The Sparrowhawk raced across the cloudless sky heading towards the northeast. The land below slowly turned from gold sand to dusty brown to vibrant green.

Lakshmi’s grin could have lit up a city block in Spyre. “This is amazing! We’ve hit the booster twice and nothing’s gone boom even once!”

I leaned over to look at the instrument panel in front of her. Nothing but sleek black curves and green lights.

“Of course.” Camaxtli said calmly. “You assembled the pieces properly, though it was a difficult struggle to keep you within standard parameters during the reconstruction.”

Lakshmi giggled wildly, clearly drunk on the performance of her ship. “And we’re already coming up on the border! I told you that it was stupid to expect a war!”

Eshaan shook his head. “We can’t really know for sure, a border is a long thing, and it’s not like airships are common enough to-”

Camaxtli pointed ahead through the canopy window. “Those appear to be picket ships. And they appear to be engaged with other ships of similar size.”

Everyone’s gaze snapped to the canopy window and the small firefight evolving ahead of us.

Daniyel spoke first. “Princess. Turn. We do not wish our course to intersect a firefight.”

Leshani’s cheeks were pale and her eyes wide. She shook her head in denial. “No. It’s not possible. They must be… black pirates. Or something! The ships are too small!”

I twisted my hands in my robes unhappily. This is my fault. Just this stupid plot we’re on, this is my fault-

Eshaan’s hand on my shoulder brought me out of a spiraling daze. He spoke quietly into my ear. “It’s not, you know.”

I jerked, and turned to look at him in astonishment, my mouth opening in surprise.

He smiled sadly. “I know that look. I’ve seen it in the mirror often enough. This is not your fault.”

Soriya suddenly spoke up. “Eshaan’s right. We’re not responsible for other’s actions.”

“But… but they’re looking for us! They might even have shown up because of the {Holy White} spell! Or, or the ritual we did!” I protested, my hands twisting my robes into knots.

Soriya smiled. “Still not our fault. But it’s easy to test. And, if you’re right, the church ships will break off immediately to follow us.”

I blinked at her in confusion, then what she was proposing slowly dawned on me. “You want me to cast {Holy White} again!”

“And if that doesn’t draw their attention, then really nothing will.” Soriya grinned.

Camaxtli frowned. “I cannot support this course of action, there could be unexpected repercussions with-”

“The Sparrowhawk can take it!” Lakshmi snapped. “Whatever the crazy seer is going to try, the Sparrowhawk can handle it! I made sure of that!”

“Actually, they can’t break off. If they do, they’ll lose the engagement, and more than half of them will sink.” Eshaan said. He scratched his cheek and flushed faintly. “I mean… assuming that the Kushistan picket ships have orders to pursue.”

Danyiel shook his head. “They will not. Kushistan does not wish this war any more than we do.”

“Choices, people! I need choices now!” Lakshmi snapped. “We are approaching a decision point at speed and I need to know what you’re going to do!”

I bit my lower lip, darted a glance at Soriya who gave me a cocky smile and shrug as if to say ‘Who can say?’

What would a pink haired healer girl do? What is the opposite…? I thought frantically. Nothing came to mind.

“Well, it’s too late now.” Lakshmi remarked, and I jerked again, suddenly pulled out of my haze, my mouth opening in surprise as the Sparrowhawk shot past the skirmish of patrol airships. A few stray shots passed us by, and the Sparrowhawk rocked from near misses, but the lights on Lakshmi’s control panel remained a quiet and serene emerald hue.

I looked down at my hands tangled in my robe, then up out the cockpit. What would a pink haired healer do? Why exactly what I just did. Agonize over the choice and make no choice at all. I pressed my lips firmly together and spoke up.

“Lakshmi, prep the boost. I’m going to trigger a {Holy White}.”

Lakshmi jerked around to stare at me. “Now?! But we’re already past the blockade!”

I shook my head. “A bad decision now, is better than a perfect decision later.”

Eshaan blinked and looked at me in amazement. “You read Rajanubhab?!”

“Who?” I shook my head in irritation. “No, never mind. We’re doing this. Lakshmi, are you ready?”

She looked at me and shook her head. “I don’t think I will ever understand you. But yes, The Sparrowhawk is as ready as I can make her.”

I nodded, and clutched at my staff. “Right. Everybody get strapped in, and lets glow up some stuff.”

The others took their seats, and Soriya gave me a cheeky grin. “I like it when you make with the boom. Makes me think I’ll be able to call you a real witch someday.”

Lakshmi giggled to herself. “Glow up. I may steal that.”

I smiled wryly. “If you like it, then I know it’s in terrible taste.” I started chanting the spell for {Holy White}. It felt like it took forever, the epic spells always did. The white glow started to surround the ship, and everything took on a silvery white light from within as the energy continued to build.

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“They are turning.” Daniyel said dryly. “It appears your supposition was correct, Lady Soriya.”

Eshaan clicked his tongue in disapproval. “Poor choice. The picket ships will rip them to shreds if they try to follow.”

Daniyel shook his head silently, then said “Kushistan will not follow. I told you, the Desert tribes guard what is theirs fiercely, but against the might of the Holy Church and the Empire, they will take a defensive action while the Desert fleets are prepared.” He paused, then shook his head. “The Church has made a mistake if they think Kushistan an easy land to conquer for their religion.”

My chant finished, and the brilliant blinding white of {Holy White} ignited from my staff and around us, a blazing pillar of light targeting nothing much at all. I staggered to my seat, exhausted, and Eshaan helped me strap in.

“Biggest, most boring firework in the world.” I muttered. Eshaan smiled at me as though I was actually funny, and I felt a little glow at his kindness.

Behind us, one of the church ships exploded in flame and fire, falling from the sky in a long tumbling arc towards the burned grasslands below. Daniyel’s prediction seemed to hold firm though, the Kushistan ships sent volleys of fire after the retreating airships, but did not pursue, and the remaining church ships pulled away from the firefight in good order.

That was all the time I had to see before Lakshmi yelled “Ok, here we go people! Boosting now!”

The Sparrowhawk kicked us into our seats once more, a now familiar punch pressing our backs into the (thankfully, mercifully!) padded chairs and we shot away with streaks of elemental color trailing from our engines.

Camaxtli spoke against the crushing force of the acceleration as though it was no great burden. Perhaps it wasn’t, to him.

Stupid android physiology I grumbled in my head.

“What is the purpose of this fight? I do not understand, if the Alliance is the goddess, and the church is the organization descended from the Alliance, why is there strife? Do not all nations in the world currently use the System? Where is my understanding incorrect?”

“Not. The time. Camaxtli.” Lakshmi grunted out, pressed firmly into the seat.

“Ah, yes. The inefficient designs of purely flesh constructs. My apologies. I will repeat the question again in 12.5 seconds when the boost phase ends.”

I sighed, even under the weight of the elephant sitting on my chest. Yes, that’s our prettyboi android alright. I thought to myself. Right on cue.

The speed of the Sparrowhawk ensured that we outran all conceivable pursuit, and exactly on time, the boost ended. It was only a tiny bit irritating to admit that maybe Lakshmi really was as good as her reputation.

The release of pressure almost feeling like being thrown forward. Everyone (except Camaxtli) gasped in relief.

“I wish to repeat my question. Why is there conflict?” Camaxtli immediately said.

I rolled my eyes. “Does anyone want to take this?” I asked.

Soriya spoke up with a smile in her voice. “I love lecturing people, so allow me!” She cleared her throat, and said.

“Your misunderstanding is the belief that the Alliance is intact. The System, as I believe it to be, is global in influence. But regardless of if there was a war over the activation of the System or not, there is no Alliance currently. The church, as we understand it, serves more as a guardian, a vestige of the event. Simply because the System is used, does not mean everyone who uses it is automatically a member of the same faction. How could they be, the System is global, and the current state of the world is such that there is no global hegemon.”

Camaxtli’s head tipped to the side, and his eyes spun with color. “I see.” He said finally. “This information is… confusing. My creators were under the impression that the System would be used as a cudgel, a weapon of coercion. The Alliance claimed it was not. Though it is… difficult to process, it appears that my creator’s information was… wrong.”

Eshaan reached forward and patted him on the shoulder. “Hey, it’s ok buddy! We all get things wrong!”

Camaxtli frowned. “I was not aware that we had become… ‘buddies’. When did this occur?”

I grinned. “The moment you let Eshaan talk to you for more than a minute, Camaxtli.”

Eshaan squirmed and flushed slightly, rubbing the back of his head. “That’s not fair, Lilyanna!” He protested. “I’m not a puppy!”

I burst out laughing in unison with Soriya. Eshaan’s face grew even more red and he glared at both of us. “Stop it! Stop it, both of you! I’m not! It’s not funny!”

Camaxtli reached out and lightly patted Eshaan on the head once. Eshaan swiped the hand away and glared fiercely. “Not cool!”

Camaxtli tipped his head to the side. “Is it not? Is this not an action that ‘buddies’ may perform to indicate communal bonding is occurring?”

I couldn’t help it, and doubled over laughing in my seat. I noted that Lakshmi’s eyes were especially bright, and her lips pressed suspiciously tightly together.

“It. Is. Not.” Gritted out Eshaan.

“Ah. I see. My apologies then.” Camaxtli said blandly. “As you say. I have made a mistake, and regrettably it appears that I will continue to make more. My programming was not designed for this… extensive field exercise.”

“I will pursue a different line of inquiry then. Why is pursuit not expected? Surely military vessels would have a ætherlink?”

I jerked upright and stared at him. “You have telephones?!”

“What is a… tele phone?”

I blinked a few times in surprise, and rummaged in my memory, feeling a strange sense of being ‘off balance’. My Lilyanna half… didn’t know what I was talking about. For the first time, I had used an earth word, and there was no translation, no match for it.

I ran the idea around in my head, slowly. It was a very strange feeling to ‘feel’ the edges of the joining between me and… well, me!

“A… a… a device for communicating long distances.” I said awkwardly.

Camaxtli nodded. “A new word then. Telephone. Yes, is there no ‘telephone’ onboard these ships?”

Eshaan shook his head in confusion and said “Camaxtli… I don’t know what that is. I’ve never heard of an ‘ætherlink’, or a ‘telephone’ whatever those are.”

Lakshmi said over her shoulder “I’d like to know more about this as well! A device for speaking over distances!? That sounds amazingly useful! Is it like a lightscribe?!”

Camaxtli looked around the group in bafflement. “How strange… I do not know what a ‘lightscribe’ is, Lady Lakshmi. Is that not a method of writing in light?”

Lakshmi laughed, and Eshaan spoke up. “Now this I can answer! It’s like a box with a really bright light inside it. There’s a lever on the side, and you pull the lever to open or close shutters which reveal the light. You send messages that way, to whoever might see it, and it repeats and sends it on. There’s a whole network run by the Empire, though it’s pretty expensive to use. Much easier to pay for a letter with the Imperial Post.”

Lakshmi huffed a bit. "If you'd let me finish...?" She said petulantly. "I was going to say, the Sparrowhawk 2 has one. It has to, otherwise we'd never be able to communicate with the air docks. Or another ship, I suppose, though we don't do that often."

A heliograph… of course. I thought. And the fastest way to transmit messages, but any intervening cloud will…

“Eshaan?” I said nervously. “How long will it take a courier ship with an urgent message to reach Galgados?”

Eshaan frowned in thought, then said. “In the absolute best case, no less than eight hours. If there’s trouble along the way, it might be delayed as long as a day.”

I grimaced. “So we’re on the clock. When we reach Hecate, they’re sure to send information on us.”

Eshaan shrugged. “That’s normal though, right? They were already on the lookout for you.”

Daniyel said gravely “There is a difference between searching the Empire for a person, and searching a small part of the Empire for the same person. They will assuredly focus their efforts in the direction they have seen us take.”

I sighed. “A pity we can’t just hide out in the Empire. They’d never expect us there.”

Eshaan laughed. “Lily, I like how you think!”

I smiley wryly at him. “Thanks, I guess. I wish I did.”

Eshaan reached over and rubbed his hand on my head. “That’s ok, I’ll just have to do it for both of us.”

I scowled at him and pushed his hand off my head.