If you find mistakes, pls tell, thx. I don't like mistakes.

Also feel free to ask for more background information on the world. I am somehow running out of interesting points regarding the small comments at the beginning of the chapters.

###############################################################

“

Not many know that Aether wasn't always a flying city. During Aether's construction it was anchored in the Mediterranean Sea and could be easily seen from the main land of ancient Greece. There was no convenient magic to hide an entire city in those days.

There are countless legends about Atlantis. Sometimes it's a sunken continent or island, sometimes it's described as a city of wonders. The simple truth is that Aether's construction was finished at some point, so the mages took off and left.

The normals who were left behind wondered about the disappearance of the ancient city and started to invent their own explanations like they always do.

”

-Mages and their influences on the normals

***Antares, Asteroid Habitat***

***Ilin Kleio***

“The new structure is a device which allows instant transportation from one point in space to another. We've already tested it and teleported a few ships from one of our systems to yours. Our maximum range is five thousand light years and we intend to create a connection between our worlds and yours.” The diplomat pulls a document from his papers. “The next stop on our list are your neighbours towards the galactic centre. The Grahu? If I pronounce it correctly.”

Our diplomat hides all his hands behind his back, which signals utter shock. “You built this in our system without asking?”

The mage nods, not understanding the body language behind the gesture. “You can't expect us to always wait for several days until one of our ships can make the trip to your homeworld. With these installations we will be able to trade goods almost instantly and travel wherever we want. We don't want to spent years to visit this famous gathering of yours.”

My eyes wander to the hologram of the construct. It's a huge grid-like construction of tubes which outline the rough shape of a sphere, big enough to hold even Aether several times. But since the interconnected tubes aren't that thick it's mass is probably much less than the city's.

Fragile. That's the only word I can think of when looking at it.

Each crossing between the tubes holds a big sphere which contains an oversized anti-matter reactor. Our scientists could tell at least that much from the energy readings. It makes the entire thing look like an oversized molecule. A really big, oversized molecule.

But fragile doesn't mean that it's badly protected. The mages surrounded it with tons of stationary weaponry. In combination with the fact that they now have the anti-matter reactors I suspect that someone would need a small fleet to destroy the teleportation node. I am still not sure if Ayo didn't make a grave mistake in handing them the technology.

“We'll have to talk with our regent about this.” Our diplomat locks up like he always does. When he thinks that the stakes are getting too high he runs off to get instructions from the senate.

“That's no problem. We can always shove the node off into empty space. You won't even notice that it's there.” The mage explains unfazed.

Our diplomat turns a nice shade of pink upon realizing that there is practically nothing we can do about the node. The fact that the Mages put it right in front of our noses was to our advantage. They could simply place the whole thing somewhere a few light-days outside of our solar system and we would never be able to find it despite its size. Not in a million years. They wouldn't even need to cloak the creepy thing. I think our diplomat realized just now that we can't stop the Mages from going anywhere they want.

Yes, we can shoot at them and maybe one of our fleets is able to defeat one of theirs. But there is no way to catch them if they don't want to engage. Their way of transportation allows them to bypass any established borders.

Maybe I'll have to step over our diplomats and request help directly from the emperor? It's not smart to step into the stage-light of politics, but if I mask my request as a report and find the right words the right people might read it. That's a lot of 'mights', but if I am confident of one thing then it's the sociology of my people.

I turn away from the pair of diplomats and head back to my quarters. There are a lot of letters to write and calls to make.

***Antares, Aether***

***Gideon***

I play with the edge of the file's paper while regarding the request. The Forlorn have requested to send their contact team to Aether. No, it's more accurate to say that they informed us of a fact which we may or may not like. And if we don't like it we may use force, but that will result in them using force. Apparently their emperor laid down the law.

They want to join our travel to the centre of the galaxy. In exchange they won't challenge the presence of the teleportation node within their system. The request might seem small, but if they are free to roam around Aether as they want, they are sure to find out a few things we are still trying to hide.

The elders nonetheless accepted their request, deciding that being too secretive would cause more suspicion and mistrust than is acceptable. Thankfully that means that the responsibility for handling the alien visitors to our city falls in my trustworthy hands.

I stash the file on a stack of requests for later usage. Right now I don't want to think about what it means to have several aliens running around my city. Should I make a public announcement for everyone to hold their mouths shut? But how long would such a measure work? No, there is no way to keep certain common knowledge away from the aliens.

I file a request to hand the task to the SDF. The contact team which is handling the aliens since a few months has to give us experienced people. In exchange they can have the personnel which joined us at Sol.

When I am done I turn my attention to the second file. It's a complete summary of Brenton's life. His education, yearly income, possessions. I have everything the government knows about him. If I gave him the hints to hit on my sister I may as well check if he has some corpses in his cellar.

Being too absorbed in the file, I don't even notice the door opening and closing. “Ahem!”

My eyes wander to the person who cleared her throat to gain my attention. It's Melan and she doesn't look pleased at all. I wonder what I did wrong?

She points at the file in my hand. “Actually that's why I am here! And to catch you red handed on top of it. Gideon, you can't make requests for people's personal data from the database without a proper reason! What did you think? That's a violation of your office.”

“I had a reason.” I pull the sheet of paper away from Melan's hand as she tries to grasp it. “Everything went through the proper channels. I was very careful about that. The proper procedure was made and archived. Nobody of my successors will even waste a second thought on something as small as that.”

“You said that he's under suspicion of being a spy! How did you even get through with this, Gideon. To make such an enquiry you need two people from the government to approve and a faceless to make the request. I get how you managed to persuade Ed and get permission from the faceless. But not your secretary. Tell me how you managed to persuade Alessia to help you. She's your aid and should know better than to go and get you such information. Such a request needs to be filed by two public servants!”

I purse my lips. “I simply explained to her that keeping her job after that incident with the drugs was very lucky.”

Grandma's eyes widen. “You threatened her!?”

That's exactly the wrong way to see it. “Nooo. I didn't threaten her at all. Not in the least. I just made sure that she understands the fact that someone who tried to make someone else addicted to a drug needs to regain some trust.”

“You know very well that she wasn't in complete control of herself. Why do you even need those files? You didn't look up anyone else from Cyla's family.” Melan crosses her arms in front of her chest and stares down at me.

“Nothing in particular. I was just interested.” I feel a few pearls of sweat forming on my forehead. It's really uncomfortable when Grandma looks at me like that. She can still make me feel like a small child with two plush toys.

“Spill it. We both know that I am the one who is better at pushing your buttons.” She threatens.

“No.” I try to hold my ground. She has nothing to hold against me. I kept to the rules, bending them just a little. There is no reason to jump me like this.

Her eyes form two small slits. “I wonder what Cyla thinks about this? You, investigating her brother like that. An accusation for spying doesn't vanish like that, even if it gets dropped immediately after the personal data was sighted and nobody else is informed.”

I scratch my head, breaking eye-contact with Grandma. If Cyla gets involved she might get mad at me. She will surely take a very close look at my memories when she gets the chance. This little investigation was just meant to make sure of Brenton's character.

“Fine. I'll have a little chat with Cyla then.” Melan announces and turns around.

“Brenton and Galia are involved with each other. I kind of caught him and her fucking each other at the marriage-announcement-party. And just a week ago he relocated his whole business to Aether and is seeing Galia on a regular basis. Galia is like a sister to me and I just wanted to make sure that he doesn't have any corpses hidden away somewhere.” There you have it! “Happy? I spilled it!” And I even somehow avoided mentioning that their get together was somehow staged by me.

Melan turns back around, looking me up and down with a raised eyebrow. “Galia found a guy for herself?”

“It- It's- not like she found him. More like he found her.” I sputter. “You know how annoyed she is about the fact that she isn't in a relationship. Being the oldest one of the children and such. I thought that she might have been too desperate? But who am I to judge people without proper information? You know me. I can't judge someone's character from a few words at a party.”

Grandma steps closer, pointing at the exit of my office. “I think you wanted to take a little break? Get some coffee and take your time. Ten minutes at least.”

I stand up and try to leave, but Grandma holds me back by grabbing my clothes. “I think you forgot something?” Her eyes wander to the report in my hands.

Finally I get her meaning and place the report on my office table. “I'll be taking a break then. If Alessia isn't too loaded with work I'll even try to socialize with her a little.” And take back a few of my threats. If Alessia spills the beans to grandmother Melan, she will flip.

Melan smiles at me. “Take your time.”

I leave, not even looking back at how fast Grandma has the report in her manipulative hands.

.