Universe's End

1. Skybound Chanter

“Alright Miguel, so my question for you is this, would you like to show off first, or shall I?” Rory asked playfully, letting the older-younger man decide.

“In this case, I believe it would be best if I showed you my own vocation and its capabilities first,” Miguel answered. “As I believe it would require more time the other way around.”

“Quite modest,” Rory said.

“Perhaps, or perhaps I simply understand the difference in our capabilities,” the man laughed with a self-deprecating chuckle. “If you would follow me, my workshop is somewhat out of the way. Not all of my efforts have been… stable.”

“Welcome to the club,” Rory snorted before following the man. While he looked like a man in his sixties, he would have fit into the ‘running club sixties’ type, clearly in great shape, just older.

Which, given he was a tier seven, wasn’t all that far off. Traveling between the many floating earthen satellites, Rory enjoyed the journey even if it wasn’t even ten minutes before they found themselves standing atop a rather large asteroid, not quite a small mountain or land masses, but larger than the average asteroid. Atop it was what was clearly a warehouse.

“As you’ve undoubtedly heard by now, the reason our gliders work as well as they do is that they are made using some of the naturally occurring skybound materials that are so prevalent in this area. With natural skybound materials, specialized skills are unneeded to work with them; they are largely like any other material, just with the ability to remain airborne for longer periods of time.”

“Simple enough,” Rory said, beginning to have a sense of where this was going based on his phrasing. “But?”

“But what if I were to tell you that Skybound traits are not exclusive?”

“I would ordinarily find that hard to believe. In all my years, I haven’t discovered any special mechanism of pneuma that enables costless flight. But would I be correct in assuming you are about to tell me I’m rather ignorant?”

“Ignorant? No,” Miguel laughed. “That would be far too harsh. It was something I myself only uncovered in the last twenty or so years. It’s part of why I look as old as I do; I was always a slower ascender, which, as you probably understand, wreaks havoc on the skin.”

“That is one way to phrase it,” Rory chuckled. It had been pretty well understood by this point that, depending on how far into your total lifespan one was, years gained for an ascension were variable. A tier-one human would have a lifespan roughly similar to that of a human from Earth, give or take ten or fifteen years. The issue was that a twenty-year-old reaching tier two would see their longevity extended to the maximum possible extent. In contrast, a sixty- or eighty-year-old might only see fifty percent or less. It had been the reason why Old Man Kal had passed away as soon as he had, even with several ascensions under his belt.

All of that amounted to the fact that Miguel, looking to be in his sixties even as a tier seven, made perfect sense if his breakthrough talent hadn’t been discovered until recently.

“In truth, had it not been for this discovery and the change in my vocation, I’ll be honest in that I assumed I was going to plateau at tier six.”

“Quite the discovery then.”

“Indeed,” Miguel agreed. “But I believe I’ve beaten around the bush for long enough. Follow me.”

Leading the way once more, Miguel led them into the warehouse, as Rory froze in his tracks.

No. Not a warehouse.

A hangar.

Within the hangar, there were eight oversized mega gliders. They were like strange amalgamations of a regular glider, a blimp, and the generic aspects of a bush plane.

“Part of how we also drove off any curious tier eights that might have come up here are these, the pinnacle of efforts of the last twenty years. The naturally occurring skybound materials weren’t enough on their own, as almost every component of these is made of skybound materials.”

“How then?”

“May I?” Miguel asked, his eyes flicking down toward an interface currently invisible to Rory.

“Go ahead.”

Flicking it over, Rory finally had the chance to understand the man’s vocation better.