The next few hours passed as people began to leave. Most headed for farming villages as they had either never been out of on the surface before, or they had only been out a few times. Arvin was hopeful that they would find a new life, one that was full of MA and dangers that they could grow from.

Arvin’s airship was dead. The gas canister had been damaged, and all of the gas that had been inside of it had dissipated. The gondola itself had been destroyed to such an extent that you couldn’t even use it for spare parts. Arvin collected his things, as much rope as he could and the material that had once made up his envelope. He then agreed to take George’s airship, while George rode in Breanna’s. Talia came with Arvin and his crew, as she had none else to go and she just needed to get away from Auksand.

As they lifted into the air, Talia didn’t look back as the locked gates were too painful to accept and to grow from this would be hard, harder than anything that she had ever done, or would do in the future.

In Arvin’s mind, they had saved as many as they could and all of his crew were safe. As they lifted into the air, he hoped that the surviving society would learn from this and chose not to hide in cities underground as a life based around caution, leads to the same end as having no caution at all.

They headed north-east towards Ansora, but Arvin let his airship drift as he watched Talia relax in the breeze. She was hurting and right now, all of them, she needed some comfort. They began to head west and the rest of the crew followed Arvin’s lead, as they saw no need for speed at the moment. They had no plan, but they had each other.

It was half-way into the night when Arvin noticed that Breanna’s airship was missing.

“Monti,” He called as quietly as he could. “Monti,” He called again and Talia woke from her sleep.

“Arvin? What is it?” Monti asked as he woke up

“Where’s Breanna and George?”

“They’ve gone to get a farmer.”

“A farmer?” Arvin asked in confusion.

“Yes, we’re heading west. At the sunset, Breanna realised where we might be heading for and she knows someone who wants to see it before he dies.”

“Oh,” Arvin gasped as he realised and he looked out to the west, where he saw the distant horizon meeting the sea.

“What are heading for?” Talia asked him.

“Vortexia,” Arvin whispered in return.

“The city in the sea?”

“Yes. Monti, are we to keep our course west until George and Breanna re-join us?” Arvin asked, still keeping his voice quiet.

“Yes. Now go back to sleep Arvin, the wind is blowing us in a straight westerly direction, and it should not change for the rest of the night.”

“You always reckoned yourself as a weatherman didn’t you Monti?”

“I have, now go to bed or I shall wake you up early tomorrow morning,” Monti said before he sank back into his gondola and fell asleep once more.

Arvin felt the wind on his face and he could feel the excitement growing within him at the thought of visiting Vortexia. They were the city who had accepted risk. He had heard many stories about it, and wondered how many of them were true. Did they really drill the centre so deep that the water that cascades into it, keeps falling for eternity? Do the inhabitants only live on water-based plants? Do sea serpents visit them in the dark of night?

“Arvin?” Talia asked and Arvin dragged himself out of his thoughts to see her sitting beside him. “I never thought that the night sky would be so beautiful. All the stars really draw you in and you don’t want to look away.”

“They are something aren’t they?” Arvin said as watching Talia.

“Is this how it feels to have MA?”

“I suppose so,” Arvin said as he tried to think about how she had defined MA all those weeks ago. “Though, I just call it air.”

“I like it. Your air’s not as musty as my air use to be. Though it is cold.”

“You get use to it. I like to think of it more as crisp, cold gives you an unwelcoming feeling.”

“It does.”

“So, why were you locked up?”

“I left the city, and on the surface, I met a traveller. He took me to Seatle and showed me the reality of being locked away. Everything was just so still. Nothing moved and there was no life. The first few days after everyone had gone, it must have been so quiet. It felt dead Arvin, and not just by the corpses that were still sitting upon their chairs. On my return to Auksand, it felt the same. The air was the same, still and musty. Old and unmoving. This air, mountain air,” Talia said, but her emphasis on the words, mountain air, had changed so it was as though they reminded her of a good memory and a better time. The cold and threatening tones used to describe, MA, were gone and now it had been replaced with a clear and fresh sound. “It’s freeing. It’s hopeful. It’s, crisp. And just perhaps a little bit cold,” Tala told Arvin with a small smile.

“Do you mind it being cold?”

“I think that I can get use to it,” Talia replied, and they sat quietly together watching the stars.