My mistake was apparent less than an hour into my flight. It was hard to do anything but think when you were the only one piloting your glider and all you could see were stormclouds and the occasional mountain peak.

Neta proved unwilling to take over the duty, though she had been intrigued by the challenge for a solid half hour before she coiled herself up and went back into hibernation. Which was a relief. Having something else control my flight wasn’t for the faint of heart. Especially when she’d decided to test the limits of Soaring Wolf by putting us into a dive then only pulling up right as we skimmed the clouds.

It’d taken a force of will not to take back control.

If I'd put off my trip for another week or two, I might've been able to figure out a way to enchant it to mostly keep the Soaring Wolf in its air without either of our attention. Once I was up, it wasn't that difficult to keep it that way. Well, unless I hit a zone of dead air.

That had only happened once, only minutes after I took control back from Neta. It’d been even more terrifying than her dive. It'd only been a drop of a hundred or so feet before I'd caught air again, but pulling on the controls and not getting any lift had me activating Aegis immediately.

Still, both had been welcome diversions from my thoughts. Which kept circling back to everyone I'd left back in Cape Aeternia. While Nexxa had become like family, she wasn't the only one. Not anymore.

Calbern and I were still doing storm dancing every couple days. And we'd been preparing for a return to Conflict's halls as well. That had been the original plan after Inertia had unveiled Soaring Wolf.

I was running away from them. Just like I'd run from my old man. Like I’d run from her…

The glider started tilting to the side, and it wrenched me out of my thoughts. It helped, for a time, and I considered my options. I could continue above the clouds, getting pulled into my thoughts. Or…

I could keep Mana Draw active, along with Aegis, and move lower, scouting out the area along the high road. With all the Storm mana in the air, and Aegis at about half-strength, it would be a net gain. And I could even stop off and repair the protective relays along the way.

The decision wasn't really much of one, and I was soon weaving between crashing bolts of lightning and the occasional tree or other debris that'd been ripped from its former home to take up temporary residence in the air.

It was stressful, but in the 'I don't have to think about life' way I'd always been comfortable with.

The first of the protective relays didn't take long to spot, and soon I was on the ground, pulling on the reserves of silver dust I kept packed in my ring. Most of it had been in case I needed to make repairs to Soaring Wolf, but even if I patched up every relay on the high road, it'd barely dent my supplies.

Which made me appreciate how efficient the relays were, as enchantments. I suspected they were only part of a much larger enchantment that ran through the roads themselves. Once the weather cleared up, I'd probably investigate the section close to the Frost Riven fortress.

For now, I simply made the repairs then set out again.

Occasionally, I'd drift above the clouds, simply to take a break from the constant weaving and dodging below, giving Neta a few scritches as we blasted along.

But it'd never last long.

I ended up flying for more than the twelve hours I'd initially planned. I'd been using Restore Form regularly, to clear the aches associated with bumping and jostling myself through the storm for hours on end. And it had kept me from growing tired. So I flew through the night, then the day after that.

Only after nearly two full days of flying, did I take a break. And that was because I'd reached the tower where we'd said goodbye to Nexxa when I first left her territory.

I climbed up then slid down to sit in the same spot we'd parked ourselves before we separated. To my surprise, Neta slunk out of my robes, swinging her head back and forth. The storm whipped around us, blocking the view. But I felt I could still remember it. The night sky, so foreign, yet so much more right than the one I'd known before.

"Never did get to tell you about Earth," I said, thinking of the book I'd given Nexxa as I sat down next to the rope-cat. Neta looked over at me, her thread filled eyes seemingly unbothered by the storm. While she was my companion, it wasn’t really her I was talking to. "At least I told you how much it meant to have you as a big sister. Wish I had you here now, to give me advice. I… I think I like someone. And that terrifies me. I thought I'd closed off that part of…"

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

I trailed off, staring into the storm. Two days I'd gone without sleep. A bad habit. I'd done it before, though I'd used energy drinks and alcohol to get through, not a spell.

Needed to sleep. Talking to myself, expecting to hear a reply… bad sign. Even if I did have Neta butting her head against my hand.

“Thanks girl,” I said, giving her some more scritches before pushing to my feet.

Slowly, I made my way back down the tower. Then I hauled Soaring Wolf inside, using it to mostly block off the outside. Once it was wedged in, I used Sculpt Stone to seal the rest.

Sinking down, I considered a fire. But by that point, I didn't want to get up again. Two solid days of flying through the storm had taken a toll, despite my spell. I stared blankly for over an hour and didn't feel even a twinge of sleepiness, even as Neta wrapped herself around me once more. Wanted to curse the spell but I knew it was my own fault. Eventually, I just closed my eyes and laid there, listening to the sound of the storm outside.

It wasn't sleep, but it was… rest.

I was just thankful my mind didn't start circling the same old thoughts.

When I started moving, it was still night, based on the depth of the darkness. Wasn't morning but it'd been long enough.

Once more, I launched myself into the sky. There were no more relays to watch for, but that didn't matter. Now I was searching for something far more important. Someone, actually. I doubted I'd find her on the eastern edge of her territory, but it would've been silly not to at least keep my eyes open.

When I reached the center of her domain, I had to circle several times in surprise. There was just a ramshackle collection of huts, with a circle of people gathered around a barely flickering fire.

I only hesitated for a minute before landing next to them.

Which sent them scattering, most of them screaming, though a few of them picked up any heavy objects they could find.

"Friend!" I shouted, suddenly cursing the cockpit that hid me away, pushing to lift the transparent material. "Friend," I shouted again, once I had my head free. The people who'd been approaching slowed. One of them I recognized. A big demon looking man with blue skin and huge horns. "Hash? Where's Nexxa?"

He stood there staring for several long seconds before breaking into a wide smile. "Brother Perth. Hunting, where else is Nexxa," he cried, taking several quick steps forward to clap me on the shoulder. "Doing here, what you?"

"Came to see her. Thought she'd come to visit with the storm but then she never… she's safe?" I asked while pushing the bottom part of the cockpit open.

"Last saw I, yes, Nexxa safe. Strong but tired. Busy much," he said, clapping my shoulder again. "Good brother, to check."

I felt a wave of relief wash through me. Staying at the tower hadn't just been about wanting sleep. Part of me had been afraid of what I'd find. Though I'd been worried about Nexxa being dead or injured, it hadn't occurred to me that she'd simply been too busy to visit. I glanced over at the ramshackle huts that even then threatened to fall over.

If her people were staying in buildings that bad… yeah, she had to be busy.

That was something I could fix in an hour, at most.

"Food, have?" Hash asked, waving towards the fire.

At first, I though he was asking if I could spare some food. Then I realized how silly that would be. Nexxa was obviously bringing them food. He'd even said she was out hunting.

"Sure, I'll have some food," I said, following him over to the fire. There were a few dozen people scattered around, all of them watching us. Even as we walked, I pulled out my grimoire, swapping in Sculpt Stone. It was getting easier to swap spells, and I'd realized Nexxa's own ability to swap so quickly hadn't just been because she'd been more powerful. The more that I swapped a spell in or out, the faster it got to swap it, though there were some that were much slower no matter how many times they got swapped, like Memory Palace.

By the time someone had cut me several portions of meat off the roasting… I honestly had no idea what it was. Something vaguely badger like, maybe. Either way, by the time they handed me a rough wooden bowl full of the meat, with not so much as a single tuber to go with it, I'd swapped in Sculpt Stone.

So, eating little rolls of the meat with one hand, I started using Sculpt Stone with the other. It slowed the process somewhat, since I had to make all my adjustments with my right hand, but by the time I'd polished off the bowl, I'd erected a simple stone shelter with a fireplace and chimney at the far end. It helped that the ground near the overhang where Nexxa's beacon was located was mostly rocky. Rockier than I remembered it being. Most of the greenery in the area had been scoured away.

Without warning a hand clapped me on the shoulder, pulling me out of my inspection of the surroundings. "Good house, this," Hash said, shaking me. "Much better season, have we now."

I turned back to find everyone who'd been crowded around the fire already going into their lean-to's, grabbing their belongings and heading for the new shelter. "Uh, I was gonna build more," I said as they filed past.

"True brother, you are. Help sister much in just hour here," Hash said, shaking his head with a sad smile. "Family have, is good."

"I… thanks, I think," I said even as I watched some of the people come back out with axes to start hacking at the crude shelters they'd been staying in. Then more people came out and started hauling the remains of the wooden structure inside.

"Wood is hard find," Hash explained, clapping me on the shoulder again before pointing to the rapidly emptying spot. "You build more shelter there?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I can do that," I said, glancing up at the sky. There still wasn't any sign of Nexxa, but that was okay. If she was fighting, I wouldn't have been much use to her anyway.

But building stuff. That I could do.