January 27, 2019, 1:07 pm.

Rufka leads us through Aethire with a clear goal in mind, her stride not faltering as she walks past a bazaar large enough to dominate an entire set of the bone-structured bridges. And not just the bridges, most of the space between is filled with what look like temporary shops floated into place.

Her stride might not falter, but both Tipan and I do. It’s the most diverse and alive place I’ve seen on Akilo. There are thousands of K’tharn browsing through the hundreds of floating stalls. We pass between several as Rufka takes me by the elbow. The leather walls offer some brief respite from Aethire’s constant winds as I look around. Are they enchanted to redirect the wind over and above? It looks like it. But most only protect their own shopping area, causing small whirlwinds to form in the open areas between them. It creates an area I find almost playful to move through, dancing around the gusts of wind as we walk. I can feel Smoulder poking her head out as I dash between the whirlwinds. Her desire to play with me wars with my instruction to stay put, and thankfully she listens.

The K’tharn around us don’t even turn their heads at the small whirlwinds, side-stepping them as they go about their business. They're far more efficient about it than I'm being. Except for a group of children who’re throwing scraps of cloth into the whirlwinds and giggling as the leather goes flying into the air. I pause to watch them as they go running after the scraps, shoving at each other to gather the most pieces. From what I can see, a short girl with a grey and black zig zag pattern on her head is in the lead when I'm finally cajoled away from them by Rufka wrapping an arm around me.

“Did you ever play ‘tufts’ when you were a cub?” Tipan asks Rufka while gesturing back at the playing children.

“Once. Wasn’t very good,” Rufka says, her voice more grumbly than usual as she stops to look back. “I… may have tried challenging one of the other cubs for their tufts instead of collecting them. Turns out that was against the rules.”

"The rules are as changing as the wind." Tipan giggles.

Which makes Rufka grunt, staring back at where the kids are playing. Deciding that maybe we should move on, I make use of Rufka’s arms around me, leading her away.

We make it all of three steps before I remember… I have no clue where we’re going. Not that I let it show until Rufka starts chuckling.

“What?” I ask as I attempt to step onto a ramp leading upward.

She holds me back with a single tug, shaking her head. “You don’t know where you’re going.”

“Well… no.”

“You know, you should watch your step,” Rufka says, taking the lead again while pulling me away from the narrow ramp. “It’d be a shame if you fell off, plummeting to your death in the great mana pools below, gasping out my name as you choked on mana.”

I roll my eyes, poking her in the side. “I can fly, silly.”

“Yep.” Rufka nods, not uttering another word as she takes giant strides forward while Tipan’s laughter grows louder behind us.

Another three bridges, two markets and several patrols of Fallen later, we reach a corridor that’s different from most we’ve been walking along. Instead of a solid bridge, it’s a wide tunnel with large airships moving back and forth along the passageway. Ships that I haven’t seen anywhere else in the city. Unlike the floating stalls, these look like they're designed to be moved quickly.

“The grand corridor,” Tipan says as we step out onto a platform one of the large ships is stopped at. Larger than a schoolbus, it’s frame reminds me of an old wood sailing ship, though one carved of bone. It even has a pair of skulls mounted as… uh the things that are normally put on the front of a ship. Mast heads? Moor heads? Something like that.

But it has one on each end.

The front is clearly a dragon, or something very dragon-like. But the back is of a creature I don’t recognize, the bulbous shape making me think of a chipmunk with it’s cheeks stuffed. Except, more skull, less fluffy rodent.

Several K’tharn and a very ant-like individual wait in line as more Fallen stand ready behind a pair of guards who’re stopping people. Each passenger hands over a small amount of essence before being waved on board. They pass quickly, and when our turn arrives, the shorter of the pair turns to us.

“Physical payment?” Rufka asks, even as she pulls the essence from her inventory.

The guard shrugs. “New policy for the tour-skiffs. If you have a problem, talk to your matriarch.”

“Why does every-user keep saying that?” Rufka asks as we step aboard the ivory planks of the airship. It bobs slightly beneath my feet as I cross to the far railing, the planks having more give than I expected. Moving to the railing, my hand runs over the incredibly polished surface. While I know it’s made of bone, it’s so smoothly fused that I can’t tell where the railing ends and the supports begin.

Several more bone-ships float up and down the corridor, but each is different. The one we’re on has only a single open deck. But there’s one across the way that has five different platforms, each one barely large enough for a group of six if they squeezed in tight. Such as one such group of K'tharn on the uppermost platform. Unlike ours, it’s not stopping at any of the nearby piers. Instead, there are people hopping on and off. One k’tharn leaps twenty metres to land on the backmost platform as it zooms away.

In fact, as I watch I realize most of the other ships don’t stop. The leaping on and off seems to be the standard method of travel.

“How come we’re not taking one of those?” I ask, pointing at a ship that resembles a three-pronged fork laying on its side as Tipan joins me at the rail.

She glances up, watching the ship cruise away from us before turning to me with a smile. “Because you need to be linked into Aethire’s central accounts to ride those.”

“Ha. No you don’t,” Rufka laughs, leaning on the railing on the other side of me. “Anyuser can use one, if they have a pass.”

“That’s the same thing!” Tipan shoots back, rolling all four eyes as she turns away.

“Nah. See? Pass is a real physical object,” Rufka says, holding up a square piece of bone with deep etching on it. “You just never needed one, skyborn.”

“I… well, I guess not,” Tipan admits, slumping slightly.

“Could I get one?” I ask Rufka, staring at the bone plate as she twirls it in her fingers. The lines remind me of something, a pattern I swear I’ve seen before but I’m unable to place it.

“Mum’d be able to get one. They’re not very expensive.” As Rufka tosses it up, a gust of wind almost knocks the pass overboard before Rufka snags it out of the air. “A hassle to replace though.”

The ship shifts beneath our feet as a chime sounds out. Then a System notification pops up, listing the route and any interesting stops. While looking over the list, I notice that the World’s End Palace is at the very bottom. More than twenty stops away. And according to the schedule, more than an hour. So I go back to observing the other vessels travelling along the corridor. “You know, I’m surprised there are so many airships here. I didn’t think the Aetherium used airships.”

“Airships aren’t liked by skyborn,” Rufka says, while tucking the plate into her inventory. “They’re only used by the trading consortium.”

“It is an honour to earn one’s own right to fly,” Tipan agrees with a nod. “Taking a skiff or skimmer is fine. But to venture beyond Aethire under the power of a machine instead of your own magic? It’s not done.”

“Unless you work the barges,” Rufka points out as the skiff floats toward the top of the open corridor. It stays on the edge of the corridor as it drifts upward, out of the path of the much faster skimmers. Once it’s reached the apex, it passes between a pair of dark beams to float above the corridor, granting us a view out over Aethire. Ahead of us, its dark black towers scraping the sky, is what can only be the World’s End Palace, the home of the council. And the World Dungeon.

Unlike everything else in Aethire, the Palace is constructed of stone, with clear lines that give the impression of giant stacked blocks. But I suspect it’s just a facade. I can’t imagine them not fusing the blocks together using magic.

“Look, there’s a barge,” Rufka says, nudging my shoulder and getting me to turn to the side. Which is when I realize Aethire isn’t a flat city. There’s another channel, much like the one we’re traveling along to the southeast. And it sticks above the rest of the city like a mountain ridge. And both channels slowly climb upward until they reach the Palace. At the southernmost end of the other ridge, I’m able to make out a dot that’s barely visible, rising above the city. With a quick enhancement of twilight, I zoom in to find a full blown airship. It’s hard to tell the size, but the k’tharn crew on deck make me realize it must be at least as large as the container ships from earth. Probably bigger.

“That’s… bigger than I expected,” I admit, rubbing my jaw as I Focus on the barge.

“Jethico-Class cargo transport.”

“Used for transporting cargo within the remaining settlements of the Aetherium, the Jethico-Class cargo transport once carried goods and people across all of Akilo.”

[Wyonna]: "The Aetherium used to have thousands of these barges. Now they have twenty-six. Most were abandoned as the Aetherium's dwindled in size."

“Indeed. One barge can bring back an entire herd of valka in a single trip,” Tipan informs me, nodding with a small smile. “My mother used to bring us fresh valka everytime she returned home after docking.”

“Wait, your mum used to work the barges?” Rufka asks, tilting her head to the side as she stares as Tipan. “You’re a barge-rat?”

Tipan’s ears flatten against her head as she looks away, her shoulders slumping.

“Hey, I didn’t mean… I just…” Rufka trails off as Tipan shakes her head.

Then Tipan looks up, staring out at the barge. “No. My mother is in charge of inspections. She never… worked the barges.”

“Oh,” Rufka says, glancing at me. But I can only shrug.

“You know that’s a very impolite term,” Tipan adds a moment later.

“What? Barge?” Rufka asks while elbowing me and pointing toward a cluster of buildings. The market we passed through earlier. The kids are still playing their game of tufts, the only reason I’m able to tell it apart from any other cluster of buildings. Despite the high quality of craftsmanship, most of the floating stalls are very similar on the outside.

“No. Rat. Don’t you know that it refers to…” Tipan glances at me, her tone going low as she finishes. “A furless k’tharn?”

Rufka’s laughter echoes out as she reaches over me to clap Tipan on the shoulder. “Did I ever tell you about the time I had a Felk outlander pop out of one of the storms? I ended up losing most my fur to an angry water elemental getting him to safety.”

“No. And I have no idea what a Felk even is.”

“Oh, well, they’re a bird-like outlander, stands nearly three meters high. Anyway, this guy, he…” Even as Rufka continues, I tune her out. Unlike Tipan, I've heard this story before. I look out over the city, watching as hundreds of k’tharn move beneath us and my eyes are slowly drawn towards our eventual destination. The World’s End Palace stands high above everything else in Aethire, a beacon of everything the k’tharn can achieve when they work together.

“You what!?” Tipan demands, sputtering as Rufka continues her story, not bothering to repeat herself. Instead, she starts talking about how it’s the Felk’s fault she’s completely defurred only steps away from Theria’s tower.

My eyes move back to the palace as Rufka continues. Yep. Amazing what you can do when working together.