Heaven Is the Farthest Place From Home

Cold

His lungs felt tight as a mix of air and glass hit slashed at his face. Dizzy and disoriented, the movements in his craft wheeled him towards his right. He was tolerant with the pain, mostly because he had just woken back up.

The boy's hands were never this cold until this moment. Even when as the life drained out of the child, his smile had always brought a sense of warmth to everyone. But that time had clearly passed

His gut clenched. His eyes barely focused. His muscles heated up as his hands began latch onto the steering module in front of him.

"Mr. Jay," the boy referred to him innocently, "Is flying fun?"

Jay ruffled the boy's head as he gave a sigh, "... Yea, don't you'd love it."

The boy smiled, and in turn, Jay wanted to smile back.

For a moment, Jay felt a sense of weightlessness to him. He was descending now, fast. The belts and buckles that held him in place tugged to keep him seated and upright, but which way was up?

Which way was down?

The boy frowned as he blinked once or twice. The yawn was so unlike him, normally being a ball of happiness ready to jump into the world. But he couldn't jump now, not with body.

"What's heaven?" the boy whispered, "is it fun."

Jay grit his teeth under his lips, holding back his emotions, "Yea ... heaven's a great place ... Abel ..."

His blood pumped faster as he pulled back into a level position. The only thing that he got, however, was a bunch of smoke of dust from the engine to his right. His craft spiraled out at a steep angle towards the earth, but at his height, the heavens blocked his vision towards the ground as if to comfort him.

Instead, he only felt a familiar sense of dread.

"But ..." Abel barely wheezed out his words, "How do I get there? I'm ... it ... hurts."

Jay had been clenching his right hand into a fist and his nails dung into the palm of his hand. The blood dripped from Jay's cuts as his visage shivered. "... I'll take you ... ok?"

"Will she be there? Phee ..." Abel coughed.

Jay froze, but gulped in his spit to calm his nerves, "Y-yea ... we'll all be there ..."

Now he was in the clouds, visibility at a zero with only his metallic controls telling him where he was. Jay's craft was barely three Sigs off the ground and with one of his Grav drives out of order, he was going to be a fish stuck in a flattened tin can of metal. For whatever reason, his ejection modules were malfunctioning. Perhaps it hadn't just been the Grav drive ...

Desperate for some sort of control, he grabbed a MAV cutter and cut into the area below him. Every second, he felt his head inch closer and closer to darkness as blood flowed irregularly into his brain. But just as he read a single Sig above the ground, he final bit of the floor holding his seat melted.

And then he fell

Fast

"Mr. Jay?" Abel said out of the blue. Jay roused upward. The teen had taken a nap in silence as Abel had quieted himself for nearly an hour. But just as Jay watched Abel turn towards him, there Jay knew that Abel's words were to be the last that would come from the boy's mouth.

"When you take me ... can you give me wings?"

Jay cut into the tightened bonds that restrained him and just as he saw the haunting green under him, the singed belts burst open to push Jay away. The back on his back began to shudder into motion.

Jay barely held back his tears, "You ... already got 'em, little buddy."

Three protrusions extended out from his metal backpack, glowing blue as it flared. In a single burst of energy, his jump jet pushed him up and out of his seat. It nearly broke him, just trying to stop the momentum of his fall, but his body held firm. Jay moved up and he could feel himself slowing in descent, but just as his spirit and mind, his wings sputtered as he began to drop once more.

His eyes closed before he even touched the ground.

"So refreshing to see someone who keeps their end of a bargain."

Hawke stiffened in place as she watched the elder woman seemingly stretch out herself. The old woman, who had months earlier saved Hawke and her family as a dragon, had now just came out from a locket that she had gotten from that very same woman. Fun tricks to have, yes, but Hawke doubted that she would ever learn to do such things.

"No one wanted to buy it." Hawke quipped to ease her nerves, "Maybe because it had a witch inside it?"

"Just a piece. A small piece, but it was all i needed."

Hawke wished she could have said something else, but, as mages tended to go in groups, Anders was quick to answer. He looked just as startled as the rest of her group with Varric still holding his crossbow and Aveline almost looking like she would be jumping out of her armor. The only one who wasn't going to faint seemed to be Merrill, an elf they had just recently picked up and had helped rejuvenate the lady.

"What are you? A spirit? An abomination? This is no magic I've ever seen!"

"And you would know of spirits and abominations" the woman said humorously

"Of course, I am a mage ..." Obviously he wasn't going to say out loud that he was possessed by a demon from the fade, but small details, oh yes, absolutely little details.

"Hmm, well in any case, you do not need to understand who or what I am." The lady strode to Hawke with a purpose. Hawke stood her ground as the lady continued, "You - know only that you may have saved my life, just as I once saved yours. An even trade, I think ..."

"I'd still like to know how you do that dragon trick ... you know ... for parties."

The woman cackled as she put her hand up to her face, "Oh, yes, a smart little talker through and through, yes you'll need that in the coming days."

That caught her attention, "You can look into the future?"

The woman shrugged "Perhaps ... I might just see things. Events within a river pooling within a cupped hand ... I just might."

Just when things were getting even more confusing and more intriguing, a certain ringing or howl came through the air. The sound, grabbing everyone's attention in Hawke's party, had pulled them towards the sky as they saw something unimaginable. It was something covered in smoke, surrounded in the shroud of clouds and blackened smog, flew down from the heavens. There was an undeniable spark or hue of metal within the darkness and as it came down, the mass flew towards the Lonely Coast. Hawke looked towards the old woman, an undeniable smirk on her face spoke of her fore knowledge of this event.

"Know this girl," she said as she moved towards the alter she was reborn from, "We stand upon the precipice of change. The world fears the inevitable plummet into the abyss. Watch for that moment ... and when it comes, do not hesitate to leap."

She turned around, yellow glowing orbs within her eyes digging into Hawke's soul, "It is only when you fall ... that you will learn whether you can fly."

Hawke gulped, but her spirit giggled as she spoke, "Cheap advice from a dragon."

"We all have our challenges ..." the woman looked back at the heap of metal crashing into the coast. "And maybe you'll learn to fly like he can ..."

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