Madness.
Felix kicked his leg a few times as he gained consciousness. Storm sorcery, extremely powerful storm sorcery, had yanked him from his uneasy sleep.
"Shane!" he bellowed. "The enemy is attacking!"
Suddenly wind sorcery surrounded him, blocking his voice. The source was behind him, in the first row of empty beds. Frantically, he leapt from his bed, tossing the sheets aside. Brigid glared at him. Felix ignored her, and still wearing his pajamas, he used his own storm sorcery to float down into the foyer of the purple crystal spire. The lone animated armor at the door seemed completely at ease.
The air inside the spire was pleasant, but the air just across the threshold was chilly. It was almost winter, and in the north the sun rose late in the morning. The sky outside was black as midnight because the stars were hidden behind a dense layer of clouds, but the source of the storm sorcery stood out like a beacon. The trees at the edge of the clearing cast shadows that moved with inhuman speed, giving way to the pale blue light of a raging lightning storm.
Still groggy from his unexpected rise, Felix stood his ground and steeled himself for a fight. His heart sank as the light drew closer, crossing into the clearing and banishing the shadows all around. He had little experience fighting sorcerers, but this power was hundreds, if not thousands of times more powerful than Shane. Two god-like figures floated in the center of that crackling light, silhouettes that matched the color of the night sky beyond.
A hand grabbed him by the scruff of his neck.
"I Wish he was wearing his regalia," Brigid said.
With a sudden constriction around his neck, Felix suddenly was wearing the purple regalia of House Anna-Rhea.
"You stand in the presence of royalty," Brigid continued, "you are invited to kneel."
Felix had already fallen to one knee by the time the two silhouettes descended to the base of the ramp. They were a pair of men, both very tall, but one was quite possibly the largest man Felix had ever seen. Even taller than Princess Astrid, the man had arms and legs that were as thick as tree trunks, and his chest was broad and muscular. Felix wondered if one of the man's parents was a horse. The other man was spindly and was clearly the sorcerer in the pair.
White light, which originated from the animated armor in the foyer, filled the clearing and illuminated the two figures. They both had purple hair and shiny purple scales on their foreheads and cheekbones. The larger of the two men had a neat beard and a military-style haircut, while the thinner man had a mustache and long, flowing, almost feminine hair.
"Prince Kai of House Anna-Rhea," Brigid began. "Why have you come?"
The man with the flowing hair smiled. "I heard that Mister Vilde had been summoned by my dear sister, and I insisted that I join him in his journey."
The huge man began to speak. "I am Vilde, and I have traveled far from the land of the Purple Dragons." His words were very slow, as if he had memorized them. He wiped the sweat from his brow with a small handkerchief. "The purpose of my journey is to seek out Princess Elvira, to seduce her and to mate with her."
"I am seduced!" Elvira announced from within the spire. Barefoot and wearing a thin nightgown, the Purple Dragon rushed down the ramp and dug her claw-like fingernails into the huge man's muscular arms. With a flash of magenta light both vanished from sight.
"Prince Kai, you are trying to evade my question," Brigid said.
"You already know exactly why I have come," Prince Kai said. He reached into a leather pack at his hip and produced a huge leather-bound book. "The Book of Dead Pilots needs to be updated with the latest data."
"You brought it here!?" Brigid hissed. "That thing contains the history of dozens of civilizations. Do you want Ashe to come murder us?"
The male Purple Dragon waved his hand dismissively. "Ashynvellemviarius. Such a fascinating name! In the language where the name first appears, the people had developed at least thirty-six different words for the ashes that are created when burning bodies."
Too many words, Felix thought. The man continued his long lecture on the etymology of the name Ashe, and Felix suffered through it in silence. This man is Shane himself. No, worse than Shane. This man is the ideal that Shane strives to arrive at someday.
"You there!" the Purple Dragon said as he pointed to Felix. "My sister has taken a new retainer? Avowed and branded, wonderful! The wind carries stories of the flying machines invented in this land. Also the Spirits speak of a great battle out beyond the escarpment. You will tell me about these things."
"Yes, my Prince," Felix managed.
"Felix, you can keep the Prince occupied," Brigid said as she turned and began to walk up the ramp toward the spire. "Just make sure he doesn't wake Princess Astrid. She'll likely raze the entire continent if it happens again."
"Retainer Felix, do you still have the very first airplane that you flew?"
"It's in storage somewhere," Felix replied.
"I would like to purchase it!" the Purple Dragon said.
"My Prince, you are a Dragon. Certainly you can fly without an airplane?"
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
"Indeed. However, I should specify that I intend to establish a Museum of Flight in the nearby village. The very first flying machine will make an excellent exhibition."
He thinks Black River is a village, Felix realized. "The hangar is just west of here, by the runway beyond these trees. I would be willing to donate unused Air Force assets to your museum, however I would ask that the exhibitions in the museum avoid openly criticizing the Quarian Air Force."
"Naturally, in fact, we can fill the museum with glowing propaganda and recruitment material."
"Excellent. I will lead you to the craft presently."
"While we walk, you can tell me the names of the pilots who have died."
----------------------------------------
Prince Kai of House Anna-Rhea was either very wealthy or very persuasive. Within a few days the man had purchased a sizable corner of the grassy park in Black River, and with a flash of purple light that could be seen clearly from the Teeth of the Red Dragon, the man created a new purple crystal structure. Within a few weeks the Museum of Flight opened to the public for the first time.
Felix was not wearing his military uniform the day he went to the museum. Wearing a leather cap and a blue scarf, his face was mostly hidden, though it was very difficult to hide the golden brand that marred his face. It was a novel experience that drew crowds from across the city, and there was a long line to purchase tickets.
The visible face of the building was shaped like a parabola, and the vaulted ceiling was parabolic as well, constructed from a massive and very thin sheet of purple crystal. This created an enormous amount of space to suspend objects from the central beam or the support ribs. A full airship was housed inside the structure, floating above the ground but attached to a staircase that allowed access to the interior. Children screamed with glee as they ran up the steps, two steps at a time, to go explore the gondola.
As Felix walked around the airship, a horn announced the removal of the staircase. After a few minutes the airship began to ascend toward the roof of the museum, until cables arrested the upward motion. Nets had been installed around the craft. At first Felix thought they had been added to prevent people from falling to the museum floor, but then the children started jumping overboard, rolling around and wrestling on the nets.
A great deal of the space inside the museum was empty, awaiting models of airplanes that had yet to be invented. The largest exhibition featured paintings and plaques which worked together to describe the Battle of the Teeth of the Red Dragon. An enormous oil painting, nearly fifty feet long, depicted an azure drake and a red airplane locked in combat against a dark sky. The first airplane to ever fly in Quaria, the one which Felix also used to score most of his air-to-air kills that night, was roped off in the center. A large sign, painted with red letters, announced: "Please do not touch the artifacts!"
One long glass display case contained eight sawed-off wooden propeller tips. Felix recognized these particular artifacts, though he was uncertain how they had been acquired. The Draconic Paladins had located the wrecks of the men who died that night, cut off pieces of the propellers, and used geomancer-made branding irons to burn the names of the pilots into the wood. Each artifact had a small portrait of the pilot, painted in oil, the pilot's military identification tag, and a copy of the obituary cut from the broadsheets.
The first of the pilots was the young man named Liam, who was believed to be the first pilot in the whole Air Force to die during a dogfight. His favorite deck of cards and a half-empty bottle of whiskey stood by his portrait.
When Felix saw the next exhibit his jaw simply dropped. He stood motionless, uncomprehending, at the shattered remains of an aircraft, carefully reassembled and rejoined with purple draconic crystal. A water mage stood on a platform overhead, casting frost magic to create snow that swirled around the aircraft. Felix pushed the people aside to read the bronze plaque in front of the scarlet ropes:
The first Quarian Air Force military airplane to fall from the sky in known icing conditions. Ice buildup on the wings changed the aerodynamics, causing it to enter into an unrecoverable stall spin. The pilot, General Felix, evacuated the craft and was rescued by Princess Elvira of House Anna-Rhea. The remains of the craft were recovered south of the border, in north-western Riln, near the city of Silvervein.
A small display case contained scale models and design diagrams for the heat circulating anti-ice system that was actively being installed in the airplanes throughout the Air Force. Another display case contained a standard issue survival kit, a dagger, and a repaired crossbow, all of which went down with the craft that day.
The next exhibition featured a large diorama of the city of Dragon's Landing in Riln. A tree-like object, made from wood and painted blue, dominated the model of the city. A scale model of the aircraft carrier, complete with little airplanes on the deck, was suspended from little cables overhead. A model azure drake, branded with gold fractures on one side of his body, stood guard atop the ruins of the factory, exactly as Shane had done.
"So what do you think?" A smooth, masculine voice said. Felix turned to find Prince Kai looming overhead.
"I find it extraordinarily strange to be in a history museum with exhibits depicting events that took place a few weeks in the past," Felix said.
"Come, there is one exhibition that I am very proud of. It took a lot of research, a lot of geomancy, and a lot of very powerful Wish spells."
The Purple Dragon led Felix to one corner, where there stood five statues made from bronze. Felix, Shane, Alice, Deorwine, and King Cyneric, the original five-man band in the Elder Books Aviation Club. A large oil painting depicted them all seated around that table in the upper library. A display case contained the crystal-forged greatsword that Felix had used to slaughter the necromancers in the Red Dragon's Lair, with a collection of broadsheets from Flood's End which described the sudden destruction of the Capitol building.
"This is all very well researched," Felix admitted, "but I fear that this could all be used as evidence to have me executed for treason."
"You need to think long-term," Prince Kai said. "This museum will be here for a very, very long time. It is important to create a truthful representation of history, for the sake of future generations."
"Truthful?" a too-familiar feminine voice asked.
The Queen of Darkness floated down beyond the scarlet ropes that formed a barrier between the crowd and the bronze statue of Felix. Instinctively, Felix wanted to break the glass case and grab his greatsword. He was expecting some reaction from the crowd, but after a few moments of glancing around, he realized that nobody else could see or hear the Elemental.
"No Museum of Flight is complete without the obligatory visit from Ashynvellemviarius," Prince Kai said.
"I love death and destruction," Ashe said. "Each time you make a Museum of Flight, little Purple Dragon, you always do a wonderful job of depicting the worst aspects of flight. The carved propeller tips of the men in the trenches, drowning in blood and mud. The flags of the hated enemy painted on the tail, uncensored and on full display for the public to see. The names and faces of the fresh young men sent into the sky to die."
"If flight brings so much death and destruction," Felix said, "why, Queen Ashe, have you forbidden it? Why prohibit the invention of the airplane? Why get involved at all?"
Ashe walked up to him, leaned forward, and whispered in his ear so close that he was certain Prince Kai could not hear. Two voices spoke in perfect harmony, one of them dark and sinister, one of them delicate and crystalline. "Because, dear Felix, the wind is real, as you well know. You accept the reality into which you were born, bereft of ideology or delusion. If the wind kills you, then you are dead. The freedom that comes with this revelation... is a freedom that must be earned."