Grand skyscrapers, bustling streets, cafes and restaurants. Commerce and vice. Industry and ambition. All of it she saw around her as she moved towards one of the countless harbors at the edge of the city.

  So vast, so grand was the city. Home to countless mortal millions, and their superiors. Here she had lived her life as a piece of the puzzle, a cog in its intricate machinery. But now the sea was before her, sweet and salty. It changed every day, for the ocean was ever changing, never the same.

  She would never be the same.

  At the edge of a magnificent brass vessel, the Daughter waited for her. Sleek lines and gleaming surfaces, both vessel and owner could be described as such.

  Polished metal plating, angular patterns, and no sails — only the low hum of arcane machinery.

  She stepped aboard and received a glance from eyes hidden beneath shades.

  “Are you ready, little mortal?” the Daughter said.

  Was she?

  “Yes, my Lady,” she said.

  A hand pointed, bid her to take a seat next to her Lady. She eased herself down beside her Lady.

  Her seat’s leather cool, soon to be warmed by her body.

  Her Lady’s presence made her calm, it demanded her attention, as if she was more real than anything else.

  Wasn’t she?

  Her Lady looked out into the sea, into the endless possibilities it was named after.

  “You serve me now, and in doing so, you will see realms far beyond mortal comprehension,” her Lady said.

  She twisted the key, the engine roared. She shifted a gear and the vessel set loose.

  “But remember this — you are mine.”

  “Fail me and be forgotten.”

  I won’t.

  Another shift, the velocity grew, and the vessel’s bow lifted, dropped, and lifted as it skipped the waves — her feet, her teeth could feel it. Motion and words hammered her.

  “Serve me well, and your name will live on in ways you cannot yet understand.”

  The hull slapped the waves as the words struck her.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “I’m ready, my Lady,” she said.

  She was ready.

  Her Lady spoke no more, only steered deeper into the impossible ocean, and behind them they left the vast urban coast which stretched from horizon to horizon. And the beacon at the center of the city rose above it all, a spear that pierced the clouds, only the sun’s light mightier.

  She turned away from home to face the unknown — with her Lady.

  The vessel pushed steadily across the strange waters, a thin white wake was left behind, one that changed into a multitude of colors as the distance to it grew.

  In the distance she saw birds emerging from the ocean only to later dive into it, vanishing. Mountains rose from the depths only to sink again beneath the waves. The sky shimmered with color, only the sun and the moon remained unchanged, as they were.

  Constants.

  Yet the waters around them were real, wet and sweet, for her Lady made it so. She could see it. Another constant who defied the dreamlike waves of the sea.

  The sun set, the moon remained, it and the stars were reflected in the rippling surface around them. The waves lulled her to sleep, and her own dreams took her.

  When she awoke it was morning anew, and before them was an island, unlike anything she had seen.

  A perfect circle, its coast filled with buildings and harbors, a pale shadow of the city she had left behind, and beyond them there was green.

  Verdant fields, stretching along the slopes which led to the foot of the mountain at the heart of the island. Its peak crowned with a beacon of its own. Its red light: a symbol of who held dominion here.

  Her Lady’s father.

  Chaos held no sway here.

  Only Ambition.

  A year.

  A year had passed since their arrival.

  She had served. She had seen.

  The endless fields of green, the mortals who toiled there, and those who oversaw their work, whether mortal or superior.

  She saw her Lady walk the fields, and each step turned barren soil fertile, chased drought away, brought forth water. For it was her will. Her father’s wish.

  All bowed before her, wherever she passed, whoever it might be. Noble Scions with poised reverence, while simple mortals showed subservience, at all times, all adored and worshipped her. Served her.

  How could they not?

  She had served her Lady well, though not in the ways she had hoped. She signed papers, took notes, arranged meetings, attended them.

  She was a secretary, an assistant.

  She met important people, Scions with perfect bodies, sharp minds, quick tongues, eyes ever planning, scheming.

  They told of their plans, which were the Ambition’s plans.

  Aren’t they all?

  To expand, to build new islands, for mortals and their betters to settle, endless growth, an unending Dominion.

  Sometimes they spoke to her as an equal, at other times not. She had no value, but she belonged to someone who had worth in abundance — her Lady.

  A pet.

  That is what she was to them.

  But a favored one.

  Not like the masses who toiled the fields, broke the ground, picked the leaves, worked the plants, hauled the cargo. All under the merciless sun, its rays ever-present, its dominion absolute. Their eyes at times hollow, their bodies worked to the bone, their devotion unchanged.

  For was it not the will of the Ambition?

  The mortals served, as did their superiors, but they also strove to be more. Ever in competition with each other, they sought her Lady’s favor.

  But to the mortals, there was only work, their lives already ordered, their purpose given, their path decided.

  Like hers?

  The streets were clean, the boats came and went, there was labor and rest, though the latter was sparse. The whole island and all within it were one part of the intricate chain of commerce that bound the Dominion together. A strand in a web that stretched across all of existence.

  She held the letter in her hands, saw what was written in it.

  A year had passed, and she was summoned once again.

  To serve.

  Her.