlest of tones. Envoy sings the voice of the soldier's dead wife, calling to him across the void. She offers forgiveness, and love, if only he will return to her embrace, telling him that he doesn't need to fight anymore.

Envoy adds in some of her own despair to the song, as she continues to call out the wife's plea.

The airships illuminated by her radiance dip nearer to the mountain, the first one pursued by a second, while a flight of bats swarm towards the first. The garden takes on a blue and gloomy cast as she sings, though the distant Eeee voices do not seem to be disheartened by it.

At the sight of the pursuers, Envoy's heart sinks further. She had hoped Inala's followers would keep them at bay, so the Captain could come alone.

As the Exile watches, the pursuing ship launches a volley at its quarry. At first, the prey ship doesn't respond, seeming paralyzed, drifting closer to the temple on Mount Inala. Then, it rights its course, and a return volley is sent in counterstrike, even as a party of boarders flies from the attacking ship towards the first.

Envoy stands up now, and looks to the white Eeee that led her to the garden. "Why aren't the others keeping back those pursuers?" she demands. "Rockmore must come here of his own free will, not because he's being chased by the whole of Babel!"

The Eeee blinks at her outburst, his ears flipping back automatically before he ducks his head again, a single blurted word only escaping his mouth: "Why?"

Envoy sighs. "Because it is an admission of guilt," she explains. "And it shows a desire to put all of this to an end."

The white bat makes no response, only keeping his head down and eyes averted. A tremor runs through the man's slight frame.

Envoy places her hand on the Eeee's head, and asks, "If you were in his position, wouldn't you want the chance to make it right yourself, instead of being hunted down and killed like an animal?"

The trembling grows more pronounced at her touch, and the confused bat just shakes his head dumbly, making no verbal answer.

Removing her hand, Envoy goes back to watching the chase. "You're all set on this course, and you can't change it. Not even the Sisters have the will to change it. Whoever is pulling the strings will be the only one to really benefit, I fear. The rest of us are just victims, even Captain Rockmore," she comments, not really speaking to anyone but herself. Turning back to the Eeee, she asks, "How do you feel? Do you need to tear off a piece of the monster to feel better?"

The bat stammers and shakes his head, mumbling, "I don't know."

Envoy leaves the man alone, and goes back to watching the chase again, still projecting her promise of comfort and forgiveness.

She watches as the wave of Eeee that flew up from the mountainside boards near the prow, after the attacking vessel sent over its first wave, and she can make out the forms of giant insects with them. The prey vessel sags lower still, and yet another wave of boarders launches from the assaulting ship.

"Plaguebringers?" Envoy says, incredulous. "Is there no sense of hypocrisy in Babel?" She can't help but feel disgust at the attackers' use of such weapons, and decides to join the fray instead of waiting here in the garden. She spreads her wings and starts flying towards the lead airship.

As Envoy flies higher, she's able to get a better idea of just what is going on. No … those things aren't Plaguebringers. They're horribs - huge insects of impressive size in the waking world, and even more fearsome here in this realm. They swarm over the decks of what looks to be a Nagai vessel being boarded by warriors from a craft of Babelite design.

Angling towards the deck of the apparently Nagai ship, Envoy hopes the horribs and other boarders will ignore her – or rather, not interfere with her, since it's hard to ignore Inala's radiance.