All the Dust that Falls

Chapter 204: Whole New World

Bee still felt surprisingly awake when the party finally ended. Despite having one of the most full days she'd experienced in a while, her levels kept her up when everyone else was looking for their beds.

She sat atop the castle wall with a small smile, watching over the castle grounds. Honestly, with everything going on, she had forgotten that today was even her birthday. A few months ago, it was all she could think about. But when it actually came? She had been doing so many other things that she lost track of the days.

Had this been why Tony insisted on training so much this last week? Well, if it was just a distraction, he was going to regret lying to her. Perhaps she could think about it as payback for surprising her, but she wouldn't. His reasoning had been solid enough, and he'd still made good progress besides.

As she sat there plotting how to make Tony's life miserable, Void trundled up beside her. She made to stand, but her master waved her down before she could get up. When had Void started doing that? Sometimes she could swear that it was still growing, still learning to read people better.

They just sat next to each other for a few moments, enjoying the view. Eventually, Void broke the tranquility with a few images. Floating above it was a moving picture that replayed a few short seconds over and over.

It was her taking a gift-wrapped box from Void, opening it, and being happy. The message seemed clear enough, but she wanted to make sure. "You want to give me a gift?"

Void beeped, and Bee stood to follow her master into the castle. She grinned with excitement. A gift from her master? As much as it shouldn't have been surprising, she was still struck by how much the gesture mattered to her. It was heartwarming how much her deity cared. Not only that, but she had seen the other gifts Void had given out today. The thought of what it may have saved for her sent her thoughts racing.

Void led her back to her room and disappeared under her bed for a moment before coming back out, dragging something large behind.

Initially, she wasn't sure what to make of the purple rug that Void fished out. Her first thought was that it looked strangely familiar. Where had she seen it before? Thinking back, she realized her mistake. She hadn't seen exactly this rug before, but instead, something remarkably similar. A memory of Void resting before the Dean's desk flashed through her mind. Resting on a fluffy red carpet that looked remarkably like the one in front of her.

Void rolled back and gestured grandly with his claw at the rug. Bee stood and stared. What was she supposed to do? It was a very nice rug, but it was still a rug. Still, her master seemed immensely proud of the gift.

She wasn't sure how to react. A slight bit of disappointment welled up, but she tried to squash it. How could it not, after seeing the deity hand out magical blades and enchanted accessories like candy? Would she hurt Void's feelings if she wasn't appreciative? It definitely felt wrong to spurn a gift given to her by her master. Clearly, there was some deeper meaning behind it, some lesson to be learned. But that didn't explain its excitement.

Unless… Could it be, perhaps, that her master just liked rugs and thought she would too? No. That's way too simple of an explanation. There's no way Void would do anything so simple. There had to be something she was missing. Still, she wasn't sure how to react. Void simply sat there, gesturing with his claw at the rug, clearly excited based on the small twitching motion that it was making.

Bee eventually broke out of her trance and decided that maybe her best bet was to continue imitating her master when she was uncertain. So hesitantly, she stepped over to the rug and gently sat down.

The rug was very nice. The fibers were soft and long and seemed to wrap around her slightly as if she was sinking into a thick cushion. It was quite a weird feeling for something that was presumably just a piece of cloth on a stone floor, but she honestly couldn't have imagined a more comfortable seat.

She smiled hesitantly at Void. The gesture touched her, it really did, but she was still confused. In fact, she was seriously considering asking why it had decided to gift her a rug. Whatever the hidden meaning was, she'd need help deciphering it. Maybe it was enchanted to be more comfortable to sit on? Even that seemed a bit frivolous. No, that wasn't something Void would do.

As she sat, Void grabbed the edge of the rug with a claw and pulled. Bee half expected to go tumbling back as the might of a god ripped the rug out from underneath her. That would have been a fitting reaction if she wasn't supposed to have sat on its generous gift. But instead, the rug stayed in place beneath her. Both she and the rug glided forward slightly without the friction she expected.

Bee froze, careful not to overbalance and fall off. Something was different. The movement had felt off. Slowly, she bent forward to look at the edge of the rug. Eyes widening, she realized they were a good inch off the ground. Poking her finger in the rug, she didn't feel anything below until she pressed several inches deep and she found the stone floor.

This was no cushion underneath the rug. There was just air. The rug was flying. Her master had really, truly found a legendary flying carpet for her. She couldn't help it. Tears began to stream from the corners of her eyes. The generosity of her master was too overwhelming.

Void, though, wasn't exactly paying attention. It had hovered off the ground itself, gently tugging her along behind as they made their way out of the room and into the hallway. At first, Bee hung on for dear life, worried that she would fall off or break the rug or something. But as they got moving, she grew more and more comfortable with the flight.

This was a very different experience than sitting on top of Void as they rushed to Caleb's rescue. No less exhilarating but a lot more comfortable. She held on tight when they reached the stairway, but there was no issue as the rug slowly glided down after Void. Their speed was still moderate as they left the castle, not much faster than a walking pace.

But as soon as they were outside, Void started to gain altitude, pulling the rug behind him. As the rug tilted, Bee was sent leaning backward, and she grabbed onto the front of the rug in fright. Now that they were several feet off the ground, Void let go.

Bee gasped, half expecting to plunge back to earth. But the carpet just floated ever so slightly, drifting on the breeze as her master watched on. Grabbing the edge of the carpet, she leaned forward a bit just to see how high they were, and as she did, the carpet began to descend. The movement was slow and manageable. She leaned back, and the carpet stopped before gaining a little bit of altitude. As she righted herself, it settled back into its gentle hover.

Void let out a small cheer of encouragement. Her first clumsy attempts to control the flying carpet hadn't ended in disaster. Despite the relatively low bar, Bee couldn't help but smile through her trepidation. If she could really learn how to fly like her master... She let the thought trail away as she focused on figuring out how to do more than simply go up and down.

It didn't take long to figure out how to move forward, backward, right, and left. They were just variations of holding the rug and leaning. As she practiced, she felt each movement become more natural. Each time, she required less and less physical motion to get the rug to respond to her desires as if the carpet was learning how she would indicate where she wanted to go and simply followed along.

Void, though, was impatient with her slow learning speed and started to zip circles around her. It pushed her to go faster and encouraged her so she could fly with her master. And after several minutes of practicing, they were soon doing laps around the castle at quite a quick pace.

The wind fluttered through her hair but was nowhere near as powerful as it should have been based on the speeds they were going. As if there was a bubble of air protecting her from most of the turbulence. Perhaps it was another feature of the carpet? She was hesitant to test that against something like dirt or a wall. But it was nice that she was able to see, despite moving at a pace faster than she could run. And that normally left her eyes watering from the wind.

---

I coached Beatrice as she took her first steps into the air. I did my best to encourage her to try new things and zip around, as I had soon learned to love.

Watching her lean cautiously and slowly move around was a little silly at first. But I hadn't forgotten my first experiments with thrusters and how terrified of falling I had been when I first learned to fly. But I knew the freedom was well worth it if I could get her past this hump. Sometimes I would use some air manipulation to correct her course and prevent her from crashing into the ground. Thankfully, the rug managed to correct her for the most part, and rarely did I have to intervene.

The rug was quite beautiful, not just because of its physical appearance and incomparable comfiness but also its capabilities. I did manipulate some of the air for Beatrice, but even after doing that for a little bit, I realized it was unnecessary. The rug seemed to have some in-built defenses against high speeds. And after a dozen minutes or so, I pretty much didn't have to do anything besides make sure she didn't randomly crash into a castle wall. Beatrice was much less silly than most humans, so I would be surprised if she did randomly decide on that course of action, though. It would probably be an accident if that did happen. She was too competent for anything else.

So I was mostly here just to enjoy the experience with her and provide moral support, which I did in spades, cheering her along all the while. After a bit more practice, I was ready to take her up higher.

Bee seemed to sense my excitement. She had grown more and more comfortable the more she practiced with her new piece of floor decoration. With some simple commands to her rug, she followed me up and over the castle wall.

Instead of going back down to fly amongst the trees and the roads, I soared high several hundred feet above the trees, and Bee followed. My human gasped at the view: the beautiful mountains, the twinkling stars, and the ocean of trees underneath us. She wasn't ready to fly over the mountains and explore the snow yet, but this was enough.

I took her along the valley path at a speed that would have left even her running on the ground in the dust. The trees zipped by, and the only sound was the wind whistling through my microphone and the laughter as we flew through the night sky.

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