The Abyss, or Reshanta, as her companions also called it, was a place of true wonders, like Cathy has never seen before. She spent most of the travel near the only window in their small cabin, watching as the Beluslan landscape got smaller and smaller and was replaced by floating islands. Creatures of various shapes and forms, elementals, kalgolems, gargoyles and even ghosts, walked or flew over them. Surely they were dangerous, but she was amazed by them nonetheless. And by the streams of aether bending light and painting everything in many colours. One cluster of small islands was bathing in numerous aether twisters.

"That was Primum Fortress," Miss Aielyn said next to her. "Did you hear about it?"

Cathy shook her head. Why is she sad?

"Lady Lumiel died here. That's why there's so much aether around," she continued. That made sense, the Lady was the best sorceress in the world and could do miracles with aether. "Some say she didn't die, that she let the fortress explode and ran away, but... if she did that, why didn't she come back for her people?"

Cathy didn't know the answer to that. She didn't know the answers to a lot of things.

"And these are the Balaur," Miss Aielyn pointed at another island. There were lizard‑like people around a fantastically looking device with a red and gold banner. Cathy's heart began beating faster and she bit her lip. "These are from Tiamat. They are dangerous, but dumb. If you're smart, you can run away from them if outnumbered. Beritra's are much worse. If you see a black and blue banner, you'd better run before they notice you. But don't worry now," she put her hand on Cathy's back. "As long as we stay on the ship, they won't bother us. They respect the Shugo traders too."

"Hm, but without the Shugo ship you'd better not travel here," Miss Nesha said. "The Balaur control the whole Reshanta, with the exception of Teminon landing. And who knows how long we'll be able to keep that."

"Wasn't this part of the plan, when half of those who could fight the Balaur was exterminated or enslaved?"

"What are you trying to say? Should we let them get away with killing Lady Ariel?"

"Because it made perfect sense to kill their own leader and severely injure an allied leader just to get to her, right," Miss Aielyn rolled her eyes.

"And? Who else would do that?"

"Anyone? I heard Lord Kaisinel was strongly against the truce talk."

"Wait, you think it was Lord Kaisinel?" Miss Nesha looked surprised.

"No, he hates the Asmodians, but he's not an idiot. And he's not the one who gained the most out of the escalated war."

"What... do you mean?"

"That either the Balaur did it and Israphel only used the opportunity, in which case: good timing, man. Or he did it himself."

Miss Nesha stared at her with disbelief. Cathy's eyes wandered between those two, afraid that a fight would start between them.

"That's nonsense," Miss Nesha shook her head after long silence. "I've been at the trials, those Asmodians have confessed..."

"Oh, yeah, right," Miss Aielyn rolled her eyes again. "Another one who's too lazy to think and believes in those manipulated trials. If you hate the Asmodians so much, why are you trying to get to them?"

"That's none of your business."

"Fine, as you wish," Miss Aielyn sat in a corner and tried breaking into the cube she took from the dead man in the frozen city, ostensibly ignoring Miss Nesha, who was still lying in her hammock, staring at the ceiling. Cathy soundlessly sighed and looked out of the window again. There was nothing else to do, she couldn't practice with aether and walking outside until they arrived at Black Cloud island was not an option either. She was afraid. She didn't know what to do without her grandma and her brothers guiding her.

~ o ~

The airship travel was boring. They weren't allowed to manipulate aether or leave their cabin except for necessities. Nesha didn't mind being bored. As part of her assassin training, she undertook several boring missions, she knew how to keep her mind occupied without losing attention to her surroundings and exercises to keep her muscles from deteriorating when there was only a little room to move in. No, boredom wasn't a problem. On the other hand, Aielyn trying to start casual conversations multiple times a day was annoying. And Cathy still not speaking a word didn't balance it out, in fact it was more and more disturbing. Luckily they were nearing Gelkmaros and the Shugo captain decided it was safe to let them to the deck. Nesha was standing at the side of the airship and watched the sunrise over lush land covered by a layer of golden and orange transparent haze. It looked so peaceful, almost as if the land wasn't witness to one of the worst battles during the war.

Nesha searched through the haze and vegetation to see the ruins of Marayas city and the Asmodian defense base, a place of her most conflicting memories. The Elyos have won a huge battle there, but the aftermath left a bitter taste in her mouth. She was assigned to a small group tasked with assassination of Mastarius. They succeeded, but at the cost of half of their support unit. And the sad story of...

"What a beautiful view," Aielyn appeared next to her. "Except I hate it."

"Why?"

"The battle over there," she pointed at the ruined city, "was a reminder how Israphel had everything planned and every action he took was to inflict as much suffering as possible to those who didn't worship him."

"You weren't there," Nesha objected.

"No. My parents were."

"Uhm... wait, didn't you say your mother was an..."

"Yes. They were forced to fight against each other. They... couldn't do that. Someone killed mom in front of dad's eyes and after the battle some Israphel's minions executed him for betrayal, or some braxshit like that."

"Kyoren... right?"

"How do you..."

"I... I was there. He seemed like a nice guy. Solid. Caring... he didn't deserve to die. I'm... I'm really sorry," Nesha stepped away from the railing to return to the cabin. She remembered those days. And where she'd seen Aielyn's hairpin. On whom. And Kyoren's desperate scream right after that. She turned away from the railing, she wanted to be alone.

"Wait," the ranger stopped her.

"Why?" Nesha hesitantly turned. Does she...

"We're leaving."

"What?"

"Sorry about getting lost in memories, that was not why I came up here. It's just... when I saw the ruins... Never mind, as soon as we get through the barrier, we have to leave the ship. You really don't want to go all the way to the fortress."

"Yeah, that's right."

"I'll go first. You take Cathy, land somewhere in the mountains and head north, beyond Viscum Swamp. And either someone will be waiting for you on the way, or you run into a patrol. In which case good luck, 'cause the obelisks are all rigged. Except the fortress."

"I know. Why don't you come with us?"

"Well... reasons? Don't worry, you'll be fine. Just take care of Cathy on the way and avoid the windstreams. They are quite strong here."

Nesha looked around. The Asmodian girl was standing a few steps behind them, silently watching them, clutching an end of a rope that was bound around her torso again.

The golden haze slowly passed through the ship. They were officially in Gelkmaros.

"See ya later!" Aielyn jumped from the deck and again waited with spreading her wings almost too long. Immediately as she did, she was caught in a windstream and carried away.

And we should avoid them?

Nesha took the rope from Cathy, who nervously looked over the railings.

Well, yeah, even if I secure her with the rope, she won't handle the stream.

"Alright, Cathy, once we jump, count to ten as fast as you can and then open the wings. You can't open them too close to the ship. If you get caught in a windstream, just dismiss the wings and I'll get you safely away. Ready?"

The girl nodded. They both sat on the railing, Nesha counted down from three and they both let go of the ship. Nesha spread her wings. Cathy was only a bit slower, but even that was enough for the rope to tauten and yank her down. After she stabilised their gliding, she looked around for a suitable place to land. The mountains were getting closer, but slowly enough for her to get a clear view of the land. She tilted herself to get to a nice looking clearing. But making Cathy change direction by tugging the rope proved to be a difficult task. As they neared the ground, a gryphu flew out from the treeline, screeched and attacked them. Cathy panicked and dismissed her wings too early again. The rope held, but even Nesha was pulled down quite faster than she anticipated, which saved her from the wild bird's beak. Even alone, fighting while gliding, when the foe could freely fly, was not a good idea. She quickly scanned the area under them, swung the rope to let Cathy land in a pool of water and landed on a thin ledge in the middle of a cliff above the pool. As she expected, the gryphu lost interest in the girl and attacked her instead. She readied her dagger. When the bird was close enough, she jumped, stabbing the dagger into its neck and dragging it down as she fell. They splashed into the water at the same moment.

~ o ~

Cathy climbed out of the pool, breathing heavily and examining her left arm and side, which hurt from falling into the water. She did it again. She panicked, when that bird attacked, and stopped concentrating on her wings. It was only because of Miss Nesha that she didn't die from the fall. She looked up, her eyes squinting in the too bright light. Neither the Elyos woman nor the wild bird were there. Her gaze went slowly along the cliff to the water.

Red? Is it... blood?

A few seconds later, Miss Nesha crawled out from the water, dragging the dead bird behind her.

"This will be our lunch," she dropped the bird and knelt next to Cathy. "Are you alright?"

The girl nodded. Her side hurt, but she had no injury or broken bone. It would heal soon.

"Take that off and wring out as much water out of it as you can," Miss Nesha pointed at her clothes and immediately heeded her own words, undressing her shirt and twisting it. The pants followed. Fortunately it was warm in Gelkmaros and they didn't have to wear much clothes. After they dried themselves up as much as possible without fire, she cut the bird and wrapped chunks of its meat in a piece of cloth that previously stored the meat bread.

"Let's go, we have to get away from here, in case someone already noticed us. It will get warmer, as we move."

Cathy only nodded and followed her. Her eyes got better used to the light and she could see the truly wondrous land they had fallen into. So much life was all around her, she didn't know what to look at first. Tall trees with huge green and red leaves were surrounded by plants with leaves as big and round as plates. Golden crystals were jutting from the ground and earth and stone spirits were resting among them. And the mountains around them were much higher than she remembered from Morheim. They were on a path above a deep, deep valley, which she tried to look into, but the height was too overwhelming. And she saw more birds in the distance, like the one that attacked them, but these were too far to notice them.

By noon her clothes were almost dry and her eyes adjusted well enough she didn't have to squint all the time. She was still in awe, the land was too different and way more vibrant than snow covered Morheim mountains. Miss Nesha led her off the path, between the rocks and told her to wait, while she gathered dry wood and started fire. Soon the bird meat was roasted and they could eat it, along with the last pieces of old vegetables.

"We should reach the rebels today or tomorrow," Miss Nesha said after the meal. "But if we get stuck, I'll hunt something. Stay here, I'll scout ahead."

Cathy nodded and Miss Nesha left. She stayed at her spot for about twenty minutes, during which nothing particular happened, until the Elyos woman returned.

"As I suspected, the gate ahead is guarded by the Elyos now. We'll need to take the difficult path," she pulled a sword out of her cube and placed it on her belt, next to one of the daggers. "There might be patrols. And swords are better than daggers against enemies, who have already seen you," she added, when she saw Cathy's confused look. "But you won't fight. If anyone or anything attacks us, you run."

They left the provisory camp and for about a minute they followed the road. Then Miss Nesha turned aside and they started climbing up a steep slope, which slowly became a cliff. Cathy didn't know how to climb that. But with help of the experienced scout, and the rope, she was able to get to the top of the narrow mountain range. Behind them, in the valley, was the guarded gate, on their both sides were deep valleys, the one to the west, seemed to rise up towards the north. That was where they were headed, slowly climbing over rocks, through scrubs and dwarf pines, checking the gate after every step. When the slope became more passable, they climbed down into old ruins. Only fragments of walls and pillars were remaining, but among those were several statues, which seemed to be only mildly damaged.

"Don't touch those statues, some of them may become alive and attack you," Miss Nesha whispered.

She led her through the ruins, occasionally checking the surroundings for directions. After a while they reached a road, close to an intersection. One road went in the direction of the gate, one continued west and the third one, the one they joined, led north, over a weathered stone bridge, into a huge ruined city. If Cathy was by herself, she would already be lost, but this city reminded her of the one they saw from the sky. They reached the bridge, Miss Nesha checked it and it seemed solid enough.

"Halt! Who's there?" a male voice shouted behind them. Cathy turned around. Two Elyos, one in heavy armor and the other in an ornate coat, were running towards them.

"Run, I'll deal with them and catch up with you," Miss Nesha hissed and pulled out a sword.

Cathy nodded. She would only stand in Miss Nesha's way, if she stayed. So she ran. Across the bridge and towards the remnants of city walls. As she was running through the former gate, a blast of energy hit the already half crumbled arc right above her.

~ o ~

As Cathy ran away, Nesha drew also her dagger and the armored guard attacked. She evaded his greatsword swing and with a few steps she got to his side, searching for any gaps in the armor. He had interlocking plates of metal over his torso, legs and arms, raised collar and a helmet with openings only for his eyes and mouth. But he was just a regular guard, and although the armor was fitted to his body, it lacked the details of a custom made, expensive one. She stabbed her sword into the inner side of his upper left arm and quickly ducked, when he tried to hit her with his gauntlet. With the corner of her eye she glimpsed at the other guy, who was standing near the edge of the bridge, casting a spell, preparing to throw it at her, once he gets a clear shot. She threw a dagger at him. He lost his concentration, as the dagger stabbed into his shoulder, and the spell fired in the direction of the ruined city. Immediately she had to fend off the greatsword, the guard wasn't going to give her time to look around. She stepped through shadows to get behind him and slashed the back side of his knee. He fell. While kneeling, he tried to strike her with the greatsword again, but she kicked his hand and he dropped the weapon. She drew her other dagger and stabbed the inner side of his right arm. She didn't want to kill him this close to a rigged obelisk. She focused her attention back to the caster, who was already preparing another spell. She stepped through the shadows, appeared behind him, but an aetheric shield around him prevented her from hitting him. He stopped casting and the air got suddenly very, very cold. The mage turned around and hurled icy wind at her, pushing her back. She lost footing and just barely grabbed the edge of the bridge. The mage stood in a safe distance, aiming a spell at her.

"Tareis, come here and get her up," he said.

"Fuck it, that bitch cut my tendons, just kill her!"

"But our orders..."

"Fuck the orders!"

Nesha had to act before they could agree on what to do. Her weapons fell to the chasm, and the dagger, which she threw at the caster, was lying on the bridge out of her reach. She looked down. The chasm was deep, with uneven rocky cliffs and occasional wild vegetation, but still wide enough for gliding. She was too close to the side, but if she could swing herself enough and gain the right momentum...

"Fine, I'll do it myself. Don't try anything funny, girl," the caster said and kicked her dagger even further from her. Still in the safe distance he cancelled his spell and started another. A huge boulder detached from the cliffside and slowly floated towards her. Once it was under her, she let go of the bridge, bounced off the boulder and fell into the chasm.