The Sky Beneath Us

Auren sat still on the station bench, the soft thrum of arcane power in the air a jarring contrast to the anxious drumbeat of tension beating at the cavity of his ribs. His eyes flicked to the clock several times a second, his hands following restless patterns on the sheened surface of the bench. "Where is she?" he said softly, the words a breath, with a hint of the old loneliness he'd believed he'd left behind.

"Hi! Auren! I'm here!"

The bright voice pierced the hum of the crowd like a shaft of light. He spun around, and there she stood – Rose, smiling at him, her beam of light that made the whole world, even the crowded station, a little warmer, a little lighter, completely banishing the last traces of his anxiety.

"Hello, Rose," Auren replied, a real smile spreading across his face as he leapt to his feet, a newfound lightness in his limbs. They sat down together on the smooth, chilly bench, the lingering heat of her body immediately soothing.

"So," Rose asked, her head cocked at winning curiosity, "where are you taking me today, oh enigmatic one?"

Auren smiled, a flash of real mischief in his eyes. "Whisky Town. We're going to the Floating Park there."

Rose's eyes popped open, and then her mouth fell open in mock shock. "Wait—what?! That place is expensive! I didn't bring that much money with me!"

"Don't fret," Auren laughed, his voice a reassuring ripple. "My mom gave me a bit too much today. We're set."

Rose cocked her head, her face a combination of wonder and tongue-in-cheek suspicion. "Are you. secretly wealthy or something?" She wrapped her arms dramatically around herself, crouching forward. "Seriously? So you're, like, secretly a prince. Or maybe even a lost king of all this magic?" Her eyes glinted with a mischief light that, for a brief moment, seemed to contain a fuller, knowing sheen Auren couldn't quite read. "Auren, you're not merely awesome—you're completely amazing!"

He smiled, a natural, effortless sound, rubbing the base of his neck. "Thanks. I guess." And as he did so, a slight, barely perceptible shudder spread through the air about them, the rumble of distant thunder, and vanished almost instantly, but he merely shrugged it off as the station's characteristic energy hum.

Just as they finished talking, the Sky-Train came into view, a breathtaking sight. Its white, streamlined body, chiseled like a sculpted cloud, rode silently on the magnetic rails, pulsing with raw arcane power. It came to rest gently, its transparent doors opening with a hiss.

"Wow!" Rose exclaimed, boarding the carriage as if she were entering a cathedral of light. "You reserved the Cloudblock seats?! The ones with the panoramic light-crystal ceiling where you can see everything?!"

"Yeah," Auren grinned, relishing her unbridled wonder. "Wanted to see what it would be like."

Rose didn't merely twirl; she slowly spun across the aisle, arms extended, head thrown back, eyes wide with unbridled, childlike wonder as the gentle, otherworldly sheen of the transparent roof enveloped her with dazzling light. "It's more than cool, Auren. It's just magical."

When the train rose serenely into the air, a quiet wonder of strength, both of them stood looking out of the window. Ryuki City glided steadily below them — roofs contracting into bright, coloured tiles, sky-bridges reaching like radiant ribbons, towering skyscrapers glittering in the daylight, piercing the clouds.

Auren saw one familiar roof far down – the isolated, shadowed spot of dull gray where he'd spent thousands of nights gazing out at the city's far, indifferent lights, yearning for someone, anyone. The flashback was a sudden jolt, immediately overwhelmed by the colorful here and now. Now, the vast expanse of Ryuki City stretched out before him, not far away and uncaring, but colorful and living, a panorama of options. And he was flying above it all… with Rose, her laughter a sparkling antithesis to the hum of the Sky-Train, a starlight brought to life alongside him.

The very atmosphere about him was altered, lighter, full of a new kind of magic he had never thought was inside him. It wasn't only magic in the city; it was magic inside him, at last discovering its purpose.

And infinitely, wonderfully, better.

The Sky-Train whirred again, its smooth rise traded for a smooth, gliding movement. "Next stop: The Aetherium Gardens!" a friendly voice called over the intercom.

Rose gasped, leaning her face closer to the panoramic window. "Auren, look! Is that it?!"

Below them, as if sculpted out of sheer magic, drifted a breathtaking vision. It was not one island, but three separate, green landmasses, each radiating its own gentle, emerald light from beneath. Whisps of ever-present mist, kissed by the sinking sun, clung to their perimeters and cast off fleeting rainbows. They seemed pieces of some forgotten paradise, drifting softly in the immense blue.

"It's The Atherium Gardens," Auren asserted, a breathless wonder in his tone identical to hers. "It's more amazing than the photos."

The train glided to a stop on a crystalline docking platform, constructed like a great, shining jewel projecting from the largest island. When they descended, the air around them seemed to change – lighter, cleaner, faintly humming with ambient magic that danced on Auren's skin, sending shivers. The ground they walked upon wasn't mere stone; it was a living, porous surface of compressed earth infused with glowing moss and small, root-like tendrils of light.

"It feels like. Alive," Rose breathed, hesitantly stepping forward, her eyes stretched wide with wonder, drinking in the impossible loveliness. She gestured towards a far corner of the island. "Do those trees. glow?"

Auren smiled. "That's the Lumina Grove. They say the trees weep light."

They walked a path of gleaming, reflective moonstone, deeper into the center of the first island of the park. The air cooled rapidly, carrying the distant, sweet perfume of night-blooming jasmine and ozone. Raging trees, the Whispering Willow-Spirits, towered above them, branches trailing shimmering strands of bioluminescent light that changed from soft blue to pale lilac. On the ground beneath them, splotches of Star-Glow Ferns glowed softly with otherworldly light, lighting their path with a surreal glow.

Rose extended her hand, allowing a tendril of light-weeping willow to trail across her fingers. "It's like dreaming, walking, Auren. Listen. Do the flowers sing?"

Auren hesitated. He heard it too – the whisper of the leaves, the far-off drone of the Sky-Weave, and a soft, almost musical chime from concealed Wind-Chime Blossoms, their petals clinking with each passing breath of air. He drew in a deep breath himself, a sense of inexplicable, deep peace settling over him. It was magic he'd never known before, pure and primeval, and yet somehow. Deeply, strangely familiar.

"They are," Auren attested, his voice barely above a whisper, full of sincere awe. "Everything here is. This place. It's something." He couldn't help but sense that the very air, the very magic, was part of him, or he part of it. A low, nearly imperceptible thrum resonated deep within his chest, a huge, familiar vibration that he couldn't quite identify, but it underscored the vibrant magic all over. He pushed it aside as a mere excess of the location's beauty, but the sense remained, a soft promise beneath the surface.

Rose pulled gently on his sleeve, her eyes sparkling with renewed enthusiasm, already gazing ahead. "Come on! I see a bridge! Let's go see what's on the next island!"

Rose pulled gently on his sleeve, her eyes sparkling with renewed enthusiasm, already gazing ahead. "Come on! I see a bridge! Let's go see what's on the next island!"

They spent the next hour just wandering the Aetherium Gardens. They spanned bridges woven from crystallized light, which vibrated softly underfoot, joining the Lumina Grove to the blinding Crystal Canopy. Here, colossal, natural Aether-Crystals burst forth from the ground, creating enormous, glowing domes that bent the sunlight into blinding rainbows on the transparent walkways. Rose gasped at the vertiginous vistas of Ryuki City, many levels below, small and sprawling, giving them a godlike sense of surveying their kingdom. Auren was laughing freely, not having realized he had such a sound, as he watched her spin among the dancing light specks.

"Oh my gosh! Auren, look!" Rose screamed, pointing toward a building on a lower level. "They have a Sky-Coaster! We have to go!"

Auren could not even think about it before Rose was dragging him, her hold unexpectedly firm. The Sky-Coaster was a wonder of technomagical engineering, its streamlined cars suspended from luminescent rails that curved and plunged through space, providing heart-stoppingly lovely vistas of the Void Maw-engulfed Ashlands outside of Winland's protective barrier, briefly visible in the far distance before they plunged back into the churning mists of the Gardens.

Auren, against his will, let out a shocked shout as they fell, the wind raking through his hair, the laughter surging unconsciously from his chest. Rose's ecstatic shrieks answered him, her face set in pure joy. It was a whirling, thrilling rush that left them panting and dizzy, their cheeks flushed and eyes aglow when it finally skidded to a stop.

"Again!" Rose breathed, eyes shining with pleasure.

"Perhaps. Later," Auren grinned, still a bit wobbly on his feet. "Let's investigate that more. Natural-looking section. The one with the twisted trees." He pointed toward the most distant island, which appeared less tilled, more untamed.

Rose smiled, still laughing. "You lead the way, 'Prince'!"

They took a less-worn, twisting road that took them deeper into the Dreamer's Plateau, the last, more rocky island of the Gardens. Here, gnarled ancient Dream-Roots thrust upwards from the ground, thick bark aglow with an inner, dark amethyst light. The silence became almost reverent, filled with the sweet, earthy smell of damp earth and ancient power. Spirit Vines curled and uncurled without human touch, shifting to accommodate them subtly, and shimmering Memory Blooms glowed with weak, fading images that seemed to dance just beyond perception.

As they stepped, an unexpected turn in the path led them to a relatively more open glade. Crossing over it were three people, so glaringly not belonging that they caught the eye at once.

He was a tall, impossibly thin man, clad head to toe in spotless, glowing white attire, capped off with an identical, perfectly styled white cap. A heavy, shining golden chain encircled his neck, reflecting the filtered light of the grove. He had an almost regal, aloof demeanor.

Behind him, to his left, trailed a woman whose face was always in a state of bored, half-sneering inattention, set within a mane of dark, untamed hair. Her bare arms and neck were inscribed with swirling, intricate black tattoos that appeared to move beneath her skin, some extending up onto her pointed cheekbones. She was holding a long, rough-staffed wooden walking stick, topped by a big, jagged green gemstone that throbbed with a sickly, faint light. Her eyes, when she looked at him, were unmistakably bitchy.

To his right walked a fat, nearly round man, his bald head glimmering with a faint light in the subdued light. He was squeezed into a preposterous, black and white zebra-striped one-piece uniform that pulled tight at every seam, and topping his nose were huge, perfectly black goggles that fully hid his eyes. He moved about with a strange, swaying walk.

The three didn't notice Auren or Rose going by, their murmured conversation (if they were having any) too soft to listen in on, their bizarre figure a jarring counterpoint to the otherworldly beauty of the park.

Rose elbowed Auren, her voice sinking to an undertone. "Auren. Don't these guys look. Weird?"

Auren, reeling from the roller coaster thrill and the general happiness of the day, hardly gave a second look after them, a contented grin on his face. "Who cares?" he whispered, guiding Rose towards a very radiant bunch of Dream-Roots. "Come on, see this. It's great."