Pete was the best god damn brother ever! The shit she had seen in the last few days alone was off the charts!

Min relished the thought of how those stuck up bitches at the academy would react if they saw her now. They were all aiming for those cushy Beta jobs. Yet here I am on the ground of an Exotic world, and it’s my first assignment no less! There were all kinds of epic shit going down, and Min was soaking up every bit of it.

Speaking of which the Elgelican design of Sepha’s dining hall was fantasy as fuck! She and Shay (Sepha’s childhood nickname) got to talking tons, not like Lee and Kel. Those two could spend a day in the same chat room and not say a bloody word, how the hell guys managed that, she would never know.

Anyhow, the whole crew was there now. Sepha did her a solid with putting the sensor orb right in the centre of the table, so Pete and she got a 360-panorama of the room. Min had a trickle of the sensor feeds that Bro got, but he shared; the extra pair of eyes was welcome.

“You have a sweet digs Seph,” came Kel’s voice as he floated like a mystic monk, legs crossed on the other end of the room near the door. “Who got you the extra rift? Not that I mind.”

They had jumped from Sepha’s chambers in the Spire to her manor. The rift popped them out, right in the dining room.

Min spoke through the speakerphone. “That was me, Kel. I coordinated with Sepha, and Ril approved the request.”

“Right, I’m still the hub then? Mkay, so I’m not the only one doing shit and not telling anyone. Good to know we’re all sinners here.” Smirking, he rotated lazily around.

Ril was the one doing the twirling, mask off and sporting her gorgeous features. I’m making backgrounds of some of those pics. She scrolled to Sepha; the elf had a dazed look, though it was not unwelcoming.

Jon unabashedly praised himself, “look at my lotus everyone. Do you know how hard it is to do in shoes? It’s hard. And these Mudras?” He held up a hand to present a typical meditation sign. “Frickin A-grade shit.”

Min would cover for her girl, Shay. These crazies were bound to pull her off course. Popping her head into the next room, she saw Pete fast asleep at his desk, lightly snoring.

Who could blame him, he kept weird hours even with the timezone shift. Min draped him with a blanket and returned to her terminal.

Kel was still monologuing “…so pizza or chicken Tikka Masala? I’m feeling Buddhist all of a sudden, or Hindu.”

Min switched to her chat with Seph alone.

“Ask him how he’s flying? Don’t worry; I’ll take notes and explain it to you later.”

Seph took control. “Much as this is entertaining, would you care to elucidate the events of this eve? I have reports of the strangest occurrences all about my city. What have you done, and how have you done it, Jon?”

“Yesh Mashter,” Kay spoke through a mouth full of nuts. Despite her earlier enthusiasm, she appeared quite laid back now. Her legs—boots and all—were up on the table.

Kel’s bad manners were rubbing off on her, but it did afford Min a chance to take a bunch of screencaps of those custom long-fall boots. Jon designed and built them, huh? That was kinda uncommon for the Divers she read about. They all had their quirks though, the popular and successful ones anyway.

Kay could totally pull off the wayward-fairytale-princess-with-mecha-boots look; Min was super jello. “Tell us the ‘Fiziks’ of your and our deeds,” the cute blonde asked.

“Eh, you’re no fun.” Kel returned to the ground, unbound his feet and slipped out of his stunt vest. Dropping it in a lump on the table, he moved back. Him giving only a casual glance toward the getup, arms folded, it just started rising on its own. Loops and folds of nylon tumbled haphazardly as a few sets of metal tubes hoisted the whole thing up on thin air.

Stares and gasps swept about the room. Fae and Nym were there too.

Min couldn’t contain herself either. “Holy shit, that is so cool!” Inadvertently her gushing commentary was piped into Sepha’s ears.

The aristocratic elf flinched on the widescreen.

“Uh, sorry bout that Shay. The black material is a harness. The metal cylinders are what you should ask about.”

“I see the silver bars are of some import?”

“Hmm? Sorry, I was ordering Naan. We’re good with cheese Naan right?” Kel glanced about for assurance.

Ril’s eyes were glued unwaveringly to the man. Min knew that look, but she’d never seen it displayed so... visibly. Oh dear, Kel, you have no hope of escape, my condolences.

“Two for me, Master. I seem to have quite the appetite after that run.”

Ril finally tore her gaze away and offered explanations while Kel seemed distracted. “As to your question Seph, the metal lugs contain his state of matter. His element, as you say.”

“There is a fire within those pipes? Are they not hot? How do the flames persist: wood, coal, or oil?”

“Excellent questions, Shay!”

Kel finally finished ordering and gently lowered the harness to the table before speaking. “Since I’m backing your horse, Seph. I’m gonna come clean. Ril? Are we good with this?”

The Alpha closed her stunning eyes and nodded.

“I don’t control fire. I venture that few, if any, Fire Mages really do. You see me entrain the flames by manipulating something that exists in extremely minute amounts within them. We call it plasma, the stuff of stars and your sun.”

“The sun is not fire?”

“Nope, it’s far hotter. More energetic to be precise.”

“So a very hot fire is not a fire?”

Min almost felt Shay’s frustrations climb. She would help her queen with the details afterwards.

“He’s speaking the truth, Shay. I’ll explain later,” whispered Min.

“Yeah, let’s go with that. Super hot fire is not fire. It rhymes so it must be true.”

Kel pulled out a white plastic rectangular item with a transparent portion of the case displaying a small cylindrical frosted glass cylinder.

Min supplemented commentary, “That’s a fluorescent light. A lamp that makes illumination without fire; it has similar stuff inside when activated.”

Kel flipped the switch, and the white glow outshone most of the nearby yellow lamplight.

“That is a brilliant hue, Jon Kelly, white as the daylight sun I venture. With no fire, as you claim, Elgelica would have great use of such artefacts. Fire is an ever-present threat to our forest as you might be aware. Are they expensive?”

The light lazily floated free of his hand as Kel stroked his chin.

“Elgelica in neon!” he flourished an arc with both hands above his head. “That would be a bitch-ass look!”

“He’s not wrong,” admitted Min.

“Infrastructure is a problem, however. Discuss it with Min, electricity in Epsilon 30-10 is a big hump.”

Min jumped to the loudspeaker “Say no more, Kel.”

“Good, I won’t. Let me confirm before I continue. Has no one tried flying or even floating stuff before, Seph?”

“Guiding water up trunks is a well-known technique of the Fire Fenders, it is hard to contain form, so wood and metal pipes are used. ‘Tis a noble art passed from master to apprentice. Earth Mages must hold what they empower. As for Air Mages, gusts can be managed, but the races are not meant to fly, or the gods would have given us wings. I have seen some curiosities and tricks in fairs as a child, that is the extent.”

Min sipped her coffee, idly tapping in search terms for solar lamps on a spare screen. Commercial street lamps would have to be made to order. The larger volumes for civic installation would also need formal negotiations, but sample products for Shay’s evaluation could go a long way.

Kel responded, “So mental blocks and a lack of innovation, huh?”

“Master, people are taught the ways of their art by prior experts. The correct way and wisdom is passed down through the generations. It is sacred, to deviate is to disrespect.”

“Figures.” Kel pocketed his hands while and stared at the ground. “Your situation is not unique. There is a myriad of reasons why progress is slowed or never made. If things work, why change?”

The flashlight gradually floated across the table toward Sepha. Tumbling playfully and casting stark shadows upon the walls.

Min split the 360-panorama on a whim, getting two wide 180-feeds on horizontal split-screen.

The elven councilwoman stared up at the spectacle in contemplation.

What are you thinking, Shay? I see determination and hope, with hints of pride and ambition. Min smiled as she pulled away from her mug; she had a good baseline for the elf’s expressions by now.

Min had scored higher on her non-verbal comm tests than Pete, and he was the overall top graduate in his year. How on earth he ended up with Kel was a mystery. The Diver came out of nowhere, a ‘nothing special’ nobody on the academy databases. Min was beginning to have her suspicions, however.

Sepha spoke. “And yet you have changed things, Kelly, and now we will.”

“Yeah,” Kel spoke with a low tone and looked quite sober at the thought “Sorry about that.”

“Why? Kelly, I have seen more wonders in the last week than the last hundred years!”

“Because you will live long enough to look back and wonder if things could have been different. If it’s any consolation, know that what is afoot is inexorable. We surf the wave; we do not make it.”

“I do not know what surfing is.”

“Ah, fuck.”

The lamp clattered on the table unceremoniously.

“Right, dinner has arrived!” He pulled the Indian takeaway from his pack rift, and the trio went about serving everyone.