Four months after the battle, Dark returned through the eastern gate with someone else's crown in his hand.
One side had melted.
The remaining points were bent inward around a dark stone that kept trying to beat like a heart. Each pulse made the gold tremble against his fingers. He tightened them slightly, and the movement stopped.
The guards straightened.
Dark looked past them toward the city.
The morning markets had opened beneath awnings still wet from rain. A delivery cart blocked half the avenue while its driver argued with a woman carrying six stacked baskets. Farther down, someone had hung washing between a repaired tower and a building that had never belonged beside it.
Tier had approved the arrangement after the owner refused to move.
Dark liked that street.
Guard: Emperor.
Dark: Morning.
The younger guard's eyes dropped to the crown.
Guard: Should we call someone?
Dark glanced at his hand.
Dark: Already did.
A narrow opening appeared beside the gate.
Dantero stepped through backward, both pistols drawn.
He fired once into the opening.
Something on the other side stopped screaming.
The portal closed.
For a moment, the only sound was the delivery driver insisting that his cart had been there first.
Dantero lowered his guns.
Dantero: Right. That's the last of his household.
The younger guard stared at him.
Dantero noticed.
Dantero: Alive. Mostly offended.
Dark held out the crown.
Dantero looked at it.
Dantero: Absolutely not.
Dark: You said you wanted proof.
Dantero: I wanted you to take a picture. That thing's been whispering at me for an hour.
Dark turned the crown over.
A mouth opened beneath its central stone.
Crown: My sovereign shall—
Dark closed his hand.
The mouth disappeared.
Dantero: See? Terrible company.
One of the guards tried not to smile.
Dark saw it.
Dark: He's worse before breakfast.
Dantero holstered one pistol.
Dantero: You dragged me out before breakfast.
Dark: You were awake.
Dantero: I was leaving somewhere. Entirely different condition.
They passed through the gate together.
Dark wore his coat across his shoulders, its empty sleeves hanging behind his arms. Black feathers covered the upper back and collar, settling as he walked. Beneath it, his suit had survived the journey with one button missing and the shirt pulled loose at the waist.
A small mask covered his eyes. Its black surface caught almost none of the morning light. Gold followed one edge, crossed the bridge, and ended before reaching the other temple.
Dantero glanced at it.
Dantero: You know, the guards recognized you before they saw your face.
Dark: They've met me.
Dantero: Just questioning the disguise.
Dark: It isn't one.
Dantero: Good. Because it's fucking terrible.
A woman carrying bread stepped aside as they approached.
Dark moved first, leaving her the wider part of the pavement.
She hesitated, then passed.
Her little boy continued watching him over her shoulder.
Dark raised the damaged crown.
Dark: Want it?
The boy's eyes widened.
His mother turned sharply.
Dantero took Dark's wrist and lowered it.
Dantero: He's joking.
Dark looked at him.
Dantero: You are joking.
The crown shuddered.
Dark crushed the last living part of the stone between his thumb and forefinger.
Gold dust fell into his palm.
Dark: Now I am.
The boy laughed.
His mother did not.
Dantero steered Dark toward the next street.
Dantero: We're going to work on that.
By the time they reached the residence, Tier had already opened the report.
He stood beside the dining table with three displays arranged above a plate he had not touched. One showed a broken ring surrounding a cluster of inhabited realms. Another followed streams of light separating from the ring and returning to the places beneath it.
The third contained Dantero's face.
Recorded Dantero: If this bastard calls himself their provider again, I'm shooting the chair.
Tier paused the recording.
Dantero stopped in the doorway.
Dantero: Selective editing.
Tier: It's the complete recording.
Dantero: Then select something else.
Leona looked up from her cup.
Her gaze moved from Dark to the dust in his hand.
Leona: What happened?
Dark set the remains of the crown inside a bowl Tier pushed toward him.
Dark: He tied their passage between Worlds to his own life. Charged them for leaving. Charged them more for coming back.
Tier moved the first display closer.
Tier: And fed himself through the crossings.
Dark nodded.
Dark: They thought the weakness was from travelling.
Cron leaned forward.
Cron: How long?
Dark removed his mask.
Dark: Long enough that their children thought it was normal.
The room quieted.
Dantero pulled out a chair.
Dantero: Dark separated the routes. I persuaded his guards to stop interfering.
Tier resumed the recording.
Dantero appeared inside a vaulted hall, turning beneath a spear thrust. He caught the shaft against the barrel of one pistol, stepped around the attacker, and fired the other behind his back through a portal no wider than the muzzle.
Three distant weapons vanished.
He continued the turn without breaking his rhythm, coat sweeping around his legs, and tapped the flat of his pistol against the attacker's forehead.
Recorded Dantero: You're allowed to stop.
The man swung again.
Dantero sighed.
The recording paused.
Kaelith smiled into her cup.
Kaelith: You look pleased with yourself.
Dantero: I was being very patient.
Tier: You shot the chair.
Dantero: He called himself their provider again.
Dark sat.
Leona placed a plate in front of him.
He looked at it, then at her.
Leona: Before you find somewhere else to go.
Dark picked up the fork.
Vorax shifted beneath his collar.
Vorax: Thank you.
Dark: You don't eat this.
Vorax: I endure you when you don't.
Across the table, Rykaou laughed.
Akira moved the nearest display away from Dark's food. Eiren asked Tier whether the separated routes would remain stable. He answered without looking up, bringing another model into view.
They had questions Dark could answer.
They had others Tier had already solved.
For several minutes, he ate while the conversation passed between them.
Then Kenzo arrived.
He stopped beside the empty chair nearest the window.
Dark looked up.
Kenzo's gaze crossed the displays, the bowl containing the crown, and Dantero's open coat.
Kenzo: You went without telling anyone.
Dantero lifted a hand.
Dantero: Hurtful.
Kenzo ignored him.
Dark swallowed.
Dark: You were asleep.
Kenzo pulled out the chair.
Kenzo: So were you, once.
He sat and reached for the bread.
No one asked him how he had slept.
Dark had stopped asking when he noticed Kenzo always gave the same answer.
Leona passed him the butter.
He took it.
Cron resumed explaining a problem with the western reception grounds, and the room began moving again.
Dark watched Kenzo tear the bread.
For an instant, he remembered another hand reaching across the table and stealing the larger half.
Kenzo looked at him.
Dark returned to his plate.
Kenzo: Say it.
Dark's fork stopped.
The others continued talking, though more quietly.
Dark: He would've taken that.
Kenzo looked down at the bread.
A long moment passed.
Then he broke it into two uneven pieces.
Kenzo: He'd have complained about the smaller one first.
Dark let out a short breath.
Kenzo put the larger piece on his own plate.
Kenzo: Then taken this.
Leona lowered her eyes into her cup.
Her mouth moved, almost a smile.
Tier closed the recording.
Breakfast continued.
When Dark finished, Tier turned the remaining display toward him.
Tier: The prisoner is being transferred to our containment complex. His connection to the inhabited routes is gone. I want you there when we test whether he can establish another.
Dark nodded.
Dark: I'll come.
Kaelith leaned back.
Kaelith: And afterward?
Dark looked at her.
Kaelith: You promised me a fight.
Dark: I've just had one.
Dantero snorted.
Dantero: He stood there while someone explained how inevitable his victory was.
Dark: That counts.
Kaelith: It doesn't.
She lifted her hand from the table.
A tiny flame appeared above one finger.
Dark watched it.
Its reflection shone inside his water glass.
The surface of the water remained still.
Kaelith's eyes narrowed with interest.
She increased the heat.
Dark took another drink.
The glass remained cool.
Kaelith smiled.
Kaelith: Better.
Tier reached between them and took the glass.
Tier: Outside.
Neither argued.
Far beyond the capital, the innermost chamber of Edrassan's prison had no morning.
Raith stood before the final threshold while the seals examined him.
The first accepted his body.
The second checked the continuity of his arrival.
The third held him in place while something deeper compared his presence with the record of his previous visit.
He waited.
Varek had added that layer after Sereon asked a guard whether he remembered opening the door.
The guard had.
He had been stationed nowhere near it.
A pale line travelled across the threshold.
The chamber admitted Raith.
Sereon hung upside down at its center.
More than five thousand ropes and chains held him across overlapping distances. Some were visible as dark lengths drawn tightly around his limbs. Others existed only where the chamber's light bent around them. They secured his body to anchors that did not share the same location, preventing movement from finding a direction in which it could begin.
Thousands of seals covered the restraints, the chamber, and the bare skin between them.
His trousers were soft and plain, gathered securely at the waist and ankles. There was nothing ornamental about them.
The rest of him was exposed.
The suspension drew a long line through his body, showing the lean muscle across his abdomen and the breadth of his shoulders beneath the crossing restraints. His face had returned to the familiar features Raith remembered before the battle. His hair hung freely toward the floor, its natural shape disturbed only when he turned his head.
That was the only movement the chamber permitted.
His eyes followed Raith.
Sereon: You're late.
Raith stopped outside the innermost markings.
Raith: You don't have a clock.
Sereon: You always begin with that.
Raith pulled a chair from the wall.
Sereon watched him position it.
Sereon: Closer last time.
Raith sat.
Raith: You noticed.
Sereon: You wanted me to.
Silence settled between them.
Raith had brought nothing to write on.
The first visit, he had carried questions.
The second, accusations.
By the fifth, he had learned that Sereon could make an answer feel useful while leaving him with less than he had brought.
Now he chose one subject and stayed with it.
Raith: They found another surviving archive beneath Koseikan.
Sereon's expression did not change.
Raith: Most of the lower shelves burned. The records behind the eastern wall didn't.
Sereon: The eastern wall was thicker.
Raith: I know.
Sereon: Then why tell me?
Raith looked at him.
Raith: There were names in it.
A chain crossed Sereon's chest without rising or falling.
The chamber allowed his body to sustain itself. It allowed no visible movement beneath the head.
Sereon: There usually are.
Raith: People your account left out.
Sereon's gaze remained on his face.
Raith waited.
Sereon: And you came to ask which ones mattered.
Raith: I came to tell you I'm reading them.
For a moment, neither spoke.
Then Sereon smiled slightly.
Sereon: You've become more careful with your questions.
Raith leaned back.
Raith: I haven't asked one yet.
Outside the chamber, Varek watched the seals through an unbroken surface of pale stone.
Every restraint remained where he had placed it.
Every measure agreed.
He kept watching.
At Dark Empire's containment complex, the prisoner had refused three different bodies before settling on the one in which he had been captured.
He stood inside a vast recessed chamber with his hands open at his sides.
The crown had made him appear taller.
Without it, he still looked capable of crushing the attendants observing him from beyond the boundary.
He had already tried.
The force had returned to the space around his own fingers and stayed there.
Now he held his hands very still.
Tier stood beside Dark at the observation ledge.
Below them, layered structures moved through the chamber walls, adjusting to the prisoner's attempts to extend himself beyond his skin.
Prisoner: Those passages belonged to me.
Dark watched a thin line of light leave the man's shoulder.
It reached the nearest wall.
Something inside the containment structure closed around it.
The prisoner flinched.
Dark: Stop doing that.
Prisoner: I built them.
Dark: You fed on the people using them.
Prisoner: They could have remained where they were.
Dantero walked along the ledge, turning one pistol around his finger.
He caught it by the grip.
Dantero: Remarkable. Still talking.
Tier checked the readings.
Tier: Again.
Dark raised his hand.
A small opening appeared inside the chamber.
Beyond it lay an empty expanse, prepared for the test.
The prisoner's gaze snapped toward it.
He tried to follow.
His body remained in place.
Something larger pressed against the chamber from within him, seeking the offered route. The walls darkened. Several seals lit together.
Then the pressure folded back.
The opening stayed empty.
Tier studied the result.
Tier: Close it.
Dark did.
Prisoner: What are you?
Dark looked down at him.
Dark: The person you should have listened to yesterday.
They left him under observation.
Outside the chamber, containment personnel passed with equipment suited to things that could not be held by walls alone. One corridor carried no shadows. Another admitted sound only in one direction. Far below, a sealed structure held something that had spent centuries entering weaker beings through their dreams and wearing them until they died.
Dark paused at its display.
Tier stopped beside him.
Tier: No new contact.
Dark: The people it already reached?
Tier: Recovering. Akira is helping separate the repeated memories.
Dark read the names attached to the report.
Then he closed it.
Dark: Tell her I'll come later.
Dantero opened a route back toward the residence.
Dark looked at him.
Dark: I'm going to the eastern settlements first.
Tier's expression changed.
Dark: The routes are open. I want to see where they're arriving.
Tier considered arguing.
Then he sent the locations to Dark.
Tier: Eat before you disappear again.
Dark took the apple from Dantero's pocket.
Dantero stared at him.
Dark bit into it.
Dark: Done.
He left before Dantero could answer.
The conqueror arrived at the western entrance shortly after midday.
His vessel stopped above the road without landing.
It was long, dark, and edged with pale metal that bent the clouds around its prow. Six figures descended before him and took positions beside the gate.
People on the avenue slowed.
The guards did not leave their posts.
The conqueror stepped onto the road.
A mantle of overlapping plates covered one shoulder. Beneath it, a high collar framed a face that had learned to expect recognition before introduction.
He looked up at the Empire's mark.
Then at the guards.
Conqueror: Tell Dark that Avar Senn has arrived.
The senior guard inclined his head.
Guard: The Emperor is not here. We can receive your name and arrange—
Avar walked past him.
The guard moved into his path.
Guard: You'll need to wait.
The six attendants shifted.
Avar looked down at the man.
Avar: I have crossed too far to wait at a gate.
Guard: The Emperor is not here.
Avar's eyes narrowed.
A second guard touched the signal at his wrist.
Avar noticed.
Avar: Remove your hand.
The guard kept it where it was.
Behind the entrance, the nearest pedestrians were already being directed toward the side streets.
Avar watched them go.
Conqueror: You're making a spectacle of a visit.
Guard: Then help us keep it a visit.
The senior guard's voice stayed level.
Avar stepped closer.
Guard: We've told you where things stand. You can wait in the receiving hall, or return when—
Avar lifted his hand.
Two fingers turned toward the guard's throat.
The air between them compressed.
Before it reached the man, another hand closed around Avar's wrist.
Dark stood beside him.
He still held the half eaten apple.
For a moment, Avar did not understand why his arm had stopped.
Then the first bone cracked.
Dark looked at the two extended fingers.
Dark: Finish it.
Avar turned his head.
Dark's mask was on. The gold across its bridge caught the light as he leaned closer.
Dark: You were about to do something.
Pressure rose beneath Avar's mantle.
Dark tightened his hand.
The next crack was louder.
One of the attendants reached for a weapon.
Dantero stepped out of an opening beside him and placed the muzzle of a pistol against the underside of his jaw.
His second gun remained pointed at the other five.
Dantero: Leave it.
The attendant froze.
Dark had not looked away from Avar.
Conqueror: Release my wrist.
Dark: Ask him.
Avar's gaze shifted toward the guard.
His fingers trembled.
Dark turned the captured hand slightly, placing the unfinished attack where everyone could see it.
Dark: He told you I wasn't here.
Conqueror: I came to speak with you.
Dark: You found someone weaker instead.
A thin line of blood appeared beneath Avar's sleeve.
He tried to pull back.
The attempt moved his shoulder.
His wrist stayed in Dark's hand.
Dark stepped nearer.
His voice lowered enough that the guards had to listen carefully.
Dark: Try it again. A guard. Someone in that street. An ant under your boot.
Avar's breathing changed.
Dark: Pick one.
No one moved.
At the edge of the road, an ant crossed a pale seam between two stones.
Avar's eyes dropped toward it before he could stop them.
Dark saw.
Dark: Go on.
The conqueror looked back at him.
Whatever answer he had brought to the Empire remained behind his teeth.
Dark waited until the small insect disappeared beneath the gate's lower step.
Then he released the wrist.
Avar caught his injured hand against his chest.
Dark turned to the guard.
Dark: Did he touch you?
Guard: No, Emperor.
Dark looked at the younger man.
He shook his head.
Dark nodded.
Then he faced Avar again.
Dark: You wanted to speak. Walk.
He went through the gate.
After a moment, Avar followed.
Dantero kept the pistol beneath the attendant's chin.
Dantero: Yours stay here.
Attendant: We are sworn to—
Dantero pressed the muzzle a little higher.
Dantero: So am I. Difficult morning for both of us.
Inside the receiving hall, Dark took a chair without approaching the raised seat at the far end.
Avar remained standing.
His wrist had begun healing.
He kept it beneath his mantle.
Leona entered from a side passage and stopped when she saw the blood on his cuff.
Her eyes moved to Dark.
Dark: He tried to kill the gate guard.
Avar's jaw tightened.
Conqueror: I had not completed the act.
Leona pulled out a chair.
Leona: Sit down before you make that your defense.
He looked at her.
She waited.
Eventually, he sat.
Dark placed the apple on a small plate someone had brought him.
Dark: Speak.
Avar studied him for several seconds.
Conqueror: Three rulers under my protection have opened routes to your Empire.
Dark: And?
Conqueror: Their tribute has stopped.
Dark leaned back.
Conqueror: They shelter behind your name while refusing the obligations that kept their borders intact.
Leona sat beside Dark.
Leona: Did he promise them protection?
Avar looked at her.
Conqueror: They believe he did.
Dark: I'm asking what I actually said.
Avar had no quotation to offer.
Outside the hall, footsteps passed.
Someone laughed in a distant corridor.
The ordinary sound seemed to irritate him more than the injury.
Conqueror: Your existence is altering arrangements older than your reign.
Dark nodded once.
Dark: Probably.
Avar's expression hardened.
Dark: Send the agreements to Tier. If there's something in them worth discussing, someone will contact you.
Conqueror: You would have a subordinate examine terms between sovereigns?
Dark: He's better at it than I am.
Leona watched Avar absorb that answer.
Dark stood.
Conqueror: We haven't settled anything.
Dark: We settled what happens at my gates.
He stepped away from the table.
Dark: If you threaten people for opening a route here, I'll come to yours.
Avar rose slowly.
Dark waited while he gathered what remained of his composure.
At the door, the conqueror stopped.
Conqueror: They speak of you as though you intend to stand above every ruler.
Dark looked at him.
Dark: Today I wanted lunch.
Leona covered her mouth with her hand.
Avar left.
Dantero accompanied him as far as the gate.
This time, all seven visitors waited for it to open.
Later, Dark stood alone in the receiving hall.
Leona found him looking at the plate.
The apple had browned where he had bitten it.
Leona: You could have put him on the ground.
Dark: I know.
Leona came beside him.
Leona: Why didn't you?
Dark looked toward the entrance.
Dark: Wanted to see if he could leave standing without hurting someone.
Leona considered that.
Leona: And?
Dark picked up the apple.
Dark: Dantero's still watching.
She laughed quietly.
Dark finished the apple.
At the eastern practice grounds, Kaelith was waiting beside an open passage.
Beyond it lay a place with no settlements, no passing travellers, and nothing Tier would later demand they repair.
Kenzo stood inside, examining the arrangements Tier had suspended across the dark.
Separate fields occupied different distances around a central platform. Each contained a moving concentration of light, marked with its own restrictions.
Dark stopped beside Kaelith.
Dark: What did you ask him for?
Kaelith: Something you couldn't finish by standing still.
Tier's voice came through the nearest device.
Tier: The fields represent separate protected regions. Their boundaries move independently. Kenzo will change the direction in which force travels between them.
Kenzo raised one hand.
The nearest field moved without crossing the distance between its former position and its new one.
Dark followed the change.
Tier: Kaelith knows the routes. You don't.
Kaelith stepped through.
Fire gathered around her hands.
Kaelith: You can learn.
Dark removed his coat.
Leona took it before he set it down.
He glanced at her.
Leona: I'm staying out here.
Dark: Sensible.
She lifted the coat.
Leona: Somebody has to bring this home intact.
Dark entered.
The passage closed behind him.
Kaelith struck immediately.
Dark caught her wrist and turned the first eruption away from the nearest field.
Kenzo changed the route.
The redirected fire appeared behind Dark, heading toward a second protected region.
Dark opened his other hand.
Shadow caught the flame.
Kaelith drove her knee into his ribs.
He stayed with the pressure long enough to move it safely, then let the blow carry him across the platform.
His boots stopped at its edge.
Kaelith approached.
Kaelith: There. Now you're doing two things.
Dark wiped his mouth.
Dark: You always this pleased when someone listens?
Kaelith: Only when they bleed afterward.
He went toward her.
Their next exchange split the platform beneath their feet.
Dark caught the broken sections in shadow before they reached the moving fields. Kaelith used one as a foothold, changed direction, and drove a sheet of fire across his line of retreat.
He cut a path through it with his hand.
Kenzo folded the route.
Dark found Kaelith already waiting at its other end.
Her fist reached his jaw.
He caught it.
For a moment, they stood close enough to hear each other breathe.
Dark smiled.
Kaelith's eyes brightened.
Dark: My turn.
Outside, Leona felt the first impact through the closed passage.
Tier adjusted a reading.
Dantero arrived carrying two drinks.
He handed one to her.
Dantero: How long?
Leona listened to the next impact.
Leona: A while.
Dantero sat beside her.
For once, neither had anything to add.
In Edrassan, Raith rose from his chair.
Sereon's eyes followed him.
Sereon: You're leaving early.
Raith put the chair back against the wall.
Raith: You said I arrived late.
Sereon: Both can be true.
Raith stopped at the threshold.
There were questions he had deliberately avoided.
Sereon knew which ones.
He could feel it in every pause the man left for him.
Raith turned.
Raith: Do you ever get tired of waiting for someone to ask the right thing?
Sereon's hair shifted as he inclined his head.
Sereon: Do you?
Raith looked at the restraints.
Every part of Sereon remained fixed.
The bare shoulders. The bound hands. The chains disappearing into distances the chamber refused to show.
Only the face moved.
Raith: I'll bring another name next time.
Sereon watched him leave.
The threshold closed.
Beyond it, Varek waited.
Raith stopped beside him.
Varek: Did he answer?
Raith: Enough to make me want to stay.
Varek studied his face.
Raith looked back toward the chamber.
Raith: I left.
Varek nodded.
Inside, the seals continued their work.
By evening, Dark's shirt had been destroyed.
Kaelith's sleeve was missing from the elbow down, and a bruise beneath her cheek had not yet faded.
They emerged from the practice passage still arguing.
Kaelith: You moved the protected field.
Dark: I moved what was about to hit it.
Kenzo followed them.
Kenzo: He did.
Kaelith turned toward him.
Kenzo: I was watching.
She looked back at Dark.
Dark smiled.
Kaelith: Tomorrow, then.
Dark: Tomorrow.
Tier closed the passage.
Dantero stood and handed Dark his coat.
Dantero: Congratulations. You've successfully become less terrible.
Dark took it.
Dark: You coming tomorrow?
Dantero glanced at the empty space where the passage had been.
Dantero: I've got a very demanding appointment elsewhere.
Kaelith: Doing what?
Dantero: Remaining handsome.
They walked back together.
The capital had lit its lamps.
People filled the lower streets, carrying food home, closing stalls, arguing over prices that had not improved simply because the sky was whole again.
Dark slowed at an overlook.
Below, the western guards were changing shifts.
The man Avar had threatened stood beside his replacement, speaking with his hands while the younger guard laughed at something.
Dark watched until they separated.
Leona stopped beside him.
She held an envelope.
Dark looked at it.
Dark: More tribute?
Leona: An invitation.
He took it.
The name beneath the seal was Ilyra Quen.
He remembered her arriving when the capital needed people willing to stand in it.
He opened the letter.
A gathering after the restoration of her district. Food, music, gardens open to guests. Several days, if they wished to remain.
Dark read the closing lines.
Then read them again.
Leona: What?
Dark turned the page toward her.
Dark: No speeches.
Dantero leaned over his shoulder.
Dantero: Accept immediately.
Dark looked at the date.
Next week.
For a moment, he began arranging the work that would fill it.
Then he stopped.
Leona saw the change.
She said nothing.
Dark folded the letter.
Dark: Who's going?
Dantero raised his hand.
Kaelith shrugged.
Tier said he would check the arrangements, which everyone understood meant yes.
Cron looked toward Kenzo.
Kenzo had stopped a few paces behind them.
He watched the envelope in Dark's hand.
Dark: You don't have to decide now.
Kenzo's gaze lifted.
Kenzo: I know.
Dark nodded.
They resumed walking.
At the residence, someone had already opened the dining room.
Warm air reached the corridor.
Dantero went ahead, complaining that training had made him hungry despite his careful refusal to participate.
Kaelith told him that talking seemed exhausting enough.
Tier followed them inside.
Dark remained by the door while Leona hung his coat.
Kenzo approached last.
He glanced into the room.
For a second, Dark thought he would leave.
Then Kenzo looked at the envelope again.
Kenzo: Keep me a place.
Dark held his gaze.
Dark: All right.
Kenzo went inside.
Dark followed him.
End of Arc 5, Chapter 1.