“I am worth the debt,” Orfeus said, mostly to convince herself. In that moment, she would bloody her knives with a hundred foes if it meant Faolan stopped looking at her like she wasn’t worth the energy spent to keep her outfitted and alive.

Pillars of smoke rose from the Tinctora in her mind’s eye, poison in the sky.

She wanted to be in the sky, weightless and too fast for her memories to catch her.

“A short flight,” Faolan warned and then he cruised forward, bike stopping short a bare inch from a bank of panels. He tapped at them, and the vast rectangular windows along one wall began to open out, one up and one down along the seam in the middle.

She hadn’t quite thought he’d comply. “Alright,” Orfeus agreed, and leaned forward and went fast.

The bike purred into life beneath her, and this time, she was ready for it. The room blurred past as the gap between the windows grew larger and closer. She leaned forward, and then the floor was gone from beneath her, the whole of the sky opening up vast and blue as ocean, the wind whipping away her breath.

The bike sped forward on its own momentum for a second or two, then began to tilt down, at first slow and then sharply. The standard hoverjets were to keep it aloft above solid ground, not empty air. In a moment, she’d be plummeting.

Orfeus tried to breathe evenly. A dark streak of movement passed, then circled back around, keeping pace beside her as Orfeus started to fall. Faol moved his bike easily and competently. She stared, sure her eyes were wide and white, though the air didn’t sting through the mask. Small jets came from the hoverbike’s output pipes as he flew and moved it. Yes.

Orfeus spun the dial hard, too hard, the bike fired all jets and she went screaming up into the air. She laughed breathlessly as she ascended. What a horrible, energy-intensive way for someone to travel; it was also just very fast.

This time, she adjusted the dial more carefully. Her flight pattern evened out some, but the bike dipped in the air, bucking as the wind caught it. Hm. These things didn’t seem to be made to hover in one place out in the open air. She could only keep control if she stayed in motion.

Orfeus put on a little speed and then turned around carefully, curving back. The sky shifted from empty blue with wisps of cloud to the whole field of her vision being taken up by the Wild’s flying base. It squatted in the sky like a whale or some of the uglier buildings she’d seen in old cities. She could make out Faol, wispy cloud following in his wake. She tipped her bike around and came cruising back up and over the base, trying to get a look at it.