It was Brigid who carried the party through that strange alternate world to the city of Black River. Astrid and Elvira were strapped close together in the center of the saddle, and Felix was strapped to a small seat on one edge, near the drake's wing. For Felix it had been, remarkably, the first time that he ever flew without being shapeshifted. Elvira sang the entire journey. It was a haunting song, sung in an alien language.
On approach to the runway outside the spire, Felix asked: "Shane, can you lower the wind barrier?" The bubble of air around the party wobbled and then vanished. The wind struck Felix in the face immediately. It felt cold, but it also felt familiar.
The morning after returning to Black River, Shane rose early from his bed in the corner of the barracks and then slipped outside. Felix couldn't go back to sleep, and instead he simply stared at the ceiling of the barracks, which was presumably also the floor of Astrid's chamber. His mind wandered to the events of three days back, in the city of Flood's End. Felix left without killing anyone else, without getting revenge for the death of the Red Dragon. He could not stop thinking about the Red Dragon's final words. The talking corpse spoke without emotion, without inflection, just statements of simple fact.
With a light clank on the crystal floor, Brigid set his new greatsword against his bed post. "I can see you are awake," she said. "Now that you can't shapeshift, you will need to find other ways to be useful to Princess Astrid. You have some skill with the blade. Train with me, and you will become stronger."
Felix rose and threw on a pair of trousers and boots. Then he followed Brigid down to the yard in front of the spire, carrying his greatsword uneasily. Dozens of animated armor sets waited outside, holding swords, shields, daggers, and crossbows. They were standing at attention, like soldiers, neatly arranged into grids. Brigid was also holding a greatsword.
"This is not my preferred weapon, however I can teach you what I know." The purple-haired woman was almost exactly as tall as Felix was, she looked confident holding the greatsword. "Watch my movements and then try to mimic them exactly, I will try to teach you a few forms."
She began to swing the sword, making repeated, slow movements that exaggerated each muscle movement. It reminded Felix of his time training as a recruit in the military, over a decade in the past, before he swore his oaths and became a Draconic Paladin. He slipped easily back into that mode, copying Brigid's movements with the greatsword.
Over the next few hours, the sun rose high above the horizon, bathing the yard in harsh light. Even then, Felix and Brigid trained together. In the beginning, she simply gave him new forms to practice. But as he made progress, he began to fight against the animated armor, one at a time and then against multiple opponents. The animated armors were extremely precise, and they would perfectly halt all motion before piercing his skin, even though their weapons were sharp, and even while compensating for his own movements. Lethal blows against them would simply pass through the magenta mist of their bodies, causing them to fall over in mock death. They provided the perfect enemies to practice against.
Finally, Brigid said: "You are invited to spar one time against me."
"Isn't that dangerous?" Felix asked.
"I swear that I will not kill or even injure you." Her face, framed by her purple bob-cut hair, formed into a slight smile.
"Very well." Felix faced her and gripped his sword. Neither of them moved.
She feinted. Felix fell for the feint, but quickly recovered. Then he swung his greatsword in a reckless sideways slash that he almost regretted, until Brigid caught the blade with her own. There was something about the way that she caught his blade, about the absolute perfect momentum of her recovery, her footwork, and the extremely smooth way in which she brought the blade up at an angle to slice off both his hands with the thick part of her blade near the cross guard, only to stop before even cutting the cloth of his sleeves. Felix instantly realized that he was far, far less skilled than this woman.
"How long have you been doing this?" Felix asked.
"All my life," Brigid replied.
"And how old are you?"
Brigid frowned. "I suppose I owe you that much. I am twelve-hundred and seventy-two years old. I was over five-hundred years old when Princess Astrid hatched from her egg, and it was then that I swore lifelong service to the Queen of the Purple Dragons that I would not outlive her daughter."
"I might be able to train my entire life, and never even come close to being as skilled as you are."
"It makes me happy that you appreciate this fact. That concludes this session. We will train this way every day from now on."
"Wait, I have one more question," Felix said. This caused the woman to raise one eyebrow at him. "What are you? Are you also a Purple Dragon?"
Brigid shook her head. "No, I am a mortal spawn like you. I was granted immortality by a very, very powerful being. That is all I am willing to say."
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Shane returned after Felix had finished eating lunch. He approached the spire from the north, even though the city was in the south. His storm sorcery subsided and he landed gently in the doorway between the two animated armor guards.
"Felix, come with me to Black River."
Felix turned to Brigid, and she nodded. "The Princess Astrid is preoccupied with her research. You are free to spend the day attending to your own business."
When they were both outside, Felix asked: "What's this about? Why do you need me to come with you?"
"Look," Shane said. He stopped and faced Felix, looking him straight in the eye. "I know you don't like me, and I know we have nothing in common. But I know how much you care about flying. So, I went to the city this morning and I arranged a meeting of the local Flying Machine Society. We need to get you up in the sky as soon as possible, and I think those people can help."
Felix was completely astonished. Finally he simply nodded. "As you say, take me to the city."
Shane took a different route down the cliffs, starting by flying to the north, down a more gentle slope to avoid being too far above the stone ground. Then he looped them around to the south, skirting the edge of one cliff and then descending into the golden forest. It was a very slow flight, the kind of flight that was unique to storm sorcery, more like levitating. Shane must have practiced the path once before, because he was able to descend to the valley floor without help from Astrid.
The three mounds of Black River extended before them, crowned by the great Gondola Wheel. Shane flew with Felix in tow to an uppity district overlooking the wheel, where the estates were surrounded with fine walls. They landed without ceremony outside an ornate shop with glass windows, painted with the words "Elder Books." The crone inside the shop wore a dark shawl that covered her thin pink hair. She waved Shane onward, and he led them through the back of the shop to a narrow spiral staircase. Through the threshold at the top of the stairs, there was a room with a circular turret at one end, filled with stained glass windows. The rest of the walls were packed with book shelves, and in the center of the room there was a long table and benches.
Three people sat at the table when Felix and Shane arrived. At the head of the table, surrounded by colorful windows, was the Green Dragon from the All-Island Faire. He puffed out his chest and gestured for them to have a seat by his side. The second man appeared to be some type of priest, dressed in stiff, drab brown robes, and armed with a small army of open books. His dark green hair marked him as one of the Green Dragon's followers. The last of the three was a woman of about thirty-five, with bright red eyes. Her straight pinkish hair was mostly hidden under a heavily-padded, fur-lined leather helmet. Her eyes held a deep wariness, but she regarded Felix fondly.
"Felix, allow me to introduce you to the Flying Machine Society... Rejects!"
"Indeed," the Green Dragon said. "My name is King Cyneric. The Flying Machine Society sent me away because I made known my intentions. When I have a working design, I plan to take copies of the design back to my homeland."
"And my name is Deorwine, advisor to the King." The man in the brown robes had a nasal voice. "We tried to defend your ideas, Friend Felix. The others thought your see-saw analogy had some merit, but it was unanimously agreed that you were dead wrong about the rudder."
"Then they will be dead themselves," Felix retorted. He turned his gaze to the woman with pink hair.
"And I am Alice," she said. Her voice was soft but confident. "They kicked me out because I have epilepsy. They said I would never be allowed to fly. My grandmother owns this bookstore, so I arranged for us to meet here."
Felix nodded. "I am afraid they are mostly right. Paladin recruits with epilepsy are turned away."
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
"However," Shane added, "You are absolutely welcome to join us, and we thank you for inviting us to this astonishing venue."
"So," Felix said, pointing his finger around the table as he took a seat. "King Cyneric, Deorwine, Alice, Shane, and Felix, that makes five of us. Does this little group have a name?"
"How about, the Elder Books Aviation Club?" Shane offered. Everyone at the table nodded or spoke out in approval.
"It is settled then!" King Cyneric said. "I welcome you all to the Elder Books Aviation Club! I will serve as the Club President and Financier. My advisor here will be our Engineering Expert. Shane, you will be our Sorcery Expert. Felix will be our Flight Expert. Alice will be our Organizer. Let us get started."
Deorwine slid a stack of clean papers and a fountain pen across the table. "Felix, would you please outline the basic principles of flight for the Club?"
Felix drew three simple lines. Two lines were drawn like a squashed cross, and the third line was vertical. Then he drew eight curved, dotted lines, one line between each pair of nearby lines. The thing looked a bit like a sphere with lines through the middle. "This is the diagram that new Paladins are given. Three axis in space, height, length, and width, like a carpenter building a box. Therefore, there are three possible ways to move your nose while flying. Motion up or down is called pitch, motion left or right is called yaw, and rotation, like the hands on a clock, is called roll.
"If there are three types of motion, then there must be at least three different control surfaces, and three sources of stability. For control, drakes use their tail-wings for pitch, the tips of their wings for roll, and their spine sails for yaw. For pitch stability, drakes use their tail-wings. Drakes have free yaw stability because most of the exposed body rests behind the center of mass, like a weathervane. Finally, roll stability is provided by the upward shape of the wing."
While he was talking, he sketched a few more diagrams of drakes, and why the shapes of their bodies produced three-axis stability and control. He handed the diagrams to Deorwine, who was taking detailed notes of his own.
"So," Deorwine said, "you do admit that a rudder could control yaw? Left or right motion?"
"Yes. Allow me to continue." He began drawing the shape of a cambered wing on a fresh sheet of paper. "While a drake is gliding at a slow descent, you can think of the wing as being acted on in four ways. The upward motion of the wing, the friction of the air crossing the wing, gravity, and the force of the air smashing into the wing. We shall call these lift, drag, gravity, and airspeed. You increase airspeed by flapping your wings or by descending faster.
"Airspeed increases both lift and drag. It creates lift because the shape of the wing redirects some of the smashing motion upward. It creates drag because the force of the air smashing into the wing creates friction. So, using a rudder for yaw would increase the airspeed on the tip of one wing, and decrease the airspeed across the opposite wing, just because of geometry. Increased lift on one wing, and decreased lift on the opposite. Therefore, you would start rolling. I demonstrated this live for everyone to see."
"They are just idiots," Shane said.
Felix drew a triangle and a box located on the angled portion, with an arrow pointing down the slope. "See, if you leave a box on a slope like this it starts sliding town. Now imagine that there is a boom coming up out of the page, with a sail at the end. As the box slides down the slope, what happens to the sail? Air hits it, and the box starts to rotate until the boom is up the slope. So if you end up rolling because of the rudder, you start to slide through the air sideways. Remember the weathervane analogy, most of the exposed surface is behind the center of mass. Therefore, the wind is going to hit that surface and cause it to rotate up the slope, like the boom on our box. Which means that if you are going slow and you try to use the rudder, you end up in a spin, or perhaps a flat spin.
"For us drakes, it's not too bad most of the time because you can just flap your wings in one spot and you stop spinning. But if you are planning on making a craft with long wings that do not move, then you fall out of the sky and then die. That is not to say that it is impossible to use the rudder to turn. If you were traveling fast enough it would be safe to do. Also, you could very sharply increase the upward angle of the wings as a whole, thus increasing roll stability greatly. However it would not be an efficient way to fly. Drakes do not do this, ever."
"I see," Deorwine said. "The Flying Machine Society does not understand this relation between lift and drag, as you have termed these forces."
"They could just ask any Paladin."
"I don't think those boys wanted their little academic discussions tainted by the opinions of military men," Alice said.
Deorwine started sketching the shape of a craft. It had a long boom-like tail with a proper tail wing. Instead of proper spine sails it had a funny vertical fin with a rudder above the tail wings. The craft had main wings at a slight upward angle, with little moving parts on the trailing edge of the wing tips. There was an airship's propeller attached to the front of the craft.
"That looks fine," Felix said.
"So now we must answer the question of how the operator of this device will control it," Deorwine said. "The Flying Machine Society had a design that included a ship's wheel in front of the pilot, and a lever on one side to control the pitch."
"A ship's wheel is idiocy. Suicide even. The pilot could end up being thrust head-first into the spokes on the ship's wheel if he crashes. One of the wooden pegs could go right through his eye socket."
"So what do you propose?"
"Something simple. While flying, you just need to control pitch and roll. Interacting with yaw in any way is extremely rare. If I were operating the craft, I would want to pull back on something to pitch up, push forward to pitch down, and move side to side to control roll. Maybe some type of stick in between the legs, connected by cables to the relevant surfaces."
"And you would use your other hand to control yaw?"
"I am going to assume that the pilot will be able to control the speed of the propeller somehow, right?" Felix asked. "That would take up the other hand."
"So how would you control yaw?" Deorwine asked.
Felix shrugged. "I don't really care. I'm not doing anything with my feet when I'm in the thing right? Connect the rudder surface to foot pedals with cables. It's so rare to use spine sails while flying in practice. I don't think the rudder will get much use."
"Use... feet... to control... rudder. My King, I think we should send this design to the workshop right away." Deorwine began to gather all of the papers into a bundle.
"Perfect!" King Cyneric said. "I can see that you are a true master of flight, Friend Felix. Does anyone have anything else to add?"
"I actually have a question," Shane said. "But it is not related to flight. Almighty King Cyneric, do you know of the type of magic that was used to create the Realms?"
Felix stood up. "Please excuse me, but I think you have what you need from me. I will head out and send a report to the Lord Paladin about the Club. I will need to consult with the other Paladins about our future."
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The huge red-haired man stalked off, leaving the Aviation Club without another word. Shane turned to King Cyneric. The massive green-haired Dragon made Felix look like a child.
"I do not know of such a magic."
"The Realms are the work of The Creators," Alice said. "It is said that the Lady Ghost used her bond with the first High Daughter of the Queen of Dreams to Wish the Realms into existence."
"Religious superstition," Deorwine snapped.
"It's true!" Alice insisted. "We live in the Elemental Plane of Dreams, and the Lady Ghost created our world when she split the Sixth Goddess in half. There is a second world, the Elemental Plane of Spirits, which mirrors our world. It is darker, and you can see the souls of men in that place."
"Well that is certainly true," Shane said. "I've been to that place before. This, Plane of Spirits."
"Ridiculous!" Alice snapped. "Mortals like us can never travel to the Plane of Spirits. Only a High Daughter of the Queen of Spirits, or the Queen herself, would be able to open a portal to that place."
High Daughter, Shane thought. Where have I heard that term before? Then he remembered. The Red Dragon had implicated a High Daughter as being a possible killer.
"Could a Purple Dragon open a portal?" Shane asked.
Alice went pale. "How did you know about that? I've been going to church for thirty-seven years and I've just recently worked my way up to a rank where they discuss such secrets."
"Princess Astrid," King Cyneric said. "We saw her at the All-Island Faire. Shane, have you been traveling with her?"
Shane nodded. "So you're saying that this, uh, Lady Ghost deity used a Wish to create the Realms? And it took a High Daughter to grant that Wish?"
"That's right," Alice said. She stood up and grabbed a leatherbound book off the shelf. "I have our holy book right here." She opened it.
"You don't actually believe any of this, do you?" Deorwine asked. "This stupid religious crap?"
Shane nodded. "It actually makes perfect sense. Please Alice, continue."
"I have better things to do with my team," Deorwine muttered. He trotted off with his bundle of papers in tow.
Alice began to speak: "The Binding of Ashe, chapter ninety-four, verse seven. 'And so it was said that in this time the Elemental Plane of Dreams was new and fresh, and the first to look upon it was the Lady Ghost, because the Consort Eternal averted her eyes as they crossed the threshold. The Sixth Goddess had slumbered long, and she lured mortal souls to live in her dreams. Each dream was a world, and each world had different types of magic. The new Queen of Dreams bade the Lady Ghost to recreate these worlds and the magic therein, so that the trapped souls might resume living in the Plane of Dreams.'
"And then verse eight says 'The Lady Ghost used her bonds with Nine High Daughters, and the Consort Eternal used her bond with the Firstborn of Ashe, to summon Elementals to reside in secret places in the Plane of Dreams. She hid these Elementals well, for she Wished for the existence of secret Realms. This satisfied the Queen of Dreams and her Sister-Self, the Queen of Spirits, for the new magic could be used on both sides of the divide.'"
"Wait, who is Ashe?" Shane asked.
"The Elemental Queen of Darkness," Alice replied. Then she placed both hands together and muttered a silent prayer. "She guards a dark power that drives her to madness. She revels in suffering and death."
"Could I maybe get a copy of your holy book?" Shane asked.
"You can have this one!"
"Half the people in my hometown went to The Church of the Lady Ghost, the other half worshiped the Red Dragon. I've never been a religious person before, but I always assumed Dragon worship was more practical, considering the Paladins zipping around in the sky all day. But now that I've been to this Plane of Spirits, I think it's worth looking into the topic."
"Did you really go there?" King Cyneric asked.
"That's right. A few times. Princess Astrid took us all through a portal. Well, maybe it was Elvira, her sister. Or Brigid, her bodyguard. I forgot exactly who opened each portal."
"Elvira?" Alice asked. "You have actually seen Elvira?"
"Oh yeah. She is pretty. Nice, curly purple hair. It tumbles down her shoulders."
"I believe you," Alice said. "I have seen depictions of Elvira, and her hair is as you say. She lives on the other side. She was born on the other side. I didn't know she had the power to come to this side. But if you have actually seen a being from the other side, that qualifies you to be a Prophet in my faith. A Prophet! I need to write down everything you say. I'll be famous!"
"Hold on now," King Cyneric said. "The Princess Astrid will want us to respect her privacy. I think it would be wise to use caution and restraint for now, Alice. Shane, go ask Princess Astrid for permission before you start helping people write any new holy books."
Shane nodded. "I agree, that would be wise."