Chapter 1: Flight Plan

"History teaches that wars begin when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap"

—Ronald Reagan

SEVEN YEARS AFTER "A SKY FULL OF FIRE"

Imperial Senate, Sadera, Falmart

In her youth, Empress Pina Co Lada had often wondered what it would be like to sit in her father's chair at the Senate. It had seemed wonderfully grand and impressive, and far more showy than the official Throne in the palace. Here, there was an audience. Here, the true reins of power could be felt.

Now, however, the old straight-backed chair wore on her nerves almost as much as the dreary argument going on below, and she longed to be back in her chambers with a stack of imported manga.

"What Chairman Tiberius and the Rondel Council fail to understand is that while recovery will happen under any form of government, that recovery can and has happened faster when that government is centralized," Cicero La Moltose stated. Seven years later, the man was still attending Senate sessions wearing his Blue Origin-branded aviator jacket, as if his status as Falmart's single remaining astronaut gave him some kind of special wisdom.

"Nonsense," the Senator from Rondel spat. "Japan and America are not a single state, but their combined efforts were enough to beat Emperor Mort, Usurper Zorzal, and the Goddess Hardy. With respect to the Empress, the people of Rondel have had enough of centralized powers in distant lands. We are not willing to wait another five years for Falmart to complete the transition to Parliamentary Democracy while our taxes and resources are reinvested into stronger infrastructure between Sadera and Italica."

"So is that what this is about?" Cicero said. "Your call for a Confederation has nothing to do with the needs of the continent, just the taxes of your highest earners—"

"As they should be! It is not Rondel's job to entertain the needs of a distant Capitol in ruins, and a trade city which, to this day, is more under Japan's influence than your own."

"How dare you!" a representative of House Formal cried. "Italica has always pledged itself to the Empire, and was the first to stand by Pina's side when Zorzal usurped the throne. Where was the Rondel Council? Hiding in their books! It wasn't loyalty that caused you to join Pina, it was payment in Earth technology!"

"It was nothing of the sort," the Rondel Senator argued. "We were concerned at the time that we were being forced to pick between a Usurper and a Japanese puppet. Perhaps part of that concern is still valid."

Shouts erupted in the Senate chamber, and Pina found herself instinctively reaching for her sword before she caught Sherry Tyueli watching her from the opposite end of the room. The young woman shook her head, and Pina let her hand return to her side. As always, Sherry was right; better to let the Senators squabble than cause an executive crisis.

"It is still valid!" the Senator from Rondel shouted above the din. "If this chamber truly believed in helping the entire continent to recover from the last war, then the taxes would be evenly distributed! A stronger transportation link between Italica and Sadera only serves to line Sadera's pockets, and lets them gain from Alnus the same way that Italica has!"

"Over one million people live in Sadera," Cicero argued. "One million people who have been directly affected by natural disasters and war. Recovery has not come easily!"

"Sadera's time is over. Our world looks to Japan now, as we mean to, independently of the whims of this government. We only ask that you allow a peaceful transition to a Confederation, rather than place us in an uncomfortable position."

Cicero gave an exasperated cry, shouting, "WHY DON'T YOU GET IT!" I've been into Space, I've seen what we have here, and I assure you, it's far less than you think! These threats of fragmentation, of violence, over what? We stand stronger when we stand united! Do you really think that the Carenth Kingdom or Zorzal will be the last threat we ever face? Do you really think that we can compete economically with Earth's most limited countries if we hoard our industries? Do you really think that anyone on this planet wants more of the bloodshed of seven years ago!? I'm not demanding Rondel to bury its frustration; the Gods and all below know that Sadera has earned your ire! But I'm begging you, please, do not give up on us so easily!"

Pina had heard speeches in this vein before, both from Cicero on a regular basis and from Greta, long, long ago. She wasn't quite sure what it was, but something about sending a man or woman into space seemed to imbue the astronaut with a sense of global unity, a belief in a world where everyone should stand united and march to the beat of collective progress, and that alone. It was a fairy tale, Sherry had pointed out, but a useful one; anything to help her government stay together until Sadera recovered was a benefit to her. Any new Parliament would have a Saderan/Italican majority, and the last thing she wanted was to hand over power on negative terms. Pina looked up to Sherry again, who nodded her permission to proceed.

She stood and walked to the stairs at the end of her platform, and a hush fell over the room. "Senators," she said, "In the past seven years, we have accomplished so much. We have rebuilt the land that was scoured in front of the JSDF, we have seen the benefits of new agricultural and medical practices in booming harvests and a growing population, and we have mended ties shattered by the arrogance of Zorzal El Caesar. With the help of Japan and America, we have established a good and fair plan to allow every man and woman in the Empire the representation they desire in their government. We are so close, but if we do not hold our present course, we stand to lose much of what we fought to regain.

"As Empress I have the ability to offer my statement up as a command, but I would ask instead that the Senate instead apply the democratic process which in five years we all intend to swear by. I hereby request a motion to make secession from the Empire unlawful until the Parliamentary Constitution is passed."

Pina had gotten more comfortable with it over the years; the speech she had given was a variation on one she had given a few times before, and she had learned not to worry about the eventual vote. Even if some of the other principalities had mixed feelings about her, the representatives from Sadera and Italica were usually enough to push her request through with a simple majority.

Indeed, as she watched them take the vote, it looked like she was going to get more than a simple majority, and she watched the Rondel Senator's scowl deepen with every 'yea'. "The final tabulated vote," the Senate reporter stated, "Seventy-three percent in agreement, twenty-seven percent against. The motion is passed."

A satisfied murmur broke out amongst the Senators, but as she watched, the Rondel Senator, with gritted teeth reached inside his robes. What will he do? She thought, draw a knife on me? The guards would kill him before he made it up the stairs.

But what the man from Rondel drew was not a knife. Rather, it was a metal pipe with a wooden grip, which he pointed at her. Odd, she thought, that almost looks like—

Cicero La Moltose jumped in front of her.

BANG

Senator Moltose, Pina's last remaining astronaut, lay dead on the floor.

For a moment, no one moved, waiting for the second shot which the campaign against the JSDF had taught them must come, but as they watched the senator begin to scramble to reload, Pina realized, it's a single-shot gun! Not waiting for her guards to respond, she drew her sword and rushed the traitor. The motions of the sword were familiar to her, etched into her soul through a decade of training with the Rose Order. With hardly a second thought, she flipped the sword around its handle and drove it, point first, into the Senator's chest. "Why?" she growled down at him.

His response? "Long live Rondel!" and one well-aimed spit that covered her cheek in coughed up blood.

A Coastal Town on the outskirts of the Seiraf Kingdom.

Ellie Fe Agne had always been fond of stargazing. As a navigator-in-training, she had long ago memorized the names and positions of the stars and constellations, and often stayed up late in hopes of catching the rare shooting star. In the past year, however, she had become fascinated by the night sky for a whole new reason.

As the sun dipped below the horizon, she made her way out onto the inn's third story balcony, where she leaned against the railing and looked north. The stars were just beginning to appear, but that was alright; what she was looking for was usually pretty bright.

There—leaping out of the horizon and climbing into the twilight sky was the Night Triangle. Three points of light, flying in perfect formation, which would nightly ascend from the north, pass in a sweeping arc across the sky, then descend to the exact south. Other times, they would run South to North, but always in the same perfect formation, appearing without fail once every ninety minutes. The first part of the triangle had supposedly appeared without explanation three years earlier, and her attention had first been called to it when the third and final point had been added a year ago.

Her question was the same as everyone else's: What were they, and who put them there?

To her teacher, Amita Ze Andromache, they were just another navigational aid. "The point of the triangle is always either North or South, and the base helps point West and East. As for why it's there? That's for the gods to decide, and the mages and natural philosophers to decipher."

For Ellie that wasn't enough. She wanted to see one up close, to go see what the world was like from up there.

As she did each evening, Ellie climbed up onto the rail, took a deep breath, and leapt off the balcony.

Granted, the Special Region contained a number of creatures and races who could easily walk away from a three-story drop but, as it happened, Ellie didn't need to. Instead, she swept open a pair of swan-white wings, and flew.

Of the many races in the Special Region, the Monarchs were one of the most splendid and the most envied. Members of this particular race of demihumans were mostly human, save for a few key differences. In addition to the wings, Monarchs could breathe at higher altitudes, were more sensitive to changes in temperature and pressure, and had an impeccable sense of direction. Unlike similar demihumans, like Sirens, their wings were not for show, and could be used to fly at altitudes of over 21,000 feet (about 6,400 meters). Together, this made Monarchs highly prized as navigators for seafaring ships, and weather scouts for coastal towns and cities.

At sixteen, Ellie was still too inexperienced to be a freelance navigator, and Andromache was constantly on her case about memorizing solar tables and mastering daylight navigation. This frustrated her to no end… she knew that other Monarchs were acting as navigators at her age, and she had grown tired of this dreary town in the middle of nowhere. She wanted to travel, fly to interesting places, do interesting things, and meet with new people.

The Night Triangle was, in a way, the culmination of those feelings. By this point, the formation was almost directly overhead. Ellie knew that it was impossible to reach—she'd tried—and considering as they never seemed to get any closer, she estimated that they had to be at least triple her highest altitude...probably further. She brushed an errant lock of her short hair out of her face, then reached an almost imploring hand up at the Triangle, as if it might notice her and divulge some secret.

It did nothing of the sort. Instead, as if the universe was annoyed at her for trying, a gust of wind hit her off-center and knocked her into a left-handed spin. For a moment she was gripped by panic as she twirled over and started to drop, but one of her instructor's mantras popped into her head.

"Fly first, panic later."

She took a deep breath and, recalling her training, she started a spin-recovery maneuver. Ellie slowed the beat of her wings, bent her legs away from the spin, and allowed herself to enter back into a stable dive before leveling off again. By the time she finished, the change in pressure caused her to estimate a drop of at least five hundred feet. She sent a quick prayer of thanks to the Gods that the spin hadn't occurred at a lower altitude and turned South, hoping to catch the Night Triangle on its descent.

Instead, she nearly collided with her instructor. In the dim light, Ellie could see the cold frown on Andromache's face, and the motion of her hands as she made the signs for Land, followed by Point of Origin.

Knowing that she was in for a scolding, Ellie wheeled back in the direction of her little coastal town and the inn on the coast. She made one modification, however, and landed on the roof of the building instead of the balcony. It was still reasonably public, but it reduced the chances of someone else walking in on them.

"How many times have I told you?" Andromache said. "If you plan to go flying on your own at night, you must tell someone, and you must give them your travel time and heading."

Ellie had nothing that she wanted to say. She was so used to having her excuses get shot down that it wasn't worth voicing any of them. "Sorry," she muttered.

"Do you understand why I'm upset?"

Oh no, Ellie thought, please, no, not this again…

"I had a student just like you once!"

Was she young and impatient?

"She was just a year or two younger than you, and just as impatient. But she was bright too, she might have had a marvelous career ahead of her!"

However…

"However, she acted on her own, without listening to the advice or consultation of others."

Tell me a fairy tale, Grandma Andromache…

"One day, she decided to go out on her own, just like you, and go skimming around the surface of the ocean at night, despite what I told her, and despite what she knew was right. Do you know what happened?"

Did she get attacked by an Armored Whale?

"She was attacked by an Armored Whale! It tore her left wing clean off, and if I hadn't been very lucky while searching for her, she would have bled to death! As it was, she was never able to fly again!"

Ellie had heard the same story dozens of times, to the point that she had memorized every line and every turn of her instructor's stern intonation. The mystery girl must've been a true idiot—surface-skimming was a bad idea regardless of the time of day, or whether or not anyone was told. All that remained, fortunately, was the last line, which would be, And that is why, dear Ellie, we cannot shirk our duty to each other, and you MUST tell me before running off like that!

So, like a trained parrot, Andromache finished, "And that is why, dear Ellie, we cannot shirk our duty to each other, and you MUST—"

She was cut off as a large shadow passed by overhead, and both of them looked up to see a large flying object miss them by just under twenty feet, and the two instinctively ducked. Looking up at it though, Ellie failed to see the regular flapping motions of a dragon or wyvern, but instead flat panels of wood that made a hissing noise as they passed, like steam escaping a boiling pot.

Once it had passed over, Ellie rushed to the other side of the roof and watched the flying contraption descend beyond the town walls and into a field beyond. Looking back to her instructor she asked, "What was that?"

"I—I don't know."

"We should go for a closer look!"

"Ellie!"

But Ellie wasn't listening. She jumped over the edge and glided down to the streets below, joining the gathering throng that surged out of the city to meet the strange visitor.

By the time that Ellie arrived at the site of the landed craft, the town militia was already there in force, and she had to push and shove her way through the spectators so that she could get a closer look. As she did, she heard the people around her muttering. "Air sailors! Air sailors from another land!"

Indeed, once Ellie could finally see what was going on, she could see that the craft had disgorged a crew of three. Their leader, a man in stylized red and silvery armor, was talking to the mayor of the town, who appeared calm and relatively apologetic. This was a good sign—Ellie had watched the town guard engage in combat with pirates before, and though Andromache had trained her in basic self-defense, the sight of all that blood had sickened her.

"...trade and normalizing relations, you say," the mayor said. "I would've expected a ship, and I would've thought that you would go to our capitol to speak directly with our leaders."

"That's the general plan," the captain of the flying ship said. The man had a slight accent, and Ellie found herself wondering how far these men had traveled. "Thing is, just like sea ships, we need to make landfall every so often so my crew has time to rest. Our maps of this region are limited in detail, and we missed our planned stopping point. We've been flying East all day, and are simply looking for a place to eat and sleep. We'll be on our way tomorrow morning."

The mayor sighed and said, "As long as your coins are based in gold and silver, you will have no problem here. I hope that our leadership looks fortunately on the offer of… where did you say you were from?"

"The Saderan Empire of Falmart, on behalf of Empress Pina Co Lada."

"Indeed. I shall post guards around your sky-ship, and welcome you to our humble town."

Ceremony over, the crowd began to disperse, but Ellie remained, closely following behind one of the guards so she could get closer to the aircraft.

"What a mess," one of the passengers, a woman in robes, was saying. "I'll never understand it; we've gotten lost twice now, even with the new maps."

"It's not ocean sailing," the Captain argued. "We've only been doing it for a few years, not hundreds. I hear that the Imperial Aviation Group is planning to affix a compass in the next model."

"That's no excuse," the woman argued. "The Men in Green manage it just fine in their planes—"

"If you can convince the Men in Green to let me trade in my MagThree for one of their Eff-toos, I would gladly—"

"Ah, excuse me!" Ellie said, first waving to get their attention, then shrinking away from the startled town guards.

"This area is off-limits," the nearest guard declared. "Go back to the town."

"But—"

"It's okay," the Captain stated, approaching to meet her. The man looked her up and down, taking in her figure and her wings, and Ellie suddenly found herself feeling extremely self-conscious. Had this man never seen a Monarch before?

"There's always one of you folks," the Captain said. "At every town, city, and port, and the question is always the same. 'What's that, and how does it fly?' Right?"

Ellie nodded.

"That," he continued, pointing at his ship, "Is called an airplane. It uses magic to pass wind over the wings, which produces both thrust and lift. I am the pilot, which means that I control which way the airplane points. Leeta and Cato in the back are the flight engineers, which means that they supply the magic."

"And we've been supplying magic all day long," Cato groaned. "How about you supply us with some coin so I can supply myself with a bed?"

The Captain stifled a yawn of his own and said, "Yeah,that sounds good to me too. Let's go."

Before they could leave, Ellie jumped in front of them and said, "Wait! One more question! Does anyone in your land know who set the Night Triangle into the sky?"

"The what?"

"The Night Triangle! Three stars that fly North to South some days, and South to North on others."

The crew of the airplane exchanged looks, before the woman, Leeta, replied, "The—what was the word...saddle-lights? If you mean the moving stars, the men in Tan did that."

"Saddle-lights, is that what they're called?" Ellie asked, but the others were ignoring her.

"Are you sure that it wasn't the Men in Green?" Cato argued.

"You might be right," Leeta said. "The rockets were definitely made by the Men in Green, but mark my words, the fake stars were made by the Men in Tan."

"Tan? Green? Who are they?" Ellie asked, "What's a 'rocket'?"

"That's enough questions," the Captain said, brushing her off. "Good night, miss."

Ellie watched them go, folded her arms, and ruffled her wings with an annoyed huff. That's enough. How could it ever be enough? Somewhere was a land with two powerful forces that built airplanes and could place fake stars in the sky, and the crew from Falmart treated these things like a matter of course!

As she examined the airplane, she gradually became aware of a certain subtlety… an underlying elegance to the design. The gentle curves and tapering points of the wing surfaces reminded her of the shape of her own wings, and the hinged surfaces suggested the same level of control that she found with her hands and legs during flight. This might make sense if the creator had studied Monarchs for decades and asked them extensive questions… but the Captain seemed like he'd never seen a Monarch before in his life. Someone had thought of this machine, and whoever they were, they almost surely either knew the Men in Green and Tan, or they were one themselves.

"Ellie!"

And there's that voice again…

Andromache grabbed her by the shoulders and hauled her away. Once they were out of earshot of the guards, she shouted, "Didn't you hear a single word I said?"

"But they know about the Night Triangle!"

"That's no excuse!" the older Monarch took a deep breath, recomposed herself, and said, "Since your senses seem to have taken flight, I'll just have to ground the rest of you. There will be no flying tomorrow, and you will spend the day memorizing sun tables."

Ellie felt like she was going to burst. Whoever made this machine was connected to the Night Triangle somehow. They would have the answers to everything. Why can't she see it?

By midnight, she had made her decision. She grabbed a satchel, filled it with her money, some food, and some other supplies. Just before dawn, she dressed, crept up to the third-story balcony, and leaped off the railing. This time, she did not plan to return.