The Flying Machine

A man laid in a valley looking up at the sky. The pure white clouds towered over the horizon. The man watched them slowly drift along with the wind. While he was lying there, a traveler approached him from behind.

"Sorry to bother you, but I seem to be lost. You wouldn't happen to know where this is would you?"

The man got up to face the traveler. The traveler wore strange robes and a gigantic hat. "This is the Grandall Valley. There are no main roads or towns anywhere around here. Even if you are lost, I'm surprised that you managed to end up in this place. Where were you trying to go anyway?"

"Nowhere in particular really. I was trying to follow something, but I lost track of it around here."

"What were you trying to follow?"

"I saw something strange in the sky, so I-"

The man interrupted with excitement, "What did it look like?"

"I never got a good look at it. From what I could see, it was rather large and the sunlight seemed to reflect off its surface."

"Really? Where'd you see it last?"

"It went behind that mountain over there not too long ago," the traveler said, pointing at a mountain to the right of the man.

"Then there's no time to waste! I have to get back to my house as soon as possible. Follow me and I'll explain on the way."

The traveler was a bit confused but decided to go along with it. He followed the man as he went toward his house.

"I'm Izrivel by the way."

"I'm Sojou."

"I can't even begin to express how grateful I am that you ran into me. I've been looking for that thing in the sky for years now, and because of you, I might get to see it today."

"What exactly is it?"

"I'm not entirely sure myself, but I can tell you that it's no natural phenomenon. From what I've seen, it's unmistakably man-made. There seem to be separate components of it. Most of it is constructed out of some type of metal. On top of it, were some things that looked like buildings."

“If it’s man-made, then how does it float in the sky?”

“My current theory is that there is a kind of energy in the air above us. Normally it’s invisible to the human eye. However, with the right tools, it can be harnessed. Whoever built that machine must’ve figured out a way to lift things off the ground with that energy.”

“Have you heard of Essence?”

“Is it some kind of drug?”

“No, it is a kind of energy very similar to what you described. Although, I’ve only ever seen it come up from the ground. As far as I know, it could be in the air as well.”

“How do you know of this energy?”

“I’m part of a group known as the Seekers. We specialize in ancient artifacts that are powered by the Essence.”

“Do you think that the flying machine would’ve been built by the same people that made those artifacts?”

“That ancient civilization was capable of things far beyond our imaginations. I’d say that it’s highly likely that they built that flying machine.”

Izrivel stopped and turned around. “We’re here.” Behind him was a large house. Its size was more befitting of a big family than a single man. Izrivel opened the heavy wooden door and walked inside. “Come in quickly don’t have a moment to lose!”

“What’s with the rush?”

“If I miss the flying machine again, it could be years before it passes by here again.”

“Even if it were right above us how would we reach it? It’s high above the clouds.”

“Let me show you something,” Izrivel said walking over to a door on his right. He opened it and lead Sojou through. On the other side was a spacious room that was mostly empty. It was as if the whole side of the house had been hollowed out.

I’m the middle of the room laid a strange wooden contraption. It was circular with a ring of chest-high planks around the outside. In the center was a pole around twice the height of the ring of planks. Triangular pieces of thick cloth were tied From the top of the pole down to the outer ring. At the bottom of the contraption was a series of large metal rings.

Sojou looked at it with curiosity. “What is this thing?”

“This is a flying machine of my own design. It may not look like much, but it is capable of lifting off the ground.”

“How are you accomplish something like that?”

“I managed to utilize a small amount of the Essence as you called it, to lift it into the air. The bottom part absorbs energy and uses it to spin. Once it starts to spin it repels energy below it, making it rise.”

“Then what’s the top part for?”

“Because of its design, it can only move upward. So, I needed something else to gain an amount of lateral movement. Those pieces of cloth act as sails propelling the machine along with the wind.”

“That’s amazing! I’m surprised you came up with this all by yourself.”

“Most of its design was based on elements from the large flying machine. However, my version is still imperfect. The energy gets less dense as it moves up in the air. It’s not very efficient at using the energy around it, so it reaches its limit quite fast.”

“So why are you in such a rush to use it when it still can’t reach the other machine?”

“Even without reaching it, I can still learn a lot from getting closer to it.”

“If you had a way to produce more energy around it, would it be able to go higher?”

“In theory, yes. But I have yet to find other sources of energy."

"I may be able to help with that," Sojou said as he looked through his box. "Here it is." Sojou pulled out a small purple crystal. Even in the light, it still gave off a faint glow. He handed it to Izrivel so he could inspect it.

Izrivel turned it around in his hand, looking at it from every possible angle. "It's certainly outputting energy. However, are you sure that this little thing will give out enough power to lift my machine?"

"If it's the amount of energy you're worried about, then that crystal has tons of it. When I had found it, it had already absorbed hundreds of years' worth of Essence from the surrounding area. My only concern is how to control it."

"We've already talked long enough, we need to get in the air if we want to catch the flying machine. Take the crystal with us so we can use it if we need more height." Izrivel and Sojou moved the machine to a flat piece of ground outside the house. They both climbed inside and Izrivel activated it.

The bottom of the machine slowly started to spin. It scraped against the ground as it increased in speed. The machine began to shake as it gradually lifted off the ground. Once it was completely off the ground, the shaking stopped. It steadily rose straight up into the sky. Sojou looked down and watched the house below them get smaller and smaller.

"Can you point me in the direction you last saw it?"

"Sure, the last time I saw it, it went past that mountain over there," Sojou said, pointing to a mountain to the west.

"Good. The wind is still blowing in that direction. Help me undo the sails on the other side so we can catch the wind better." They untied the sails on one side, leaving a semicircle of sails on the other. When the wind blew, the machine tilted slightly and drifted in its direction.

"Are we really going to catch up to it like this?" Sojou asked.

"We may not be moving very fast, but the large flying machine moves incredibly slow. If this is a sailboat, it may as well be a rowboat being carried by the current. As long as we're moving with any sort of speed in its direction, we'll catch up to it."

"So, how long do you think it'll take us to reach it?"

"It usually depends on how strong the wind is. Since it passed by us not too long ago, I'd say it'll take us a half-day at the most."

"That long? It shouldn't be that far away from us."

"It's not because it's far away. Rather, it's because we're only catching up to it very slowly. When I've tried to catch up to it before, it was a few days before I saw it again. Right now, there's not much we can do other than wait."

"I'm fine with that. Especially with a view like this," Sojou said, looking out over the mountains from above.

While they drifted along, Sojou told Izrivel about his many travels. He listened with great interest, and the time flew by. As the sun began to set, Izrivel spotted something strange in the sky in front of them.

"There it is! Before we reach it, we have to position ourselves close to it. You'll have to help me put up and take down sails. Even if the wind is only blowing one way, we can still influence our direction a small amount."

"Alright, just tell me what to do."

Izrivel instructed Sojou to change the sails every time there was a slight shift in their course. It was quite tiring work since the sails were a lot heavier than they looked. After changing the sails for the hundredth time, they were finally under the machine. However, Izrivel's machine was already at its maximum height.

"Still have that crystal on you?"

"Yeah, it's in my box at the moment."

"Might as well take it out and see if anything happens."

Sojou opened his box and pulled the crystal out. "Here goes nothing." The crystal's glow intensified, and Izrivel's machine began to rise. As they got closer to the machine above them, its scale became apparent. It had appeared large even from afar, but up close, it was beyond massive.

The bottom was a mess of moving metal parts. Some of them resembled the bottom of Izrivel's machine, although they dwarfed it in size. Pipes weaved in and out of the structure, it was hard to tell where one started and another ended. It had no concrete shape. Many things hung down loosely or intentionally. As they went up, the parts got closer together. Eventually, they formed the sidewall.

Its side was like a wall towering over them. So tall that they couldn't see the top. They ascended for quite a while before they reached the end of it. The top was mostly a flat circle. The surface was a glassy black material. It was easily large enough to fit an entire city on top of it. There were numerous small buildings all around it. Each one of them was almost perfectly square. In the center was an enormous tower comprised of several rectangular shapes.

"I've never seen anything like it," Izrivel said with amazement.

"That's what makes it so beautiful. We're the first to admire such a magnificent structure in thousands of years. Untouched by the world below, it's probably the same as it was all those years ago."

"We have to land on it and look around. We may be the only ones with the opportunity to do so in this era."

"I've been wondering, how do you land this thing?"

"Like this," Izrivel said as he turned off the machine. It plummeted toward the top of the large machine. Sojou hung on for his life while Izrivel laughed. Once they got close to the surface, Izrivel activated his machine again. It took a moment for the bottom to start spinning fast enough for flight. Eventually, it gradually slowed their fall until they softly landed on the large machine. 

Sojou stepped out of Izrivel's machine. "A little warning would've been nice." 

"Sorry, I'm so used to doing all of this myself that I didn't consider you for a moment."

"At least we made it down here safely." 

"Where should we go first?"

"Let's go inside one of those square buildings and see what's inside." 

The two of them walked to the closest building and looked for a way in. Every side of the building was flat and featureless. There was no discernable place for a door anywhere. Then, Sojou stepped on a certain spot on the floor, and the wall slid open. He and Izrivel stepped inside. The wall slid shut behind them. 

It was pitch black for a moment, then the ceiling flickered with white lights. The lights just looked like small squares in the ceiling. There were so many of them that nothing was left in the darkness. The building itself consisted of rows of strange rectangular objects connected with wires. They inspected them for a while but couldn't determine their function. 

"Do you hear that?" Izrivel asked in a hushed voice.

Sojou listened and could hear the sound of footsteps approaching. They both waited in silence as the footsteps grew closer. A man stepped out from around the corner. Except he wasn't a man, just in the shape of one. His entire body was made out of metal. The two men just stared at it in surprise. It looked at Sojou and gave him a deep bow before walking off. 

"What was that thing?" Izrivel asked. 

"It reminded me a bit of something called an artificial soul. Though, it was quite different from any artificial soul I've seen. It's probably something else entirely." 

"Do you think it's dangerous?"

"It doesn't seem very dangerous, but it probably wouldn't hurt to keep an eye on it."

They watched the metal man walk around the building as it fiddled with the rectangular objects. After they realized that it wasn't a threat, they looked around more of the building. However, there was nothing else in the building other than those rectangular objects. They left the building and went into a different one. Only to find that it also only contained rectangular objects. 

Giving up on exploring the buildings, they headed for the tower in the center. It took them a while just to walk to it. On their way over, they saw more of the metal men walking around outside. The tower actually had a door on the front of it, so it was easy for them to get in. The main room of the tower was mostly empty except for the middle of it. A gigantic crystal stood in the center extending up past a few more floors. 

The crystal was quite similar to the one Sojou had. It emitted a powerful purple light and made a sort of humming sound. When they got closer to it, they noticed rows of metal men watching them from the upper floors. 

"This must be what's powering this whole thing. It might even be powering these metal men too." 

"If it's powering all of this, then it would need some kind of energy source. If this crystal is anything like the one I have, it would be more of a container for energy rather than a producer of it."

"Of course! I figured out where it's getting its energy." 

"Where?"

"The sun. It provides the energy for all of life on Veshoa, so it would have enough to power this thing. I have no idea how they managed to harness and collect that energy, but I'm pretty sure that's what they did. There aren't too many other ways they could power such a massive structure." 

"That would make sense. It's exposed to the sun all the time since it's not blocked by things on the ground or clouds."

"If I could just figure out how it worked," Izrivel said as he reached out and touched the crystal. Immediately afterward, all of the metal men turned to face him. They stared at him for a bit before running down the tower to get to him. 

"I think now's a good time to leave," Sojou said as he grabbed Izrivel and headed outside. While they were running across the machine's surface, the square buildings opened, and metal men came running out. Behind them, a whole swarm of metal men burst out of the tower rushing toward them. 

Izrivel hopped in his flying machine and pulled Sojou into it. He activated it and it started to spin. Just before the metal men reached them, the machine lifted off the ground. The metal men kept their gaze on Izrivel as he rose above them. Once they were a good distance away, Izrivel finally felt safe again. "What was that all about?" 

"They probably thought that you were trying to tamper with their energy source. Or maybe they were built to protect the crystal. Who knows." 

"After finally reaching the thing I had been chasing for most of my life, I've left with more questions than answers. What do you think the purpose of that thing even was?"

"I think its original purpose was lost to time. It should've been reduced to ruins a long time ago. However, due to its unique circumstances, it's remained. Without a purpose or direction, it now simply drifts with the wind. Reduced to nothing  more than a cloud with no rain."