"What's got you in such a grumpy mood?" Vadei asked me with a brief laugh as she moved away from the campfire. The ruckus caused by the girls of our group went down once Vadei became focused on me. And when she came over to me, I focused on her as she did me. My expression was unchanging before I looked away from her.

"Nothing, but, if you have the time, I would like to speak to you about something." I told her as my mind pieced it all together. What I had been thinking up since our fire first lit up and the darkness came in.

"Can it wait? I'm on a roll here with a firm and steady lead!" she told me as she puffed out her chest.

"CHEATER!" Larishazza shouted at us from the other side of the campfire. Something Vadei took no notice of as she brushed it away with mocking arrogance.

"Do you want your family to wait?" I asked noticeably quieter. A sudden stiffness took over Vadei at that moment. The teasing and messing around with the others was set aside. She was now instead looking at me with caution and a small bit of anger.

"Fine, what is this about?" she asked me sternly as she began to walk into the darkness behind me. Following after her once I had made sure the others were not going to follow us in turn.

"As I already said, your family." I clarified to her as I moved closer to the airship. A claw gently moved across its metallic body once I was there.

"And what about my family!?" Vadei nearly growled out as her head, ears and tail rose in aggression.

"I've had a look around, Vadei. Earlier while I was sorting out my magic and back when I was just idly wandering around."

"Get to the point!"

"Just about to, see, one thing I have noticed is the gravel and the air. You can tell, can't you?" I said as one of my digits rose up into the space above.

"There's no wind, yeah. Now, again, get to the point!"

"The lack of wind means there is nothing to cause the hauler tracks to be covered up or warped." I informed her as I remembered my reaction to seeing signs of vehicles passing through. I was shocked and surprised, but, most importantly, I was optimistic. So long as the winds near my home didn't appear earlier than expected, we had a path to follow!

"You want us to follow the tracks back to your home?" Vadei asked as she stepped a bit closer. Her previous aggression disappeared as she suddenly became excited.

"No, what I want to do is to take the airship there. Just me and you."

"Excuse me...?" she then asked with a rather conveniently quiet yet still harsh whisper.

"The reason the slavers are with us is no longer there. The other two weren't even meant to come along, to begin with, and..." I began to say before I went quiet. It seems like even after stewing on the idea, I still couldn't say it.

"You don't want them to be able to drag you back to Suhurlodst...?" Vadei then asked with her eyes wide open. A display of nervousness accompanying those words and slight gestures. Gestures I responded to with my own sluggishly slow ones.

She then tried to say something else, but I stopped her with a raised claw, "This was always the intention, Vadei. I get home, I stay home. You save your family, then, you take them back to your own home." several loud bangs ending my sentence as I patted the hull.

"No! I'm not helping you abandon your friends! No! I am not doing that!" Vadei told me as it looked like she was about to yell for the others.

"What matters more to you, Vadei!? The safety of your family and people or how the others would feel if I disappeared!?" I loudly asked her in order to make her stop and pay attention. Carefully watching as her mood dimmed and her ears fell. A whimper left her mouth before she looked up at me with a glare.

"How do you want to do this?" she then asked me as she moved closer. Much closer, almost right up in my face actually.

"Simple, when the others go to sleep, turn on the airship and we get out of here."

"If we turn on the airship again we'll set off an explosion that would make them aware of what we are doing!" she told me with clenched teeth as a sharp nail of hers went up near my right eye.

"Not if you start it up in the air." I informed her while I curled my arms up and tightly clenched my fists.

"That would still cause an explosion!"

"But not one the others would be able to get involved with." I said while holding up a single digit. If I could get the airship high enough, all they would have to go on would be a loud bang. Not a trail of bangs highlighting the airship. And, thankfully, the cloud cover was too dangerous for Einervaene to follow us in.

"Alright, when we doing it?" she then asked as our attention turned back to the camp.

"We'll wait for the others to get to sleep, assuming they do get to sleep, however." I say with a frown as I remember how little time I spend sleeping sometimes. All this magic I have had in me since just before I met Vapooliar has made me rather energetic. I often fall asleep because of boredom most of the time!

"We might be able to convince them to get to sleep for now. We haven't even spent a full day in these magicless lands."

"Then we best get back to the camp to convince them, then." I tell her as I begin to head back towards the camp. She quickly caught up and when we entered the light again, she pretended to yawn.

"Tired already, Vadei?" Einervaene asked as her eyes looked over at the spot Vadei went to. A spot she had previously tried to desperately brush clear of dust and gravel.

"Yeah, so quiet down..." she said with more fake yawns before she smacked her lips together. And while she was doing that, I plopped down beside her and closed my eyes.

"Aw... I wanted to mess around some more..." Larishazza moaned before she then fell to the floor and then my lap.

"What are you doing!?" I asked with shock and surprise as this would interfere with my plan to get home. I couldn't have her sleeping on me! Not now of all times, I might have not minded it but this wasn't going to work!

"Getting ready for bed." she cheerfully answered before one of her fingers touched my snout.

"Get off." I nearly squeaked out as I was afraid of this stopping me from getting home in a reasonable manner. She, however, took this a different way and left me be while giggling.

"I'll make sure you get some privacy." she giggled out before she laid down somewhere else.

"That's not why..." I complained before sighing, my eyes briefly catching Einervaene's gaze before I faked my sleep. Only to open my eyes again to see that she was still looking at me.

Einervaene gave me a small smile before she gave me a half-hearted wave, "Sleep well." I barely heard her say before she too went down.

"Right..." I answered a bit late as I kept my eyelids nearly closed to mimic the image of me being asleep. And, as it became darker and darker, quieter and quieter... I opened them up properly again. Slowly and carefully standing up and prodding at Vadei just to make sure she didn't actually fall asleep.

"Is it time?" she asked me as she quickly got up to her feet with my assistance. A series of nods came from me as I looked about.

"It is, find a way out and be quiet about it." I nearly mouthed to her before I began to move across the gravel. Its crunches and pops making me wince with each step. But, thankfully, our campfire was quite big, so, its snaps and crackles kept my noise indistinguishable.

Then, once I was clear of the camp, I ran along towards the airship along with Vadei. She seemed to have climbed the rocks we were by to get out of the camp. And now, she was climbing up the rope ladder before she then stopped. The pair of us expressed our confusion as she looked back at me.

"How will I let you know I am ready to turn on the airship...?" she asked slowly before she looked back at it.

"You don't, you just turn it on as quickly as you can and I'll meet up with you again." I told her as I placed a hand on her and guided her up. Sort of just forcing her along gently so we could get this other with. I was already beginning to feel doubt creep in every time my eyes went near the direction of our camp.

Of the place where the woman I longed for was... The place where my close friends were... The place where the friends I was about abandon were... That place where I would leave them, never to see them again...

I even was starting to shudder as I moved under the airship. And rather than thinking about how I could lift it up safely, I was bordering on tears. Despite how important getting back home was to me, I just could not compel myself to do this. I was shaking and trembling and I was about to scream my frustrations...

But, I did not scream them until I was ready, and once the first tear was out. I let my magic flow and distort the area around me violently. Then, in that single moment as I crouched down to build up energy for the jump. The land around me exploded with a blue fireball consuming it.

And I began to soar high into the air with an airship in my grip and way. And as we got higher into the sky, I tightened my grip on whatever I could. Pipes, loose parts, even turned off and exposed segments. Thankfully, however, Vadei also turned on the airship and it suddenly jolted to a halt.

"I'm sorry..." I muttered as I felt tears fall down my face as I dangled in the sky. Tears that had no time to stay as I suddenly fell down onto the airship...? I quickly figured out what had happened, however, and I move to the edge and grabbed on. Just as quickly moving back to the process of dangling in the air as the airship flipped over again.

Then, I climbed the airship and rolled over the railings. My heart thumped loudly in my ears as I needlessly panted on the decking. A certain tailed woman soon appeared over me with an agitated stare. A huff left her just before she disappeared again.

And once I got up, I followed her in, "You best start praising me or I will kick you off this airship." she then demanded as she threw herself into the captain's chair.

"For turning on the airship or helping me get back on?"

"All of it!" she nearly yells out with wide arms. Those same arms dropped down so she could drum away at the chair with her nails.

"You'll get your thanks once I get mine for helping you save your people."

"Then you'll be waiting a long time." she snarkily snorted out while I looked out at the dark sky. Our airship gently rumbled through it as it set off the magicless air in our way.

"Keep us moving for now, I'll go down to check if we are on the right path once day breaks."

"And what if we miss the tracks by that point!?"

"We keep an eye out for a mountain range instead, one with a city shaped like a bird cage." I told her as I leaned forward. Sighing the entire time as my mind shook about with fear and anxiety about what would happen and what I had done.

.

.

.

"HEY! HEY! WAKE UP YOU LOT! WAKE! UP!" Larishazza practically screamed in my face while violently shaking me.

"W-What!? What!?" I repeated over and over as I came to realize Larishazza's state. Her face was stained with tears and red with fear and worry. Her movements were jittery and unstable and she had more trouble than usual focusing on one thing.

"NIN AND VADEI ARE GONE!" she answered with a howl while pointing at where they had been the night before.

"No, they haven't, their tracks are there..." I replied slowly with as I held out a finger at the large footsteps Nin left.

"THEY'RE ONLY TRACKS! I TRIED FOLLOWING THEM BUT THEY DISAPPEAR!"

"Alright, alright, calm down, maybe it's just Nin playing a trick on us, hm?" I said to her while gesturing my palms at her. I needed her to calm down as this wasn't helping my rising panic either.

"HE'S NOWHERE TO BE FOUND!" she screamed into her hands before she locked them together. Various knots were formed out of her fingers as she dashed about as well.

"Hold on, Larishazza!" I said to her as I started to follow the tracks. Only to stop in confusion when I saw that the airship was gone as well. A large burning crater in the spot it should have been in... And as I put my hand over my mouth, it dawned on me.

They didn't did they? They seriously did not just abandon us in the middle of a wasteland...? Our supplies were untouched, sure, but... What had they done?

Had they just moved on elsewhere just for the moment and would return? No, that made no sense. If this was just a temporary thing then they would have discussed it with us. They would have told us...

"Was that why I heard them being loud last night...?" I then questioned myself as I stumbled backwards in shock. Collapsing shortly after as I just did not know what to do... Why had our friends just abandoned us? If this was a plan, why hadn't they told us...?

I couldn't figure any of it out and I was becoming increasingly enraged the longer I thought about it. And as I became angrier, I became more violent. I lashed out at the gravel and dust and kicked it about in a violent tantrum. Then, once I had wandered away from the camp enough...

I screamed into the sky and let all my magic out at once. Getting caught in a ginormous explosion as a result of this sudden magic outburst. And once that rage was let out like that, I focused skyward before I then tried to turn into lightning to get into the clouds. But, as I surged upwards towards the clouds, a golden bolt swatted me away.

A blow that sent me screaming back down to the earth below. Disaster only just being avoided when Larishazza caught me in her arms. An explosion enveloped us both once she crashed into the fragile earth. Large, shattered apart shards of firmer rock shooting up as a result, even if the explosion eroded them back down.

"Let go of me..." I cried out in despair as Larishazza then dropped me without a care. Tears in her eyes as she looked about once more. And tears would come to my eyes too, but I could not wipe them away. As otherwise, I would get dust in them, a paltry issue compared to Nin and Vadei's abandonment of us...

And it sort of stayed like this for quite some time. The pair of us just cried in despair before finally calming down. How our feet forced the gravel together and apart is the only sound coming from us as we went back. Back to the camp, the one we set up together as a group, that is where we went. And, well, where else would we go?

The Anvil-Peak? The far end of this wasteland? Back to the great canyon? Without the airship we were lost...

"They're gane?" Heiya asked us as she approached our slowly moving forms. Larishazza paid her no mind and just went elsewhere to sulk. Leaving Heiya my problem to deal with should I have chosen to do so... But, I was going to deal with her, I was too angry and I needed someone to vent out on...

"And the airship too..." I let out with an exasperated sigh as I threw my arms up in the air. Shuddering out a sigh into one of my palms as the hands came down afterwards.

"Aaare we still gaing ta fallaw them ta Tabaaabaaalle?" she then asked me and just before I shook my head in frustration, I changed my mind.

"No... No! We're going to find those two and demand an explanation from the pair of them!" I declared loudly as I clenched my fists together. Glaring off into the distance, even if it wasn't the way they were headed.

"Find tracks. Follow." Heiya's father then explained as he walked up to me with supplies already on his back.

"If they stole the airship how are we going to find their tracks!?" I nearly shouted down at him whilst glaring at him. Nearly moving on to shouting when he shook his head and gestured me to follow. While Heiya pointed it out once we reached the edge of the camp.

"Aver there! See?" she said as her short arm and small hand pointed out the distortion in the gravel. Not where the airship was nor where I and Larishazza landed. But, rather, at the long serpentine trail heading off into the distance.

"They head straight to Nin's home?" I asked with a notable angered emphasis being put on Nin's name.

The pair nodded, "All way to front gate." Heiya's father said while nodding.

"Right, you two gather up our stuff, then, I am going to speak to Larishazza." I ordered them before walking off towards the woman in question. What I considered my former rival for Nin's love soon entered my eyesight shortly after. And, well, she was in the most pathetic state I had ever seen her in.

Wailing away pointlessly like a child...

"We found a way to follow them." I tell her as she pays no heed to my presence.

"Leave me alone..." she tells me as her face disappears further into her arms.

"I do not intend to leave you on a dusty rock in the middle of nowhere. Now, get up." I sternly told her as I grabbed her by the elbow. But I readjusted my grip onto her bicep when it proved too awkward a place to hold.

"No!" she whined.

"Get up!" I told her once again as I yanked her up. Holding her awkwardly when she refused to stand at all.

"Get off me!" she said as she weakly tried to get out of my grip.

"Larishazza! Get up and quit acting like a child!" I then said to her before I tried to thrust her back down. But, her legs stopped me from putting her down and that glare I got from her unnerved me. Anger was not an expression I had ever seen on her face before. And it looked like a murderous intent hid behind it.

"Leave. Me. Alone." she said very slowly to me as she pushed me towards the rocks behind myself.

"No, not u-until you come with us... You deserve to hear an explanation and apology too." I explained with the slightest stutter as her grip tightened on me. Only for it to loosen as she collapsed on to me to cry again.

"Had I done something wrong...? I thought Nin was my friend... I thought they both were..." she cried out while holding me close. All while her teeth chewed away at a now bloody bottom lip as she did so.

"We both were led to believe that, now, come on... We need to catch up with them or we'll miss them entirely and be stuck out here in these wastes." I explained while giving her a reassuring hug. Even if I did not believe I could reassure her in a time like this. I couldn't even reassure myself, I could only make myself angrier...

"I hope I can figure out why they did not want to be my friend anymore..." she said with a sniffle. Something I think gave a keen insight into what she was like. She was accepting no other reason other than self-blame... She detached the idea Nin and Vadei could ever do anything bad to her completely...

But, I felt the same way I guess, "I would like that too..." I said as we stopped hugging each other. One of my arms rubbed the other before we walked towards the slavers. Even though I would be cursing their names from now on... I was still confused as to why they did it.

What compelled them to just abandon us...? We were coming along with them to help them. I certainly proved that when I nearly died in my efforts to save Nin! I was nearly burnt to death when I went to save him!

So why was he able to just leave us so easily...? Had this been his plan all along? I mean, now that I thought about it... I was only here by circumstance because I was asked to help fix something on the airship...

For no real reason as well! They could have asked anyone to do it, so why did they pick me? Was there some kind of orchestration to this event? There had to have been...

But why did he want to leave us on our own? We were with him now so we could help him! Did he not want our help? Was he afraid we would do something?

His lack of speaking to us about the whole affair was not helping me figure it out... But, the more I thought about our time together. I just couldn't keep up with the idea he abandoned us out of spite or cruelty. There must be something else to this whole affair...

Maybe I was just trying to make it seem like he made a mistake when it wasn't. Or, maybe, despite the rage I was going through earlier... I did not genuinely believe he had done anything wrong in some strange way? That he was just thinking he needed to do this on his own...?

It was frustrating to think about and I quickly found myself growling into my closed mouth. While the slaver, father-daughter pairing stared up at me the entire time. Something that oddly enough, calmed me, or at least distracted me. And, thankfully, they were also all done with gathering up our stuff.

"We go?" the older of the two asked as he held up a bag to me. With Heiya doing the same to Larishazza.

I looked at my blue-haired friend before answering, "Yes, let's go and drag them back so we can get an answer." I answered before sighing out my frustrations.

"I'd rather not drag them." Larishazza quietly clarified as she quickly went ahead of us once we set off.

"Follow tracks." Heiya's father loudly stated to the distant woman who then glued herself to said tracks. Many of their ridges and near-perfect ridges collapsed as she stepped on them. Their state only got worse as my heels speared into their remains as well.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

"This shouldn't take long, should it?" I then asked, hoping we would not be walking in such a boring land for eternity.

Heiya's father briefly laughed before his daughter spoke, "It will taaake aaa lang while." she initially said with a smile before she groaned upon looking down. A mumbled complaint about how her feet will be ruined by the time we reached Tobaballe came after. Which was valid I suppose, probably more so for me seen as I was an idiot still in heels...

"Might be better off taking them off..." I then thought aloud even though I did nothing with my footwear.

.

.

.

"So what is exactly the plan for when we actually get back to your pit of despair?" Vadei asked me while she tapped her chair.

"We go in and save your people and then I handle the issues regarding mine and you just go on home?" I said back to her, slightly confused as to where this was coming from. Hadn't we already discussed what we were doing?

"That's what we are doing, not what the plan is."

"Oh, right..." I mumbled before going quiet.

"You don't have one?"

"More like I don't actually know how to plan one. The area all your family and that are, to my knowledge, is not a place we were normally allowed. The defences and so on just do not exist in my head... So, no plan."

"Great..." she lets out with a frustrated sigh before she taps away at some screens.

"But, we do have one advantage now." I said while looking down at my hand.

"Less than four fingers is not an advantage."

"No! My strength given to me by my magic! I can use it to climb the mountains near my home. We can have a look about without putting the airship in harms way."

"This airship has shields strong enough to withstand something that melted your body and armour that survived you suddenly sending it flying up."

"It also has armour that got torn apart by bugs, no?" I commented as I swear this was the same type we once camped out in.

"The osibindah earth shaman used giant pillars of rock to slam the airship straight down into a mountain. Of course, it would get torn up!" she tells me matter-of-factly while also rolling her eyes.

"Either way... Airship will likely survive whatever my home can throw at it?"

"Most likely."

"But your family are unlikely to?" I asked while thinking of the idea of just landing in that farming area they were all in.

"If we were coming after them just after they got captured... Maybe they would come out unharmed... But not now, not when they have spent so long in magicless lands..." she explains with a quiet whine as her gaze goes down.

"So we would need a distraction?" I put forward while pondering the gates I could pass through. Or, at least, could when I was younger and not working.

"What, you gonna charge straight into the city or something?"

"I was thinking more of parking the airship beyond Tobaballe's walls. I climb into the holdings of the Civil Mountains and then cause issues. I mean, look at me! You already hate me because of it, think of what people who have never seen an osibindah will think."

"I don't hate you, I just find you irritable." she corrected with a smirk leading me to scoff at her.

"But yes, me big scary osibindah. It will work as a distraction, especially well when I prove that they need to send in the Goldhands or something."

"The magic-capable guard of your home?"

"I assume so, they became known as goldhands for a reason."

"Then why doesn't your home, you know, go up in a fireball?"

I frowned, "Maybe they have somehow set up areas where magic is able to be used? Or maybe it's just tech they have with some internal magic? My first exposure to magic was a casually lifted statue after all."

"If that was the case, I wouldn't have had to keep my magic under control when I was a slave."

"Again, tech maybe? Or... All that gold...?" I said to her before thinking aloud. Reminding myself of how pretty much everything in the upper levels had different degrees of gold involved. Even what they ate...

"It might be, I think I do remember someone mentioning thunder-gold when I was being sent back as it were." she told me before snarling towards the end.

"That would make sense, Heiya and that did say the magic around there was unique in that it had a very... Tight area of influence." I began to say before waving my hands close together.

"Alright, we have established how your super elite guard might be able to use magic, but how does that help us get them to go after you?" I was then asked by Vadei as her chin rested on her open palm.

I put a claw to my chin and stroked, "We lure them out with magic? I go somewhere quiet and just let a small amount out? A bluish explosion is sure to grab their attention, no?"

"It's probably the best plan of action we have..." she says once more with a sigh before slumping back into her chair.

"Vadei, I know it is probably a bit stupid all things considered. But, I promise you, we will get your family and such out of there and make sure you are on your way first. The issues of my home are my problem, but your issues are linked with mine. So you have my word that I will help."

"You'll have to forgive me if I doubt your word at the moment..." she says to me with no notable hostility. Even if it still did irk me either way.

"Then don't doubt my words, believe in my actions." I ultimately pleaded to her with as I sat down on a deactivated console.

"Let's wait and see, shall we?" was all I got from her.

So now, in an effort to change the topic, I looked down at my seat, "So how come most of this stuff is turned off? It was all on when we were flying by the Anvil-Peak."

"The magic in this place is thin and nearly non-existent. I am having to keep us at an extreme height even for this airship just to keep magic flowing into our systems."

"So you have turned off all non-essentials?"

"More so I am figuring out what can be turned off without issue for now. We still have plenty of stored magic, we just don't have a particularly good input of it."

"Will the batteries manage while we sort out the situation with your family?"

"I admittedly don't know, I have a prediction on screen, but, I am still uncertain if it is right given our circumstances."

"And how much is the prediction?"

"A few weeks worth of fuel, so, enough to grab everyone and fly back up, and, of course, any waiting time."

"Can't you just turn it off while we save your family?"

"You would have no means to communicate with me, so I would need to keep it on and ready to go."

"Are there no tools on board so we can?"

"There are, they're just not fitted for your head and would not likely survive your distraction or your general movements."

"Then how are you going to keep track of me?"

"Remember how we picked up how Larishazza was approaching us when we first left?"

"Yeah."

"I can use the airship's sensory equipment to track you. And, apparently, this airship was given a module that lets it record data related to magic and that. I have everything I need to watch you. Just not communicate."

"So we do it all in my own time?"

"Unfortunately..." she groans out while paying attention to my brief smile.

"Don't worry, I will try to be quick about it."

"You better, I understand you are here because this is your home, but try not to go sightseeing."

"That's one thing I cannot promise. I have been waiting for quite some time to get back home and despite my feelings towards aspects of it... It is still an exciting experience that just needs satiating."

"Again, you better not get lost sightseeing." she repeated with a firmer tone while leaning forward.

"Don't worry, I may be excited about finally getting home, but I am also very eager to deal with a certain woman you used to love referring to me as."

"I didn't love calling you 'Ho,' I just wanted a personalised insult." she commented while looking away slightly.

"Wasn't a very good one, I have to admit. Up until now, I have had no negative connotations with her name. Now, though, maybe."

"Well, make sure you make her suffer alright. Make them all suffer for what they have done..." she growled out as her nails dug into the chair.

"My anger is exclusive to those involved in the exchange of my people with Suhurlodst. Which, so far, only includes two to my knowledge. Iishar herself, and some other guy who apparently pet named your kind as floofs." I clarified and explained for her, watching as she shivered at the end part.

"I know the one you mean, it's why I ended up getting shipped back."

"What did you do?" I then asked her as she stoked my curiosity.

She flicked some of her nails up, "I did a little carving and biting." she maliciously grinned, making sure to show off her canines the whole time.

"What did he do to you?"

"Oh, nothing much, just touch my little sister inappropriately and myself in a similar manner because that creature had a fetish for our tails." she explained while protectively stroking it.

"You brutalised a man because he touched your tail?"

"You already know I do not like people touching my tail. Both because of my personal feelings to it and how we are raised. Our tails are special and they should only be shared with those we hold in special regard."

"So I can go and touch your tail? You did offer it to me once." I asked, leading to her face going just slightly red.

She looked away first, "The circumstances for that were different."

"Yeah, I could just walk into any part of the aelenvari flower and take what I want while you were constantly refused basic manners. You had nothing of value but I had access to all the things you wanted and needed." I said with a shrug and smile. Making light of what was likely a humiliating offer on her part back then.

"Shut up." she quickly barked out after.

"But, yeah, don't worry, I am sure I'll be able to figure out which one you are on about and deal with him when I can."

"No, if anyone is going to deal with that creature, it will be me. Especially if I find out he violated my sister or any of my family in the meantime since I was last in your decrepit pile of piss and mortar!" she exclaimed with a slammed down fist at the end.

"First come, first served."

"Then I guess we will be wreaking havoc in your homeland together then and then we can save my family!"

"It's a date."

"I didn't..." Vadei groaned out while I smirked some more at her.

"But, no. Focus on your family, focus on getting them out safely. I'll handle the spire-lords and all that." I told her, something she nodded to without much resistance.

Then, after a brief quiet, she spoke again, "So what are you exactly going to be doing once you get back home and this is all done? After we're done freeing my people, you're not just going to be able to settle back in. You'll be a mercilessly hunted criminal!"

"Don't worry about me, I have experience in that regard." I answered with a saddened frown as I stared at my barely visible reflection. The face of the monster that terrified me staring right back at me. Imitating every movement I made no matter how slight or hidden it was.

"It seems rather odd that I would be setting out to free my friends and family, only to leave one a prisoner the rest of his life." Vadei then commented as she stood up and walked over to me.

"It will probably do me good, since being in that small camp with you, Vapooliar and those two little midgets... I have gotten rather comfortable with the idea of solitude. Lots of people just don't do it for me now, if they ever did that is."

"You don't have to do it, you know. You don't have to return to Tobaballe just because."

"It's my home, Vadei."

"Home is where ever you make it. You just want to go back because it is familiar and all you have been exposed to since I have first seen you is the unfamiliar."

"Or, instead of giving me a lesson in philosophy and psychology, you could just accept the fact I want to get back home?" I said back to her with a raised tone.

She shook her head and sighed, "Nin, do you seriously want to tell me your life would be better off in that city? From what you have described it is a place that grinds you to the bone doing nothing but work and you only actually get to enjoy life when your hair goes grey."

"Your point?"

She stood up, "You may have an osibindah's body, but you still have the soul of a human. That has allowed you to make friends who care about you, friends I hope I can consider myself a part of. Think about it, life may not be as easy as it once was with the aelenvari, but you have everything you need and friends to support you through it."

"Be quiet..." I bitterly muttered as she brought back old arguments I kept beating down in my head.

"No, quite frankly, I think you need the second opinion! You're throwing away and cutting yourself off from people who care about you just so you can die in a hole in a place that has never cared for you and will forever hate you!"

"I said... BE QUIET!" I started off irritated yet quietly at first before I went into a brief charge and yelled in fury. Vadei flinched away with wide eyes and nearly fell over. She said nothing else and quickly scurried off to captain's chair. An unsteady shiver went through her as I passed by and went outside.

And with a need to vent anger out, I enacted something that could help me deal with it. I slammed a fist straight down onto the airship railing and snapped it. One part still stayed on, but it was clear it was deformed permanently for the time being. And, despite just breaking it, I would put it somewhat back in place before walking once more.

"Who in the name of all the gods does she think she is? It is not her place to question my reasoning... Her place is to be thankful that I am even helping her at all!" I ranted out loud to myself as my claws twitched about. Yet, even as I flexed my angered form around, I did not lash out at anything nearby. Instead, I tried to calm myself down by going on a little walk around the airship.

Unfortunately, however, every room I went by seemed to make me increasingly bothered. Each room gave me a memory of something I had done in the rooms with the others. Be it just talking to them, sharing a snack or playing around with them. And in a few cases, I was helping them fix the airship or make something out of the bits they found.

Despite this just being an airship we stole so we could get back home... It already was loaded with small, happy memories calling out to me. Each one making the same argument as Vadei just did and I have done before... You are happy with these people, so why give it up?

Yet, for some reason, I could never quite make a good argument for why I was. I tried arguing it from a selfish standpoint, like how many back home would do it. But I had long since changed from that sort of life. My friends now were people willing to nearly die to save me, not just people I joked with and insulted.

I was actually happy with these people, not just mutually miserable. We might have not enjoyed doing all the same things. But, what we did share mattered. Einervaene wore clothes I helped her make and look after.

And, well, Larishazza was a woman who had just captivated me since the beginning. When I thought I was all alone and that seeing Undwote again was the best course of action. Her childish antics might have been unbearable at times, but she was so sweet. And I left her alone in the middle of a wasteland with no explanation...

Just like that, as if I were someone who moved to a higher floor at the expense of someone else. So I guess, in a way, despite all that has happened to me, I was still a Tobaballian. Someone more focused on what benefitted them. No regards to others being paid their due...

Perhaps I could just go back with Vadei once her people had been saved? Once mine were no longer in danger of undergoing what I nearly went through. But, again, everything I have done since even the camp where I met Vadei properly... It has all been in a single effort to get back home...

I couldn't just stop on a whim, not after I have already put so much effort into this journey. I nearly died, had died, nearly died several more times. All in the name of returning to my homeland. To the city I was born in, that birdcage shaped meatgrinder.

How could I just drop it all because it made me sad to leave some people behind? Surely me actually feeling comfortable was more important than just another friendship? Yet, was this really just another friendship? One saved my mind and the other saved my body from potential death.

One could not just say this was the same standard to which all friendships were measured... What I had with those two was special and meaningful. Yet, again, I once thought that about Rose and she abandoned me for another. When I needed support the most from her, she just up and left me to wither away.

Even Einervaene did the same when it got rough. So what's to say it won't happen again. What is to say I won't find myself on my own again? To be told so finely that I should have gone off to Tobaballe...

To have broken off the friendships myself and saved me the torment. To protect me from their imposed solitude by just making it myself... Now if only it was an actually quick affair. And not one that left me wandering an airship, bitter and disgruntled with it all.

"Give it time I suppose. I got over never seeing my old school friends. I... I should be able to do the same here." I said as I sat down on a chair in the cafeteria. A doodled on piece of paper soon entered my grips after a short while. Something Larishazza must have done at some point. Or, perhaps not, because it was an outfit outline.

So that must have meant it was one of Einervaene's drawings. And now, I became curious, because the drawing was one of me, so I headed off to another room. This picture was not me in my usual bandages and cloak, though. But, rather, in a rather normal-looking set of baggy robes.

At least, I assume it was robes, it was certainly something from Einervaene's homeland. It had that particular elegant simplicity to it. Where the means to make it were simple, but the way it was done was fine and precise. Each piece being a canvas for the artistic talents of the maker.

Yet, now that I was in the room Einervaene had been using for her clothes making. I found out that what was in my hand only existed on this paper. Just like the dozens upon dozens of other pieces of paper. Each one a design for me, her, Vadei or Larishazza.

There was even one for Heiya and Paps surprisingly enough. But there was also something else of note. Large scratches and tears across the wall and crude notes jotted down where ever there was room. Some were her letting out grief about what happened when I took off my bracelet, others were more innocent.

Just her complaining about how she had all these ideas but not the material to make it.

"I suppose it doesn't really matter if I keep any of this, does it?" I then asked myself as I took off my clothes. Leaving my mask on a desk while folding up my cloak and resting the hat on it. The bandages, however, I just sort of spread about in the corner.

And now, I was naked once more, just an osibindah with the eyes of a human once more. It would probably mean little to her, but I suppose this act of kindness should help. She could maybe make some of these ideas now that she had the material. Or, at least, little miniatures of the ideas.

But, if I was going to leave behind a kindness for Einervaene. Surely I should also try to make sure Larishazza had one too? It may have frustrated me that even with the bracelet she did not have feelings for me. But I still had feelings for her, she was very important to me and to just leave her out...

No, I would not do it... So now I just needed to figure out what she might like. What she might want. Yet, I knew the answer to that and it left me sad again.

She wouldn't want a parting gift. She would not want a little gesture from someone she would never see again. She would want her friend to be with her. To laugh and play with so she could enjoy life with them and all the other friends she had.

However, I could not give that to her. I could not give her, her friend back. Her friend wanted to go home and she wasn't coming... So, with this in mind, I sat down and tried to think.

But I could not think, there was just too much in my head. Too many regrets regarding her and the other one. I could not get myself to forget about them no matter how hard I tried. Like how the earth was always touched by water, like how lightning always struck down...

I could not properly detach myself from either of them. Two cases of where they had both saved my life. I would carry those thoughts in my head forevermore. And I despaired at what that would bring for me...

Restless nights caused by nightmares filled with their tears and anger. A distracted mind that just kept trying to tie myself back to them. A heart that would keep aching at how I rejected its right to love. That is what was coming for me right now if I stayed the course.

But, I could change my mind. I just had to go back to Vadei now or later and tell her I wanted to go back. Back to Suhurlodst so I could stay with my friends. My beloved and appreciated friends...

Ones I would spend months trying to repay the kindness they have given me. Ones I don't even think I could repay at all actually. I mean, how does one repay the right to life? How do I repay someone who rebuilt my will to go on?

Every joy I would experience from those points on were rooted in their actions! Just like how every moment of sadness and anger was too, even if they were not actually involved. It would always go back to me crying with a broken knife in hand in the dark. It would always go back to me lying there in fear with a burnt and melted body.

I owed them so much and they barely owed me anything when you got down to it. I have not saved their lives, I have kept them safe, sure. But not once have I ever saved their lives like they had mine... And now, once again, here I was, crying my eyes out as indecision took over.

"Nin, can you come back to the bridge, please?" I heard Vadei gently ask through the airship's speaker system. Initially, I did not want to listen to it and just ignore it. To stay in this growing pit of misery I was in. But, as I did not want to be on the floor moping, I got up shortly after.

I then slowly moved back through the airship until I reached the open decking. And, it would seem like Vadei was watching me as now the airship was turning around for some reason. Then, once I was done being confused by why we had suddenly turned around. I saw why we had turned around.

"Tobaballe..." I let out quietly as I saw the very, very distant sight of a city wedged between two ends of a mountain range. My home, I was finally within viewing distance of my home again, even if it seemed deceptive. I couldn't make out much given how far we were. But the crown of the city helped outline its tall towers for us.

The great clock that dangled in the centre, I forget its actual name, but it was helping me so much.

"Nin, again, bridge please." Vadei asked once again with more urgency this time around. And I didn't question it or ignore it this time. I just went straight for it and walked to the bridge. Perfectly aware of what we might have to speak about in this moment.

.

.

.

"Get off your grounded backsides and help me!" our superior called out as the measuring tools of our station went haywire. There had been fluctuations before, sure, but none like this. What made this one odd was how the data was so focused. Normally it was spread about but this one clearly highlighted something.

"Any bets as to what it is?" one of my colleagues asked while I focused on making sure nothing broke. Eternally long sheets of paper just flying out of the machine as I did so. Unfortunately, it was also an unavoidable circumstance that we would damage some of it. There was just so much coming out at once!

If I was on my own then I might have been laughing maniacally at it all. Pure joy and intellectual ecstasy keeping me going as everything fell apart. But, I was not on my own, much to my disappointment. I was stuck in a team that operated on a somewhat strict shift system.

"HEY! Ea'enk!" someone shouted at me. And with this sudden understanding that I was being spoken to. My body sharply turned around and my neck snapped towards the speaker. Paper piling up around me as I stood idly about.

"Get the Spire-Lords on the line, they're going to want to know about this!" someone instructed me as they covered the bottom end of a landline. Then, with a frustrated huff, I kicked the paper out of my way, tearing some of it. But, I was out the room before I could be complained at and I was soon dashing to the communications room. Why I was going there, though, was a mystery.

I wasn't some new inductee or apprentice on his first day! I was a veteran of this facility! Two years I had worked here and I was being asked to use the telephone... What a load of rubbish, a complete waste of my talents!

Yet, despite my complaints and annoyance, here I now was, in a busy room. One filled to the brim of panicking people going back and forth. Thankfully, however, the landlines to the Spire-Lords were in a sound-proofed room as to not disturb them. So I slipped the keys into my hand, and I opened it up.

"One day, oh one day." I sighed with relief as it became quiet the moment I closed the door. The glass panel shows off all the chaos of the next room... But letting in none of the noise! It was wonderful!

"Goldhand Comms Room Security Detail, state your purpose?" I received as an answer the moment I picked up the telephone.

"Magic Observation Station, Lord's Foresight, we have a worrying anomaly. Something is coming straight for us." I basically guessed as the glass gave me a good view of the presented data. It was very clearly outlining something like I saw earlier.

"This will be passed on, hold." I was then told before I heard a thud come through my telephone's speaker. Their phone had been put down, but it wasn't off as it were. As such, I got to listen in on all the talk on their side. Which was briefly entertaining before it got picked up again.

And the voice that came through certainly made me tighten up my posture, "Spire-Lord Iishar Ho, explain what you see."

It was her, the one who had her fingers in every single bit of our magic research and industry. One might have thought she founded all of this, but no, she just took it all over. With surprising zeal, one might add. But, my thoughts had no room for these thoughts, they needed data!

"A flying object operating at a height well beyond what our aircraft are capable of, measuring several dozen meters in either width or length is fastly approaching us. There was also a very brief period of it having a much greater signature on its right side." I explained to her only to be met with silence and a thudding phone.

"Drop a few floors down." I then cursed her with as I put the beeping telephone down. Mumbling to myself as I left the room and went back to my department. Groaning some more when I got back as all the data had been neatly piled up and tidied. Not one single roll of it left for me to peruse before we presented it...

"Well?" my superior asked me as he charged down the stairs. His body nearly flying off of them and into me in the process. And as I leaned away from his face, I sneered slightly.

"I informed the goldhands, Spire-Lord Iishar Ho was then informed as well." I told him to which he started nodding over and over again.

"Right, so that means she is now likely on her way. Possibly with the others who are more military minded." he said as he tapped his knuckles into one of his palms. A clear nervousness was displayed before he then sped back up the stairs. And, with a roll of my eyes, I went up and followed him. Because despite my recent task of absurd unimportance, I was one of the higher-ranked people here.

And it still made me excited to think about that! From grounder to a high-ranked scientist in a top-secret facility at the edge of the Civil Mountains in just a few decades! Truly a worthwhile position to have reached! So long as I avoid my higher-floor superiors who love to rub it in how lesser I was...

"So what is the theory you lot have?" I then asked just to see what they came up with. I did after all offer only my own assumptions to the Spire-Lord. I wasn't handed an official consensus and likely because of the urgency. But I wish I did get one, now if this proves to be a flook it is my head on the patio!

"An aircraft from beyond the Anvil-Peak." he informed me before he threw a paper plane at a bin.

"What kind?"

"As in purpose such as military or civilian or type as in helicopter or plane?"

"Either or, really." I clarified before sitting down in front of his balls. Picking one up so I could roll it about my palms while he leaned back in his chair.

"If prior handlings by the Spire-Lord Iishar Ho are anything to go by. Civilian and possibly a freighter of some kind? It's hard to tell as we only get rumours of the stuff these people have beyond the mountain."

I scoffed, "Beyond the mountain."

"What?"

"That mountain happens to be one of the greatest discoveries we have ever made and you refer to it as just some mountain? It's the Anvil-Peak! As in; the mountain Thurnmourer used to build the world!" I exclaim while flicking my jagged fingers about.

"Still a mountain..." he mumbled before he stared at the red landline on his desk.

"I doubt she will give you a heads up, she never does." I tell him as he was likely worrying about her arrival. Every visit from her was always so petty yet stressful. She might not come for anything at all but she still gave us a strict rundown on workplace ethics. Which, was a bit rich coming from someone whose average dinner was a grand feast on gold furniture.

Served on gold cutlery made from the gold around the Anvil-Peak...

"I'm more worried about the little pet project she has linked us to."

"Project Gladiator?" I said without missing a beat. I mean, it was pretty obvious it was that. She comes back one day, not with a new test subject to put in the outer farmlands. But rather, she comes back with a menagerie of different species to test the combat capabilities of. And despite being an observation facility for measuring the Anvil-Peak...

We were now being used as a backup facility for the main Project Gladiator facility...

"Believe it or not, no, not Project Gladiator. Project Fire Trail."

"Ah, that little sub-division of Gladiator." I said while nodding my head as I remembered that time she came in pissed. I remember it more so because of that admittedly. Rather than the more concerning fact that our power supply was converted into a potential natural disaster! She had us hook up a draconic being so it can be used as an electricity source!

Sure, the edge of the Civil Mountains was the best place to test it! But nearly all of our budget now went towards that damn thing! It burned through our power cables absurdly quickly. So quick that research and development can't even give us decent prototypes in time!

"And now that we have this being picked up, we're likely to be dumped with even more work." my superior moaned as he collapsed down into a sighing wreck.

"If you just put your foot down and admitted that we would need new facilities, this wouldn't be a problem."

"Do you perhaps want my job then? You can look her straight in the eye and tell her no! You can look that magic addict in the face and tell her she needs to be patient!"

"Oh, if you're offering. I would love to delegate all the menial tasks away from myself." I said with a smirk as I imagined the change in work. So much time for research and observation, no little tasks like coffee fetching.

"Of course you would." he said to me with a groan before he looked at a clipboard. One that he soon slid over to me once I put his ball down. And going by how he then picked it up himself, he might as well just taken it from my hand...

"Why'd you hand me something from Project Gladiator?"

"So I can get at least some sympathy."

"Why would you need sympathy? All it is, is that we're running out of test subjects." I said with a shrug.

"Yes, but with so few deals taking place now. She doesn't like to be reminded that her little weapons project is not doing so well."

"You say that but she keeps bringing it up as if it will suddenly get better."

"That's the point!" he exclaimed in frustration.