Luz

Luz had always enjoyed flying.

Back when the planes had just been invented, she had been one of first civilian passengers to ever board one. Looking down at the world from the sky, most of her problems seemed so insignificant, so short-lived, so mortal.

During their short trip, Jane never raised the plane higher than the clouds, allowing her a full vision of the brown hilly landscape. It looked as if humans had never existed. A few ranches here and there broke the illusion of being on the dry planet Mars. Part of Luz wished she was down there, walking in the middle of nowhere with no one but her thoughts to keep her company.

Especially everytime that Mathias screamed in fear in the middle of a turbulence.

The immortal boy with the green eyes was not having the time of his life. His hands were holding the seatbelts so much that his knuckles had turned white. His curly black hair was covered in sweat, his lips perpetually curved for fear of imminent death.

When he had said goodbye to Sarah, his sister had seemed positively surprised that he would willingly get on the plane. Now Luz knew why.

The biotechnology expert had wisely decided to stay behind, protected by Andre in Denver. If the mist people needed her to finish their metal bodies, they didn't want to risk bringing her any closer than they already did. Andre had not been happy about the arrangement, but knew that once again that was the best strategy.

Isaac's head was turned against the window, but Luz could read sadness in his heart. She knew his eyes were wet with tears without looking at him.

She sat next to him and put a hand over his in reassurance. Isaac didn't move.

-You will come back to Andre - she said, willing her words to be true. She would make sure of that.

He nodded but said nothing.

The only one who seemed to be heading towards the party of the year was Jane, who happily whistled during the entire cruise. Luz knew she was scared too, but excitement clouded every second thought she could have about the fight.

One way or another, that was it. The end of their search for answers.

The planed shuddered. Luz looked out of the window and saw the beginning of the Chicago houses underneath their wings. Could that maybe be a turbulence as a consequence of the drop in altitude? Another shook made her grab her seatbelt as tightly as Mathias.

-Jane? - she asked tentatively.

Her friend was flipping switches furiously while the commanding stick was trembling out of control.

-Altitude check is fried, so is the cruise control and landing help. - she screamed.

The plane tilted to the right pushing her onto her window. Luz quickly unlocked her seatbelt and made her way to the cabin.

Jane had been right. Every compass, every screen, every monitor was twitching wildly as if in the middle of an epilepsy attack. A twinkling sensation arose on the tip of her fingers, down to her arms and deep into her chest.

-It's the magic wave! - she realised. -All the magnetic devices are going crazy because of it! -

In retrospect, they should have thought of this beforehand. Just like the idea behind Mat's Magic Finder 2000, the plane was bound to respond to variations in the Earth magnetic field. But now there was no time to assign blame.

-Can you direct the plane to that grain field over there? - she asked Jane.

-I can try! - she offered.

The plane shuddered and dropped of a few feet. Her ears popped. If Luz hadn't been holding to Jane's seat, she would have flown out of the vehicle. The plane tilted to the right, in the direction of the field she had hoped for.

-Isaac we need to jump! Can you carry Mat's weight? - she screamed over the sound of the roaring wind.

Her friend grabbed Mat's by the shoulders and gave her thumbs up.

-What weight, what? - asked Mat. -Jumping out of a plane? Are you loca lady? -

And that is when Isaac opened the cargo door and pushed the boy with him, his green eyes wild with fear.

Luz could swear she heard him curse in at least two languages.

Luz and Isaac had tried this before, under different circumstances. It had been 1947, in Pisa, a few years after they had met. Luz had been Valeria back then, and Isaac her make-believe husband. One of the immortals that they had tracked down after a murder was escaping fast, running through the middle of the centro storico of the city. Just when they had thought they had him cornered, he had started to climb the Leaning Tower. The immortal had escaped all of Isaac's magic attacks (which might or might not have increased the Leaningness of the tower), and then had jumped, his magic allowing him to fly away.

The two of them could have climbed down, but they would have lost his tracks. So they had decided to jump along, Valeria holding tightly to Isaac as she had still not discovered her own magic powers. It had been exhilarating and short-lived.

Isaac's magic had been just about strong enough to get them safely to the ground from a 200 meters tower, allowing the immortal to fly away.

Luz tried not to think of the fact that her friend had just attempted the same manoeuvre from a moving plane, at least 1km from the ground and with a heavier companion.

-Jane with need to jump now! - she scrolled her shoulders.

Her friend cursed and jammed a piece of metal in the middle of the control stick to keep the plane on the same trajectory.

They clawed their hands together and moved to the cargo door.

Luz had never been scared of heights. What she was scared of, was jumping to her death and crush all of her bones. And worst yet, having the "I told you so" voice of Jane drumming into her head while doing it.

She looked at the rolling orange hills and pictured the rocks that were waiting for them on the harsh ground. Even hitting a cow at terminal speed would have not been a soft landing.

-I trust you, you can do this - said Jane encouraging and wrapped her hands around her neck. -But these cannot possibly be my last words, so you better not get us killed. -

And with tha sprout of confidence, they jumped into the void.

Once, she had thought that paragliding would be a fun sport to try. Now, she wasn't so sure anymore.

As the cold wind slapped her face and tore the lungs out of her body, she was made aware by Nature of the fact that humans (even immortals) were not meant to fly. Her ears popped so painfully she could barely hear anything else. Her hands tried frantically to grab anything for a hold, only ending up making the two of them twist in the air. They were spinning so fast she had no idea of how she had not passed out yet from the g force.

Jane was screaming, but thankfully was still holding onto her neck. Unfortunately that hold was making her seeing black dots.

Luz closed her eyes and looked for the fire in her heart. Maybe it was because they were immersed in the mist people magic, but her reach was easy. She pulled it to the surface in the form of currents, trying to slow down their fall.

For a dreadful second, nothing happened. Then, the currents stopped resisting her orders and they shifted to accommodate their bodies. It felt as if a giant fan was blowing them upwards. It would have been a nice sensation if only Luz hadn't been scared that her reserves of magic were running down. She didn't feel drained as she had been a few days before, but she didn't want to risk melting into a puddle of shadows leaving Jane to plumb down to her death.

As the ground was getting closer and the rocks bigger, the currents increased to allow them an easy landing. They were 500 meters from the ground. 200. 100. 50. 10.

An explosion at their back forced Luz to turn. She blinked at the tall flames created by the plane crash into a grain field. She had picked that location to be sure no mortals were around, but she hadn't considered that grain is very flammable.

As if the currents could feel her losing her focus, they pulled away from her magic grip. Jane detached from Luz's neck and waved her hands furiously like a wingless bird. Luz tried to think of wether it would have been more painful to crash with her hands or feet, but the rocks met her chest before she could decide.

A blinding pain hit her where she pulled her stitches. She was pushed for an additional 100 meters by inertia and scraped her palms in the attempt to stop. When she finally did, her knees buckled so much she was tempted to just lay down for a couple of hundred years.