Mari:

  The following two days passed in fits and starts.

  Kris juggled her school courses and the testing for her vehicle design. Mari ran through various drills and spars with Vilke between time spent preparing and stockpiling their equipment. They gathered the food they’d need and prepared long-lasting rations. Barclay helped Mari with preparing the exact specifications of his desired explosives, too.

  The only breaks Mari took from preparing were to sleep, eat, or just one brief interlude to decompress at the beach.

  Relaxing wasn’t something Mari had dedicated much time to (unless meditation counted?), but the first time Kris pushed her out the door so she could prepare to run a test flight in peace was when Marielle had introduced her to what became their new shared pastime.

  Hitting the waves was refreshing and entertaining. It cleared her head and reset her perspective. Even if it wasn’t giving her body a chance to relax, it was good to just go out and surf for a while.

  All of those two days culminated in their eventual departure.

  Mari had the immense pleasure of introducing technology from Earth that shattered everything the team of engineers had come up with. Quantum communications were somewhat new to Earth upon Marielle’s escape, but with the unique system set up between their team and Elitheen, they’d be able to reach one another in the event of any complications or developments. It was just lucky that Ivan had the designs saved for trade.

  “Thanks again, Anise.” Mari said as they mounted the stairs that led to the rooftop of The Citadel. “We’d be in trouble staying in touch with Karin without your picking up the tab for the designs.”

  Anise waved her off without looking her way, fiddling with the new bracelet that connected her to their new comms network. “Minimizing the size to blend it in was the real hard part. I’m not sure manufacturing these is even possible. Those nanites of yours are kinda bullshit, really.”

  They passed through the door that had been propped open to find the entire team waiting for them. Kris was making final adjustments while Vilke skimmed through the saddlebags and pouches with a clipboard to take inventory. Barclay was straddling one of their three new vehicles and twisting his body side to side to loosen his aging muscles. They did have a long ride ahead, Mari had to admit.

  “Captain!” Andrew Brooks saluted as she emerged from the stairway. “A moment, please?”

  “You want me to keep an eye out for your family?” Mari immediately asked.

  He nodded. “I know you’ll be busy, but if you happen across any leads…”

  She winced, hearing the desperation in his failing voice. He’d spent over a decade not knowing where they were, or even if they were alive. “Don’t worry. That’s one of my priorities.”

  He let out a long, pent-up breath. The concern rolling off him was almost visible, and she felt really bad for the guy. As the commanding officer of the ship, everything that had happened was her responsibility.

  Except that it wasn’t. She’d continued having strange episodes where she couldn’t keep her identity straight, and while it wasn’t as horrifying as she expected it to be, Kris was still growing agitated when she made particularly noticeable slips. It didn’t feel like Marielle was taking over. Instead, the lines between them blurred more and more as different aspects of their personalities aligned. That was how Marielle explained her merge with Medjay had been.

  Mari nodded to Andrew and strode towards Kris. “How are things looking?”

  Kris held up a single finger, her eyes narrowed at a string of tiny engravings on the interior of one of the vehicles. A moment later, she nodded and slid the plating shut. “Looks perfect.” She stood up and faced Mari. “Are you ready?”

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Mari considered that, doing a final checklist as she patted all over her body where she stored pouches of rations and gear. “Yeah, seems like it.”

  “Great. Time to go, then.” Kris swung a leg over her invention and gripped the handles firmly.

  “No sendoff?” Mari asked as she looked back at the doorway they’d closed behind them.

  Kris shook her head. “They can call any time, and they already said goodbye this morning.”

  Mari shrugged, then swung her leg over the seat behind Kris.

  Then the armored enclosure descended. The side panels folded in and the front shielding slid back to latch in above them. When fully sealed, the vehicle looked a bit like a science fiction motorcycle. One that ran on magic. The exterior was a gunmetal shade, with angry looking intakes for air cycling and strips of running lights for aerial visibility.

  As Mari settled in and firmly grasped the passenger handles that had her arms around Kris’ waist, the interior flickered with light until the exterior was displayed around them on the screens. Then the images cycled through night vision and Anise’s suggested mana density visuals.

  Mari looked over at Barclay and Vilke each settling onto their own bikes as the view shifted back to normal. Kris fiddled with a few of the buttons in front of her, then spoke clearly to them aloud. “How are your system checks going?”

  “No problems here.” Vilke’s voice rumbled through a speaker somewhere.

  “Listen to that baby purr.” Barclay chuckled mirthfully.

  “I certainly hope not.” Kris said with a shake of her head. After all, the vehicles didn’t make noise. The mana cores inside the shielded chassis were entirely soundless.

  In the end, each of the manabikes—pending nickname of ACV, for Aerial Catalyst Vehicle—used three catalysts as their engines with the rest of Kris’ mana-infused metal going towards the spherical cores that powered them. They’d tried only using two catalysts, but then there’d been a balancing issue. If you started to spin with only two, the vehicle would just keep spinning, and while they could stabilize them with the right inscriptions, it made leaning into turns a problem.

  In the end, the ACVs were designed for aerodynamics and speed, with only a small concession for retractable wheels that enabled land-travel.

  Anise stood next to them, stretching her back and arms like she was going for a swim.

  Kris called out some commands and then announced their launch.

  The mana catalysts didn’t care about velocity before liftoff, so they just lifted effortlessly off the ground, then began to accelerate.

  Mari glanced back and to their left, then right. Barclay and Vilke matched speed and flanked their trajectory, headed north.

  Anise leisurely flitted through the sky ahead of them, yawning slightly as she watched them while doing small figure-eights without a care.

  “Let’s set a good pace, shall we?” Kris asked over the intercom.

  The agreements arrived barely in time for Kris to throttle up, and the world below them blurred. Their altitudes increased a bit, and Anise instead fell in behind their formation. She kept up perfectly well, but she didn’t have the same navigation that Kris had installed.

  The city was left behind steadily as Mari turned her attention inward. As dazzling as the ocean below was, they had hours of flying time to pass and she couldn’t be idle.

  With her meridians finally fully healed, she set to work removing clots that impeded the flow, streamlining her body’s energy in the time-honored practice of cultivation. Kris was ahead of her in body cultivation, and she didn’t want to be left behind. So she worked through the efforts of refining herself further.

  Time drifted by as they flew, and Kris was emitting a happy sort of buzz as she finally got to fly through the sky with her own invention. Their altitude remained around a kilometer above the ocean, and at their pace, Mari guessed they were matching or slightly exceeding the speed of a commercial flight on Earth before humanity had descended into utter chaos. The biggest difference was that air currents didn’t affect their flight much, so they could ignore following jetstreams.

  Hallitheen came into view seven hours later, and it was a completely different sight from Elitheen.

  A person from Earth might see Elitheen and think they were still on Earth.

  Hallitheen? Not a chance.

  The architecture was like if someone built the Acropolis over a pyramid from Egypt. Except the structure was the size of a modest city. The glittering signs of residence itself were within the pyramid-shaped center, which was ringed by sixteen massive pillars that were obvious greenhouses. Every one of the pillars was encased in glass and abounded with greenery inside.

  All of those pillars served as supports for a huge roof that settled over the pyramid. There was a clear progression to the structure’s materials, with the foundations being obviously well-maintained stonework, but the layers above gradually shifted towards the blue-hued metals that were the trademark of the Sylphariens’ advanced material sciences.

  The sight meant that it was time for their two teams to split up.

  Mari and Kris would be proceeding to Uriel Point.

  Meanwhile, Barclay and Vilke would be searching Hallitheen for the alleged presence of Mari’s former crew members.

  Patreon!

  discord server is the best place to get in touch with me!