Hstrad was a fairly good Pilot, he hardly needed the map. I did not know if he had noticed we had nothing to eat. Perhaps he had but thought I had made certain provisions not known to him. Ozana was still passed out and I was starting to think up excuses that might sound reasonable whenever she awoke.

As Hstrad formed new tunnels ahead, the ones behind dissipated. Any time he needed me to unfurl the plates with my Pyrancy, I did, in order to match the paths he made with his rings. He was the Pilot after all. It suddenly clicked that there was nothing stopping him and Ozana from throwing me off the balloon and returning to the E1. So, I formed cuffs and slapped one part onto his left wrist and the other onto my right. He jerked backward, so did the balloon.

“Hey. Hey,” I cautioned. “You’ll kill us.”

“What has gotten into you?” He snapped.

“Stabilise us.”

“I can't do it with this attached.”

We started teetering lower.

“Come on! Stabilise us!”

I used my free hand to adjust the plates on one side, doing the best I could as a Panner who had never dabbled in vehicular constructs until then.

“I need my two arms to make my ports,” Hstrad complained.

“Use them like that,” I spat.

I knew he liked the desperation I exuded. If anything, a part of my calculations was Hstrad's lack of resolve. Left by himself, he scarcely took initiative. But I may have been wrong, Mubbers was the one closer to him after all. Finally, he raised both arms and formed whole rings from under the basket to our correct course. It was awkward, as my right hand which was cuffed with his moved in the same Pilot patterns.

Ozana was rousing from her unconsciousness. She whimpered and spasmed along the pile of Waste. As her eyes came open my heart beat faster. I thought about constructing my hammer but I hastily realised how bad an idea that was. I steadied my breathing and in the blink of an eye, Ozana swerved, knocked me to my feet with a construct she had physicalized to extend her leg reach. Hstrad was linked to me so he was also dragged down by the force with which I fell. As I scrambled to get up, something pointy prodded my throat, an inch away from drawing blood.

“Please. Please. Ozana.” I huffed.

“You have betrayed your terminal, your Area of Base, your Belt. If I should kill you here, I would be totally justified,” she said, menacingly.

“I know,” I said. “I am not doing this for myself. I am doing this for Mubbers. They are going to kill him unjustly. No one challenged his arrest. We betrayed him first. When no one in our terminal challenged his arrest, we betrayed him.”

“Don't get all righteous.” She took in the state of me for what felt like forever. She did not bother with Hstrad; somehow she knew he was doing this against his will. “Correct the course, Pilot Hstrad. We are going back to our terminal.”

“He has me bound,” Hstrad reported.

“Release him, Panner Sorge,” Ozana said. “That cuff won't stop me. I will decommission you if I have to.” She rubbed off the dried blood on one part of her face and gave me a look that said she meant it.

I cupped my hand like I was about to release my construct but instead I fortified it, double-fronted, and clasped up to the elbow. It was no cuff now, it was an arm guard connecting Hstrad and me.

“You may as well kill me,” I said weakly. “That is what they would do after all. If you take me back to the E1, Serjeant Dolony out of duty will have me sent to the AOB and if they don't execute me there, the Iron Capital is where I will die after long, unimaginable torture.”

“Don't try me,” she warned.

“Maybe I deserve it but not Mubbers.”

“You stole a basket. You hurt your fellow delegates. You implicated us.”

Hstrad could not hover us, at least not directly over the vast abysses where the pull was stronger, so we always had to be moving. He made a bend in the path of his tunnel and said, “Panner Ozana the plates need to be unfurled so that the baskets can make a turn.” A Panner could not affect another Panner's creations. I was not unfurling the plates of the balloon I created. Ozana devised this from my expression alone. For a moment, we heard only the churning of the Waste powering the engines.

“We have to move, Panner Ozana. I can't hover us for too long,” Hstrad finally said.

“Change course again. Continue with the former one.”

Hstrad hesitated.

“Do as I have said, Pilot Hstrad.”

Hstrad moved the rings back on course.

“Just so you know. I am not in agreement with you, Panner Sorge. You are under arrest and this basket will surely come down somewhere. When it does, this your little shenanigan will be over.”

I said nothing after that. I wanted to sit down and gather myself but I was stuck with Hstrad who was focused on his dim holographic rings so I stood, doing nothing. After the tension in the basket had eased up, Ozana looked up at the balloon. She searched every plate, I knew, and under different circumstances she would have commended me.

I think an hour passed before a word was said and it was me. “I am sorry for hurting you, Ozana. I did not mean to hit you… that hard.” Indeed I had meant to hit her but it had been too hefty a blow.

She did not reply. She was sitting down now, resting against the basket and if I was right thinking of the way I had pulled this off without raising any notice.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Can I tell you something, Ozana?” I asked. “Hold on, Hstrad,” I cautioned Hstrad before I bent down to open the slate of the churner on the bottom of the basket and poured in more Waste. Hstrad continued with his ports when I was finished.

I returned my attention to Ozana. “I forgot food,” I said. Hstrad gave me a sidelong glance. He hadn't noticed. He however proceeded with his work without uttering anything.

“I noticed,” Ozana said. “But I'd thought you might be hiding it somewhere.”

“No. I forgot about it altogether.”

“Where did you plan to land the basket?”

“I brought enough Waste to last us ten thousand abysses.”

“And what is waiting for us after ten thousand abysses?”

“A dead terminal.”

“What is waiting for us at a dead terminal?” Ozana asked.

“I don't know.”

“Are you serious? You did not think this throughl?” Hstrad whinged.

“No,” I said.

“Then we have to go back,” he pressed.

“No.”

“No?”

I looked at Ozana hoping she would have something to say or add. She was the most knowledgeable out of all of us. I did not think of the plan beyond the escape. Apart from the fact that it was imminent I escaped E1 first, I did not have the experience of the world outside of it.

“Do you have a map?” Ozana asked.

I looked inside the bag I had brought with me and withdrew the map I had my student, Zulta, steal. Ozana took the map and traced a finger around it. It was a large map and she peeled it open gradually as she searched. I made an orb and floated it close to her to help her see better. She did not begrudge the gesture. When she was done she folded it and threw it back to me.

“Have you heard of Area Zed?” She asked.

I shook my head.

“I have. I have heard rumours of it,” Hstrad said.

“Area Zed is a roguish terminal. It is not reflected in maps,” Ozana said.

“Roguish?” I asked.

“Yes. I heard it is not fully affiliated with the Capital,” Hstrad said.

“That's not true. Area Zed is fully affiliated with the Capital. It seems like they aren't because the Iron Capital wants it that way,” Ozana corrected.

“Why?” I asked

“Area Zed is fully funded by the Capital to do its dirty work. Assassinations, thefts, hijacks. Think why no AOB will attack Area Zed if it were in rebellion, it's truly not hard to find. They are protected. In fact, directly affiliated with the Iron Capital.”

“So we will land on Area Zed? Will they let us?” I asked.

“Let's hope they will,” she said. She sighed, gave me another look and continued. “It's not a lighted base so it would be difficult to see. They try their hardest to stay invisible. We will need to show them that we are not dangerous. They’ll know we are coming hundreds of abysses before we reach. So…” She paused. “Pilot Hstrad, are you listening?”

“I am.”

“So, Panner Sorge and I will build a lenient rotational fractoid in the shape of a dome with a bright hollow endearment.”

Hstrad looked lost.

“It just means we'll project a rotating dome that looks like a rotating dome from every angle,” I explained.

“What will a rotating dome do?” Hstrad asked.

“It's a sign that we are equally affiliated with the Capital and mean peace. It's not something generally known,” Ozana said. “Pilot Hstrad, you dampen your ports to show we are no threat. We'll also depend on you to descend very very very slowly. Most likely, they'll send up a basket to confirm who we are before we can be allowed to drop.”

Ozana rested her head on the basket. “Don't think I am on your side, Panner Sorge. Once we drop at Area Zed and lie our way to convenience, I will be abandoning you. I am no derelict. You can complete your idiot plan of saving Mubbers on your own.”

“Me too. I'll be abandoning you and am going back,” Hstrad added nervously.

“Thanks. Both of you,” I stated regardless.

I opened the map to ask Ozana something I had been meaning to. There was scribbling with silver ink on the paper screen between the Iron Belt and where it was written Silver Belt.

“What's this grey area here just before the border of the Silver Belt?” I wanted to toss Ozana the map but she answered already knowing what I referred to.

“If it were possible the Iron Belt would conquer all of Krakas and take her under its grip. In fact, before Xanarona of House Cotideil seized full autonomy of the Silver Belt, Xlenonius I ruled as suzerain over it. A huge part of why the Iron Belt won the War of the Belts was the intelligence warfare it caused in the Drafts. There was a huge betrayal and we took advantage of it. The other reason the Iron Belt won was through intimidation—economic duress.” Ozana rubbed the sore spot on her head. “What I am getting at is that we cannot just barge into the Silver Belt with troops. That grey area in the map is a belt-eating rumble. It would take careful flying of the best Pilots to get past the havoc of that region.”

“Why do the fleets not go around?” I asked.

“They could,” Ozana said. “However, the Silver Belters are not stupid. They have something we don't have.”

“Which is?” I speculated.

“Land,” Ozana declared. “Most of our war vehicles are stored in special terminals and securing them in bays takes a lot of work. The Silver Belt has land broad enough for long treks outside. They store their vehicles there and therefore have machinery fitting to engage our fleets in both air and land warfare.”

“The two Belts have their benefits due to geography,” I noted.

“Yes. Our war vehicles can withstand a bit more beating than theirs can. We have more abyss and suffer greater pulls, so we make sturdier objects.”

I nodded in total understanding of everything she had said.

“Enough history and war tactics.” She got up on her feet. “We have to come up with lies to tell whomever we meet at Area Zed. Most likely they will not know where we are from.” She looked at me. “We say that we were going to service the travel basket at Aksselranta but the churners and gears were already giving out so we chose to stop to ask for help. We say we are from the Area of Base, Nifadelna, Terminal N2 exactly. I will be Gadne. Panner Sorge, you'll be Fran and Hstrad you’ll be Ezita.”

“But it's cleary impressed at the edge here.” I felt it. “E1-12.”

“I know. Nifadelna is a poor AOB. We’ll say we borrowed the basket from Area of Base Eophyla.”

“Won't they try to confirm?” Hstrad asked.

“Area Zed is not in direct communication with other AOBs. Their Reglim poles connect directly to the Iron Capital. Unless, Pilot-Serjeant Dolony reported us missing to the whole Belt, they have no way of knowing. Most definitely Eophyla wouldn't want to report to the Capital that some delegates managed to escape from its grip especially in this gruelling atmosphere.”

“Thank you, Panner Ozana,” I said again.

“Panner Gadne,” she corrected.

She took the map from me and pointed out the invisible Area Zed to Hstrad.

“Sorge, I’ll need you to unfurl right so we go left,” Hstrad said, manipulating the rings to go west.

I unfurled the plates, piece by piece and the travel basket turned in accordance with the port. Ozana began constructing, one plate of the balloon then the other.

“Start dephysicalizing your constructs. They are getting shallower. I’ll replace them with mine,” she ordered.

“Thank you, Panner Gadne.”