Flying South

After the graduation ceremony, Aila and Kuléo stayed on a little longer in the Catacombs to save up more money and finalize their plans. Aila and Kuléo both had the option of asking “Halo Holdings” for money if they wanted to pursue some career that could benefit Dr. Halalo’s work. But they were both interested in continuing to explore and learn for now. Neither of them really knew what sort of work they’d like to do as a career. What did winged people do for careers, anyway? It was one of the many things that they were still trying to figure out.

“This looks lovely,” Aila said one day, looking at the brochures for one of the universities in Montpellier. “It’s on the ocean, it looks warm and sunny, and it’s not too far from the mountains we visited. And look here, they have a program for dance and music. It’s just the sort of thing I’ve been interested in, spending so much time with Képaki and Néhala.”

Kuléo looked at the brochure and said, “It does look nice. I’m still not sure what I’d do there yet, but I’m sure we could figure something out. Maybe I’d wait a little longer before jumping in. It wouldn’t hurt to have one of us working, still.”

“I bet we could find you some classes,” she said.

He smiled. “I don’t need the excuse of attending the university to come with you.”

“Are you sure you won’t get bored?” she asked him.

“Naahhh, I’m sure I can find something.”

He didn’t sound entirely sure of himself, but Aila let it drop.

That weekend she filled out the application and sent it in.

“Oh, Aila,” Dr. Halalo said as he stopped her in the hallway one day in the following week. “Before you go, I wanted to talk with you about naming ceremonies.”

“A naming ceremony?” Aila asked.

“Yes,” he continued. “Traditionally, in Ka’aulele culture, people are sometimes given a new name. Initiates into the arts–alchemy, music, dance, and others–are the ones who most commonly take them, but anyone can do so. Some will take a name purposefully as a way of bringing a change into their lives, but I would argue that they’re still receiving the inspiration for that name. That taking of a name is only the beginning of a lengthy magic working. Or perhaps another stage in one that had started even earlier.”

“Receiving the inspiration... you mean the Song?” Aila asked, looking up at him.

He nodded. “That’s one way, yes.”

The two of them had been walking down a hallway, and he steered her into the cafeteria where they could sit down for a few moments, after grabbing a small snack.

“But letting too many people into a working,” Aila said as they walked to a table, “or letting the wrong people in... can sometimes jeopardize the work. So you wouldn’t tell anyone except people you truly trusted.”

“Some do it that way, yes.”

“I see,” she finished lamely.

“The naming ceremony,” he continued around bites of an apple, “is an important phase of that original working. What happens then, and after that, is determined strongly by the bearer’s intent and the ceremony itself.”

“But I’ve already told everyone mine,” Aila said, dismayed. “And quite a few who really would disrupt a working,” she continued, thinking of the obnoxious Ailéa at that last, disastrous party.

“Actually, you’ve done something very interesting,” he replied. “You wear it on the outside, and it has become a badge of becoming for you. Rather than a secret thing that must be carefully shielded, your experiences have gone into making yours stronger all on its own. It can be a powerful thing to do, for the right reasons.”

“So...” Aila started, not sure what to say. “What would a naming ceremony do for me, then? Since my name has been out there for all the world to see, and quite a lot of the world speaks it like a curse word...” The thought almost brought tears to her eyes.

“Fewer than you think,” he replied. “But each person must decide what the working means all for themselves, anyway.”

Aila thought back to her sudden moment of knowing in the hospital. One moment she was only Midnight; the next, it was simply in her mind like a flash of inspiration. Aila. She nodded to Dr. Halalo and explained to him where she heard hers.

“Yes,” he said. “Dream–it’s a beautiful name, and so appropriate for you. It’s sometimes brought on by moments of stress or extreme excitement; sometimes it’s even a result of it, an epiphany. It has to age, to ripen, to become a part of you. A naming ceremony can help that along, or it can be a celebration of it, or any number of other things.”

Aila thought about it for a moment, trying on the idea of a naming ceremony in her mind. Something just didn’t seem quite right about it, right now, and she said as much to him.

“I thought you might feel that way,” he replied. “But... it’s my duty to tell you about all of this. It’s yours to decide when you’re ready.”

He sat in thought for a few moments and then laughed. “And it’s not always the only name we’ll ever receive in life. For example, you’re Aila, but you’re also Aile, Midnight, Ma’ana, and other things, no doubt. They’re all meaningful to you in different ways, and every one of them seems to have a magical significance for you, which is unusual. Some people will have multiple naming ceremonies. But remember that often, the end of one working is the beginning of another, or just a step in a larger working. Perhaps your name will have another ’building’ phase, or end up as something else entirely. Who knows?”

As mid-summer approached, Kuléo and Aila continued their packing, and found a place to ship their boxes until they arrived. Everything went out little by little. Neither of them had a whole apartment’s worth of jonque, but they were both surprised by how much they’d managed to acquire through their years in the Catacombs.

Everyone at the Catacombs who knew them, which was almost everyone, started to come around and spend extra time with them, knowing that they would miss those two, not knowing when they might see each other again. Many of them had lived together ever since Aila had moved in. She had found out earlier that Kuléo had actually stayed with a friend elsewhere through his change, and a little beyond. He had still been living there when he met Aila the first time.

“I was still trying to give myself the illusion of living a normal life,” he had explained. “But in the end, people who lived around us saw me change, and they knew. The ones who hadn’t talked with me wondered if I’d caught something and would pass it on.” He laughed, a little bitterly. “So it was harder than I’d expected. I moved here eventually so I could help people better. I’d been booted out of my life at home, then out of my chosen life up there, so it seemed best to stop fighting it.”

“That’s so sad, that people would be that way,” Aila had then said in commiseration. “But it doesn’t surprise me anymore.”

Finally the day came, and their rooms were all empty, everything that remained packed into travel bags that they would take to the zeppelin port. Everyone was actually teary that day, except the always dry Dr. Halalo.

“I’m proud of you both,” he said. “You both came here under... unusual... circumstances. I’m happy to call you my kin.” At that, it looked like he would almost choke up a little, but he kept his reserve. Neither Aila nor Kuléo were quite able to manage it; hearing such words never became normal or old. Dr. Halalo seemed like he wanted to say something else, but all he said, finally, was, “Stay in touch, hmm?”

It was surreal for them both to walk past the lunch room, past the coat rack, out the door... out of their old lives. New adventures would await.

They were seated at bar stools at a window area near the cafeteria, watching Paris recede in the distance. The Eiffel Tower, at which Aila had had so many adventures with Irène and others, was just visible.

“I think I need to go do something else,” Aila said in a slightly choked up voice. “It’s time to look forward.”

Kuléo gave her a little wing touch. “We’ll come back,” he said, a bit wistful too. “We’ll come back.”

The trip was somewhat familiar to the two of them, since they’d flown over much of the same ground over a year ago. But it was hard not to compare the view from outside the zeppelin with that earlier trip, especially since there hadn’t been anything between them and that world far below, not even a piece of glass.

“It’s a lot less effort, though, huh?” Kuléo said when Aila voiced just that thought.

She laughed a little. “Yeah, it sure is. But I almost wish we were out there, either way.” Then her face lit up as if she’d had a little epiphany.

“What is it?” Kuléo asked her with a smile.

“Oh, nothing, nothing yet,” she replied mysteriously.

Several hours later, when they were nearly there, Kuléo found out just what.

“The captain said that if we were careful,” she said, “we could go out one of the service hatches and fly the rest of the way to the zeppelin port ourselves.”

“If we’re careful.” Kuléo said it in a deadpan voice that promised argument.

“It sounds like fun, doesn’t it?” Aila said with her best little-girl smile.

“It really does. But it also sounds like... fan blades and unpredictable wind currents from being caught in this thing’s wake.”

“Merciiiii,” Aila whined at him.

Of course he knew that she would stay there if he really, really wanted her to. He also knew that she knew that her little requests like this were irresistible when she’d put her mind to them. And Kuléo knew that she had done so. He couldn’t blame her, really. They had been cooped up in the zeppelin for hours. Which would not normally have been a big issue; they had lived in the Catacombs for years, after all. But it was hard to see the blue sky out there and the ground beneath them, and not want some fresh air.

“Fine, fine, fine,” he said, laughing at her squeal of happiness. Sometimes he could look at her and still see the little girl he’d met so many years ago; but he liked how they were now.

The two of them stowed their luggage somewhere where it would be offloaded into the port without their intervention, and they followed a crew member down a narrow passage to the service areas. It was obviously not built for Na’aulele, which struck Kuléo as strangely incongruent. Who better to fly airships? But he just pulled his wings in, as close as they would come, and endured it.

A few moments later, they were at a door through which blue sky could be seen.

“Are you sure you really want to do this?” the crewman asked them.

Aila hesitated a moment, looking through the door and imagining the ferocity of the wind. But she did nod, and the two of them walked up to the door. The crewman opened a complicated-looking locking mechanism, pushed the door open, and the air was suddenly loud and rushing by. Aila was surprised to realize that there wasn’t just a door to the outside: it actually led out onto a catwalk structure so the crew could come out and access outside pieces of the ship while it was flying. Farther down the walk, a little well-latched gate let out into the blue.

Thankfully, the catwalk led to the left, or Aila and Kuléo would have had to walk backwards to avoid the heavy winds on their wings.

“Let’s do it sky-dive style!” Aila yelled as loud as she could to Kuléo, to be heard over the howling wind. He nodded and said, “my little dare-angel,” under his breath, but Aila didn’t hear. She looked back at him once more as if saying, ready? She turned back and pushed the gate open, and then dived off head-first.

Her first sensation was a feeling of vertigo and panic at not having her wings under her from the beginning. That and the comparatively utter silence in which she was falling. She looked back up and saw the zeppelin, already high above them in the sky, and Kuléo not far behind her, watching her.

Aila yelled out “Woo hoooo!” and made the Ka’aulele sign for “wings out”, and they pulled up gracefully into a glide toward the town.

It was already visible not too far away. A little city on the edge of a sparkling blue ocean, mountains off to their right, and wind generators dotting the hillside.

She called her bird-cry, and Kuléo called his; he looked over at her to see her smiling and making the sign for netua. Home.

They landed at the zeppelin port and picked up their bags from the baggage storage area. Their flight had arrived half an hour earlier, but there was no real hurry for them. They were staying with a friend who had graduated from L’aide Alchemique a little while back, until they could find an apartment for themselves, but their friend just knew they were coming in some time today.

Kuléo was amused to note that some of the tramway public rail cars had little white silhouetted birds on them. He pointed to one, and Aila smiled.

“I don’t think it’s a statement about Na’aulele,” she said quietly. They had received a few looks reminiscent of their visit to the inn last summer. People in this small city were more cosmopolitan than in the outlying areas, especially with multiple universities in town, but they still hadn’t spent the last several years steeped in Ka’aulele presence and culture. “Les volants,” they heard someone murmur behind them once on the tram, but when they looked in the direction it had come from, they found a parent speaking quietly to his child, and then waving at them when they noticed Aila and Kuléo looking back. Les volants smiled and waved back to them.

The city center of Montpellier was a joy to Aila and Kuléo; not only did it have a feeling of history that was close and personal in a way that Paris seemingly lacked, much of it also felt very open. Tall arches, and plazas with tram lines cutting right across them; no shuffling down into a claustrophobic underground tunnel to catch one. Not very many cars to dodge, either, which was a definite plus for a flier. One never knew when one would have to land suddenly, and it could be quite precarious around the busy streets and sidewalks of Paris.

And as much as anything, the town had a feeling of vitality to it, but it was so much quieter.

“It’s almost like the Song is quieter here,” Aila mused, “because it doesn’t need to be so loud to be heard over the cacophony of thoughts and feelings.”

“The buildings and everything, too,” Kuléo added. “It’s just more like being out in the countryside. It’s not just the air; I never realized how much I could feel the weight of all those buildings and development until that trip last summer.”

The glow of newness in a new place carried them through their first few days of difficulties. They found the house of their friend Palani without trouble; it was across town from the university that Aila had been accepted to, but it was friendly and open. She welcomed them with hugs and greetings. It was a place for them to stay for a few days and get their bearings while they found an apartment to rent near the university. The three of them stayed up late into the night, catching up on all the news about the Catacombs since she had left.

The next day, Kuléo began an apartment search while Aila went to the university to check in.

She spent most of her time wandering around and looking at everything, trying to get a feel for the place. She noticed several places that would make good lift-off points, and marked them on the map she’d obtained from the student center. Aila was surprised to find others already marked on the map–they were not shy about being progressive here. She’d been preoccupied up to that point with her map and her explorations, and hadn’t spent much time looking at the people. Occasionally someone would smile and wave, and even more occasionally, someone would do a double or triple take and head the other way, but for the most part people just let her be. It was pleasant to know that, here at the university at least, the prevailing attitude was in their favor.

When Aila went to dinner that night with Kuléo, at a restaurant near Palani’s house, they discovered that the positive attitude was not entirely universal. They received quite a few looks during that meal, and the wait staff had been bordering on belligerent about having to find them chairs they could use with their wings. Kuléo overheard more than one unkind whisper from customers emboldened by the staff. All in all, they were happy to leave there and head back to Palani’s house.

“Let’s not go back there,” Aila said when they’d left.

“Seriously,” Kuléo replied. “Maybe I could start a web site for Ka’aulele-safe restaurants and accommodations.” He was thinking back to their experience with the inn, too.

Aila laughed a little and then realized he was being serious. She shrugged. “Probably wouldn’t hurt. So, no luck on apartments today, hmm?”

Kuléo shook his head. He looked slightly peeved, which was not an emotion she typically associated with him.

“No one is outright denying us because of who we are,” he said. “And I think they’re honest about that. There just really isn’t much here that’s comfortable for us that I can find, so far. I’ve been asking rental agencies so far, but I might try to look around a bit myself.”

“It couldn’t hurt,” she replied. “There might be new things not listed yet.”

Kuléo nodded, but his face implied that he was dubious.

Aila had a meeting scheduled with an advisor on Friday, and by that time Kuléo still hadn’t found much that would actually make them comfortable. They had a couple of strict requirements. For one thing, the ceilings needed to be nice and tall so they wouldn’t be constantly stooping down inside. Lower doorways they could deal with, though they preferred something with larger ones. And as much as anything, they absolutely needed some kind of access to a roof or an open balcony that they could fly from. The apartment listers didn’t even have that kind of statistics on their properties–roof access wasn’t a commonly requested amenity.

He headed out once again, though. They were starting to feel a little guilty for imposing on Palani for this long, and she didn’t really have much input, either; she’d found a house for all these reasons. The house wasn’t tall, but it had given her the opportunity to build a pole she could climb and dive from.

At the university, Aila was walking to her appointment and realized she’d be at least half an hour early, so she sat down on a park bench.

“They don’t make them very comfortable, do they?” she heard a voice say, and then she looked up to see a young Ka’aulele woman walking over to her. “I’m Téwai,” she said, holding her hand out, which Aila shook lightly. “Are you just starting here?”

“I’m Aila,” she replied. “I just got here a couple of days ago, actually. It’s a little overwhelming at first.”

“Yeah it is,” Téwai agreed. “I guess you grew up here like most of us our age, huh?”

“I did,” Aila said carefully. She didn’t want to start off a new friendship by lying, but she wasn’t ready to tell them the truth yet, either.

“I figured,” Téwai said, nodding. “Your French is too good for anything else. Are you busy right now?”

Aila told her about the appointment with her advisor.

“Ah well,” Téwai replied, digging in her shoulder bag. “Take one of these. There’s a club here on campus for Na’aulele. Maybe you can find some new friends.”

“I wonder if they could help us find an apartment,” Aila mused as she took the piece of paper.

“Oh, hey! You haven’t found a place yet?” Téwai asked. “There’s a building near here that some of us have jokingly started calling The Rookery. Nice open spaces with tall ceilings, and the manager is totally hip to letting people use the roof.” She scribbled something down on Aila’s club flier–a phone number and address–and handed it back to her. “I think there might even be an opening right now. There aren’t just flocks and flocks of us, here.”

“Élari naia,” she replied enthusiastically. Thank you much! “I think you might’ve saved us.”

“Éluai. You brought a friend, too?” Téwai asked.

“My boyfriend,” Aila replied, not able to keep a silly smile off her face at the word, still.

“Ohhhh?” Téwai teased her. “You should both come to a meeting, then. It’s nice to have friends here, and we’re a friendly group. Besides... nothing beats seeing familiar feathers, right?”

Aila’s big smile was answer enough. “We’ll definitely come. Élari ’ia élari!”

Kuléo was ecstatic about the news, because he hadn’t found anything still.

“How could I not have found this place by now?” he asked her. “You’d think I would notice that, a building with Na’aulele constantly jumping off and landing.”

“Don’t beat yourself up over it,” Aila chided him mildly. “At least we have it now.”

They went over to it later that Friday and spoke to the manager. They had not one, but two apartments open.

The first one faced a plaza, and was slightly larger. The ceilings were wonderfully tall, and the doors were tall and wide as well. Many windows let in a plethora of light, and the wooden floors glowed. An open kitchen and living area gave it a feel of vast space.

The second one was slightly smaller in floor space, although it was otherwise similar. But the view was quite different: out the windows, the rest of the town could be seen, dotted with trees, and the ocean was visible in the distance.

“Most people do like that view,” the manager said with a slight chuckle.

But what decided Aila and Kuléo the most was that there were no doors inside this apartment. It was technically a studio apartment, though there were walls separating out the spaces, with wide and tall arches opened between them. Aila already had visions of a wooden loft built in one of the areas with a little nest of pillows on top for them to curl up inside... She’d never had such a birdy feeling as that before, but it just felt so right.

It turned out it was a bit more expensive than the other one, in spite of having no fully separated rooms, mainly on account of the view. But they took it anyway.