The heavens graced them at the same time they grazed them. Aloe had experienced 'flight' before, and especially high heights, but there was a marvel in real flight that couldn't be put into words.

  "So small!" Her disciple shouted with all his might and, even then, his voice was a grain compared to the desert of the roar of the winds.

  "I wonder how high up we are?" Aloe remained more stoic, but in truth, she was jumping in joy. The aerial vessel made her feel like a child again, but she had to keep face.

  "Kilometers and kilometers!" Xochipilli bounced as he remained grabbed to the steel railing.

  "I doubt so very much," she responded with a giggle. "We haven't gained much altitude since we have departed, the clouds are still above us, and the World Tree stands taller in our vision even at this distance. We can't even be a single kilometer from sea level."

  Whilst humans had an innate capability to judge distances, and such instinct was boosted with her sense, it was hard to guess distances. Nurture was but a multiplicative force and she had never bothered to train such a quirk.

  "How about we ask a worker?"

  "Sure," the child murmured but kept himself locked in place, his gaze still facing downward.

  Aloe could only smile at the boy's joy, so she remained there alongside him as they took in the marvelous sights. The sun was directly on top of them, allowing them an unimpeded sight of the rapidly vanishing city of Sadina and the blurring Evergreen, but their height granted them a far far-reaching sight; the horizon amplified by several times as if the aircraft was a stance and their vitality substantial.

  "It's so absurd…" It took her a lot of might to hold her chuckle. A chuckle devoid of sanity.

  "What is?"

  "Do you see the sea over there?" Aloe pointed at the horizon where two different shades of blue met, and the boy nodded. "That town – or I guess city now – over there is Aramita, the best natural port of old Ydaz, which once upon a time used to be at three days of mounted travel."

  "Yet we can see it now only a handful of minutes after taking to the skies." The master hummed in affirmation to her disciple's comment.

  "It's just so… strange. No time has gone by at all, but not only we can see it, but we are already this close. Literally within sight… My mind is struggling to comprehend this era."

  "It's also difficult for me," Xochipilli added.

  "How so?"

  "Well, I was raised in an environment where I would only see three digits of people at most and basic textiles instead of elaborated ones."

  "Ah," the old druid groaned after realizing her mistake. "You are so young that I can't help but think you were born amongst all of this, even if you spent your whole life an ocean away."

  "I always adapted quickly," he responded with a chuckle.

  "Ah, you are so cute!" Aloe couldn't resist and assaulted the child's very squeezable cheeks. "How are you so cute?"

  "Aloe, please!" Xochipilli protested as she made a mess of his face. "People are watching!"

  "Oh, you never cared about that. Don't say you do now, little hellion!"

  "No!" He reiterated. "People are watching!"

  The weird emphasis on his words made Aloe turn her face and she realized what the boy meant. Everyone was watching them. Everyone. Workers and passengers alike, and their reactions were diverse. A family that had brought their young daughter had her mother cover her eyes as if it was something unseeable, whilst the woman herself looked attentively with a rugged breath and colored cheeks as if she had been the one who had had them squeezed.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  Nince-damned stance from the ninth hell and rotten be its odious discoverers! Aloe cursed as she freed Xochipilli and guided him into the aircraft to remove themselves from the attentive gaze of the onlookers.

  Once upon a time, the emerald-eyed woman would have been ashamed of being looked at that way. But now she could only feel rage. A cold rage that made her grit her teeth as she remembered that only because she was using this stance she was able to be here alongside Xochipilli.

  On the one hand, repulsion.

  On the other hand, desire.

  A stance of desire meant to be desired and to inspire desire, but most of the time Aloe found herself wondering why she even bothered.

  The Mother of Plants pushed the young druid around until they were no longer assaulted by the gazes. They hadn't been for a long time, but when she was able to see through walls with her other sense, it certainly hadn't felt like it. The Northern Wind was the biggest vessel she had ever seen – not that she had seen many, only stories and drawings of warships she had heard and seen – as they were able to walk for five solid minutes before reaching its front side.

  "Is it called bow on an airship too?" Aloe mused as she slowly pranced next to the massive glass walls that were the figurative eyes of the vessel.

  "A what now?" Xochipilli interrupted.

  "Bow," she repeated. "The front part of a ship is called the bow, so I was wondering if it was also the case for an aerial vessel."

  "Do small things like these have dedicated names?" The child asked with a frown.

  "You would be surprised," the dressed woman drew a gentle smile. "The smaller a thing is, the more normal – the more inconsequential – it is for it to have a name. Normally a weird one. Everything has a name, we just don't know it."

  The young druid seemed pensive for a moment as his gaze was lost on the amazing view before he reached enlightenment. "Does it matter?"

  "No, not really," she shook her head. "If we don't know a thing's name, we always have other names. Language is but an adaptable amalgamation of howls and grunts."

  "I like that definition."

  "Wouldn't you know about howls and grunts?" Aloe grinned at him and the boy blushed.

  "My cheeks still ache…" He pouted.

  "Oh, come on, I haven't been that rough."

  Xochipilli peered directly into her eyes with his bloody red ones. He stared and stared, unblinking, undeterred. For minutes without end.

  "Okay, I won't do it again…" Aloe gave up, even if not even herself believed those words. "Now blink, I wouldn't like having you go blind."

  Of course, Aloe was beyond the need of blinking, but the same couldn't be said for little Xochipilli. The boy had switched to the dexterity internal infusion to increase the control of his body and avoid blinking, and whilst she doubted he could force his body to not blink for much more time with his measly two – nearly three – Hayas, it was better not throw fuel on the fire and incentivize the young boy.

  She was pondering if to heal the boy with a Blossomflame, but they were in a public hall with more people, and it wasn't like the damage could be permanent. Or so she liked to hope. I've always had decent eyesight, so I've never wondered how acuity could affect near-sighted people if not outright blind ones. Nurture is a multiplicative factor, and multiplying by zero is always zero no matter the amount so…

  "It is quite the sight," he finally added after having blinked repeatedly for a whole minute.

  "How many times have we said this?"

  "Not enough," Xochipilli grinned with his reddened cheeks and bloodshot eyes.

  "Aye," she grabbed the boy – who yelped from suddenly being manhandled – and sat down on a nearby armchair, placing him on her lap. Unsurprisingly, the child didn't protest about the treatment. "I'm beginning to understand why they build so tall now. There's a beauty in heights."

  "Wouldn't you know about that…" The young druid countered.

  Aloe clicked her tongue. "I'm not that tall."

  "Agreed," he responded. "You should be taller!"

  "I… what does that even have to do with it?"

  "The lichen druid, uhm…"

  "Aleahilhahiba," the Mother of Plants said.

  "Right, Aleahilhahiba mentioned how she shouldn't be taller than you."

  "That's just a prospect the dryads have," Aloe explained. "I don't know if it's animal instincts – or I guess plant instincts in any case – but they related size with power. And that's not always the case."

  "But it would be more appropriate."

  "How so?"

  "You would be more divine-like!" Xochipilli extended his arms to the skies and twisted his head backward to face her, the back of his head resting on her bosom.

  "I do not know why you and my daughters have this obsession with putting me on a high pedestal," the vegetable woman sighed. "I do not need to be a goddess."

  "But that only makes you more suitable!" The boy's eyes shone in wonder, and she stopped him by booping him on the nose. "Ah."

  "No, thank you," she answered with a warm smile.

  The time melted and flew as they enjoyed their skin-ship and the views from the Northern Wind's massive front hall with its equally massive glass hull. There were some low-hanging clouds at their height, but much to Xochipilli's dismay, they didn't pass through them.

  "They aren't that much exciting," Aloe told him. "They just feel like wet air."

  "How do you know that?" He asked; to which she simply smiled.

  And as he was about to press for an answer, a whistle stopped him in his tracks. They stood up from the armchair and saw the looming city just in front of them. Aloe couldn't help but recall one of the many newspapers she had read every day since she had found out about their existence.

  "Capital of the Caliphate of Ydaz: Asina, the city of desire and world's desire." The Mother of Plants said with a warm and melodious tone; but to anyone watching, they would have seen how her emerald eyes burned with rage.

  Novus!