"Master... we are adrift in the void." Her voice is strangely crunchy. Cute, but sounding like she's on a crackly telephone lines speakerphone. Lyrical, yet gravelly? It's not a bad noise, though.

"So… this is the void, huh?"

She nods furiously, her fists balled.

"You did a good job." I ruffle her head. "Who knows what would have happened if you didn't help me."

She giggles happily. How cute.

"This form pleases master, then? I saw from your eyes that you like human shapes of this form."

Well, it’s kinda embarrassing when she puts it like that.

"Yeah... you look cute. But... don't call me master..."

She cocks her head quizzically.

"Then... what does master? Hmmm... Master-sama?"

Whilst that’s wrong... it’s basically mastermaster... it's monstrously cute... and I'm tempted...

"Please just call me Elijah."

"Eli-sama?"

Hah... I'm not... well, I guess it’s like Kaede... just think like that.

"Fine... let’s go with that. What should I call you?"

"Naming?" She cocks her head again, making her electrified hair swish.

"Does not exist?" She looks puzzled.

I thought about this a while back didn't I? Though all the options were chunni. Now I've seen this cute innocent thing, I don't think I'd forgive myself using those.

I ponder.

Metal and lightning. Powerful, yet feminine? Invoking the sky and the ground at the same time.

Ah! Of course...

"Aeris."

"That is my name?"

I nod.

"I think it suits you. It is from an old language of my world, Latin, and it can mean both 'Bronze', and 'Sky', at the same time."

At least I think so. I wasn't very good at Latin. I looked into it as a lark once because I liked history for a while. But if I recall, the strange dual meaning of this stuck out to me... and it’s perfect for this girl!

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Hopefully it isn't ill-fated, mind you, as she shares it with a certain famous flower girl who dies.

"Ae... ae... ri... rii... aee... rii... suuu... Aeris!" She balls her fists whilst she mutters her name under her breath.

"Unn... understood, master-sama... ah! Un... Eli-sama. It is a good sound. Aeris is happy!" She giggles lyrically.

Gods, she really doesn't need cute practice. She's using her name in third-person as well. Is this all because of my preferences?

I smile at her, and she grins a toothy grin back.

"So, how do we escape here?"

"Un... its... Aeris doesn't know..."

She looks sad.

"Well... that's not your fault." I say, ruffling her head again.

For some reason, the electric zaps don't affect me. Her 'hair' is really like strands of fine metal with a light bluish tinge, like tungsten or beautifully polished and finished steel. Maybe the blue-white electricity lends it more of a colour than most metals? Nonetheless, it’s pretty.

But enough of that. What do I do now? Where am I?

This place is... the void is... strange. The 'ground' feels mushy, like mud. But a weird purple-black colour, like sickly oil. It occasionally rises in strange lumps... hills? The 'air' is thick and gassy and slightly opaque with a green-yellow hue. Like... chlorine gas? It certainly smells like an over-purified swimming pool. There is no sun, but patches of purple necrofire hover around lazily in the sky like clouds, lending a bizarre level of illumination. Everything about the landscape is constantly shifting slightly, as if unstable, as well.

Overall... it’s a pretty maddening sight if you focus on it. It feels wrong. Like an awful oil painting of a landscape with all the wrong colours. Viewed in a hall of mirrors.

It also feels like something is lurking in the shadows as well, watching. It probably is.

And somehow, I even think I'm shielded from the worst of it. Aeris is glowing slightly, illuminating us, and sending shocks of electricity into the surroundings in a periodic pulse.

"Eli-sama... un... Aeris is keeping the little void spirits away... but there exists many very strong ones here. Aeris... may not be able to fight those..."

Hmm... yeah... I was right. I guess she is literally a child. A new-born on the spirit ladder. If some bigwig saunters in I should expect to be crushed. It’s scary, but I need to keep cool and get out of here as soon as I can.

The girls aren't here, of course. And I need to find them. Its worthless if I escape by myself. I can only hope they're okay.

"Ah!" Aeris goes wide-eyed, and jumps, balling her fists again. I swear I can see a lightbulb clicking on above her head.

"What is it?"

"Un... Aeris can... probably find Seryamerya?"

"Seryamerya? Who is... no... you said it like... Seriamelia? Seria? No... Seria's spirit? You mean Seria's spirit!?"

"Un!" She nods furiously.

"That's great! Good idea! Let’s do that!"

She giggles happily, then closes her red eye, concentrating, and leaving the blue one open.

"Un... this way? That way? Which way?" She cocks her head again, bouncing from one foot to another and spinning around. "Those way? These way? No way!!!"

"This way!" She points and laughs again. She's such a jolly little thing.

"Eli-sama! Follow Aeris!" She jumps up and down.

"Lead the way, then. Good girl." I grab her hand.

She giggles again, and I nearly get yanked off my feet as she moves off, literally like greased lightning.

Woah!

Somehow, I think my legs would fall off from this kind of speed in the real world. But apparently, here, that doesn't matter.

Aeris's hair doesn't seem much affected by her speed, swishing gently, despite the fact that the terrain flies by like a bullet passing in flight. It's also very disconcerting that I don't feel any air pressure in my ears as we soar along. Come to think of it, how did I talk, if this is the void?

Well, best not to think about it. Only madness lies down that road.

Suddenly, in the far distance, a massive stroke of white lightning splits the dark sky. An accompanying roar of thunder comes a second later, of course.

I'm guessing that's our destination...