The leaves on the trees outside The Marlin were beginning to change out of their dresses of verdant green into something befitting the coming breeze of autumn. Their colors have not changed yet; they won't do so for at least another month-and-a-half indeed, but the trees and the spirits knew that SUNNA, who had so far rejoiced and nourished the world with her life-giving power, would eventually give way to ARTAIA for her steerage in the great wheel of time.
The Eramir family, likewise, was busy at work preparing for the coming of great change. Elwin had already practiced his first flight out of the nest, and flown some distance away before coming back, but it was to come back all the same. Now, he was about to leave that nest for good, and fly into that dangerous and beautiful world alone, to brave all its adventures. Anna, like every mother bird, saw her son take wing, and was proud for it. But still in the corner of her heart she wished him to stay and be safe in her nest, because she knew the world was so indifferent as to be merciless.
"How do I look?" said Elwin rather self-consciously, coming out of his room with his official uniform for Aeternitas.
"Woah," said Andre, peering at his elder brother.
"You're like a different person! Look at all that weave and robe and fold and – wow, the color's like the deepest of ocean. Ne'er seen anything like it before."
"You like it?" asked Elwin.
"More than 'like.' It's, erm, how do I say it – you look like dad in the old photograms. Only your hair is longer and more orange, and you don't have his spectacles. You look completely grown-up already," said Andre, his voice becoming a murmur as he dashed into his attic bedroom to nab an old family photo.
"See?"
And Andre was right. Elwin in his uniform looked like Carl. Before Anna had realized it, her baby bird was a baby bird no longer. He was a falcon with wings outstretched, full of vigor and will, ready to take on the sky. How time passes, she thought.
"You look great," said Anna, hugging her son. At Aeternitas he would grow to surpass her physical height, and eventually Carl's too; he would likely reach higher as a person.
Elwin was ready.
After many a night of discussion, it was decided that Elwin would bring the contents of his father's chronometer safe: the letters, diagrams, and research notes, with him to Aeternitas. It'd be safer there, and if the need arose, he could show it directly to the professors and the great minds in reaching for the answer to his and his father's questions. What feats would the mythical Epitomic Forms be able to perform? How exactly did the Elemental Arts work in the first place? Why did his father not come back? What disaster befell him out there in the great ocean?
In search of those answers, and in search of himself, Elwin and his family embarked upon the City of Lights, for perhaps the final time together.
***
"The Sacred Mountain! I see it!" Andre jumped excitedly up and down on his seat, eagerly peering out the window of the Lumière Express. It was late morning and the Sun had already risen; they were planning to get to the capital city a day before the official departure, and the timetable now was different from when Elwin had first ridden it.
"So, you're going to be staying there, next to that mountain? Volcano?" he asked.
"Yeah. But the trains seldom go there. I have to take the skycraft from the capital city."
"Aha, I get it," said Andre, his eyes still glued to the vista outside.
"How tall do you reckon it is?" he asked, turning to look at Elwin.
"Very tall. Looking at the map here, we're supposed to be at least a hundred miles from it. But we can still see it, and it's still pretty big, isn't it?"
"Yeah, it must be super-tall."
Anna watched her sons.
"22,067 feet tall," said Anna, "as how your father measured it."
Andre turned to look at her, bewildered.
"Dad climbed the mountain? When?" asked Andre.
Anna ruffled his hair.
"Before we were married! He was on an expedition to chart the mountain's height and map its gravitic anomalies."
She continued, "He proposed to me with the peridot jewel he found on the summit of the mountain. It sits on the betrothal ring at home. I still cherish it each anniversary." Anna blushed ever so slightly, turning to look at AIEN herself.
"Mom, why didn't you tell me about the ring before? I would've loved to see it!" groused Elwin. He knew of his father's expedition to the mountain, because he read it in his old journals, but didn't know of any such ring or jewel. What a romantic his father was!
"That's because he made me promise to keep it a secret until you were ready. Until you were both ready to hear of the tales of his romance."
Both Elwin and Andre fell to the floor in laughter.
"Blech, that's so corny!" Andre giggled, still rolling on the floor, barely composing himself.
"I don't know how I can ever top that proposal," Elwin laughed, "if I ever find someone to love. I really don't care for now, though."
"You don't need to. Your kismet will find you."
"Kismet?" asked Andre, puzzled at the unfamiliar word.
"It means 'destiny.' Of the good and serendipitous kind."
"Kismet, kismet..." said both brothers, enjoying the citrus clarity of the word.
"Perhaps it will come to you at Aeternitas. Who knows? Anything can happen," said Anna.
"Yeah," he said, looking out the window once again. Crepuscular rays of the Sun shone through the clouds, rippling upon the landscape of goldening wheat and ample hills. Elwin rolled down the window and stretched his hand out to feel the brushing of the harvest as the train glided by; a small bird perched on his wrist, and sang a chorus of song to the tune of the rails. Elwin was sad to think that this family journey would be the last in quite a while, so he closed his eyes to savor every moment of sound and conversation, his hands welcoming the world – to become one with the joy around him.
***
It was the day after they'd taken their sweet rest at a good hotel in the capital, and the family found themselves at the monumental skyspires of the Capital City.
"Congratulations on your son," welcomed the portmaster, shaking Anna's hand.
"The skycraft awaits," he continued, opening the gates to reveal a colonnade of glass and pillars made of white steel, leading to the skydock platform suspended above the city.
Elwin busily led his family through, his giant luggage rolling behind him. Andre excitedly marched on next to the great windows, occasionally peering down the great heights below; Anna followed behind her sons.
Before they knew it, they came out to a colossal platform in plein-air, packed with people; mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters. Some laughing, some crying, many embracing, many sharing food and words of good fortune. A wealthy few posed for an official family photo for their photogram artists; many were well-dressed; some decently; others rather impoverished, but evidence showed unrelenting efforts to dress their children in the worthiest of clothes for the occasion; fathers fixed their sons' lapels and adjusted their ties, although they would change anyway into real uniform once aboard the skycraft; and mothers fixed their daughters' hair, even though it'd get ruffled in the wind. Indeed, for many a people on the platform, it was their first time parting with their child for a long while; the fleeting moment of now was as precious as paradise, its value accentuated by its briefness in time.
Not a minute after, a deep and worthy horn blew across the cerulean sky; it parted the veil of cirrus clouds above, and there approached a passenger skycraft, enwrapped in a painting of turquoise and gleaming white, proudly bearing the sigil of Aeternitas. As the craft glided closer and waltzed sideways to the platform, Elwin marveled at how awe-inspiring it was; from one end to the other must have been at least 300 yards, and from the bottom to the top of its rudder-mast be at least forty, no, sixty yards tall.
The skycraft was shaped as a whale found in the faraway ocean, two pelvic fins towards its front to bank sideways, a single dorsal fin across its back to steer the air, and a tail fluke to climb and descend across the sky. Next to its tail fluke were enormous engines of navy and gold; its bladed turbines rumbled with energy, occasionally sparking arcs of antaric current and cyan lightning. A beautiful craft it was – and Elwin knew from his school textbooks and occasional look at the evening sky that this was a passenger liner, reserved for the wealthy. Freed from the tyranny of the earth, it was far speedier than a steam train, could go where no rail could go, and provided vistas hitherto unimaginable. The visage of this marvel briefly let Elwin and Andre forget their parting at hand.
Everyone on the platform watched in awe, save for a few who were accustomed to it, as the craft fully obscured the rest of the city from plain view, and docked with a heavy clunk.
Wide hydraulic steelplanks latched onto the platform.
It was now time to go.
"Mom, Andre," Elwin said tearfully, "Be well and be strong while I'm away."
The realization of this moment of departure hit them all at once, and Anna burst into tears; so did Andre for his brother, whose familiar face he wouldn't see in The Marlin for a long time, except maybe far-off holidays. Who would he now so fondly talk to ask questions about the world? Andre didn't know, and it felt some part of his soul was being torn away.
And in that moment, Elwin saw himself in Andre's eyes. Six years ago, it was his father who'd left. Now, it was Elwin's turn to leave, and Andre became little Elwin.
Elwin pulled his brother and mother close. The Eramir family embraced each other tightly for a long time. The sounds next to him told them that all the other families were sharing this moment, too. Elwin's heart was raw with pain; that same pain of 6 years ago, when Elwin was little, when he watched his father's ships embark on a journey from which they would never return. Is this what his father felt, to leave everyone behind? Despite it all, Elwin was still going to be in the Republics. He could still always come back; the faces of those he loved would not be lost to him.
So how courageous his father would have had to be, daring to go where no man ever reached or knew, in accomplishment of a greater mission which only he and his crew braved.
He pulled out his handkerchief and wiped Andre and Anna's tears away. He grasped their hands and with a firm nod, assured them of his courage.
"I'm ready to face my new future. I'll become the best person I can be, and complete what dad wanted to accomplish for the good of all."
I'll rescue all that was lost from the graves of time.
"And you shall," said Anna, smiling now, teardrops still on her cheek.
"Promise to come back," said Andre, making a fist bump and trying not to cry again.
With a final embrace, Elwin pulled away from the two, and stepped beyond the steelplanks, to a brave new world.
Each student raced through the inner hallways of the skycraft, which were surprisingly spacious to everyone's expectations, and quickly crowded on the gardened portside decks, waving their handkerchiefs and papers and flags of their birthplaces, peering at the platform that they were about to leave. The horn blared for the final time, and the idling engines at the tail roared with breath; with it, the skycraft began to pull its way out of the skydock for good. Elwin too, perched on the great sill of the deck, waved at his mother and brother and of all the families wishing them a good year and goodbye. It was a moment so full of emotion and life, so full of heart, that Elwin would never forget.