| Exploring the View - CONTINUED |
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Slowly the majestic airship glided towards the High Spire, trailing behind it tendrils of greasy smoke like a tattered veil, which it had gathered by scraping through the low hanging clouds. Docking the airship to the landing platform that ran around the High Spire was a delicate maneuver, one that required a precise and powerful Performance, a strong and yet refined Song. The young man with the cascade of long russet hair was quite aware of this as he followed the airship's arrival from the window in his suite at the Suspension Bridge. He recognized the expertise of the slow gentle landing, like a butterfly winging lightly down on a flower. Saint Isshi was a formidable helmsman, no doubt about that. Second only perhaps to Klaha. Their style was quite different but in their own way each of them steered the airships with a grace and elegance unrivaled by any of the other Saints. A smile played around the young general's sweeping lips while his gray-blue eyes hung at the landing airship. His gaze trailed along its exquisitely crafted hulk of lead and glass, thus complementing the design of the domes and spires of the city in its elongated lines and elaborate embellishments. At the airship's rear, in a network of intricate steel veins, dimly pulsed a huge golden globe. The Song of Saints. The source of the ship's energy that allowed it to rise and swim through the air like a magnificent colorful fish. //It looks like a captured sun.// The young general mused, but then his attention was drawn to the first hands getting off the landed craft to help the servants to secure it to the platform. Some time later five people descended the gangway. Their cloaks were heavily ornamented and they wore elaborate helmets that covered their faces so they didn't have to breathe the putrid air. //Ah well, we should get on our way then...// There was a soft stirring of air at his right cheek, the faintest of touches that drew the General's attention. He squinted at his shoulder and found a violet butterfly the size of his palm sitting on the golden tassels of his uniform jacket. A smile curled the General's lips lending a mischievous twinkle to his gray-blue eyes as he watched the beautiful creature. Carefully he raised his left hand to his shoulder and waited until the butterfly flapped onto his index finger. "Now, what's he found to tell us, little messenger?" The young man asked lifting the butterfly up in front of his face. Lazy the butterfly shut and opened its violet wings, revealing dusty golden patterns on them, tiny characters. With every slow flap of its wings the characters changed unraveling the massage to the general's eyes. "I see." He said finally and watched as - with one last flapping - the butterfly dissolved into a shower of violet dust flakes. A little remorsefully the general brushed the remnants of the little messenger from his uniform jacket, then closed the two topmost buttons and straightened out the wide cuffs. After that he turned around, his gaze falling on the young man sitting silently in a chair across the room. His hair was the darkest black, falling thick and rich around his pale face with the delicately curved lips and finely drawn ebony eyebrows. In one hand the elegant young man held a book, its leather-bound back resting lightly against a black clad thigh. The volume was closed now and the young man kept one slender finger between the pages to mark the place where he had stopped reading, while his attention rested on the general. He watched him with patient expectancy out of iridescent dark blue eyes. "Later, Klaha." The young general answered the questioning look. "I think we shouldn't keep the ambassadors of the Seven Cities waiting any longer. After we've welcomed them to the City of Saints I'll tell you what he observed." Klaha just nodded and put the book down on the small table beside him, then he got up and shrugged into his black coat before extinguishing the oil lamp that had provided the light for his reading. Beside the lamp there sat a two-pointed hat, which he picked up and handed to the young general as he passed him on his way to the door. "Here, your hat, Kami." Klaha offered with a calm deep voice. "Ah yes, thanks." General Kami took it and put it on with a rakish smile then the two men left the room together. End Part 5 | Part 6 | |
| Tavernroom | Tales | |