A CONFRONTATION: A Prelude to A Sky Full of Starlight

SIX MONTHS AFTER A SKY FULL OF THUNDER

New Alnus, The Special Region

"Do you know what the symbolic bird of Alnus should be?" Hector asked.

"No," Ellie said. "What?"

"The Crane."

Ellie blinked twice, confused, before Hector pointed up the street and said, "It's a pun. It's an English pun."

"Oh!" Ellie said, finally connecting the words. She had been studying English aggressively for the past few months, but it was a horrifically difficult language, and the fact that most of the Americans in the Special Region filled their speech with slang and idioms didn't help. Still, she knew enough to finally get Hector's joke.

With the sudden availability of the Special Region to the nations of Earth, billions of dollars and yuan and euros had poured into construction in Alnus, as companies from across that globe scrambled to get their hands on the best real estate on the other side of the Gate. As such, the streets were noisier than ever, not just with the normal collection of cars and airplanes from the JSDF garrison, but now with hundreds upon hundreds of construction vehicles. Indeed, as Hector had pointed out, when you looked up from the street the sky seemed to be full of construction cranes and gantries.

Still, Hector's idea at a joke didn't help settle Ellie much. She was still nervous, both about the next few hours and the near future.

"I can go with you, if you want," Hector said. "If she gives you any trouble, I'll-"

"I'll be fine," Ellie said. "Just, please, let's talk about something else."

"Like your job offer?"

"...and something other than that. Tell me… how is the research with Ms. Lelei going?"

Hector rolled his eyes. "I don't care for Earth alchemy… this chemistry thing. Alchemy relied on an understanding of the thing itself; what it tastes like, what the features were like, known reactions with other things. With Chemistry it's letters marching about a paper, representing fundamentals too small to ever be seen, forces too limited to be observed on an easy scale, and after a point the numbers stop being real and become guesses. Lelei la Leleina is drier than a pottery kiln, and her lectures are like listening to ten hours of a grain mill.

"And yet…"

"You're enjoying yourself?"

Hector shrugged. "Earth science has a wonderful way of making subtle things obvious, and sensing patterns where there shouldn't be any. The intensified explosion spells Greta had me using make much more sense, and the things it can do for fire, ice, electricity-they have laws for lightning, you know. I'd show you, but I wouldn't want to make the people around here upset."

Ellie smiled. "That's great!"

"There's the medicine too! I like that part better; they have this machine called a microscope, which is like a telescope but in reverse, yet theirs are powerful enough to see the insides of the tiniest creatures… and once you witness how they operate, how they hold together and grow, then healing spells become a hundred times easier."

"That reminds me, didn't you say that the healers at the hospital in Italica wanted to check you for something?"

Hector nodded. "Yes. It had to do with the burning effects of the Godwrecker."

"And?"

"And they found a few things they wish to keep track of, but nothing important."

Ellie stepped in front of him so that he was forced to stop. "What do you mean by keeping track of things?"

"I told you, nothing of significance."

"How long have we been traveling together?" Ellie asked, placing her hands on her hips. "You know that I won't move until I have an answer."

The edge of Hector's mouth curled up into a grin. "They said a handful of words in bastardized Imperial, and let me go. To be perfectly honest, I don't know what they found, if anything, just that it wasn't interesting enough for them keep me around."

"Are you going to die?"

"Of course not," he folded his arms. "I survived a Godwrecker and a wrecking by the Gods. It's going to take something vastly more powerful to take me down."

Ellie searched his warped face, looking for some indicator of a lie, but couldn't find it. Maybe he was hiding it well, or maybe it was part of his regular stubbornness. Either way, she wouldn't gain anything from pressing him further. She was on a schedule and he knew it, so she sighed and stepped out of his path.

The pair continued on in silence for a while before Hector said, "This job offer… it's not from their government, is it?"

"No. I don't think I'd accept an offer from their government. I wouldn't accept an offer from any government. But if this helps get demihumans through the Gate, then it's worth it."

They arrived in front of a park. It was a relatively new addition, and Ellie thought that it was a nice touch and a needed escape from all the rising brick and concrete. "This will take half an hour, maybe less," she said. "Hector, I…"

He placed a hand on her shoulder. "You're tougher than her. You wouldn't have made it this far if you weren't."

"This is the part where you say something sarcastic and call me 'girl,' right?"

But Hector shook his head. "I'm not the one that needs to be convinced. You show her that you're more than that. Do you understand? For the next half hour, you're not a girl," he shifted his hand to her back and gave her a slight push towards the park. "You're Ellie."

Ellie glanced once more back at the older mage. The grin was still there, and he raised an eyebrow as if to say, "Go on."

The park was empty, which made sense as it was mid afternoon. Everyone was at work or school or elsewhere, which meant that there was no one wondering the trees or paths. At the center of the park stood a bright red Japanese Torii gate, both of its main pillars inscribed with a list of seventy-nine names. Directly beneath it, a bronze statue of a JSDF soldier stood perpetual guard.

Staring down the guard from several feet away stood Amita Ze Andromache.

Ellie hadn't talked with her old teacher since the air battle over Italica, and hadn't really planned on doing so ever again. The only reason she had come today was because Andromache had finally been granted leave by the fledgling parliament of the Falmart Republic, and was about to return to the Seiraf Kingdom and the Avion Sea. She had asked to see Ellie once more before she left, and Ellie, knowing it was the last time they would likely ever meet, accepted the offer.

The older Monarch was reasonably quick to notice her and her mouth pressed into a firm line. "Here I am," Ellie said, "What did you want to discuss?"

Andromache's eyes narrowed as they took in Ellie. "Those are Earth clothes," she said.

Indeed, Ellie was wearing pants and a modified blouse from a Tokyo boutique she had visited with Greta. The staff had been very nice, and very eager to find a way to make everything work with the particulars of a Monarch's figure. "What about them?" she asked.

"They're a poor choice for scouting and would get easily soaked."

"Then it's a good thing that I wasn't planning on flying today."

Andromache ignored Ellie's argument and said, "I have gone and set up the option of a lucrative position with the Imperial Aviation Group. With my departure and Greta's dereliction of her duty, you're the next best option to train their pilots. You should be thankful that I asked on your behalf."

Dereliction of duty was an odd way to phrase what had gone on with Greta. After Ellie and Hector had left her with Dr. Carol Dawson, the demihuman aerospace engineer had magically found herself in the possession of an expedited work visa, and had promptly cut all contact with the Special Region. When Hector and Ellie had visited the two a few months later, Greta had aggressively avoided the topic of ever returning.

Ellie suspected the reason why, and she generally felt the same way. "I will not be joining the Imperial Aviation Group," she said.

"You're a failure of a navigator, and you abandoned your village. You should be lucky that anyone is willing to offer you a job," Andromache spat. "Never in all my years-"

"I have been given a better offer, and I plan to take it," Ellie declared. "An Earth company wishes me to help crew one of their vessels, and determine the rate at which Monarchs… demihumans as a whole can learn specific fields, and how we respond to unusual environments."

"And how do you plan to navigate such a vessel without passing my examination?"

"Earth vessels self-navigate. Especially this one."

"Ridiculous."

"It's true."

"I think you're making a big mistake. As your mentor-"

"Oh shut up," Ellie said. Unconsciously, her wings sprang partway open. It was an automatic defensive gesture, but she didn't care. It was appropriate. 'I get it. I'm not you, and I'm not any of your former students, but guess what? I don't need to be. I've found my own way, and I don't need you dragging me down any more."

Andromache held firm, but it didn't matter. Ellie had said everything she needed to say. She turned around and started for the park exit.

"And what company of fools would hire an untrained Monarch!?" Andromache shouted after her.

Ellie knew the answer would be meaningless to her former teacher, but a grin crept onto her face and she looked back over her shoulder.

"SpaceX!" she shouted back.

Author's Note

I realized shortly after completing A Sky Full of Thunder that I had not properly included a scene wrapping up the animosity between Ellie and Andromache, as it seemed to disrupt the flow of the original story. I have included it here as a separate item which, while not where I would place the formal ending, should help serve to tie the events of Thunder to the next project.

Yes, you read that correctly. There is another project.

I am pleased to announce that the Skies trilogy will conclude with A Sky Full of Starlight, to be released starting in January of 2019. This will seal up all the remaining plot threads from A Sky Full of Thunder, and will get a bit deeper into the mixing of two world cultures as Earth and the Special Region become more deeply integrated with each other. It will also showcase technology and magic working in concert to push their respective limits, and include one hell of a conflict.

Thanks again for your continued readership, and I look forward to sharing Starlight with all of you in the coming year.

-8andahalfby11, October 31, 2018