I had to use air magic to protect my ears from the screams. We didn't go that far up. I figured it would be a bit much for these two first time fliers. I'd assumed Taoc wouldn't be too shaken up by this since spirits hovered above the ground anyway, but she was screaming her lungs out the entire way up. Kol, on the other hand, seemed to be taking it quite well. I tried asking her how she was feeling but she didn't respond. It was then that I realized that she had fainted right in my arms.
We punched through the clouds and appeared in the open blue sky. Looking down at the clouds, I saw our shadows appearing down over them, like a massive giant clutching two others to his body. Looking at the shadow, I had an idea. I stopped our upward acceleration and began slowly descending. I could still hear Taoc's muffled screams through my magic, and noticed she wasn't calming down now that we weren't ascending anymore. Instead, her voice was getting higher pitched. Was she afraid we were falling? She must have thought this was a jump. I smirked and lurched down a little suddenly, which made Taoc close her eyes and bury them into Kol's unconscious body. Taoc's actions seemed to have stirred Kol, who blinked her eyes and looked down at the clouds and grew pale once again.
I put my feet on top of the clouds and used water and air magic to give the clouds a firmer shape. Then I used flight magic to keep myself right on top of the clouds so it would appear like I was walking on top of them. Satisfied, I let Kol and Taoc think I had turned the clouds solid and tried to let go of them. The two of them frantically clung to my arms as I let go, as if they didn't trust the little cloud floor I'd made. I used magic hands to gently peel them off and forced them to flail and complain as they began floating away from me. I used flight magic to make them float, but since the clouds beneath their feet didn't feel solid, they still tried to rush back to me when I finally let go of my magic hands.
"Don't worry," I said as I floated away, "my magic hasn't failed me yet. Relax and enjoy the view! Oh wait, you can't see much through these clouds can you? Here, let's clear this up, shall we?" I waved my hands and a gust of wind began pushing some of the clouds apart. A small part of the sky opened up, letting us see the land far below.
"This isn't funny!" cried Kol as she moved away from the hole in the clouds.
"Please, let us down from here!" shouted Taoc.
"Come on, don't tell me you guys have never wanted to fly before? You know, like birds and flying monsters or whatever," I said as I reclined in the empty air and gazed at them lazily.
"No, I like having my feet on the ground!" said Kol, "now can you please send me down?"
"Too high, this is too high!" said Taoc. "No! I saw them. Down there. They look like insects. I can't, I can't…"
It took me a while to calm them down. I had to close the hole in the clouds, get closer to them, and tell them this was safer than being on the ground surrounded by potential enemies.
"Potential enemies?" said Kol, staring resolutely away from the floor of clouds. "Did some of my retainers betray me? Did Alek get to them even though I tried to get rid of his supporters while I was stuck in the capital?"
"Fairies are intensely loyal and no spirit would ever betray the republic. If there are traitors among us, they must be demons," said Taoc.
Kol frowned. "My demon soldiers are brave and loyal warriors. If they must be suspected of treason then so must your soldiers."
"Our nation is not divided like yours. Two of your own siblings have joined the enemy, have they not?" said Taoc.
"Two of them?" I said. "Have you confirmed your sister's whereabouts then?"
Kol nodded. "Norn has been with the Singing Horde for a while now. She must have been worried that Alek would try to kill her the way he attempted to take my life. I haven't heard from her since I had to retreat into the mountains and ended up meeting you and the humans on the other side, but we sent a few spies over the border and they confirmed the fact Norn and Alek seem to be working with the Horde."
"Do we know if she became an Ikon too?" I asked.
"No, we cannot be certain," said Kol, "but it is certainly possible. The reports said Norn seemed to be taking orders from the venerable elf Noel. Even if she is not an Ikon herself, she is definitely working for one of the Immortals."
I frowned. If she was working with Noel, then she might have become Madness' Ikon as well. "I'll keep that in mind. Fighting two Ikons was bad enough. Taking on three of them by myself might be impossible." Of course, I wasn't planning on taking all three of them on my own. Individual soldiers may not be as powerful as an Ikon, but the united army would outnumber the Singing Horde's army substantially. We would be able to overrun them with numbers unless the Immortals intervened more directly. And besides, I still had my new magic.
I looked at Kol and Taoc. The two of them had calmed down considerably although they still refused to look down. I also had a feeling they'd jump at the opportunity to go back down to the ground. I tried to look at them now that they were flustered and disturbed. Taking them out of their comfort zones would let me observe them more carefully. The way they were reacting already told me a lot about the way the Simurgh was manipulating the leaders of the united army. Still, I couldn't tell if bringing them up her so suddenly had cured them of the Simurgh's emotion manipulation magic. Were they reacting so strongly because their emotions were being intensified by the Simurgh or were they genuinely terrified by being catapulted to unimaginable heights and standing on top of insubstantial clouds? Couldn't say. And since I couldn't be sure, I couldn't tell them about my new magic, either.
"Well, I must confess I didn't bring you two up here to admire the view," I said as I reclined in the air once more. "And as much as I enjoyed your reactions, that wasn't the point either. I had a couple of questions I wanted to ask you and didn't want any eavesdroppers around. You understand, right?"
Kol scowled. "I'm glad you enjoyed scaring my soul out of my body. And no, I do not understand why you had to bring us all the way up here."
"A stroll in the forest would have sufficed," said Taoc. "We could have had the Senatorial guards setup a perimeter. Nobody would've been able to hear us from there. You could even have used your air magic to block the sound!"
"Oh, you've been observing my magic then?" I said.
Taoc waved her hands quickly. "No, the Senate was curious about the way of the elves, that's all. We wanted to note down anything and everything we could about you. Generations of fairies and spirits have idolized the elves. To honor our ancestors' wishes and to fulfill our obligations to our descendants, we had to observe and record it all. Please, do not be angry!"
I waved my hand. "It's fine. Why would I mind being immortalized in your memory? A famous poet in my homeland once wooed his beloved by promising that his words would immortalize them and their beauty. He said:
"When wasteful war shall statues overturn, and broils root out the work of masonry, nor Mars his sword nor war's quick fire shall burn the living record of your memory."
Taoc blinked. "Oh. I see. Yes, that makes sense. Thank you, great elf!"
"Just don't forget the other part," I said. "See, he says he'll immortalize his beloved's beauty.
"But thy eternal summer shall not fade, so long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
"He says that, yes. But he also starts off the poem by saying they will lose their beauty.
"Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And every fair from fair sometime declines."
Taoc frowned. "That isn't… no great elf, we aren't… you will live a long and beautiful life, great elf!"
I chuckled. "Thanks. I'm sure I will." I waved my hand and all the clouds beneath us flew away. Taoc tried to jump up and Kol pointed her nose to the sky and refused to look down. I smirked and flew in front of them. "First question. Don't think about it too much. Just say the first thing that comes to mind. Ready? Here I go. Tell me, why are we fighting this war?"