The dragons swirled around the upper steps as though the climbers smelled utterly delicious. A few of the climbers ahead of Jade and Harmony fell, as though the swirl of air created by the dragons' passage pulled them off course, despite the fact that no wing or tail actually brushed them.
"Are they creating this wind, or riding it?" Harmony asked as Skyheart Snowsong's hair rose picturesquely into the air as though she were falling downward instead of standing firmly upon a step that could have held up a castle.
Jade tightened the laces that held Hisui's pouches in place and replied, "Both? They sort of phase in and out of existence to fly, rather than directly carrying all of their mass on such relatively short wings. It pushes and pulls at the air, and the disruption sort of creates streams, or perhaps currents that they use to help carry them."
She shot another line upward, and warned him, "I'm almost out of thread. We should have saved some."
He watched the enormous beings that couldn't actually exist in the world outside of this virtual space, and grinned. "You're just aiming at the wrong target."
She scoffed, as her own eyes followed his gaze, "Even I have heard tales about the climbers who tried to shoot a dragon!"
"Let's just catch a ride," he replied laughingly as he pulled a different kind of projectile out of a bag of holding.
Skyheart caught the unwieldy arrow-like object, and to his surprise made no objection as she laid it against her string. Hisui held the trailing string and reached out to wrap an arm up around her waist, as though flinging it over the shoulder of another dwarf.
"Remember this moment," she murmured as she raised her bow again.
"I'll never forget," he swore as the sail launched toward the swirling dragons, and yanked both of them free of the Emperor's 'staircase'.
--
Even the dragons couldn't carry them higher, though even larger and less distinct shapes still moved overhead. The sky had darkened, not because night was falling, but because they had risen so high. The air was thin, and yet the game didn't leave them gasping for breath or let their blood bubble the way reality might.
Jade guided the kite as they lost a bit of the height they had gained, to land on a step once more. They had left many of the climbers far below, and finally taken the lead. Neither of them stopped moving, or wasted time gazing down upon their competitors. Their gazes were fixed on the palace that now showed clearly, little more than a kilometer away.
A few minutes later, Hisui's boots bounced his short sturdy figure upward one last time, and he smiled in satisfaction as he landed on a surface far softer than the steps that had carried them upward this far.
This small island was only different from the steps in that it would stay solidly in existence after the stairway vanished. The gates that stood at the top of the stairs three small islands onward were still firmly shut. Visiting hours for the Emperor's residence were strictly limited.
A bird whisked itself over the edge and heaved the burden in its beak into a somewhat hidden nest among the branches of a surprisingly solid looking decorative tree. The branches were scarred, but sturdy.
"Others have anchored themselves there," Harmony murmured, with her gaze fastened on the same small nest perched on the scarred branches.
Jade nodded.
They moved onward.
--
They finally reached the stairs where the first step warned, "Leave your burdens behind you."
There was no question of the meaning. Anyone who played 'Living Jade Empire' knew that this was where a character needed to discard every enchanted or important item they carried behind. Jade hadn't come unprepared either. He untied a pouch he hadn't touched throughout the entire climb, and opened it wide, and then wider. It flattened as it expanded, and then, when the edge snapped into place, it hummed.
Skyheart's eyes widened incredulously. "You actually brought a portable gate?" Harmony's voice asked even more breathlessly than her character's face evidenced.
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"Everything will be dropped beside my forges, back in the desert," Jade assured her. He grimaced. "Everything but this."
"You could leave that down here… Or even throw it over the edge on that sail you used to ride the dragon's waves," Harmony pointed out after a moment.
Jade laughed, and began stripping off his gear and tossing it through the temporary portal. He could even see things land on the floor on the other side. "Finite power," he explained. "It was always a single shot item. Hurry, it'll only last for about five minutes. Once it burns through the gem stones, it will be nothing but a circle of ash."
Skyheart threw her bow through first, to his surprise. "I trust your judgement," she replied to his glance.
By the time they finished, both characters stood before the bottom step in what amounted to their underwear, though both appeared to still be fully dressed in fairly plain clothing. The first of the other climbers landed in the plaza at the base of the stone steps with a thump, and charged forward.
Hisui took one step back, and didn't bother to protest as the man charged up the steps ahead of them. By the time the stranger hit the step that said, 'nothing lasts forever except time itself,' he was completely naked.
Skyheart arched her elven eyebrow, but didn't immediately comment. The dwarf beside her began to laugh as a circle of dust that had cost more than the sand skimmer far below began to blow away at his feet.
"Magic underwear?" Harmony suggested speculatively as she took the first step.
"Or none," Jade agreed as he climbed.
Their own simple underclothing stayed in place until they reached the gate in time for it to swing open. The stranger gazed forward resolutely, and avoided meeting their eyes.
"There are at least a thousand guides written up for meeting the Jade Emperor," Jade pointed out curiously.
"I have left everything behind me, I won't fail!" the man finally exclaimed, though he kept his eyes fixed upon the empty chairs upon the raised platform at the other end of the room.
Skyheart took a step backward as the next person entered the room. Jade followed Harmony's lead after a glance at the exhausted girl's face. Her eyes were desperate, almost as though her own survival depended upon the Emperor's answer, rather than trying to fulfill some greedy wish for her character.
Harmony frowned at him and asked bluntly, "Shouldn't you move to the front?" Jade blinked. She waved a hand at the two who now stood ahead of them, and pointed out, "At least once he has only answered the first three."
"What about you then?" he asked.
She stared at him for a moment, and then chuckled. "I'm not here to ask for anything."
The next person into the hall pushed forward and declared, "Step aside then! I must have it! I will have it! She won't take me back if I fail again!"
Jade frowned. "Maybe that would be better for him," he murmured without pushing forward.
Harmony arched Skyheart's elven brow at the small grumpy looking figure at her side.
"A lover who demands this kind of task? It's more than half luck making it up here at all," Jade pointed out.
"We don't know anything about it," she replied mildly.
Jade turned toward her again and objected, "My mother says that you should just find the person that you don't want to live without."
"Maybe he's found her," she suggested.
"I don't think so," he argued more stubbornly than either of them had expected. Her brows shot upward again. "Lasting loves forgive things."
Harmony gazed at the rather desperate expressions on two of the three who stood ahead of them. After a moment she shook her head. "Romantic love isn't exactly like the love of family and friends that we spoke of at the bottom of this climb. And as I said, we don't know anything about it. Maybe he's done something horrible and if he completes this task successfully she'll forgive him once more?"
"That kind of love isn't love?" he objected doubtfully.
"It is, but it isn't, and usually it's more," she explained confusingly. "Romance includes everything that is in love, but adds a physical component entangled with complex emotional ties."
"But if it's just someone you don't want to live without…" his protest trailed off. He was here to ask for Appella's contact information himself, but she had never even asked him to do anything like this. Perhaps he had misjudged a relationship over a few words.
A handful of people rushed through the doors, and Jade instinctively stepped aside.
As though she could hear the doubts that trailed through his mind, she said softly, "Just remember that if you have to, you can live without them even if you don't want to."
Neither of them paid attention to the filling room, or the way they were being pushed farther back. Looking at her expression made him feel sad. It hurt him to see that faded sorrow on her normally cheerful face.
Jade suddenly felt certain that this was another of those thousands of human emotions that defined humanity.
A man stepped forward and took the waiting seat that stood above them. A very large cat seated herself beside him. Jade turned to look, and the faint chime of a quest completed rang softly through his head.
The crowd that separated them seemed almost translucent as Jade gazed at a very, very familiar face. Hisui's eyes widened. His rugged dwarven face didn't resemble the Emperor's all that much, but how had he never realized…