The Fallen City

|Chapter IV: The Final Hours

As the hours rolled by with little sound more than the lapping sea, a tension slowly rose from the sullen depths. It began demanding urgency, a feeling deep down that got the adrenalin slowly flowing through Gale's veins.

He knew he'd be awakening soon no doubt, he'd forgotten the sheer scale of the Inner City, yet he needed to see it. He needed to know. He gripped onto his will in the City with all his strength, even as the real world tried to tug him awake. He had begun his approach to the Inner City's edge. Whilst walking to its very core, he realised it would take days that he didn't have and with his flight suit it could be slightly less, it could take moments another way.

He reached down to his waist, separating a single crystal from his armour. At his touch, like most objects in the City it glowed, then it started to pulse. He began to run, faster and faster. His soles already glowing his heels followed soon after. He braced himself, lowering to a crouch step after step. He peered slowly up the cliff judging its height; it rose from the water in a sheer marble wall interwoven with shining crystal like veins across its surface and scattered with cracks and missing pieces. He drove his legs down. The water's surface splashed and rippled. His arch through the air was perfect.

His feet landing on solid ground once more, and already he was gone. His legs pumped effortlessly as he ran through the City's perimeter. Gale ascended a ramp to a long raised viaduct, its surface long cracked like glass, his every step erasing parts of the web that covered it.

He could hear it whoosh behind him, the growl of air being cut in twain, once more he jumped. The ShardShip came beneath him, between him and the ground, he felt the real world tug harder as he crashed onto its roof. He struggled to his feet against the wind, the hull beneath him faded into veined blue stone. trails of dust and rust drifted into the harsh wind. Its triangular hull was carved like an ice sculpture. Its body was flawless and seamless, adorned with metals and stones of the City's proper. A vehicle born from the city itself.

Gale held the glowing crystal out in a clenched fist, he pointed towards where he wanted to be, every movement of his arm the ShardShip followed, taking him ever deeper into the City's heart.

Spires whipped by with reckless abandon as the ShardShip weaved between the causeways, pillars and towers kicking up dust as it went. Its flight through the city was well-rehearsed, with little to no opposition as it maneuvered around the abandoned boulevards and skyways to its destination.

The real world continued to tug, it continued to distract him. Gale desperately gripped onto the City's call; its spirit and will, desperately, his body trying to wake him, his concentration slipping again and again.

Then one last time...

The ShardShip kicked up chunks of metal and stone as it skidded across the floor, the materials of its essence screamed as it skipped against the City's floor. It landed hard the next time, throwing its rider from its hull as it cracked even more. The ground was gouged by its nose. With a screech it came to a halt just in front of where its rider landed. Gale groaned as he lifted himself up, his body struggled like he was in the real world. The craft rested afore him like an obedient pet. His steps undid the damage it caused albeit briefly, his hand gently rested on the crafts damaged nose.

"Thank you my friend." He spoke gravelly to it, its cracks healing beneath his fingers. He smiled at it as its lights went out, putting the vessel into dormancy. As his palm still rested upon it, his other raised up, pulling the discarded control crystal from the ground into his grasp.

"Just like a Jedi." He muttered with a smile, placing the crystal onto his waist. He recognised where he was in an instant. "Damn, I've good aim. Even when crashing..."