Flight had come to the Court of Day the way most things did, suddenly, and then everywhere at once, and Ilios had taken to it as though he had always known.
He landed hard upon the terrace from his latest flight, the impact ringing out like a struck bell. Golden light flared outward from beneath his boots before settling again into the steady glow of the court.
“Too slow!” he called back over his shoulder as he straightened, laughing.
Across the terrace, another figure dropped from the sky and landed a heartbeat later, rolling his shoulders as his feet met the stone.
He was broad and quick, solid in a way that didn’t slow him, just made him harder to stop. His red-gold hair was mussed and wind-skewed from the flight, his glow warm and bright with it.
He flashed a half-grin at Ilios.
“You never actually said go,” Aurelion replied.
Ilios spread his arms wide.
“That sounds like an excuse. You were watching me. You saw me give the signal.”
Aurelion gave him a sideways look.
“Oh, you mean the grin you had before launching into the air?”
“See,” Ilios replied easily. “You were watching me.”
Aurelion snorted.
“Someone has to.”
Ilios laughed.
“Come on,” he said, tilting his head toward the open sky. “Once more.”
Aurelion narrowed his eyes slightly at the currents above, where stars streaked through in loose arcs, their laughter echoing as they dove between the flowing streams of light.
“You only want another race because you know you had a head start.”
“That,” Ilios corrected, “was strategic positioning.”
“It was a head start.”
“It was winning,” Ilios said.
Aurelion stared at him for a long moment, then shook his head, a quiet laugh escaping him.
“You’re insufferable.”
“But faster.”
“That’s unproven.”
Ilios gestured toward the open sky.
“We could always prove it again.”
Aurelion followed the gesture, then let out a slow breath.
Before he could answer, a flicker of movement below the terrace caught Ilios’s attention.
He stepped closer to the edge and looked down.
Below them, several stars had gathered around a strange structure of curved golden rods and crystal rings that floated uncertainly in the air.
Ilios tilted his head.
“What are they working on now?”
Aurelion stepped up beside him and glanced down.
“Some kind of light-catcher.”
“A what?”
“They believe if they shape the crystal rings correctly, they can redirect the light currents.”
Ilios blinked.
“Why would they want to do that?”
Aurelion shrugged.
“How’m I supposed to know? To see if they can?”
Ilios nodded slowly.
“I suppose that’s reason enough.”
They watched as one of the stars below adjusted the ring’s angle.
The structure lurched, spun once, and began drifting away from the terrace, causing several voices to cry out and one of the stars to leap into the air in pursuit.
Aurelion folded his arms, trying and failing to suppress a grin.
“I see they’re making progress.”
Ilios huffed a quiet laugh. Then, still watching: “There has to be a better way.”
Aurelion was quiet for a moment.
“Since you mention it,” he said, and turned toward the far side of the terrace.
Leaning against one of the tall pillars was a structure of radiant metal and interlocking rings, more refined than the chaos below.
Ilios walked toward it, curiosity sharpening his focus.
“What is it?”
“A better way to ride the currents.”
Ilios tilted his head slightly.
“We already ride the currents.”
“Yes,” Aurelion said patiently. “But we could do it better.”
Ilios studied the device.
“You’re trying to make flying easier,” Ilios said.
“I’m trying to make it faster.”
Ilios’s grin returned at once.
“Faster?”
“Faster.”
“Now that,” Ilios said, “is worth testing.”
Aurelion stepped back, gesturing toward it.
“Well?”
“You want me to test it?”
“You’re the one who claims to be the fastest.”
Ilios considered that for half a breath.
“All the more reason you should try it first.”
“And risk stealing the glory from my king?” Aurelion said, placing a hand over his chest in mock reverence.
Ilios glanced at him, amused, and did not deny the title.
“And if it tears me apart?”
Aurelion shrugged.
“Then we’ll know it needs improvement.”
Ilios laughed, already lifting the harness.
“That is an excellent philosophy.”
He fastened it across his shoulders.
Aurelion stepped back.
“Try not to destroy anything important,” he called.
Ilios stepped to the edge of the terrace.
“I promise nothing.”
Then he leaped.
The current caught him at once.
For a heartbeat, he moved as any other star might, carried in a smooth arc along the flowing light.
Then the harness answered.
The rings flared.
And Ilios surged forward.
Light rushed past him in radiant streams, each current catching and amplifying his momentum. The terraces streaked beneath him in flashes of gold and amber, bridges curving away like ribbons of sunlight as he tore through the sky.
Ilios laughed, a full unrestrained sound that echoed across the open heavens.
The harness sang with him, its energy rising in response to every shift of his shoulders. When he leaned, it obeyed instantly, catching a new current and hurling him sideways across the sky in a blazing arc.
Stars scattered in bursts of surprise and delight as he shot past them.
“Sorry!” Ilios called, though the grin in his voice betrayed that he wasn’t sorry at all.
A pair of younger stars spun in his wake, laughing as they were caught in the trailing edge of his momentum.
He didn’t slow.
He couldn’t.
He dipped lower, skimming the edge of a terrace before angling sharply upward again. The harness caught a stronger stream and flared brighter, pulling him into a rising spiral that carried him higher into the open sky.
“This is incredible!” he shouted into the rushing wind.
Behind him, far across the currents, Aurelion burst into motion.
“ILIOS!”
His voice chased after him, but Ilios was already too far ahead.
He pushed harder.
The harness responded instantly, blazing brighter as it caught another current, then another, each one faster than the last.
It was the chariot all over again, but faster. More direct. The same particular satisfaction, the same sense of the light running through all of it, and him moving with it. Only now, there was nothing between him and the sky.
He laughed again and dove forward into the next stream of light.
Then reached for the next one and found it further away than he expected.
The great rivers of radiance were spreading wider now, with the sky stretching further between them.
The speed still carried him, the harness still blazing as it caught each new stream. But he was slowing.
Then, far ahead, at the edge of the world he knew, he noticed that the light did not end.
It changed.
Gold softened into amber, then into hues he had never truly seen before, lavender, deep blue, a quiet silver that seemed to gather rather than shine.
Ilios slowed himself, and the harness dimmed as he drifted free of the current, hovering in the open sky.
Before him stretched another realm.
It was vast.
And it was alive.
Countless points of light shimmered across the darkness, steady, calm, deliberate. They did not rush or scatter, but traced slow graceful paths through the silver expanse. Structures rose among them, not blazing like those of Day, but glowing softly, towers of pale light, terraces veiled in shadow, groves where living radiance breathed gently among the dark.
Ilios did not speak.
He simply watched.
The realm felt different.
A slow smile touched his face.
It was beautiful.
Behind him, another burst of light appeared.
Aurelion.
He tore through the last strong stream and slowed sharply as he reached Ilios, his harness dimming as he came to a stop beside him.
For a moment, he said nothing.
Then he exhaled.
“…Of course you came all the way out here.”
Ilios didn’t look away from the other realm before him.
“Look at it.”
Aurelion followed his gaze.
Silence stretched between them.
“I see it,” Aurelion said at last.
Ilios studied the distant lights.
“Have you ever seen anything like that?”
Aurelion shook his head.
“Nooo.”
Ilios’s smile lingered.
“I want to know what it’s like there.”
Aurelion glanced at him immediately.
“No.”
Ilios let out a soft laugh.
“I’m just saying—”
“You’re never just anything,” Aurelion cut in.
Ilios finally looked at him, amused.
“I would only go a little closer.”
Aurelion folded his arms.
“That is exactly how this gets worse.”
“We were made at the same time,” Ilios said, gesturing toward the distant realm. “Doesn’t it make sense that we should see each other’s courts?”
“Eventually,” Aurelion said. “But not today.”
Ilios considered that for a moment.
“Not today?”
“No, Ilios. Not today.”
Aurelion relaxed slightly and stepped closer, placing a hand briefly against Ilios’s shoulder.
“Besides,” he added. “You already flew farther than anyone intended.”
Ilios glanced back over his shoulder.
The currents of Day stretched far behind them, the distant terraces not even visible now.
He let out a small breath.
“I suppose I did.”
Aurelion turned, angling himself back toward the flowing light.
“Come on,” he said. “Let’s get back before someone notices.”
Ilios looked once more toward the silver expanse.
Then he smiled.
“Race you back.”
Aurelion sighed. But followed.
With a burst of light, Ilios dove back into the current.
Aurelion followed a heartbeat later, the two streaking once more across the blazing sky of Day.
But as Ilios rode the current home, he glanced back one last time at the distant lights of Night shimmering softly at the edge of his realm.