Mostly it was rectangular, tapering to a point at the front and flaring out at the base. Nondescript metal, grey and black. She thought she could make out the shape of where the arena was, a slightly indented circle in the surface of it, but otherwise it was fairly uniform. Hard to see what parts of the vast complex corresponded to the places she’d been.

From the sides extended thin and shimmering sheets of what looked like foil, nearly transparent, like banners of mist. She kicked her bike down and skimmed over them, peering. The hexagonal grid shape was familiar. These were vast and drifting solar generators. Sheets that thin would be vulnerable, and perhaps were reeled in in bad weather.

Over the whistling of the wind, she couldn’t hear him, but with a glance she could see Faolan’s flight plan echoing hers, the same curve but a little behind, keeping a watchful eye on her. The feeling of him being on her tail made her grit her teeth even if he wasn’t an active threat now.

If she were to just fly off and keep flying, she wondered how far she would get before he brought her down. These things didn’t seem to have any artillery, but he was certainly the better flier. Maybe he hated her enough he’d let her leave, the humiliation a worthwhile price for having her be gone, out of his sight and life. If she could master the bike well enough not to just fall and fall…

The vast empty heights beckoned before her. Orfeus steered the bike back around and flew in through the windows.

Back in the hangar, she brought the bike to a careful and slow landing. A little too slow: the motion petered out still a good twenty metres from where the other bikes were stored, and she didn’t want to spur it into speed instead. Orfeus twisted around in her seat to watch as Faolan coasted in, landing his bike at a screeching awful angle and skidding it a metre or two, leaping lightly off to land directly in front of the panel. He tapped at it lightly. The glass doors began to close again, pinching the thread of sky between them.

Faolan lifted his bike and walked it across the space. In secret relief, Orfeus dismounted hers as well and pushed it along into storage.

It felt deafeningly quiet in here but still loud, something in the air strange and confined now she’d been outside. Orfeus’s ears popped. She pulled her cloak back on and stepped back from the bike to inspect it, feeling they were now relatively well acquainted. “Solar powered?” she said.

“Of course,” Faolan said. “As the base is.” He touched the docking node, and she craned her head to see where it connected with the battery cell. “But they have their own wings, if you’re away from base.”

“Wings.”