Cinder's wings finally slowed their wild dance through the clouds, her rapid spins gradually easing into a gentle glide. I cautiously opened my eyes, my stomach settling as we leveled out.

  The view was... breathtaking. From this height, Arx revealed itself in all its impossible glory. The megastructure curved upward in every direction, an inside-out world that defied conventional physics. Oceans and continents stretched endlessly upward, their edges blending into misty infinity. The black hole Nihilim loomed above, a dark eye amidst the swirling mess of clouds and continents.

  A deep rumble of thunder echoed from below. Vespera burst through the cloud layer beneath us, her black and white wings trailing electricity as she rocketed upward.

  "Found you!" she called out cheerfully, black wings spread wide.

  She barrel-rolled around us, creating a spiral of electrical current that made my hair stand on end.

  "How's the view from up here, my foxxy?" Vee shouted as she leveled out beside us.

  "Lovely!" I admitted, still clinging tightly to Cinder. "And terrifying. Please no drop."

  "Oh no," Cinder said with a mischievous expression. "I would never drop you."

  Her claws let go, arms spread wide and then she kicked me off. My stomach lurched as I yelped and plummeted through the sky, the wind whipping past me. The ground far below spun dizzyingly as I tumbled through the air.

  “Cindeeeeeeeeeeeerrrr!” I screamed. "Whhyy?!"

  "YOINK!" Vespera caught me from below, her black wings wrapping around me as she barrel-rolled through the air, cackling with delight. Electrical sparks danced across her feathers, creating a corona of lightning around us.

  She sailed back up above the clouds and then opened her hands, releasing me.

  "Oh thank… Daaaaaamnyouuuuuuuu..." I yelled as I once again became Alex-in-freefall.

  Cinder swooped down, catching me.

  "You are both TERRIBLE!" I yelled, my voice muffled by colorful feathers.

  "Aww," Cinder laughed, rubbing her snout against my head. "Poor little wingless critter, are you frightened?"

  "This is spousal abuse," I complained. "I should divorce you and take my half of the farm. The good half, one with the crystal tank."

  "Half of the farm?" Cinder's eyes glinted with mischief. "With Miss Possible? Fine by me - I can't drive her anyway. Catch!"

  She flung me across the clouds in the direction of Vespera.

  Vespera caught me mid-air, her black and white wings enveloping me in a cocoon of electrical sparks. She laughed, her beak clicking with delight.

  "Gotcha!" she proclaimed, spinning through the air.

  "Release me from your clutches, you dastardly monsters," I cried out dramatically.

  "Release you?" Vespera began opening her hands.

  "On the ground! Only ground! I’m a precious resource, don’t just throw me around!" I yelped, locking into her with both arms tight.

  Vespera laughed.

  Cinder swooped closer, her rainbow wings catching the sunlight. "Having fun?" she asked.

  "Absolutely not," I declared. "I am a serious business fox!"

  "A serious business fox?" Vespera cackled. "You? Mr. 'Engagement-tank' gifter?"

  “Spontaneous-farm-acquirer?” Cinder added.

  "Precisely," I nodded with a serious face, still clinging to the Thunderbird’s waist. "Maximum seriousness over here! No shenanigans."

  “Boring,” Vee commented.

  “Okay fine, some shenanigans,” I said. “Only if you stop flinging me. I prefer keeping supper inside me today.”

  “Deal.”

  Vee and I laughed and we kissed in the air.

  . . .

  Vespera and Cinder descended in lazy spirals, finally touching down on a beach made entirely of smooth, large, multicolored glass pebbles. The afternoon light caught each piece, creating a rainbow mosaic that stretched along the edge of our purchased farm.

  “Does this lake have a name?” I asked.

  “The Chasm Sea,” Vee answered.

  Massive waves crashed against the glass-pebble shore, each one seeming to glow from within as it struck the beach. The water was crystal clear but seemed to have an otherworldly, slightly shimmering quality to it.

  I stumbled slightly as my feet touched the glass pebbles, still dizzy from being tossed around like a ball between two playful predators. The beach crunched pleasantly under my feet as I found my balance.

  "Pretty," I said, picking up a perfectly smooth piece of sea glass.

  "That was probably a person once," Vee commented. “Maybe their armor.”

  "Eh?" I turned to her.

  "Vee and I were here like a month after it happened," Cinder said. "An army of ten thousand warrior-mages marched on Shandria. Levithan Nightingale bounced their spell-fire right back into them. This is how this Chasm formed a century ago. Eventually it became filled with water.

  "When was that?"

  "We were in grade ten," Vespera clicked.

  "I see," I nodded. "Has Shandria changed much in two hundred and some years?"

  “Ye. A whole bunch,” Vespera said, closing her eyes and enjoying the warm sunshine. “When we were in grade nine, Shandria was called Xandria. The city was ruled by Saint Saria and Duke Lumir. A Healer of great renown who gave her noble Heroes unnaturally long lives and a Luck Archmage who sorted out trade deals with many other independent city states of Arx. All of the mage towers were white back then and Shandria had these cute red cross Lumiss Dynasty banners all over.”

  “That dark halo of defensive clouds wasn’t there,” Cinder pointed at Shandria in the distance encircled by the massive shadow-ring looming above it. “Skyships docked all over, connected to landing towers. Shandria was a port of great commerce two hundred years ago.”

  “Oh? What happened to all the skyships and the Lumiss Dynasty?” I asked.

  Cinder and I sat down on the colorful pebbles. She wrapped her hands around me and I leaned into her. The light of the sun circling the black hole danced across the clouds reflecting all the way down to the Chasm Sea vanishing in the fog.

  “General Nox happened,” Vee answered, circling us with a mischievous look in her eyes. “She marched the Verdant republic army and took Shandria, along with nine other cities. Carved herself a little nine-citadel Empire, installed Leviathan Nightingale above each of her cities using supermassive Ward Engines, then croaked from old age.”

  Cinder nodded.

  “Her progeny or whatever ruled Shandria for a while, till Necromancer Kells killed the last Shadow princess,” Vee continued. “Things have really gone somewhat downhill in the last twenty years since the Shandrian Highborns Lords are incompetent knobs who keep fighting for control and can’t make united decisions about anything.”

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “I see,” I said. A few gray-white clouds rolled over us, sprinkling us with warm summer rain. Cinder put her wings over us like a canopy until the rain moved past us into the Chasm Sea, the curtain of rain slashing against the waves.

  Vespera suddenly stopped in front of us and began clicking her beak rhythmically, her clawed feet tapping against the glass pebbles creating soft electrical pops and crackles. She began snapping with both of her hands. The sound was almost like a percussion section.

  She looked at Cinder with an encouraging grin, her gray eyes sparkling.

  Cinder frowned, her feathers shifting through uncertain silver-purples.

  "Coooome on," Vee winked. "Like old... times."

  "No," the Quetzi-girl shook her head. "I don’t..."

  Vespera talon-snapping intensified, the electrical pops forming a more complex rhythm, the tones becoming longer and deeper, sounding almost like an electric piano mixed with wind chimes. She raised her hands like a conductor, encouraging Cinder to join in.

  Cinder sighed, her feathers shifted through nervous gray-orange colors, but then she closed her eyes and began to sing softly, her voice growing stronger.

  “,

  Where gliding skyships charted lanes,

  'Neath rainbow wings and thunder's might,

  We walked between the day and night.”

  Cinder sang, her voice carrying across the beach, somehow integrating itself into the sound of Vee’s electric finger snapping, dancing between the waves crashing against the glass shore.

  “Saint Saria blessed these ancient halls,

  Duke Lumir on his golden throne,

  The Lumiss banner-cross proudly flew,

  Over Xandria's peaks o’ morning dew.

  Like summer rain, the ages passed,

  While we remained, forever cast,

  In time's unchanging, gentle hold,

  Watching as the ages unfold.”

  The Quetzi-girl paused, drawing a breath as Vespera kept up her talon snapping. This was incredible, both of them seemed to be composing music on the fly.

  “Then came the day the Lumiss fell,

  When Empress Nox cast her spell,

  Bound by Nightingale's shadow-flame,

  Shandria's towers now bear her name."

  Cinder inhaled again and made a thoughtful face. Vee gradually tapped out the accompaniment. The Quetzi looked at the Chasm Sea.

  “An army came one autumn day,

  Ten thousand strong they made their way,

  Their spells lit up the evening sky,

  As Nightingale watched from up high.

  She caught their power in her wings,

  Returned their spells with just a swing,

  Their army drowned in a sea of fire,

  As they became their own pyre.

  The ground split with thunder's sound,

  Where wheat fields died, a sea was found,

  Now crystal waters hide their bones,

  As glassy shapes and polished stones.”

  Ci inhaled again, Vee snapping out the accompaniment.

  “Like summer rain, the ages passed,

  While we remained, forever cast,

  In time's unchanging, gentle hold,

  Watching as the ages unfold.”

  She repeated the chorus.

  Then, Cinder turned to me, staring at me with azure eyes, a smile tugging the edge of her draconic mouth. I smiled back.

  “Through the wars for Shadow-crown,

  We saw the palace tumble down,

  Yet still we come from realms away,

  To walk these streets on Delving day,

  And on these shores of shattered glass,

  Where two hundred years came to pass,

  A human soul and thunder's grace,

  Found rainbow wings in love’s embrace.”

  Vee snapped out the ending tones as Cinder wrapped me in her wings and kissed me, sun reflections dancing on the waves behind her.

  A perfect ending to our triangle-date.

  “Wowza,” I breathed out as she released me. “Did you just compose that on the fly?”

  Cinder nodded, blushing like the sunset.

  “Impressive,” I commented. “You two are like a band on your own.”

  “Ci’s the talented butt over here’,” Vee shrugged. “I only did the basic-ass ting-tong-bing-bong beat to lead her into it. I'm just glad we got this rainbo-tater to sing again.” She beamed at Cinder. “Been a while since you spontaneously burst into a song in the wild, Ci!”

  “Ugh,” Cinder buried her face on my neck. “No public concerts. This one was for you two. A song about Shandria and… us.”

  “Love it. I shall cherish it forevermore in mp3 form,” I grinned. “Maybe tune it up a bit and show to your dad.”

  “Mp3?! What did I just say?” Cinder hissed, biting my neck.

  “Oi! Aren’t you full of farmer-made hearty soup? Don’t nom the fox!” I swatted her. “I have to keep up appearances as the Choir manager. Can’t slack off, going to make you sign a contract and everything.”

  “A contract?!”

  “I can always fake your signature, if you’re too lazy to sign it,” I said.

  “Ughhh, why are you like this?”

  “Like what? Considerate? Fiscally responsible? Contractually... Ow! Don’t eat me, I’m a helpful creature!”

  Cinder chose to answer me with more bites.

  "So," I said casually, hoping to distract Cinder before she chewed right through my neck, "Vee, what engagement location would you prefer?"

  "What?!" Cinder paused mid-bite.

  "Mmm..." Vee tapped her beak.

  "I'm thinking somewhere dramatic. Our crystal tower has potential, but I think that we should do it on Earth too."

  "ON EARTH?!" Cinder barked into my ear. "ARE YOU CRAZY?!"

  "What's wrong with Earth?" I asked her.

  Cinder’s eye twitched.

  "Vee," The Quetzalcoatl turned to the Thunderbird. "Help me out here!"

  "Ye?" Vee asked.

  "Your fiance, Zheng, is an Omnicorp Prima-born Prince?"

  "Ye." Vee nodded.

  "With access to many Probability Engines?"

  "Ye."

  "Isn't he instantly going to know that his prized egg basket fiancee has been stolen out from under his nose and is getting engaged?"

  "Ye."

  "Can you freaking stop with the one word answers!?" Cinder flashed brilliant orange-red.

  "What do you want me to say? Zheng's obvs' gonna be SUPER pissed," Vespera said. "Like legit blow a lid. Probably going to pay a bunch of local mobsters to punch Alex into a souffle and then put some cement shoes on him and cast him into the Mariana Trench.”

  "And you're... okay with that?" Cinder asked, staring at the Thunderbird.

  “Obviously, I’d prefer to keep my Lexy bruise-free and on dry ground,” Vespera said with a huff.

  “So what the shit?!” Cinder barked again.

  "I assume that Lexy knows what he's getting into," Vee shrugged, turning to me with a slightly concerned look. "...Right? You don't mind making enemies left and right, ye? You ain't gonna back out on me just ‘cus some of Golden Star mooks might try to make you swim with the fishes?"

  "Enemies are future business opportunities," I said with a sage expression. "A man with many enemies has greater value than the one without. #Sun Tzu, Thunderland Philosopher."

  Vespera stared at me for a moment, then burst out laughing. "That is SO not a Sun Tzu quote!"

  "Eh," I shrugged. "Maybe Yulia translated it wrong from Thunderlandish."

  Vespera laughed even harder, hugging me from the side and sending electrical sparks dancing across my cheek.

  "This doesn't alleviate my concerns in the slightest," Cinder growled.

  "I'm going to send Zheng and his extended family an engagement party invitation as soon as we get home." I shrugged.

  "A WHAT?!" Cinder squawked. “YOU’RE WHAT?!”

  "An engagement party invitation," I said. “To Mister Zheng Golden Star. Please bring all of your mooks, I'm getting engaged to my lover Lady Vespera Simmi of SimmiTech. Sincerely, Alexander Glock.”

  “Do you have a death wish?!” Cinder growled.

  “No,” I said with a cheeky grin. “I have a tank. Vee, does Zheng have a Corpse Seeker?”

  “He does,” Vee nodded. “A little private one. Which he wouldn't bring, 'cus Corpse Seekers are too expensive fuel-wise. Nobody would spend this many beast cores on punching a magic-less human. I've seen his puny model, it ain't nothing like Miss Possible. Our baby is fooking serious business."

  "How serious?" I asked. "How's she more serious than other Omnid magitek tanks?"

  "Unless the internal clock is wrong, Possy's been stewing on Arx for… Forty two thousand eight hundred and sixty seven years, growing thick on local Aetheric density," Vee revealed.

  “WHAT?! Forty two… thousand years?!” Cinder choked.

  “Ye,” Vee nodded. “Honestly, I’ve never seen a Corpse Seeker this old or this chonk. She’s an absolute unit of a Seeker. Fell in love with 'er at first sight.”

  “A unit that’s on Arx,” Cinder pointed out. “How are you planning on getting her to Earth?!”

  “I’ve got a plan,” I said.