“Advanced BFM classes, putting what they’ve learnt into full practice. Hard floor of two hundred metres and bubbles of fifty metres. I’ve got to admit it’s pretty standard,” Elliot stated, frankly coming off quite bored. However, Iris’s heart was racing as soon as the planes began. Between the roar of the propellers and the concentrated booming of the pressurised Aether, the cacophony from the deck below was monstrous. The chatter on Elliot’s radio only added to her anticipation.

“Catapult release in three, two, one.”

In an instant, the planes were propelled forward at blistering speeds and kept true to their trajectories as their landing gear cleared the tarmac. The two split off in opposite directions.

“Ascend to five hundred metres.”

The two aircraft slowly shrank into small, fingernail sized blips, contrasted against the blue above them.

“They’re at five hundred now. They’re going into the merge,” Elliot observed.

They began to turn inwards, towards each other, nose to nose. The neutral pass signified the beginning of a training engagement, and they did so as close to each other as possible.

“The Rapacian is staying with fixed wings, so he’s probably going to try and keep his distance.”

Both planes began to head away from each other, their vapour trails forming two circles in the sky. As they did, the Sidosian plane began to ascend further. When the two met for an engagement, the Rapacian fighter had given up the high ground, and the Sidosian plane was diving.

“That’s a hit,” the control tower called.

And it was over, disappointingly quick for Iris. She understood vaguely the concept of winning fast, but such loud noises, high places and big machines had excited her, and all for nothing.

“Damn,” Elliot sighed. “I didn’t want to talk shit about his tactics, but….”

“What about them?” Evalyn asked.

“At this altitude, the air is so thick that there’s not much of an advantage by going fixed wing. The Sidosian planes are better divers anyway.”

“Would free wing have been better?”

“Oh, absolutely, but only some boys and girls here can dogfight with free wings. Garel up there just started.”

As the two fighters readied to land, the two people Elliot had pointed out before made their way to the locker room. Just as they approached the stairs, their bodies stiffened, and they hastily saluted.

A woman in a high-ranking military uniform passed them, casually returning her salutes. Her eyes were mean but beginning to wither, and her hair had begun to grey in some places. The air of experience was what Iris sensed first, rather than one of pure intimidation.

The soles of her boots clanked against the deck’s metal floor, and with each clank, another pilot saluted her. Evalyn and Elliot both raised their hands to their foreheads, with only Evalyn hesitating afterwards and dropping the gesture. The woman carried a presence with her, from the way she walked to the way she stared. Although they looked nothing alike, Iris recognised the mannerisms as identical to Evalyn’s.

“Weather’s lovely, Lieutenant-General,” Elliot mused. “You could have enjoyed it from your office.”

“What’s the point of lovely weather when you’re inside the whole day? If there’s fighters training, I’d like to watch.”

Her footsteps slowed as the pilots eased. The woman approached the railing with her eyes focused on Iris. The movement of her pupils was irregular, like a cat about to pounce, and they seemed to follow every time Iris even did so little as to twitch.

The Lieutenant-General crouched down, looking over her sharp nose straight at Iris’s small face. Not once did she smile, but her expression suggested earnestness.

“H-hello.”

“Nice to meet you. My name is Marie Elvera.”

She outstretched a hand, inviting Iris to shake it. Iris watched her as she did so. Her fingers reminded her of Evalyn’s. She concluded this was the ‘Lieutenant-General’ that Evalyn had mentioned before in passing. On her left breast were rows of colours that she hadn’t seen on anyone else’s uniforms, at least not to this extent.

“You’ll be in my care as well as Evalyn’s from now on, so you’ve got nothing to worry about. Welcome to Special Operations headquarters.”

Her hand was cold, but her words weren’t. There was a disconnect between the person and the appearance, like with Elliot.

Without warning, two hands reached for Iris’s flank, and she felt an uncomfortable sensation that made her want to squirm. However, before she could, she felt herself rise. She was level with Evalyn and Elliot even though they were standing up. She looked behind her, and some of the pilots’ faces had seemingly melted as they gave small waves. Iris clung to Elvera’s shoulders for balance as her gaze took in the view from an entirely new angle. She felt a slight hint of adrenaline as her body realised it was so high in the air.

From here, the magnificence of the Steel Whale against the blue sky was even clearer. The cars that Iris had taken just half an hour ago were nothing but specks. She watched in more clarity as the engines of the planes below roared once again and took off.

“First impressions, Marie?” Evalyn asked.

“As good as yours, I’d imagine. She looks a bit like you with your jacket on.”

Evalyn blushed and clung onto her new trench coat a little tighter.

“She’s a lot calmer than I expected. At first, she was pretty wary and still is to strangers. But it’s only been a day, and she seems fine around me,” Evalyn said.

“Is that a bad thing?”

“No…I think she might be…a little slow? Maybe she doesn’t realise danger well.”

Iris frowned. She was plenty capable of running if she wanted to. She could go even faster using her powers. Elvera pondered. The wrinkles around her eyes gave them some softness.

“No, I think she just trusts you. You have that effect on people,” she said. “You and your magic,” she added, whispering the last line.

“You think so?”

Elliot leaned further over the rail and squinted intently, grabbing the other three’s attention. The Rapacian fighter was turning towards the Sidosian one, seizing its six.

“Keep your closure! Come on!”

The Sidosian plane sensed the proximity to its enemy and slowed down, causing the Rapacian fighter to overshoot its target. Elliot slumped his head and sighed.

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“The Sidos fighters are always so easy to fly. Why do Rapacians have to kick like damn Broncos?”

“Senior Captain Elliot Maxwell, your students aren’t doing so well right now.” Elliot tensed up at Elvera’s glare, which Iris, being on her shoulders, felt partly involved with.

“Uh…no, ma’am, they’re doing just fine.”

“You’re not going to blame it on the engineering division, are you?”

“No! Never! Please don’t tell them. The number of beers I’ve had to buy them just this week.”

Elliot meekly returned to observing the fights as Elvera chuckled ever so lightly.

“When are you in Sidos city next, Evalyn?” Elvera asked.

“All three of us are going tomorrow. I have a case there, and Elly is visiting his parents.”

“I see. It’s come down the pipeline that the next citizenship ceremony is in a week from now. So, if you’re still there by then, they’d like to have Iris there.”

“Citizen of Sidos? Just like me then,” Evalyn said.

“I thought you switched your citizenship already?”

“Elliot did so he could serve. But I didn’t really see a reason to since I can’t do the same.”

Elvera frowned, dissatisfied. “Yeah, R.E.D. isn’t the same without Wizards and Witches.”

“Can’t go around calling it ‘Royal Espionage Division’ anymore, can you?”

“No, not really. I settled for ‘Royal Intelligence Bureau’ and thanked god the acronym didn’t have an S on the end. Have you talked to many of the old members?”

“Not too often, mostly when they’re in Excala, I’ll visit them at a bar, that’s about it. You?” Evalyn said.

“No, can’t be seen doing that. I get phone calls often, though, particularly from those two. Mostly unofficial reports, but….”

“They’re spies now?”

“Well…I’m not officially paying them….”

“Don’t you dare ask me to be one. I’m plenty comfortable with my career.”

Elvera smiled for the first time in Iris’s recent acquaintance with her. It was faint, as if the moment she blinked, it would disappear.

“Yeah, I know. I think your mentor would’ve been the same.”

The two fell silent for a while, not looking at anything in particular. Even Elliot looked on, catching Iris’s eyes. He shrugged and smiled before returning to the dogfight in the air.

“She was a good teacher, even if only for a bit. Terrible choice in restaurants, though.”

“I think she rubbed off onto you quite a bit. You remind me of her sometimes.”

“…”

“Well, we all lost people. Might as well talk until their ghosts die of embarrassment,” Elliot chimed with a meek smile. Evalyn gave him a forlorn look, sharing a pain between themselves that Iris hadn’t even begun to uncover. Conversations like this made her realise that she knew nothing about these people yet.

Elvera rummaged around in the back pockets of her trousers and pulled out even more documents. A thin book, similar to the one Elliot had showed the guards.

“Her passport, in case she needs it going anywhere other than Sidos.”

“That’s why we couldn’t talk over the phone, huh?”

“Well, half the reason. Her date of birth in the documentation was set to yesterday, the day you found her. Once she hits puberty, you can say she’s twelve or thirteen. No exact accuracy is particularly needed.”

Dogfight after dogfight continued until it finally came down to a single pair left. Elliot turned to the three, desponded with the performance of his students. Evalyn had watched every fight with only a vague understanding, but even she could see the disparity between the two sides.

“That’s four to one, for god’s sake. I didn’t think it would be that uneven.”

“By the looks of things, they weren’t flying the planes properly,” Elvera noted.

“They were…just not well enough. These guys don’t have their wings yet, so I can’t blame them.”

“Are you ready, Sir?” one student shouted, a Sidosian pilot with a cocky grin plastered across his face. “If you can make up for the losses, it’s my beer tonight.”

Elliot cheekily smirked at Evalyn, the tongue he stuck out at her tasting the alcohol already. “Be back in twenty,” he confidently predicted as he strutted off, grabbing the student by the shoulders and guiding him down the staircase. The grin never left his face. Evalyn knew he would make up for the losses. One of his wins would be worth four of anyone else’s.

“It’s time for the main show.” A little light made it into Elvera’s smile as she readjusted her arms around Iris. “Highlight of my week.”

The deck shook the final time that morning with the launch of Elliot and his opponent. The beginning of their fight looked similar to every other engagement that had already concluded. However, Evalyn smiled at the sight of the unique take off, the trump card of the Rapacian fighter. The wings were flapping like a bird’s would.

“Elliot’s the only one I’ve seen fly free wing straight off the bat like that,” Elvera noticed. “Most fly with their wings fixed to build up speed, but he’s so good he doesn’t need to bother. Or that’s what he’s told me.”

As the two aircraft turned towards each other mid-air, the Sidosian one crossed Elliot, their speeds varying wildly. The Sidosian aircraft turned east, and for the first time that morning, the Rapacian fighter adjusted to follow, rapidly gaining speed as it screamed into its turn.

“He’s forced a one-circle fight; it’s up to whoever can get their nose in the right direction first. Either that or the enemy turns tail and goes defensive,” Evalyn recited.

Which was precisely what it did. The Sidosian plane conceded, banked, and began defending, trying to outrun Elliot before he could get on his tail again. Evalyn keenly followed the vapour trails the planes were creating in their wake. Tracking them would be much harder if it weren’t for the humid weather.

The Sidosian plane began to take the vertical rise, soaring high into the air before diving. A manoeuvre the Sidosian planes had repeated all morning.

“Elly’s built enough speed that the enemy feels comfortable diving after him,” Evalyn stated. Living with a pilot for so long had taught her a few things, even if she wasn't an expert. And if she had listened to anything he had said over the past ten years, she knew that Elliot was setting out bait.

And they were falling for it.

The Sidosian plane dived closer, and Elliot countered by beginning to spiral. The metal wings of his plane folded in on themselves as did the wings of a diving bird of prey. The frame cut through the wind, whistling as it did so.

The two entered a descending dance, circling and following each other’s vapour trails like rabid dogs. However, Elliot was still on the defensive, scathing past his enemy’s nose by a few degrees each time.

Five hundred metres quickly turned into four hundred, and by the time they had reached three hundred and fifty, Elliot decided to pull the rug. The wings that had been so sharply tucked away spread out like a parachute. His trajectory rapidly lurched upwards as he killed his momentum. The Sidosian plane, who could barely register the manoeuvre in time, desperately tried redirecting himself. The reaper above him turned their nose at an impossible speed, approaching a lead pursuit position.

And by some miracle, the Sidosian plane’s propeller tips scraped by the hard deck just above three hundred metres. But it didn’t matter. The moment the pilot had given Elliot his six, it had already been over.

“And that’s a hit,” the control tower called from the radio balanced on the railing. She grinned, satisfied and proud at the same time. Her husband was one of the few who could talk as much crap as the kills he stacked, if only in training exercises as of late.

“I’m glad he’s still serving you so well,” Evalyn mused. Elvera could do nothing but agree, both knowing exactly why the Lieutenant-General permitted herself to be so casual around a subordinate. The man had been born with wings on his back. No one was entirely sure if that made him an angel or a demon.

The wings of his aircraft flapped intensely, slowing its descent onto the runway, not requiring the wire that caught the Sidosian plane’s landing gear. Evalyn strangely felt like a businesswoman, deliberately choosing somewhere with sophisticated entertainment to talk business. Sophisticated or not, dogfighting was dogfighting, and she hadn’t felt like she had wasted any of her time watching.

“The final thing I want to mention, Evalyn,” Elvera started, putting Iris back on the ground. “You’ve been keeping up with Sidos government policy, right?”

“…no. Not necessarily. Most of it is too obscure that I gave up keeping track entirely,” Evalyn admitted. Elvera pursed her lips, pondering for a moment as though ordering the information in her head.

“Dalena Fault, Sidos’s Prime Minister. She’s a lot more…neo-nationalist than her predecessor. Big on the Sidos-Geverde alliance, big on anti-civil war, all that sort of stuff. But I have issues with her methods.”

“How come?” Evalyn asked.

“Well, you saw how they recently repealed the ban on Higher Order Armour?”

Evalyn nodded, recalling the news from several weeks prior. Higher Order Armour, wartime machinery that scarcely existed outside of the Steel Whale and its Sidosian counterpart. A treaty had limited their production after the final days of Sidos’s civil war, which by the end had dragged Geverde down with it.

“She’s sighting the rapid progression in similar technologies amongst other countries, saying we shouldn’t be left behind militarily, but I don’t think that’s her only reason. The terrorists are worrying her.”

The shopkeeper at the boutique, the search on the Excala Express, Sidos City and by extension the government was bordering on hysteria. If neo-nationalists needed to stomp terrorists out of their city, they would be more than willing to legalise the tools needed for it. More likely than not, the terrorists would retaliate appropriately.

“Sidos had new designs and factories the moment the treaty was repealed, which goes to show how eager they were to get going.” Elvera sighed, the gesture switching her from work to family mode. “Be careful with that case,” she said, with none of the sternness that came with an order, but all of the urgency. “If it connects to S.H.I.A. in any way, I want you to leave Iris with me first.”

“You’ll babysit?” Evalyn smiled.

“Yes,” Elvera stated. “If she’s hurt by terrorists, I’m never forgiving you.”