A Messenger from Nephelokokkygia

To the City of Birds

Chapter 20: To the City of Birds

Pisthetaerus: First I advise that the birds gather together in one city and that they build a wall of great bricks, like that of Babylon, round the plains of the air and the whole region of space that divides earth from heaven.

--Aristophanes, The Birds

"If I should get through this with my ninth life still very much my own," Schrodinger said while pulling himself up the next branch, "I'll retire from field duty and serve solely as a library cat." Of the climbers, his claws allowed the most secure purchase. Even so, he was exhausted.

"If you lost your ninth life, would you be able to do anything, period?" Bennu made loops in the air. He possessed the most stamina, prompting no small number of glares his way.

"Not everyone has the degree of immortality you do." Schrodinger licked his paw free of lemon jellybean.

"Shouldn't immortality be the same for anyone who can't die?" Diana asked from Goldtalon's back. The griffin only carried whoever seemed most infirm at the time. The recent all-candy diet only provided so much energy. Even for him.

"Yeah, how could there be different levels of living forever?" added Fox. "You are or you aren't."

"The Djieien had one form of immortality," pointed out Grace, "which could be reversed." She hardly figured they could climb all the way to the clouds. Won't we run out of air first? Her father talked about lightheadedness, and that was inside a plane. Here, they were exposed to the elements.

"We've reached a crossroads!" Bennu cheered. "How wonderfully uncertain. Practically makes your stomach churn...with joy!" His body flashed magenta. He had shown off the entire trek up, routinely giving encouragement that was not in any way needed.

"Crossroads" was not the best way to describe it. The jellybean stalk grew into multiple spirals, each supporting a unique location. Some branches went higher than where Grace and her friends currently rested. Other were pretty much a straight walk. But to where? No path led down.

Bennu gestured to the highest branch with his once-broken wing. Nephelokokkygia was obstructed by a mass of clouds. "That's where Grace and I will go. Goldtalon is welcome too, if he wishes."

"I'm not leaving mommy." Goldtalon carefully let Diana down on the sticky ground, where Fox took over as guide.

"Didn't expect anything less from Goldtalon the Puissant. The issue is where the rest of us go." Bennu alternately glanced at Schrodinger, Fox, and Diana. "Before I left, my home was already in dire crisis. There was a great deal of suspicion towards outsiders. There is, nevertheless, precedent for augurs being welcomed with open wings..."

Fox rolled her eyes beneath her goggles. She wore them now not to protect from stones, but wind. "What you're hedging around is no one else's welcome. Which, I can understand the cat...but even if I don't get to see exploding heads, it'll even out if I avoid becoming a zombie."

"Why were we brought this far if we're not invited?" asked Diana.

"Because," Bennu's voice turned more grand, less nervous, "my neighbors ought to know exactly who saved them! I'm not saying there'll be medals, but each of you has done such good for my city—and sacrificed much—without asking anything in return. Nephelokokkygia is wealthy, as we get prayers that don't reach the high heavens. I realize that, after this, some among us have little to return to. I vow, you won't be sent off into the world with nothing."

"But for now," said Fox, "we need food. And places to sleep. We've no idea how long you'll be in the clouds, convincing everyone how nice we've been or whatever."