--- Nixilei ---

The pair got over their embarrassment quickly, but things remained awkward, thought for different reasons. It turned out that the suit stopped taking mana once Nixilei's arms had been removed from the sleeves. The problem now was what to do with it. For a few seconds the sleeves were just flapping about in the wind, but Nixilei was able to catch them before they hit Asteodia in the face, this time.

Nixilei tied the sleeves together after that and held them behind her back against the side of the cockpit. It wasn't exactly comfortable, but it did keep them from being a problem. No what made things awkward was that Nixilei still had her helmet on. There just wasn't anywhere to put it. There was barely any space down near their feet, and trying to squeeze it down there would likely stop the gears from turning fully.

Even now, Nixilei had to awkwardly press her legs up against the side of the plane and it still wasn't enough for Asteodia to turn the pedals without occasionally hitting Nixilei's legs. For now, that was the best they could do. Nobody was attacking them. The sky was mostly clear, and things weren't too bad. The main thing of concern was the giant forest they seemed to be flying towards. The trees on the edges weren't that large, but they were just at the edge of Nixilei's vision and they seemed to get progressively taller.

"You know.. this seemed like less of a squeeze back with Thyme. Perhaps we should've taken the balloon?" said Nixilei with a grin that she turned to show Asteodia, making it clear she wasn't serious.

To Nixilei's surprise, Asteodia's face lit up into a blinding bright smile and Nixilei felt her heart shudder for a moment. *Oh no.* "We never would've gotten away from Midnight and Chartreuse if we did that though," said Asteodia. "If I'd take the balloon, you would've been forced to protect me from Midnight, and if Chartreuse took advantage of our team-up to broker a team-up of their own..

"I imagine it would've ended badly for us. No proper ability to dodge and we'd have just been peppered by arrows, likely until the balloon popped. Even if you managed to save me from falling, we'd then have to fight for Chartreuse's glider, while keeping it as intact as possible, Midnight would then probably join in as well, and we'd have all sorts of problems. No if we went for the balloon Ellenell would've ended up winning for sure,"

*Well shit. Is this just because I let those thoughts about Green, Gareth and Stan bother me early today? I bet it is isn't it. Is this my punishment? What do I answer? Obviously I keep the argument going right? She seems so happy about it. Wait, why am I trying to make her happy?* Nixilei tried not to respond to her own obvious question. Still, she just needed to shove those thoughts away into a box for a bit.

"That's assuming we make it the full two hours," said Nixilei, hoping the slight waver she heard in her voice wasn't noticeably to the elf. "My mana reserves are only just now recovering, and it won't be at maximum speed because of the awkward spot I have to sit in. We've still got most of the two hours left, and I'm sure your mana isn't full either,"

"Eh.. I'm only down about thirty percent and most of that is from all the dodging I had to do with air blasts. The drain is quite manageable now. It's around one percent per minute. I could decrease it further if I was pedalling harder, but that would exhaust me too fast and cause more problems. So.. as long as we're not attacked the two of us can make it the full duration, no problems," said Asteodia. Nixilei wasn't quite willing to look at the elf right now, and didn't see the big smile still on her face, or the shine in her eyes,

"Yeah but that's only if we don't get attacked. You can see that forest in the distance as well, can't you?" asked Nixilei, a dash of real concern in her voice.

"Yes I can, and if we get attacked, we get attacked. I'll try and deal with it from the plane, but if not.. you'll have to suit up I suppose. Is that fine with you?" asked Asteodia, a touch of concern in her voice as well.

Nixilei nodded and said, "It should be fine. I haven't recovered much mana yet, but by the time we've reached the forest I'll have.. ten maybe twenty percent more? It might not be too much, but I can just stick to around the plane and fight off the attackers before resting afterwards. As long as it's not endless waves.. we should be fine. The plane can glide for a bit as well.

"If it comes down to it, we can probably just coast through the air while swapping off as soon as the other regenerates enough mana to get some height back while really putting effort into turning the gears. We might be exhausted by the end, but I think we could manage it for.. I want to say half an hour, but that might be overly optimistic." I think you should take a look at

"I'm sure you could manage the full thirty minutes yourself," said Asteodia before her brain could stop her mouth. She felt her cheeks reddening again, but Nixilei, thankfully wasn't turning around at the statement.

This was because Nixilei's face also had a slight dusting of red to it, not as much as Asteodia, but there was some visible and she was going to hide it at all costs. "I'm not quite that good," mumbled Nixilei. "My speciality is.. well.. I'm a spy, and an assassin so my training was more about quick, intense bursts of heavy combat over a few seconds to a minute at most, instead of endurance runs. I can probably reach a higher top speed on the gears then you.. but not for the same length of time,"

"Oh.. um.." Asteodia debated with herself internally on how to deal with this new information. It didn't change things.. right? Asteodia bit her lip and tried to work out what to say, when she felt Nixilei shifting slightly and that kicked her mind into gear. She wouldn't let Nixilei know this was bother her. "Is that something you enjoy?" was the best question she could come up with on short notice.

"I'm not sure really. I haven't exactly done much spying recently, and no assassination at all. I was trained for it though. I.. my parents were pretty horrible people, the only good thing they ever did for me was drop me off at the orphanage Green's parents run. Um.. not to imply the orphanage only trains people like me..

"They give everyone there a chance to just.. learn. It creates rather loyal workers and I happened to excel at the espionage training sections, so they made me an offer and I accepted. Then because of my healing affinity and Green's favourable opinion of me I ended up in more of a bodyguard role. Which.. I'm not exactly trained for.

"Granted, Green and Gareth are expected to take care of themselves, but the fact I know how to heal people is just too valuable in a bodyguard. For good reason I suppose, and it's taken me away from what I was trained for. I'm not sure how I feel about it sometimes. I like those two, they're good friends..

"But I also enjoyed my work as a spy, if not the assassination part. I didn't do many of those missions anyway. Still the spying was nice. Getting into a role, gathering information and trying to work out what it all meant. It was a grand puzzle I liked to solve and I miss it.. but if I really want, I could just take up archelogy or something,"

"Huh.. I never really thought about doing something like that. What sort of spying did you do? Ah.. wait can you tell me?" asked Asteodia, genuinely curious and trying to push down any uncomfortable feelings she had with Nixilei's profession.

"Ah.. well no I can't go into any specifics but I was mostly assigned to more short-term internal investigations. Inside Green's family territory. It was mostly due to my age, and my budding friendship with Green. I never went on anything particularly long term. The only assignment that I've been on that counts as long term, was when I had to pretend to be a new kid at the orphanage for six months. I wasn't.. too bad at it, but pretending to be myself and another teen at the same time was a bit difficult for me and quite a few people figured it out,"

"Ah that makes sense," said Asteodia. "I suppose healing being so rare, relatively speaking, makes you more valuable as a healer then as a spy,"

Nixilei shrugged and said, "Perhaps so. It might not be just that, but I always tended to do well on the healing tests, and I suspect part of the reason they want me adventuring with Green is to push me to Rank 3 or 4, perhaps higher. Healing is rare, but healers that manage to go up ranks are much, much rarer,"

"Of course," said Asteodia with a nod. "Not many healers get the push needed to rank up. They're coddled a fair bit. Even if it's understandable," historical

Nixilei shivered and said, "Yeah I'd hate that. As I said, I'm fairly happy with my role, it's just not what I was trained for,"