Chapter 30 Interlude: Iabrun

Year 1023 of the new calendar, Month of the Sun, 14th day.

Looking at the golden amber liquid inside my small glass, I put it down and looked at the person next to me. He was slurping down some noodles, he finished quickly and looked at me, “Are you nervous?”, he asked me cheerily; he still had some sauce from the noodles on his lips. His cheery demeanor rubbed off on me through the short two months we were together, “What’s there to be nervous of?” He looked at me with a gleam and admiration in his eye, he was a novice straight out of flight school and latched onto everything I said. “Wh-What’s not to be nervous of? We’re going to fly the Duchess.” he said and looked down at my amber drink. “You get used to it, I’ve flown the Emperor, you know?” He looked up at me, “Really!?”, my he was a gullible little child. “No.”, I said and drank down the rest of my drink. He didn’t look perturbed, simply looking at me with his beaming green eyes.

“Come to think of it, why was I picked?”, he asked me. “She asked you to fly her.”, I said. He laughed and said, “You won’t get me twice here.” I looked at him, and laughed as well, “Aye, you’re a bit too smart for that it seems. I don’t expect less, I asked for you myself.” He smiled, and finally realized the small amount of sauce on his lips. “Why didn’t you tell me?”, he looked at me with an appalled expression. Standing up, I paid for the two orders and started to walk out. He quickly thanked the server and ran up to me, “How long until the flight?” I walked out of the bar, looking at the afternoon sun's ray glaring down on the roads. “Just under 6 hours, you have until 8:00 pm today to get to the airport in time for the Duchess.” He nodded and hopped into the driver's seat of my car, and with a cheeky smile, he said, “Can I use your car for a bit?” He looked at me for another two seconds, before getting out of the car.

“Well, I will see you later Liam.”, he said and started to walk off. “Oh no, you don’t, you little shit. You still owe me 200 Iabrun pounds, and you are going to pay that off today-” He kept walking down the street, I yelled out, “Erix, come back here before I go to you and beat your ass.” He quickly backtracked to me, smiling widely and sitting in the passenger seat of my car. “Gambling?”, he asked me quickly. “Of course, what other money-making way is there?” I said and started to drive quickly to a gambling den. Erix took out his phone, holding it and looking at a recording of the interview yesterday. He was enamored on his phone and was staring at it quite intently, “Don’t show that look you have right now around the Duchess. You look about as sexy as a Griffin in heat now.” He coughed and quickly put away his phone, staring out of the window. Thankfully for him, we made it to the den only a minute later and walked out. Gambling was legal, up to a certain amount anyway. Anything over 100,000 pounds was illegal, but we didn’t have that kind of money.

Erix took out a 50-pound note, looking at it for a bit, before stuffing it back in his pocket. “This is all the money I have at the moment, let's see if we can turn a profit.”, he quietly muttered to himself as we walked into the den. It was clean, as usual, and we went up to the exchange counter. I gave the receptionist a 100-pound note, “Usual?”, she asked, and I nodded. She handed me ten white chips and looked at Erix, who was a whole 20 centimeters shorter than me. “1 chip, please.”, he said while handing her the 50-pound note. She looked entirely unamused by his wide smile, giving him the one blue chip. We quickly made our way to the blackjack table for non-magic users, “You ever wonder what it’s like to be a mage?”, he asked me. I nodded, sitting down and looking at the young dealer in front of me. There were two other people at the table, an elderly human, and a young-looking demon.

“Hello there.”, Erix said quickly, looking at the beautiful demon. He bet the one chip he had, and I put down five of my white chips. The two others at the table matched us, placing down 50-pounds worth of chips on the whole table. Before the dealer gave us our cards, Erix said, “Let’s make this a bit more interesting, shall we? Whoever wins this will get all the chips currently played.”, the two seemed up for it and so was I. The young dealer acquiesced to the change from standard format, seemingly not caring. The table clearly stated, ‘If a player wins, they are to be awarded 1.5x the current amount they bet. If the player gets a blackjack, then they must be awarded 2x their current bet. Standard rules apply, the dealer must stand if given a 17 or higher.’

The dealer, using the standard six-deck shuffle, gave us our first round of cards. The old man got an eight, I got a King, Erix got an Ace, the young demon a six, and then the dealer was dealt a five. Then, the dealer allowed us to make a second bet, the old man put down a hundred note chip. Erix and I didn’t put anything down, and neither did the young demon. The dealer then gave us our second set of cards, a six for the old man, a 7 for me — handing me a seventeen — and Erix got a Queen. “HAHA, Blackjack!”, he yelled out. I sighed and gave him the chips, the other two plus the dealer gave him as well. He now held 400 pounds worth of chips, “You don’t wish to stop while you’re ahead?” He laughed a bit, “Now’s the fun part.”, and bet down all of his chips. I sighed and bet down my 50, the other two also bet down 400 pounds worth of goods. “If the player goes bust in this game, they are to immediately leave the premises.”, said the dealer.

Erix nodded half-heartedly, not paying attention. The bets placed, the deck shuffled, and cards dealt. The old man had a thirteen in total, I had a nineteen, Erix with a sixteen, and the demon girl with a twelve. The old man hit, getting a five and landing on eighteen, he waved to show he didn’t want another card. I waved too, risking it on a nineteen is moronic, Erix hit and got a two. He hit again, like the absolute dumbass he is, and went over twenty-one. “Bust.”, said the girl, smiling at him. He looked down at his hand, “Fuck.”, he said quietly. The girl hit and landed on an eighteen, she hit again and also went over twenty-one. I collected all the chips, 1325 in total.

“Well, gentleman and young lady. This game getting a bit too rich for me, goodbye.”, I said and walked away from the table. Erix followed me up and desperately pleaded to give him 50-pounds worth of chips. I looked at him, giving him a single 50-pound chip, he ran towards the non-magic poker table and started a game right away. I cashed in my chips at the counter, the receptionist smiled, “Lucky day, eh?” I nodded, and took the bills, stuffing them into the inner pocket of my current suit. Ah, it was a nice day today. Outside the gambling den, I took out a small cigarette and started to smoke it, it was on the pricier side of cigarettes, averaging two pounds a package. Average groceries for the average family should round out at twenty or so pounds for the entire month, austral and tine were the ones used for everyday transactions.

I snuffed out the cigarette and threw it in a trash can, in time to see Erix getting kicked out of the establishment by a large man. “Hey, why’d you do that for!”, he yelled back. The door shut on him, and he looked up at me like a lost puppy, “You lost it?” He nodded pitifully, “Dumbass, get in and go take a shower.” He scrambled to the passenger door, and I started to drive to his place. “Put on the nicest suit you have and meet me at my house.”, I said to him. He nodded, and took out his phone, scrolling through the news. “Hey, you heard of the new virus spreading in Gawain? Heard it’s kinda serious.” I nodded, “I just hope it isn’t too bad. That is the stop I have after this, I’m going there with a friend and going back to work as a commercial pilot.” Erix looked at me weirdly, “Why? Being a private pilot for the Duchess is an amazing job.” I nodded, “Except she doesn’t take us often. It is unbelievably boring, sitting there with the crew doing whatever to pass the time on days. That Griffin of hers is basically our job and is about as big as the plane anyway.”

“Still, I see no reason not to.”, he said. “I will recommend you to take my place, you may be a degenerate gambling addict. But you can fly well enough.” He laughed a bit, “Liam, thank you.” turning a very rare shade of serious. “Really, thank you.” I nodded, “Don’t worry about it, Erix. I will train you as my successor yet.” He smiled, in that same wide smile that was infectious, it leeched onto me and I smiled a bit as well. “Liam, you old bastard, you’re smiling?”, he said and laughed. “Well, thank you. I will meet you up in… 4 hours?” I nodded, looking at the back of him as he walked inside his apartment. A crazy, degenerate bastard he was, but man, he could fly a plane. My apartment was only a two-minute drive from his, I made it back and went inside the relatively new apartment. Walking up the stairs, my phone ringed, and I picked it up, “Yes?” I asked Erix who was calling me.

“Liam, I have a way to get you the 250-pounds.”, I was intrigued, but it was too close to our time to fly, “Save it for later, we have to fly soon.” He agreed with me, “Sure, it's in Solaria anyway.” then hung up. I walked inside the small flat I had and took out a beer from the refrigerator. Drinking it, I called my wife, who was living at her mother's house at the moment, “How is she right now?”

“She’s good, a little tired and sleeping, but good.”, she said. “Good, good. I have good news.”, I said to her. “After this next private flight I have, we will have enough money to buy us a house.” She said unbelievably, “Really?”, I nodded, “Yeah, really.” Drinking another sip of the beer, I said, “I’ve been thinking over it for a while, I want the best growing environment for our daughter. She’s barely six months old, I need to think about her.” She giggled a bit, “Look at you, growing up. When can I see you?” I thought for a bit, she didn’t need to know I was going to Gawain, that would stress her a bit too much, “In a week or so, I should be back in Augustus. I have to take a few flights in Solaria before I can ask for a month-long leave.” She said, “Alright, then. Elisa will be happy to see you again, she truly does love you.”, “I love you too.” I said and hung up.

Sitting on the worn-out couch, I took a sip of the beer and looked down at my watch. I should take a shower soon, but until then, what to do… Looking down, the entire flat was a mess, with small cigarette butts scattered here and there, bottles of alcohol thrust around the entire room. Hehe, no wonder she left with Elisa, the landlord should be looking for a replacement right now. She should know that I’m leaving, eh I don’t really care enough to help her with the process. Standing up, I started to pick up all the trash sewn through the rooms, cigarette butts, alcohol bottles, pieces of cardboard, tissues, anything I could see. Under the couch, I found a little pen and stuffed it into my pockets. My suit was dirty, oh well, I had a spare lying around somewhere here. Some articles of clothing were also strewn about, I found socks hiding in the dirtiest of places.

After thirty minutes, the room was a bit cleaner, with all the large objects clean and thrown out. It amounted to two garbage bags worth of trash, time to vacuum the entire house, then scrub the floors I suppose. Taking out the vacuum, I quickly finished the living room in just under seven minutes and started on my bedroom. I wonder what it would feel like to have magical powers? It must be amazing to be able to do all this work without any of the physical processes. After another fifteen minutes, it was clean as a whistle. It is 3:15 pm now, Erix will meet me at 6:30, and we should reach the designated airport by 7:50. That leaves me with… around three hours to do what I want. A shower should take no more than fifteen minutes, and getting dressed five. I quickly left my flat, locking the door behind me, and made it to the first floor.

There, I saw the elder man from the casino checking the mail, “Oh hello young man.”, he said and smiled at me, exuding the certain charm elderly figures have. “Oh, I’m not young. Surprise to see you here, though.”, I said, and started to walk to the exit. “Same goes to you, young man. Well, I haven’t much time at the moment, and neither do you, it seems. Goodbye now.”, I heard him say in a smooth voice before the door behind me shut, and I was greeted with the hustle and bustle of Augustus. Wait, no, what am I doing? I’m too tired for this, I should take a nap, yeah, a nap sounds good.

“Oh, young man. You came back?”, said the old man, as he was in the same spot as before. “Yes, I just forgot something. Goodbye.”, the old man replied, “That's quite alright, my memory isn’t the best either.” I smiled and nodded, making my way to my room immediately. There, I fell onto my couch, drowsiness catching up to me, and I fell asleep, Elisa…

I awoke, looking down at my phone, it was now 6:10 pm. Oh shit, I was cutting it a little close. I ran into the shower with my towel and quickly cranked the hot water. It came a second later, ahhh, it felt blissful. I couldn’t dawdle for long, though, I finished up in the shower within ten minutes — making sure to thoroughly scrub every part of my body. I dried myself quickly as well and put on a black and white suit a minute later. It was now 6:25 pm, and someone rang the doorbell. I opened the door, and Erix was there behind it. “Well, well, now is the time you clean up your room? Right when you have enough money to move out, you old idiot.” I laughed, “I don’t live with my parents.”, Erix yelled back, “Shut up! I’m doing it for monetary purposes, I’ll move out soon.”

“Sure you will.”, I said as we both walked to my car. “The drive is an hour-long, you sure you don’t want me to?”, Erix asked me. “Fat chance you broke bastard.”, I said and laughed. He got into the passenger seat, as per usual, and took out his phone. I started the car, making my way to the private airport of the Lendenburgs. “Hey, what do you know about the Duchess?”, he asked me as I was driving. “What about her? She’s 17 years old, and that's about it. They’re quite secretive on these things, you know. I don’t even know what food she likes.” Erix sighed, “I don’t know what I expected from you, idiot.”, and went back to scrolling on his phone. “Oh yeah, you know the conspiracy that this whole thing is staged by the Iabrun and Solarian governments?”

I shook my head, “People make conspiracies out of anything nowadays. I bet there is a conspiracy about the dress the Duchess wore.” But if it was staged, that would make a lot of sense. I doubt the two wanted a real war, but who knows? After all, any military and political ventures are left to the people up top. I was a simple pilot, and all I wanted now is to be that simple pilot. The rest of the drive was in total silence, as he kept scrolling on his phone. We got there at 7:55 pm, just close to the deadline. “Damn traffic.”, I swore under my breath as we parked and walked out, waiting near the twenty-five-meter-long aircraft. “You cut it a bit close there.”, Erix whispered. “Shut it, she’s coming.”, I said in a commanding voice.

One could see the faint outlines of a motorcade, their lights beaming in the current dusk hours. There was a car at the very center, with five cars ahead of and behind it, that stood out. It was jet black, and there was nothing exceptional about it, but it was at the center of the entire motorcade. Erix straightened his back out, standing tall. A young man opened the door, and the young Duchess walked out in a black and blue suit, “I thought she would wear a dress.” Erix whispered.

The Duchess walked steadily to our position, “Thank you, Liam, and who is this?” she said in a pleasant tone. “He is going to be my replacement.” She nodded, “I’m sorry to hear that you are leaving us.”, sounding concerned. I bowed a little, and so did Erix, as she walked up the stairs next to us. After she came, three people who didn’t bother to acknowledge us went up the stairs as well. “Rude.”, Erix muttered. “You get used to it, they’re mages meant to protect the Duchess.”, I said. “Oh, and just because they’re mages gives them the excuse to be rude?” he said. “No, but you learn to get used to it,” I said, and Erix became quiet. We waited another minute, but no one else came, so the two of us climbed up the stairs and entered the plane next. We went straight to the cockpit, I sat down, and we were to leave in just around five minutes, “All passengers are now required to put their seat belts on, according to Iabrun regulation.”

After a minute of waiting, a stewardess came to us and nodded, we waited another twenty seconds for her to leave, and then we started to taxi. “I will leave all of this to you, Erix. I’ll step in if you need help.” Erix, who had some sweat glistening on his forehead, nodded. I leaned back on my seat, closing my eyes and imagining Elisa. Her little brown eyes and fingers touching mine came back to me, she was the diamond of my life. Ah, how I missed her, only a week until I could see her. After a minute, we were on the runway, and it was time for take-off. Erix had some sweat on his forehead, “Don’t worry, you got this.” I said as we started to take off from the ground. A minute later, we were up in the air and gaining altitude. “See, you got this.”, I said, “Go to an altitude of 10,500 meters, and then you can engage the autopilot.”, I finished and leaned back on my chair again.

Another sense of drowsiness came to me, and I fell asleep quickly. When I woke up, it was nighttime outside and I didn’t know what time it was. Autopilot was engaged, and we were cruising at a smooth 10,500 meters. “Good job.”, I said to Erix as I stood up. “Where are you going?”, he asked me, while still concentrating on the surroundings. “To meet the Duchess. We need to talk about something, or so she told me.”, I said, he grumbled a bit as I walked out of the cockpit and into the main area. The Duchess was seated in a suite full of everything possible, with the three mages in the two rooms on either side of her. When I went there, before I could knock, a thing came up in front of me. Teleportation? “What's your purpose?”, she asked me, and I said, “The Duchess wants to talk to me.” She didn’t say anything for a minute, but then moved out of the way and teleported again.

I knocked on her door, she said, “Come in.”, and I opened the door. There was a seat opposite of her, I sat there and noticed she was drinking some red wine. “Aren’t you a little young for that?”, I inquired a bit. “Haha, you sound just like my brother.”, she said and looked at me. “Why did you want to talk to me?”, I asked as I took a sip from the glass of water in front of me. “I know that you have a wife, and a small child, I wanted to help you.” Huh? What? “Wa-Wait. What?”, I asked her. She took out a checkbook, writing a check worth 50,000 pounds, and gave it to me.

“Think of it as my appreciation gift for you flying me, and the gift you will get when leaving us.”, she said. I held it in my hands, and put it on the table, “No, no. You’re far too generous, but I insist that I can’t take this.” She shook her head, “I won’t take no for an answer here, Liam. This is for you, take it.” I held it once again in my hand, and then put it into my pocket. “Thank you very much, Your Grace. Anything else you wished to discuss with me?”, I asked. “Yes, stay with me for a while. You don’t wish to miss the show, right?” What show, wait, “You mean the Astroangilaes?” She nodded, smiling at me, “Of course, what other show is there in these altitudes?” She stood up, gesturing for me to follow her, and I did, promptly. We made our way to a new suite, where its wall was a gigantic slab of glass.

Outside, we could both see a gigantic Astroangilae dwarfing the private plane. It had lights all across its body, glittering and shimmering in the night sky. Next to it was a much smaller, likely its child, the whale looked at us. It held real intelligence in its eyes, holding much curiosity about us as we kept going through the sky. There was something majestic about it, as it effortlessly floated next to our plane. The smaller Astroangilae didn’t have bright lights yet, they were a dim blue, but it only made it look more beautiful. A click came from the larger one, it held the majesty of a King, as it quickly moved away from us. Then, we could see a whole pod of Astroangilae floating across our tiny plane. Their lights, all different colors, made for a perfect backdrop. Clicks and whistles came from the whales, communicating with one another, and two tiny children of them played with one another in the floating night sky. “Beautiful…”, I muttered, and the Duchess agreed. Then, a second later, the entire pod smoothly floated up and over our plane — rising from our altitude further and further up, into the mesosphere and beyond.