The Wild Flight

Aila flew.

She flew as she had never flown before. In twists and spirals, in circles. The “ecstatic rites of Kokonéfara” popped into her head and she smiled in understanding. This was what it was. This was the meaning. Something seemed to possess her, and she allowed it, welcomed it. Some primal force was flowing through her, and she didn’t know what it wanted, she just knew that it felt right.

They wanted a fairy tale? They wanted her fey magic? Let it come.

In her studio, an artist heard Aila’s screech and had a moment of disquiet; she had no idea what it was, and as soon as it was gone, she forgot that it had even registered on her mind. But there was a stirring in her soul now that made her fingers itch to get something on a canvas right now.

Aila danced through the sky all around the town, working out her energy. The drumming that had taken root in her mind came forth, and she felt as though she were drumming on the world itself with great, cosmic drumsticks.

The artist soon realized that this was the piece she’d been waiting for; she had felt somewhat uninspired up to now, just knowing that she wanted to make art, and working commissions mostly. But this was the one that made her feel like an artist.

The Song sang through Aila’s veins, flowing through her body with her blood. She could feel both of them so intimately.

A young couple walked along the riverfront; they were both shy, but they loved each other very much. Suddenly, a swirl of colors fled through their minds. They felt free and full of hope and confidence.

“Will you marry me?” the young man asked.

Aila saw everything so clearly in the night air, and that vision was overlaid with a kind of second-sight. Everything glowed with the radiance of life.

A little girl child was sleeping in her bed, but suddenly tossed and turned. She was having a fevered, heart-aching dream; she had always wanted magic, needed it, but had never felt it like this. She didn’t wake, then; but in the morning she would feel different somehow, changed. The whole of the fate of her life had just changed directions. And as the morning light streamed into her window, she would find a large blue feather with black and gray bars on the sill. Her eyes would open wide in wonder, and it would be a treasure she kept with her for the rest of her life, a talisman of this night.

At last, Aila felt the energy start to leave her. She was afraid she might have a crash, but the tiredness was a fulfilling one, like she’d done a good day’s work. She turned and flew toward home, surprised at how far she’d ranged from the university area.

When she got home, Kuléo had already gone to bed. She sat down at their little kitchen table and gulped in great, shuddering breaths. One of the feelings that had accompanied her that night in the club was brought back to her mind, too.

What the heck was that?

It felt like some kind of strange dream, and thinking back on it too hard made her feel almost embarrassed by the intensity of it. She felt that she certainly couldn’t tell anyone about it without feeling strange, or perhaps even that she was betraying something holy. But she agreed with her thoughts earlier in the night anyway: it felt right. It felt good.

When she walked into their bed area, Kuléo rolled over sleepily and mumbled a greeting. Then he gasped and startled awake, staring at the winged figure silhouetted in the door.

“Aila? ...Aila?” He sounded unsure of himself.

“It’s me,” she said with a little smile, feeling tired.

“You have this... wow. I can’t really describe it.”

“Is something in my hair?” She started running her fingers through it, looking for debris.

That brought them both back to earth again, and Kuléo laughed out loud. “No, nothing like that. You just... it feels like you’re blazing like a sun. What kind of drum circle was that, anyway?”

Aila snorted at his statement. If she was blazing like a sun now, she must have blinded people on the ground.

“A really, really good one.”

Aila was at school for her last day of actual classes for the term. Everyone was talking about summer plans, vacation ideas, the beach. Everyone knew that things were pretty much over with; it was just a matter of coasting until exams.

“It was the most amazing thing,” she overheard someone saying near her to his friend. “My buddy Guy proposed to his girlfriend last night. I never could’ve seen that coming.”

“Yeah, people were saying there was a weird feeling in the air last night,” his friend replied.

“No kidding. It was like a full moon come early, out there.”

“A friend of mine went nuts in her art studio last night. She turned out painting after painting and hardly got any sleep. I’ve seen one of them. It’s amazing, better than anything she’s ever made before.”

Aila felt a little chill at their words. Had she done this? It was wonderful, and she still felt heady with possibility. But it also felt like a terrible responsibility to shoulder. Could she really go about changing the world and everyone in it?

Then she thought back to her night of pondering everything that was wrong with the world. It felt like such a good idea, to be able to just reach in and give people their magic back. Maybe she couldn’t do it all by herself, but she’d find a way.

And then she had an idea.

“I decided to apply to IAR,” she told Kuléo that night. “Can I cash in my researcher help, now?”

“But you’ve only been through two terms at UM3,” he said. “I thought you were enjoying everything over there so much.”

“Oh I am, believe me, I am.” Her eyes twinkled at the memory of the drum circle and her wild flight. “But I’ve realized that it’s time for me to give back. I don’t just want to research. I have something specific in mind.”

“Can you at least give me some idea of what to expect?”

“What, and ruin all the fun of the surprise?”

“You want to do what?” one of the interviewers asked her, a Ka’aulele man with dark red wings that reminded Aila of a velvet cupcake.

“I want to build a Temple of Change,” Aila replied calmly.

“There’s only one Temple of Change on all of Planet Earth,” he replied. “And it’s not something we can really be sure about. Does it work? Dr. Halalo says it works, but who really knows? The man’s an alchemy genius, but he’s a little erratic. What are the long-term effects? For that matter, no one has used one in Hunéa for ages. We don’t even know what all they do.”

“We do know what they do,” she replied. “They bring about Change. The world needs change. Wonder. Magic.”

The interviewer scoffed and sat back in his chair.

“You sound as though you speak from long experience,” another interviewer said, a human woman. “So what are your qualifications, anyway? Who can you give us as a reference?”

“I can’t say.”

The woman almost rolled her eyes a little.

“Can you tell us something? A Ka’aulele of your age would not have had time to study before coming here through the aurora. There aren’t many masters on Earth.”

“It’s a family tradition,” Aila said, feeling that that was fairly accurate. Especially considering the certificate she had received that said just that.

“I’ve never heard of a Téwari clan with an alchemy tradition,” the third interviewer said. His wings were a light mottled yellow that reminded Aila of yellow cupcakes.

I really need lunch, she thought to herself.

“It’s not a clan name,” Aila replied, again truthfully. “It’s a name that was taken on later.”

“How about you tell us what you know?” the woman asked.

Aila nodded and proceeded to tell them quite a lot about the lessons she’d learned from Dr. Halalo.

“That’s quite thorough,” the red bird-man said when she had finished. He had an apologetic look on his face. “I know that you know enough to be one of our researchers, no problem. And we can let you in at that level. But we have a policy of not funding new projects or approving new research unless a person comes to us with a bit more in the way of solid credentials and references.”

The others nodded their heads. They thought they were handing her a bar of silver when she’d asked for gold, and that she ought to be happy with what she’d gotten for herself.

Aila sighed, looking down at the floor. It doesn’t matter, though. I don’t want to “research”. It’s not enough.

When she looked back up, a little of that fey wildness was back in her eyes, and she saw them flinch a little. “Do you know where that word, Ka’aulele, came from?” The room was quiet enough to hear the air conditioning. She let out a small, soft laugh. “It was a plural, first. Na’aulélé alulalé. Bringers of the spiritual light. Carriers of grace. Now look at us.

“Let me tell you a story. I’m going to answer your questions against my better judgement. And if you still won’t hear me out, I have other ways of proceeding. But I’d rather do it this way, and with the help of others. The world needs this now, not in however many years it takes me to build up trust and qualifications.

“I’ll start at the end and work backward. My alchemy master was Dr. Halalo. Yes, strangely I see that that name does ring a bell.

“When I left the halls of his workshop, I was given a promise. That all who studied with him were family, and could receive help with whatever they wanted to do. So you see, I could do it that way. But I want to work with your group.

“Why was I there? Because I was recovering. I was recovering from a very laborious and intense Change.

“What was that change? Now I’ll tell the beginning of the story and you can see where they meet in the middle.

“There was a human girl named Aile Molyneaux. Molyneaux means ’Miller’, just like Téwari, by the way; that’s foreshadowing. She had a need for wings so strongly that she would do anything to have that change. A change that I understand was the genesis of the Ka’aulele race, actually, long, long ago.

“One day the aurora opened up in the sky, and down came bird-people. People with wings. Her prayers were answered.”

Aila gestured with both wings and hands as she talked, as she was often wont to do when she was passionate about something.

“She ran from despair to despair until she found Dr. Halalo and his group. The very day that she first met the bird-man, she came through a Temple of Change and was changed for the first time; no longer Aile, but Midnight.

“A few hours later she was changed for the second time, in the same place; she was given wings.

“What’s in the middle of all of that story? The Temple of Change, of course. A place where wishes are granted and dreams come true.

“What came of little Midnight? Why, she grew her wings and went through a third change. Now her name is Aila and she stands in front of you.”

The group seemed not just quiet but stunned, shocked. They had definitely not been expecting this. This... this human girl? With such lovely and functional wings, and such an understanding of the principles they sought?

“I’m one of you. In many ways, I always have been. And if no one else will pick up the torch and fly it onward, it’s left to me. I will build a Temple of Change here and invite the world. I’ll bring the light, just as our ancestors did.”

She was finished, and stood there calmly, more calmly that she could’ve imagined she could be, given the circumstances. She had shamed them and made fools of them, and they were clearly chewing over the now-obvious reasons why she had not wanted to tell them everything. Then the tension went out of the woman and she laughed a merry laugh.

“That’s fantastic,” she said around a last laugh. “What a coup. I still don’t know enough about your experience or whether your plan is sound or sane. But I have to admire your audacity. We have a tradition for rebellion around here.”

Velvet Cupcake shook his head and looked at the ground, and Yellow Cupcake also started to chuckle a little bit.

“By the light, I would be proud of you if you were my own daughter,” he said. “Such fire. And much of what you said makes sense; many of your thoughts and methods are clearly from Dr. Halalo. I don’t know how I didn’t see it. I think we didn’t give him enough credit.”

Aila was tentatively smiling again.

“About this... other funding,” Velvet Cupcake said. “I don’t suppose we could convince you to do both?”

Aila was doing more than tentatively smiling, now.

In the end, they did approve both her joining and her project.

“I’ll have to cut down my school hours at UM3,” she told Kuléo that night. “But it’s worth it. This feels really important.”

He laughed at her description of the interviewers and their reactions. “Cupcakes? Oh my. You really were hungry. It’s too bad you had to tell them about your history, but at least you don’t have to hide it with the board anymore. They know who you are and who you studied with.”

She nodded and repeated her earlier thought. “It was worth it.” Then she smirked and giggled. “It was worth it just to see the looks on their faces and those droopy wings. Aila’s rule number one for bringing magic to the world: Stop taking yourself so seriously.”

“Amen to that,” Kuléo said. “Speaking of which... there’s something I’ve been wanting to tell you for a while now.” He looked suddenly serious. “We’ve been through so much together, and–”

The phone rang, and Aila looked like she might get up to get it, but he grabbed her arm.

“No, please... please, my little Midnight...”

Aila gave him a very tender look at his use of her old “secret” name. The phone rang again.

Kuléo swallowed hard, and now he wasn’t sure he could get it out. No time like the present.

“Will you marry me?”

Aila’s eyes went wide, and her heart skipped a beat. That was definitely not what she had been expecting, but even with everything else that she’d been through, it still suddenly felt like the happiest moment of her life. All she could do was nod and laugh, little happy tears rolling down her face.

“I’ve been carrying this around in my pocket for so long,” he said, digging in said pocket, “waiting for the right moment.”

“You could’ve asked any time,” Aila replied.

He gave her an unreadable look for a moment and then just shook his head and laughed. “Now was the right time.” Kuléo opened a little box and pulled out two rings.

“Aren’t they a little small?” Aila asked when she saw them. But they were beautiful, a simple kind of beauty: gleaming silver with little feathers etched around the outsides.

“Oh no!” he said, sounding dismayed. “You’re right! They won’t fit on our fingers.”

Aila looked up at him to see if he was serious, but he was back to his normal joking, sarcastic expression, and she gave him a playful whack on the shoulder. “So tell me what they are.”

“They’re toe-rings. I figured they’re nice for a couple of reasons. For one thing, they won’t get in the way of working with your hands, and they’re less likely to get damaged or drawn into an alchemy working. We wouldn’t want them turning into gold on us,” he said with a wink. “For another, we’re bird-people; we belong in the sky. Feet are as good as hands, right? Finally, they’re a reminder that love is the foundation on which everything stands. When you’re flying high and crying loud, it’ll help you find your way back to me.”

Aila was crying again at the beauty and romance of his words; Kuléo was a sensitive man, but this was poetic even for him.

They both realized the phone had stopped ringing at the same time; neither of them had cared much. They both looked over at it, then at each other, and just started laughing.

He gently lifted her foot up and put one of the rings on her left “ring toe”. Then she did the same for him, and drew him up to stand, cuddling him with her wing.