Liada tightens her grip on my claw as Inerish sits down across from us and my mouth opens, "So?"
"I have requested an aircraft big enough to comfortably fit us all in..." Inerish moans with the cross of her arms and the stiff shake away of her head. Just barely, I can catch the smile on Liada's lips while my arm is treated like a toy. That prize catch you can't help but show off.
"Then we just have to wait for Baltanthan or will we cut out the middle road and pick him up?" I ask, thinking a little about how hectic he was to get back to his student housing. Something, something he needed to pick something up. His words weren't exactly the clearest and clarification ran off with him.
"Much as I would like to, the city and the space from here to Suhurlodst is too big for us to waste time on. I have informed those watching the main road to Suhurlodst to bring him directly here when he gets there. Patrols in the area are also making sure everyone sticks to the main road for the moment." she explains with a heavy nasal breath.
"Would be a shame if I needed to go and look for him." I taunt amusedly, curling my mouth a bit as she glares. She might not be able to see it, but she knows. She knows.
"You won't, trust me on that." Inerish says with a tone that's bordering on an aggressive snap. She gets up and leaves, her finger suddenly near her ear. The room's doors slide open, letting in a cavalcade of other conversations before they shut them up for us.
"She certainly seems happy with our arrangement." Liada remarks, her grip easing up now that the competition is gone. However, it's simply too likeable for her to just stop now. So, moving my thumb claw a bit, I rub the back of her hand and watch her smile grow. Ah, the little things.
"If it remains this easy, she'll be ecstatic by the time we're done with all these jobs." I add on and Liada starts to hum an unfamiliar tune, a marble rolling out into view. Watching it carefully, my arcane senses start to pick up on a similarity to something else she is wearing. My focus shifts to her talisman and its glow. I use my free hand to take up the feather around my neck.
Freeing the other hand from her grip, I pinch the marble and move it close to her talisman. Nothing seems to happen though I can definitely see and feel the want for something to occur. However, upon putting it closer to my bracelet or the feather, the marble starts to almost scream. It was a silent noise, but enough to make me give it back to Liada.
"What in the name of the Mighty Moon was that?" Seigunfrei asks, looking up from whatever tabletwork has him occupied. He's been filling that out for some time now, since the confirmation of the tag-along, actually. Well, minus a patch of him vanishing elsewhere in the school before we left.
"What was what?" the less magically-tuned woman asks as she clutches her marble. Getting up, I move over to Seigunfrei to talk to him about it more directly. Liada watches us with wide eyes and a nervous tick in her hands. Together, away, together, away, all the more conscious of her toy.
"Ball is designed for her talisman." I explain, glancing quickly at what Seigunfrei is filling out. My in-depth reading is still not the best, yet, I can still pick out the general meaning of what this is. He's filling out a form and with how he's minded the sign-here parts, I can only assume it is for Baltanthan's benefit. There are details about off-campus credit and appreciation.
He's trying to dramatise Baltanthan's contribution in this yet-to-be-done job to help him into Exceptional?
"Ah, incompatible power source." Seigunfrei mutters as he starts to get stumped by some of the later paragraphs. I leave him to it with a pat on the back and go back to Liada, though, I remain standing this time. My weight shifts between my feet and I keep my time occupied this way for the moment.
"So, where did you get that, anyway? I can't recall if we talked about it before or am I thinking of your armour?" I ask her and then myself, my brow cocking into an arch, eyes up against the edge of their sockets.
"I borrowed it from Baltanthan's roommate. It's a power gem that belongs to my people. I'm not too sure about how old it is, but, I know what it is. There's a little bit of hope in me that it will lead us on a trail to finding more of my kind. Perhaps even a way back to my family if they're still alive." she explains and I crouch down to put a claw on her closest knee.
"It's been years since you were sold off, Liada. You might not be able to find them, especially with what you have told me." I point out to her, trying to keep her hopes within reason. Unlike when I tried to get back to Tobaballe, her home is mobile, it will not always be in one place. Though I guess that applies to cities as well, it only takes one thing that's powerful enough to destroy it all.
"Even one little stick is the start of a bonfire to keep you warm at night..." she sulks quietly, her armour folding in on itself. Her sniffle echoes about her helmet and roars right out.
"Well, it's clear you miss it, so, come on, I'll take you to the hangar and you can recall to your heart's content." I tell her, lifting my mask up so she can see my smile. She returns the favour with one of her own and with my help, she's on her feet. Claw and hand interlocked, she starts the walk off and control of it relinquishes to me. A quiet giggle escapes her and I shake my head at her attempt to switch the meaning to the 'I'll' I just spoke.
"Stay safe you two, come back before dinner!" Seigunfrei calls out in the voice of an old lady.
"Whatever, Mom." I tell him with as much teenage attitude as I can recall.
"That's it, no pudding!" he snaps, the last chance to break in some entertainment walking out with us. I point Liada the right way and we keep to the edge of the busy hallway. The quietness of the room we were just in would make it easy to forget that this is Thrurstradtur's government. This entire building that dominates the skyline and the city centre.
Rather amusingly, even with me and Liada sticking to the edge of the path, you'd be forgiven for thinking it was narrower. Not only are we big compared to the humans occupying this place, Liada's decked out in all of her gear. She also doesn't seem all that fond of stepping aside and is more than happy to double down on holding my arm. Thankfully for all these busy workers, Inerish put us close enough to the hangar when she took us in for some quick treatment.
If the halls were noisy then this place might as well put us right next to the sound system. Engines firing off, the bang and clang of maintenance and engineering. Some aircraft are leaving and others are returning with one notable exception. A long, angled vehicle, one that enjoys a heavily engined rear compared to the many cog-like patrol craft.
I wanna guess...
"Oh, look, there's Inerish." I go, spotting the dark-skinned woman as she seems to talk to the pilot. I bet I could get Vadei to open up quite well in a place like this, she loved being the one to fly the airship during our escapade even with the hand injury. I shiver at the thought, such a strange machine that thing was.
Liada huddles up closer and I return the hug, her rear ends up on top of a guardrail and she lifts her visor, mouth nearing my closest ear, "The one I lived on before is much bigger than anything here."
"Something closer to the one out by Suhurlodst?" I ask and she squirms next to me with a silent no.
"Bigger, and more pointy. That one is so boxy in comparison, also, it's not red." she elaborates.
"It is a wall of guns." I say, recalling the visage of those dark holes and boxes across the gigantic steel wall.
"Ours had guns too... They're just on turrets that hold a few barrels each."
"The pew-pew or bang! Bang! Kind?" I ask, 'heh'-ing at my silly noises while she just seems to grow moodier. Now, that's just not acceptable at all. I jostle her slightly, reminding her that she's in a hug.
"I remember hearing the bridge crew talk to the head of engineering for our airship. It was always about the reactor only having so much of God's power left. We could never fight even if we wanted to because we simply had no way of recovering our energy. The guns take so much but even with their power, it's not worth it." she explains to me and I look to the talisman with her.
"You're hoping to use it to power the airship so that it has no such worries again?" I ask and I am met with a sigh instantly.
"You saw what happened, nothing. I've been seeing if I can get this to power the gem but I can't get it to do anything. This is from Iderim-Ovi but it has none of the capabilities that I need it to have!" she increasingly growls out, her grip scraping against itself and my shell.
"Don't worry, I am sure you will figure it out. It might be as simple as that gemstone being broken, a damaged battery won't take a charge after all. Speaking of, maybe you're forgetting one tiny detail and it happens to be that these things need to be replaced when they're puttering away their last drop of life." I try to reassure her with, taking in a deep breath once my mouthful is fully expelled.
She breathes in a lot herself and her head turns away, "I don't know. Everyone forgets so much growing up, you can even forget something from five minutes ago, it's that easy. Now, take the fact I haven't been a child for what Baltanthan believes to be four thousand years and... Well, he's admitted that it's a -modest- guess."
"Not something you can just quickly check up on, is it?" I surmise and she nods before leaving the hug. She gets down from the handrail and looks out to the hangar in its entirety.
"I don't read a whole lot, Nin, I've never been the type. Beyond cookbooks, tablets and shopping lists, I generally don't care. But, sometimes, I get curious, I pop down to the library and withdraw some general history tablets. Sometimes I even wish you were there as they can be quite heavy." she starts to explain, a quick laugh coming out at the end.
"Piles of stone slabs are heavy, Obvious News back before midnight." I joke and I get a heavy metal smack for the trouble. I whimper mockingly and break out into a snicker.
"But, their contents only made me confused, at least, they did. I could never find anything that spoke of my people, of the ddrai'och. Nothing about wars, our culture and art. Not even anything that slanders us. It's like we never existed at all." she lets out with a hollow tone that is enough to make me sad. I think on her words a little and the despair she cannot help but be consumed by. I think about my home and how it is gone, how all those cities I failed to save are gone because of that one fire wyvern.
All that the people of my home knew is gone, only what was recorded by those that remain will live on as anything but ash. Though, the more I consider my home's history, the clearer an old story becomes. Of how our ancestors fought a war to secure the Civil Mountains. I'm pretty sure I heard someone even say our city's name used to mean, the Towering Fort.
The war was fought against metal beasts I'm pretty sure, though, I am sure blue was mentioned and not red.
I grab Liada and pull her in, clearing my head for the moment of any false hope, "Don't worry Liada, don't worry about a thing."
"Maybe one day, Nin. Maybe one day, every little thing will be alright." she sighs, rocking from side to side with me. I repeat her ending words in my head, my eyes surveying the hangar.
Yeah, you're right, Liada.