Flying was one of the best things Papa had brought to Tetherfall.
Bevel had felt that way even before she introduced her friends to the joys of leaping off tall cliffs with nothing but a frame of fabric and a steam-powered booster to carry them. It wasn't a surprise it was a popular activity. Bevel knew it was a good idea as soon as she thought of it.
Getting her new friends together had been the hard part. Bolly had wanted to keep Sezzie from going until Bevel had mentioned Ahma, Bahm and Cahmie would be there too.
Then, no longer surprising Bevel, suddenly he wanted to go too.
“This is amazing,” Sezzie said, having recently landed for the first time. She'd been the last to make the jump, constantly walking back from the cliff face.
Bevel’d promised that she could catch her. Then when Sezzie had chewed her lip, Bevel offered to prove it before she even jumped. Apparently that’d been enough, because Sezzie had straightened up then ran straight towards the edge.
It had been… less than graceful. But Bevel’d made sure she couldn’t smack herself into the cliff.
And then Sezzie was flying.
Bevel’d hung back, to make sure everyone could handle landing. That was the most dangerous part. Sezzie had done her landing much more smoothly than the takeoff. Bevel hadn’t even had to help!
Sezzie’s face was practically split in half, the young elf running a hand over her horns as she shifted in the straps. “I'm so glad you brought us out to do this. Why don’t you come up? We should-”
“Hey Sezzie, what’re you doing back on the ground already? Not afraid are you?” Bolly asked as he landed his own glider nearby. Bevel narrowed her eyes at him. He hadn't even come close to the ground until now. She’d just heard him, yelling over the wind, about how he was planning to stay up there for the rest of the day. About how nothing could bring him out of the air.
“I was just-”
Bolly rolled right over her, gesturing skyward. “Ah, doesn't matter. Come on let's get back in the air where the fun is.”
Sezzie nodded, turning towards Bevel. “Uh. Alright. It is fun. You coming?”
“Yep, I'll be with you,” Bevel replied while following the cousins to the edge while hanging back. She suspected that if she tried to say more to Sezzie, Bolly would just interfere again.
So instead she waited until they were all in the air. Only then did she give Sezzie's glider a little bit of a boost. Just enough to lift her into the air faster and higher than Sezzie’d gone before. Her friend let out a scream. For a second, Bevel worried she'd messed up. Luckily, when she caught up, she saw the look of joy on Sezzie's face.
“This is amazing! Was that you?”
“Uh-huh. You can go faster if you want.”
“I mean we probably shouldn't get too far from the others.” Despite Sezzie's words, Bevel thought it wasn’t what she wanted. Hard as it was, Bevel was getting better at telling when Sezzie was saying what she thought she was supposed to.
“I mean you don't have to. But I'm sure you're not afraid to go faster, no matter what stupid Bolly says.” She meant to say the last part so that Sezzie couldn't hear her but with her sending her Winds Within to support both of them, it’d kind of carried them.
Sezzie’s following giggle made Bevel glad she’d made the mistake. “You're right. He'd want to go faster, wouldn't he? Let's do it.”
“What about us? What are we? Chopped dragon bits?” Amma demanded as she came in from the other side. Bevel’d stopped paying attention to them as she and Sezzie circled above. While they didn't have the same power over the wind Bevel did, they were able to use their mastery over their lunar magic to control the gliders. Somehow. It was so effective, they had greater precision than most of the Tethered. At least at first. After months of practice, even her Papa would’ve had a hard time keeping up with the Untethered these days.
“Do you want to be?” Bevel asked in confusion before realizing it was just an expression, one she was pretty sure she'd heard before. Thankfully the others laughed as if Bevel’d meant it as a joke. She smiled too.
“What I want,” Amma said, looking over at Sezzie, “is to be carried on that magic of yours as fast as you can take us.”
“Okay, sure,” Bevel said, counting everyone. They had a perfect five. “It'll work best if we're lined up in a V shape like this.” Bevel held her hands together in a pointed vee, completely letting go of the controls. Something the others didn't have the ability to do. Not yet. She thought Ahma might be close though.
“Does it matter who's at the point?” Ahma asked, looking directly at Bevel.
Bevel thought for a moment, scrunching up her brow before shaking her head. Even if she was on the outside, it'd be the same as if she was leading them from the front.
“Then I'm on point,” Ahma called as she moved ahead, looking over her shoulder to Sezzi as she did. “You can take my left”
“Guess it’s just me that’s dragon bits then,” Baum grumbled as he fell in to the point opposite of Bevel, behind Sezzie.
Cahmie was just ahead of her, seemingly lost in the sky. Bevel understood. Was easy to do that this high up.
Once everyone was lined up, Bevel glanced over at Bolly and Dethin. They seemed to be having fun. It'd be okay if the rest of them left for just a couple of minutes, right?
She didn't spend too much time worrying about it since everyone had moved into the proper V position. Instead she called on the Winds Within.
Bevel didn't just push them from behind. She reinforced the V-shape, which served as a framework for her magic. With a twist of her lips, the Winds Within guided each glider into the perfect spot to catch the other gliders’s wake. Only then did she pour on the speed. She also made sure to take them closer to the ground. One thing Bevel had noticed was that people didn't appreciate how fast they were going if they were too high.
“By the Dragons!” Ahma swore as they crested over a ridge before diving between several of the thick evergreens that were starting to poke up all across Cape Aeternia. Papa’d said those were a side effect of people using nature mana all over the place. A lot of people, a lot of extra growth.
Sezzie was screaming, leaning forward enough Bevel had to adjust her glider more than everyone else’s combined. It was fine. It was the same good scream from earlier.
They continued for almost fifteen minutes before they crossed over one of the many air race tracks. Bevel’d almost forgotten the Untethered had been setting them up. Bevel wasn't allowed to race in those, not as part of the competition. Too many advantages, Selvi had told her.
That didn't mean she couldn't use them at all.
“Are they racing?” Sezzie asked, pointing towards several of the Untethered who were passing by underneath a giant bar of rope marked with blue cloth towards a giant ring of cloth hung along a cliff side.
“Yep. See the loops and poles?” Bevel gestured while slowing them to make conversation easier.
“With all the colors?”
“Yeah. Blue means you have to go under, red means over,” Bevel said, mentioning the ones she remembered.
“What about that one?” Cahmie asked, pointing towards one of the poles that was stripped with both. A second later, the pair of racing Untethered passed over, each of them doing a tight loop around the pole.
“Guess it means get fancy,” Bahm said. His earlier grumpiness had faded after their trip through the low parts of Cape Aeternia.
“They do,” Bevel confirmed, taking them closer, easily keeping their V parallel to the racing Untethered as the route wound south.
"I want to try it" Ahma said, looking back over her shoulder at. “Can you arrange it so we can go up?”
“Shouldn't be a problem. Mama-Ari’d love to help.” Bevel didn't even have to think about that one. Mama Ari’d been talking about how she was needed a way to bring Felith's clan into more local activities. Having her grandchildren take part in the Untethered's races would be a great way. Bevel was sure of it.
“Think I could race too?” Sezzie asked. Her glider was shaking from the girl’s fidgeting. At least, it would’ve if Bevel wasn't stabilizing it.
“Sure. There’s a test. I'm sure if you practice, you'll be able to pass it in no time.”
“A test to be able to race?” Ahma asked, glancing over her shoulder again.
Bevel really wished she wouldn't do that. It made it much harder to keep her glider in line, which wouldn't have been as much of a problem if she wasn't in the lead. Every time she did it, she cut down on their speed. Then again everybody seemed to be more interested in talking about the race than in going fast at the moment. Bevel was thinking maybe it was time to turn them back towards Bally and Dethan when she spotted Southport on the horizon. They’d gone further than she’d planned.
“Wow, there are a lot of people coming through,” Bahm observed, pointing down at a crowded road below them.
Bevel followed his gesture. He was right.
There were a lot of people. Some of them were weird even by her standards.
The Winds Within whispered that they didn't sit right in the air, like they weren't breathing. Kind of like the golems.
Though most of them chose to circulate air even if they didn't have to breathe. These ones were different and seemed more like they were holding their breath.
Bevel squinted her eyes, trying to get a better look at them. She'd seen that sort of behavior one other place before. The Sahevin sometimes did that when they left the water. Not all of them were properly adapted for land.
“Bevel, something wrong?” Sezzie asked, her voice not hinting at any distress, unlike earlier with Bolly.
Bevel shook her head. “I don't… I don't think so.” The people below were wearing dark robes, but they were just part of the crowd. Still she'd make sure to tell Mama Ari. It was so hard to know what was supposed to be going on these days. So much changed so fast.
Bevel sighed as she looked up towards the sky, looking into the distance. She missed having her papa around. She could've asked him so many questions.
With another twist of her lips, she changed their course, taking them back to Bolly and Dethil. Hopefully they hadn’t crashed while she’d been gone.
It was always when she was out of sight that the worst things happened.