Essentia Animus

43-Conflicting Interests

The three girls awoke on the day of their new journey, quickly preparing to depart as planned. Unexpectedly, they found they would not be travelling alone.

"So it seems in the end things will become quite the gathering. You guys are going to need a pilot, and it seems I'm the most established for the role. Jwyexzn is going to be my co-pilot, considering our transportation was offered by his workplace. Dhyinze and Nuiqhyx will be joining along as trained hunters, to make sure that we have some additional skills on the field. Eqriuxzl will be required because of his knowledge with his equipment, we will need him to scan around for anything of interest, the least of all being more gate rifts. Because I'm going to have some trouble actually supplying the gift during my role as pilot, I've got Hyusziq offering to lend a hand with that as well." "Wait, why would you have any trouble with..." "Because I still can't use the gift for now, after an accident. We don't have time for the details, maybe Riyxia can fill you in more later." Ayzherie still hadn't explained the matter to Sryine, meaning she still never knew. Ayzherie took a moment to realize that Riyxia herself had held true to her trustworthiness as well, to never spoil her secret.

"Oh, if we're finally in the mood to fill in the blanks now, there is one thing that's been bothering me too. From everything I've seen in the mountains, I have no idea how anyone could imagine a vehicle would be very useful in the mountains, the terrain is absolutely garbage for it." "Well, yes, any vehicle that had to drive over these stones would find the trip to be rather difficult. The close proximity to beasts would also be alarming, so we've had to secure something far safer, a windcraft." Vwyx came to dread her question once Ayzherie made the grand reveal of the transportation they would be taking, a vehicle Sryine identified as a large helicopter. Over 50 Uyn long, this craft looked capable of seating even more people, although it was already filled with plenty of supplies. Rather than a rotary blade, the top had a more stationary disc that generated an air current by use of the gift, which would keep the whole thing in the air. Vwyx had never even heard of such a thing before, and decidedly wished she could have forever remained ignorant. This nightmarish instrument would become even worse than the train. Sryine however was much less sympathetic, herself being forced to cope with her fears at all times because of her own aspect of destruction. Rage, Pain, Fear, all three of them had gotten very good at being exposed to their own trigger for their augmentation, but not so much the trigger of each other. Riyxia wasn't very skilled with dealing with either pain or fear, not naturally. Vwyx could deal with physical matters, but couldn't cope with frustrations like rage and fear. Sryine could easily cope with the fear of things such as pain or anger, but she still didn't endure them very well when they actually happened. As such, Vwyx remained a cowering wreck at the back of the windcraft for the entire airborne trip, her fear of heights being put to the limits.

The three assigned pilots for the journey remained out of their reach, but this left the two hunters and the two other girls to the main seats in the middle of the craft. The hunters took seats to the right of the craft, the girls seated on the opposite side. This put Riyxia and Sryine quite close to the exit, something that didn't exceptionally bother them even from extraordinary heights. All of them had gear to slow their descent, but the three girls were otherwise also capable of augmentation, possibly leading to no notable effect if they were to freefall land the whole way. There wasn't complete certainty in this, so the ideal solution was to still use the correct gear for at least a portion of the descent, in order to be certain. From their vantage, the four of them were exposed to a miraculous view to discuss from an excessive height, easily thousands of Uyn in the air, maybe even tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands. Eqriuxzl however was in the back with Vwyx, though he was focused the entire time on his instruments.

Everyone was even forced to take lunch in the windcraft, the trip taking that long. The pilots were forced to eat in shifts, but everyone else was free to eat at their own whims. Vwyx didn't have much of an appetite for the first time ever, feeling kinda sick in the air like this. Sryine was marvelling just how much snow could be found deeper in the mountains, even though it was already early spring. Nuiqhyx went to great lengths to explain how the snow never leaves such mountains, even in the warmest of summers. Sryine was finding this whole trip to be really informative, especially since people were letting her know stuff now. To think Ayzherie was right now suffering from no access to her gift, to think Riyxia had known all this time and never shared it. Well, it probably wasn't hers to share, it made sense. As Sryine considered the sudden availability of knowledge to her, the mountains began to fade, leaving a great valley with a small forest glade in the middle, standing out strongly for a single obvious reason. Every tree present had azure leaves, looking like a familiar piece of home. This view made Sryine ecstatic with curiosity, eager to share with the still distant Vwyx.