The Flyer pulled the lever, releasing more hot air into the balloon and propelling them further into the sky. Leyla leaned over the side of the giant basket and watched the Navrek Yaras grow smaller and smaller until it was a spec of gold and white on a circle of green within an enormous lake. The aqua-farms looked like dark shadows in the depths of the blue waters.

"Don't lean so far over the edge!" Raphael admonished. He was standing beside her wearing his usual passive expression, but something about the way he held himself was off. Leyla scanned his stiff posture, noting the slightly too-wide stance of his feet; as if he was bracing himself against a current on a barge. The knuckles of his hands, where he was holding onto the ledge, had turned white. Was the Prorex afraid?

No one took to the air in Gaia, so it would be natural to feel anxious at being so far above the ground. Leyla tried to remember her first experience flying. It had been on a Rezeg bird, the day she found Michael working for a gambling den owner in the Crags. If she hadn't been trained to focus only on survival in emergency situations, would she have felt anxious while getting onto the giant birds? It was hard to say, but she remembered how Michael had trembled in fear...

"Where did you learn to set arms?"  she asked, wanting to distract the Prorex.

"I read about it." Raphael's eyes remained glued to the ground far below.

"You read about it?" Leyla repeated, frowning. "No one showed you how to do it, you just read about it?"

Her incredulity finally got him to look her way, one regal brow raised. "I'm a High Thinker, I don't need to be shown."

"Right." Leyla rolled her eyes, thinking herself a fool for worrying about him. He was the Prorex of the Land of Light, emotions like fear were probably beneath him. And yet, a quick look at his hand confirmed his knuckles were still white. Be kind Leyla, he saved your life countless times. "So...did you read a lot of books on how to heal people?"

Raphael gave her a long look. The afternoon sun cast shadows over his high cheekbones and set his golden eyes on fire.  "Yes. Books on healing, farming, weather patterns, embroidery..."

"Embroidery?" Leyla imagined Raphael stitching floral patters on a handkerchief and barely suppressed a laugh.

"You think it's funny?" His tone was less than amused.

"No. Of course not." Leyla blinked, "It's strange though. Why did you waste time reading about things you don't need to know?"

Raphael frowned and cocked his head as if to see her from a new angle. "What do you live for, Lieutenant Leyla?"

What did she live for? How did the conversation come to this? "I don't understand what you mean."

The Prorex sighed, then looked out over the landscape. The waters of the Aquafarms were now gone, replaced by the seemingly endless green of the Great Plains. Although it was difficult to see from this height, Leyla knew the grassland teamed with life; from pink milk beetles and long-necked afaruz  to wondering hermits and warrior tribes. 

A group of racing wild horses came into view catching Raphael's eye. "Don't we all live to change? To become better versions of ourselves?"

Leyla had always been too focused on surviving to think much about the reason for living. But changing to become better... yes, she supposed that was true. Even to survive, you had to become better; more competent, more resilient, more capable of staying alive. "I guess so."

One corner of his lips curled. "And how do we change, Lieutenant?"

He was lecturing her. She should be annoyed, but Leyla couldn't seem to look away from his smiling eyes, so bright inside the thick black frame of long lashes. "You're saying nothing we learn can be considered a waste, not when it changes us, one way or another." She watched as the horses veered left, their manes swinging with the kind of thoughtless freedom only animals could experience. "Nevertheless Prorex, I doubt you will ever embroider."

"Perhaps," Raphael shrugged. "But knowing how much time it takes to perfect the skill, will ensure that I will not underestimate the efforts of those who do."

He was right, and it was this kind of thinking that would make Raphael a benevolent leader. The people of the Land of Light were lucky.

The Flyer behind them added more heat into their balloon, drawing Raphael's attention. Leyla took the opportunity to watch him unhindered. He was looking far more at ease now; his knuckles were no longer white and his stance was relaxed.

If he had felt fear, it was gone now.

Satisfied, Leyla turned back to the view. A soft breeze blew, playing with strands of her long hair and making the material of her skirts dance behind her. In the distance she could see the sands of the Misty Desert and beyond them the barren red columns that were the Crags.

"The grey mountains behind us, is that where the Ghost Kings live?" Raphael asked after a few moments had passed.

Leyla looked back, past the Aquafarms and to the looming mountains far in the distance. Although it was impossible to make out, she knew that the tallest mountain at the centre of the range had a palace carved into it.

It was a place no one knew much about, a place where the pure blooded Ashians, the Ghost Kings, lived a life unknown. Leyla turned away, feeling that strange prickly sensation she got every time she had looked upon those mountains during her time in this dimension. "Yes, that is where they live."

Raphael narrowed his eyes as he looked over her shoulder, "Michael's notes made the Ghost Kings out to be the overseers of Asch, but it's hard to gage if anyone has actually seen them in living memory."

Leyla shrugged, "If they weren't real, the Aschians would hardly abide by their rules."

She felt Raphael's stare and knew he had seen right through her even before he spoke: "You saw them."

There was no question in his statement. Was there a point in denying it? Raphael was too astute to fall for her half truths. "One. I saw one, and from a great distance," she admitted.

"I see..." Raphael turned to watch their progress. The sand dunes were larger now and the sour scent of Iktib cactuses clung to the air. "But you did not tell Michael or he would have written about it. Why? To protect him from worry? Was the encounter so unpleasant?"

A tall, pale, hairless figure with large piercing emerald eyes and shimmering grey robes came to her mind, but she pushed it firmly away. "You must have read about the Immortality Plant in those notebooks of Michael's."

"Yes," Raphael nodded. "The root of the Immortality Plant cures all illnesses and can be used in an elixir that extends life by a hundred years. The plants belong to the Ghost Kings and attempting to take one is punishable by death."

Leyla imagined he was reciting what Michael had written word for word. What would it be like to have such perfect memory? It would work well while planning a military operation, but what about those moments you wanted to forget? It was an unpleasant notion. "Immortality Plants are very difficult to grow because they need both heat and cold, moisture and dryness. That is why the only place they can be found is on the border of the Misty Desert and the Plains." 

She pointed out into the distance where the golden tip of the giant triangular structure that was the Jade Palace, had finally come into view. "In a line that follows where soil meets sand; that's where three clusters of the plant grow. They are surrounded by short wooden fences to keep animals at bay, but there's no other protective measures. The Ghost Kings don't put up any other barriers since all of Asch knows that to touch them is to ask for death."

"Someone tried to take a plant," Raphael guessed.

Leyla could only nod. She remembered the day she received word from a Jade Palace guard that trouble was brewing. When they rushed outside, the fearful guard pointed her towards the Immortality Plants that were growing a shouting distance away. Wooden planks lay crushed on the floor and a man wearing a Crag miner's outfit was on his knees, clawing at the soil. Leyla had ordered everyone to get inside, then turned back to find a Ghost King looming behind the crouching man. Years of training had driven her to take cover before she could be spotted. She still remembered her heart hammering in her ears while she watched the Ghost King's reach for the man's shoulder. One touch. With a single touch the miner dropped dead at the King's feet. and then that grey shimmery figure was gone and only a corpse remained.

"It wont be long, now," Leyla said, changing the topic. "We should get to the Jade Palace before night fall. Once we are there, we can take one of Jara's Rezeg birds up to the portal at the Crags and do the Crossing." She turned to Raphael, "You'll be home soon."

"You don't need to reassure me, Lieutenant. I have faith in you." Raphael's gaze remained on the golden pyramid in the distance that grew ever larger, "And thank you."

"Thank me, what for?" Leyla's brows rose in question.

"For distracting me," Raphael turned to her, his eyes warm as they watched her. "Your tendency to disregard my abilities during a fight was starting to bother me, but this kind of care...I like it."