The city fell.

  There were no politics involved, there were no wars or secret plots. This fall was natural, slow, and gravity-oriented.

  I would describe the city as beautiful, but that would be lying. Most places such as it existed only as a memory of a time that no one appreciated. It was a ruin that had been designed to last millennia. And in a way, it would have.

  It hadn’t even run out of the ancient secrets that kept it in the sky; no, this was the fall that came deliberately. Whether it was the programming of the ancients that caused it or something else, the people of the sky had no idea. The Niortak just knew that once a city started to fall, the only thing they could do was leave. So they packed their bags, spread their wings, and fled their homes.

  The city itself was unaware of their leaving; in fact, I’m not at all sure that there had even been anyone to leave. But I do know that a few days later, the city was gone, crashing into a farm and destroying the hesitant dreams of a man who’d taken up the shovel. Now it was just another ruin in a broken world.

  Sent watched from the sky as his home burned, blinking back tears as his entire livelihood was extinguished before his eyes. Sent wasn’t one of the Niortak from the fallen city. He wasn’t even sure which town it had been; it didn’t really matter.

  All Sent knew was that it had crushed the farm that his father had cultivated. It had fallen onto the land that his great-grandfather had first owned, tamed, and loved. This city had destroyed his plants, his carefully crafted watering system, and his home. It left nothing but flames in its wake.

  The man wasn’t sure how he was meant to react to this, so once the city stopped burning, he simply flapped his spectral wings, dove from the sky, and alighted atop the highest point nearby, which ended up being one of the towers from the destroyed city.

  This was an irony that no one besides me would ever appreciate. I’m good at that, spotting irony that is.

  Sent looked down at the destruction around him and felt a deep sadness at his core. He knew he had options for what to do next, but he just perched there for several moments, frowning at the ground beneath him. He may not have taken the farm willingly, but he still loved it as he had loved his father.

  It felt unnatural to bind a Niorta to anywhere forever. By nature they were nomads, moving with the whims of the world’s prosperity, exploring all it held for them, migrating from city to city and land to land with a desire for something new. However, Sent had already felt his thirst for adventure flicker and die out. He wasn’t the same person anymore that he’d once been.

  The man jerked his head to the side as he caught movement from his peripheral vision. Was someone down there? Sent lived days away from the nearest village; no one should be nearby even if they were curious about the ruins. Perhaps it was someone who’d stayed in the doomed city?

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  That idea didn’t make sense. Cities fell sometimes and anyone who’d lived up there would be perfectly capable of getting away, unless it was one of the metal folk, but usually they deactivated themselves before then. Sent’s eyes focused on it once more and he frowned, spreading his spectral wings as he left the tower and glided down to get a closer look.

  The movement belonged to what appeared to be a Suiki. Sent could tell from how his skin was pale, with the bluish cast to it that was a constant among the people of the night, he even had the rumored four arms, which Sent found strange—okay, okay, just imagine a Tuvei but not—The only things that seemed out of place were how thin he looked and the fact that one of his legs seemed to be broken.

  It was strange to see a person so different from himself. Mostly Sent felt the oddest part was that the Suiki had hair instead of feathers, his eyes kept focusing on that fact against his will. He knew that they were still mostly the same kind of creature in the end, they’d just been bound to different gods.

  The stranger seemed to be struggling, his leg was bent at an unnatural angle and it hampered him a great deal, but he was clearly trying to get somewhere anyway. I’m not at all sure where, so don’t ask me that question, but I’m sure he was plotting something. Everyone Is plotting something, right?

  Sent watched him for a long moment, though he didn’t seem to think the Suiki was a threat. The Niorta descended from his glide, landing nearby while trying to make enough noise in the process that the struggling man would hear him coming. This was only polite, and I’ll have you know that politeness is the strongest defining trait I really remember that Sent had.

  He felt his spectral wings dissolve into nothingness. As predicted, the Suiki turned toward him sharply, eyes wide and arms immediately poised for the possibility of combat. It was an amusing scene to me, a strong Niorta with his arms folded and expression open watching a scrawny—yes I said scrawny—Suiki with a broken leg and a violent attitude.

  Sent tilted his head at the stranger but didn’t come closer, just now realizing how young he was, an adult but still soft; he barely even had any facial hair which Sent felt like he’d heard was common among the Suiki.

  “Would you like assistance?” This is your friendly reminder that Sent is very courteous as a first course of action; even with his farm burned out around him and strange rubble scattered all about.

  The Suiki glared at him, “I don’t need help. I don’t need anything.” Like I said, he had a violent attitude.

  “I see, well come with me then.” Sent manifested one of his small wings and forced it underneath the Suiki, who fell over onto it, pinwheeling his arms for balance before falling onto his back and staring up at the sky with shock. “I was being polite but clearly you need a firmer hand.”

  The entitled child gaped at him, apparently having no idea what could have possibly possessed Sent to disrespect him like that, “I’ll have you know-”

  “I don’t actually want to know what you’re about to say, but I have a feeling it’s going to make me mad. I’m helping you, and you’re going to accept that help whether you like it or not. Do we have an understanding?”

  The stranger continued to gape at him, “That’s not fair!!”

  “If you want to be treated with respect then you have to treat me with respect. I did nothing to deserve your anger.”

  “You-!”

  Sent ignored him, walking off, the spectral wing floating behind him as it carried the violent Suiki off toward the nearest village. He wanted to know where this kid had come from, but in the end he figured it wouldn’t actually change anything.