Sitting on top of what looked like sheer cliffs that flattened into a massive mesa, Fortress Aer was larger than anything Ressen had ever seen before.

Towering above the rolling hills and flat grasslands surrounding it, both ends of the city went on forever, stretching for miles into the horizon. From such a low angle, you could see a giant castle-like structure in the middle of the city peeking over the glistening outer walls.

The convoy of wagons rolled towards a massive wooden platform embedded into the ground at the base of the fortress cliff, and stopped. Studying the platform further, one would notice tightly wound ropes leading to a wooden beam suspended over the cliff edge 100 meters above, where Ressen assumed the road continued.

The sun had already risen to its peak by the time Ressen exited the wagon, Pii following earnestly, claws dug into his head as it looked around, gathering in the sights. “Now would be a great time to run for it…”

“Pii?” The dragon looked down as if criticizing him with a ‘And then what?’ sort of look.

Before he could respond, he walked face first into a wall of flesh. “Oi, ye know you can leave anytime you want.”

“Oh? What’s with the sudden change in attitude Brutus?” This guy hated him for no apparent reason. “Is this supposed to be an apology?”

“You don’ have to be Psia’s pet y’know.”

“Whats in it for you? You act like shes your daughter or something.”

“The Lady? N-never!”

Oh? Brutus caught off guard? This is a change of pace. “Whats with the sudden change in attitude?”

He took a breath. “This is for your own safety. For the lady, and for you, it will not be safe for you within these walls.”

The nerve of this guy. “You take me two weeks away from home – and then tell me to scram?” Ressen reached for his blade. “What kind of scam are you pulling?”

“Pii…” crouching into an attack position, Pii also looked ready to fight.

Brutus took a step backward, “I’m not here to fight. It was a warning. That’s all.” He looked up at Pii sitting on Ressen’s shoulder “And right now, I highly suggest you hide your dragon, as we’re entering the city soon.”

Forced to succumb to a reasonable suggestion. What a way to end this conversation. “Alright Pii, head back into the wagon.”

“Pii?” it looked down at him expectedly.

“Yeah, sorry. He is a bit of a meanie.” Brutus flinched at his response, causing Ressen to smile before Pii flew off.

“Enough now? Or do you want to tell me I’m not allowed near Psia or something – because I would enjoy that kind of orde-”

They were sharply interrupted by a recognizable voice “Hey! Brutus! Where in Aer are you?” heads turned as a young girl with silver hair dashed around the rear of a wagon. She wasn’t pleased.

Brutus stood to attention. “Madam! I apologize for having rushed you.”

Psia came to a stop and stared Brutus in the eyes. “The Kannone-” she began yelling before noticing Ressen. “Oh! R-ressen! Was Ressen discussing something important with Brutus over here?”

Oh. Her. “That was a long ‘bit’ you took there.”

“I-I… well, there’s been some important things going on… if Ressen can wait I can explain-” Psia looked at Brutus as if for confirmation.

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“Madam, I don’t believe it’s in our best interests to discuss these kinds of things with an outsider.”

“Agh, why’d I ask you anyways.” She looked back at Ressen. “Well, if Ressen can see, we only just realized how close the Kannone were to one of the fortresses entrances… we were lucky to be the first ones to encounter them.”

Brutus frowned in disapproval when Ressen began a response.

“Kannone?”

“Ressen doesn’t know of them either? The masks normally give them awa-” She balled her hands into fists and ground her teeth. “Ah, forget it – they’re a bunch of idiots.”

“That doesn’t expla-”

“Anyways, Brutus – let’s go. Call the lift.” Completely ignoring Ressen, she walked away Brutus following close behind.

Click. A guard nearby motioned to him by clicking his tongue. “Hey, you there – unless you want a shoulder like mine I’d suggest you take a step forward.” He paused and whispered under his breath. “Fast.”

Confused, Ressen took a step forward. A piece of rope that previously hung loosely, snapped rigid, only a few inches away from Ressen’s shoulder. “T-thanks!” he looked at the guard in front of him, who grabbed a piece of wooden railing on the edge of the wooden platform.

“Don’t thank me yet.” He grinned.

“What?” is what he wanted to say, but was interrupted by the sound of crushed glass and the explosive force of the wooden platform they were standing on flying upwards, sending Ressen landing face first into the platform.

“Going up!” Psia’s voice could be heard above the whistling wind, as the platform scaled the entire cliffside in three seconds.

As the wooden platform came to a stop, Ressen slowly stood back up, shouting at the guard that warned him before. “Is this normal!?”

“Well, not all the time. We’re just in a rush.” The guard still held his railing tightly.

“Why are you?” He had the time to yell before he felt what little he had eaten rise to the top of his stomach as the entire platform began falling again.

“Hold on Tight-t-t-!” he shouted as the entire platform began falling once more. “They didn’t enable the safeties fast enough!”

Ressen, dangerously close to the edge of the platform already, watched as the ground rushed up toward them, and wondered if this was already the end. The platform came to a sudden stop, and the world went black once more.

♦

Ressen woke up lying on something soft and warm.

“Oh good, you’re awake.” a manly voice said – just above his line of sight. He was lying on the lap of a- wait. This isn’t right.

“Whata-wah?” Ressen shot up and spun around to see the face of the guard with a smile plastered on his face. He really had to stop getting knocked out.

“You were out for only a few seconds.” he began, before explaining the situation.

Apparently, the system was supposed to use pulleys to draw the platform up – but this system took hours. Psia had used an orb to blast the platform up and bet on the elasticity of the rope to keep the platform suspended.

Looking around at the wagons, one could see that every single one had deep rips in them, most likely caused by the slackened ropes whipping around at high speeds. The ground where Ressen had been standing before was clearly blackened with burns.

“T-thank y-you.”

“Ressen! Where is my Ressen!” Psia’s shrill voice could be heard around the platform.

“Don’t think too much about it.” He winked, and walked off as Psia rushed towards him.

“I’m so sorry! I never tried that before, and, and, is Ressen alright?” she ran to hug him.

“Wait – you never tried that before?” He sidestepped, causing Psia to almost run off the edge of the platform causing her to fall back onto her rear. “You almost killed me!”

“Ressen shouldn’t worry that much! Hey, wasn’t that the guard Brutus hit with his axe when he threw it at you?” she mentioned at the guard meeting with a group of others before entering a small shack near the edge of the cliff.

“Oh – he helped me…” he grimaced and promised to wipe his memory.

“Oh? That’s unusual. I don’t pay them for that…” she stared up at Ressen’s obvious flinch. “Oh well. Anyways, Ressen get back onto the cart! We’ve got a long way to go! I can’t wait for you to see Aer!”

“Wait – I haven’t see Aer yet?”

“Look up dummy!” she pouted.

“Huh?” before him stood a vast open plain, and far in the distance stood an immense wall. From far below on the road here, the wall peeking over the edge of the cliff had seemed far closer to the edge of the rim – and this size difference completely outclassed his previous expectations, showing the true immensity of this plateau.

“Ressen gets the same reaction as everyone else! I’m glad you like it!”

Ressen noticed his jaw hung open, and manually closed it.

“I didn’t expect it to be… this big.”

“Hurry up and get on so we can get there already! I’ll run Ressen through the basics of registration!” she was clearly excited being so close to home.

As Ressen followed her to the cart he came from, he passed by one of the carts and looked into a hole created by the wild ropes. Inside he saw the frames of a metallic structure, almost cage-like.

“Hurry up Ressen!” Psia looked behind her and then shouted to the front of the convoy. “Forwards to Aer!”