The sky was clear and blue when they pulled the second prototype out of the workshop onto the grassy fields north of campus. Very high up in the atmosphere, there were a few wispy road-like clouds, as long as the sky, which Kiera assumed were the result of some type of airplane flying in the night. The meteorologists on campus most likely had some natural explanation for the phenomenon, and the students didn''t seem to notice. Beyond those high clouds, there was a small river of fog flowing through the University Fjord. Far to the north, and far below the airy heights of the campus, that fog river flowed into the White Chasm and vanished from sight.


    The hulking man named Bjorn held the tip of the aircraft elevated above the lawn, while Seth and Quinn loaded sandbags into the rigging on the bottom. The Gold Dragon whelp named Irene was busy fussing over the rigging as they worked. Slightly downhill, Vince held the end of the rope, his face filled with determination.


    "I don''t see the point," Claire whispered. "All that effort, and it looks exactly the same as it did before."


    Though Kiera did notice the difference between the first and the second prototypes. The vertical stabilizer was quite a bit smaller, and the wings had a slight upward tilt. It was beginning to look more and more like an actual airplane, though it lacked a means of control.


    When the students were satisfied, they lifted the kite above the grass and Vince began blasting it with wind ethermancy, which was somewhat inefficient considering that the breeze was blowing in the opposite direction. Sluggishly, the nose lifted and the rope began to extend. Seth and Bjorn took turns knocking the thing around, but it always returned to its original position, floating just overhead, directly against the wind.


    "Alright," Seth said. "I have decided it''s safe to fly."


    "He''s going to get himself killed," Claire whispered. "He''s too pretty to die! Do something!"


    "I''m sure he''ll be fine," Kiera said. "And if he gets hurt, I''ll be here to patch him up!"


    The pretty man with the big muscles looked significantly less attractive bent over with the giant kite strapped to his back. Quinn needed to hold the tail above the ground to spare Seth from the strain, and it took Irene a whole ten minutes to finish strapping the hapless man into the thing. Finally, with a blast of wind-aspect ethermancy and a little hop, Seth floated gently up into the sky. Bjorn and Quinn both joined Vince in holding the rope.


    "Higher!" Seth called out. "Let the rope slacken a bit! I want to go higher!"


    One foot at a time, the three men awkwardly coordinated to dole out more and more of the rope, until at last they exhausted the length and were forced to stop. Seth was soaring in-place some fifty feet over the fjord. He shifted his weight to either side, causing the craft to rock. Then he bent his knees, shifting his weight back, causing the tail to droop. Finally, he pulled himself forward using his arms, shifting the weight forward, causing the nose to pitch down slightly.


    "Let go of the rope!" Seth called out.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.


    "No!" Kiera protested. "Don''t listen to him. If he falls from that height, not even I won''t be able to heal him."


    None of the three men released the rope.


    "I agree," Bjorn said. "We should pull him back to the ground and come up with a detailed testing strategy."


    "Let''s start pulling him back then," Quinn said.


    To Kiera''s horror, she felt the unmistakable sensation of ethermancy from the end of the kite. Immediately she quested out to try and claim the ether in Seth''s aura, but it was too late. The rope was severed clean just a few feet down its length, and the three men on the lawn fell back into an undignified heap. Vince lost focus on his ethermancy and the wind weave died out.


    To his credit, Seth leaned forward, causing the kite to dive toward the grass and rapidly pick up speed. However, he was still fighting against a tail wind, and he must have realized it very quickly, because he shifted his weight to one side and initiated a roll. The kite twisted around in a long helix until it was facing the opposite direction, angled slightly down, almost completely stationary against the light headwind.


    "I have seen seabirds do such things," Irene observed. "Sometimes seagulls fly in the same spot against the wind, waiting for their prey to reveal itself in the sand."


    Seth laughed and cheered. "Guys! You''ve got to try this!"


    "You get down from there!" Kiera bellowed. She used wind-aspect ethermancy to amplify her voice, so she was certain Seth could hear her.


    A powerful gust of wind struck the kite, plucking it up and away like a child''s lost balloon. Kiera heard Seth curse, but there was not much she could do to help him. After a few seconds he was floating at least a hundred feet off the ground. The huge wings of the craft were clearly visible, but the man strapped to the underside was just a tiny speck.


    Skillfully, and calmly, Seth continued his descent by leaning forward, but the ground was sloping away faster than he could descend, and he was being blown to the north, toward the apex where the two great escarpments met.


    When he realized this, he cried out, "throw the rope up to me! Hurry!"


    Kiera knew that none of the others could hear his cries, but she amplified the sound with an inverted wind barrier, and she relayed his cries to the students. As one, they chased after the kite, down and to the north, into the streets of the nearby town. Somebody on the balcony of the Seven Witches Cafe cried out, and soon people were pouring out of the buildings onto the cobblestones to watch the hapless man being dragged away into the sky.


    "We need a horse!" Claire cried. "I am your princess! I need a horse right now!"


    A nearby constabulary blew his whistle, drawing their attention. Shortly thereafter, an Aden family soldier arrived, clad in red and black and mounted upon a fine stallion.


    "Chase him!" Claire commanded. "Take the rope. If you can get close, throw it up to him."


    It took just a few moments for Bjorn to coil the rope and pass it off to the soldier. He bounded off at a swift gallop, leaving the students and the two princesses behind. Seth was slowly descending to the north, and apparently he was growing desperate because he began rocking the wings side to side.


    "Don''t do that!" Bjorn cried. "Kiera, tell him not to rock the wings!"


    "Is it hurting him?" Kiera asked.


    "The shortest distance is a straight line, not a winding curve. He needs to get down faster than the wind can take him away!"


    Kiera relayed this command with an amplified voice, and thankfully Seth immediately stopped rocking. But the man had flown too far, and the air above the apex of White Chasm was sinking violently. The clouds poured over the escarpments like white waterfalls, dragging Seth down into the abyss. The Aden soldier stopped short of the escarpment and feebly hurled the rope over the edge. Kiera knew that she would not be witness to whatever became of Seth. She grabbed Claire by the arm and dragged her back to a halt.


    "There''s nothing we can do," Kiera said. "Claire, there is no reason to watch. I am certain he will be fine, but there is no reason to trouble ourselves watching his flight through the chasm."


    "Why did we let him go up there?" Claire asked.


    But to that question, Kiera had no answer.