Young Writers Society

"You're scowling. Hypocrite." Mari glanced at Ilias. "We're on the plane, aren't we? Don't tell me you actually wanted to get caught by the paparazzi and are now scowling at not getting your fifteen seconds of fame."

"I meant to not scowl when there's paparazzi. Also, I did mention that I hate paparazzi, yeah? Worst part of being a celebrity." He replied, looking at her. They sat in the back, trying to be unnoticeable, or unworthy of being noticed. Not too hard, seeing as the other people on the plane were mostly absorbed in their own business, wiring crystals or chatting quietly. Mari spotted a few other celebrities and politicians. "Also, do tell me your name, unless you want me walking around calling you kidnapper."

"Ah, call me Camille. Let's see... Camille Iya. I'll say my father married into the family."

He narrowed his eyes. "Try that again. You're not being convincing enough and you're making it obvious that you made it up."

"What? Camille Iya is a perfectly good name. Not all of us can be named after ancient culinary dishes, Mr. Ravioli." She rolled her eyes. Or as good of an actor, apparently. But really, she felt most at home in the lab, creating new chemical compounds and conducting research. Mari would've preferred a quiet operation, but she was rather bad at burglary. Got distracted too easily. If she'd be caught anyways, why not kidnap the celebrity too? Yeah, yeah, not the wisest decision in hindsight, but she had been hoping to test out the arrows as well.

"You really don't look like a Camille."

She scoffed. "Well, you have strong opinions about what I'm like. First you say I don't look like a unicorn kind of person, and now you say I don't look like a Camille. How judgmental. Do you have any better ideas?"

"Well I can either call your Oda May Brown or I can call you Mary Sue."

Mari mimed throwing up on him. "I'll stick with Camille."

"Yeah, no, I refuse to have a twice removed second cousin from my mother's side being named Camille." He snorted.

"Fine then. Camira."

"That's worse. I'll call you Maria."

"Hmph. Don't expect me to answer." That was a little too close to her real name for comfort.

"That's fine with me." He settled back in his seat as the plane started rolling. He then closed his eyes.

Mari started tapping her foot mindlessly, considering her options once she got to the asteric plane. She shifted positions a few times, uncomfortable in the astericplane seat. Ilias smirked and opened his eyes to look at her. "Nervous, Maria?"

She didn't answer. Mari pointedly shifted her position another time and closed her eyes. A minute later, she muttered, "It's Camille. And no, I just always have the need to be doing something. Drives my coworkers crazy."

"Sure, whatever you say, nervous Maria."

"I want to puke on you," she grumbled.

There was a rustling sound. She opened her eyes to see Ilias holding out a puke bag to her. "Puke in this, not on me. Since it's your first time, you'll definitely need it."

After a moment, she took it wordlessly and started fidgeting with it, the bag making a crinkling noise. He shifted position to get more comfortable.

~◇~

The puke bag did, in fact, come in handy. In protecting her own clothes, that is. Mari pointedly ignored the usual purpose of the bag as she threw up on the pant legs of Ilias's suit.

"Wretched woman!" He said rather loudly and dramatically, wiping off the puke.

Maria took a few moments to breathe, then said, "How old-fashioned of you, wretched man." There was a self-satisfied note to her voice. "Thanks for the bag, by the way. Very useful to keep myself occupied and to keep my suit clean."

On the intercom, the pilot announced that they'd be arriving in the asteric plane soon. Ilias scowled at her, cleaning his clothes. They looked to be waterproof, but the smell would probably remain for a while. Good. That about put them even from him destroying her plates.

Suddenly, there was a wave of translucent energy that passed through the plane, from the front to the back. Mari felt as if she was being stretched, and yet she saw that she remained in place. The crystals that people were carrying glowed at ten times their previous brightness for a blinding moment, then faded, though they remained much brighter than in the prime plane. Fascinating. Mari's eyes were wide open as she turned her attention to the window.

Floating buildings were held together by lines of metal, people were walking in suits of various styles, and chunks of crystal being propelled apart... She tried to absorb every detail. Gravity looked to be different here. That much, she'd read about. It was difficult for a non-member of the ruling families to learn about the asteric plane, but she'd gathered a few details from her limited sources. But still, she felt quite out of her depth.

The plane landed. Mari opened the lid of her drink to take a sip and was met with an upwards surge of cocktail. She sputtered. "Why... why does the drink go upwards while we're still pulled downwards?" Her reading hadn't mentioned anything about gravity being wonky in the astericplane itself.

Ilias would have answered, but he was dying of laughter. She glowered and tossed the rest of the drink at him. It moved weirdly through the air, and he drank half of it, the rest splashed in his face.

"My question still stands. I'll count this as preliminary research," Mari said.

"Why does anything happen like it does in the asteric realm? Look at that lady over there in the dress." He pointed, and there was a lady holding her dress to prevent the skirt from floating upwards. "If you were wearing normal clothing like her that's what would happen."

"I see. So, either there's a lack of consistency to the effects of gravity in this plane, or there are more subtle laws that you either are ignorant of or haven't deigned to inform me of."

"Basically we took a very chaotic place and gave it order where we could."

"Ah, and by 'we,' you mean the ruling families?" Mari took out a little notepad and started jotting things down. "I mean, we learned the brief history of the creation of the asteric plane in school, but never many details."

"No, we had a single roly poly the size of a tiny pebble build everything." He replied, being slightly sarcastic.

She fixed him with a deadpan stare. "Really. And I bet that roly poly was named Sam, and his descendants are now revered and given itty bitty homes in the mansions of the families."

"Yes, that was exactly what happened." This time, he sounded serious.

People had started filing out of the plane from the front, but it was taking a little while before the back of the plane could exit. So, he just sat there in his seat. Mari huffed and started tapping the notebook with her pen as she stared out the window.

A few minutes later, the plane had mostly cleared out. Mari stood up and started walking up the aisle. Ilias was right behind her.

The astericport in the asteric plane glittered with crystal and metal keeping it in place. Ilias started making a beeline to get out of the astericport. Mari followed, head craning back and forth a little but still keeping up. She would've loved to stay and examine the bits of crystal and metal, but she did need to know where the exit was, and it seemed like Ilias knew.

He exited, and found a cab. Well, it looked slightly different from cabs in the prime plane, most notably in its lack of wheels, but it appeared to have the same purpose. He opened the door, and dramatically motioned for Mari to enter the cab.

Mari shot him a look. "Where are we going? You could just leave me here, you know. I can find my way around and do my research myself."

"Well, first, we're getting sleep. Second, I'd like my key back. Third, you'll still need me with you to get into any labs, or access official information, and just navigating in general since I am more experienced here. Your little drink fiasco proved that. Fourth, you'll need me to get back to the prime plane, and in general if you're not with someone known to be in a ruling family you'd be suspicious."

Mari pursed her lips and stared at him. He almost sounded like he was actually helping his second cousin out. Why? He had no reason to do so, did he? But he did make valid points. Cautiously, she slid into the cab. Satisfied, Ilias slipped into the cab after her, well, after looking around. He held out his hand to her. "Now if you would, key."

"Won't I need it to get back to the physical realm? Or to allay someone's suspicions, seeing as you just pointed out that I'm not part of the ruling families."

"Well, yes, but you don't need to have it while you're walking around."

"I might as well keep it. I've taken rather a liking to it." Mari narrowed her eyes. How far would him helping her go?

"Well too bad, it's mine. We don't move until I get it back."

She looked at him, pondering shoving him out of the cab and into the street (surely she could get the hang of this plane on her own?), then thought better of it and dropped the crystal in his lap. He picked it up, and looked at the cab driver. "Hey Paul! Take me to my place, and while you're at it tell me how your family's been."

The cab driver stepped on it, and started talking mirthfully back to him. Ilias settled into his seat. Mari brightened. Were people and conversations different in the asteric plane? The driver seemed to be a minor member of a ruling family, maybe having married into one. When the conversation turned to Paul's children, Maria took the opportunity to jump into the conversation with anecdotes about her siblings, laughing and chatting as if unfazed by the asteric plane around her. It seemed like a usual conversation, though apparently each city was also a floating isle, and children learned more plane theory and about wiring crystals. Ilias just sat there, listening and smiling.

A few other cabs passed by, their exteriors wrapped in symbols formed of metal wires to keep them stable and enhance their performance. Pedestrians sauntered by between shimmering buildings. Outside the right window, she could see more floating cities, drifting lazily through the sky.

The cab pulled up to Ilias' home, which really, wasn't that big. Not as big as his house back in the prime plane. It was simple grey, and one story. The curtains were pulled closed. There was a small old shack to one side. Ilias stepped out, and headed to the door. Mari said goodbye to Paul and wished him and his children the best, then hurried up the walkway as well. Ilias just opened the door with no key, and walked in. From the angle she was at, it seemed that he just opened the door without unlocking anything, but that seemed too simple to be the truth.

"So, do you also forget to lock your asteric home after being out partying?" she probed.

"Yes, sometimes yes. Also people here can be trusted to not break into your home. Over there's the guest bedroom, I'll be in my own bedroom. If that bed is too uncomfortable, there's couches in the living room."

Maria peeked into the guest bedroom, nodded in approval, then wandered off towards the living room. Soon enough, she came back and asked, "Why? I kidnapped you. Why are you actually treating me like your second cousin?"

He stopped in the hallway and turned around with a smile. "It's just common courtesy. Adieu."

"Hm. I don't think holding a door open for someone is equivalent to offering your guest bedroom to a practical stranger. You have ulterior motives."

"Yeah, not getting killed. I do wish to see you suffer, but dealing with a grumpy person for an entire day is not my idea of you suffering, but the door to my own death."

She narrowed her eyes at him, not convinced, but she didn't press the point. "I'll be preparing for my research in the guest bedroom." Mari disappeared into the room.

~◇~

It was probably around evening, but who needed sleep, really? Mari had tried her best not to show it around others, but she was buzzing with excitement at being in the asteric plane. Like, her! In the asteric plane! If she'd known just kidnapping a celebrity was the way to gain access, she would've done it a lot sooner. Actually, scratch that. She'd been woefully underprepared for this kidnapping, and she wasn't sure she'd want to kidnap anyone again.

The guest bedroom had a neatly-made bed on one side, a window, and a desk. Mari spread out her notes on the desk, then fished out the roll of bandages she'd brought and re-wrapped her wound. It didn't look infected, which was good, but she'd probably have to go easy on her arm for a bit. Good thing she'd taken a few days off her job-- well, one of her jobs. The chemical engineering one, of course.

Mari pored over her design notes, brushing the curls of her dyed-brown hair out of her face. She kept an ear pricked for signs of Ilias moving around even as she made a list of research priorities. She was working on a special kind of container that would increase the effectiveness of her concoctions, and she suspected the key was in the asteric plane. Yes, she had an assassination mission assigned to her by her mother, but she could take advantage of this time for her scientific pursuits too, couldn't she?

After around an hour, she paused her work to scrounge up a glass of water (this time, she'd be prepared for the floating liquid). As she returned from the kitchen, she examined the house. Silence from Ilias's room. She'd taken care to memorize her surroundings and the exits in case she had to escape. And... there, that window. It looked slightly different. There had been a sliver of a gap under it when they came in, but now it was firmly closed. She hadn't heard Ilias moving, but there were ways to get around practically soundlessly, which one would be likely to know if one was an assassin like her...

Mari finished her water, returned to the guest room and slid her notes back into a pocket, and slipped out the window, making sure to close it firmly behind her.

She landed softly in an alleyway. The ground was made of chunks of crystal with lines of metal spiderwebbing across it. It didn't do wonders for her confidence in its stability, but it wasn't actively crumbling, so it was probably fine. She glanced both ways, then decided that Ilias had probably gone in the direction with more lights.

Mari climbed up to the rooftop of the house, relying on her right arm to pull herself up and using tiny cracks in the wall as purchase for her shoes. Once on the rooftap, she could see buildings reaching up to the black sky a short distance to the right, and more houses to the left. Mari ran to the right. There was a figure walking down the side of the road. She quickly caught up to them and peered down. It was difficult to make out details in the dusk, but the person's build looked similar to Ilias's. She followed him. He just had his hands in his pockets, walking with his back slightly hunched. He looked to the side, and then crossed the street to the more lit side of the road.

Mari ran lightly across a roof, then hopped to the next house and crouched behind a turret of crystal that jutted from the roof. Yep, looked like Ilias. Now, where could he be going? He turned a corner. Mari followed. The landscape was gradually becoming more urban, and while she had scaled a few high-rises before, she had none of the proper gear right now. She looked for a good place to descend to the street.

Then Ilias turned a corner and started walking back towards the more suburban area. Mari continued creeping across the rooftops. Eventually, it just led back to the house, and he went back inside. Mari frowned. All that for just a stroll? She climbed down to the window outside the guest room and eased her way inside, then spread out her notes again. Well. At least the excursion had given her a chance to familiarize herself with the layout of this portion of the neighborhood.

After a while of poring over her notes, she started to yawn. If she remembered from her research, physical needs like eating and sleeping weren't as necessary in the asteric realm, but sleeping was still a good way to rest the brain. She put away her notes and went to bed. Tomorrow, Mari would start her research-- both into utilizing crystals in combination with her chemicals and into Ilias's true motives.

< Chapter 2                  ~◇~                   Chapter 4 >