“So where are you from, Elrann?”

They were hiking east through the woods outside of Ast. The plan was to make their way to Sirra, the capital of Imfis, and board a train that would take them to Manolia.

Sagar and Elrann both still had some gold pieces about their persons, so they weren’t in need of coin, and they had found a clear brook a few hours back which they had been able to drink from. But Ryn’s stomach was a tight ball of hunger and his head was light. They needed to find some food soon. He had spoken to Elrann to try to take his mind off the hunger. And the intrusive memories. They were worse when he was tired and hungry. Mother. Father. Hometown.

The purple-haired engineer looked askance at him, as if surprised that he had broken his silence.

“Me?” she said. “I’m from Zerlan, in the Pelnian Mountains east of Imfis. We’re heading in their general direction, actually.”

Nuthea and Sagar walked about ten paces ahead of them, chatting and bantering about…..something. Ryn couldn’t hear what. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that. In his hunger and exhaustion he had fallen behind them and he had given up trying to eavesdrop. Another thing he wanted to take his mind off.

“Why’d you leave, then?” Ryn asked Elrann.

“Not much goes on in Zerlan. The Zerlanese’re a peaceful people. They mainly get by with high-altitude farming, and don’t have much care for machinery--except for farming equipment, that is.”

From her smile she seemed to appreciate the conversation--she had clearly been shaken up by the attack on Ast--although Ryn had rarely seen her not smiling. She spoke about the ‘Zerlanese’ as though she wasn’t one of them, despite her distinctive hair, which made Ryn wonder why.

“How did you learn engineering then, in a place like that?” he asked.

Ahead of them Nuthea laughed at something Sagar said, throwing back her head so that her golden hair glittered for a moment in the sunlight that fell through the leaves, and Ryn tried to ignore the knot of jealousy that formed in his gut.

“Ah, well, I’ve always been into machines,” said Elrann. “At first it was just the farming equipment. I’d tinker with it, open it up to figure out how it worked, ya know? Got good at fixing it, too--till I was so good that people would call on me to repair it for them, even though I wasn’t even old enough to work on their farm. Then, one day…” She raised her eyes to Ryn again, like she was deciding whether to keep telling her story or not.

“Go on,” Ryn encouraged.

“Well...one day, when I was twelve, I was out in the rice fields and an Imfisi airship flew over. It was big and beautiful, and it flew so close to the mountain that I could almost touch its underbelly. I saw a skypirate in its viewing bubble, looking out at me, and for a second our eyes even met. Then it was gone. That...that was when I knew I had to take one of those apart to see how it worked. That was when I knew I wanted to be an airship engineer.”

Her eyes had gone distant as she gazed into the memory.

“So what did you do next?”

Elrann blinked as she came back to the present. “What d’ya think? Left Zerland and traveled to Sirra, where we’re trying to get to now, and apprenticed myself to the first airship engineer I could find.” She laughed. “Had to pretend to be a boy at first, so I cut my hair short and wore these baggy overalls. It wasn’t too difficult. He found out eventually, but once he’d seen what I could do with machines, he didn’t have mind. Airship captains who’ve seen me at work don’t usually have a problem when they found out that I’m a girl. Usually.” Her eyes twinkled as she looked at Sagar ahead of them.

Ryn wondered how someone could leave their homeland behind so easily. I’ve done that too, sure, he reflected, but not by choice. “What did your Mum and Dad have to say about you leaving?” he said out loud.

“Just my Mum at home,” said Elrann. “We never really got on, so I think she was glad to see the back of me. I reckon she knew whenever I started tinkering with farming machinery that I wasn’t going to stay in Zerlan my whole life. I never knew my Dad, so he didn’t have anything to say about it.”

Her normally ever-present smile dropped again, just for a second. Ryn wanted to know if she had known anything about her father, but he judged he should ask about something else.

“So you trained as an engineer in Sirra?” he said. “Then what did you do?”

“I’ll tell ya what I did. I got so good with airship engines I started getting regular work on ‘em. Even got myself a few on-board-engineer contracts on some Imfisi privateer vessels. I’ve been on a few sky voyages in my time, I can tell you.” She took her pistol out from inside her overall as she walked. “That’s how I picked up this beauty. Got her in Farr.”

Her gaze had gone away again--but then it returned to Ryn and she stashed the pistol back away. “I needed a little break from the pirating, though, and the word was that good engineers were needed down in Ast, so I traveled down and set up shop there for a while. Made an arrangement with that airfield owner, Roldo, where he would send me work when it was needed. Then all...this happened.” She waved her hand at the world in general, and coughed. “Anyways, we’ve been talking about me a lot. What about you, ‘pup’?” She slapped Ryn hard on the back, and he coughed too. She was much stronger than he had expected. “Does everyone call you that?”

“No, just Sagar…” said Ryn, and ground his teeth. Up ahead, Nuthea and the pirate captain were laughing again. Nuthea put her hand on Sagar’s arm to steady herself as she laughed. “Just ‘Ryn’ is fine.”

“Well what about you then, Ryn? Princess-girl told me your village was hiding this ‘Fire Ruby’ thing when it got attacked.” She stopped walking for a moment, and her smile dropped again. “Ah. Sorry.”

“It’s alright,” said Ryn. It was true, after all. That was what had happened. And it wasn’t like she had brought it to his mind. It never really left his mind at all--waking or sleeping--anyway. Mother. Father. Hometown.

Elrann resumed walking and put her smile back on. “How did your town end up with it, then?”

“Er…” said Ryn. “I don’t...I don’t actually know…”

“Ah.” Elrann raised a purple eyebrow. “But you touched it, right? That’s how you could do that crazy fire trick you did last night in the Traveller’s Rest...?”

“Yeah, that’s right.” Ryn rubbed his arm.

“That was pretty impressive.”

“Er...thanks.”

Ryn’s gaze fell on the form of Nuthea walking in front of them again. Her hair cascaded down her back as a golden waterfall. Ryn wondered if she had found it ‘impressive’.

Probably not, he thought. After all, she and Sagar have elemental projection powers themselves. They both had them before me. And they’re more skilled at them than me.

Up ahead, a black figure ran up to Nuthea and drew something across her stomach. She cried out and buckled at the knees.

Ryn’s spine went cold and he stared open-mouthed at her prone body.

The black figure sliced its blade across Sagar, who dropped too.

It sprinted towards Ryn and Elrann.