Chapter Summary:

We're brought to a place that's been mentioned, but never seen before.

Welcome to the Lancelot Sky Knight Academy, where we'll be meeting a few new faces. Some more pleasant than others.

Meanwhile, Aerrow and Dark Ace have a Talk.

A/N: So fun fact: When I wrote this chapter I had somehow convinced myself that there was canonically a Sky Knight Academy mentioned all of once in Age of Heroes. It was a weird, embarrassing case of the Mandela Effect. Oops.

"He's asking for Achilles."

Dark Ace was deep in thought, lines etched into his forehead as he made his way to the infirmary. He had a tray of food in one hand, given to him by one of the nurses as he'd gone by. It seemed the kid had already gained himself a reputation.

Stopping at the divider curtains around the ward he'd been directed to, he listened in for a moment. He could hear the lemur creature chattering away at a lightning-fast pace. It almost sounded like there were two of them in there.

…Scratch that, it definitely sounded like there were two of them.

Confused and alarmed, Dark Ace pushed open the curtain, revealing the boy and his lemur pet. Both froze and looked at him as if he'd caught them doing something they shouldn't. He didn't find any sign of another animal.

Was… Had that been the kid making those noises?

Two pairs of eyes locked onto him, wide and suddenly uncertain. It made Dark Ace hesitate.

He'd seen green eyes like that before…

"…Aerrow," he said quietly as the pieces fell into place. It hadn't crossed his mind that Valkyrie's kid would somehow find his way here of all places. He thought they'd both gone underground after he'd lost track of them and the idea of ever seeing them again had become inconceivable to the point where he'd opted to forget about them.

From the looks of things though, Aerrow hadn't forgotten about him. At the sound of his name, the boy immediately curled in on himself and the look in his eyes turned wary. Long, tangled red hair fell over his face in curtains.

Neither of them said anything for a long moment.

"It's been a while," he said, making sure to use the 'common' tongue[1] as he spoke.

Slowly, Dark Ace approached the bed, watching as the boy tried to shift away from him. Eyes that used to be so bright and happy to see him had turned wild and suspicious. He used to babysit this boy as a toddler, and now he had to be, what? Thirteen years old now?

"Come on, kid. Don't act like you weren't demanding to see me for the last hour."

Stubborn silence. Dark Ace sighed and set the food down on the bedside table. Eyes watched every movement he made.

"Where's your mom? We'll contact her and you can go home, wherever that is."

He regretted his words in an instant when, instead of saying anything, Aerrow looked away and hid his face in the blue lemur's fur. For its own part, the animal started nuzzling him and chirping softly. He was shaking.

That was answer enough, and Achilles' shoulders sank. He'd known Valkyrie, he'd gotten close to her. Her last words to him still cut him to the bone if he dared to think back on them.

Never come back. You're arrogant to think any of you knew what you signed up for.

"I see," he said softly. For a moment, he debated trying to comfort the boy, but decided against it. "I'm sorry."

Aerrow didn't even look at him. Just shook his head and kept fighting back sniffles. Eventually though, he settled down enough to look at Achilles.

"Where've you been?" Achilles asked, more gently than when he'd asked about Valkyrie. "Have you been safe?"

For a long, long moment, Aerrow didn't speak. Just stared at Achilles with bewilderment, as though he didn't understand what he was saying. Did he understand? Did he even remember how to speak Common?

"S… safe," Aerrow croaked out, just as Achilles was about to ask again. The word sounded rusty in Aerrow's throat, like he wasn't used to it. "Um… Far. Far away. With, um…"

He made an odd click-chirp noise in the back of his throat and pointed at the lemur. Achilles frowned and tilted his head in response.

"Is he your friend?" he asked. This was good, Aerrow was talking to him. He'd expected to be shut off for what he'd done. Maybe he didn't remember. Maybe he'd been so far removed from the war for these last eight years that he didn't see him as a threat.

"…Family," Aerrow murmured after some thought. "Took care… after Mom-…" He trailed off.

Achilles nodded, "I get it. I'm… glad you weren't alone."

So Valkyrie was dead. Gail would be devastated to hear that. They'd been relatively close, especially after his siter had been born. And it had likely been a while since she'd passed.

He hadn't had anything against her. It'd been her brother he'd wanted dead. The fact that nearly the whole Strike family was gone now made him feel hollow.

Aerrow had fallen silent. Both him and the lemur looked nervous, eyes darting between him and the gap between the curtains that separated them from the rest of the infirmary.

"No one's going to hurt you, Aerrow," Achilles reassured them both, getting their attention. "You're safe here."

Slowly, the boy nodded and made a few clicking sounds at the lemur. They had to have some sort of shared language from the sounds of things.

"Can we… go home?" Aerrow asked softly.

"Where's home?"

"…Don't know."

Between Terras Atmosia and Rex was Terra Merlin. On that Terra was the Lancelot Sky Knight Academy; a repurposed fortress that was now a learning institution for prospective Sky Knights and, potentially, their future squadmates. Towering walls of stone surrounded a courtyard containing landing strips, obstacle courses, and common gardens, the main building was six stories tall, with carved stone buttresses and stained-glass windows depicting the First Sky Knights of seven hundred years ago, from Gabriel Olor to the first Lightning Strike. There was a Pegasus stable, and around the rim of the Terra as a small dock town inhabited by farmers, groundskeepers, and shipyard workers. To the southeast was a wooded forest, the subject of rumours and legends among students.

Piper wasn't interested in much of any of that. In fact, she was in a particularly poor mood as she lead Junko to the library, ignoring the awe that the Wallop was in as he walked through the hallways for the first time. Had they really not visited the Academy since before Junko had joined them? She'd sworn he'd been here already.

Oh well, it didn't matter now. She just hoped he didn't notice the looks of recognition she was getting from passing groups of students.

"So this is where you went to school, Piper?" Junko asked, looking around every which way in awe. The grand stone architecture was completely different from what he was used to on Wallop, and almost as intimidating as the metal halls of Cyclonia.

"It is," Piper said matter-of-factly. "And Finn and Ciel. That's how I met them."

Finn would never admit it, but she knew that he'd only approached her first because he wanted her help with homework. Or more likely he wanted her to do it all for him. That was the reason why most people wanted anything to do with her. She'd then met Ciel through Finn.

"Oh that's cool. So did you guys share a dorm? That's a thing in these schools, right?"

"Oh, no. Boys aren't allowed to share dorms with girls. Besides, I have my own room here with father. He's got his own quarters."

Junko paused to look at her, "You lived here with your dad?"

Oh no. "…Yes, I never mentioned that?"

"Nope."

"Oh. Well, he's the headmaster of the Academy. I've lived here practically my whole life."

Unfortunately it had made making friends a more difficult task than she'd wanted as a child.

"That's really cool. You must know this place like the back of your hand!"

"Yeah… something like that. I mostly know the library."

"Which is where we're headed now, right?"

"Yep."

"Remind me what kinds of books we're after?"

"The Organic Crystal Deposits Compendium, Ship Maintenance for Dummies for Stork, Expert's Atlas, Chronicles of the Forbidden City by I.J. Domiwick, and that's just the top of the list."

"That's a lot of books. Umm… are there any books on cooking that we can borrow?"

Piper raised an eyebrow at the Wallop in confusion, "There's a few, but those aren't really important to what we're doing here, Junko."

"I know, but it might be nice to have some new recipes for the road."

"Well, if we find any, you're free to borrow them I guess. Just make sure you return them when you're done."

"I can do that."

Nodding, Piper turned and kept on heading in the direction of the library. It wasn't the biggest library out there, but it had been extensive enough to keep Piper occupied throughout the slower moments of her childhood, and there were occasionally new books that came in if she asked her father at the right time. She'd read every book on crystal magic she could get her hands on, and had been on her way to finishing the history section before she'd finished her studies and started her journey. Today, she was looking through the geography books, looking for anything she could find regarding travel routes and outer rim Terras.

If Aerrow wasn't anywhere that the Sky Knights could find him, then maybe he was somewhere at the edge of the Charted Atmos. Those distant Terras had very little stake in the war, and Piper had even heard rumours that some people didn't even know there was a war going on. One day they surely would. Cyclonia would no doubt set their sights on those distant skies for one reason or another.

She had to stop it. To stop it, she had to find Aerrow. He was the last Strike, the one who could unite Atmos and bring down the scourge that was the Dark Ace.

"This is a very nice library," Junko commented as he looked around at the tall wooden bookshelves and all the books of various sizes.

"The one at Castle Rex is supposed to be bigger," Piper said dismissively without skipping a step. She knew exactly where she wanted to go, and lead Junko there on autopilot. On her way, she grabbed a history book that she was particularly fond of and held it up to Junko, "Could you hold this for me?"

Junko gladly took the book, "Sure!" and turned it around in one hand to admire the dark blue leather cover. "'History of the Now-Charted'. That sounds interesting."

"That's why I borrowed it," Piper agreed. "You're welcome to read it yourself while we're on the wing[2]."

"Thanks!"

They carried on like that for a while or so. Piper would find a book, check if it was relevant to her search, and if the answer was yes, she'd give it to Junko to carry. Before long, the Wallop was carrying a rather sizeable tower of books in both hands.

"Uuh, Piper? Do we really need this many?"

"Of course! I don't know when we'll be back again, so I'd rather have these to hand than not- Oh!"

Piper was interrupted when she stumbled across another girl among the maze of bookshelves. She recognised the black hair and red eyes immediately, and the flashy white outfit with colourful accents. Dress, capelet, white high boots with feather embellishments, clearly very expensive and of a certain taste. One that Piper was quite familiar with.

"…Ashe," Piper said hesitantly, catching the girl's attention. Though she barely gave the two Storm Hawks a glance before looking back at the book.

"Oh. It's you."

"Yes, um… Hi."

"Hi."

"Hello!" Junko piped up from behind the stack of books in his arms. At that, the girl – Ashe – did fully take her attention away from her book.

"Hi there." She actually sounded rather warm this time, before, "I see you made a new friend, Piper."

"I did," Piper confirmed, before clearing her throat. "This is Junko, he's the team strongman! Junko, this is Ashe, she's, um…"

"I think the term you're looking for is 'childhood friend'," Ashe supplied, her eyes narrowing just a bit. "You know, since we practically grew up together."

Piper grit her teeth, "Okay, we'll go with that. We were also taught crystal magic together."

"It's nice to meet you," Junko smiled, trying to dispel the uncomfortable air that had descended upon the three of them. "Piper never mentioned she had other girl friends."

At that, Ashe rolled her eyes, "Of course you didn't."

"It never came up," Piper protested sharply. "We've been busy."

"So busy, I'm sure. Still looking for the nephew?"

"Yes, I am still looking for Aerrow."

"What're you doing here then? I think you'd have found him by now if he was at the Academy of all places. After all, you live here."

"Father wanted to see me. We're just getting some books for the air."

"And you think books will help you find someone who hasn't been seen or heard from in a decade?"

"Well I'd like to have something to work with. We can't all just wish for a thing and then have it appear in our hands from nothing."

"That's not how that works and you know it."

"You know what I mean. Look, the point is that these could help us, okay?"

"I dunno, Piper. It feels like you're just wasting yours and your team's time. What if Aerrow's dead, have you considered that?"

"If he was dead, I wouldn't have been sent on this mission, Ashe. I think you of all people would understand how important-."

"Am I interrupting something?"

All three teenagers jumped at the sudden appearance of another person. A tall, thin man in garish clothes appeared out of nowhere, how had Piper missed his approach in that outfit? Bright green feathers for hair with violet trailing feathers, a beakish nose, and a staff fitted with a raystone crystal, Piper recognised him immediately.

Ashe quickly smiled, "Hey, I thought you were still teaching."

Arygyn the Skeelur, Guardian of Atmos, master warrior trainer and shape changer[3, shrugged, "The lesson became a practical one, and I wanted to check on you. Hello Piper, it's been a while. Oh, and this must be one of your new teammates!"

Junko smiled, but underneath it he was… very confused. What was a clown doing here at the Sky Knight Academy? And did Ashe just say he was teaching? Central Atmos schools were strange indeed.

"Hello Arygyn," Piper said, looking down at the floorboards with a slightly guilty expression. How much of that had the Guardian heard? Things had almost taken a turn for the ugly just then. Conversations with Ashe seemed to be doing that a lot in the past year…

"How are things with your little search party? Having any luck?"

"Not really," Piper admitted, and she felt shame welling up in her chest at the sight of what had could only be disappointment in Arygyn's eyes. "Junko and I were just getting ready to go out searching again, after what happened on Cyclonia."

"Oh yes, I heard about that. Good job by the way, very daring. You're sure you haven't seen any sign of Aerrow?"

"No, sir."

"That's fine, you'll get there eventually. Oh since you're here, your father was hoping to speak to you. He's in his office."

Piper brightened up at that. "Oh, he's free? I'll go see him right away. Junko, here's my library card, I'll meet you back on the Condor."

Junko's eyes went wide, "Piper, wai- And she's gone. Uhm, you guys wouldn't happen to know where I can find some cookbooks, would you?"

"Head back to the front desk and take a right," Arygyn said, pointing in the direction Junko needed to go. "Take care now!"

With a grateful smile, Junko trotted off with the mountain of books while Arygyn waved him off. "Bye Ashe! It was nice meeting you!"

"He seems nice," the teacher remarked to Ashe, who nodded in agreement.

"He does, yeah."

"Did you and Piper have a nice catch-up?" he asked, but the look in his eyes told Ashe that he already knew the real answer.

"How can you be so sure that she'll find Aerrow?" she asked instead.

"I've known the Strikes since they first became Sky Knights. They're a persistent bunch, and Aerrow will turn up sooner or later if he's anything like the rest of them. Besides, I've got a hunch that he's much closer than we realise."

Ashe raised an eyebrow at him, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You'll see soon enough." The feathered man gave a knowing smile, and Ashe squinted at him in suspicion.

"You know where he is, don't you?"

"Right now? Heavens no, he could be anywhere."

"Arygyn."

"Did you manage to do that thing for me? The hiding stuff?"

"I still don't see why you couldn't set up this scavenger hunt yourself," Ashe pouted. Arygyn was changing the subject again.

"I could have, but then everyone would find everything too quickly. Some of these future knights have very good tracking skills. You remember the first rule of magic shows, right?"

"Right. Magician keeps all eyes on him while the apprentice does all the real work."

"Oh you wound me," Arygyn whimpered, a hand going up to his chest as he swooned, "Showmanship is quite a lot of work, Ashe. I thought I'd taught you that."

"Sure, sure. How long do you think it'll take them to find everything?"

"Knowing how good you are at hiding things; I think it'll be long enough for us to have lunch."

The headmaster's office was on the ground floor, down a section of corridors that only Academy faculty and visiting Sky Knights went to with any regularity. Piper knew the area like the back of her hand, having gone up and down these particular hallways an infinite number of times. Her destination was dark wooden door with the name "Aniara" mounted on it in sharp, bold lettering, followed by the title "Headmaster" underneath. As she approached it, her knees felt jittery. They always did that when she went down here, and she had to take a moment to compose herself before rapping her knuckles against the door.

"Come in."

The voice was deep, and smooth with an imperious bass to it. Swallowing the lump in her throat, Piper opened the door and stepped inside to a rather sparsely decorated office space. There was no rug to soften the sounds of her footsteps upon the hardwood floors, sturdy cabinets and bookshelves lined the walls, and a heavy wooden desk sat in front of a tall window that overlooked the main courtyard. Opposite to her, looking out through said window, was a man in a wheelchair. His dark skin was marked with the scars of battle, and heavy-lidded purple eyes had a cold, steely look to them. Curly greying hair was tied back into a neat bun, he was dressed in formal clothes that made him look as noble as the Knight he was in his heyday.

Othello Aniara was in a pensive mood today.

"Hi- Hello father," Piper greeted, catching the man's attention. He didn't speak at first, instead rolling back in his chair so he could sit at the desk and face her.

"Welcome back, Piper," her father said. He rested his elbows on the desk, fingers steepled together in front of him. "How was the journey from Cyclonia?"

"It went… well, it didn't go smoothly, exactly," Piper murmured as she took a seat in front of the desk. The heavy wooden chair made her feel quite small, especially as she almost seemed to sink into the plush padding of it. "We got held up at Gale. But we got the Aurora Stone pieces back to Atmosia right afterwards, none of them were lost."

"I noticed. The sky's been clear since yesterday. Let me guess, Godwit convinced you to help him fight off the Talon occupation, didn't he? He has a habit of doing that with the younger Sky Knights."

Piper nodded, and the tension she felt in her shoulders lessened slightly. "We thought it was the right thing to do. And we did manage to free the Rebel Ducks, so now Gale has a chance at freedom again."

"Yes, it was the right thing to do." Othello leaned back in his chair slightly, "What of your search for your Sky Knight?"

Of course, the mission. The most important thing she'd ever been tasked with. The thing she'd made almost zero headway on.

"There's no sign of Aerrow yet, father," Piper admitted, before hurriedly following up with, "But I haven't stopped looking. The intel network has been a dead end so far, so I'm going out and searching myself. We're preparing to fly out as soon as we're finished here. There's a chance he's at the fringes of the charted Atmos, it would explain why no one's heard anything from him."

Slowly, Othello nodded, "Very well. Try not to get distracted again, Piper. We don't know how much time we have left before fate catches up to us. Your mother, bless her for trying, never managed to figure out a deadline before…" He stopped, as if the thought of continuing pained him.

"I-I know, father," Piper stammered out. H hand went up to clutch at the feather-shaped crystal hanging from her neck.

"Ill let you be on your way then. Remember, this is justice. The Dark Ace will pay for what he's taken from us, from Aerrow, and from the rest of Atmos."

"Aerrow's back, sir. He looks upset."

Dark Ace looked up from the book he was reading to see Cara Cara back at his bedside, sweat beading at her forehead as she massaged her arms.

"You came all this way to tell me that?" he asked, even as his shoulders sank with relief. Aerrow was back, he was probably alright if he wasn't immediately being hauled to the infirmary. He could have a word with the kid without anything getting in the way.

"I came here to drop some things off for the Master, but I saw your ward on the way over," Cara shrugged as she held out a stack of paperwork for him. Typical. And she must have practically raced here on her wheelchair with the stuff, if the exertion was any indication. "Would you like me to send him your way if I see him again? I know you've been concerned for him," she added before he could dismiss her offer.

Dark Ace nodded, "Sure. Thank you, Cara."

"You're welcome. I'll let him know."

Aerrow didn't know what to expect when he made his way to the infirmary. He'd been sent back to Cyclonia on a ship transferring commercial goods and injured Talons back to the capital Terra, and immediately gone up to his room with Radarr. His brother had taken the chance to have a nap while he went for a walk around the citadel to try clearing his head. That was when Delphi and Achilles' secretary had run into him and let him know that Achilles wanted to speak to him.

Had Snipe told him about the run-in with the not-Storm hawks? Was he in trouble?

Achilles was sitting up in his infirmary bed, reading through papers and reports that Aerrow knew he wouldn't understand if he ever asked about them. The Champion of Cyclonia looked up at him when he noticed his approach.

"Hey."

"Hey."

It was just one word, but Achilles' tone when he said it told Aerrow a lot. It was the 'I need to talk to you' voice, which always came before a hard conversation. It reminded Aerrow a lot of Gail, actually.

"Are you okay?" Aerrow asked as perched himself on the edge of the hospital bed. Achilles was still covered in bandages; his bruises had turned to sickly yellow-purple tones.

"I'm bored, but healing," Achilles shrugged. "I'll be out of here in a week at this rate. How was Gale?"

"It was fine. Explored, hung out with Dagr. The Rebel Ducks escaped though."

"Hm, Turaco won't be happy about that. Did you help get them back?"

"No. One got recaught though. I… didn't help though," Aerrow admitted, feeling his face heat up in shame.

"How come?" Achilles asked, and Aerrow felt guilty at how concerned the man sounded in that moment. "Were you hurt?"

Silence.

"Aerrow, what happened?"

"I didn't get hurt."

"Okay, that's good. But what else?"

Aerrow scowled, "You don't know already?"

"Nobody's given me a report from Gale yet. Even if I did, I want to hear things from you. It sounds like this is more than just 'nobody asked me to help'."

"…Storm Hawks were there," Aerrow said, "The ones that stole the Aurora Stone. And hurt you."

He was still furious about that. They were not the Storm Hawks. How dare they run around with the Condor and those uniforms like they owned it all. He was sure none of them had done a single bit of work to earn the name of the old team. Did they even know whose legacy they were trying to bring back?

"They broke out the Ducks," he carried on, "We got into a fight with them and I chased their archer through Widow's Canyon. S'why I didn't help the Red Harts."

Achilles raised an eyebrow at that. "You ran widow's Canyon for the first time, on your own, while in the middle of an air fight?"

Aerrow ducked his head, "Yes…"

"Impressive. You know, your mother would kill me if she found out."

That got a laugh out of Aerrow. Bittersweet at the mention of his mother, but somehow it made his shoulders feel a bit lighter.

"I didn't crash," he said, feeling smug despite himself. Widow's Canyon had been an absolute rush when he'd run it, even the second time when he managed to sneak off for a bit before being shipped back off of Gale. Radarr hadn't appreciated it as much. "The archer did. He survived though."

"You sound unhappy about that," Achilles pointed out, and Aerrow squirmed slightly. The 'we need to talk about this' tone was back, and something else that he couldn't quite place but it made him feel worse. He didn't want to have to deal with this. "Aerrow, what exactly happened?"

Aerrow scowled and grit his teeth. He really didn't want to deal with this. Having Snipe point out his bad judgement had been bad enough.

"He crashed; chute deployed. I caught him on the ground and…"

"And..?"

His scowl deepened, "I let him go."

For a moment, Achilles was quiet. Then he just nodded, "Alright."

"You're not… disappointed?"

"No, why would I be? He's a kid, he's your age. There's no harm in leaving him alive, and no shame in mercy. You gave him the chance to leave and never cross paths with you again. With any luck, he'll drop the team for good."

"He's a thief," Aerrow insisted, "They all are. They took something that's not theirs, probably stole the Condor. None of them are related to the old team, they have no right to it. I should be making them hurt for that, and I didn't!"

"And you think they should die for it?"

"It's what you did last time!"

The air around them went still. Something about Achilles shifted, and Aerrow immediately regretted his words.

"What have you heard?"

"I… some Talons on Gale were talking… About the last people who tried being the Storm Hawks. You killed them, didn't you? Why should this be any different?"

There was a long, long moment of silence before Achilles spoke again,

"The last people who tried to take the mantle of the Storm Hawks were a bunch of arrogant twenty-something-year-olds who should've known better. They were more concerned with their own vanity than helping people. Every interview that the press had with them had a line about them being better than the old team, and that they'd go down in history as the squadron to take me out. So I killed them for it, and left the Knight's co-pilot alive to leave a message. The co-pilot wasn't much older than you, and I haven't seen him since.

Aerrow shrank in on himself and stayed silent.

"I am not proud of what I did to those people. And I'd hoped you would never find out about them. I was angry, I didn't think, and when I got home, I…" Achilles sighed, his shoulders sinking, "It didn't set things right. It wasn't the same as defeating a Sky Knight in battle, I wasn't protecting anyone when I did it. I couldn't look Gail in the eye afterwards."

That got Aerrow to look up at him. He knew Achilles, there were very few things that the man regretted in his life, and killing was rarely one of them. The only people he had ever claimed to regret taking the lives of was the old team, excluding Lightning.

"Aerrow, do you really want this to be the first time you take a life?" Achilles asked gravely. His gaze was intense, and Aerrow couldn't look away as he struggled to answer.

"I… But they-."

"They're kids, Aerrow, like you. Idiot kids who don't know what they signed up for. I'm upset that this is happening again too. You're right that they aren't entitled to the old team's name. But how far are you willing to go to tell them that?"

Aerrow was quiet. This wasn't the first time Achilles had stressed to him how serious it was to take a life, even in war. He remembered how badly his hands had been shaking when he'd held the spear to the archer's throat, felt his hands shaking right now.

"…I don't… want that…" he mumbled.

"Good… Your mom wouldn't want that either. Or your uncle. He'd be devasted."

"You hated my uncle."

"You don't hate him. And he loved you. That… that was something I do still respect about him. He wouldn't want you to become a killer, and definitely not in his name."

Aerrow nodded mutely, eyes stinging at the thought of Lightning. Achilles was right, if his faded memories of his uncle, his idol, his family, were anything to go by.

He jumped when Achilles leaned forward to rest a hand on his shoulder.

"There's other ways to get people to drop something they shouldn't have," he said gently, "We'll figure this out."

"Okay. Can I stay here for a bit?"

"Sure. Take your time."

Grateful, Aerrow nodded. Then after a moment of thinking about it, he darted forward to hug Achilles, startling him for a moment before he returned it. Achilles' arms were wiry and strong. Not as engulfing as his uncle's or his mother's, but comforting regardless.

Things were going to be okay.

Footnotes:

[1] 'Common Atmosian' refers to the most widely used language across the known Atmos. Typically used as a native language on Atmosia, Rex and other central Terras, it's the preferred language of traders.

[2] "On the wing" is the Atmos equivalent to the phrase "on the road", since 'road trips' are probably not as widespread a concept. You can't exactly get very far on a road. It's derived from when Pegasus flight was the main method of transport.

[3] He has many other titles, but these are the ones that Piper knows him by.

Introducing Ashe and Arygyn! Ashe belongs to Grimm, I adore her as a character and AUs now no longer feel complete without her XD She has firmly cemented herself in my writing and refuses to leave. I hope you guys like her as a character just as much as I do. Othello belongs to myself.