The capsule rocked gently as it climbed, the music of the city flowing on the air. Tsunami listened to the story without interrupting while Joren finished. He didn’t react right away when the story ended, just leaned back against the wall, cup balanced loosely in one hand, eyes drifting over the scene below.

  “Well,” he said at last, exhaling through his nose as he laughed, “I leave you alone for a few months and you go and do some crazy shit."

  Joren rubbed the back of his neck. “Wasn’t exactly the plan.”

  “It never is,” Tsunami said. “Still, sounds like you handled it alright.”

  “Most of the time,” Joren admitted. "But it wasn't because I had control over it."

  "Well fate usually has a funny way of making that happen to everyone that it's supposed to." Tsunami replied.

  Joren watched the glow drift beneath them. “Feels more like getting dragged through the mud."

  “Yeah,” Tsunami said with a small laugh. “But you have grown. You know that, right?

  “Really? I don’t feel that much different,” he said at last.

  “Well when I last saw you, you were making apples float a little bit,” he said enthusiastically, “Now you’ve gone and killed Duskfen’s swamp beast and stopped a cheese monster from eating a town, amongst other things.”

  Joren glanced at him, realizing that he has grown a lot since the start. “When you say it like that, it sounds insane.”

  “It is insane,” Tsunami said easily. “You now live the life of an Auspex. Just about everyone who is has gone through events just like it." Then he added, "Though, I doubt many have secretly become hero's to an entire nation."

  Joren glanced across at him. “So, what have you been up to since you left Brindlewood?"

  Tsunami tipped the cup in a loose half-shrug. “A bit of this, a bit of that. I'd stepped back from my leader position to do more field work shortly before we met, so it's been a bit of a transition. I helped a town build a dam so they wouldn't be affected by the floods after winter ends while on the run. Then I stopped a rogue causing trouble in another town. Thats a whole story"

  Joren paused at the words. "Stepped back? I read that you were no longer affiliated in the registry, but what does that mean?"

  "Oh, that's wrong. You see, I work in a network that helps Auspex and communities in need to put it shortly. I just haven’t been as involved as I used to be, so they thought I left it or something, I imagine.”

  Joren watched him for a moment, the word network settling into place. "Have I heard of it before?"

  "Certainly not, unless you listen to that crap the government puts out,” He said, angered tone coming out, “As you know, they want to capture, convert to their side, or kill as many Auspex as they can, which is why they really hate our group of 'rogues' since we help Auspex live in safety."

  “We exist to combat the tyranny people face,” Tsunami continued. “Which means we have done things deemed illegal. We've destroyed prison complexes to save people wrongfully captured under the guise of keeping the world safe."

  The wheel began another slow rotation as they continued talking.

  "Of course, not every Auspex is like you or I. That Thunderclap fellow you mentioned seems a perfect example of what the people portray us as, which is why we fight to give our kind a place to live in this world."

  Stolen novel; please report.

  “So you try to change the picture,” Joren asked.

  "Pretty much. We work in the shadows since we can't have a base of operations, so it's tough to change the very foundation people know of Auspex. I just want to make sure that people that have powers but live normal lives can still do that somewhere without fear of all that comes with it. Not everyone wants powers, but they happen to get them anyways."

  A distant cheer floated upward as the capsule swayed gently in the breeze.

  “So we find communities for those people, towns that can accept them. We also try to get dangerous people off the streets, too. Less of the bad apples helps our cause."

  Joren leaned back against the curved wall, letting that settle.

  “Must be hard to know where the line is,” he said after a moment.

  “It can be,” Tsunami admitted. “Which is why it's more of a network. I just hope that one day we can really change the way we are seen and have our network become common knowledge to the world."

  Joren watched a kid celebrate knocking over a clown toy with a ball, then glanced back across the small cabin.

  “So what about now,” he asked. “What are you doing here?"

  “Following a trail,” he said at last. “You see, there’s a courier that runs these routes who up and vanished about a two weeks ago. He delivers some pretty important letters from families we have in hiding, which if the wrong people found them could jeopardize their safety. I’ve been following the trail to see what happened."

  “So what about you?” Tsunami asked. “You said you came here just because, but what do you have in store after this?"

  Joren hesitated. “We’ve mostly just been moving to the nearest places. Haven’t really picked a town after this one.”

  “That’s a good way to travel,” he said. “I miss the days when I did the same sometimes."

  The metal bars creaked softly as it carried them higher, the noise of the carnival an entrancing melody.

  “If you’re looking for somewhere different as your next destination,” he added, “you might want to look up instead of ahead.”

  Joren glanced at him. “Up?”

  “Yep,” Tsunami said. “Clousand, better known as the sky islands.”

  Joren instinctively lifted his eyes, though the metal roof of the pod imparted embarrassment upon him for not thinking that it was there. "Uh, I've heard it in bedtime stories when I was young, but I'm not very familiar with them."

  “They drift above the nations on slow seasonal paths,” Tsunami continued. “Right now they’re passing over this region of the nation for a few days or so. When they’re overhead, airships come down from the islands. Cargo rises, goods come down, and for a few weeks the sky becomes another road.”

  “A road in the sky,” Joren murmured.

  “Stranger than it sounds,” Tsunami said. “You get merchants from all over the world, inventors and researchers that live there, and folks who’d rather live somewhere that's always moving.”

  "You sound like you've been there."

  “I have,” he replied, “Up there, everyone is passing through, which makes it the perfect place for secret meetings that won't catch the eyes of the government. No one stays there for long, always cycling people through it.”

  Joren leaned back, imagining islands suspended above the world would look like. Could he touch a cloud up there?

  “How do you get there?” he asked.

  “Timing,” Tsunami said. “You head to a port where the islands will drift overhead and catch a lift. Clousand coordinates timings with cities in advance for when they will pass through a territory. Could be a day or two and then it's gone.”

  Joren watched as the Ferris wheel made its final rotation. “Sounds like the kind of place we need to see at least once. I'd bet Bart hasn't even been there before.”

  Tsunami chuckled. "Yeah, it's a great place to experience at least once. If you do plan on going, you should ask for Karaia when you get there and say that Tsunami sent you. Since it's not regulated by the government, it can be pretty dangerous as well. Lots of black market dealings happen there."

  The capsule dipped toward the platform and the attendant stepped forward to open the door.

  Tsunami stood and stepped out. “I’ll be around another day or so,” he said. “Still have a trail to follow.”

  Joren nodded. “Good to see you again. You are welcome to stop by our room that I told you about if you want.”

  “Thanks for the offer, but I'm not here to relax. I'll keep it in mind, though. See ya around, Joren.”

  Tsunami drifted back into the flow of the streets, swallowed quickly by the crowd as he waved his goodbyes. Joren lingered a second, watching the wheel he just rode, then turned away toward the rows of tents where his room resided. Preying eyes watched as he left from the Ferris wheel.

  The music softened as he made his way through the maze of paths, not nearly as loud as it first seemed. By the time he reached the tent room, he practically passed out once he hit the bed, not even waking to his rowdy friends when they returned with prizes and even more food.