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The dead city seemed endless; Arion and Vin had been wandering for hours along one of the many streams that flowed through the streets. It didn't seem to grow any thinner or weaker, and tones of red were seeping their way into the sky above.
He caught Arion glancing over at him as he walked.
“Tell me about these islands in the sky.”
“Well,” he considered for a moment before he continued, “They're kept up in the sky by these great trees, which we call Anchors.” He looked over at her, and she nodded eagerly, urging him to go on. “There are countless islands, all different sizes. The biggest ones are fixed in place, and the smallest ones orbit around them. There's only one island lower than the clouds – Little Wend. That's where I'm from.”
“What else?”
“Mm. There are great cities on the biggest islands, and little towns and outposts on the smaller ones. There are wild islands, completely untameable, filled with wildlife and forests. Huntsmen and woodcutters go across to them in their balloons and ships to get food, among other things.” Arion smiled, and Vin relaxed, pleased with his answer.
“What do they look like? What's it like to stand on the edge of one?” Vin hesitated, struggling to find the words.
“You've never been to the edge of this place, have you?”
“No, I woke up at that pool.”
“We're on an island right now.” Arion stopped walking, and Vin turned back to look at her.
“What?” She took her head into her hands, visibly distressed. “How did I get here?” Her voice started to crack. Vin faltered, unsure of how to respond. He awkwardly reached out a hand, and rubbed her shoulder.
“We'll figure it out.” He said after a pause, unable to find words of any more substance. She inhaled deeply, and composed herself.
“I don't need comforting.” Vin withdrew his hand, and looked down at his feet uncomfortably. She set off at a quick pace, and Vin followed quietly. They walked for a time without exchanging a word, the ambient sound of rushing water filling the otherwise silent air.
Arion paused slightly ahead, and gasped. Vin ran to meet her. They were stood on a crossroad, leading onto a main street. Floating white lights lined either side of the street at varying heights, emitting a brilliant glow. The lights stretched off into the distance on the seemingly endless road, each bobbing gently on the breeze.
Arion began moving towards the nearest light slowly, looking about in wonder. Vin walked after her cautiously, eyeing the mysterious orbs with distrust. She reached out towards one of the orbs, white light flowing along her hand and casting shadows across her. Her face was completely illuminated, her eyes a brilliant blue as they caught the light. Vin watched, mesmerised, as she touched the light. It reacted to her touch, moving upwards briefly before bouncing back into place as though tethered to the spot. It remained turbulent for a time, the light cascading in all directions, causing the shadows on Arion to dance along her body. She lowered her arm, and stood, staring up at the light.
He turned his eyes to the street they were on, unable to see where it ended. Where the street became impossible to see, the lights continued, as if the street dropped off at the horizon and the lights carried on into thin air.
“Should we follow this street?” Arion snapped out of her daze at the sound of his voice.
“Well, this is the first time we've seen a change in the scenery. Maybe we should see where it leads.” Vin grunted in response, his fingers brushing against his pistol. Without warning, Arion set off down the street.
The slivers of red continued bleeding into the sky until it was an ocean, as the air about them became darker. They walked under the lights down the seemingly endless road, passing repetitive buildings in various stages of destruction.
“What do you think they are?” Arion mused. Her voice resonated about the empty road.
“I couldn't possibly know.” She looked over at him, frowning, before turning her head to stare at the lights as they passed under them.
“They're... beautiful.” She stated. Vin thought back to her holding a knife at his throat. He was witnessing a completely different side to her, he realised, as she drifted just ahead of him in a daze, transfixed by her surroundings.
As they walked, more of the path ahead was visible, and in turn the road behind gradually became distant, eventually disappearing from sight.
Night descended upon them, and the lights fought valiantly against it. There were no landmarks other than the buildings on either side, and through the small gaps between them only darkness was visible.
Something shifted in a nearby building. Vin came to a sudden stop.
“Arion.” He hissed, motioning for quiet. She stopped and turned to him, a mixture of concern and confusion on her face.
“There's nobody else here. I've been here for days. There's nobody-” Another noise came from the other side of the street. She fell quiet, and calmly reached for her blade.
“Keep moving.” She said, almost in a whisper. The pair began walking slowly, with their weapons drawn. Every gap in each building became a hiding place, each shadow an enemy. All movement stopped, and the silence became much more unnerving.
Vin became aware of a sudden absence of light behind them. He glanced at the street behind them. The furthest lights had been extinguished, and the darkness grew ever closer as more lights vanished.
“We need to get moving.” Vin warned Arion. She turned and spotted the approaching wall of black.
They picked up the pace, still trying to examine the shadowed buildings that surrounded them for any sign of a threat.
A rain creature stepped out from between two buildings just ahead of them.
“But it isn't raining!” Vin breathed. It turned to face them. Its mask had a blue circle around one eye.
Arion lunged for the creature with her blade. Vin grabbed her and pulled her into a run past the masked figure.
“What are you doing?” Arion called.
“Not now!” He shouted in response. The darkness caught up with them as they sprinted, the lights just ahead of them flickering, and vanishing. Another masked creature stepped out into the light ahead of them, its shadowy form almost resembling a long coat. “Keep running!” Vin bellowed ahead to Arion, who was much faster than him. The light grew further away as they ran, until they were completely shrouded in darkness. They ran towards the last few lights in the distance.
The street came to an abrupt end in the distance. Only two of the hundreds of lights remained lit. They came to a halt at a railing. Beneath them was open sky.
“Th-that-that's sky!” Arion exclaimed, staring down into the vast emptiness.
“...That's my ship.” The sails of The Glum Blue were unmistakeable through the wisps of clouds beneath them. He pulled the cord on his coat. “We're getting on that ship.” Arion looked around at him, exasperated. She turned back to the wall of black behind them. The two masked figures were walking towards them slowly, barely distinguishable against the night but for their masks. Vin's wings snapped open. He grabbed Arion and pulled her close to him.
“Noah, if these wings don't open, I'm coming for you in the next life.” He muttered under his breath, before stepping over the rail, with Arion in his arms, and falling forward over the edge.
Arion's screams were barely audible by the air rushing past his ears as his wings caught the wind and they gradually slowed into a glide. Vin tilted, and they circled the ship in their descent, growing ever closer to the deck. Just like the last time Vin flew towards the ship with another person in his arms, The Glum Blue appeared to be completely empty. Vin had concerns about how the ship came to be at the dead city, but he was much more concerned at the masked figures and what their intentions were. They landed gracefully on the ship, and Arion ran to the side, gripping it until her knuckles were white.
“This situation feels far too familiar.” Vin remarked, looking around the deck. He approached the door to the cabin cautiously, pistol in hand. There was a mark in the wood where he had used his knife to seal the door shut. He pushed open the door, and peered inside. The interior was deserted. The floor creaked as he stepped inside, and he froze, listening intently for a minute, before coming to the top of the stairs. He made his way down them carefully, and found himself in the darkened room filled with beds. His eyes adjusted to the low lighting. The silhouettes of the furniture slowly grew into fully formed shapes. He passed in between them silently, pointing his pistol at every gap between the beds as he moved. Satisfied that they were alone, he returned to the deck, where Arion was staring upwards at the dead city.
Vin moved to the ship's helm, spinning the wheel violently and pulling on a series of levers. He noticed Arion watching him, mistified.
“I don't plan on staying here. And before you ask, I have no idea where we're going.” Arion glanced back up at the island.
“You weren't lying... about the islands.” Vin shook his head.
“The islands are real. Where we actually are in the world, though, is a different subject entirely.” She returned to the edge of the ship, and sat with her legs dangling over the edge, staring out at the sky all around them.
“How is this thing up in the air?”
“I leave that sort of question to the people that build them.” Arion resumed her contemplative quiet. They were surrounded by thin slivers of clouds. In the distance, the clouds swirled into a spiral, almost like a whirlpool. They drifted towards it slowly. Vin stepped away from the helm, and allowed himself some time to breathe. Since he had been captured in the rain, he had been constantly on edge, unable to relax or calm his nerves. He delved into his pockets and found his whiskey, emptying the last few drops into his mouth. Clearing his throat, he moved to stand near Arion.
“How do you ever grow tired of this?” She asked as the cold night air brushed against them.
“You never do, not really. I've just had more pressing things to think about.” The two stared out into the star littered sky. Around the dead city in the distance, the stars seemed much more vibrant and numerous.
“Who were those men back there? Why did we run from them?”
“I'm not sure if they were men. And I don't know who they are.”
“Why run?”
“From what I've seen, you don't want to come into contact with them.” She thought on his words for a moment.
“One last thing.” Vin waited for her next words. “When you saw them, you said that it wasn't raining.” He sighed, and considered his response carefully.
“I told you earlier today that an Anchor Tree – the things that keep the islands in the sky – was killed. When an Anchor dies, it brings the rain, and the rain brings those things.” Arion rose to her feet. She was staring ahead of the ship. “What?”
“The clouds over there.” He followed her gaze. The spiral of clouds was twisting violently in on itself. “Should we be heading straight towards them?”
“They're just clouds.” Vin said, dismissively.
“It's not the clouds I'm afraid of. It's whatever is making them spin like that.”
“We call it wind in these parts.” Arion shot him a dark look. He remembered how close she came to killing him, and changed his tone. “There is nothing to fear.”
The Glum Blue shuddered violently, throwing Vin off balance. He caught himself on the rail, and braced himself for whatever was about to happen. They began to turn slowly along with the clouds, which coated the underside of the vessel. As they turned the ship began to gather speed, spinning in tighter and tighter circles until they were upon the centre of the swirling mass of clouds. The front of the ship began to tilt downwards, enough for Vin to loose his footing and begin sliding down the deck. He stretched out an arm as he slid, and found another part of the rail to cling to. The impact caused him to wince in pain. Arion was above him, wordlessly hanging onto the ship with her eyes firmly shut.
Narrow streaks of daylight suffused into the sky around them as they span, melting into the dark like droplets of blood in water. It became unbearable for Vin to watch his surroundings revolve. He fixed his eyes on the front of the ship for a moment as a crescendo of colour rushed by in his peripheral vision. He closed his eyes. Lights etched themselves onto his eyelids, and he felt his hair dancing about him; one moment covering his face, the next hanging above him as the ship upturned itself.
Vin ignored the shifting lights, the fire in his arms as he held onto the ship, and the rush of dizziness that was almost too much to withstand. For a time, the only thing that existed was the sound of breath leaving his body. He lost focus on everything, until his breathing was the only thing he was conscious of. The sound of him exhaling became almost deafening. As he drew breath in the lights seemed to slow, until they gradually settled and stayed constant. He could no longer feel his arm, though the pain was manageable. The ship seemed to have stopped moving, and suddenly the rest of his body returned to him. He opened his eyes.
He was lying at the front of the ship, a considerable distance from where he had been when he closed his eyes. Arion was in his arms, shaking, with fear streaked across her features. His left arm was a dead weight, unable to move. The veins along his palms and across a short section of his wrist were glowing a faint blue. Beneath him was a fist-sized hole in the deck of the ship.
“What happened?” He spoke almost in a whisper.
“I- I lost my grip. You jumped out, caught me, and punched through the deck to stop us from falling.”
“But..” He trailed off, staring at his arm. He pushed himself up into a sitting position. He glanced over at the rail that he had been gripping. Near the base of the wooden beam were five, deep grooves, as though he had been holding on so tight that he had carved the wood with his bare hand.
He realised that he was bleeding, and that his hands were covered in splinters. Though his veins were still glowing blue, the blood was scarlet.
Vin rose to his feet, rolling the sleeve of his coat to cover his glowing veins. He began flexing his fingers slowly and painfully as control started to return to him. They had arrived at sunset in lands Vin didn't recognise. Above them, the swirling clouds drifted calmly in a silent vortex, seemingly harmless from a distance.
“There is nothing to fear.” Arion muttered from somewhere behind him. He ignored her, his eyes fixed on the swirling clouds as he started pulling chunks of splintered wood from his arm. The sleeve of his coat was torn in places and damp with blood. Vin set about slowly trying to peel his coat off, wincing with pain, when Arion appeared from behind with her dagger and took it to his coat, slicing through the fabric and freeing his arm. He grunted and took the rest of his coat off. The blue glow in his veins carried on along his forearm, growing more and more faint until it reached his elbow, where it seemed to stop. Arion motioned for him to sit, and began pulling the splinters out in silence.
“I have no idea what this is.” Vin grunted eventually, once he realised that the glow wasn't subsiding. Arion paused for a moment to glance up at him before returning her focus to his wounds.
“This... never happened to you before?”
“You think this is normal?” He half laughed, half choked as he spoke.
“In the short time that I've known you,” she began while fashioning a bandage from Vin's coat, “We have flown using your wings, onto a flying ship, surrounded by islands in the sky. I wouldn't be at all shocked if you told me that everybody glows blue where you're from.” Vin managed another laugh.
“I suppose that's a reasonable stance.”
“I'm not even sure if any of this is real, so why not have a glowing blue arm? Next you'll be starting fires with your eyes, and I'd just accept it as normal for you.”
“I wouldn't be surprised if you could start fires with your eyes, with the looks you've given me.” Vin grinned, and she glared up at him. “You see what I mean?” She tightened his bandage suddenly and he grunted in pain, still laughing and coughing. Arion rose to her feet and looked around the deck of The Glum Blue.
“Is this how you got here?” She asked, inquisitively. Vin stopped laughing, realising suddenly that he hadn't seen the ship since it drifted away from the wildlands.
“No.” He paused, forcing himself to stand. He felt incredibly weak, but he couldn't rest until he was certain they were safe.
“You said it was your ship.”
“I lost her. Somebody set her adrift some time ago. I didn't think I'd ever see her again.” He spoke distractedly as he wandered around the deck of the ship, his good hand on his pistol.
“So, how did it come to be here?”
“That's what I'm worried about.” Arion watched him checking over every possible hiding place, exasperated.
“With every word you say this situation becomes increasingly worrying.”
“I was only answering your questions. Would you prefer not knowing?” Arion fell quiet as Vin double checked the ship's interior. As his eyes were adjusting to the dark beneath the deck, he noticed a faint glow beneath one of the beds. He knelt and found the source of the glow – a faint, weakened fire fly. Returning to the room above deck he found the fire fly's jar, still intact, with the lid beside it on the floor. He grabbed a few sheets of loose parchment, and took the jar back down to the fire fly. Using the thick parchment he ushered the tiny creature into the jar and dropped the slightly burned in alongside it. Satisfied that there was no immediate danger, he returned to the deck to find Arion sat against a wall looking out over the open sky. They were far below the clouds; there were only one or two islands visible above. Shades of amber and scarlet melted into the horizon, dotted with the night's first stars.
There was a pleasant cool breeze, and the ocean below stretched on for miles in the clear conditions, quietly flowing towards a shore that wasn't there. Arion turned at the sound of him walking onto the deck, and spotted the jar.
“This is a fire fly,” he explained, noting her curious expression, “They eat little scraps of paper and kindling, though I don't think this one has been fed in a while.” He passed the jar over to her and sat beside her, watching her tapping the jar in wonder. “Here, feed him some of this, he's looking a little faint.” He retreived a sheet of parchment and tore some up, letting Arion drop it into the jar. The fire fly pounced onto the fluttering scraps, growing brighter with each feed.
“You know, when I was younger, I would hear stories about these enormous islands on the water. There were these great civilisations connected by land, centuries old and incredibly advanced. People still say they've found artifacts from these islands drifting in the ocean, or that they spotted land on the horizon, only to lose sight of it whenever they've tried to get near.”
“So... there's nothing but ocean below the islands?” Vin nodded, and Arion fell quiet again, her face and hands stained in the fire fly's steadily growing flame.
“The way the stories tell it, the people from these civilisations became arrogant and selfish, fighting and killing each other, until one day an old and forgotten deity damned them to the ocean, raising a only a few chunks of land into the sky so that her creation could live on peacefully.”
“Is that what you believe?”
“No. There's nothing peaceful about the islands, for a start. It's just something to think about.” Vin pondered for a moment on the forgotten deity, and what she would think of him sending her creation back to the ocean. He stood, for a brief moment staring across the shimmering mass of water, before turning to Arion. “Do you have anywhere that you need to be?” She shook her head, tapping again at the jar in her hands. “Then I suggest that we go up.” He strolled over to the ship's helm and began pulling levers and turning the wheel – gritting his teeth with pain as he did – until the ship was travelling at a slight incline.
He returned to find Arion holding his coat. She had placed the jar on the ground, and was running her fingers over the mechanism that controlled his wings. She pulled the cord and watched the wings slowly unfurl, before pulling it again and folding them back in.
“This is... amazing.” She said quietly. Vin returned to his seat beside her.
“Yeah, they're not very easy to come by. They're expensive and difficult to make.”
“I bet people will pay anything for the ability to fly.”
“Well, it's more like gliding over fairly short distances. If you go too far from the islands there's a good chance you won't make it back.”
As the ship made a steady ascent towards the clouds, the Vin explained life on the floating islands, and told Arion about his upbringing on Little Wend. Arion mostly listened, occasionally interjecting with a question or a comment, whilst Vin tried his best to describe the world he had always known. Occasionally she'd smile at some remark he'd make, though she kept her gaze fixated on the beautifull vastness before them. By the time they hit the clouds the sun was a deep scarlet, and had mostly sunk into the ocean. Arion shivered, and picked up the fire fly, holding it to her chest for warmth. Vin picked his coat up and placed it around her shoulders, and the two sat quietly while Vin toyed with his makeshift bandage.
Their silence was interrupted by Arion gasping as they breached through the top of the clouds. Dozens of islands, each varying in size and drenched in the setting sun, suddenly came into view. Although familiar with the sight, Vin managed a tired smile; wherever the masked creatures had taken him, he had made it back.
“Which island would you like to visit?” Vin asked. Arion thought for a moment, before pointing at the nearest one.
“Have you been there?” She asked, mesmerised.
“It's unlikely. I'm not entirely certain where we are.” He chuckled to himself before making his way over to the helm and altering their course.
As night slowly descended, nightfires were lit on the surrounding islands, stretching off as far as the eye could see. “I should probably mention,” he called over to Arion, “That I don't really have a way of stopping the ship.” Arion rushed to her feet, suddenly agitated.
“What!?”
“When she was set adrift, somebody removed the anchor. I haven't quite figured out how we're going to moor. You know, other than crashing into the island.”
“Have you lost your mind!?”
“It'd only be a very slow crash.” Vin said quietly.
“What did you say?” Vin sighed, and considered his options for a moment. He lowered the masts and stopped the propellers, though they still had some momentum and were bound directly for the island.
“Could you not use the wings and get us onto the island?”
“When we were close enough, maybe. But then the ship would just drift past without us.” Arion began pacing, muttering with a mixture of anger and panic. Vin rested his arms against the wheel and watched calmly as the island grew to fill the horizon. There was a distinctive sound of ammunition being fired, followed closely by a pair of hooks on chains, which lodged themselves into the ship's belly. Arion stopped pacing and drew her dagger.
“Well, this solves the whole mooring issue.” Vin remarked cheerfully.
“Maybe you should put your wings on.” Arion snapped. Nodding in agreement, Vin put his coat on and pulled the cord. Then he took the mask from his pocket, grabbed Arion, and leapt from the side of the ship. It was a short glide over to the island, and Vin began to edge closer to the ground.
“Are you ready?” Vin called over the sound of rushing wind. Arion nodded, and Vin dropped her. She landed gracefully into a run as Vin prepared for his own landing. He braced his legs for impact, lowering himself onto the ground. He almost stumbled when he hit the ground, and Arion passed him as he was retracting his wings. The pair fled through sparce trees until they reached a town, with buildings crammed and towering over the street. They finally came to a stop in a narrow alleyway, taking a pause to catch their breath.
“Why were we attacked? What's going on?” Arion panted.
“I don't know.” Vin motioned for quiet. The sounds of battle had erupted from a nearby street. He drew his pistol, and the pair moved cautiously towards the end of the street. Vin peered around the corner. A group of people were locked in combat with several mechanical watchmen, and each person wore a white mask with a blue circle around one eye.
The dead city seemed endless; Arion and Vin had been wandering for hours along one of the many streams that flowed through the streets. It didn't seem to grow any thinner or weaker, and tones of red were seeping their way into the sky above.
He caught Arion glancing over at him as he walked.
“Tell me about these islands in the sky.”
“Well,” he considered for a moment before he continued, “They're kept up in the sky by these great trees, which we call Anchors.” He looked over at her, and she nodded eagerly, urging him to go on. “There are countless islands, all different sizes. The biggest ones are fixed in place, and the smallest ones orbit around them. There's only one island lower than the clouds – Little Wend. That's where I'm from.”
“What else?”
“Mm. There are great cities on the biggest islands, and little towns and outposts on the smaller ones. There are wild islands, completely untameable, filled with wildlife and forests. Huntsmen and woodcutters go across to them in their balloons and ships to get food, among other things.” Arion smiled, and Vin relaxed, pleased with his answer.
“What do they look like? What's it like to stand on the edge of one?” Vin hesitated, struggling to find the words.
“You've never been to the edge of this place, have you?”
“No, I woke up at that pool.”
“We're on an island right now.” Arion stopped walking, and Vin turned back to look at her.
“What?” She took her head into her hands, visibly distressed. “How did I get here?” Her voice started to crack. Vin faltered, unsure of how to respond. He awkwardly reached out a hand, and rubbed her shoulder.
“We'll figure it out.” He said after a pause, unable to find words of any more substance. She inhaled deeply, and composed herself.
“I don't need comforting.” Vin withdrew his hand, and looked down at his feet uncomfortably. She set off at a quick pace, and Vin followed quietly. They walked for a time without exchanging a word, the ambient sound of rushing water filling the otherwise silent air.
Arion paused slightly ahead, and gasped. Vin ran to meet her. They were stood on a crossroad, leading onto a main street. Floating white lights lined either side of the street at varying heights, emitting a brilliant glow. The lights stretched off into the distance on the seemingly endless road, each bobbing gently on the breeze.
Arion began moving towards the nearest light slowly, looking about in wonder. Vin walked after her cautiously, eyeing the mysterious orbs with distrust. She reached out towards one of the orbs, white light flowing along her hand and casting shadows across her. Her face was completely illuminated, her eyes a brilliant blue as they caught the light. Vin watched, mesmerised, as she touched the light. It reacted to her touch, moving upwards briefly before bouncing back into place as though tethered to the spot. It remained turbulent for a time, the light cascading in all directions, causing the shadows on Arion to dance along her body. She lowered her arm, and stood, staring up at the light.
He turned his eyes to the street they were on, unable to see where it ended. Where the street became impossible to see, the lights continued, as if the street dropped off at the horizon and the lights carried on into thin air.
“Should we follow this street?” Arion snapped out of her daze at the sound of his voice.
“Well, this is the first time we've seen a change in the scenery. Maybe we should see where it leads.” Vin grunted in response, his fingers brushing against his pistol. Without warning, Arion set off down the street.
The slivers of red continued bleeding into the sky until it was an ocean, as the air about them became darker. They walked under the lights down the seemingly endless road, passing repetitive buildings in various stages of destruction.
“What do you think they are?” Arion mused. Her voice resonated about the empty road.
“I couldn't possibly know.” She looked over at him, frowning, before turning her head to stare at the lights as they passed under them.
“They're... beautiful.” She stated. Vin thought back to her holding a knife at his throat. He was witnessing a completely different side to her, he realised, as she drifted just ahead of him in a daze, transfixed by her surroundings.
As they walked, more of the path ahead was visible, and in turn the road behind gradually became distant, eventually disappearing from sight.
Night descended upon them, and the lights fought valiantly against it. There were no landmarks other than the buildings on either side, and through the small gaps between them only darkness was visible.
Something shifted in a nearby building. Vin came to a sudden stop.
“Arion.” He hissed, motioning for quiet. She stopped and turned to him, a mixture of concern and confusion on her face.
“There's nobody else here. I've been here for days. There's nobody-” Another noise came from the other side of the street. She fell quiet, and calmly reached for her blade.
“Keep moving.” She said, almost in a whisper. The pair began walking slowly, with their weapons drawn. Every gap in each building became a hiding place, each shadow an enemy. All movement stopped, and the silence became much more unnerving.
Vin became aware of a sudden absence of light behind them. He glanced at the street behind them. The furthest lights had been extinguished, and the darkness grew ever closer as more lights vanished.
“We need to get moving.” Vin warned Arion. She turned and spotted the approaching wall of black.
They picked up the pace, still trying to examine the shadowed buildings that surrounded them for any sign of a threat.
A rain creature stepped out from between two buildings just ahead of them.
“But it isn't raining!” Vin breathed. It turned to face them. Its mask had a blue circle around one eye.
Arion lunged for the creature with her blade. Vin grabbed her and pulled her into a run past the masked figure.
“What are you doing?” Arion called.
“Not now!” He shouted in response. The darkness caught up with them as they sprinted, the lights just ahead of them flickering, and vanishing. Another masked creature stepped out into the light ahead of them, its shadowy form almost resembling a long coat. “Keep running!” Vin bellowed ahead to Arion, who was much faster than him. The light grew further away as they ran, until they were completely shrouded in darkness. They ran towards the last few lights in the distance.
The street came to an abrupt end in the distance. Only two of the hundreds of lights remained lit. They came to a halt at a railing. Beneath them was open sky.
“Th-that-that's sky!” Arion exclaimed, staring down into the vast emptiness.
“...That's my ship.” The sails of The Glum Blue were unmistakeable through the wisps of clouds beneath them. He pulled the cord on his coat. “We're getting on that ship.” Arion looked around at him, exasperated. She turned back to the wall of black behind them. The two masked figures were walking towards them slowly, barely distinguishable against the night but for their masks. Vin's wings snapped open. He grabbed Arion and pulled her close to him.
“Noah, if these wings don't open, I'm coming for you in the next life.” He muttered under his breath, before stepping over the rail, with Arion in his arms, and falling forward over the edge.
Arion's screams were barely audible by the air rushing past his ears as his wings caught the wind and they gradually slowed into a glide. Vin tilted, and they circled the ship in their descent, growing ever closer to the deck. Just like the last time Vin flew towards the ship with another person in his arms, The Glum Blue appeared to be completely empty. Vin had concerns about how the ship came to be at the dead city, but he was much more concerned at the masked figures and what their intentions were. They landed gracefully on the ship, and Arion ran to the side, gripping it until her knuckles were white.
“This situation feels far too familiar.” Vin remarked, looking around the deck. He approached the door to the cabin cautiously, pistol in hand. There was a mark in the wood where he had used his knife to seal the door shut. He pushed open the door, and peered inside. The interior was deserted. The floor creaked as he stepped inside, and he froze, listening intently for a minute, before coming to the top of the stairs. He made his way down them carefully, and found himself in the darkened room filled with beds. His eyes adjusted to the low lighting. The silhouettes of the furniture slowly grew into fully formed shapes. He passed in between them silently, pointing his pistol at every gap between the beds as he moved. Satisfied that they were alone, he returned to the deck, where Arion was staring upwards at the dead city.
Vin moved to the ship's helm, spinning the wheel violently and pulling on a series of levers. He noticed Arion watching him, mistified.
“I don't plan on staying here. And before you ask, I have no idea where we're going.” Arion glanced back up at the island.
“You weren't lying... about the islands.” Vin shook his head.
“The islands are real. Where we actually are in the world, though, is a different subject entirely.” She returned to the edge of the ship, and sat with her legs dangling over the edge, staring out at the sky all around them.
“How is this thing up in the air?”
“I leave that sort of question to the people that build them.” Arion resumed her contemplative quiet. They were surrounded by thin slivers of clouds. In the distance, the clouds swirled into a spiral, almost like a whirlpool. They drifted towards it slowly. Vin stepped away from the helm, and allowed himself some time to breathe. Since he had been captured in the rain, he had been constantly on edge, unable to relax or calm his nerves. He delved into his pockets and found his whiskey, emptying the last few drops into his mouth. Clearing his throat, he moved to stand near Arion.
“How do you ever grow tired of this?” She asked as the cold night air brushed against them.
“You never do, not really. I've just had more pressing things to think about.” The two stared out into the star littered sky. Around the dead city in the distance, the stars seemed much more vibrant and numerous.
“Who were those men back there? Why did we run from them?”
“I'm not sure if they were men. And I don't know who they are.”
“Why run?”
“From what I've seen, you don't want to come into contact with them.” She thought on his words for a moment.
“One last thing.” Vin waited for her next words. “When you saw them, you said that it wasn't raining.” He sighed, and considered his response carefully.
“I told you earlier today that an Anchor Tree – the things that keep the islands in the sky – was killed. When an Anchor dies, it brings the rain, and the rain brings those things.” Arion rose to her feet. She was staring ahead of the ship. “What?”
“The clouds over there.” He followed her gaze. The spiral of clouds was twisting violently in on itself. “Should we be heading straight towards them?”
“They're just clouds.” Vin said, dismissively.
“It's not the clouds I'm afraid of. It's whatever is making them spin like that.”
“We call it wind in these parts.” Arion shot him a dark look. He remembered how close she came to killing him, and changed his tone. “There is nothing to fear.”
The Glum Blue shuddered violently, throwing Vin off balance. He caught himself on the rail, and braced himself for whatever was about to happen. They began to turn slowly along with the clouds, which coated the underside of the vessel. As they turned the ship began to gather speed, spinning in tighter and tighter circles until they were upon the centre of the swirling mass of clouds. The front of the ship began to tilt downwards, enough for Vin to loose his footing and begin sliding down the deck. He stretched out an arm as he slid, and found another part of the rail to cling to. The impact caused him to wince in pain. Arion was above him, wordlessly hanging onto the ship with her eyes firmly shut.
Narrow streaks of daylight suffused into the sky around them as they span, melting into the dark like droplets of blood in water. It became unbearable for Vin to watch his surroundings revolve. He fixed his eyes on the front of the ship for a moment as a crescendo of colour rushed by in his peripheral vision. He closed his eyes. Lights etched themselves onto his eyelids, and he felt his hair dancing about him; one moment covering his face, the next hanging above him as the ship upturned itself.
Vin ignored the shifting lights, the fire in his arms as he held onto the ship, and the rush of dizziness that was almost too much to withstand. For a time, the only thing that existed was the sound of breath leaving his body. He lost focus on everything, until his breathing was the only thing he was conscious of. The sound of him exhaling became almost deafening. As he drew breath in the lights seemed to slow, until they gradually settled and stayed constant. He could no longer feel his arm, though the pain was manageable. The ship seemed to have stopped moving, and suddenly the rest of his body returned to him. He opened his eyes.
He was lying at the front of the ship, a considerable distance from where he had been when he closed his eyes. Arion was in his arms, shaking, with fear streaked across her features. His left arm was a dead weight, unable to move. The veins along his palms and across a short section of his wrist were glowing a faint blue. Beneath him was a fist-sized hole in the deck of the ship.
“What happened?” He spoke almost in a whisper.
“I- I lost my grip. You jumped out, caught me, and punched through the deck to stop us from falling.”
“But..” He trailed off, staring at his arm. He pushed himself up into a sitting position. He glanced over at the rail that he had been gripping. Near the base of the wooden beam were five, deep grooves, as though he had been holding on so tight that he had carved the wood with his bare hand.
He realised that he was bleeding, and that his hands were covered in splinters. Though his veins were still glowing blue, the blood was scarlet.
Vin rose to his feet, rolling the sleeve of his coat to cover his glowing veins. He began flexing his fingers slowly and painfully as control started to return to him. They had arrived at sunset in lands Vin didn't recognise. Above them, the swirling clouds drifted calmly in a silent vortex, seemingly harmless from a distance.
“There is nothing to fear.” Arion muttered from somewhere behind him. He ignored her, his eyes fixed on the swirling clouds as he started pulling chunks of splintered wood from his arm. The sleeve of his coat was torn in places and damp with blood. Vin set about slowly trying to peel his coat off, wincing with pain, when Arion appeared from behind with her dagger and took it to his coat, slicing through the fabric and freeing his arm. He grunted and took the rest of his coat off. The blue glow in his veins carried on along his forearm, growing more and more faint until it reached his elbow, where it seemed to stop. Arion motioned for him to sit, and began pulling the splinters out in silence.
“I have no idea what this is.” Vin grunted eventually, once he realised that the glow wasn't subsiding. Arion paused for a moment to glance up at him before returning her focus to his wounds.
“This... never happened to you before?”
“You think this is normal?” He half laughed, half choked as he spoke.
“In the short time that I've known you,” she began while fashioning a bandage from Vin's coat, “We have flown using your wings, onto a flying ship, surrounded by islands in the sky. I wouldn't be at all shocked if you told me that everybody glows blue where you're from.” Vin managed another laugh.
“I suppose that's a reasonable stance.”
“I'm not even sure if any of this is real, so why not have a glowing blue arm? Next you'll be starting fires with your eyes, and I'd just accept it as normal for you.”
“I wouldn't be surprised if you could start fires with your eyes, with the looks you've given me.” Vin grinned, and she glared up at him. “You see what I mean?” She tightened his bandage suddenly and he grunted in pain, still laughing and coughing. Arion rose to her feet and looked around the deck of The Glum Blue.
“Is this how you got here?” She asked, inquisitively. Vin stopped laughing, realising suddenly that he hadn't seen the ship since it drifted away from the wildlands.
“No.” He paused, forcing himself to stand. He felt incredibly weak, but he couldn't rest until he was certain they were safe.
“You said it was your ship.”
“I lost her. Somebody set her adrift some time ago. I didn't think I'd ever see her again.” He spoke distractedly as he wandered around the deck of the ship, his good hand on his pistol.
“So, how did it come to be here?”
“That's what I'm worried about.” Arion watched him checking over every possible hiding place, exasperated.
“With every word you say this situation becomes increasingly worrying.”
“I was only answering your questions. Would you prefer not knowing?” Arion fell quiet as Vin double checked the ship's interior. As his eyes were adjusting to the dark beneath the deck, he noticed a faint glow beneath one of the beds. He knelt and found the source of the glow – a faint, weakened fire fly. Returning to the room above deck he found the fire fly's jar, still intact, with the lid beside it on the floor. He grabbed a few sheets of loose parchment, and took the jar back down to the fire fly. Using the thick parchment he ushered the tiny creature into the jar and dropped the slightly burned in alongside it. Satisfied that there was no immediate danger, he returned to the deck to find Arion sat against a wall looking out over the open sky. They were far below the clouds; there were only one or two islands visible above. Shades of amber and scarlet melted into the horizon, dotted with the night's first stars.
There was a pleasant cool breeze, and the ocean below stretched on for miles in the clear conditions, quietly flowing towards a shore that wasn't there. Arion turned at the sound of him walking onto the deck, and spotted the jar.
“This is a fire fly,” he explained, noting her curious expression, “They eat little scraps of paper and kindling, though I don't think this one has been fed in a while.” He passed the jar over to her and sat beside her, watching her tapping the jar in wonder. “Here, feed him some of this, he's looking a little faint.” He retreived a sheet of parchment and tore some up, letting Arion drop it into the jar. The fire fly pounced onto the fluttering scraps, growing brighter with each feed.
“You know, when I was younger, I would hear stories about these enormous islands on the water. There were these great civilisations connected by land, centuries old and incredibly advanced. People still say they've found artifacts from these islands drifting in the ocean, or that they spotted land on the horizon, only to lose sight of it whenever they've tried to get near.”
“So... there's nothing but ocean below the islands?” Vin nodded, and Arion fell quiet again, her face and hands stained in the fire fly's steadily growing flame.
“The way the stories tell it, the people from these civilisations became arrogant and selfish, fighting and killing each other, until one day an old and forgotten deity damned them to the ocean, raising a only a few chunks of land into the sky so that her creation could live on peacefully.”
“Is that what you believe?”
“No. There's nothing peaceful about the islands, for a start. It's just something to think about.” Vin pondered for a moment on the forgotten deity, and what she would think of him sending her creation back to the ocean. He stood, for a brief moment staring across the shimmering mass of water, before turning to Arion. “Do you have anywhere that you need to be?” She shook her head, tapping again at the jar in her hands. “Then I suggest that we go up.” He strolled over to the ship's helm and began pulling levers and turning the wheel – gritting his teeth with pain as he did – until the ship was travelling at a slight incline.
He returned to find Arion holding his coat. She had placed the jar on the ground, and was running her fingers over the mechanism that controlled his wings. She pulled the cord and watched the wings slowly unfurl, before pulling it again and folding them back in.
“This is... amazing.” She said quietly. Vin returned to his seat beside her.
“Yeah, they're not very easy to come by. They're expensive and difficult to make.”
“I bet people will pay anything for the ability to fly.”
“Well, it's more like gliding over fairly short distances. If you go too far from the islands there's a good chance you won't make it back.”
As the ship made a steady ascent towards the clouds, the Vin explained life on the floating islands, and told Arion about his upbringing on Little Wend. Arion mostly listened, occasionally interjecting with a question or a comment, whilst Vin tried his best to describe the world he had always known. Occasionally she'd smile at some remark he'd make, though she kept her gaze fixated on the beautifull vastness before them. By the time they hit the clouds the sun was a deep scarlet, and had mostly sunk into the ocean. Arion shivered, and picked up the fire fly, holding it to her chest for warmth. Vin picked his coat up and placed it around her shoulders, and the two sat quietly while Vin toyed with his makeshift bandage.
Their silence was interrupted by Arion gasping as they breached through the top of the clouds. Dozens of islands, each varying in size and drenched in the setting sun, suddenly came into view. Although familiar with the sight, Vin managed a tired smile; wherever the masked creatures had taken him, he had made it back.
“Which island would you like to visit?” Vin asked. Arion thought for a moment, before pointing at the nearest one.
“Have you been there?” She asked, mesmerised.
“It's unlikely. I'm not entirely certain where we are.” He chuckled to himself before making his way over to the helm and altering their course.
As night slowly descended, nightfires were lit on the surrounding islands, stretching off as far as the eye could see. “I should probably mention,” he called over to Arion, “That I don't really have a way of stopping the ship.” Arion rushed to her feet, suddenly agitated.
“What!?”
“When she was set adrift, somebody removed the anchor. I haven't quite figured out how we're going to moor. You know, other than crashing into the island.”
“Have you lost your mind!?”
“It'd only be a very slow crash.” Vin said quietly.
“What did you say?” Vin sighed, and considered his options for a moment. He lowered the masts and stopped the propellers, though they still had some momentum and were bound directly for the island.
“Could you not use the wings and get us onto the island?”
“When we were close enough, maybe. But then the ship would just drift past without us.” Arion began pacing, muttering with a mixture of anger and panic. Vin rested his arms against the wheel and watched calmly as the island grew to fill the horizon. There was a distinctive sound of ammunition being fired, followed closely by a pair of hooks on chains, which lodged themselves into the ship's belly. Arion stopped pacing and drew her dagger.
“Well, this solves the whole mooring issue.” Vin remarked cheerfully.
“Maybe you should put your wings on.” Arion snapped. Nodding in agreement, Vin put his coat on and pulled the cord. Then he took the mask from his pocket, grabbed Arion, and leapt from the side of the ship. It was a short glide over to the island, and Vin began to edge closer to the ground.
“Are you ready?” Vin called over the sound of rushing wind. Arion nodded, and Vin dropped her. She landed gracefully into a run as Vin prepared for his own landing. He braced his legs for impact, lowering himself onto the ground. He almost stumbled when he hit the ground, and Arion passed him as he was retracting his wings. The pair fled through sparce trees until they reached a town, with buildings crammed and towering over the street. They finally came to a stop in a narrow alleyway, taking a pause to catch their breath.
“Why were we attacked? What's going on?” Arion panted.
“I don't know.” Vin motioned for quiet. The sounds of battle had erupted from a nearby street. He drew his pistol, and the pair moved cautiously towards the end of the street. Vin peered around the corner. A group of people were locked in combat with several mechanical watchmen, and each person wore a white mask with a blue circle around one eye.
He caught Arion glancing over at him as he walked.
“Tell me about these islands in the sky.”
“Well,” he considered for a moment before he continued, “They're kept up in the sky by these great trees, which we call Anchors.” He looked over at her, and she nodded eagerly, urging him to go on. “There are countless islands, all different sizes. The biggest ones are fixed in place, and the smallest ones orbit around them. There's only one island lower than the clouds – Little Wend. That's where I'm from.”
“What else?”
“Mm. There are great cities on the biggest islands, and little towns and outposts on the smaller ones. There are wild islands, completely untameable, filled with wildlife and forests. Huntsmen and woodcutters go across to them in their balloons and ships to get food, among other things.” Arion smiled, and Vin relaxed, pleased with his answer.
“What do they look like? What's it like to stand on the edge of one?” Vin hesitated, struggling to find the words.
“You've never been to the edge of this place, have you?”
“No, I woke up at that pool.”
“We're on an island right now.” Arion stopped walking, and Vin turned back to look at her.
“What?” She took her head into her hands, visibly distressed. “How did I get here?” Her voice started to crack. Vin faltered, unsure of how to respond. He awkwardly reached out a hand, and rubbed her shoulder.
“We'll figure it out.” He said after a pause, unable to find words of any more substance. She inhaled deeply, and composed herself.
“I don't need comforting.” Vin withdrew his hand, and looked down at his feet uncomfortably. She set off at a quick pace, and Vin followed quietly. They walked for a time without exchanging a word, the ambient sound of rushing water filling the otherwise silent air.
Arion paused slightly ahead, and gasped. Vin ran to meet her. They were stood on a crossroad, leading onto a main street. Floating white lights lined either side of the street at varying heights, emitting a brilliant glow. The lights stretched off into the distance on the seemingly endless road, each bobbing gently on the breeze.
Arion began moving towards the nearest light slowly, looking about in wonder. Vin walked after her cautiously, eyeing the mysterious orbs with distrust. She reached out towards one of the orbs, white light flowing along her hand and casting shadows across her. Her face was completely illuminated, her eyes a brilliant blue as they caught the light. Vin watched, mesmerised, as she touched the light. It reacted to her touch, moving upwards briefly before bouncing back into place as though tethered to the spot. It remained turbulent for a time, the light cascading in all directions, causing the shadows on Arion to dance along her body. She lowered her arm, and stood, staring up at the light.
He turned his eyes to the street they were on, unable to see where it ended. Where the street became impossible to see, the lights continued, as if the street dropped off at the horizon and the lights carried on into thin air.
“Should we follow this street?” Arion snapped out of her daze at the sound of his voice.
“Well, this is the first time we've seen a change in the scenery. Maybe we should see where it leads.” Vin grunted in response, his fingers brushing against his pistol. Without warning, Arion set off down the street.
The slivers of red continued bleeding into the sky until it was an ocean, as the air about them became darker. They walked under the lights down the seemingly endless road, passing repetitive buildings in various stages of destruction.
“What do you think they are?” Arion mused. Her voice resonated about the empty road.
“I couldn't possibly know.” She looked over at him, frowning, before turning her head to stare at the lights as they passed under them.
“They're... beautiful.” She stated. Vin thought back to her holding a knife at his throat. He was witnessing a completely different side to her, he realised, as she drifted just ahead of him in a daze, transfixed by her surroundings.
As they walked, more of the path ahead was visible, and in turn the road behind gradually became distant, eventually disappearing from sight.
Night descended upon them, and the lights fought valiantly against it. There were no landmarks other than the buildings on either side, and through the small gaps between them only darkness was visible.
Something shifted in a nearby building. Vin came to a sudden stop.
“Arion.” He hissed, motioning for quiet. She stopped and turned to him, a mixture of concern and confusion on her face.
“There's nobody else here. I've been here for days. There's nobody-” Another noise came from the other side of the street. She fell quiet, and calmly reached for her blade.
“Keep moving.” She said, almost in a whisper. The pair began walking slowly, with their weapons drawn. Every gap in each building became a hiding place, each shadow an enemy. All movement stopped, and the silence became much more unnerving.
Vin became aware of a sudden absence of light behind them. He glanced at the street behind them. The furthest lights had been extinguished, and the darkness grew ever closer as more lights vanished.
“We need to get moving.” Vin warned Arion. She turned and spotted the approaching wall of black.
They picked up the pace, still trying to examine the shadowed buildings that surrounded them for any sign of a threat.
A rain creature stepped out from between two buildings just ahead of them.
“But it isn't raining!” Vin breathed. It turned to face them. Its mask had a blue circle around one eye.
Arion lunged for the creature with her blade. Vin grabbed her and pulled her into a run past the masked figure.
“What are you doing?” Arion called.
“Not now!” He shouted in response. The darkness caught up with them as they sprinted, the lights just ahead of them flickering, and vanishing. Another masked creature stepped out into the light ahead of them, its shadowy form almost resembling a long coat. “Keep running!” Vin bellowed ahead to Arion, who was much faster than him. The light grew further away as they ran, until they were completely shrouded in darkness. They ran towards the last few lights in the distance.
The street came to an abrupt end in the distance. Only two of the hundreds of lights remained lit. They came to a halt at a railing. Beneath them was open sky.
“Th-that-that's sky!” Arion exclaimed, staring down into the vast emptiness.
“...That's my ship.” The sails of The Glum Blue were unmistakeable through the wisps of clouds beneath them. He pulled the cord on his coat. “We're getting on that ship.” Arion looked around at him, exasperated. She turned back to the wall of black behind them. The two masked figures were walking towards them slowly, barely distinguishable against the night but for their masks. Vin's wings snapped open. He grabbed Arion and pulled her close to him.
“Noah, if these wings don't open, I'm coming for you in the next life.” He muttered under his breath, before stepping over the rail, with Arion in his arms, and falling forward over the edge.
Arion's screams were barely audible by the air rushing past his ears as his wings caught the wind and they gradually slowed into a glide. Vin tilted, and they circled the ship in their descent, growing ever closer to the deck. Just like the last time Vin flew towards the ship with another person in his arms, The Glum Blue appeared to be completely empty. Vin had concerns about how the ship came to be at the dead city, but he was much more concerned at the masked figures and what their intentions were. They landed gracefully on the ship, and Arion ran to the side, gripping it until her knuckles were white.
“This situation feels far too familiar.” Vin remarked, looking around the deck. He approached the door to the cabin cautiously, pistol in hand. There was a mark in the wood where he had used his knife to seal the door shut. He pushed open the door, and peered inside. The interior was deserted. The floor creaked as he stepped inside, and he froze, listening intently for a minute, before coming to the top of the stairs. He made his way down them carefully, and found himself in the darkened room filled with beds. His eyes adjusted to the low lighting. The silhouettes of the furniture slowly grew into fully formed shapes. He passed in between them silently, pointing his pistol at every gap between the beds as he moved. Satisfied that they were alone, he returned to the deck, where Arion was staring upwards at the dead city.
Vin moved to the ship's helm, spinning the wheel violently and pulling on a series of levers. He noticed Arion watching him, mistified.
“I don't plan on staying here. And before you ask, I have no idea where we're going.” Arion glanced back up at the island.
“You weren't lying... about the islands.” Vin shook his head.
“The islands are real. Where we actually are in the world, though, is a different subject entirely.” She returned to the edge of the ship, and sat with her legs dangling over the edge, staring out at the sky all around them.
“How is this thing up in the air?”
“I leave that sort of question to the people that build them.” Arion resumed her contemplative quiet. They were surrounded by thin slivers of clouds. In the distance, the clouds swirled into a spiral, almost like a whirlpool. They drifted towards it slowly. Vin stepped away from the helm, and allowed himself some time to breathe. Since he had been captured in the rain, he had been constantly on edge, unable to relax or calm his nerves. He delved into his pockets and found his whiskey, emptying the last few drops into his mouth. Clearing his throat, he moved to stand near Arion.
“How do you ever grow tired of this?” She asked as the cold night air brushed against them.
“You never do, not really. I've just had more pressing things to think about.” The two stared out into the star littered sky. Around the dead city in the distance, the stars seemed much more vibrant and numerous.
“Who were those men back there? Why did we run from them?”
“I'm not sure if they were men. And I don't know who they are.”
“Why run?”
“From what I've seen, you don't want to come into contact with them.” She thought on his words for a moment.
“One last thing.” Vin waited for her next words. “When you saw them, you said that it wasn't raining.” He sighed, and considered his response carefully.
“I told you earlier today that an Anchor Tree – the things that keep the islands in the sky – was killed. When an Anchor dies, it brings the rain, and the rain brings those things.” Arion rose to her feet. She was staring ahead of the ship. “What?”
“The clouds over there.” He followed her gaze. The spiral of clouds was twisting violently in on itself. “Should we be heading straight towards them?”
“They're just clouds.” Vin said, dismissively.
“It's not the clouds I'm afraid of. It's whatever is making them spin like that.”
“We call it wind in these parts.” Arion shot him a dark look. He remembered how close she came to killing him, and changed his tone. “There is nothing to fear.”
The Glum Blue shuddered violently, throwing Vin off balance. He caught himself on the rail, and braced himself for whatever was about to happen. They began to turn slowly along with the clouds, which coated the underside of the vessel. As they turned the ship began to gather speed, spinning in tighter and tighter circles until they were upon the centre of the swirling mass of clouds. The front of the ship began to tilt downwards, enough for Vin to loose his footing and begin sliding down the deck. He stretched out an arm as he slid, and found another part of the rail to cling to. The impact caused him to wince in pain. Arion was above him, wordlessly hanging onto the ship with her eyes firmly shut.
Narrow streaks of daylight suffused into the sky around them as they span, melting into the dark like droplets of blood in water. It became unbearable for Vin to watch his surroundings revolve. He fixed his eyes on the front of the ship for a moment as a crescendo of colour rushed by in his peripheral vision. He closed his eyes. Lights etched themselves onto his eyelids, and he felt his hair dancing about him; one moment covering his face, the next hanging above him as the ship upturned itself.
Vin ignored the shifting lights, the fire in his arms as he held onto the ship, and the rush of dizziness that was almost too much to withstand. For a time, the only thing that existed was the sound of breath leaving his body. He lost focus on everything, until his breathing was the only thing he was conscious of. The sound of him exhaling became almost deafening. As he drew breath in the lights seemed to slow, until they gradually settled and stayed constant. He could no longer feel his arm, though the pain was manageable. The ship seemed to have stopped moving, and suddenly the rest of his body returned to him. He opened his eyes.
He was lying at the front of the ship, a considerable distance from where he had been when he closed his eyes. Arion was in his arms, shaking, with fear streaked across her features. His left arm was a dead weight, unable to move. The veins along his palms and across a short section of his wrist were glowing a faint blue. Beneath him was a fist-sized hole in the deck of the ship.
“What happened?” He spoke almost in a whisper.
“I- I lost my grip. You jumped out, caught me, and punched through the deck to stop us from falling.”
“But..” He trailed off, staring at his arm. He pushed himself up into a sitting position. He glanced over at the rail that he had been gripping. Near the base of the wooden beam were five, deep grooves, as though he had been holding on so tight that he had carved the wood with his bare hand.
He realised that he was bleeding, and that his hands were covered in splinters. Though his veins were still glowing blue, the blood was scarlet.
Vin rose to his feet, rolling the sleeve of his coat to cover his glowing veins. He began flexing his fingers slowly and painfully as control started to return to him. They had arrived at sunset in lands Vin didn't recognise. Above them, the swirling clouds drifted calmly in a silent vortex, seemingly harmless from a distance.
“There is nothing to fear.” Arion muttered from somewhere behind him. He ignored her, his eyes fixed on the swirling clouds as he started pulling chunks of splintered wood from his arm. The sleeve of his coat was torn in places and damp with blood. Vin set about slowly trying to peel his coat off, wincing with pain, when Arion appeared from behind with her dagger and took it to his coat, slicing through the fabric and freeing his arm. He grunted and took the rest of his coat off. The blue glow in his veins carried on along his forearm, growing more and more faint until it reached his elbow, where it seemed to stop. Arion motioned for him to sit, and began pulling the splinters out in silence.
“I have no idea what this is.” Vin grunted eventually, once he realised that the glow wasn't subsiding. Arion paused for a moment to glance up at him before returning her focus to his wounds.
“This... never happened to you before?”
“You think this is normal?” He half laughed, half choked as he spoke.
“In the short time that I've known you,” she began while fashioning a bandage from Vin's coat, “We have flown using your wings, onto a flying ship, surrounded by islands in the sky. I wouldn't be at all shocked if you told me that everybody glows blue where you're from.” Vin managed another laugh.
“I suppose that's a reasonable stance.”
“I'm not even sure if any of this is real, so why not have a glowing blue arm? Next you'll be starting fires with your eyes, and I'd just accept it as normal for you.”
“I wouldn't be surprised if you could start fires with your eyes, with the looks you've given me.” Vin grinned, and she glared up at him. “You see what I mean?” She tightened his bandage suddenly and he grunted in pain, still laughing and coughing. Arion rose to her feet and looked around the deck of The Glum Blue.
“Is this how you got here?” She asked, inquisitively. Vin stopped laughing, realising suddenly that he hadn't seen the ship since it drifted away from the wildlands.
“No.” He paused, forcing himself to stand. He felt incredibly weak, but he couldn't rest until he was certain they were safe.
“You said it was your ship.”
“I lost her. Somebody set her adrift some time ago. I didn't think I'd ever see her again.” He spoke distractedly as he wandered around the deck of the ship, his good hand on his pistol.
“So, how did it come to be here?”
“That's what I'm worried about.” Arion watched him checking over every possible hiding place, exasperated.
“With every word you say this situation becomes increasingly worrying.”
“I was only answering your questions. Would you prefer not knowing?” Arion fell quiet as Vin double checked the ship's interior. As his eyes were adjusting to the dark beneath the deck, he noticed a faint glow beneath one of the beds. He knelt and found the source of the glow – a faint, weakened fire fly. Returning to the room above deck he found the fire fly's jar, still intact, with the lid beside it on the floor. He grabbed a few sheets of loose parchment, and took the jar back down to the fire fly. Using the thick parchment he ushered the tiny creature into the jar and dropped the slightly burned in alongside it. Satisfied that there was no immediate danger, he returned to the deck to find Arion sat against a wall looking out over the open sky. They were far below the clouds; there were only one or two islands visible above. Shades of amber and scarlet melted into the horizon, dotted with the night's first stars.
There was a pleasant cool breeze, and the ocean below stretched on for miles in the clear conditions, quietly flowing towards a shore that wasn't there. Arion turned at the sound of him walking onto the deck, and spotted the jar.
“This is a fire fly,” he explained, noting her curious expression, “They eat little scraps of paper and kindling, though I don't think this one has been fed in a while.” He passed the jar over to her and sat beside her, watching her tapping the jar in wonder. “Here, feed him some of this, he's looking a little faint.” He retreived a sheet of parchment and tore some up, letting Arion drop it into the jar. The fire fly pounced onto the fluttering scraps, growing brighter with each feed.
“You know, when I was younger, I would hear stories about these enormous islands on the water. There were these great civilisations connected by land, centuries old and incredibly advanced. People still say they've found artifacts from these islands drifting in the ocean, or that they spotted land on the horizon, only to lose sight of it whenever they've tried to get near.”
“So... there's nothing but ocean below the islands?” Vin nodded, and Arion fell quiet again, her face and hands stained in the fire fly's steadily growing flame.
“The way the stories tell it, the people from these civilisations became arrogant and selfish, fighting and killing each other, until one day an old and forgotten deity damned them to the ocean, raising a only a few chunks of land into the sky so that her creation could live on peacefully.”
“Is that what you believe?”
“No. There's nothing peaceful about the islands, for a start. It's just something to think about.” Vin pondered for a moment on the forgotten deity, and what she would think of him sending her creation back to the ocean. He stood, for a brief moment staring across the shimmering mass of water, before turning to Arion. “Do you have anywhere that you need to be?” She shook her head, tapping again at the jar in her hands. “Then I suggest that we go up.” He strolled over to the ship's helm and began pulling levers and turning the wheel – gritting his teeth with pain as he did – until the ship was travelling at a slight incline.
He returned to find Arion holding his coat. She had placed the jar on the ground, and was running her fingers over the mechanism that controlled his wings. She pulled the cord and watched the wings slowly unfurl, before pulling it again and folding them back in.
“This is... amazing.” She said quietly. Vin returned to his seat beside her.
“Yeah, they're not very easy to come by. They're expensive and difficult to make.”
“I bet people will pay anything for the ability to fly.”
“Well, it's more like gliding over fairly short distances. If you go too far from the islands there's a good chance you won't make it back.”
As the ship made a steady ascent towards the clouds, the Vin explained life on the floating islands, and told Arion about his upbringing on Little Wend. Arion mostly listened, occasionally interjecting with a question or a comment, whilst Vin tried his best to describe the world he had always known. Occasionally she'd smile at some remark he'd make, though she kept her gaze fixated on the beautifull vastness before them. By the time they hit the clouds the sun was a deep scarlet, and had mostly sunk into the ocean. Arion shivered, and picked up the fire fly, holding it to her chest for warmth. Vin picked his coat up and placed it around her shoulders, and the two sat quietly while Vin toyed with his makeshift bandage.
Their silence was interrupted by Arion gasping as they breached through the top of the clouds. Dozens of islands, each varying in size and drenched in the setting sun, suddenly came into view. Although familiar with the sight, Vin managed a tired smile; wherever the masked creatures had taken him, he had made it back.
“Which island would you like to visit?” Vin asked. Arion thought for a moment, before pointing at the nearest one.
“Have you been there?” She asked, mesmerised.
“It's unlikely. I'm not entirely certain where we are.” He chuckled to himself before making his way over to the helm and altering their course.
As night slowly descended, nightfires were lit on the surrounding islands, stretching off as far as the eye could see. “I should probably mention,” he called over to Arion, “That I don't really have a way of stopping the ship.” Arion rushed to her feet, suddenly agitated.
“What!?”
“When she was set adrift, somebody removed the anchor. I haven't quite figured out how we're going to moor. You know, other than crashing into the island.”
“Have you lost your mind!?”
“It'd only be a very slow crash.” Vin said quietly.
“What did you say?” Vin sighed, and considered his options for a moment. He lowered the masts and stopped the propellers, though they still had some momentum and were bound directly for the island.
“Could you not use the wings and get us onto the island?”
“When we were close enough, maybe. But then the ship would just drift past without us.” Arion began pacing, muttering with a mixture of anger and panic. Vin rested his arms against the wheel and watched calmly as the island grew to fill the horizon. There was a distinctive sound of ammunition being fired, followed closely by a pair of hooks on chains, which lodged themselves into the ship's belly. Arion stopped pacing and drew her dagger.
“Well, this solves the whole mooring issue.” Vin remarked cheerfully.
“Maybe you should put your wings on.” Arion snapped. Nodding in agreement, Vin put his coat on and pulled the cord. Then he took the mask from his pocket, grabbed Arion, and leapt from the side of the ship. It was a short glide over to the island, and Vin began to edge closer to the ground.
“Are you ready?” Vin called over the sound of rushing wind. Arion nodded, and Vin dropped her. She landed gracefully into a run as Vin prepared for his own landing. He braced his legs for impact, lowering himself onto the ground. He almost stumbled when he hit the ground, and Arion passed him as he was retracting his wings. The pair fled through sparce trees until they reached a town, with buildings crammed and towering over the street. They finally came to a stop in a narrow alleyway, taking a pause to catch their breath.
“Why were we attacked? What's going on?” Arion panted.
“I don't know.” Vin motioned for quiet. The sounds of battle had erupted from a nearby street. He drew his pistol, and the pair moved cautiously towards the end of the street. Vin peered around the corner. A group of people were locked in combat with several mechanical watchmen, and each person wore a white mask with a blue circle around one eye.
The dead city seemed endless; Arion and Vin had been wandering for hours along one of the many streams that flowed through the streets. It didn't seem to grow any thinner or weaker, and tones of red were seeping their way into the sky above.
He caught Arion glancing over at him as he walked.
“Tell me about these islands in the sky.”
“Well,” he considered for a moment before he continued, “They're kept up in the sky by these great trees, which we call Anchors.” He looked over at her, and she nodded eagerly, urging him to go on. “There are countless islands, all different sizes. The biggest ones are fixed in place, and the smallest ones orbit around them. There's only one island lower than the clouds – Little Wend. That's where I'm from.”
“What else?”
“Mm. There are great cities on the biggest islands, and little towns and outposts on the smaller ones. There are wild islands, completely untameable, filled with wildlife and forests. Huntsmen and woodcutters go across to them in their balloons and ships to get food, among other things.” Arion smiled, and Vin relaxed, pleased with his answer.
“What do they look like? What's it like to stand on the edge of one?” Vin hesitated, struggling to find the words.
“You've never been to the edge of this place, have you?”
“No, I woke up at that pool.”
“We're on an island right now.” Arion stopped walking, and Vin turned back to look at her.
“What?” She took her head into her hands, visibly distressed. “How did I get here?” Her voice started to crack. Vin faltered, unsure of how to respond. He awkwardly reached out a hand, and rubbed her shoulder.
“We'll figure it out.” He said after a pause, unable to find words of any more substance. She inhaled deeply, and composed herself.
“I don't need comforting.” Vin withdrew his hand, and looked down at his feet uncomfortably. She set off at a quick pace, and Vin followed quietly. They walked for a time without exchanging a word, the ambient sound of rushing water filling the otherwise silent air.
Arion paused slightly ahead, and gasped. Vin ran to meet her. They were stood on a crossroad, leading onto a main street. Floating white lights lined either side of the street at varying heights, emitting a brilliant glow. The lights stretched off into the distance on the seemingly endless road, each bobbing gently on the breeze.
Arion began moving towards the nearest light slowly, looking about in wonder. Vin walked after her cautiously, eyeing the mysterious orbs with distrust. She reached out towards one of the orbs, white light flowing along her hand and casting shadows across her. Her face was completely illuminated, her eyes a brilliant blue as they caught the light. Vin watched, mesmerised, as she touched the light. It reacted to her touch, moving upwards briefly before bouncing back into place as though tethered to the spot. It remained turbulent for a time, the light cascading in all directions, causing the shadows on Arion to dance along her body. She lowered her arm, and stood, staring up at the light.
He turned his eyes to the street they were on, unable to see where it ended. Where the street became impossible to see, the lights continued, as if the street dropped off at the horizon and the lights carried on into thin air.
“Should we follow this street?” Arion snapped out of her daze at the sound of his voice.
“Well, this is the first time we've seen a change in the scenery. Maybe we should see where it leads.” Vin grunted in response, his fingers brushing against his pistol. Without warning, Arion set off down the street.
The slivers of red continued bleeding into the sky until it was an ocean, as the air about them became darker. They walked under the lights down the seemingly endless road, passing repetitive buildings in various stages of destruction.
“What do you think they are?” Arion mused. Her voice resonated about the empty road.
“I couldn't possibly know.” She looked over at him, frowning, before turning her head to stare at the lights as they passed under them.
“They're... beautiful.” She stated. Vin thought back to her holding a knife at his throat. He was witnessing a completely different side to her, he realised, as she drifted just ahead of him in a daze, transfixed by her surroundings.
As they walked, more of the path ahead was visible, and in turn the road behind gradually became distant, eventually disappearing from sight.
Night descended upon them, and the lights fought valiantly against it. There were no landmarks other than the buildings on either side, and through the small gaps between them only darkness was visible.
Something shifted in a nearby building. Vin came to a sudden stop.
“Arion.” He hissed, motioning for quiet. She stopped and turned to him, a mixture of concern and confusion on her face.
“There's nobody else here. I've been here for days. There's nobody-” Another noise came from the other side of the street. She fell quiet, and calmly reached for her blade.
“Keep moving.” She said, almost in a whisper. The pair began walking slowly, with their weapons drawn. Every gap in each building became a hiding place, each shadow an enemy. All movement stopped, and the silence became much more unnerving.
Vin became aware of a sudden absence of light behind them. He glanced at the street behind them. The furthest lights had been extinguished, and the darkness grew ever closer as more lights vanished.
“We need to get moving.” Vin warned Arion. She turned and spotted the approaching wall of black.
They picked up the pace, still trying to examine the shadowed buildings that surrounded them for any sign of a threat.
A rain creature stepped out from between two buildings just ahead of them.
“But it isn't raining!” Vin breathed. It turned to face them. Its mask had a blue circle around one eye.
Arion lunged for the creature with her blade. Vin grabbed her and pulled her into a run past the masked figure.
“What are you doing?” Arion called.
“Not now!” He shouted in response. The darkness caught up with them as they sprinted, the lights just ahead of them flickering, and vanishing. Another masked creature stepped out into the light ahead of them, its shadowy form almost resembling a long coat. “Keep running!” Vin bellowed ahead to Arion, who was much faster than him. The light grew further away as they ran, until they were completely shrouded in darkness. They ran towards the last few lights in the distance.
The street came to an abrupt end in the distance. Only two of the hundreds of lights remained lit. They came to a halt at a railing. Beneath them was open sky.
“Th-that-that's sky!” Arion exclaimed, staring down into the vast emptiness.
“...That's my ship.” The sails of The Glum Blue were unmistakeable through the wisps of clouds beneath them. He pulled the cord on his coat. “We're getting on that ship.” Arion looked around at him, exasperated. She turned back to the wall of black behind them. The two masked figures were walking towards them slowly, barely distinguishable against the night but for their masks. Vin's wings snapped open. He grabbed Arion and pulled her close to him.
“Noah, if these wings don't open, I'm coming for you in the next life.” He muttered under his breath, before stepping over the rail, with Arion in his arms, and falling forward over the edge.
Arion's screams were barely audible by the air rushing past his ears as his wings caught the wind and they gradually slowed into a glide. Vin tilted, and they circled the ship in their descent, growing ever closer to the deck. Just like the last time Vin flew towards the ship with another person in his arms, The Glum Blue appeared to be completely empty. Vin had concerns about how the ship came to be at the dead city, but he was much more concerned at the masked figures and what their intentions were. They landed gracefully on the ship, and Arion ran to the side, gripping it until her knuckles were white.
“This situation feels far too familiar.” Vin remarked, looking around the deck. He approached the door to the cabin cautiously, pistol in hand. There was a mark in the wood where he had used his knife to seal the door shut. He pushed open the door, and peered inside. The interior was deserted. The floor creaked as he stepped inside, and he froze, listening intently for a minute, before coming to the top of the stairs. He made his way down them carefully, and found himself in the darkened room filled with beds. His eyes adjusted to the low lighting. The silhouettes of the furniture slowly grew into fully formed shapes. He passed in between them silently, pointing his pistol at every gap between the beds as he moved. Satisfied that they were alone, he returned to the deck, where Arion was staring upwards at the dead city.
Vin moved to the ship's helm, spinning the wheel violently and pulling on a series of levers. He noticed Arion watching him, mistified.
“I don't plan on staying here. And before you ask, I have no idea where we're going.” Arion glanced back up at the island.
“You weren't lying... about the islands.” Vin shook his head.
“The islands are real. Where we actually are in the world, though, is a different subject entirely.” She returned to the edge of the ship, and sat with her legs dangling over the edge, staring out at the sky all around them.
“How is this thing up in the air?”
“I leave that sort of question to the people that build them.” Arion resumed her contemplative quiet. They were surrounded by thin slivers of clouds. In the distance, the clouds swirled into a spiral, almost like a whirlpool. They drifted towards it slowly. Vin stepped away from the helm, and allowed himself some time to breathe. Since he had been captured in the rain, he had been constantly on edge, unable to relax or calm his nerves. He delved into his pockets and found his whiskey, emptying the last few drops into his mouth. Clearing his throat, he moved to stand near Arion.
“How do you ever grow tired of this?” She asked as the cold night air brushed against them.
“You never do, not really. I've just had more pressing things to think about.” The two stared out into the star littered sky. Around the dead city in the distance, the stars seemed much more vibrant and numerous.
“Who were those men back there? Why did we run from them?”
“I'm not sure if they were men. And I don't know who they are.”
“Why run?”
“From what I've seen, you don't want to come into contact with them.” She thought on his words for a moment.
“One last thing.” Vin waited for her next words. “When you saw them, you said that it wasn't raining.” He sighed, and considered his response carefully.
“I told you earlier today that an Anchor Tree – the things that keep the islands in the sky – was killed. When an Anchor dies, it brings the rain, and the rain brings those things.” Arion rose to her feet. She was staring ahead of the ship. “What?”
“The clouds over there.” He followed her gaze. The spiral of clouds was twisting violently in on itself. “Should we be heading straight towards them?”
“They're just clouds.” Vin said, dismissively.
“It's not the clouds I'm afraid of. It's whatever is making them spin like that.”
“We call it wind in these parts.” Arion shot him a dark look. He remembered how close she came to killing him, and changed his tone. “There is nothing to fear.”
The Glum Blue shuddered violently, throwing Vin off balance. He caught himself on the rail, and braced himself for whatever was about to happen. They began to turn slowly along with the clouds, which coated the underside of the vessel. As they turned the ship began to gather speed, spinning in tighter and tighter circles until they were upon the centre of the swirling mass of clouds. The front of the ship began to tilt downwards, enough for Vin to loose his footing and begin sliding down the deck. He stretched out an arm as he slid, and found another part of the rail to cling to. The impact caused him to wince in pain. Arion was above him, wordlessly hanging onto the ship with her eyes firmly shut.
Narrow streaks of daylight suffused into the sky around them as they span, melting into the dark like droplets of blood in water. It became unbearable for Vin to watch his surroundings revolve. He fixed his eyes on the front of the ship for a moment as a crescendo of colour rushed by in his peripheral vision. He closed his eyes. Lights etched themselves onto his eyelids, and he felt his hair dancing about him; one moment covering his face, the next hanging above him as the ship upturned itself.
Vin ignored the shifting lights, the fire in his arms as he held onto the ship, and the rush of dizziness that was almost too much to withstand. For a time, the only thing that existed was the sound of breath leaving his body. He lost focus on everything, until his breathing was the only thing he was conscious of. The sound of him exhaling became almost deafening. As he drew breath in the lights seemed to slow, until they gradually settled and stayed constant. He could no longer feel his arm, though the pain was manageable. The ship seemed to have stopped moving, and suddenly the rest of his body returned to him. He opened his eyes.
He was lying at the front of the ship, a considerable distance from where he had been when he closed his eyes. Arion was in his arms, shaking, with fear streaked across her features. His left arm was a dead weight, unable to move. The veins along his palms and across a short section of his wrist were glowing a faint blue. Beneath him was a fist-sized hole in the deck of the ship.
“What happened?” He spoke almost in a whisper.
“I- I lost my grip. You jumped out, caught me, and punched through the deck to stop us from falling.”
“But..” He trailed off, staring at his arm. He pushed himself up into a sitting position. He glanced over at the rail that he had been gripping. Near the base of the wooden beam were five, deep grooves, as though he had been holding on so tight that he had carved the wood with his bare hand.
He realised that he was bleeding, and that his hands were covered in splinters. Though his veins were still glowing blue, the blood was scarlet.
Vin rose to his feet, rolling the sleeve of his coat to cover his glowing veins. He began flexing his fingers slowly and painfully as control started to return to him. They had arrived at sunset in lands Vin didn't recognise. Above them, the swirling clouds drifted calmly in a silent vortex, seemingly harmless from a distance.
“There is nothing to fear.” Arion muttered from somewhere behind him. He ignored her, his eyes fixed on the swirling clouds as he started pulling chunks of splintered wood from his arm. The sleeve of his coat was torn in places and damp with blood. Vin set about slowly trying to peel his coat off, wincing with pain, when Arion appeared from behind with her dagger and took it to his coat, slicing through the fabric and freeing his arm. He grunted and took the rest of his coat off. The blue glow in his veins carried on along his forearm, growing more and more faint until it reached his elbow, where it seemed to stop. Arion motioned for him to sit, and began pulling the splinters out in silence.
“I have no idea what this is.” Vin grunted eventually, once he realised that the glow wasn't subsiding. Arion paused for a moment to glance up at him before returning her focus to his wounds.
“This... never happened to you before?”
“You think this is normal?” He half laughed, half choked as he spoke.
“In the short time that I've known you,” she began while fashioning a bandage from Vin's coat, “We have flown using your wings, onto a flying ship, surrounded by islands in the sky. I wouldn't be at all shocked if you told me that everybody glows blue where you're from.” Vin managed another laugh.
“I suppose that's a reasonable stance.”
“I'm not even sure if any of this is real, so why not have a glowing blue arm? Next you'll be starting fires with your eyes, and I'd just accept it as normal for you.”
“I wouldn't be surprised if you could start fires with your eyes, with the looks you've given me.” Vin grinned, and she glared up at him. “You see what I mean?” She tightened his bandage suddenly and he grunted in pain, still laughing and coughing. Arion rose to her feet and looked around the deck of The Glum Blue.
“Is this how you got here?” She asked, inquisitively. Vin stopped laughing, realising suddenly that he hadn't seen the ship since it drifted away from the wildlands.
“No.” He paused, forcing himself to stand. He felt incredibly weak, but he couldn't rest until he was certain they were safe.
“You said it was your ship.”
“I lost her. Somebody set her adrift some time ago. I didn't think I'd ever see her again.” He spoke distractedly as he wandered around the deck of the ship, his good hand on his pistol.
“So, how did it come to be here?”
“That's what I'm worried about.” Arion watched him checking over every possible hiding place, exasperated.
“With every word you say this situation becomes increasingly worrying.”
“I was only answering your questions. Would you prefer not knowing?” Arion fell quiet as Vin double checked the ship's interior. As his eyes were adjusting to the dark beneath the deck, he noticed a faint glow beneath one of the beds. He knelt and found the source of the glow – a faint, weakened fire fly. Returning to the room above deck he found the fire fly's jar, still intact, with the lid beside it on the floor. He grabbed a few sheets of loose parchment, and took the jar back down to the fire fly. Using the thick parchment he ushered the tiny creature into the jar and dropped the slightly burned in alongside it. Satisfied that there was no immediate danger, he returned to the deck to find Arion sat against a wall looking out over the open sky. They were far below the clouds; there were only one or two islands visible above. Shades of amber and scarlet melted into the horizon, dotted with the night's first stars.
There was a pleasant cool breeze, and the ocean below stretched on for miles in the clear conditions, quietly flowing towards a shore that wasn't there. Arion turned at the sound of him walking onto the deck, and spotted the jar.
“This is a fire fly,” he explained, noting her curious expression, “They eat little scraps of paper and kindling, though I don't think this one has been fed in a while.” He passed the jar over to her and sat beside her, watching her tapping the jar in wonder. “Here, feed him some of this, he's looking a little faint.” He retreived a sheet of parchment and tore some up, letting Arion drop it into the jar. The fire fly pounced onto the fluttering scraps, growing brighter with each feed.
“You know, when I was younger, I would hear stories about these enormous islands on the water. There were these great civilisations connected by land, centuries old and incredibly advanced. People still say they've found artifacts from these islands drifting in the ocean, or that they spotted land on the horizon, only to lose sight of it whenever they've tried to get near.”
“So... there's nothing but ocean below the islands?” Vin nodded, and Arion fell quiet again, her face and hands stained in the fire fly's steadily growing flame.
“The way the stories tell it, the people from these civilisations became arrogant and selfish, fighting and killing each other, until one day an old and forgotten deity damned them to the ocean, raising a only a few chunks of land into the sky so that her creation could live on peacefully.”
“Is that what you believe?”
“No. There's nothing peaceful about the islands, for a start. It's just something to think about.” Vin pondered for a moment on the forgotten deity, and what she would think of him sending her creation back to the ocean. He stood, for a brief moment staring across the shimmering mass of water, before turning to Arion. “Do you have anywhere that you need to be?” She shook her head, tapping again at the jar in her hands. “Then I suggest that we go up.” He strolled over to the ship's helm and began pulling levers and turning the wheel – gritting his teeth with pain as he did – until the ship was travelling at a slight incline.
He returned to find Arion holding his coat. She had placed the jar on the ground, and was running her fingers over the mechanism that controlled his wings. She pulled the cord and watched the wings slowly unfurl, before pulling it again and folding them back in.
“This is... amazing.” She said quietly. Vin returned to his seat beside her.
“Yeah, they're not very easy to come by. They're expensive and difficult to make.”
“I bet people will pay anything for the ability to fly.”
“Well, it's more like gliding over fairly short distances. If you go too far from the islands there's a good chance you won't make it back.”
As the ship made a steady ascent towards the clouds, the Vin explained life on the floating islands, and told Arion about his upbringing on Little Wend. Arion mostly listened, occasionally interjecting with a question or a comment, whilst Vin tried his best to describe the world he had always known. Occasionally she'd smile at some remark he'd make, though she kept her gaze fixated on the beautifull vastness before them. By the time they hit the clouds the sun was a deep scarlet, and had mostly sunk into the ocean. Arion shivered, and picked up the fire fly, holding it to her chest for warmth. Vin picked his coat up and placed it around her shoulders, and the two sat quietly while Vin toyed with his makeshift bandage.
Their silence was interrupted by Arion gasping as they breached through the top of the clouds. Dozens of islands, each varying in size and drenched in the setting sun, suddenly came into view. Although familiar with the sight, Vin managed a tired smile; wherever the masked creatures had taken him, he had made it back.
“Which island would you like to visit?” Vin asked. Arion thought for a moment, before pointing at the nearest one.
“Have you been there?” She asked, mesmerised.
“It's unlikely. I'm not entirely certain where we are.” He chuckled to himself before making his way over to the helm and altering their course.
As night slowly descended, nightfires were lit on the surrounding islands, stretching off as far as the eye could see. “I should probably mention,” he called over to Arion, “That I don't really have a way of stopping the ship.” Arion rushed to her feet, suddenly agitated.
“What!?”
“When she was set adrift, somebody removed the anchor. I haven't quite figured out how we're going to moor. You know, other than crashing into the island.”
“Have you lost your mind!?”
“It'd only be a very slow crash.” Vin said quietly.
“What did you say?” Vin sighed, and considered his options for a moment. He lowered the masts and stopped the propellers, though they still had some momentum and were bound directly for the island.
“Could you not use the wings and get us onto the island?”
“When we were close enough, maybe. But then the ship would just drift past without us.” Arion began pacing, muttering with a mixture of anger and panic. Vin rested his arms against the wheel and watched calmly as the island grew to fill the horizon. There was a distinctive sound of ammunition being fired, followed closely by a pair of hooks on chains, which lodged themselves into the ship's belly. Arion stopped pacing and drew her dagger.
“Well, this solves the whole mooring issue.” Vin remarked cheerfully.
“Maybe you should put your wings on.” Arion snapped. Nodding in agreement, Vin put his coat on and pulled the cord. Then he took the mask from his pocket, grabbed Arion, and leapt from the side of the ship. It was a short glide over to the island, and Vin began to edge closer to the ground.
“Are you ready?” Vin called over the sound of rushing wind. Arion nodded, and Vin dropped her. She landed gracefully into a run as Vin prepared for his own landing. He braced his legs for impact, lowering himself onto the ground. He almost stumbled when he hit the ground, and Arion passed him as he was retracting his wings. The pair fled through sparce trees until they reached a town, with buildings crammed and towering over the street. They finally came to a stop in a narrow alleyway, taking a pause to catch their breath.
“Why were we attacked? What's going on?” Arion panted.
“I don't know.” Vin motioned for quiet. The sounds of battle had erupted from a nearby street. He drew his pistol, and the pair moved cautiously towards the end of the street. Vin peered around the corner. A group of people were locked in combat with several mechanical watchmen, and each person wore a white mask with a blue circle around one eye.
Literature
A world of porcelain people
We live in
a world full
of pretty
façades; everyone
is a living
masquerade
in this
day and age:
pick up your
smiling face
at daybreak and
drape it over the
violet stains
beneath your
eyelids;
walk around
aimlessly -
we are all
sleepwalkers,
eyes open but
closed.
we are all pretty porcelain people
living in a pretty porcelain world
and our masks
are starting
to crack.
(and reveal the ugly truth)
Literature
Wings of Hope
intuition bird, sing bright the dawn
as blooming secrets
fall soft on mosaic stones;
our gentle vines creep wild as wind,
a wandering metamorphosis:
winter caterpillar, spring cocoon,
summer wings twinged and falling into flowers
before reinventing destiny
harmony garden, keep parched and persevering;
this world will stop one day
to water the seeds
with why, and was, and maybe someday could be--
for now, nature watches quiet
as sun-dust butterflies
collect drifting souls like wishing stars
Literature
Beauty To A Second Grader
My seven year old sister asked me
if she was skinny enough today.
I told her even if she were the size
of a swimming pool
she would still be the most beautiful
creature on this entire earth,
and she asked me
"If I were so beautiful, tell me why
I feel so ugly"
My seven year old sister asked me
if she looked good in her new dress,
and I asked myself how on earth
she was lead to believe any less than
perfect of herself,
and it made me realize that I never
told her how good she has to be
for herself.
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❤️❤️❤️ Hooray for more rainfall!