A Breeze of Benediction

Realizing she was only about fifty yards away from the peak above her, Azura Mallos finally turned around and looked down. Her hand immediately covered her mouth, stifling a gasp.

She had no idea it would look this beautiful.

Azur was standing fifty yards down from the peak of Baya Malay, a tall peak that had been constructed in the northern mountain range of Palm II. The ecologist in Azur had insisted that the palmaforming process be tuned to assist the creation of the mountain range. She wanted to make sure that a water purification and delivery system -- a stream -- could be installed high in the range, delivering water to the village that rested at the base of the mountains, as well as to the rest of the northern continent of Palm II. The reason for this insistence was that the romantic in Azur wanted to make sure that at one point, the stream waterfalled into a valley, creating what she already had named the most romantic spot on all of Palm II. If you're going to create your own planet, she had told her sister on more than one occasion, you might as well make it your way.

And Azur the historian had insisted that the highest peak on all of Palm II be named Baya Malay, after the mighty mountain that had watched over the original Palma four millennia earlier.

Once the decision had been made, the news had spread like wildfire throughout Palm II, creating an excitement Azur had never dreamed it would. Baya Malay was legendary throughout Algo as the mountain above which King Lassic dolled out his tyranny. It was also, however, the mountain above which he died, and the Church of Algo already was drawing up blueprints for what would be a beautiful facility, Saint Alis's Cathedral, to rest at the base of the new Baya Malay.

Azur had known that citizens of Palm II would want to climb the mountain, to reach the peak just as Queen Landale I had, and so it had been designed climber-friendly, with paths and trails all the way to the top. Special grass, designed specifically to grow at the high altitudes and low temperatures, had been planted all over, and oxygen supplies were readily available.

The mountain was scheduled to be unveiled to the public a week from now. Azur had decided to take the first trek up it not only to test the trails and supplies, and not only to hold the honor of being the first to do so, but also to test the mountain for historical accuracy.

She was not disappointed. As she looked across the Palm II landscape, the clear mental picture of the original Palma, which she had created through her numerous studies throughout her life, sat at the front of her mind, ready for comparison. From the original Baya Malay, one could clearly see the sprawling trimetropolis of Camineet, Parolit, and the Palma Spaceport, and likewise, from the new Baya Malay, Azur could see Climatrol, and she thought she could even see the general area that contained the chute down to the Palmaformation Labs. Climbers of the original Baya Malay had an incredible view of the planet's eastern ocean, and the dock town of Scion. Looking towards the distance now, Azur could see the rock and sand that would one day form the shore of the Drasgow Sea, once the ocean had filled.

The view was breathtaking, and she started to question whether it was the waterfall two thousand feet below her, or the ground on which she now stood that was the most romantic spot in all of Palm II. She'd have to consider the matter further, and get Dahl's opinion before deciding. Nah, she frowned. Dahl probably thinks the labs are more romantic than here. She's so thermal sometimes.

Azur took a deep lungful of air -- the small airmask she wore on her face certainly aided in doing so -- and turned her eyes back to the peak above her. There were only about fifty yards left to the peak, straight ahead on the path designed specifically for the purpose of climbing. Her heart started beating faster; the view had filled her with adrenaline, and now, seeing that she was almost to the mountain's top, her energy and excitement overloaded.

Despite the chilly (but not freezing; they'd designed it that way) temperatures here at the mountain's top, Azur kicked off her shune boots and ran up the mountain path, sprinkling her jog with the occasional cartwheel, laughing all the way. A few moments later, and she had reached the top, just as a cool breeze brushed across the mountain. Azur smiled widely at the view around her -- The Drasgow Sea looks so beautiful, I could just jump in and swim now! And the grass, everything is so green! -- and as she continued to smile, she was slightly surprised to find tears rolling down her cheeks, as well.

Why am I crying? she even asked herself at first, but she soon realized. It was the view. From this, the highest point on all of Palm II, she could finally look over what she and her sister and Erol and all the others had accomplished. They had done it. They had really done it! They had taken a hunk of rock that had once formed Palma's crust, and they had made a new Palma from it. True enough, they were still years from being totally finished, if a living, breathing planet ever was "totally finished," but they had done it. For the first time, the full extent of their accomplishment hit Azur, and she couldn't help but cry in happiness.

"Oh Dahl," she whispered aloud on top of the mountain, "I can't wait till you see this for yourself."

Wiping away a tear, she looked across the small peak around her. She was standing on the peak of the mountain whose namesake's peak Queen Alis Landale I and her companions had stood on, before they flew through the air up to Lassic's Dark Castle. Azur laughed, remembering the old debates from her days at PWA. Alis's autobiography stated that she and her companions had actually rode on the back of Myau the Musk Cat, after he had somehow grown in size and sprouted wings, but most historians believed, in actuality, that a transport had taken them there; that there was no proof that any species of Musk Cat had white feathered wings, and that the idea of Myau flying had been completely fabricated for dramatic effect by the queen herself -- or rather, by whoever it was who had ghostwritten her autobiography, for no historian worth his or her meseta believed the queen ever would have had time in the years after Lassic's reign to write the damn thing.

At any rate, the debate had been settled -- in her mind, anyway -- when Wren himself had told her that he had once seen a Musk Cat as large as a horse and endowed with white feathered wings. The question of how Alis and her companions had reached the Dark Castle had been answered, but the real question, the question that often bothered her at the most inopportune times (like this one), ruining for her moments that should have been happy and joyful... was the question of, what would Alis have thought?

What would anyone who had lived on Palma had thought of this project that was her life, this Palm II? She and Dahl and everyone else involved thought of it as a way to rebuild Algo, to restore Algo's crown jewel, but what if the people who had used to live on Palm, what if the people who had died in Palm's explosion, wherever they may now be (for Azur did believe they were somewhere), what if they viewed Palm II as a way to forget about Palm, to forget that there had ever been people who had lived, and died there... who had raised their families there, who had worked there...

"Azura Mallos," she chided herself, placing her hands over her face and shaking her head. Everyone thought she was so happy-go-lucky, and most of the time she was, but a lot of times, her carefree attitude was simply a cover for her worries -- though Dahl would have called them rampant paranoia. Of course the people who had lived on Palm weren't upset, of course they didn't view Palm II as an attempt to erase their memory. They probably saw it, she thought, as she again looked to the view around her, following the path of a yellow bird as it flew across the sky, as a tribute, just as she and Dahl and the others did. They probably...

Bird?

There weren't any birds on Palm II yet. A few small hummingbirds, maybe, but not any that looked like the one that had just flown by her. She spun around quickly on the mountain's peak, lifting her head up to look for the bird. Another gasp came from her mouth, but this one she did not contain. She simply let her jaw hang open, her eyes wide, as she watched what she thought had been a bird... but was actually a Musk Cat.

A giant Musk Cat, with white feathered wings, flapping those powerful wings as it rose higher and higher into the air. Three forms were on its back. One in white, one in armor, and... By the ideal! Azur's mind shouted. It couldn't be. It could not be!

But it was, it was Alis Landale, and she and Odin and Noah were riding on Myau's back, high up into the air above Baya Malay. The trio glanced down over their shoulders -- glanced down towards her -- as Myau headed towards a cloud, and though later Azura Mallos would believe it had just been her imagination, in that moment, she knew that Alis and her companions were smiling at her. She rubbed her eyes, looked back towards the cloud, but they were gone. There was nothing but blue sky, and the white clouds.

Azur looked down around her, back across the view of Palm II, trying to catch her breath. This planet, she thought to herself, is a tribute to the Algoian spirit, of what we as Algoians can do. It is a tribute to the planet that once was here. It is a tribute to the people who spent their lives there.

Again, her blue eyes looked to the sky, as a smile spread across her lips. And they've given us their blessing, she thought to herself. A gentle breeze caressed the new Baya Malay, and Azur Mallos simply looked to the sky, her blue hair blowing in the gentle wind.

Fin.