CHAPTER 4

There Was Always A Sunrise

"-and it doesn't have much time left."

Maija stepped even farther back, sensing the presence of people behind her. The world she had only just begun to explore, dying? Her brow wrinkled in confusion. "What do you mean?"

Kaius pushed his chair back and stood, resting clenched fists on the table. "The world isn't dying but the people in it. From greed and selfishness. They are destroying each other. Not unless we stop them."

"What are you saying?" She stepped farther back. The exhilaration Maija had been experiencing just moments prior had vaporized. She took another step and bumped into the two men standing behind her. Panic bubbled up in her, latching onto her throat. She couldn't breathe.

"We can save them Maija," Kaius said, annoyance rising in him, plain in his tone. "Can't you see? The world is dying but we can save it. We can save it by bringing the people of Foundation together. Form a New Unity, better than the Kioki Unity before us. Work with me, not against me and we will have finally achieved peace Foundation will thank us for!"

By the time he had finished, Kaius was nearly shouting, his eyes blazing with fury.

Maija shook her head, "How? With violence? You destroyed a peaceful island. Killed hundreds of people. You killed-."

Maija's vison blurred. She couldn't believe she had let herself become so distracted. Disgusted by it. Kaius had almost had her in the palm of his hand. How could she had been so careless? This man had killed her friend. Her father no matter how unrelated the two were. He was her enemy.

"You killed Makhai."

"I did not, Maija." Kaius shook his head and crossed his arms, his lips twisting into a snarl. "He is still alive."

"Lair!" Maija screamed, the tears fell.

Kaius brushed his hand at her, turning away. "Take her away. I don't want to look at her."

The men grabbed Maija's arms. She screamed and punched, swung at the men with her fists and kicked with her legs but they were too strong. They quickly overpowered her, dragging her from the room and back down deeper and deeper into the flying prison.

Maija found herself back in her cell. The bed had been taken from her, along with the bowl her food had come in. She wouldn't have thought anything of it, but she only knew food would now come few and far in between.

She found herself drifting between consciousness and emptiness. Maija never fell asleep but found moments of time completely lost. Her own words echoed in her mind.

You killed Makhai.

Lair!

I'll kill you. Just like you killed Makhai.

Makhai isn't dead. He is still alive.

Take her away.

Do you have any idea why I chose you?

My memory.

"Maija." Someone had whispered her name. She hadn't even noticed them enter. He had not only come into the room but opened her cell door as well.

It was a man, dressed as everyone else on this ship. His face was clean shaven, eyes brown with a head of auburn hair. Other than that, completely… ordinary. Maija stood and grabbed the bars tightly. She was angry and sick of being here. It had been now more than three days since she had been anywhere else.

"What do you want from me. Have Kaius come down here and deal with me himself." She banged hard against the bars, the sound echoing.

The man ducked, lifting a finger to his lips. "Shhhh, I'm here to break you out."

"What?" Maija said, not bothering to hide her confusion. This man looked genuine.

He repeated himself, now speaking in an even lower of a whisper. "I'm here to get you off this ship."

"Who are you?"

The man shook his hands, impatience clearly getting on his nerves. "Uh, call me a deserter I don't care. We just need to go. Now."

Maija didn't move. In fact, she took a step back. She didn't trust anyone. For all she knew, this man was trying to trick her again. Break her guard down bit by bit just so Kaius could get even deeper in her mind.

"God dammit Maija we don't have much more time," the man somehow shouted in a whisper. He sighed and closed his eyes. "My name is Luke. I am working with… a group of people to overthrow Kaius. Bring to end New Unity. There's so much more to this story that you don't understand. Please"- he stretched out his hand- "come with me."

Maija hesitated. Then took his hand, feeling the warmth of human contact for the first time in days. Luke released his breath, relief as real as sunlight spreading across his face.

"Thank you thank you thank you," he said quickly then pulled her out the cell. "Quick. We don't have much more time. The ship is docked to refuel. This is our only chance off."

Maija pulled her hand from his grip but continued to follow. He led her down a corridor and then down the same set of stairs. They reached the cargo hold and just as the man said, beneath that open space that would have shown empty sky, there was stone.

She was about to jump down when the man grabbed her arm. For a second, Maija panicked and prepared herself for a fight. But the man had only stopped, taking something from his arm. A grappling hook. He quickly unlatched it from his own arm and held it out to her.

"Take this." He handed the grappling hook to Maija who slowly took it. "This is the difference between life and death. Don't let it out of your sight."

"Aren't you coming?" Maija asked, glancing back at the opening below her. The ground was not more than a few feet below, she could easily jump down safely. "You're a traitor. They'll kill you."

"That's my own problem. Just get away. Go to the temple and look for Lidia, she can get you a new ship."

"Why are you doing this?"

"Because we need you Maija." Luke slowly nodded, sadness filling his eyes. "We need you."

With the grappling hook now, once again, hanging from her right arm, Maija left the ship and Luke behind. He hadn't been lying when he said they had little time. Moments after she left, the ship lifted off a shipyard and flew away, it's engines almost deafening and still audible even when it was miles away.

The island she now found herself on was relatively small. In comparison to others she had been to which would have taken days to fully explore, she guessed a good afternoon would garner all the resources this island had to hide. Although she wasn't there for resources. She needed to escape. And quickly.

The island was clean of ruins, only trees and green grass was present. Except New Unity had clearly set it up at some sort of outpost. Along one edge of the island, where she was, five shipyards had been placed in a line, three of which were occupied by a ship. Tents had been propped up nearby all filled with various types of chests and crates, all filled with resources. She couldn't see anyone guarding. The entire island felt empty. Good. Maija had had enough of any kind of social contact and was glad to finally be alone again and unimpaired. It also gave her time to figure out what to do next.

Maija took a full and deep breath of the crisp, nighttime air in. It was refreshing, everything smelling greener than what she was used to. She needed to act. Luke had given her an island and person to meet. The "temple" sounded unique enough for her to name and after glace into the clear night sky, she saw exactly what Luke had described. A temple made from white stone sat on the top of a deep island almost covering its entire surface. Even from this distance it looked massive, and ships crowded around it. A center for trade, just like Harbourage.

She didn't even think she should listen. Everywhere she went, she knew New Unity would follow. It was only a matter of time before they realized Maija was gone. It was only a matter of time before Kaius would find her again. It was likely at this temple that he would. Right now, she just needed to get off this island and away.

This wasn't a time to be picky, Maija chose the smallest ship and climbed aboard, still learning how to use her grappling hook. She attached the hook to the ship's mast and slowly reeled herself up. The ship was small, made of metal and shaped like a box. It had no engines but had two wings made from wood and two sails. Good enough, there was no one around her so speed wasn't most important.

Maija found the helm at the front of the ship, peeking just barely over the edge. She grabbed onto the controls and began lifting the ship up, its hull groaning and creaking as it slowly started to rise. Locking in the ship's upward movement, Maija stepped away from the helm and unfurled each sail. Doing this all alone proved difficult but she got it done, now using her grappling hook more fluently. As soon as she had let down the first sail, she had swung around the back of the ship with one swoop to unfurl the next, the ship now hundreds of feet above the island.

The first thing Maija did after bringing the ship around and towards the island Luke had directed her to was bring it back down. Down to a level just above the void where fog completely hid her ship from sight. There she was safe. It would be impossible to find her and easy to get lost in. But as a downside to its convenience, the sun was completely hidden and windspeeds were painfully slow. Maija gave herself a full day before she reached the next island.

She set her ship forwards and stepped back from the helm, preparing for the long ride. By now, the sun had started to rise from below the stormwall she had crossed days before. Even though sunlight was dim down in the void, the shadow of the stormwall still casted strange, eerie shadows on the world. Maija had climbed the mast to her sails, trying to use her grappling hook but finding it awkward because of the mast's thin surface area. The tips of the two sails peaked just above the layer of cloud that blanketed the void, allowing her to watch the sunrise. At least there was always a sunrise.

Maija slept lightly, keeping an eye constantly open. The last thing she had wanted to do was throw her sleep schedule, but she needed to be well rested. The light had been dimmed enough and her ship enclosed enough for her to finally get some shut eye, nothing but the wind in sails to make noise. That and the faint buzzing of the skycore overhead- the reason these seemingly magical floating ships existed.

Technology invented far before Maija's time, the skycore harnessed the power of atlas, a mineral when charged with an electric shock, produced an effect of almost weightlessness to anything it was connected to. The skycore was designed to harness this energy and apply it the frame of ships, allowing them to be lightened, floating in the air as if gravity was nonexistent. Maija couldn't explain it. She just knew that it worked. That was all that mattered.

This atlas was also why these chunks of land, the dead fragments of a civilization before, were floating in midair. Atlas formed throughout them, powered by the energy of the void, strong enough to power islands, strong enough to kill or destroy anything that came too close. Maija was tempting fate being even this deep.

When she woke, it was about midday. She wiped the sleepiness from her eyes and stood, making her way up to the tips of the sails to get a bearing on her ship's position. She could see nothing but clouds in every direction except for up. Directly above Maija and her ship was the bottom side of an island, she could see each corner of the temple overhanging the island's side. She was right where she was supposed to be and with no sign of danger. Maija furled the sails and set the ship to rise. It would still take time to float up to the island's level.

She stood at the helm, letting the ship float up, balling her fists then letting them relax. Anxiety so strong rose in Maija. She did not want to be in the open for this long. Her ship stuck out like a sore thumb and even worse, she was unarmed, completely defenseless.

But the ship finally reached island level with no drama. Unlike Harbourage, no ship was docked on the island, but all floating near it, the closer ones able to anchor with ropes to what little of the island the massive stone temple wasn't covering. Maija was able to sneak her ship in between two larger ones, hiding it from view. She was also lucky enough to grab a spot close enough to the island that she could just step over onto it.

Now to find Lidia. Luke had told Maija that she would be able to get her a better ship. A ship with engines and hopefully, weapons. Although she had trusted Luke enough to follow his directions to this island, she was curious to see how she could get a ship for free, unless…

Maija reached into her trousers' back pocket, hoping in everything she believed in (which wasn't much) that New Unity hadn't checked back there. Her fingers tapped against a smooth, glassy object. She formed a fist around it and pulled out, holding a small glass vial of deep red pigment. Marauder Red. That could do it. She could buy a reasonable ship with this or buy transport elsewhere if it came to that.

She returned the vial to her pocket and stepped onto the island, setting the ship to sink down into the void. Maija slowly, cautiously walked forwards, under a massive stone overhang and into the center of the temple. The building itself was bigger than any building she had ever seen. It was only really a set of walls in structure, four towers peeking up at each corner, the inside was completely open and looked up into open sky.

People were everywhere. More people than Maija had ever seen even at the busiest times at Harbourage. People were around her, above her up in metal catwalks and concrete platforms. Some were even below her. There was a gap in the floor at the center of the island that ran its entire length. Ships passed through it in both directions, their crew unloading crates and resources and goods to be sold. The wealth in this area overwhelmed Maija. She had never seen so much money in one place before.

But now she had no idea what to do. Lidia. Find Lidia. But Maija had no idea what she looked like. She wandered farther in, trying her best to look as if she didn't have absolutely no idea what she was doing. The people walking around in every direction paid no attention to her either way. Stairs led up to the gap through the center of what could only be called a courtyard.

She felt so out of place. For once in her life, Maija was hyperaware of her own appearance. She could be spotted easily in a crowd. It just took one person from New Unity to notice her, and it would be over all over again.

Someone grabbed Maija's arm just below the shoulder, she jumped and pulled her arm free. The man who had grabbed her reached again but Maija was quicker this time, turning around, deflecting his hand. He was dressed in a cowl, hiding his face. Maija's mind assumed the worse. But instead of fighting this man, she turned and ran, hiding herself in the crowd who didn't seem to have noticed the struggle.

"Maija wait!" the man called out to her. His voice stopped her instantly. There was no way she could have forgotten it.

She slid to a stop, almost tripping over her own feet. The man caught up to her as she turned to face him. He pulled his cowl down, Makhai's face wrapped up behind it, tears staining his face. Maija stepped up to him, the memory of the people around them forgotten, and wrapped her arms around him, not being able to believe what had just happened.

"I thought you-," she pushed out- physically pushed out of her chest. "I thought you were dead."

She had genuinely believed it. She had watched their ship explode into fire and smoke. She had watched everything she had ever had fall down and into the void. Kaius had already gotten inside Maija's head whether he had intended it or not because she had thought Makhai had been killed. She had always just assumed that when Kaius had confessed to Makhai's still being alive, it had all just been some cruel ploy.

"I know, come Maija," he said, pulling away from her. "We have some things to discuss."

She nodded and he led her away. Back to where she had come and underneath one of the large towers. This area was quieter, dimly lit and secluded. There was little clutter or furniture, just cold white stone.

There was a woman waiting for them. She was… big. Strong, full of muscle, much more than Maija was. She wore over plain clothes a leather apron stained with grease and burn marks, metal tools just as greasy sticking from pockets and hanging from several thick belts made from a leather Maija could only assume came from one of those flying mantas. She wasn't old but she was older than Maija.

The woman stood straight, appearing to be sizing Maija up. Maija hid her intimidation.

"Is this her?" the woman asked, her voice deep and grizzly, she nodded towards Maija. "Not what I expected."

"What did you expect?" Maija asked, crossing her arms, immediately rubbing the wrong way with this woman. "Someone bigger?"

A mischievous smile worked its way across the woman's face as she copied Maija's stance, leaning up against a stone pillar, "Yeah… someone bigger."

"Are you who I think you are?" Maija asked, putting the pieces together. She had found Makhai and brought him here. Luke had found Maija and directed her here too. Clearly, they knew Maija just as much as New Unity did. She didn't like it.

The woman nodded once, "I suppose Luke sent you here?"

"Have you two met each other before?" Makhai asked, stepping in. Despite having once thought she would never see him again, Maija almost forgot Makhai was present, distracted by this woman.

"No." Maija had managed to get Makhai up to speed in a single word. "But I know she can get us a ship."

"Well, engines," she said uncrossing her arms and stepping closer. "I can get you a good pair of engines."

Maija's brow furrowed, her eyes no blazing with frustration. "Luke told me you could get us a ship?"

"Engines," Lidia said again. "I'll even help you install them."

"I don't have a ship anymore! I can't do that," Maija exclaimed. She turned to Makhai. "Tell me you have a ship please."

He shook his head. "She brought me here."

Maija turned away from them, pinching the bridge of her nose. She really didn't want to be rid of this Marauder Red so quickly, but it looked as if she had no choice. The sound of jet engines already filled her ears as if New Unity was already here. They didn't have much time. The clock was ticking.

She calmed herself, forced herself to calm down. Maija focused every bit of tension and stress to her hands which formed fists so strong that her own grip might have ripped her fingers out. "Tell me who you are. Why are you working with Luke?"

"I met Luke quite some time ago. We're working to stop New Unity, but I've still got a business to run ma'am and from where I'm standing, you're just another customer."

"God damn you," Maija squeezed through clenched teeth. She had already lost her cool and had no intention of reining it in.

Lidia laughed. A hearty chuckle originating from deep in her chest. "There's that big girl personality I was expecting from you."

"Maija! What's happened to you?" Makhai scolded her. She ignored him, taking the vial of pigment from her pocket and tossing it to Lidia hands. She caught it and smiled, eyeing the red material inside. Makhai's jaw practically dropped when he finally caught sight of it. "Where did you get that at?"

"Trey gave it to me," Maija said quickly, backing away, her voice calmer, softer. "It's a long story."

Maija crossed her arms again, nodding towards the vial clutched in Lidia's massive paws. "What can that get me?"

Lidia smiled. "It could get you a lot. Follow me."