Ravani had been sitting on her rug, deep in meditation, for several hours when something from outside started to intrude on her inner calm. Sighing bitterly, the Mystalornan flopped back onto her furs, stretched, then took a few moments to pull up the vivid lime-green vinyl thigh-length boots that were her only clothing before reaching out with telekinesis to silence the insistently chirping communications panel, and open the incoming channel. A growl emerged from her, taking the form of the word "Yes, what?"

"I have a priority stream on hold for you", said Dominion Five's member of the Myromar "family". "Grey Section need to speak to you."

Grey Section - the branch of Dominion's self-defence effort focussing on magic and psionics, for which Ravani was technically an operative and advisor. Had they wanted to discuss the Captain Dominion situation with her, they would simply have spoken to her right there, in her quarters, but this was clearly a matter of higher security, requiring her to use the ship's main communications hub. Curiosity overtaking her frustration, Ravani told Myromar-Five she would be there presently, closed the channel, then got up to go and find something barely suitable to wear.

The sorceress arrived at the command deck in a long flowing black satin dressing gown, fastened shut about the hips by the low-slung built-in belt, the swirling floor-length skirt occasionally flying opening, revealing flashes of near-luminous green. She acknowledge Myromar-Five with a nod, and without stopping strode right into the commander's office to receive the message.

Responding to Ravani's telepathy, Dominion Five psionic command interface connected the ship to the Dominion Comms-Net, and the main view-screen came to life, displaying the magnified face of a woman, her golden skin sometimes appearing almost metallic, her straight black hair woven into a single jewel-laden plait swept forward over her shoulder to hang down her front. "Mistress Ravani", she said, bowing her head slightly. "I trust I am not interrupting anything...?"

Of course you are, Ravani wanted to say, but instead she chose to reply with a calm "What does Dominion require of me, Sahan Tasameed?"

"You are aware of the individual recovered from Mutual Defence Imperative space by The Traveller?", asked Sahan Tasameed of The Oris, one of Dominion's most talented native magic-wielders.

Ravani knew a lot more than Sahan's ranks permitted her to know. The individual in question was one piece in a puzzle that was of growing concern for the authorities in Dominion, one with which Ravani had been personally involved. "I have been working with XSI to determine the security risk posed by that individual", she replied. "I presume there is something you require from me concerning her?"

"We certainly hope you can assist us", said Sahan. "The girl has just been relocated to one of our new facilities outside Dominion, and she has started talking about 'the source', and insisting they be 'reunited'. She hasn't yet called upon the power of the artefact, but she is becoming increasingly agitated."

"And where, exactly, is she being held?"

"Zone Gamma."

Dominion was a unique realm, a "bubble" of reality less then a light-year across, with a single star-like body at its centre, and an attendant cloud of life-supporting planets. Outside its boundary, there was a near-void; "near" in that the birth of Dominion had produced a multitude of smaller "bubbles" in its "wake", many no bigger than a grain of sand, others significantly larger, and in exploring these, Dominion scientists had found useable "sub-realms", secure and separate from Darkhawk's kingdom - perfect places to carry out dangerous research, and store hazardous materials. Materials and, in this case, people.

Zone Gamma was large enough to contain a small, rocky body, a planetoid without a sun, and that was the current "holding facility" for the mysterious girl, and one other, to whom she was clearly now psychically linked...

Ravani directed her thoughts to the command deck, and Myromar-Five. ***Contact Ta'Aris, and inform them that we won't be stopping to deliver the Captain Dominion effigy. Instruct Fleet Command to have a ship meet with us to affect the transfer, after which we will be heading for Zone Gamma at best possible speed.***

Sahan had nothing more to say, except to wish Ravani a safe and swift journey, after which Ravani closed the channel, and took time to sit in silence, mulling over the situation in her mind. Tasameed knew all she needed to know, but that was just a fraction of the truth Ravani had been investigating recently as an agent of Dominion; a truth that went right to the very heart of Dominion itself.

Early in its existence, as a result of the Transformation of Ealvonhai, Dominion had found itself with gaps in its command structure, and Darkhawk made it know that she would grant a "kingdom of Dominion" to whoever hunted down and destroyed the fallen god Bekalth, who had attempted to wrest the realm from Darkhawk's control. The "winner" had been Frostfire, deposed figurehead of an aggressively expansionist interdimensional empire, and although reports of Bekalth's destruction had been somewhat overestimated, Frostfire went on to prove herself a great asset, a skilled military leader who quickly earned Darkhawk's respect, and trust...

And then, just a few months ago, Darkhawk's close friend Mane-of-Night had been investigating a secret organisation when, to the surprise of all, she discovered that its leader was Frostfire - the real Frostfire. Confronted with this, the Frostfire in Dominion was revealed to be an entirely different entity; the daughter of Mystalorn's magical figurehead, The Goddess, and the slain Overlord master of magic, Guixander - a being whose psychic and mystical essence had been shattered by the traumatic circumstances of her birth, and who had since been using Dominion's facilities to carry out the search for the fragments of her "self".

One of those fragments, crystallised into physical matter, had somehow become embedded in the skull of the girl Sahan had been talking about. A slave of Bekalth, the girl had escaped the final, and absolute destruction of her monstrous master, and had been wandering through war-torn Mutual Defence Imperative space until she crossed paths with The Traveller, another of Dominion's growing army of special operatives. The "shard" presented Dominion with the opportunity to earn the gratitude and support of the being who had masqueraded as Frostfire - but first Darkhawk's experts had to determine whether it was safe to attempt to remove the shard, and for that purpose, the girl had been moved to Zone Gamma; the "bubble" currently holding the entity referred to unofficially as "Shard-Girl".

And now, that is starting to bear fruit, thought Ravani. Good - maybe now we can get somewhere with this...

A leather couch stood against one wall of the command lounge, and it was there that Ravani lay down to mentally prepare for what was to come. Bekalth's former slave was going to need a lot of support, emotional and psionic, when she met the being who was the source of the crystal splinter that had become buried in the girl's head. A being who, Ravani was sure, was also going to need guidance and restraint, to prevent her from tearing the girl apart in the desperation to retrieve that precious shard of self...

This was the kind of challenge Dominion had always promised - quite literally a whole universe away from the old days, stealing ancient artefacts and doing shady deals in back-street taverns - but Ravani was very much looking forward to it all. She already had an outfit in mind...

Dominion Five, a mile-wide, mile-long Explorerhawk Class starship, was too big to actually enter Zone Gamma, the boundary of the "bubble" only a short distance above the surface of the planetoid within. Ravani's ship could, however, "dip" a wingtip into the bubble, and from there, the Mystalornan could teleport to the caverns beneath the surface, partly natural, partly hewn out of the diamond-hard rock by remote-controlled drilling machines. Habitation modules dropped down the drill-shafts now formed the core of the Zone Gamma facility, and it was into one of those great subterranean towers than Ravani teleported, magical translocation dropping her almost into the lap of those who were awaiting her.

Sahan Tasameed nearly jumped out of her golden skin as Ravani suddenly appeared before her, the Mystalornan stepping out of thin air in her favourite enchanted snake-skin boots, and a long, black leather coat. Tailored to cling to her shape, and fastened with silver buttons from cleavage to mid-thigh, the coat was, Ravani hoped, less "confrontational" than her usual dragon-scale armoured dress, but any sacrifice of personal style was more than compensated for by the garment's purple silk lining, which came into direct contact with her bare skin...

Once the Oris spell-caster had regained her composure, she introduced Ravani to Zone Gamma's commanding officer, Defender Unari Delpas of the Dominion Fleet Guard - the branch of Dominion ground forces trained to operate as starship security forces, and as a ground attack force of first response. Delpas was plainly overawed to have such a prestigious visitor - whilst Ravani no longer claimed a "kingdom" of Dominion as her own, she was still a "Founder" of Dominion - but he managed to keep himself in check as he gave his guest a brief tour of the facility. In return, Ravani did her best to give the impression of being interested, but in truth she only just managed to tolerate the formalities, for the sake of maintaining good relations with the staff of the facility.

"You've clearly done a good job, despite such testing conditions", she said when the opportunity presented itself, "but I am not here to give this base an official seal of approval. You have two... guests here, and I have been informed that there is evidence that they are starting to interact. This could prove dangerous to this facility, its staff, and maybe even Dominion as a whole - I think we should now set aside the pleasantries and address the matter at hand, with our full attention and devotion to duty. Do you not agree, Defender Delpas, Mistress Tasameed...?"

No objection was voiced as the party diverted from the tour schedule, and headed into the depths of the complex, to those places where only narrow passages had been drilled down towards the centre of the planetoid, well away from the main residential units. Ravani soon started to regret her enthusiasm, for there was something about Zone Gamma that was now making her uneasy - the temperature was supposed to be maintained at a constant, comfortable level throughout the base, but for her, there was an unsettling, gnawing chill no-one else seemed to sense. The deeper they went, the worse the sensations became, and Ravani started to feel sluggish, her senses losing some of their sharpness.

Were I afraid of enclosed spaces, this place would have been a nightmare from the very start, she told herself, but I've never experienced that sort of phobia before. I've been in worse situations before...

At most of those times, however, Ravani had been a diminutive Ealvonhaian - she had never manifested a "Soul-Self", becoming a creature made of magic.

"What, exactly, is this planetoid made of?", Ravani asked Delpas. "Has an analysis been carried out?"

"It's a rather curious substance, My Lady", said the station commander, "possibly unique, given the origins of this micro-reality. Some elements involved have never been encountered before, in particular a key component in the main mineral making up the planetoid. We had to carry out an extensive program of experimentation to determine the best drill-beam configuration to cut through it..."

Sahan asked Ravani whether she was feeling all right, and the Oris spell-caster offered a reassuring hand. That hand was swiftly withdrawn before it even touched the Mystalornan, and Sahan's brow furrowed anxiously as she murmured "You - you're cold...!"

The Oris woman's instinctive response was to call upon her magical skills, summoning up a ball of carefully controlled elemental fire to provide heat and additional light. To her complete surprise, the flame quickly escaped from her control, the sphere of fire blooming into a wild, ragged flower that quickly broke up into many "petals" that seemed to blow away, fading into the walls.

"Oh...", gasped Sahan. "That... that shouldn't happen..."

"Have any other magics used here failed?", asked Ravani, with growing anxiety.

"This is the first time I've been here", replied Sahan, "and that was the first magic I've attempted."

Ravani tried the exact same spell, her innate magic enabling her to faultlessly duplicate the magic without practice, and although her fire-sphere retained its shape for several seconds, it too eventually came apart, the glowing remains sucked into the walls, floor and ceiling. At once, the Mystalornan, with magic quite literally running through her veins, could feel exactly what was happening - and it terrified her.

"This place eats magic!", she gasped. "I can't stay here...!"

Ravani spun round, and all but ran to the elevator. "Send the girl to me, on Dominion Five", she shouted over her shoulder. "I'll take full responsibility should there be any... complications."

"I wouldn't recommend that", Delpas called out after her. "We've barely begun to explore her abilities - we don't even know her name..."

"If you object", snarled the Mystalornan, "then take it up with Darkhawk. If this girl feels a fraction of what I do, she won't cause us any problems...!"

Ravani barely retained control over herself long enough to reach the elevator without dissolving into terrified tears. The transport tube couldn't go fast enough - she lost count of the times she banged her fists against the walls of the tube-car in frantic attempts to get the machine to go faster...

...she couldn't remember the last time she'd cried.

This better be worth it, she told herself as she reached the surface of the Zone Gamma planetoid, and teleported back to Dominion Five. No matter what anyone says, or anyone wants, I am never coming back here...

The spell-caster retreated to her quarters at once, and spent several minutes huddled on her rug, arms wrapped around herself as though trying to hold her magic in, even though she was back in a different reality from that nightmarish moonlet. Only after several tentative attempts was Myromar-Five able to get any response out of the Mystalornan - a vague psionic murmur, not much more than a wordless acknowledgement - but only when Ravani felt she could draw breath, and not feel the magic being drained from her, did she chance actual words.

"Ravani, the girl come aboard, as you requested", said Dominion Five's cybernetic "spirit". "Should she wait...?"

"Send her to the starboard observation deck", Ravani replied. "We have a lot to talk about..."

...to be continued...