Ethereal

Chapter 19

Wind whistled past my ears as I fell through the open air, the only thing I could see was the vast drop below me. 1,562 rooms, 3 or 4 rooms on each floor. I quickly did the maths, that was near 400 floors for me to fall past. 

Okay. Okay, think. 

What could I do to stop falling? Grab onto a ledge below? The walls slanted outwards so it was more likely that I would fall onto the walls than the ground below. I didn't fancy breaking my arms, but it was far preferable to breaking my entire body.

My perception seemed different now, my mind responding quicker to challenges. So in reality, I had only fallen a couple of stories before Noah's arms were back around me, wrapped tightly across my chest. I breathed a sigh of relief. 

I was about to ask why on earth (heaven?) he had done that, but I quickly realised it had been so that he was no longer holding my hands for reassurance, this was a more practical way to carry me. 

But we were still falling. At least, we were for less than a second. And then a burst of light seemed to erupt either side of Noah, expanding out a few metres further than I could reach. I squinted my eyes at the brightness, until they dimmed and I could make out the features. 

Two large, feathery wings had unfurled out of Noah's back. He had my feet locked between his, and I could see the silvery tips of the wings reaching far below them. 

Our falling seemed to slow with the added air resistance, and I turned my head to look at the beautiful white. I reached out my fingertips, and brushed them against the silky feathers for just a moment before they recoiled.

Held tightly above our falling forms for just a moment before they rushed forwards, sending us flying high up into the sky with a single beat. And then we were truly flying. 

With my arms outstretched, if I focused really hard on ignoring Noah's body pressed against mine, it almost felt like they were mine - like it was me that was flying.

The ground was so far below us, yet there was no one down there to watch us in awe, to see the spectacle of flight. And it was because they were all around us, taking off and landing in the building, flying off into the distance at unimaginable speed and grace. 

Noah was flying slower than the others were, but it was still exhilarating. We circled the building a couple of times, giving me a chance to take a peak at the other rooms. They were almost identical to Noah's room, empty aside from the ridiculous amounts of trinkets lined up on the walls. Although many of them were nowhere near as full as the others, half of them, I would say, were not even a tenth as crowded, and from what I could see, the possessions seemed old. Noah had had a few interesting, modern items in his, I was pretty sure I had seen a bottle of Fuji water (though that being interesting was a little debatable). Yet the more sparse rooms had things like goblets and wooden candlesticks. 

There was something a little eery about those empty ones, but I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was. 

I wasn't ready to be done with flying, but I could tell that Noah was going especially slow now, getting ready to land. I could see the room he was aiming for, the one right at the top of a building identical to the one we had just been in. 

Though this room was brand new, not a single thing tucked into the wall shelves. My new home. I could never go home on my own, that was part of the deal. That I couldn't go to Earth unaccompanied. That I could never see my mother on my own again - that hurt, but at least I'd still be able to see her. 

We had been lying horizontally, supported by Noah's wings, so when he released my legs from his as we entered the room, I fell forwards, stumbling into the room as he released me, his wings disappearing inside his back. It was hard to believe that the form of a human could be hiding such power within his shoulder-blades.