Thunderbolt Battalion, now accompanied by a very modest escort of eight Paragons and one dripping wet, bitter-looking Paragon, flew on with a great deal of chatter. Unlike what Aziz expected, however, these fellas were actually keen on conversation, and minutes after they resumed flight, Aziz had been dragged into a conversation that revolved around…novels.

Novels in the East, to be exact. For some reason, this motley bunch of Paragons had seen it fit to experience the East’s culture, and as a recipient of Marshal Marie’s goodwill, Aziz was equipped to discuss plot developments used by the authors of the East.

The subject material in question, however, had turned to something resembling disrespect for the great gods another five minutes in. The Lifespring’s Paragons were quarrelling about which great god the great goddess Thasvia should be paired with. Marie’s face, ever since the conversation went that way, was growing paler and paler by the second, and Aziz had a feeling that if someone administrating the Octantis Book of World Records were here to check on the world’s palest face…

Marie would probably retire from the military and enjoy the rest of her life in luxury. Reining in an urge to laugh and therefore giving the battalion commander a reason to punish him, Aziz turned his attention back to the group of Paragons, where Paragon Maylin was clearly serving as a moderator of the quarrel. She was diligently recording down parts of the debate, particularly reasons like why the Worldshaper was the best partner for the job, or the types of men that the Breath-Maker presumably was into and things like that.

“Do the servants of the great gods like things like this?” Aziz whispered to Marie, his eyes on her paper-pale face. “Why did you accept them into our group? I’m scared that the Breath-Maker’s going to do something to us while we’re flying!”

“Do I look like I had a choice?” Marie whispered back, grinding her teeth. “I didn’t know that there are idiots who actually pry into the private lives of the great gods!”

Paragon Abele sneezed at that moment. The armoured man looked around, rubbed his nose, and then redoubled his offensive on why the Stabiliser was actually the best man for the Goddess of Wind. Swayed by his persuasive arguments, Paragon Maylin’s right hand sped up, churning out word after word for posterity to record.

Record my ass! This is a journal of shame or something! Aziz retorted in his head. Fortunately, he’d taken his leave the moment the Paragons started talking about the great gods, but that didn’t stop him from being fearful about divine retribution.

The other members of Thunderbolt were able to hear the Paragons’ debate too, by the looks of it, and Aziz could visibly feel their respect for the so-called servants of the great god Conrah plunge like a rock. Fortunately, all of them had the sense to keep mum about it, and under Marie’s command, subtly distanced themselves from the arguing bunch, who had moved on to raunchier topics.

Aziz’s body shook slightly.

“Is it me, or is the wind getting stronger?” Aziz murmured. The standard practice for all fliers in Thunderbolt was to be able to maintain the Shell and Flight ability together while retaining the ability to adjust both of them independently. This protected them from things like windburns or little grains of sand flying at high speeds, but in return, the effect of a strong wind was more pronounced.

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Aziz’s body shook as another strong gust of wind slammed into him. Squinting his eyes, the colonel summoned up more mental strength to resist the turbulent winds, and he couldn’t help but glare at the Paragons, who were busy disrespecting the Goddess of Wind. He, like everyone else with a modicum of pattern recognition, had immediately attributed this gust of wind with the Breath-Maker’s displeasure.

“Let’s get them to speed up,” Marie replied, her eyes murky. She turned around and yelled, “Thunderbolt, shift to combat speed! We’re going to return in an hour!”

Her order got the attention of the Paragons, who immediately looked around in alarm once their heads were out of the clouds. They too, had finally noticed the wind — and yet, Aziz had the feeling that they should have been the first ones to notice.

“Paragon Maylin,” Marie asked, a vein throbbing on her head, “what on Orb is going on? Did your…debate do this?”

“It shouldn’t be able to do that, though?” the Paragon replied, confused. “We talk about this routinely, back in His Divine Kingdom, and nothing’s ever happened.”

“Did you not consider that it was precisely because you were in a Divine Kingdom that nothing ever happened to you?” Marie pressed on. “Now, I would like your assistance in increasing the flight speed of Thunderbolt, or else I’ll just shout that we have nothing to do with it to the air.”

“Are you…” The Paragon blinked once. “Are you threatening me?”

“No,” Marie replied. “Just making a very strongly-worded suggestion. After all, we are innocent bystanders in what looks like a brewing altercation between the Goddess of Wind and the late God of Water.”

Her last few words were somewhat louder, as though as she was speaking to an eavesdropper, and the wind began to drop.

“And,” Marie continued, clearly encouraged by the response the wind had, “I think it would be prudent for you guys to be a bit more worldly when it comes to talking about embarrassing topics, whether your subject is a great god or not. Maybe you’re a bit too used to this, but your privacy was only guaranteed in when you stayed in Conrah’s Divine Kingdom.”

“Mortal. You dare lect—” Paragon Abele began, but stopped as the winds howled around him. Aziz glanced at the glowing air around him in wonder, and then gave Marie a mental thumbs-up. As expected of Marie!

Paragon Maylin looked around at the unnatural wind and gulped. Her lips moved as she murmured something beneath her breath, and the glowing wind began to subside. Clearly, she had apologised or something, but this was quite the eye-opener for Aziz, who finally saw first-hand that divine retribution clearly wasn’t just something parents used to scare disobedient children.

“I’m going to make a mental note about this,” Marie muttered. “Colour me surprised. I didn’t think this was going to work.”

“At least we have something new to tell the State Council, eh?” Aziz replied.

“Yes. And better that than getting killed too,” Marie said. “Thasvia probably wants us to remind the people of Orb that she has ears everywhere. A small price to pay for our lives, if you ask me.”

“That just leaves more doubts, doesn’t it?”

“Well, other than Paragons and guarded places, I don’t think the great gods are going to eavesdrop on normal people like us,” said Marie. “So, feel free to continue with whatever you do in your private time, with the knowledge that the great gods probably won’t be watching.”

Aziz opened his mouth, thought for a moment, and decided not to speak after all.