The hustle and bustle of Slipstream was overwhelming to Laurence and Yun. Neither of them had ever been in a city before, so the sights, sounds and smells were like being dumped into an unfamiliar jungle. Slipstream was not a large city, but it was a sizeable port. There were hundreds of people passing through the port every day, going too and fro within the world contained on the fifth floor. Each floor had its gimmick, or unique characteristic that made it distinct and the fifth floor’s oddity was that each landmass was placed upon a precipitous spire of stone and metal. The spires all stood upon an arid and desolate land, so hot and dry that no living thing could possibly stand to live there. Instead life had migrated to these great spires

The spires were a much more liveable space, with clean, clear air, water and even copious amounts of plant life. It was a lush, verdant paradise in comparison to the land below. Different societies had developed at the peak of each pillar, separate for generations before finally being connected together in a massive network of airship routes. These societies revolved around the trade routes that passed their various speciality goods around to the different continents, and so most ports quickly built up into cities.

Every five or six faces that the group walked past was an entirely different species of person. All of them were bipedal, but some had wings, like Louisa, some had fur like Declan, some even had scales. It was something that Laurence could not help but point out.

“They are the general populace that the four great animal clans were born of.” Replied Louisa. “I'm part of the Vermilion clan, one that reveres the vermilion firebird. We call it the phoenix, and it’s our most prized ally. It’s why we, I mean the Vermilion clan, were allowed to reside in the breeding grounds of the phoenix.” Louisa shone with pride at the concept of living in the breeding grounds of one of the four great beasts. “We call them godbeasts; the vermilion bird, white tiger-wolf, azure dragon and black turtle.” She ushered the two boys into a nearby inn and asked for a room. The innkeeper quickly handed them a key when she passed him five copper shards. Finally Louisa ushered the boys into their room before talking to them again.

“I didn’t want to say Yun, you’re one of those godbeasts, which is why I am so confused as why you were found on the first floor. You should have been brought up in the grounds of the Lupe clan, but for some reason you were born outside. It’s like the tiger-wolves don’t trust the Lupe any more.”

Laurence sat on one of the beds in the pokey little room they had been given. He sat, mulling over what Louisa had told him before realising that what she said was lacking something. “Why are these creatures called godbeasts? What makes Yun so different from other wolves?” Laurence admired his brother, but he could not see what made him so different that his entire species was worshipped by a race of humanoid canines. From what Laurence had seen when growing up in a church, it took a lot of power to make someone a subject of worship. Sometimes it took very little to generate a sense of worship, but to hold it took great forethought, ability and action.

“It’s simple really.” Louisa replied, preening the feathers on her arms as they conversed. “Godbeasts of all kinds have something that the four beast clans sorely wish to attain. They call it «The Shift», but we refer to it as «Physical Ascension». Like the paths to ascension that you golden children walk on, this skill can lead you to immortality. However, it is so much more difficult than the books. You have no path to follow, you must simply learn to control all your skin, muscles and bones, then your veins and mana paths. With those skills you can emulate anyone, you can become anyone.”

“But why do you need to worship the godbeasts? Surely this is something that your clan would have spent generations trying to create, to copy in such a way that it stops being a copy.” Laurence was confused. Surely they should realise that this was not the best way to go about the study of the skill. He remembered when his father had received a message about an event in the tower that had gifted the village with a large amount of foods that people had never seen before. No one asked where the food came from, because it was from the almighty tower. Yet Laurence wanted to know. He had wanted to know more than the parables that he was told that did not quite match up to what he saw. He had wanted to know the other side of that magnificent black stele that he had seen every day, to see the top of the tower and survey the lands that spanned universes below him. It was his greatest driving force, his only driving force. He could not understand how it could not be for anyone else, and how they could go about learning by waving a veil of worship and ineffability over the truth. He could not understand how someone could willingly blind themself.

“Because they teach us. It took generations of mutual acceptance, but the four beast clans took on a patron animal closest to their form and began to be taught. There is a mutual bond between the clan and the godbeast has aided us both for millennia, but now Yun here was born outside of that realm.” Louisa sighed. “Something is very, very wrong with the Lupe clan if the godbeasts no longer want to be around them, if they would go out of their way to breed outside of the homeland to avoid their young being caught up in Lupe machinations.”

“You can read that just out of the fact I was born outside?” Said Yun. “I can hardly believe that you can pull that much out of the fact that my earliest memories are all of the primordial first floor. It’s a bit of a stretch.” Yun was developing far quicker than Laurence. It was as if he was experiencing seven seconds for every second that Laurence did. The speed at which he learned and reacted was as fast as his experience.

“It’s because of those facts that I can only assume something like a sense of distrust has bloomed. The godbeasts would only leave us if something threatened their lives or the chance of their line failing. The tiger-wolves have, without a doubt, left the realm of the Lupe. As for the exact reason I cannot even fathom to guess.” She stopped preening and settled down into her bed. She was more woman than bird, avian in some respects but humanoid in most, however her bedding routine was very much a reflect of the bird in her. “Now we need to get some rest. We will have a long day ahead of us tomorrow, especially if we are to find a ship to charter to the north of the floor. We’ll be cutting out of the slipstream if we want to make the next testing area in any good time, and that can be dangerous.. Or at least unpredictable.”

The three companions all finished getting ready for bed and settled down to a rest filled night, one of the few truly restful nights that Laurence had actually experienced on his journey so far. His eyes slowly began to get heavy as he lay in the dark, thinking about what lay ahead and the people he had ended up leaving behind. Eventually he drifted off into sleep, silently wondering what his parents were doing.