For his first ever flight across the skies, this wouldn’t be what Faiz would have imagined it to look like. Perhaps he envisioned a land beyond the veiled skies, speckled with lost heroes or star-chains, hiding all manner of treasure and opportunity. Unlikely as it was, it was still more plausible than his current predicament; Being wrapped in a tentacled hold, yanked around like a weightless sack, on a crash course towards a blazing battle akin to something out of a tapestry.

  As far as days went, one could say perhaps this was highly(or even extremely!) unusual a day. Perhaps Faiz would even have cared to comment on this fact were he not presently focused on the conflict between his probably childhood sweetheart, and the very unsettling figure seemingly responsible for the prismatic firestorm raging above. As for the citadel, it may as well have not existed anymore, cracked in half like an egg, the yolk of its contents having melted away in the blaze. Though it still loomed in the distance some ways away, the voices emanating from the figures atop it were perfectly clear.

  “” That voice, so bold and confident, reverberating ever so slightly like that of a descended Deity, seemed so unlike Allie, that it took him a moment to realize that it was emerging from her mouth. She looked much different now, clad in shimmering platemail that drew in the light around her, bearing upon her arms tangled luminescent bramble(did that not hurt?) as she glared up at the..the…Horror that floated above.

  

  You will do no such thing- You will carry upon your mortal flesh our brand- There shall be aught saving you from Great Union to befall you- Our embers consume you now and forevermore-Traitor Kin

  Faiz whimpered in agony as the devil in the skies imposed its thought upon reality. There was no other word to describe the occurrence, the reaching thorns of a starry presence invading his mind, branding speech into his psyche. Through his teary eyes, he craned up his head, trying to catch a better glimpse of whatever was causing this trouble. Another mistake. He felt his brain start boiling as it worked at breakneck speeds trying to comprehend what he saw. Faiz saw a -no better way to describe it-in the space where something should ostensibly have been, and within were…angles and shapes and colours, beyond what he could ever have seen, eating and birthing itself in repeated reversions…

  And then the void blurred inwards and Allie pulled forward, and the resulting shockwaves of their clash destroyed yet more of their surroundings. Faiz clutched his head in hand, half delirious as he wondered whether he’d become pulp from the aftershocks first, or end up crushed by the tentacles snaring him. Wait, tentacles? He timidly looked to his side. Ah, the captain, Jesyll. He had half forgotten they were here, what with the pandaemonium unfolding in front of him stealing his attentions. They seemed to warbling into a screen of misty sparkles, their frame quivering with anxiety. He could suppress his laughter no longer at this almost banal sight, juxtaposed with all that was happening elsewhere.

  “- is already here, fighting the Heir. No, its awoken her and I’m trying!..” They realign onto Faiz, drawn by his wavering giggles and sobs, “Ah, Kid..got a nice long look at the Divide I suppose..I need you here, snap of out it!” At once he felt a frost surge out of him, and he blinked back the tears that fell from his eyes, coughing wetly as he fought back more retching. “W…what happened…?”

  They shook him slightly, and now Faiz really did feel like a particularly well abused sack of sawdust. “The apocalypsefriend has unearthed her Inheritance in full, so she can probably survive a while. Maybe this nursery really wasn’t a bad idea, even if it’s right in the middle of the shades..” He had no idea what the tubespawn was yammering on about, only catching one pertinent scrap of information.

  “” Perhaps a bit slow on the uptake, but given all the madness he’d witnessed today, it was a miracle he was coherent at all. “Save her then! You’ve managed to keep a flying Art going for this long and know what in the heavens is happening here! Don’t tell me you’ve kept me floating here to..!” It mattered not that he had been saved himself; at the prospect of his love being in danger, his insides curdling with desperation.

  “Not that easy kid! I didn’t expect an entire nova to be here of all places! I’d need a sufficient amount of energy to disrupt its schema, and I doubt I’ll find a Mana link in this shanty town!” Jesyll seemed to be diverting their attention between the glinting figures smashing against each other in the distance and Faiz, who’s gaze was fixed not on the combat, but the warped and tilting pillar of the Skyport that groaned precariously above a still intact area of Shaiher. “I think I know where we’re getting your power from”

  Was Faiz really ready to enter a massive building that bore down on the heads of probably fearstruck and cowering populace, unstable and certainly treacherous? If asked then, he would not have been able to say, his mind clouded half with panic and half with determination, his finger outstretched towards the crooked tower. One of Jesylls tendrils swished over to where he pointed, and then they were off, carrying him alongside.

  “A skyport, here? That’s..unbelievable.” They seemed excited somehow, as they sped towards its top. Faiz shouted over the howling gale, “Not there at the top! It’s..haah..a decoy! Let me-” A tendril snaked over his head, and he felt his mind crack open as a questing trickle sifted through his thoughts-

  “-An’ that’s why it’s bein’ hammered innu the scafoldin’ , ye unnerstan yeah?” Kalak gazed across the desk at Faiz, the young boy nodding quickly, trying to hide his wince as the rough chair digs into his back. “Yes, sir. I got it down in one. But..all that effort for-That?”

  Kalak glowered at him and his timid doubts, his tail cracking against the floor as he leaned in,”Stop quailin’ boy!” His voice like booming thunder as he loomed over a stiff Faiz, then sighing and settling back into his chair, “Ya won’ geddit now, but it’s all fer ye-“

  

  -and he blinked his eyes, standing in the midst of rubble as Jesyll hefted up the Mana link, their frame shuddering slightly. “To think an astrologer would’ve set up shop here.. Hehe, you’re my lucky break, kid” Before Faiz could expel his rage at them, cry hysterically, or break out into more laughter, another tremor rocked the ruin formerly known as the Skyport, sending it careening all the way of over. “Ack, no time to dally! Come ‘ere!” Faiz the sack is once more pulled along, launched out of the window by Jesyll. Just in time too, as the earth shattering crash behind him would most likely have killed him(it most certainly has already killed whichever hapless soul was located below it).

  The cause of the previous impact made itself known, someone crashed into the side of the building. “!” It seemed indeed that she had lost her fight against that..’nova’ horror, laying in a pool of shimmering fluid, the plate flickering and dying around her form, with the invader demon existing in an ominous manner above her. The sight itself was enough to make him burn from within, his wounds and deformities pulsing with agony as Jesylls unmoving tendrils fell away from him. The world tilted on its axis as he fell to his knees, and then onto his stomach, unable to even lift his head.

  

  You fall-Weak birth weak light-We shall be united in our nature-Share now-

  Fighting through his agony, he calls out to her, his world greying and blurry, “Allie, are you alright? Please..t-talk to me..I’m begging you!” He crawls forward, ignoring the blooms of sensation in his arms, his being centered entirely on her fallen form. The surprisingly polite horror neither speaks nor acts at all as he drags himself towards her cratered form.

  Colour returns to the world as he hears her weak(but most evidently living!) voice murmur out, “Faiz…? Is…that..you?” The way she speaks, every word halting and pained, it brings desperate tears to his eyes as he replies, clutching onto her hand, “Yeah, it’s me. D-don’t worry Allie, you look..” He pulls a weak smile onto his face, “..Fine, yeah. I have a-a friend here to help, just stay with me here?” His love and light attempts a nod, though her brow furrows slightly in confusion, “Allie..? Yeah, I..I’m Allie..Oh, I’m so sorry Faiz..I should’ve-“

  

  -What Illusion do you weave-The Tauhept cannot waken-The Seal shifts not-We cannot be stopped-Give yourself unto Union of rifts-

  The horror chooses that very moment to shake of its lethargy, the unsettling abyss that makes it pulsing errantly. It readies itself, and Faiz pushes himself to his knees, straining to stand up, his eyes bleeding as he glares up at the creature. “You..you aren’t going to ! You’ll have to beat me first and..I don’t go down easy, tough guy” As far as ideas go, this(trying to threaten a terrifying abomination that has him dead to rights) isn’t his brightest idea, but he would rather wander every starry abyss by his lonesome rather than give up the one good thing he has in his wretched existence.

  Fortunately, Faiz is spared the ignominy of dying in a hole to some overblown atrocity(which would all but ensure the end of this tale) thanks to the timely intervention of Jesyll, “Well now kid, don’t go sacrificing yourself in a blaze of glory just yet. Dunno what you did, talk later on that, but I’m ending things !” With that, their tentacles lashed out in every direction, most aimed at the creature, which was pulsing even faster, in an emotion Faiz now recognized as panic. A good sign then, whatever they were doing clearly worked.

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  This is not- Our union may not-No matter cause-We shall make you ours-For the mendingEven if I must give up….everything…

  The void within seemed to be collapsing inward, the chaotic and riotous sparks within dimming. It filled Faiz with hope for all of a few seconds, before the horror started..outwards. And then everything around the expanding nothingness starts lifting off the ground. What?

  “Not good kid! Avakhs decided to take us out along with itself! Get out of there before it pulls you into the Divide!” He would perhaps have gone along with the wise suggestion, were it not for the pressing matters of him both being unable to stand up and being unwilling to leave Allie behind, “No! I can-I can save her I know it, just let-” He clings to her as her unconscious form begins drifting up into the void. His attempts to halt her movement bear no fruit, so he hunkers down and settles for enduring alongside her.

  He feels something tug at his leg as his fracturing gaze takes mirrors and sounds visible beyond the sense of his mind, as in his passage he sees SHARPANDDISTANTYETCLOSEGLINTINGLIGHTBEYONDSIGHTINRADIANCEOFHISSINS-

  

  He comes back to the sane slowly, his body feeling weightless and his mind empty. Very pleasant this, he wonders if it’s work time yet? The pipes have been very well used these past few days, and he’s managed to earn himself quite a profit lately. Kalak and Artem had even become somewhat less abrasive, which would have, once upon a time, been akin in magnitude to seeing dawn in Shaiher. Perhaps he should even be possessed of the luxury to rest today? He could ask Alllie to make that delectable sweetbread she always-

  Allie.

  He bolted up, his eyes pinpricks as he peered around him, searching for her, “Allie?”, starting to panic as he found neither hide nor hair of his beloved. All he saw was ruin and rubble, devastation marked on every intact structure in his periphery.

  “You can quit looking boy. The Heir is..gone. I could only pull you out, and only with sheer dumb luck at that..crap..” The Alksga-akang-- shambled out from behind a particularly large pile of refuse, their tentacles drooped. “What were ye even thinking, doing that? You almost got trapped in their Firmament for good!”

  Faiz does not listen past the first few sentences, his hands trembling as they cover his face. . So that was it then. He had failed the one task he had given himself, and his light was lost to him evermore. He wanted to laugh, and so he did, I”

  “Do you have a habit of chuckling your head off when you face adversity? Bit odd, but I can’t fault you for that,” They said, awkwardly patting his head with a tendril. Faiz shuddered and then stiffened, turning to face Jesyll, his face contorting into a snarl.

  “You..LiarAnd now she’s gone! I saw and did so much and-” He breaks down again, his breath coming in faster and faster, “W-what was that ThingTell me!”

  The tentacled being raised their tentacles up, stopping his arms from their jittering, “Whoa whoa…calm down there kid. One thing at a time, let’s not fall into panic just yet eh?” When he gave a sullen nod, they relaxed and continued, “Now, that thing that took your friend? That was Avakh, a nova of the Firmament, sent to this nursery to abduct the Heir. I get that you probably don’t know what I’m talking about, but a longer explanation would take too much vital time. All you need to know is that your friend is something we call an Heir, and the Firmament collects them for their Grand Union. Yes, she is most likely alive, you can stop looking like your world’s ending.”

  Faiz sniffled, wiping his eyes, and asked, “So..can we get her back? But.. do we know where she’s kept now? And-and what if there’s more of those..Firmament things there?” , a cautious frosted expectation creeping into his blazing heart, his mind racing.

  “I told ya to keep it simple..guess I can’t blame you, you’ve been through a lot, surprised you can even stand,” Jesyll conceded, looking at the skies, “We don’t have much time now, I’ll tell you all about it later, We gotta rush now. You got anything to pack up before we leave kid?”

  Leave? Faiz hadn’t considered that, though it seemed foolish to him in retrospect that he’d be able to save his beloved without putting in some legwork. That’s how all those stories that sh- apprised him on worked right? So all he needed to do was finish his quest, and he’d see her again. As for packing..

  Faiz realized with a start that he was standing..in the wreckage of his own abode. Were it another day, perhaps he should have protested this fact to one or several deities, for allowing the destruction of the home of an honest and kindhearted worker such as him. As it was, this day had already seen Faiz be treated as some toy for their cruel amusement, so he wisely kept his mouth shut and start walking, in fear of some higher power taking interest in him and hurling a few more towers his way.

  “I have nothing left except these clothes on my back, I’m afraid..” As he sighed, Jesyll gestured at his wrist, “Not nothing I would say, you have that.” Faiz looked down, and saw the universe reflected back at him. He kept walking.

  “…Right. Do you want to explain why my lightdial is shining like a miniature heaven, or would that take Captain?” The tentacled being gave their approximation of a shrug as they led him down to the (miraculously undamaged) port, “Sometimes objects manage to capture a reflection of the Divide if exposed to it, and rarely, as in your case because you dove headfirst in there, they retain a sliver of the original Empyrean in them.” They gurgled with anxiety as they slid over shattered planks, “So every calamity from the Firmament will be hunting for you, as will the Constellations and their lackeys. You have no idea how valuable that little device is now. Enough to buy this entire shanty town thrice over, I’d say.”

  Well, that was splendid. Had he not fallen into a strange ennui after the events of the day, Faiz was certain he would have screamed, “And I shouldn’t throw away this oh so risky thing of the stars because..?”

  “Because it’s bonded to you. You’d have to find some method of throwing yourself away alongside it..or die. Do let me know if you manage either, as that is of immense value to me and my creed also.” They stopped at edge of the Wharf, gesturing outward, “And that there is our ship…the Peregrination!”

  Faiz took the provided information in stride, and then looked up at the ship the captain indicated. Of the ship..nothing remarkable could really be said. Perhaps its hull was a little less worn than most other vessels, its size slightly larger and its keel less wyrm infested. He felt a twinge of disappointment.

  “She may not look like much..because she really isn’t much, but I’ve installed an autorune into it. That should let us sail without much issue to the next port with just the two of us!” He did not appreciate the thought of spending more time with the irritatingly cheery(and invasive) tubespawn, but bit back his complaints. The things one does for love..

  “I’ll see if any ruffian cut our rudder, you head on up to the deck!” With that, they slipped below water, form unraveling into a myriad tendrils. Faiz was all but ready to board when, “Kiddo! Found a ride to hitch? Surprisingly wise of you, this town’s done for!” Artem..? Faiz blinked once, confirming the sight. It was Artem, with his usual grin and a bundle in his arms. That he survived was not in any way shocking, but the fact he’d seemingly come to see him off?

  “Now now, before you open that mouth of yours, I wanna say: Nah, I haven’t gone all soft and mushy. Just making a delivery for Pa, and then I’ll be off.” Faiz felt yet more confused(was this some sort of twisted final prank?), “Kalak? What does the old man want to give me? You’re not lying, are you?”

  Artem sighed in faux despair, “Ah! What a shame for you to doubt our kind intentions,” He said, handing the surprisingly heavy bundle to Faiz, “But honestly? He seemed to have readied all this stuff up a while ago. Dunno how or why, he just said you’d ‘Find apt use of this one day’ and left off.” Perhaps the news should have shocked him more, but Faiz had always had some intuition the old man knew more than he let on, so he would question not this unprecedented generosity.

  Nodding, he stepped back onto the gangplank, “I’ll follow that wish at least. Best I get going now, you do the same. And make sure to keep safe, heavens know you need it more than the old man.” With that, Faiz turned to leave.

  Artem chuckled,”Aw..that’s sweet. Yeah we’ll be fine,” and then added more hesitantly, “Faiz…stay alive would you? I’d hate to lose a-a potential investment this soon.” With that, the taller boy stepped away, departing without a word.

  A now mysteriously misty eyed Faiz gazed one last time at the ruins of the first and last home he’d ever known...and never looked back again.