The next day, Dev signed up for the island inheritances. It had been a fairly uneventful morning at home, with his parents seemingly resolute on sticking to their agreement. The only real oddity was when they kept trying to give him advice, and when Kaley actually gave him a hug as he left.
“Excellent,” Mr. Serenata remarked, “I was hoping you would go, there won’t be many people with axioms there. It might give you some unique opportunities.”
Dev had brought nothing but a carry-on with him. He figured that if they were going into the wild, he wouldn’t be needing much in the way of his regular amenities.
Looking around, he only saw two other people in the room who were ready to go.
“Is this everyone?” he asked, surprised.
“Might not be, there's still a few minutes left.” Mr Serenata answered. “But I doubt there will be more than one or two more. Going on a three-month wilderness excursion isn’t for everyone.”
They waited around for another twenty minutes, but nobody else showed up.
“Okay!” Mr. Serenata said. “If everyone would follow me, we’ll be taking a short drive to the private airfield just outside town, from where we’ll be starting the first leg of our journey.”
They made their way out of the school, to a van branded with the empire’s horrendous logo.
They all piled in, throwing their bags in the back.
On the way to the airfield, Mr. Serenata played some music in the van. Something about that irritated Dev, but he didn’t say anything, as it would only be a fifteen-minute ride. The roads were still wet from the storm the previous night.
Towards the end, he turned off the music, and asked them, “Has anyone here flown before?”
They all indicated no.
“Well, it should be a nice and easy flight. We’re going to first be going to the world capital, then from there, we’ll be flying to the staging area near the equator, which is also where the training course will be held. Luckily, last night’s storm looks to have cleared up, so there shouldn’t be much turbulence.”
“How long will we be in the air?” one of the others asked.
“Only about two hours.”
“Sounds good,” Dev said.
They arrived at the airfield and swiftly unloaded. They made their way directly to the plane, not needing to go through security since it was a privately owned airfield.
As they did so, Dev also saw another group arriving from the town’s other high school.
“Are only high school students going?” he asked.
“What?” Mr. Serenata said, looking confused, “Oh, yeah, pretty much. There isn’t an upper age limit, but the older you are, the harder it becomes to benefit from the Ascension. Most people older than high school age with an interest in cultivation has already begun their journey, so they couldn’t benefit to nearly the same degree. We’re also not taking anyone below the age of fifteen. It’s tough luck for them, but what can we do?”
Dev shrugged, that made sense to him.
They all loaded onto the plane, which was somewhat spacious but not luxurious. There were only seats for up to twelve people on the plane. Altogether, only seven people were going with them, though.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“If everyone would take your seats, we will be departing shortly.” Dev heard the pilot say over the intercom.
He st down in and buckled his seat, and a couple minutes later, the plane started moving. He watched through the window as they taxied over to the runway, then began picking up speed. The plane began to tilt back, and the pilot announced over the intercom, “We have achieved lift-off. Now moving up to cruising altitude.”
Once the plane leveled out, Dev unbuckled and started moving around the interior. After stretching his legs a bit and getting used to the feeling of flying, he sat back down. He noticed that the others seemed a lot less adventurous.
After a few minutes of steady flying, he glanced out the window and happened upon a marvelous sight. “Woah! What is that!?”
The others were at his side in a wobbly flash, and they were just as astounded. In the air to the east, a shadow was forming in front of the sun, creating a magical eclipse.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said the imperial official from the other group, who was a portly man who had introduced himself as Mr. Palta. “It must be a side effect of the increased magic…”
“I’ll say…” Mr. Serenata said in a similar hushed tone.
They all watched the gathering of shadows in awe for fifteen minutes before they suddenly dispersed, revealing the sun again.
They were all left with a sense of loss. Even for the imperial officials, it was rare that they got to see such a large-scale gathering of natural magic.
Nobody spoke until the pilot announced that they were beginning their descent.
They made the landing with nary a bump, and then they were in the largest city on the planet.
“Everyone needs to follow us,” Mr. Palta said. “Our connecting flight is in only an hour, and it’s a big airport.”
They were able to cross the airport rather quickly, owing in large part to the moving walkways and everyone having packed light.
When they got to their boarding area, they found it packed with teenagers from across the globe. The nearest several terminals were seemingly meant for getting participants to the staging area.
They got on their flight rather easily, swiftly making their ways too their seats in the 300-something-person plane. There were definitely meant to be substantially more security measures involved, but it seemed that the empire had bypassed them for expediency. As long as a group was escorted by an Empire official, the airport personnel had no issues letting them through.
Dev was slightly disappointed that he didn’t get to see the capital, but comforted himself with the thought that he'd probably have the time to see it on his return journey without the empire streamlining everything.
“How long will this flight be?” Dev asked.
“Seven hours. Nothing too bad, but it will be almost nightfall by the time we arrive. They’re two hours behind where we started.”
Around fifteen minutes after they got on, the plane took off down the runway and they got in the air. Right as they reached cruising altitude, Dev looked out the window to see a great wall of storm clouds up ahead.
“Are we going to be going through the storm?”
“If we're lucky, we’ll be able to skirt our way along the edge of the storm,” Mr. Palta said. “But even if we do need to go through the storm, the aircraft should be perfectly fine even going through a hurricane,”
That didn’t make Dev feel better, precisely, but he tried to relax.
It was three hours before they had to go through the storm. Pretty much as soon as the plane was overtaken, it started getting jostled and people settled down. A few minutes later, as it grew worse, Dev started seeing people getting airsick.
Even as things grew worse, he never felt issue, but remembering how he had used to get carsick, he decided to help.
Getting up, he approached a girl who was rocking and looking ill. “Hey. Are you going to be okay?”
She looked at him blankly.
“Are you okay? The plane is going to be fine.”
She seemed doubtful, and in a moment of inspiration, he reached down into his soul and triggered his axiom. As the sensation of steadiness and determination washed over her, he said, “We’re going to be fine. The plane can handle this.”
She seemed to regain some color and nodded, so he moved on to the next person, a boy who seemed a bit younger than him. As he did so, he felt as several other people triggered their axioms, imitating his success. He also saw the officials trying to help, but it was clear that they weren’t necessarily picked for their social graces. Some of them were awful at interacting with their charges.
After a few minutes, he saw a couple of the other people handing out small snacks to people, and he decided to do the same. He asked where they had gotten the snacks, and then got some from a flight attendant.
After only thirty more minutes, he ran out of people who looked like they needed help, and returned to his seat, pulsing his axiom the whole way.