CHAPTER 121: THE HEART OF THE SKY

Trixtan followed Shade into the vast, open expanse of the air, the wind a powerful, unseen river that they rode. The landscape beneath them, a jagged sea of mountains, blurred into an endless, dizzying tapestry. He kept glancing down, his eyes fixed on the two tiny figures of Link and Calixta as they became smaller and smaller on the ground, a constant worry nagging at him.

"Are you sure about this, Shade?" Trixtan shouted over the wind, his voice barely audible. "Wouldn’t it be better to go with them?"

Shade didn’t even bother to turn around, his focus a singular, unbreakable force. He kept his gaze fixed on the unseen trail of mana, a faint, almost invisible thread that only he seemed to perceive. The air around him shimmered with the heat of his mana, a contained inferno that pushed him forward with relentless speed.

"Go with them," Shade snapped, the words clipped and devoid of any emotion. The command was simple, a dismissal.

Trixtan sighed, the sound lost to the wind. He flew closer, his own lightning crackling around him, creating a protective, energized bubble that defied the powerful gusts. He was worried more than he cared to admit.

"You’re the one who needs Cali’s healing the most right now, dude. What if you get tainted by the miasma again? Miss Jenkins isn’t here to help. We saw what that did to you, what that almost did to you. You can’t risk it again. You’re pushing yourself too far." His voice was laced with a genuine, desperate concern.

The image of Shade screaming in agony, his eyes flashing between black and red, was still burned into Trixtan’s mind.

Finally, Shade turned around, his movements fluid and precise, a striking contrast to the reckless abandon of his flight. His eyes, though dark and intense, were devoid of the usual arrogance. They were hollowed out by a deep, relentless fatigue, two dark pools in a face that was pale and strained.

"I don’t care," Shade said, his voice flat, emotionless. "I don’t care if I get tainted again. I don’t care if I get hurt, I’ll heal myself. I just need to find her."

Trixtan slapped his forehead with a frustrated, exasperated smack. He felt like he was talking to a wall. "Dude! Don’t do this. You can’t just throw yourself away like that! I don’t understand why you’re being this obsessive with Eirin. You barely know the girl! You could have waited with Coco back in the academy, but you insisted coming with us, on being at the front of the line." The words, born of a genuine frustration, spilled out of him, an uncontrolled torrent of concern and bewilderment.

Trixtan couldn’t help it. He could not understand his friend anymore. This wasn’t the Shade he knew, the self-centered, arrogant, yet fundamentally loyal friend who had always been a step ahead of everyone. "You’ve changed. This is not like you," Trixtan said, his voice dropping to a whisper, filled with a deep, unsettling sadness.

Watching the young man lose himself like that, to a new obsession, to a fierce, almost feral determination, was something Trixtan had witnessed before, a pattern that had always been about power, about proving his worth. But being this obsessed with someone else, with a single, specific person other than his own family, was something entirely new, something foreign and terrifying. It was an uncontrolled, dangerous passion that worried Trixtan more than any miasma.

"Do you actually like her? Romantically? Is this why you’re being like this?" Trixtan blurted out the question that had been nagging at him, a simple, logical explanation for his friend’s baffling behavior. It was the only thing that made sense.

Shade heaved a sigh, a gust of hot air that seemed to cut through the frigid sky. "I don’t know!" he screamed, the word torn from him mid-air, a cry of frustration and confusion. His control of his mana flickered for a moment, his body dipping precariously before he regained his balance.

The both of them were having their conversation in the middle of the vast, endless night sky, their voices lost to the wind, two tiny specks of humanity arguing about a girl they had only just met, a girl who was now a ghost in the vast, unknown expanse beyond the barrier.

"Something about her annoys me, but something’s also making me agitated, furious, whenever she’s in danger. It’s like a bell goes off, a violent instinct that tells me to protect her. I don’t know what it is, Trix! I just know I have to find her."

Trixtan’s forehead kept creasing, the lines of confusion deepening with every word Shade spoke. "I don’t understand, man. It sounds simple to me. You look like you’re madly in love with her. That’s the only explanation. It’s the classic, you-hate-the-girl-you-love trope. Get with the program, dude." Trixtan couldn’t help but be a little amused, a brief flash of his usual jovial nature shining through the grim reality.

Shade shook his head, a final, weary gesture of dismissal. "Think whatever you want. I don’t care what you think. Just help me find her. That’s all I’m asking." His voice was low, laced with a plea that cut through his usual arrogance, a desperate, vulnerable sincerity that Trixtan hadn’t heard in years.

Trixtan covered his man. "Damn, Shade. You are indeed in love. The mighty and prideful Shade Cromwell is asking me for help. I think I might cry," he said, acting as if he was wiping a tear, causing Shade to glare at him. Trixtan’s expression softened as he chuckled

"Of course I’ll help. She’s my friend, too, I think? Do you think she treats me as her friend? I do see her just a friend, don’t worry." Trixtan flew up beside Shade, the tension between them dissolving into a shared, unspoken purpose.

The two of them searched the endless, cloud-filled sky for hours, then for days, their bodies powered by their mana, their minds fueled by a desperate hope. Shade meticulously tracked the faint, almost invisible current of light blue and pink mana, a shining ghost-trail in the air that seemed to dance just out of reach. In his guts, it’s telling him that if he follows that, he’ll find Eirin at the end of it, a conclusion that defied all logic, but felt true.

Trixtan, meanwhile, with his more robust, brute-force Flair, took a more direct approach, jumping from thick cloud to cloud, each leap a crackle of lightning, his voice echoing across the immense landscape.

"Eirin! Where are you!" Trixtan kept calling his friend’s name, his voice hoarse, a beacon in the silent sky. "Eirin! We’re here to save you! Just give us a sign!" His words echoed everywhere, a desperate prayer carried on the wind. His eyes, now squinting from the relentless sun and wind, soon widened after seeing a large, strange structure in the distance, a nest-like formation perched precariously on a high peak. "There!" he shouted, his voice filled with hope.

Trixtan’s index finger pointed as he dashed towards the said nest, a streak of lightning against the blue. Shade, with a powerful burst of fire and wind, caught up to him and landed on the nest first. His eyes widened, a sudden, sharp intake of breath. He knelt to the ground, his hand gently touching the woven branches and, with a grim curiosity, even the smooth, bleached bones that made up its structure.

The mana trail, the fleeting thread of light, ended here. "She’s been here," Shade said, his voice a whisper, great certainty in his tone. The air still held a faint, almost imperceptible echo of her mana, a delicate, familiar scent.

Trixtan landed beside him, his gaze falling on the ancient, polished bones. He immediately covered his mouth with his hand, a look of horrified realization on his face. "Do you think that’s... that’s her bones?" The words, once spoken, hung in the air like a macabre curse. He winced, a deep sense of shame washing over him.

’I should really control my mouth from now on,’ Trixtan thought as he sighed, shaking his head. "I’m sorry, that was a terrible thing to say. I didn’t mean to joke around. It was insensitive."

Shade, however, didn’t seem to be listening. He stood up, his brow furrowed in concentration. "What’s up with you apologizing like that, Trix? You’re acting weird." He waved a dismissive hand. "I knew you were a piece of shit since the beginning anyway. We grew up together, remember?" he said, his voice flat, a hint of his old, abrasive humor returning for a fleeting moment.

Shade looked up, his eyes following the remnants of the light blue and pink mana in the air, a faint, disappearing, echo of her presence. The trail had vanished, but the direction was clear. She had gone higher.

Trixtan sighed. "I don’t know if I should laugh at that or be offended." He shook his head, then his tone turned serious again. "Anyway, how do you know where she is? I didn’t see anything."

Shade shrugged. "I just... know. I can see her mana in the air, a trail she left behind, even if it’s fading."