After saying his farewells to Jezz and Huck, the few others to step forward and wish him well were few. He’d made some friends in Radiant—unsurprisingly more with the adults than those his own ‘age’—but they’d always known he was leaving. One way or another. As such, he’d been separate, in many ways fulfilling the role of ‘outsider’ that he was, and that made for quick goodbyes.

  Vessa got a reminder to check on the pasture—and what sheep were hopefully left—as well as a caution to be careful for more of whatever Det had run into. Thankfully, Simmons—who turned out to be a captain of the Mistguard—said they would send one of theirs back to take another look. Just in case it wasn’t a bear, a wolf, or a housecat.

  With that done, and little more fanfare, Det, Calisco, General Vans, and Captain Simmons boarded the lift, the captain turning and giving a flourishing bow before shutting the door. A forty-foot square of thick metal rested beneath Det’s feet, while eight leg-thick cables stretched up into the bright spotlights above. As much a cage as anything, the metal fencing stood ten-feet tall—likely meant to prevent any cargo from falling off—while what looked like a fuse box sat in one corner.

  “If you would, Captain,” General Vans said, planting his heavy shield in the lift and standing at-ease behind it.

  “Sir,” Simmons said, walked over to the box, opened it up, and flicked a heavy lever inside it. As soon as he did, there was a distant ker-chunk from above, and the lift began to rise.

  The sudden motion had Det taking a step to the side to keep his balance, but that was all he needed. Settled, he looked once more to the faces of Huck and Jezz, their eyes never leaving him, and he gave them one last nod of thanks. They returned the gesture before the bottom edge of the lift stole them from view. Next, the houses of Radiant vanished, not even their roofs visible from where he stood near the general.

  Within a moment—the lift’s movement not even disturbed by the wind—they were surrounded by nothing beyond a sea of thick fog.

  “This will be your first time outside of the mists since you came to Elestar, won’t it?” General Vans said, using the name of the world to pull their attention to him.

  “Det there tried sneaking onto a merchant’s mistship once,” Calisco said. “Or was it twice?”

  “Three times,” Det said. “Almost had it on the third try.”

  “He wasn’t as solid a snake as he could’ve been,” Calisco said. “Hiding under a moving crate doesn’t work real well in real life.”

  General Vans laughed. “I remember that game. I was terrible at it. Probably why I didn’t get a Vanguard class.”

  “A what?” Det said. “There are classes here? Like in a game?”

  “It’s easier for us ReSouled if we use terms everybody is familiar with,” Vans explained. “You’ll learn more about all of that at the academy. Before that—and back to my original question—you may want to cover your eyes. The twin suns can be a bit bright the first time. Even for us ReSouled.”

  “I totally didn’t believe it when they said there were two suns,” Calisco said, skipping over to the edge of the lift and twining her fingers around the fencing. The wide brim of her red hat flopped down in front of her eyes the first time she got close, completely blocking her view, but she corrected it with little more than a ‘stupid hat’ under her breath.

  “How will we see the suns, General?” Det asked, choosing to use the man’s rank. “Won’t the mistship be sitting on the top layer of mist to refuel?”

  “Oh?” General Vans said, looking over at Det with a raised eyebrow. “Somebody’s been doing some reading.”

  “Instead of making friends,” Calisco called over, without looking around.

  “I… have a goal,” Det said. “Friends in Radiant wouldn’t have helped that.”

  “We all have a goal,” General Vans said. “We literally wouldn’t be here if we didn’t. As for your question, while you’ll have a nice long ride on the mistship itself, there aren’t many pillars below the Mistline that produce ReSouled. We thought it might be a treat to get your first real look at this world sooner than that.

  “Simmons, how high above the Mistline is the Sun Chaser waiting for us?”

  “Six-hundred feet,” Simmons said. “That’s as far as she can safely drop the lift. We’ll refuel before we leave.”

  “That will give you about three minutes to take in the scenery,” General Vans said, head tilting back to glance up. “You may want to join Calisco at the edge if you want to make the most of it. Should be quite the sunrise.”

  “Or, maybe a Det-rise is a better word for it,” Simmons said with a wink from where he stood.

  Ignoring the wink, but following the general’s look, Det had to squint, the light streaming through the fog different from the spotlights earlier. There was a fiery orange to it, like the mist was igniting in a line. Then, for the first time in twenty years, the fog parted, revealing a sky high above.

  Directly overhead, Det could see the outline of what had to be the mistship, its powerful spotlights having shut off, and only a few running lights giving away its position. Det hardly had eyes for it—though the academic part of his brain was very interested in what made that thing tick—as his gaze turned to the dual-sunrise in the distance.

  Just like Vans had said, a pair of suns peeked across the horizon, one an orangish-yellow, while the second, smaller one, was almost red. Together, they burned streaks of flickering crimson light across the top of the mist. In a way, it reminded Det of looking out an airplane window above the clouds.

  Thick, grey fog stretched as far as he could see—peaceful in a way—with the sky everywhere else. Well, not quite everywhere, as Det spotted far in the distance what had to be another pillar. This one—unlikely Radiant—stretched above the Mistline, but he was too busy blinking back tears at the bright light to even try and guess how tall or big it was.

  “Wooooooooowwwwww,” Calisco said in awe.

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

  For once, Det couldn’t argue with the girl. After spending his entire life in the fog, seeing a real sunrise was breathtaking. He brought his hand above his brow so he could look at it even a few seconds longer, before the glare of the twin suns proved too much for his sensitive eyes.

  “It’ll get easier over the next few days,” General Vans said. “When we get up to the Sun Chaser, they’ll give you some shaded goggles—ugliest sunglasses you’ll ever wear—to help until then. Trust me when I tell you, wear them. If you ever went skiing on a bright day back on earth, the mist can act like the snow. It gets bright.”

  “Aw, I miss skiing,” Calisco said. “And hot chocolate.”

  “The Academy has one of those two things,” General Vans said. “Though I won’t tell you which.”

  “I hope it’s chocolate,” Calisco said. “God, I hope it’s chocolate. I’d shank Det for even a bite. Hell, half a bite.”

  “We’re not really friends,” Det said flatly in explanation to the General.

  “I can see that,” Vans chuckled, but apparently didn’t care much about one of them talking about stabbing the other.

  That exchange done, Det turned his attention to the rest of the sky. Specifically, opposite where the suns were rising. It should still be dark enough over there for the night sky to… to…

  “Three moons?” Det asked, his brain stuttering on the additional celestial bodies crowding the sky.

  “Four, actually,” Vans said. “The fourth is directly above the Sun Chaser now, though, so you can’t see it. It’s on a much wider orbit than the other three, which you can almost always see in the sky together, and only comes around once every twenty years.”

  “Once every twenty years…?” Det said. “It has something to do with ReSouled being born? Some connection back to Earth. Is it Earth?” Just the thought—the chance—of it being a link to his home had him forgetting everything else about the new world, and straining to look beyond the airship above them.

  “That’s one theory,” General Vans said. “That it’s connected to ReSouled being born. It’s not Earth.”

  “You’re sure?” Det said, and the intensity in his voice had both the General and Captain looking at him.

  “I’m sure,” General Vans said. “When you can see it, you’ll understand. It’ll be in the night-sky for a few more days before it vanishes again.”

  “Only a few days?” Det hissed. If it was a connection home, a few days wasn’t enough to exploit that. Then again—he forced himself to take a mental breather—his last attempt was only a few hours ago. If the moon was above them now, it was above him then, and it hadn’t helped at all. Even if it could help him, that wouldn’t be now. The thought of waiting another twenty years to get home almost made him grind his teeth, but he’d already resolved himself to this. Whatever it took—however long it took—he would get home. This fourth moon was just another avenue he’d explore.

  “You said it’s only a theory it’s connected to the ReSouled?” Det said, changing the subject. “Does nobody know how it works? Why it happens?”

  “Nothing definitive,” General Vans said. “There are several theories how it happens—the moon being part of a few of them—whereas the why has significantly fewer possibilities.”

  “Who cares?” Calisco said, turning and spreading her arms in a ‘look at me’ pose, fingers laced in the links of the fence-wall of the lift. “Gives us a second chance in a hot body. It’s like an anime, being reborn in another world with a cheat skill.” Her pose wilted a bit as she looked at Det. “Most of us get a cheat skill. But, hey, at least you’re kind of good looking, right? Maybe a few less glowers if you want to be popular with the girls. Or, try staring off to the side a bit. With the sun rising like this, you might be able to pull off brooding instead of glowering.

  “Chicks dig broody guys.”

  Det just shook his head at the girl, and looked at the General in hopes of a better answer.

  “You’ll learn more about it during your introduction at the academy,” the General said cryptically. Or, maybe it was because they’d reached the bottom of the mistship. With only sixty-or-so feet to the bottom of the ship, Det could finally get a decent look at it.

  It was enough to distract him from the previous topic, that was for sure.

  The whole thing had to be around the size of a football field—the American kind—and looked like it was constructed out of a white material similar to what the general’s armor was made from. On second thought, it wasn’t just similar, it was the same. And Det still had no idea what the material was. Something about it didn’t seem like metal. Ceramic was the closest word he could find, but that wasn’t quite right either. It definitely wasn’t a plastic or polymer he was familiar with. The Mistguard’s mistships would be built for battle—as would the general’s armor—meaning it had to be sturdy, to say the least.

  An alloy, maybe? No, how would that be any better than a good, lightweight polymer? Ugh, should’ve paid more attention during the materials courses…

  Shaking his head to rid himself of the questions he couldn’t answer—he’d just ask later—he instead took in the vast bay the lift rose into. The space around them had a cage of its own for safety reasons, probably, while crates of supplies stood nearby. Beyond them, though, was something Det couldn’t help but stare at.

  No, he couldn’t be sure about what he was looking at, but those really looked like individual-sized vehicles made of the same white material.

  “Mistbikes,” General Vans said. “They take a lot of getting used to, and they’re a risk for anybody other than ReSouled because of how often they need to be refueled, but they have a purpose. You’ll get full training on them.”

  “They fly?” Calisco said, having spotted what Det and the general were talking about.

  “Wouldn’t be much use if they didn’t,” General Vans said. “Now,” he said as the lift clunked into place, the bottom of it sitting flush with the floor of the mistship. “I have duties to attend to, but Captain Simmons will show you where you’ll be staying on the Sun Chaser until we return to Mount Avalon, where the academy is.

  “You have free run of the Sun Chaser for the journey, though I expect you to respect its crew, whether they’re ReSouled or not. If they tell you not to go somewhere or not to do something, consider their words to come on my behalf. While you aren’t formally part of the Mistguard yet, I do hope you behave as if you were.

  “Det, Simmons will take you the medic after showing you where you can drop your belongings, and then, since I’m sure you’ll both immediately head to the deck for the view, he will join you to answer some of the questions you’ll have.”

  Surprisingly, Captain Simmons didn’t look horrified at the prospect, and he just gave the general a nod like it was perfectly normal.

  “Thank you, General,” Det said. “For coming to pick us up, and for what you did with Bivac back in Radiant.”

  “The village asshole?” General Vans asked with a chuckle. “No worries, son. We all had to deal with at least one or two of them, even if we came from a bigger pillar, or one above the Mistline.” With that, he turned his attention to the captain. “Simmons, I leave them in your capable hands.”

  “Sir,” Captain Simmons said with a salute, left fist going to the right side of his chest.

  A nod in return, and General Vans strode off the lift, Sun Chaser crew saluting him as he passed.

  “You two are lucky, lucky, ducks,” Simmons said when the general was out of immediate earshot. “The general usually goes out on one or two pickups a cycle. I’d tell you to buy a lottery ticket… if they sold them on Elestar.”

  “What brought him to ours?” Det said.

  “My awesomeness, right?” Calisco said.

  “Random chance, really,” Simmons said. “That, and it’s the first time in over six cycles since your pillar produced a ReSouled, let alone two.”

  “You’ve used that word a few times now,” Calisco said. “Cycles. What is it?”

  “ReSouled are only born every twenty years,” Simmons said. “That time in between is called a cycle, from one set of births to the next.”

  “Hold up there. Didn’t you say the general had been doing his thing for five cycles? You’re saying he’s over a hundred years old?”

  “Yup,” Simmons said. “This will be his sixth cycle.”

  “Damn, he looks good for his age,” Calisco said.

  “Because he is one of only thirteen S-Ranked Mistguard,” Simmons said. “The stronger you get, the longer you live. Assuming you don’t get killed. Which is kind of the goal of all this training you’re about to undergo when we get back to Avalon.”

  Killed? No, Det wasn’t going to let that happen. Strength for the sake of strength wasn’t something he had ever really wanted, but if that was what it would take to get him home, he’d do it.

  To him, it was just that simple.