Very late to the NaNoWriMo party,
No new story this year.
Instead I return to Project Skyshell from 2011 which remained close to my heart to this day and is the only story people that I don't know personally asked about years later.
So I thought, having hardly any time on my hands, that I could go back, take what I have already written and try to polish it using with what little knowledge about writing I have gained in the past ten years. I could rush through the existing chapters in a week or two easily reaching the NaNoWriMo 50k words and afterwards go on writing and see if I can't get this story closer to the finishing line.
I was so very, very wrong. I what time I had so far rewriting the opening chapter. It changed. A lot. And it's not done yet. However trying to stay somewhat in the spirit of NaNoWriMo here follows the first part of chapter one.
If you want to have a look and compare with the original, you can find chapter one
here: https://lordsunjumperspalace.blogspot.com/2011/10/project-skyshell-001.html
and
here: https://lordsunjumperspalace.blogspot.com/2011/11/project-skyshell-002.html
With that out of the way, this is Project Skyshell again. Enjoy.
Chapter 1 Desceding Fortune
Anira Leyma had left ambassador Nahalka's party in quite a hurry. Through one of the large windows providing a fantastic view over the great metropolis of Dahiri far, far below.
The evening had started so promising, having masterfully infiltrated the party of the ambassador to the Nomad Empire on his floating island. Mingling with the guests, making idiotic small-talk, almost convincingly laughing at the jokes of the many guests who’s power meant that they could forgo trivialities such as wits. She didn’t even punch anyone. She’d been spectacular.
She‘d gotten into the office undetected. Used her mind-force to unlock the door and, she was rather proud of this, convinced the door frame that it was perfectly fine for her to pass through. No cause for alarm. No cause for drama.
Inside the office itself, it was standard work, stretch out her awareness, feel for anything that was suspiciously magical, or suspiciously mundane. There wasn’t that much security installed. It made sense, no one was supposed to come this far uninvited anyway. Yet there were some well placed security measures here and there, designed to catch the amateur and the overconfident alike. She’d even been somewhat impressed.
Some people, well most people, thought that Anira had a tendency for being a bit too smug for her own good, she preferred to see herself as someone taking pride in her craft and enjoying it. Smiling to herself she had taken the crystals containing the data she was supposed to get, feeling the rush of a job well done slowly rising in her. She just had to copy the information on the crystals, put them back in their hiding-place and return to the party. Easy.
All these plans went out of the window, her following shortly after, when that idiot of an ambassador had tumbled backwards, an indecently gorgeous young man held in his arm, into his office.
The time it took him to notice Anira, was the time she needed to recover from the shock. She had not felt him approach, at all. Magically dampened office? For fucks sake…
Well, no time to think, only time to act.
As the young man looked at her, a roguish smile appearing on his lips as he saw her, she drew her hand back already forming hand-seals to harness the essence surrounding her.
The ambassador turned around following his paramours glance. His eyes growing wide in alarm, as he saw Anira, his mouth sucking in air to call for the guards. Anira pushed her hand forward, her fingers straining to pull the essence threads they had grabbed with them. A wall of compressed air crashed into the ambassador and his companion sending them flying out if the door. They were still in mid-air when Anira’s hand closed into a fist, grabbing hold again of the essence she had just released, continuing her punching motion around her, teeth gritted, strands of essence igniting under the strain, turning back towards the window. The ambassador and his affair did not touch the floor before the were pulled back into the office, only this time Anira’s magic had grabbed hold of the large desk and the chair behind it too, sending it flying towards the window in front of her. She released the power sending the the two men crashing into the floor and the chair and desk through the window. Using her forward momentum to fall into a sprint, chasing behind the shock wave she dove out into the open, pushing past the broken glass and wood splinters, ruining her dress and covering her in little cuts and bruises. She jumped far away from the building and the flying island it stood upon right into the night sky kilometers above Dahiri.
As she fell the green gem implanted on her right temple flared back to life. “Anira?”, she heard the voice of her handler and best friend Iliu fading into her hearing.
“Yes?”, Anira said trying to sound nonchalant, taking a deep breath, focusing at the fear and panic that had flared up, trying to gently send them back to sleep again.
“Why are you back in range? Did something…”, there was a short pause. “Anira…”, Iliu’s voice suddenly carried a disappointment with it that would have lasted most mothers for weeks.
“Yes?”
“Did you jump from the Nomad Empire’s embassy island?”
“Yes…?”
“Did you steal a falcon armour? That wouldn’t…”
“No.” Anira interrupted her friend. She had stabilised her fall somewhat, arms and legs now spread wide, slowing her fall somewhat. She wished she had opted for something less skintight or maybe a cape.
“Why?”, asked Iliu her voice cold, slowly shifting into her professional controller voice.
“It’s a long story…?”, Anira said hoping that this would focus Iliu on the more pressing matter of her not ending up as a performance art corpse on the streets of Dahiri.
“I’ve got time…” Iliu stressed the “I”.
“I was caught OK. You can inform me of the error of my ways once I’ve landed safely. I do have the crystals though.”
Iliu sighed. “How are you going to land safely?”
“I’m working on it.”, Anira said through gritted teeth. She now knew where above the city she was. To her right was the New Rahin district with its majestic sky-scrapers, over there she would have a chance. She could not cheat gravity, not even with her magic, but there they could maybe strike a deal?
“If you had…”, Iliu started.
“Not the moment for the shell-art, speech Iliu!”, Anira said, trying to manoeuvre towards the skyline of New Rahin, still fighting back the panic that was trying to take over her mind. “A bit of help would be extremely appreciated though.”
“As soon as I find something, anything, that could help you”, Iliu said her voice now much calmer, following the rhythm and flow of a veteran handler, “you’ll be the first to know…”, Anira knew that Iliu had now switched into her analytical mode, that helped ease away the panic.
“I’m trying to reach one of the larger buildings in the centre, I should be able use one of them to break my fall…”, Anira said.
“You’re falling short.”, Iliu said.
“Not helping!”, Anira gasped as the panic leapt back up.
“You need to correct your course to your right, towards the Towers of the Plenum.”, Iliu said.
Anira glanced towards the centre of Dahiri’s government, a tower made from many different structures everyone one of them belonging to one of the powers of the city, forming one large building. It hadn’t been the tallest building in the city for centuries now, but all the skyscrapers around it held a respectful distance to it, leaving it standing in a clearing of small city villas.
“Why?”, Anira asked, “Wrong direction.”
“Only visually, the heat of the day, stored in the city is rising into the night sky, causing some very interesting currents over there. I’ll guide you. You should reach a strong stream of air around the same time as you reach the top of Dahiri’s skyline.
Anira took another deep breath, cast a last forlorn look at the buildings in front of her, that now felt really close and turned towards the Towers of the Plenum.
“Drift a bit further towards the city edge…” Iliu said.
“Why?”
“Because I want you to survive, so that I can kill you later myself for being such an idiot.” Iliu said, her voice still calm yet Anira could still feel the affection in it as well as the thick layers of fury it was swathed in.
Anira complied, now facing one of the few districts left in Dahiri, that was made up mostly of low, maybe 5 story buildings and the occasional stockyard.
‘Just my luck.’ Anira thought, hoping to find that fabled current soon, Dahiri like all the cities of the Hinkyoda qun Shyosha, the Kingdom of the Hundred Cities, was by ancient law bound to cover only a specific amount of soil, so running out of space the buildings had no other way to go but towards the skyshell, yet the embassy island was floating over the ancient trader district, where it was considered a mark of status to have a house that covered a lot of ground and stayed close to it.
“Anira.” Iliu said. “You are close to a strong gust of wind, coming from your facing slightly to your right, you’re hitting it in…”, a short pause, “in 5 seconds.” She checked her medallion around her neck. It would catch her soul should she not make the landing. If it didn’t break.
“Four.”
Even if it did break her soul was in its prime, and would survive the impact with her memories and personality intact for a while. On the other hand with the speed she was falling at her immortal essence would probably smack right through the planets outer shell directly into the Inner World and where would she get a body then? And what kind of body, she didn’t want to be reborn as some backwater shepherd, who thought the light of reason was a fancy perpetual light…
“Three.”
This time Anira had to thank her panic for getting her back into the present, if she wanted to survive, she needed to concentrate. No deep breaths now… only her magic. She didn’t have to wait for the wind, she activated her mind-force spread her hands and let her essence fly into the air below her.
“Two.”
Anira pulled all the essence in her surroundings she could control towards her, the warm summer air suddenly turning thin and cold. She now felt the blow of a warm air current curving towards the New Rahin’s skyscrapers.
“One.”
She pushed all of the energy she had into the wind. It wasn’t elegant, but it worked. The wind roared, starting to faintly glow with all the power that had been pushed into it, it grabbed hold of Anira and threw her in a big arc, tumbling head over heels back towards the centre of New Rahin district.
Panic took over for a moment. It took all of Anira’s will to stop her from screaming. For a moment she was just flailing arms and legs.
“Success.” Iliu said her voice breaking through the feeling of terror, “You’re above the sky-scrapers bordering to the night market now. You’ll reach the skyline again in 10 seconds. Enough time to get your fall under control. I’m looking for some good candidate buildings to break your fall.”
Anira’s shell-art was laughable, but good enough to push her adrenaline levels back to a somewhat more bearable level and stop her heart from exploding. Once that was done she could stabilise her fall again. The roof-tops of the first sky scrapers rushing towards her.
She had survived worse. At least this time she was not poisoned nor did she hang suspended over a lake of molten rock or was stalked by an incorporeal assassin who would only live in a body again if she died. This time it was just her and the free fall. Her panic wasn’t fully convinced but having lost its foothold in her blood stream decided to retreat. A bit.
“Once you pass the sky line again,” said Iliu, “you have to make your way towards the new merchant avenue, around a hundred meters further towards the night market.”
“Why?”
“Because of the New Wave of High Merchant Ornamentation.”, said Ailu.
“The what…?”
“I wasn’t finished. It is an architectural style, that was all the rage until only a few decades ago.”
“Iliu, could we postpone the fascinating facts of the city bit until after I have landed?”
“Anira!” Iliu snapped, “Look at the buildings.”
Anira looked. “Oh…”
“As I was about to say, the new style brought back a lot of balconies, ornamentation, statues, little towers and other pointy things. Not ideal.”
Anira saw. The first building was now rushing towards her, she had manoeuvred close to it and was now summoning another little gust of wind to push her away again. Close enough to be able to almost touch the building but not so close that a sudden gust of wind or a navigational error on her side would skewer her on one of the many decorative elements of it. She was now plummeting between to large towers both a couple dozen meters away from her. Seeing the floors of the buildings rush past her as one colourful smear gave her a much better idea of her true speed and despite all her professional training she felt her panic rising again. She either found a way to break her fall or she would explode in a gory mess on the floor below her.
Teeth grinding in concentration she willed her self slowly towards the tower that seemed to be a bit more frugal about balconies and outlying towers, avoiding them as well as she could. She had to force herself to continue breathing as she tried to ignore the gusts of wind caused by bits of building passing her by at distances that would be deemed scandalous in polite company. She finally spotted a nice long stretch that was nothing but a wall of polished stone decorated with shining windows. Good enough.
“Iliu, I need to know where to jump from here.”, she forced herself to an arms distance to the wall rushing past, focusing just on the bit in front of her. A somewhat garish wall with bright intense colours that were so in style with the rich and taste resistant in the Hundred Cities.
“Give me a second, I am putting together an escape route for you.”, Iliu said her voice strained.
Anira started to feel the wall. The flow of its essence. Once the connection had been established she performed her hand seals expanding her own power into that of the building, heating the stone using her considerable falling speed to power the process. The wall in front of her started to glow red hot and to melt right away leaving a streak of angry scarlet behind her. Whenever she passed a window it evaporated but she was losing speed. Not fast enough by far though. Below her a balcony was rushing towards her ringed by her friends the pointy spires and veteran spears that had retired to a life of wall decoration. Feeling the power of her magic flow through her into the building gave Anira back some of her confidence.
“Okay, got it!” Ailu said. “Feeding you the information now.”
Anira would probably die a violent death as that was the usual fate for a mercenary spy such as herself but not today. Cheating gravity only a little bit she crouched down on the wall beside her, her hands and feet leaving shining trails of molten stone behind her. She looked up, felt a small sting in her right temple and eyes as Iliu’s projection manifested itself in front of her. She now saw in elegant arcs of light the routes she could take to move towards the older part of the district.
“Margin of error?”, Anira asked.
“Negligible, there are three plausible routes. Green is the best one, red is a bit shit, but if you fall out of green it’s still there. Orange is the safest, but you’ll arrive very low once you clear the old buildings.”
“Green it is then.” Again Anira’s hands went into a flurry of motions as she shaped the magic necessary to redirect the force of her fall from the vertical into the horizontal. One last sharp breath, releasing the final hand sign she jumped.
