The voice told Raywick to jump.

He knew the voice wasn’t an internal thought. He had those all the time and they never said jump off this cliff Raywick, sure it will almost certainly kill you, but hey you might die anyway.

As a matter of advice, it seemed that any Wiseman or head-shrinker would recommend ignoring a voice in your head at times like these. But isn’t advice just a set of unreliable instructions on how someone else lives their life? No, the time for advice was probably before he had stolen the most valuable thing possible from people that break kneecaps for not meeting quotas.

You need to jump. There is no other way, the voice said.

“You could really learn a thing or two about subtlety. If you ever do grow up to be a full-blown aneurysm, I hope by then you’re a quiet one,” Raywick said to no one.

I told you I am not a blood clot.

“Well, whatever you are I can’t trust a voice telling me to throw myself off a cliff. It’s just the principle of the thing.”

Jump now you fool!

Raywick had to admit, that making decisions was not something he excelled at. If there was a ledger somewhere in the realms, his would undoubtedly be filled with red. He slid one boot towards the edge sending a brave rock on the long fall down into the canyon. He did not hear it hit the bottom. At least he would not have to worry about the consequences if this went poorly.

The compliance office was a militant force that protected the interests of the Solar Trading Company. They did this mostly by beating or killing the citizens of Solaris. One might say they weren’t very popular with the locals. Well, one could say it, but then one would end up with a broken kneecap.

He heard a whip crack as a bullet just missed him followed by rifle shots echoing off the walls of the canyon. So, no beatings today then.

In three great strides, Raywick leaped from the edge and into the sky. The proudest three steps he’d ever taken, almost as if he thought of the whole idea himself. If this was his end, he would be going out with a view.

The sun had turned a golden red and was just beginning to dip below the horizon. Raywick could see to Aeos from this height, the city lights coming alive from charged solar arrays. Beyond the tall buildings and refineries, the faint blue dome of the boundary stretched on keeping the people of Solaris safely trapped inside.

The city quickly disappeared behind a canyon wall rising like a giant wave before him. And then there were rocks. Sharp, jagged stones that only got that way from being broken and they were coming fast. With both hands, he reached behind his head and pulled the twin rip chords on his pack. Three metal rods, two long and one short in the middle unfolded to form a V shape with scraps of canvas in between.

If the goal was to stop falling down, it had been accomplished magnificently. Now he was falling sideways as the glider caught the wind and threw him towards the dying light of the horizon. Raywick had not designed the emergency glider with any controls, and that turned out to be a mistake. Another mark of red on the ledger then.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Direction, course, and destination all became pointless endeavors as he tumbled down into the canyon. He managed to miss the rocks, but the canyon floor wasn’t soft either. He rolled with the crash in a cloud of dust and broken pieces of the poorly designed glider. No shame in falling, his father used to say, long as you die or get back up. Pain echoed through his entire body. Not dead then.

That was extremely reckless Raywick. You need to do better, the voice said.

“Oh, I’m fine thanks for asking. Glad you made it through okay though. Figured a fall like that might have knocked something loose and sent you on the final trip to headquarters.”

I AM NOT A BLOOD CLOT!

“Then what are you then a schizophrenic manifestation? Normal people don’t talk to voices in their head,” Raywick snapped back.

I’m... I’m here to help.

“Yep. Totally helpful.”

You’re being obtuse. You need to find the Skyblade before the enemy finds you, the voice said.

The Skyblade was an old dual-engine flyer designed for racing on the circuit, back when there was a circuit anyway. The flyer looked like a large dagger with an oversized hilt. The aerodynamic design easily cut through winds, and the short wings were built to rotate independently for breaking or steering at high speed. The only downside of the craft was that it couldn’t reach high altitude, which is why it was called a flyer and not a ship. The company had all the ships and only they could truly reach the sky.

A great war destroyed the planet and the company rose from the ashes, or so the story goes. The Solar Trading Company was all the people of Solaris had known for a dozen generations. Fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters did nothing but work for the company in exchange for the right to live as slaves under the protection of the boundary. Slaves or fugitives that is. Raywick preferred the term independent vagrant.

His knee cracked as he took one of many steps towards where he hoped the Skyblade was grounded. He thought he heard a distant thud from above, and as he turned to look over his shoulder the world exploded. He opened his eyes and immediately felt the debris clouding his vision. He could hear the dirt grinding between his teeth as he clenched his jaw and picked himself up from the ground for the second time. All in all, it was shaping up to be a very bad day.

The company has come to take back what you have stolen, the voice said.

“Well, they’re going to have a tough time finding it in the mess if they blow me up.”

Raywick ran like he never had before, vision hazy with dust, face bleeding, and bad knee cracking all the way. The Skyblade was tucked away in a small cavern just out of sight. He tried to pull a fast move and jump right into the pilot seat, but his knee didn’t participate, and he ended up just spilling over the side painfully. There was a sharp hiss as the twin compressors fired up and sucked in air. After three failed sparks the engines finally ignited the now pressurized and volatile atmosphere. Raywick pushed the throttle all the way forward and shot out of the cavern like a missile drifting up until the red of the horizon met his eye.

He pulled a small box from his tattered vest with canyon and company far behind him. The box flipped open with a click, and he dumped a spoonful of blue glowing stones in his palm. He had never seen so much Lumerite. As far as he knew, the only use for the precious stones was powering the boundary, but the company also took it off the planet by the shipload. They were becoming more and more obsessive about Lumerite like a kid afraid to get caught stealing all the candy from the jar.

Are the rocks going to help you escape your prison? The voice said.

“The boundary is powered by Lumerite. If I can’t find a way to use it to escape directly, I can trade it to someone with a different way out,” Raywick said.

You must escape. I can’t help you here.

Raywick knew he was dying. The voice wanted him to leave the boundary for some reason, but he didn’t care. He was going to leave so that the people he cared about wouldn’t have to see him slowly lose himself. He was going to leave so that when death did come for him, it would be on his own terms as a free man. One last return to Heathen’s Rest and then he would set out on the final journey of his life.

Raywick pointed the Skyblade towards the only place that ever loved him. After all these years, he still couldn’t bring himself to say the word. Words like that were the kind that could be taken from you with a whisper.