The next word that came was the word 'wind'
And then the path was shown to me.
I beat my wings and then I flew...
...into God's waiting arms.

'Voices' from the Soundtrack to Maccross Plus.

The night was a deep pool of darkness, the stars shining like distant flickers of candles above barely visible as though blocked by the bulk of some great beast. Kim stood atop the crumbling Victorian monument, the Cemetary peaceful and quiet. A light breeze brought the lace of frost on the air, carressed her senses with the chill of the night air, and drove a sigh from deep in her heart. Spreading her arms she let herself feel the wind, knowing there was not a living soul within sight, knowing and feeling she was alone as her raven tresses reflected the constellations above more clearly than the miasmic sky itself.

Her duster, aflutter in the breeze, unfolded with the motion of her arms. Great wings, their span twice again the length of her body, unfurled from the sacred geometry of their complex concealment. No longer a duster, the Heaven Strike Cloak was now an open instrument of flight, built to catch and hold the wind, built to bend the etherial force of motion with the lacing of black iron that cnducted electricity with the perfect resonance of lift. They were Ether Sails and they took her a step closer to the sky.

Kim sought comfort in the wind, sought answers from the only element that she knew to fit her; air. It had been months since she had soared amongst the clouds, defying the Technocracy had taken even that from her. She had once soared through the sky, both the clouds and the stars above, thoughher heart was heavy with the intent of her flying then; the subjection of Reality.. Being a Son of Ether had not yet been able to give her that gift back and her heart ached to be amongst the clouds, amidst the stars. She was alone, Aliya and Korshan had left to mourn the loss of Guy and Kim ffelt useless as she had strove to comfort her. A lost child, her teacher, Guy, lost from her, her growing love of Aliya fought down over and over again out of respect to the man whom Kim called teacher, Kim let tears stram down her cheeks as she yearned to float to the clouds Even Beatrice, her closest and dearest friend, was gone at the moment and she needed her one true home; the sky.

Would the Teknology work? Could she catch the Ether winds with such small sails? Would the Ether support her...?

The only way to find out was to place her faith in the fifth element to which she now devoted her studies, to let it draw her upwards. As she let all doubt drain from her, she crouched and her wings caught the air with her arms moving them, adjusting their angle, their spread.

And with her faith she lept.

A heartbeat spread into the darkness as outstretched wings caught the ripples in reality, carrying her aloft even from so small a height. The soft crackle of electricity scintilated along the lengths of the sails and Kim flew upwards on an updraft forged by coincidence, reality reshaped by a master craftsman. She could feel the pleasure of her Avatar as it echoed her own, gliding higher, above the trees, the stars so much closer and yet so much further away.

Slowly, despair filtered into Kim's heart as she began to decend from the sky again. Returning to earth like a fallen angel she drifted to an open spot for a landing. The sails would let her glide, but the Teknology was not perfected, she could not use them to truely fly...yet. Alone she wept, pulling her arms about herself. Even amidst her sorrow of being yet denied her flight, she knew she had her wings.

She wept because she simply wanted to be close to one person, to have been able to land, to return to one woman whom she had devoted her protection to. David's words still echoed in her mind 'Don't fall in love with her, she is married, you will only be hurt'. He was right, as always, she knew that. Kim had felt so like a moth to the flame, her guilt at what she once was perhaps driving her to self destruction.

Guilt pressed down on her with its own weight and gravity. She felt guilt that her love was married to her teacher. She felt guilty that she cared as much for her as her adopted daughter and perhaps more, guilty that even Guy's loss seemed only to make it stronger, as she softly whispered with her wings enfolding her body "Aliya".

The sky was a silent observer to the pain of its wayward daughter, the stars shining with their cold, distant, beauty.