People eagerly waited at the airship's entrance as the vessel slowly ground to a halt and was secured at the airport. It took but a minute, though it felt way longer. Aloe had guided Xochipilli back to the corridors, but she couldn't bring herself to observe Asina as they descended, so they just waited with everyone else.

  A whistle announced that the Northern Wind had finally docked and the gates of the airship opened. Passengers eagerly poured out like water from a broken dam.

  Aloe couldn't say what it was, whether patience, expectation, or nervousness, but they took their time to step out of the flying vehicle. With a deep breath, the vegetable woman took a step outside.

  The first thing she saw was life and color.

  The airport of Asina was nothing like the one in Sadina. It was bigger, more populated, and more… mercantile. Not one step one had to take out of the airship to be greeted by a stall with the word 'souvenir' written in Ydazi. That word didn't exist in her dictionary, but from her acquired knowledge from the newspapers, Aloe knew that souvenirs made reference to trinkets bought by travelers, or as they were more commonly called this age, tourists.

  The dressed dark-skinned woman slowly walked onto the dock – or perhaps 'airdock' would have been more appropriate – but the same couldn't be said for her companion who jumped from one place to another, his eyes lit in wonder. Not only the Asinan airport was a sight to behold, but the city itself was far different from what she remembered.

  Far… bigger.

  Their spot didn't allow for the greatest of sights, especially as they were being swarmed by hundreds of passengers. Air travel was a luxury, yet the airport of Asina was more transited than the station of Selen. After spotting an advantage point, Aloe grabbed Xochipilli by his hand and guided him there. The stairs leading to the viewer were a bit precarious with their thin steel sheets acting as flights, making Aloe worry if they would collapse under her weight, but they held.

  "Breathing room, at last!" Aloe said with a mighty groan.

  "Was the airport not to your liking?" Xochipilli inquired.

  "I certainly liked what I've seen, but there were too many people for my liking. Glamour notwithstanding, I just don't enjoy swarms of people."

  "Hmm," he hummed. "I actually like it. They are lifeful. It's... how do I say it… awe-inspiring?"

  "Maybe to some, but not me." Aloe wiped her temples until she remembered she couldn't sweat. Nothing more than a reflex. "How queer." She stated a moment later after she inspected the viewer and found a pedestal with a moving metal contraption.

  "What are they?" The child rushed to inspect them.

  "I'm not entirely sure, but I think they are spyglasses. They are used to look far away, as if you had acuity active."

  "Can these instruments practice the vital arts?" He frowned.

  "Heavens no!" She chuckled. "These are just small pieces of technology that use glass to amplify an image. They existed back in my time, though they were for military purposes. These ones seem to be more commercial. Look, there's a slot for coins here. How about you try putting a drupnar in?"

  Xochipilli didn't need to be told twice to do so. The boy grabbed a small coin from the purse she had gifted him and put it into the machine. With a satisfying click, the eye sockets opened and revealed the glass of the spyglasses.

  "Come on, try it." Aloe gestured to him.

  The boy nodded, stood on a small platform seemingly made for children to be able to look, and put his face against the dual spyglasses.

  "Woah!" The boy gasped in amazement as he moved the top of the contraption around, his gaze skimming through the capital. "Everything is so close and big, I can see everything! The streets, the far-away towers, the ahhh!"

  "Xochipilli?" Aloe jumped in worry at the child, her palms hovering over his frail and diminutive body. "Is there something wrong?"

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  "Ugh…" The young druid groaned as he rubbed his eyes. "No, everything's fine. It's just that I got blinded by that… how is it called? The huitate thing, uhm…" He mused the word in his language. "Dome. That dome."

  "Ah, the palace of Asina," she understood what he was talking about. "A grandiose sight it is and equally blinding at that. I don't know how they still have that gold dome atop the palace."

  "Since when there has that been there?" Xochipilli asked as he still blinked rapidly to acclimate his eyes.

  "If lore is to be trusted, around two millennia. During the time of the Sultan of Sultans, the first Caliph."

  "That's a long time."

  "Indeed," the old woman sighed. "Even with my extended age, this injurious dome has tence my age." Xochipilli looked at her with a lost gaze. "Ten times," she corrected with a groan.

  "Oh, I see." The boy nodded repeatedly. "That is old."

  Without any other quip to add to the conversation, Xochipilli went back to gaze through the dual spyglasses.

  "The city is so big… I can't even see the Evergreen with the wall of tall buildings surrounding it."

  The Tecolatan child spoke the truth, for the buildings were closer together and taller here in Asina than any other city in Khaffat. A forest of glass and steel needles. Most buildings in the new city easily went beyond the hundred-meter mark, and some lone ones threatened to reach four digits of height. The descriptor of needles fell short on the rest of the buildings compared to these outliers. They were extremely thin, almost impossibly so. How the winds hadn't snapped them was beyond Aloe's comprehension.

  "We may not see the Evergreen from here, but this city is not deprived of greenery," the Mother of Plants mused.

  Asina already had its fair share of greenery in previous ages, but now the avenues became lusher as they were still boosted by the Evergreen's fertility even this deep into the city. Perhaps there was more metal, stone, and glass than ever, but the people of this age hadn't forgotten nature. In a way, they had embraced it even more as there were expansive patches of greenery and some of the old-style houses even had gardens on their rooftops.

  Her body was paralyzed with forbearance for her quest, but Aloe couldn't help herself but smile. This wasn't the Asina she knew, and that made her happy.

  "Now, now," she removed the boy from the spyglasses and opened her parasol. "We should get moving. There are many things to do still, and the longer we take on Asina, the longer we will take to go back to the World Tree."

  Xochipilli nodded at her words and dutifully followed her out of the airport. Unlike the one in Sadina, this one was placed on a shorter yet more expansive building, barely inside the old city where the buildings were tall-ish with only around five floors to their name.

  "Firstly, we should search for a place to rest and sleep." Aloe started as they walked out of the airport and into the busy streets of Sadina. "If it all goes well, we could be going back to Sadina tomorrow, but better to play it safe. Then we can ask the locals around for…"

  A dash of molten gold.

  Aloe's head snapped with inhuman speed as she saw a dash of gold amongst the crowded streets. She didn't even give it half a thought before she broke into a dash, leaving her disciple behind.

  Passerby looked at her in confusion as she weaved through the swarm of people at speeds that would drive most sick. Aloe charged but with one hint of color in her mind until she reached the spot where she had seen the glint of gold. People all around here were observing her, but none matched. She strode to a nearby alleyway, but like before, no sight of her objective.

  "How?" She whispered. "It was him I'm sure of it."

  The Mother of Plants switched to acuity, but even with all of her senses, she was unable to feel that presence again.

  "A-Aloe?" A voice called out to her, and she noticed that Xochipilli had just entered the alleyway, his breath still rugged. What surprised her most was how he was carrying her parasol. She hadn't even noticed she had dropped it. "W-what happened? Why did you run away?"

  "Nothing," the old druid responded with a sour tone. "I must have imagined it."

  "Imagined w-what?"

  "I thought I saw an acquaintance."

  "Here?" Xochipilli tilted his head in confusion, his breath mostly recovered by now. "How can you know someone in this city if you've told me you have been away for two centuries?"

  "I told you must have imagined!" Aloe shouted, windows shaking at her booming voice. Even if she wasn't donning potency, her voice was well capable of shattering glass.

  "I…" The child dropped the parasol to the ground and took a step backward. He was trembling.

  He was trembling.

  "Oh, Xochipilli!" Aloe rushed to the boy and embraced him, kneeling on the dirty alleyway to do so, not caring about her dress. "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry." She caressed the young druid's hair as she pressed her head against his. "I shouldn't have shouted."

  Ah, he felt so fragile to her. Not even a sprout. She wanted to cradle him, protect him against the ever-present perils of this awful world.

  "This is a dangerous city, and I'm on edge. I'm so sorry." She apologized again in whispers. "I'm so close to ending my quest, but you are also in peril being here, and I… well, that makes me emotional."

  "Mm," Xochipilli silently whimpered. It was the shortest of outbursts, but that didn't make it less potent. Aloe knew it, her rage was powerful, and he felt it even more than most.

  Aloe removed her head and grabbed Xochipilli by the sides of his head, making a sandwich out of him, but not before wiping those hints of tears off.

  "Let us get some sweets, shall we?"

  "Mm," the boy murmured again, but it was more lifeful than before.

  The Mother of Plants was a mess, and she knew it. Desire and rage brewed in her body, and as strong as it was, it was nearing its boiling point. Especially this close to finishing her quest. One day more. Aloe promised herself.

  This ends tomorrow.