“You have a smoking room in this thing?”

Scarlett gave me a blank stare over her shoulder. “What do you think?” she replied from the pilot’s seat at the front of the aircraft. Apparently, all Lunar Knights were trained in piloting too, and they used the small fighter craft for speedy travel on missions. It was even capable of short, space flight, such as between Earth and their base of operations – New Sparta on the moon’s surface.

I frowned. “Was worth asking.”

“It’s only a few more hours until we get to Babel,” she replied, her eyes returning to the sky ahead. “Surely you can hold off for that long.”

Babel – the silver city. Where people flooded with their dreams, hoping to rise through the ranks of meritocracy and receive acknowledgement and glory for their hard work. Of course, this was all as much a lie as any other unrealistic aspiration. In reality, the city wasn’t much different to anywhere else, besides its size and status as the economic hub of the modern world. Just a bigger shithole Sky City than the rest.

I hadn’t actually been there myself before, but Scarlett reckoned it was a good place to start looking for this Alcandor guy. It was home to the biggest mage’s guild on the planet, that of the Babelonian king himself, so if someone doing important research were to choose anywhere to shelter, it would likely be within the mighty defences of the silver city.

“I’m a bit shaken is all,” I mumbled, putting away my pipe.

“What’s that?”

“Nothing.” I slumped down into one of the bench seats behind her.

“Wouldn’t it be easier to get an electric pipe?” she asked after a few minutes of silence. “They’re pretty cheap I’ve heard.”

“This was a gift. From Adeline.”

“Your wife?”

“Aha.”

I thought back. I was sitting on the porch swing, looking out over the orange clouds that covered the earth below. Our house was on the city edge, in the East District. Not so fancy as where my sister stayed but the views were pleasant. Adeline had come out to me as the sky was beginning to darken and handed me the pipe. It was my birthday. And then –

I clutched my head.

“Something wrong?”

“No, I just –”

Couldn’t remember. I looked down at the pipe. The wood was torn by deep scratch marks. Why couldn’t I remember what had happened after that? The only thing I did know was that…

“…that was the last time I saw her,” I said out loud.

“Are you bored back there?” the Lunar Knight asked. “You’re talking to yourself a lot.”

Why had I only realised this now? Not wanting to dwell any longer on the thought, I opened up my bag and withdrew the book I’d taken from the tower. The title – Basic Battle Magic – had caught my attention, and I figured nobody would miss it back there. I snorted as I opened to the first page. It wasn’t as exciting as I’d hoped. The entire first chapter was dedicated to breathing techniques. I scratched my head as I flipped disinterestedly through the pages.

“How does your magic work anyhow?” I asked without looking up from the book.

“My armour is stored in a pocket dimension,” the Lunar Knight replied. “My sword’s energy attacks are fuelled by the light of the moon.”

“Light of the moon, huh?”

“Yeah. Moon based magic has been around for millennia. It’s nothing new.”

“Well, I’m not exactly a magic expert.”

“You’d do better to practice using that sword I gave you.”

She was probably right, but I wanted to give this book a look all the same.

I read largely in silence for the remainder of the journey. Later on, I tried out some of the breathing techniques, and discovered my lung capacity to be lacking. Guess I’d have to work on that. It wasn’t that I wanted to be a master magician or anything. I glanced over at Scarlett. She really was something. When I compared her to me – I clenched my fist. I couldn’t protect Emilia, but I wouldn’t let something like that happen again.

“Welcome to Babel. We’re coming down to land.”

From the aircraft window I watched as we closed in on the silver city. It really did glimmer in the afternoon sunlight. As we came closer, however, the black smoke that rose from the outer buildings of the massive Sky City became plainly apparent. Factories, workhouses – the dark underbelly of the shining pinnacle of civilization.

“Say, about the bodies we found,” I began. We had spoken only briefly as we left the tower. I think we had both been in shock after what we’d seen. We’d found obviously diseased corpses lying everywhere in the upper floors Mage’s Guild – all with rashes just like the first one.

“What about them?” Scarlett sounded shaky.

“I’ve never heard of any sickness like that.”

“Neither have I.”

“I can’t help but wonder if it has something to do with the Chaos.”

She looked me in the eyes. “There’s nothing we can do about it right now. Best to focus on our objective. When we find Alcandor, maybe he can tell us something about it.”

“Aren’t you worried it might spread to us? It looked pretty contagious to me.”

She paled, and she averted her eyes from my gaze. “If it is spread by the Chaos, I would have contracted it already by now. In your case…” she hesitated. “I’m not sure. I’m sorry.”

“Let’s just hope we find a cure. Not only for my sake.”

The aircraft came in to land slowly, docking amidst a bustling shipyard. Craft flew in and out, passengers boarded and departed. There didn’t appear to be anybody overseeing the comings and goings; it all just, happened, on its own.

As we stepped off the ship, I choked. The air in the shipyard smelt like some combination of jet fuel and dead rat. I drew out my pipe and quickly lit it, breathing a sigh of relief as the horrendous aromas were replaced with its smoky familiarity.

Scarlett pulled a face. “Just couldn’t wait, could you?”

She swiped her credit card across an automated panel. Mechanical arms emerged from below the dock and lifted her ship into the massive storage racks that lined the shipyard. I looked around. Most of the vessels here looked like cargo ships. The tiny, white lunar fighter looked rather out of place amidst the rusty carriers.

“This is the industrial sector?”

Scarlett nodded. “I don’t have a pass to dock directly in the upper sector. I doubt Alcandor is down here though, so we’re going to have to make our way there through one of the gateways.”

Even from this distance; beyond the massive expanse of black factories and cramped, towering housing blocks; I could see the silver wall that surrounded the inner city. I could only imagine the level of security the governors of Babel employed.

Staring at the grandiose arches of the nearest entrance, I had a thought.

“You think they’ll let us in?” Of course, the reputation of the Lunar Knights carried a certain status, but on Earth they had no real political power.

Scarlett smiled. “You think they would deny access to a Lunar Knight?”