Chapter 7

Carina stood stock still and waited for the man to say something, anything, but he seemed content to stare at her. She fought the urge to duck her head and hide behind her hair. She was the Soul and if he wanted to gawk then she was going to look back. He was more handsome than the orb had led her to believe. His hair was tousled and soft looking with gentle curls that fell around his ears, but his eyes were sharp and intelligent. There was kindness there too, but the sharp intelligence was what she found oddly reassuring. Perhaps they could have a dialogue, perhaps they would come to an understanding and the Flight could have a home.

It took further minutes before he shook off his reverie and smiled at her nervously. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't stare. Thank you for the welcome." He beckoned behind him, and two more people emerged. One was another man, this one pale and shorter than Ishaan but his eyes were harder, and they looked not only at her but at her guards as well. The other was a female who had an odd grin on her face and sandy blonde hair cut close to her head. She was somewhere in the middle of the two men for height and was looking at her closely before closing one eye and opening it again. "These are my companions, Damien and Lauren, we're all eager to hear what you wanted to say."

His guards then, good. She gestured behind her to her protectors. "You are all welcome home. These are my protectors, Stefan and Hale, they stand to guide my steps and protect me from those who would do me harm."

Ishaan eyed the males at her back and nodded. "We aren't here to hurt you, just to listen."

"Come then, we will adjourn to the remainder of the Body and I will tell you of our plight." Carina gestured the party up the steps and turned to walk into the house with one hand on Stefan's arm.

Ishaan fell in on her other side, his eyes flashing back and forth as he tried to take the house in. This was the main corridor, and it was paved and walled in marble that was spelled to glow with the same sun as the planet they floated above. That meant it was very bright at the moment and she wondered if it was hurting her guest's eyes.

"This place is amazing, how many of you are there?" Ishaan asked, the question spilling out of him like water. "Where did you come from? Why is this place so huge?"

"There are a thousand of the Flight aboard, the only ones of our kind left." Carina was careful to leave the emotion out of her voice. "This is the only house that remained to us after the depredations of our enemy and we came from the planet Diamoit, which is across inter-dimensional space."

Ishaan looked like he had just been given a delicious meal. "So why here? Why earth? If you can travel like that why stop at us?"

"The Flight has very specific needs." Carina tried to think about how to explain it while still trying to move gracefully and keep her gown from tangling in her legs. "We require free sources of pure magic in order to survive and your planet has the magic that we require to survive." She wasn't going to tell him that the magic of the house was almost beyond her ability to comb and purify, that if it died so would the Flight. She wasn't going to think about how that would be the ultimate failure of her duties to her people.

He fell silent for a moment, clearly trying to arrange his thoughts. "Wait, did you say magic?"

"Yes," Carina turned her head and nodded. "Your planet is as abundant a planet as we have found, though it does not seem to be in use. That is quite odd."

"Magic?" he couldn't seem to wrap his head around it. "You'd think we'd have discovered if our planet had magic and there's nothing that's ever been even hinted at." He turned his head and looked at her closely. "How did you discover it?"

Carina turned her head away from his stare and forced her blush down. She would not go golden in front of these strangers. "Once you meet the remainder of the Body, we will help make sense of your questions."

They walked the rest of the way in silence, thankfully it was a short enough walk that the silence didn't stretch to awkward levels. The rest of the Body was in the chamber waiting for them and the map had already been brought up and was gently spinning above the table.

The Body rose and bowed as they walked into the room. The Head and Heart stepped in front of the other four and bowed again to Carina. "My Soul?"

"All is well, My Heart, My Head." Carina reassured the two members of the Body with a thin smile. "The people sent are welcome." She turned to the three humans and smiled again, careful to make this one more welcoming. "I present you to the Body. The Heart, Head, Arms, and Legs." Each person bowed as she gestured to them. "Together we form the ruling Body for the Flight."

The three humans bowed back to the Body and Carina gestured them into seats by the table before she took her own seat in the center of the Body. The Arms took over the presentation, lighting the planet and showing the humans where the pools of magic were, showing them how it all worked and how they were able to detect it as well as the role of the Arms in the Body. They responded to all the questions that the humans had that they could answer before they handed the discussion off to the Head and the Heart.