January 25, 2019, 1:15 pm.

Even flying at full speed, some of the Aetherium gliders start gaining on us. Since I'm not able to safely harass our unwelcome tagalongs while carrying Beth, I just watch as Tipan and Demo move to deal with them.

Tipan sends a couple of wind torrents, scattering them. Then Demo tosses a grenade that locks at least three of them in ice, leaving them unable to follow. The explosion was the size of a football field yet it only created ice when it hit something solid.

Totally epic.

With pursuit discouraged, we continue until Roberts informs us he's recovered enough Reprieve to heal Beth. Who has all of our healing items tucked away in her inventory.

Not our best bit of planning, that.

With over an hour since the last sighting of the Aetherium forces, we decide to risk landing while Roberts checks on Beth while I face an unpleasant truth.

Josh is in bigger trouble than I thought. I've tried connecting to him, but he's bound and trussed. I'm not certain if he's even conscious, everything is muted compared to before. Literally the only thing I'm able to determine is his direction. It's incredibly frustrating. Connecting to the others has never been like this before. I was able to connect normally to Tipan, so I know it's not me.

With everything else cut off, I've been trying to at least determine distance through triangulation. By flying to the side, so far I lost sight of the others, I'd been hoping to find a new angle. However, even several kilometres parallel to our original heading, my connection still indicates the same direction. Which implies either my connection is broken, or Josh is a long way away.

Now that we've landed and Roberts is going to have a chance to heal her, Beth will be regaining consciousness.

Which means, I'm going to have to break the news.

Where's a bunch of frenzied Fallen when you need them?

We're watching Roberts healing Beth on a summoned table when Tipan sighs as she turns, looking back in the direction of Glimmering Sands. "I hope she's okay."

"Ivicka?" I ask with a grunt of disbelief. Ivicka could probably have thrown half that tower at us. And probably would have. But I guess she's still Tipan's sister.

"Ha!" Tipan snorts. "That meathead will survive far worse than whatever she's up to here. No. I'm worried about Livi. And Methila too." Tipan flops down on the grass next to me. Smoulder uses the opportunity to launch herself onto Tipan's lap, prompting an 'oof' followed by several giggles.

"Yeah. It seemed pretty crazy back there. I hope everyone's okay."

"I'd never have expected it. There hasn't been a fight between the Lords of the Deep and the Aetherium in over a hundred years. And that was over a trade dispute." Tipan shakes her head while giving Smoulder the requisite head-scritches. "I don't understand what Ivicka's doing. Why would she start a war over an ocean-bordered stronghold? She'll never be able to hold it."

"War? You think this is going to start a war?"

"I can't see the Lords reacting any other way. She attacked without so much as a system notice. Even if Ivicka's acting on her own, we'll all be blamed. A lot of innocent people are going to die as a result of her actions today."

"Huh. Hard to believe they'd go to war over a small settlement like that. Especially since most of the people there were K'tharn."

"Small? Glimmering Sands is one of the largest communities outside of Aethire."

I stare at Tipan as my mind tries to process her statement. There couldn't have been more than a few thousand K'tharn in the entirety of the settlement. Do most people live in their capital?

"Not that most of the K'tharn will remain there. It doesn't matter who wins, half the buildings were in ruins. And whatever protections were active will take a month to return. They'll run."

"What? Won't they fight back?"

"Against who? Ivicka would wipe them out with a casual wave of her hand," Tipan snaps out, waving her hand for emphasis. "And then turn them into Fallen. Those who reside under a Lord's protection have chosen a life that doesn't revolve around battle."

Demo's voice drifts over our shoulders, "Just another of the system's faults. Not much we can do for them till we're able to stand up to your sister ourselves. Her followers aren't impressive but from what yeh've said, we're little better."

As Demo's talking, I watch the moving clouds drift into the west. There are several dots barely visible above the horizon. At first, I think they're birds. Curious, I zoom in with twilight lenses. I'm able to discern a dozen Aetherium gliders.

"We're stronger than most. Since I've met Alexis and the others, I've started to wonder why my people are so weak." Tipan conjures a stone arch in front of her, then letting it crumble.

I continue inspecting the flight as she sighs again. No sign of Ivicka, so I'm sure we could disable them with little risk. From the way Tipan's described Aetherium Flights, unless they have a dragon-rider or a glider-less flyer, our current strength should be enough to handle them. It seems like they're more effective against monsters than people.

"Perhaps they've…" Demo is interrupted as Roberts calls over, "she's waking up."

When Beth wakes, her first reaction is rolling off the table while pulling her pistol, using the table as cover. Beth doesn't say anything, instead, scanning our surroundings before brushing herself off after holstering her pistol. "You kept moving once I was out. Good."

"Speaking of moving, now yeh're up, we should be on our way. They're still out there," Demo notes, approaching her with a slightly uneven wobble, his frozen leg crunching with each step.

"Indeed?" Roberts scans the horizon while Smoulder hops over to wave her fluffy tail in Beth's face. And making sure she's warm. Not because she's worried about Beth or anything. She just wants to remind her that the dragon's not the only one capable of fire.

"Yeah. They're on the horizon now. Just gliders though." I follow Smoulder to Beth, giving Beth a hug while retrieving my fire-happy bunny.

"Thanks, kid. No sign of Josh yet?"

I can feel the weight of everyone's eyes turn towards me as I shrug, "Not yet. I think…. I think he's at least a couple days away."

Beth stares at me, her emerald eyes narrowing. Then she nods before turning to Tipan, "Do we have time to break out the map?"

Wait. That's it? I thought she'd be way more upset.

Tipan glances back at the gliders before shrugging, which sets her mohawk waving. "Probably. But I'd rather put more distance between us first. The map lacks reinforcement, I'd prefer not risk it."

"Okay," Beth waves it off. "Where's my glider?"

"Uh. It didn't make it," I explain, grimacing at the memory of her and the glider getting bathed in flames. I didn't even try to recover the remains.

"There wasn't much left, most of it went up in flames. But Lex caught you. Not only did she catch you, she's carried you for the last hour." Tipan is beaming at me, causing my cheeks to blush.

"Finished the dragon off too. Was an almost acceptable explosion," Demo adds, further ratcheting up my embarrassment.

"Thanks, kid." Beth grips my shoulder firmly. I nod at her as she shifts focus, handing out some of the healing objects. "Should've done this earlier, but who knew we'd need them so soon."

I'm given a feather enchanted to restore health when filled with mana. Its healing effect is proportional to the mana supplied at a rate of five health per mana. It's guaranteed for at least two uses. As Beth's explaining the feather's functions, I can't help but compare it to Tipan's recently acquired conversion skill.

While we've been distributing the healing items, the Aetherium gliders haven't moved closer. Or at least not to a degree I can discern.

When I mention it to Beth she shrugs. "Okay people, Let's see if we can't shake these fuckers."

Thus stated, Beth has us fly all out. This time, instead of being carried in my elemental grip, Beth rides strapped to Roberts back. I'm deployed at the back under cover of invisibility maintaining awareness of the gliders. No matter how fast we fly, they remain behind us, right on the edge of my magnified sight.

Half an hour later, Beth calls a halt.

"They're still there," I confirm when she looks at me.

Beth nods then pulls out her lawn chair. Raising an eyebrow, I collapse into my own earthen chair. This time with sod still intact as an experiment in comfort.

"What about Josh? Feel any closer?"

Shaking my head, I can't help but feel useless. I know there's one way I could get improved info but it's a non-starter. My Return spell could get me far enough away to get a better read. The coordinates are still set to the tree in the forest. Not only that, I've still got the original version for returning to the standing stones. The only problem is I'd have to go alone. I can't exactly teach the others how to cast a spell empowered with facet.

This is why I need to improve teleport.

If I could bring the others with me, presto, problem solved.

"We can't keep heading directly into Aetherium territory. And we need to shake our pursuit," Tipan points out.

"Yeh have an idea?" Demo prompts while rolling a grenade up and down his intact leg.

Tipan nods, drawing us all in as she explains her plan.

I smile as she continues. Too bad Rufka's not here.

I think she'd like this plan.

Another blast of lightning flies overhead as I teleport away from Tipan, cackling as I throw out bright disks of fire wildly. None of them hit their targets, but that's the goal. The point is to keep their attention, not to take them out. My favourite aspect of this plan has to be the fact, laughing like a crazy person isn't just okay, it's exactly what we need.

The lightning is a bit of improvisation on the part of our unwitting dance partners. They're not exactly pleased with us at the moment. We haven't hurt them. Much.

But we're still dodging amongst them, ensuring none of them split off to follow the others. It's amazing how much more maneuverability we have comparatively. Their gliders are fast but I can literally fly circles around them.

And Smoulder's making it even harder on them, bouncing around as if this is just another obstacle course. It took longer to explain to her that we didn't want to hurt them than it did to come up with the plan.

Tipan's idea was simple. The others would fly away while she and I would remain hidden at our landing site. While Tipan wasn't able to just go invisible as I did, it turns out it's not the first time she's had to hide in plain sight. Using a touch of earth magic, she passed as a pile of dirt. In the meantime, Beth took Tipan's image, flying off with Roberts and Demo.

The original plan had been to ambush and delay them when they got close. But that had been if they'd continued flying overhead. Luckily, one of their members must have been suspicious as they barked out orders to stop to investigate our rest area. As half of their squadron landed, I froze time. I was able to bury five of them before they had time to react. Tipan managed to get the last one, impressing me.

I mean, I'm operating at insane speeds through my amazing resource. Tipan's using an element she's only started learning recently yet she's reacting at a fifth of my enhanced speed.

The panicked cries from the mostly buried squad members caused the remaining flyers to scramble. So Tipan and I hardened our encasements then took to the sky, harassing them. I was slightly worried at first. We'd decided to keep things nonlethal but we hadn't received any assurances the flight would do the same.

Then they grazed me with one of their spells and I realized they can't do real damage to me.

But we can't let them know they're ineffective, or they may call in the big guns too quickly. So instead, we've been dodging spells as we fly back towards Glimmering Sands. We've been flitting around and harassing them for over ten minutes now. Their frustration is making it progressively easier to evade their ill-timed attacks.

Another blast of lightning from the vocal K'tharn, who I'm pretty sure is their leader, brings me out of my thoughts as I spin with a flourish to narrowly dodge her attack. I'm trying not to let her realize how easily I could be evading.

Seriously, it's like they're not even trying.

"Lex, I think our time is coming to an end," Tipan calls out, spinning about after being hit by a blast of wind. Ha. As if their wind spells would hurt her. Not only is it one of her key strengths, she's fortified with a healthy dose of moonshine. She manages to make it look like a real hit though.

She's so successful that if I couldn't see her health, I'd think she was really hurt.

But that's my cue to cut the laughter. Because Asterix is approaching.

I thought we were recovering quick, but he's a hundred times our size and is already catching up.

Wait. Is he….?

His scales have molted, his once lustrous emerald hue now dark and uneven. It would seem Ivicka's not willing to allow anything, even a loyal companion, to rest in peace.

There's a visible sliver of green that splits the sky as he blurs forwards through the air towards us.

This was not part of the plan. I mean, I could probably take him, but after what happened to Beth, we've agreed none of us should stay too close. A single hit could take any of us out. And who knows how Ivicka making him Fallen has affected him.

"Fallen dragon incoming," I inform Tipan as I dart towards where she's falling from the sky, Smoulder landing on my shoulder.

"I see it. Ready?"

"The moment you are," I answer as we land.

Even the leader of the flight seems unnerved at the approach of Asterix. I can hear her ordering her remaining flyers away as he roars towards us.

Asterix is closing fast as Tipan and I complete our spells.

The sight of a dark-green flame building in his throat is the last thing I see before we disappear.

The familiar sight of the four-piece table and under-tree chamber greet us as we appear safely, several days travel away.

Turns out I'm not the only one with Return. While the rest of us were picking up the system's version of life assurance, Tipan used one of her points to purchase the ability from the shop. She'd mentioned it at some point but I'd been distracted by a certain other K'tharn.

"We're clear," I tell Beth. It's expensive at this distance, but no more than calling Rufka. Which is another thing I should be able to solve. With access to Raz's, I can invite Rufka to a party to restore our connection.

But first.

The connection remains intact, allowing me to lock on. Turning in place, I gauge the direction to Josh.

When I stop, Tipan's rubbing her chin, her map out. She matches my facing with the line we had from before, tracing a pair of lines until they meet.

It's not perfect but it's enough for us to know one thing for certain. If Josh isn't in the Aetherium capital, he's damn close.

Looks like we're heading to Aethire earlier than planned.