Flying Sailing Boat

BETHESDA, 2420 AA, After the Great Ascension. "You know what Gabriel?" she suddenly exploded. 'I liked you better when you just thought that I was merely a damsel in distress!" Havillah snapped back, already weary of his sarcasm and the condescending attitude that had been hanging around him for a while. Her patience was wearing thin after the long day she had experienced and the longer morning that had involved handling an irritating man-child who did not know better than to project his feelings and disappointments on her. However, she had to admit that he was not as horrible as the twins were and for that, she had to at least be grateful. For a long while, Gabriel refused to talk to Havillah and for a moment, an uncomfortable silence hang heavily above them. Finally, when she was almost ready to apologise, he spoke up. "It could help a lot if you just gave me an explanation that I can work with." he suddenly said and Havillah turned her gaze away from the sea to look at him. "I did," she replied quietly. "It is not my fault that you cannot believe me." "Sure." he suddenly fell into a fit of deriding laughter. "That you're a 'Great' and that you have come from this fantastical city that is up there in the sky?" he put it out so snidely that she soon found herself growing mad with annoyance. "But it is true!" "Oh please!" The man retorted and she could only glare at him disputing wishing that she could hammer some sense into him. The two of them locked gazes for a while, neither of them willing to concede. That is, until Havillah thought otherwise of the situation and decided to turn away. "You know what? It doesn't matter." she finally declared as she retrieved her hands from the warm haven of the sleeves of her Triban robe. "Just show me the way to Killion and I will be out of your hair." she added as she clapped her hands together as part of the Modus of calling on her Second Virtue.  It was not always like this. But she was impatient and too irritated to go about it in a more delicate manner. Still her anger fueled her focus and in no time, a ball of warm bright light had formed at the centre of her capped palms. She stretched it out and it formed a huge bright halo which was then condensed into a small ball of pure light. Swirling her hands around the glowing ball it swiftly gained form. The form of a glowing white crystal. One that pulsed with the appearance of a small pebble suspended in air. "What...what is that?" Gabriel stumbled as he took a step backwards. His jaws fell wide open as he stared back at her and the crystal that she now held lovingly in her hands. In the space of the time that it had taken to created it, the man had stepped back a few paces from the wheel and even now, he was still retreating. "A hope crystal," she replied in a perfunctory manner, still irritated at his earlier remarks. Disregarding his reaction at her response, Havillah held up her right hand and with it. She looked at it and it's perfect form and smiled. It was truly a cute thing. Even she had not yet gotten used to seeing this very tangible form of her Second Virtue. True, there were many hope crystals in the city with the greatest one being the Hope. However, all these were relics of an age gone. Pieces that had been left behind from the time of the Ancients. Now, creating a hope crystal was a challenging task. One that more than often involved two or more elders or a party of twelve or more Great that were close to the glory of Elder level. And yet it was so easy for her. Her mother had always pushed her to keep her talent a secret and now that she really thought about it, could she have known that Elder Lionel had some evil designs concerning her? No, it couldn't be. After all, she had been the one to push her to apprentice with that evil old geezer. The crystal continued to glow and she pushed it to pulse even more. With whispered words, she coaxed her creation to launch itself up. Glowing ever so brightly as its light covered the entirety of the sailboat. She commanded it and it continued to rise and finally, it settled atop the top most mast of the boat's main sail, waiting as I she finishing executing all the commands that would place it within a Modus. It normally did not take this long, but she had never had to do this with a life at stake or with an inanimate object of this size. Maybe if she had trained better with the First, all these struggles would have soon been non-existence. For the First rendered everything simple but the matter was always in the seeing of the unseen. Havillah reached out her hands and whispered some more ancient words. Words that she had learnt from her time with the scrolls and as expected, thin tendrils of light dislodged themselves from within its core and spread out downwards, wrapping themselves around the boat's hull to form a thin film of shimmering light that covered the boat's entire surface. She checked to confirm that her mind was connected to it and as she did so, the boat lurched forward in the multitude of her thoughts. She then focused and it began swaying back and forth. It steadily began to rise and leave the water. Levitating upwards to hide behind the cover of a passing cloud. She had been lucky that there had been several clouds. After all, she had never been one to show off or explain to others what she was truly capable of accomplishing. "What… what have you done to my boat?" Gabriel suddenly cried out in alarm. Havillah regarded the man with a cursory glance before turning back to her creation. "Making it fly?" "Why does she say it like it is the most obvious thing?" he grumbled under his breath, too low for any human to hear. In return, she turned around d and huffed at him. She had heard everything. Unlike before, her senses were now sharpened that even the slightest of sounds was not lost to her. "Didn't you say that you wanted to get back before nightfall?" The man could not reply. "Surely!" She let out a sigh before diverting her attention back to the task that she now had at hand. "To make it fly," she repeated to herself before pushing out her palms and suddenly, the boat lurched forward in tandem with her current action. "What are you doing?" Gabriel screamed as he fell back from the force of inertia. Flushed red with embarrassment for having squealed like a little girl, he turned away from her and once again, he hid himself behind the black screen that was his black helmet's black visor. Quietly, she watched as he gathered his wits about him and composed himself. Then, he stood up and readjusted his hands upon the wheel, before turning to face her with a more composed but irritated mien that was now visible again with the opening of his visor. "How am I supposed to steer this thing now?" He muttered irritably and Havillah sighed again as she moved forward to demonstrate it. "Same as you do in the water, but if you like, I can always connect your mind to the crystal and it will do whatever you bid it to." "You can do that?" the young man perked and she nodded even as he gulped down his own fear at what she had just admitted. "Of course you can." she could hear him mumbling before he also added. "Fine, do whatever you must. Just make sure that you do not end up frying up my brain in the process." Havillah nodded once again and looked up to the crystal. With more coaxing and the issuing of more commands to the Modus, several strands of light detached themselves from the crystal's core before wandered down towards them. More commands and like the threads around a spool, the silver strands wove themselves delicately as they slowly approached Gabriel. "What are you doing?" he swallowed yet another gulp of air. "Adjusting the wavelength. And there, I am done." she said as the strands fused together before disappearing into the recesses of his forehead. Suddenly, the boat lurched sideways and Havillah quickly spread out her Virtue to stabilize them. When she was sure that they were secure, she turned her gaze to look at him. "Focus!" she hissed and he glowered back in response even as the boat locked about once again. "Give me a break, I am new to all these and yet, you are yet to give me any solid instructions!" he hissed back and she eased out her sour look. If she had been a better student and instructor, things would have gone much more smoothly than this and yet, she was supposed to be among the best in the practice of the Second Virtue. She was still not good enough though. She knew it and so, she had no business being too hard on him. "Fine, just focus. Keep your mind on the direction that you want the boat to go and the crystal will do the rest." she told him and the soldier nodded. Gabriel closed his eyes and focused, but still, nothing happened. After all Havillah was still holding them steady. "You need to see a clear cut image. Therefore I ask that you open your eyes this very instant!" "Fine!" He retorted and as his eyelids fluttered wide open, it caused the boat to suddenly lurch forward and fly off into the eastern horizon at a tremendous speed.