Reaching the familiar home street of my cakesmithy, a smile comes to my face and I look up at the evening sky. Watching an airship fly overhead, I sigh in relief and my body shakes in the freedom surrounding me. The sensation on my skin changed a short while ago, but, I can't help but still enjoy it. Like a satisfying pop, I left the claustrophobic nature of the under-city's high internal-magic emanation and now I'm walking without a second thought.
The air's so much nicer up here and atypically for me, I'm glad it doesn't have that subtle metallic scent to it. It's all just good old fresh air, uncontrolled and wild at a moment's notice. Taking a handful of my hair, I stop it from flying over my shoulder and simply watch the traffic in the sky. One airship catches my eye, a small thing with the trappings of someone with plenty of money to spare, a family flag trailing behind it like a cape.
My smile starts to vanish alongside it, nothing's gotten in the way, the small machine's just gone away. Sighing a little, I look down my front and Nin comes back to my mind. Wherever it is he's gone to, though I am familiar with the great distance, the name of the place has slipped my mind. Wherever he is, I know he left the city much like that, a small machine with the spirit to defy gravity.
"Even though he's travelling with her, I can be happy about the fact he's got no interest in women like her...!" I try to joke, but, even with how easy Father Vierini seemed to take to such humour, it doesn't feel right for me. Or, perhaps I just made the wrong kind of joke. Nin has no interest in this Inerish figure, whatever she has, I have more of, I am physically greater in all aspects. Only, where it actually matters, neither of us comes close to the woman he's clinging to even after she's been months dead.
With a quick sigh, I get back to heading on home and I quickly decide here and now that I'll just tuck in for the night. No point in trying to get a little bit of business going to occupy my evening with and I've been to enough places for one day. I'm just going to go in through the back door and maybe put on some music and make dinner. I know I have a few things left outback that I can handle across the week Nin's gone.
My trolley rattles and bounces along the stuff littering the floor and I drop the handle without a care. Metal bangs on metal and rattles still, drowning out the noises of my initial lock handling. Straightening my back out, I keep going until a vibrating pop sounds off in my ears, a feeling of soothing relaxation taking some of the stress away. My eyes focus on the key I have tuned to my magical lock, a gift from my god, Iderim-Ovi.
Surely there is more to my life than just this business I have made for myself in a city full of humans? I know it's not just them, talking with Father Vierini made that clear enough. He's seen oxfuinei come and go, kelbalids find their place in the few plains around the country, hwardgon, winssargu and to his delight, humans from other lands. Nothing like me, though, I am still the only ddrai'och he or any of the children have seen.
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But, it's things like that, that make me want to believe that surely there is something greater for me out in this world. From what few of my people I have seen, I know that we are a struggling, lost lot. Scavenging what we can while avoiding even the quietest snapped twig and scurrying off back into the sky where we cannot be tracked. And, for all the prayers I gave when I was younger, it was only when I first confided in my saviour, Nin, that they were answered.
He gave me this amulet, rich with divine power so strange and grand that I was offered a king's sum just to lend it away. Not sold, that part has stuck with me so clearly, the people of Suhurlodst only wanted it for a short time. I still get letters and requests from them about it, offers to come back to school so I can be paid to idly cast this amulet's magic. But, I don't want to do that, I want to do something more meaningful with its power.
While I dream of being able to find my people again, to perhaps help them move past what even the humans have forgotten... It's baffling, really, how has humanity forgotten about the war between our peoples? The details may have never even properly registered within my mind, and yet, I can recall the faces of all the adults. The cheers and glory espoused without end for a fair while.
We were winning that war, so utterly we must've been winning it, and then, it all changed.
I blink and catch sight of a lonely cloud splitting off from the rest of what must be the shard of something greater. When clouds gather, they fight and compete, all that harmless, fluffy-looking moisture somehow prays to the human God of War. From that bloodless carnage comes utter terror for my people. I never saw the war my older brother fought, but I know what he and everyone else are terrified of.
It's a fear they passed onto me and when it rained last night, I was terrified I'd hear the crack of its noise. The flash of its light and the shadows created from such sudden and swift power. Our favourite food, gold, is so easily corrupted by what must be so unassuming to the people of this city. None of them understand what it truly is.
Thunder.
"Though I have not seen you in years, I feel as if this power is better served with you, brother." I comment, crying a little at how I can't even remember his name. All I remember is that he led our people to great victory after greater still triumph. Then came the day when I was at the computer, enjoying a bowl of meaty circles and cubes and he begged me to get our parents. From there, we had to go to that hidden place, into the cold sleep.
My hand tightens on the unlocked door and I sniffle, shaking my body a little and finally stepping inside. Closing it behind me, I flick on the light and look around at what I have made for myself. The airship I spent so long working to keep afloat is more than this place could ever be. But, I would rather never step foot on it again if it means losing all of this, it's so strange.
I let out a mixture of a groan and a sigh, tucking away my thoughts while I cross my arms, "Now, where did I put my record player? I need some chirpy, good-feeling tunes."