“Time? What does that mean?” I asked after Alysia’s declaration.

“It’s just a feeling.” She sounded uncertain. “I’m able to see the strands of souls, bonds, mana, and so on. It’s necessary for me to be able to cut through them. I feel like there are threads of time within those colors. They are out-of-sync… distorted. I think we might be seeing the essence of time.” Alysia explained.

As we were having this discussion, Celeste immediately perked up. She flew off the edge of the ship, looking down at the ground below. Our spot on the ship gave a good view of the forest on one side and the Abyss on the other, but anything directly under use couldn’t be seen unless we hung out heads out uncomfortably over the railing. That area wasn’t really interesting anyway, because it was just dead space. However, Celeste was scanning below was carefully.

“What is it?” I asked, walking to the edge and looking down.

“I heard someone scream…” Celeste declared.

Celeste had a great affinity for wind, and that had also given her a great affinity with sound. Not only could she move incredibly fast, but she was also very sensitive to vibrations in the air. She could tell when someone was lying by the inflections in their voice, and I did not doubt that she could hear voices from extreme distances we couldn’t fathom.

“There!”

She declared, pointing to an area in front of the ship. I ran to the bow of the airship and looked in the direction she had pointed. My eyes were far better than they had been. I had a couple of skills to amplify them, although I still access my dungeon store and then put some points into a skill called Farsight so that I could see what she was talking about.

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In the distance, I could see a group of people. They appeared to be soldiers and they were mounted on those lizards that were used as horses in Dioshin. There was a person who was running from them, but they quickly caught up and surrounded them. I couldn’t make anything out about the person other than that they were wearing robes.

“Let’s go check this out.” I declared, feeling like this was at least an interesting diversion.

The Abyss was only an oddity. I didn’t want to dwell on it much more, as it would only be an annoyance. Thus, I gladly went for the distraction. I put a hand on the edge and then jumped right off the edge of the ship. Some of the men cried out in alarm, but then they remembered that I was the one who had rescued one of their crew when he had fallen earlier.

There was a time when leaping off a ship would have been terrifying, but this distance wasn’t too crazy for the current me. I created a barrier and then pushed off of it, using momentum to send myself toward the group of soldiers. I saw Celeste fly next to me. Although Celeste seemed simple, she often became the most bored when things dragged on. I wondered if her speed caused her perception of time to differ or what.

The guards had surrounded the person, and just as they pulled their weapons on the cloaked person, I landed right in the center, causing a cloud of dust to rise.