Once they had grouped up, for the second time in quick succession, Nina found herself falling through a sky above an alien world. Like paratroopers jumping from a plane, Svanda had once again taken her hand and dragged her across the edge into the darkness.

“Welcome to Luem, the capital of Neo Luesa and the jewel of the three plates,” Svanda said as they emerged from the dark chute which had carried them through the earth. Below them, a massive city sprawled across the landscape and continued past the horizon, a patchwork jungle of colour.

It’s so big, Nina thought. It was as though the buildings were as numerous as blades of grass. Even if you had glued together a group of the largest cities from her world above, they would still not be able to compete with this city.

A new song began to pump from Trim’s stereo. Svanda, who had let go of her hand, reassumed her relaxed pose with her hands behind her head. Nina watched as her eyes closing as the trace of a smile appeared at the corner of her lips. As Jade and Aline shot past her in tandem, she was reminded of when the group had first descended on her.

“We don’t have to move that far this time, we’re dropping reasonably straight,” said Reina who had appeared behind her like a ghost. With crossed arms and her hair fluttering in the breeze, she looked completely at ease as they descended. “Practice moving around and controlling yourself a little, it will be useful later.”

Nina nodded as she watched Reina glide off towards Saela with a practiced motion. Although remaining still was rather easy, Nina found that it was quite difficult to move around as she willed it. Thinking back to when Saela had approached them while being wildly out of control, she realised that it would probably be harder than it seemed.

After trying to control herself to move around as she pleased with little success, she watched as Svanda approached her. Feeling the tug at her hand that had been gripped, she watched the group enter formation in silence. The descent had been rather uneventful when compared to the first one, and for that, Nina was glad.

“Suits?”

Nina turned to see that Reina, who was off to the side, was speaking into what she guessed was a microphone, a finger pressed against her ear.

“Good… Yeah, we’re approaching now. See you soon.”

Their speed reduced as they neared the rooftop of a building. Similar in height to essentially every other building as far as Nina could see, the sea of square and rectangular rooftops seemed like an endless tiled floor. The mixture of faded colours was littered with a seemingly random assortment of windows, signs, and other features. With only around 10 metres between each building, the city was a jigsaw of skyscrapers.

It was an endless forest of concrete.

“Euris said that the Network is reporting no suit activity in the district, let’s head down before that changes,” Reina said as she opened the door to one of the small roof access huts which protruded from the otherwise featureless space. “Bands on, let’s go.”

As the group filed through the door into a dim stairwell, they each produced a band which was quickly placed on their left arm near the shoulder. Most of the group wore orange bands, while Reina and Svanda wore green. Each band had a barcode below stenciled text which read ‘JE-22’.

“Sorry, we don’t have one for you yet because we need to put your biometrics through the system,” Svanda said as she pat Nina on the shoulder. “We’ll sort it out when we get back.”

Nodding, she watched as Trim punched a set of details into a rusted terminal by the top of the staircase. After waiting until a light turned from red to green, she hopped over the railing and into the central shaft, followed by Jade and Aline.

“No need to walk down, it knows where we want to stop,” Svanda said as she nudged Nina towards the railing before watching as Reina and Saela disappeared into the darkness below.

Hopefully this is the last time, Nina thought before hauling her legs over the railing and dropping into the empty space.

It wasn’t until she had started falling that she realised how calm she had been as she had thrown herself into an unknown descent with no form of safety measure. It was almost as though she was in a dream and was just deciding to go with the flow until she was eventually dragged back to reality. The sheer absurdity of the recent set of events had almost left her desensitized to the truth of what she was doing, hauling herself blindly into the unknown without a sliver of control. From the moment she had met Reina, she had been rudderless. She had always tried to steer her own actions but now she was relying on an outstretched hand before letting it drag her wherever it decided to go.

Dim lights appeared and disappeared in quick succession as the landings flew by. Nina didn’t know how far she was falling, but she guessed that it was quite far when she considered how tall the building had been. Eventually, a series of pulsating orange disks of light appeared below her, slowing her gradually as she passed through them before coming to a halt on a plank that had been extended in to the middle of the stairwell. Seeing Jade beckon her off the plank, she walked off and turned to see that Svanda had dropped where she had just been standing.

“Thanks,” she said as she turned, only to realise that Jade had already disappeared through an orange door in the wall, ‘JE-22/6-25’ stenciled in large letters above it.

“This building is called JE-22,” Svanda said as she pushed through the door, walking into the dimly lit hallway beyond without turning to see if Nina was following her. “The floor we are on is the 25th floor of the 6th layer, hence 6-25.”

“6th layer?”

“There’s 7 layers,” Svanda said as they rounded a corner and pushed through another door. This time, there was a small stream of people moving through the dimly lit concrete hallway. “7th is the lowest, 1st is the highest.”

Nina noted that everyone she passed was wearing a band around their arm which was similar to what she had seen everyone in the group put on before.

“Layers are usually referred to by colour; red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, and white. The band around your arm represents your clearance level.”

Nina noted that people moved around Svanda in a respectful manner when they saw the green band around her arm. Almost all of the people that she had seen so far were either wearing red or orange bands.

“If this is the orange layer, why are there people with red bands here?”

Svanda smiled as they emerged from the quiet hallway onto a busy thoroughfare. The thoroughfare was a wide airy space with a ceiling that was far above them in the distance, rows of shops and stalls lining the side of what seemed like an indoor street. A gentle breeze drifted past them which carried the laughter and chatter of the people throughout. Above the stalls, people watched over the main road from balconies which jut out from a range of floors above them.

“Although you can travel one layer above your clearance, red bands are an exception as they deal with the most basic tasks, and can travel up to the green layer without special clearance. Cleaners, farmers, unskilled workers, and other servants are almost exclusively from the red layer.”

Nina half listened to what Svanda’s explanation as she took in the sights around her. When she had first met the group in the sky, she had thought that their sense of dress was rather strange. Now, however, she realised that her own conservative style was the strange choice in this strange land, as a range of colours, styles, and accessories were on display before her.

“Svanda! Fresh meat?” asked a woman with a flaming red mop of hair and a skin-tight tank top as they passed by her seat behind a small stall on the side of the ‘road’.

“Reina finds some interesting ones, doesn’t she?” Svanda laughed as they walked.

Before she knew it, Nina had caught a round green fruit that had been tossed to her by the woman.

“Welcome to 22! Come see me anytime!” the woman said as they continued past.

“That’s Sem. Jade and Aline like to hang around there sometimes,” Svanda said as she nodded towards another shopkeeper that waved to them. The combination of Svanda’s armband and Nina’s lack of armband drew attention as they walked down the street, although they soon turned off the main street and on a smaller one.

“That was Main West, one of the four main streets that form a square around each floor,” Svanda said as she stopped in the middle of the street. “There are 2 sets of main streets on the orange layer; one on 6-05, and one on 6-25. The space above the main street on 6-25 stretches all the way to the bottom of the yellow layer, 20 floors above.”

Nina noted the bright blue wall at the place where they had stopped, along with the large painted sign across it which read ‘The Cloud Orchestra.’ Following as Svanda stepped into the small courtyard which was set before a pair of doors, she gazed back towards the main street from where they had come.

“It’s almost like it’s a city within a building,” Nina said. Although it was true that they were within a massive structure, each individual space had its own design and flavor which gave it the sense that they were in a town instead.

“That’s exactly what it is,” Svanda laughed as she opened the door for Nina.

“Welcome to The Cloud Orchestra.”