Epsilon Twilight
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55. Era
🕑 Added 2025-03-19 12:07:35 +0000 UTCIt was hard to concentrate on the beauty of the Northern Wind airship when tens of workers hurriedly walked around the place. To be fair, most of those workers were loading cargo from the completely opposite side of the aircraft, but her senses still caught their footsteps as if they were next to her and wood echoed far more than stone. It was an active effort to only hear what she wanted to hear, to tune down every noise, interference, and unwanted sense.
"Woah!" Of course, Xochipilli didn't share her problems. "Everything is so sparkly!"
"Those are the wonders of lacquer and precious metals, yes." She added.
The Northern Wind had an air of prestige that the train had lacked even in the most outstanding cars and the Highrise Hotel had fallen short to portray. Aloe had no notion of what could be considered luxury in this day and age, but even then she could tell that the airship felt luxurious. The floor was carpeted with a vibrant red velvet, the walls had sturdy and lustrous dark wood with some floral paper decorations, and the ceilings were littered with fanciful glasswork of Myriad lights.
"Ohoh, plebs," a woman wearing a red gown passed next to them with a fan in front of her mouth as she was escorted by a suited man.
Xochipilli almost growled at the woman, but Aloe flicked a finger at the back of his head, making him stop his foolish acts.
"Care not for the words of others, child," Aloe told him and he rubbed where she had hit him. The boy was exaggerating because there had been no strength at all on her flicker.
"I care not for what they say about me, Aloe." Xochipilli countered. "I care for what they say about you."
"Oh, Xochipilli," she drew a gentle smile on her visage. "Your words warm me, but your actions are unnecessary. If I judge there is a need to act, I will do so myself. Have I made myself clear?"
"Yes, master," he responded serviceably, transforming her gentle smile into an amused one.
It has been a while since he referred to me as such. But she let herself not be affected by this or the previous exchange and continued strolling forward.
"Hmm, there are many artworks hung here. How queer the change in artistry." Aloe commented as her eyes jumped from framed drawing to framed drawing. Some were portraits, but most were landscapes. Amongst these, some were warmer and more imaginative, whilst others were grittier and more realistic.
"How so?" Xochipilli asked as his eyes darted across the pieces without lingering on them. By all accounts, this was the first time the boy had seen drawings of these types and quality, but they didn't seem to engage with him.
"Artistry in my time was normally led by feats of architecture or glasswork," the old druid explained. "Every single tile had to be painted, if not outright sculpted, and some people enjoyed glasswork so much that they even had utensils of glass instead of wood or metal."
"That doesn't sound very practical…"
"It wasn't," she responded with a giggle. "But that is to say that art was more about color and shape than… well, whatever is this. Capturing the reality, you could say? Reality is what it is, and the only moment you would capture it was for studies. With shapes, we didn't capture reality but shaped it. Most of the time I only found drawings on liturgical texts or scholarly manuscripts. Drawings were precise interpretations of things that existed but couldn't be seen easily, yet these ones seem to be more… expressive. Free."
"But what about portraits? Didn't you have them?"
"Hmm… Exist as such they did, but they weren't exactly popular. If you ask me a reason, I can't answer with any. That was simply the case."
"Then you didn't have drawings of your gods?"
"There are no gods in Ydaz, Xochipilli."
"Right," he corrected himself. "I meant those things they have, Heavenly Descendants."
"In a way, we could say that those were the most common portraits. The faces of the drupnars and fajats were minted with the face of the contemporary ruler, so there are records of the rulers of Ydaz. Until now, I guess. Maybe Aaliyah has become tired of seeing her face so much because the paper version of drupnar they call 'bills' have drawings of buildings and maps instead of people. But I'm talking about myself too much. If you are so interested in portraits, I guess it's because you must have them in Tecolata. Am I wrong?"
"Not exactly…" Xochipilli revealed with a modicum of doubt. "We have representations of our gods and myths, but they are more… abstract than the drawings here. Even more than the most outlandish ones here in exposition."
"Now you have piqued my interest," Aloe commented as her eyes lingered on one of those outlandish pieces. "I'd like to lay my eyes upon Tecolatan art."
"It's not as sophisticated as these…" The child added with a touch of embarrassment.
"Art has always been art, child. Sophistication has nothing to do with it." She caressed her disciple's head. "And as I've said, in my time were valued color and shape beyond everything else. Are you saying your people aren't colorful?"
"No!" He protested, his crimson eyes shining with determination. "We are a colorful people! I will show it to you! I will bring you to Tecolata and show it to you myself!"
"I'll be waiting then," the Mother of Plants responded with a smile and booped the boy's nose. "But it's better if you don't shout. We don't want to pester the rest of the passengers."
"They are the pests…" Xochipilli pouted in a whisper.
Aloe ignored the boy's antics with a warm smile and explored the maze of a vehicle the airship was, but soon enough they got bored of the luxurious and glorified corridors. They had their charm, yes, but only as liminal spaces and not sites where you would actively be.
Having nothing better to do, she went to pest a worker.
"Excuse me," she directed herself to a uniformed buxom woman. She was rather mature, but it was difficult to tell when other parts of her body beckoned one's attention. She had to give it to the people running the airship and airport operation, those red and golden uniforms that highlighted the silhouette of the worker were surely an eye-catcher.
"Yes?" The female worker responded.
"When is this vessel going to depart?" With a blink, Aloe's gaze directed to the woman's head, and only then did she notice the woman's hair – which was barely starting to grey – and its cute buns.
"Should be soon, ma'am." She replied in a professional tone. "Less than a quarter of an hour from now."
"Hmm~" Aloe hummed in affirmation, only to become aware of her mistake as she saw the worker blush. Nince-damned stance! She cursed. Wait, Xochipilli did say that this terminology for increments is out of use, is this expression also nonexistent now? The druid took a deep breath before pushing aside those thoughts a going back to the woman with the delicious uniform. "And how long is this journey going to take?"
"O-oh, not long at all." The worker said after fluttering her eyelids a few too many times. "It's a sightseeing voyage, so only two hours."
"What?" The jaw of the bicentennial vegetable woman almost fell to the ground as she raised her voice.
"I-is that a problem?" The woman raised her arms in Ydazi fashion as she panicked. "I don't have much authority, b-but we can always go faster!"
"No," Aloe extended her palm to calm her down. "It's not that. It's just…" She groaned and rubbed her eyes with her other hand. "There's no need for that, darling."
"O-of course." The druid realized she had made a grave mistake by calling the worker darling after she flushed, but by then Aloe was already walking in the opposite direction.
"Nince-damned heavens from above and all that it's sacred…" The Mother of Plants murmured under her breath walking up some stairs, her disciple following behind silently. "What do you mean two hours? This was a non-stop journey through sandstorm-plagued lands for three days. And that was with camels! And you tell me this is a 'sightseeing' speed?"
She was on the verge of losing it.
"That's quite the increase of speed," Xochipilli mused behind her.
"I am well aware, Xochipilli!" She grabbed her head, making a gesture of pulling her hair, before facing the boy and caressing the side of his face. "Sorry, I shouldn't have shouted at you. Sometimes this current era gets on my nerves. Everything is just so… fast."
The boy didn't respond, he simply laid the weight of his head on her palm and rubbed against it. Aloe booped his nose again with her other hand and pushed him forward.
"Let us get ahold of a better sight before this ship takes to the skies." She said as they made their way outside to the aircraft's deck.
Deck, however, was a bit of an overstatement as it was nothing more than a gazer. Unlike a maritime ship, the aerial one didn't have an exposed surface that could be called deck as there was a massive balloon on top of the vessel which composed four-fifths of its volume, if not more.
As reduced as the space on the deck-gazer was, it was littered with people. Some waved at people who were staying at the airport, much like those bidding goodbye in the station on Selen when they had ridden the train.
A soft whistle sounded and the airport workers removed the plank and the anchors binding the Northern Wind to the ground. A moment later, the ground they stood on shook and they started moving.
It was a bit jarring at first, especially for Xochipilli who had seemingly switched to acuity to have a better sense of balance, but it was only the first impression as it didn't take long for the turbulence to end and the aircraft to stabilize.
No longer bound, the Northern Wind rose to the skies. And it did with them.
"Oh…" A fool would mistake Xochipilli's weak reaction with disappointment, but Aloe knew better than that. It took a lot to silence the child, and now, he was at a complete loss of words.
"Yes, oh." Aloe smiled with her hands on the railing as they flew as high as birds, the colossal modern Sadina now looking smaller than her petite ancient Sadina. "This era might drive me sometimes crazy, but I must admit that its inhabitants have mastered the gift of flight."
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The3rd
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