Got Some Explainin' to Do

Angel sat on his own bed, looking down thoughtfully while one of his hands played absently with a sheet from his nest. In front of him, Karp was standing and anxiously rubbing at his eyes. To the side of them, Vitaly paced back and forth fretfully, his physician’s coat thrown carelessly to the side.

“So they just… ripped off your wings and threw you off the Islands? I don’t understand,” Angel whispered. “Who was Julie if she and Mr. Naess aren’t on this ship?”

Karp threw back his head and groaned. “There is no Mr. Naess!”

“What Karp means,” Vitaly said, breaking in, “is that they never really existed. You remember that charming little girl, Zinaida?”

Angel slowly nodded, wondering if Vitaly was making a joke by calling Zinaida ‘charming’. “Well she’s very good with illusion magic,” the physician continued. “So she did something called shrouding. It makes something look like something else. There’s a counter spell that’s only a little harder, but obviously that wasn’t a worry with humans. Well Zinaida is Julie; Mr. Naess was Radomir.” Vitaly paused, waiting for this information to sink in.

There was another terse silence before Angel came back with more questions. “How come I never noticed the others’ yellow eyes? Is that shrouding too? How many of you are there?”

“Ah, yes,” Vitaly answered, leaving Karp to continue grumbling to himself. “I’m the only one of us that can’t shroud, which is why I kept my visor on at all times. There were about maybe twenty of us banished at once. We separated, for the most part. But there’s five of us on this ship. Radomir-”

“Radomir, Ingrid, Zinaida, and you two,” Angel finished for him. “Minus Zinaida, I kept seeing common themes with you all. Your height, the way you talk, and the whole hard-to-make-eye-contact thing. I just thought you were all foreigners… From a place where everyone is tall. How come you can’t use illusion magic, Vitaly?”

The physician sighed. “Every Avian has the talent of one type of magic well and others to a lesser degree- well, most do. I’ve known some that were jacks of all trades. They could use every kind of magic, but not to very high degrees. I was gifted with life magic, which means I’m particularly handy with healing and defense. I can do some creation, but I’m no good in illusion and I can hardly do basic level destruction. Those are all the kinds of magic.”

Angel’s interest seemed to have shifted from this whole banishment thing to learning about magic. “Karp, what kind of magic do you handle?”

Karp looked up from his hands in slight surprise. “Destruction - not that I’ve had much call for it since we’ve been banished. Radomir and Ingrid are both experts in creation, but that branch of magic is a little vague. It’s like having a skill; you have to hone it. So Ingrid is great at using her magic to make food. She’d be useless in front of a forge though.”

There was another long silence until Angel opened his mouth once again. “I still don’t get it. Everyone always described the Floating Islands like they were heaven. Why would they banish you for trying to bring the original hundred back home?”

“Because we disobeyed the exalt!” Karp snapped back. “That place isn’t heaven. It’s a dictatorship. We disobeyed Exalt Ludmilla and paid the price for it.”

“Wait, this was back when Ludmilla was still alive?” Angel asked. He knew the arrival of the original hundred had been quite awhile ago, and that must have left their exalt pretty old. “How long ago was this?”

“Almost forty years ago,” Vitaly said with a sigh. “You’re so uneducated about your kind, I don’t know what I expected. Angel, the life span of Avians are much longer than humans.”

“How long?” he asked quietly.

“Well the current exalt is just a little over 900 years old, if that gives you an idea. And she’s the oldest known Avian.”

Angel gasped, his wings flaring. “Am I going to live to be that old?”

Karp and Vitaly exchanged uncomfortable glances, but it was the light-haired man who spoke. “Kid, I don’t even know if you’ll live to be thirty. You’re different. Anyway, most Avians only live to be about 500 years old.”

Another question rose to Angel’s mind, but before he could ask it, another stamped it out. “But Zinaida only looks like she’s ten…”

“When the exalt took our wings,” Karp explained, “she saw fit to also freeze my daughter in the aging process. She said I should have to live with the guilt of never seeing my daughter grow up for involving her in our scheme.”

Angel paused again in thought, looking down at his lap, then back up to both men to see them watching him carefully. “If the Floating Islands aren’t so great, why do you want to go back?”

Karp took a deep breath, rubbing his eyes again. “I want my wings back, kid. You can’t know what it’s like to have that taken from you. Imagine if someone suddenly took your legs, and you couldn’t walk. That’s what it’s like. Even after all this time, I wake up every morning trying to stretch my wings. But they’re just… not there.”

Angle looked to Vitaly to see if he felt the same, and the blonde man lowered his gaze in a melancholy expression. “So you think the exalt will let us in if you present me to her?” Angel fiddled with his fingers, questions buzzing through his head faster than he could ask them. It was all so confusing. It was like he had been thrown into a totally new world.

“We did when we thought you were full Avian! You lied to us,” Karp muttered.

“I didn’t lie!” Angel exclaimed, his face flushing.

The ship’s captain opened his mouth to snap back, but Vitaly stepped between the two. Karp’s face pinched in frustration.

The physician placed a reassuring hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Let’s agree to say it was miscommunication on both part. That being said, we might have to lie. Just do us a favor and go with it, okay, Angel?”

“I suppose so,” the boy responded without any real confidence. Line had always taught him that lying was wrong. “But how will I get back home?”

Vitaly’s face dropped, and he turned to face Karp. “How is he getting back?”

The dark-haired Avian rolled his eyes. “Well he was supposed to fly back down. Which is why I thought it so important to teach him-”

“And by ‘teach’ you mean throw him off the ship.”

“-and then he could just fly back down. It was supposed to be so simple.”

Angel attempted to resist the urge to swing his legs. He was starting to feel like a child listening to adults argue. He wanted to cut in with his opinion and stand up for himself. Except he didn’t know his opinion. He wanted to go home, right? What if he loved the Floatings Islands?

“That’s what you thought about bringing the original hundred back-”

“Because I had a plan!” Karp argued. “I had a plan and Adrian messed it all up.”

Angel opened his mouth to say something, anything. Then a loud horn blared on the intercom, followed by a voice.

“Captain Karp to the main bridge. Captain Karp to the main bridge, please. The Floating Islands have been sighted.”

“So soon?” the tall man wondered, rising to his feet. “The Exalt will be sending someone any minute now. Vitaly, get Zinaida, Indrid, and Radomir. I don’t want any humans present when we meet. Angel, follow me.”

Karp stormed out of Angel’s bedroom, and the Avian stood to follow. He looked to Vitaly with an expression of worry. The physician’s frown quickly shifted into a small, comforting smile. But the boy found no comfort in his eyes. His piercing yellow gaze only terrified Angel, like he was some distant creature. Tucking his wings in protectively, Angel exited the room to meet Karp on the main bridge.

Author's Note

Now we can get into the FUN part.

1,354 words