When Paya returned and told Master Lu that his daughter was indeed gone, he looked at me accusingly, as if I was the one to blame. At that point, I didn’t care about what he thought or how he felt. Like a bird, whose cage had just been opened, I darted out of the shrine and ran as fast I could back to my own temple.

I scurried into the dorm, forgetting to take my shoes off and tore open the door to Han's room. Startled from his sleep by my sudden entrance, he shot up from his futon and peered in my direction with half-opened eyes.

"Han," I blurted. "Our village is in trouble."

"Our village?" he said drearily.

"Yes. Our village. There's a plague and it's killing everyone there. Your family, my sister, they're all in danger. We have to have to tell Kidou."

Han was wide awake now. He got up from his futon and gripped me by the shoulders, while his eyes looked squarely into mine.

"Terr, calm down. It doesn't help to overreact," he said.

"Overreact? How can you say that? Master Lu told me the island’s been quarantined. No one can go in or out. We have to do something. We have to save our families."

"Master Lu told you? You mean, all this time and you didn't know?" Han gave me a worried look. "How could you have not known? Miss Nishio should have told your sister, just as she told my family. She’d already arranged for both mine and Kidou's family to be moved to another city before we left."

"She didn't tell me anything. She told my sister there was a storm coming. She didn't say anything about a plague. She lied to me. How could she have lied to me?" I pulled away from his grasp and ran out of the room.

I traveled from one end of the temple grounds to the other, searching desperately for the Boar. I finally found him strolling outside one of the pagodas. He must have noticed my worried expression, because he stopped to face me, emptied his pipe and put it away into his sleeve.

"Master Ichiro. Please, I need to go back home. I need to go back to Rune."

"Rune?," he said, immersed in thought. "Ah. One of the restricted villages. That’s no place worth going. Not anymore. There is a sickness there. And besides, for as long as you are a student, you are forbidden from leaving."

"My Sister. She's in trouble. Please, there has to be some way to have her taken from that island."

"You worry too much. I’m sure she is safe. She must have left along with Han and Kidou's families."

"How can you know that? Has she sent any letters? Has she told you that she's safe in another village? Tell me that you have proof."

"I have none," the Boar said matter-of-factly.

"Then help me. If I can’t go, send someone else to find her. Please, I have to know where she is. I have to know if she's safe."

He reached into his sleeve and took out his pipe again as well as a small pouch, holding his smoke leaves. It was a gesture that he was finished conversing with me.

"Report to class Terr," he said in a tone that seemed so uncaring, that in a fit of frustration, I grabbed his pipe and threw it across the grounds as hard as I could.

Surprisingly, he did not raise his voice or shout terse words at me. Instead, his face grew cold and bland and his green eyes seemed to glow slightly, adding to the growing discomfort I felt from his gaze.

"Terr, go get my pipe," he said.

"No," I blurted. "Not until you prove to me that my sister is safe."

He gave a small grunt and strolled past me, to where his pipe lay. My anger had left me frozen. I refused to turn and follow him as he walked a good length to retrieve his pipe. Instead, I kept my back to him, heedless of the great amount of disrespect I’d just committed. He returned, brushing the dirt off his most prized belonging.

"Accept the truth Terr." As he spoke, I kept my head low, unable to face him. "There’s nothing we can do for Rune. Things have gotten worse there and obviously, we won’t be sending anyone. Not even for your sister."

For the first time in my young life, I cursed. I don’t remember what it is was exactly that I said, but I do remember yelling it loud enough that everyone across the temple grounds must have heard its echo. In a final, regretful childish act, I tore the pipe from his hands again, broke it in half and threw each piece in a different direction.

I ran from him, my eyes clouded in tears, screaming the curse over and over again.

It wasn’t hard to find Etsu's class. Unlike the male students, whose classes were scattered in various places all about the temple, the female students trained in one, very large three story building on the eastern edge of the grounds. Her class was in one of the first rooms I happened to peer into.

Everyone, including the teacher was startled at the sudden smacking sound the door made as I furiously swung it open. I paid little attention to the teacher's blathering about how rude I was being and went amongst the rows of seated students until I found Kassashimei. She regarded me as if I were a bear about to maul her.

"Terr, what are you doing, you can't be in here. Hey!"

Etsu started shouting as soon as she realized I was taking Kassashimei.

She gasped as I grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her out of the room amidst the sharp protests of the teacher as well as the class leader.

"Fly!" I said coldly, pushing Kassashimei against one of the sky boats, lined up in neat rows next to the main courtyard. "We need to fly."

By then, a small crowd of students and curious onlookers had already gathered. Some had followed me out of the female students' building while others were attracted by Kassashimei's constant wailing as I pulled her along.

As determined as I was, even I understood how incredibly vain all this was. To fly a tiny sky boat to Rune seemed just as impossible as forcing a young, stubborn shyo mah to cooperate.

She pushed me back, then planted her hands angrily on her hips.

"Idiot. Moron," she said trying to kick me in the shins as I avoided her vicious approach. "If you wanted to fly so badly, you should have told me, instead of dragging me out here without so much as an explanation."

By then, the numb sensation of my own anger had receded slightly and I became more aware of the other students slowly gathering around us. I felt a small inkling of shame as I started to come to grips with the kind of ruckus I was causing.

"My sister is in trouble," I said. "We have to go back my village. It’s in one of the southern islands."

"You really don't have any common sense do you? You, with hardly any experience or training, think you could fly across the ocean to some far away island." She pressed her finger against my forehead, then, lifting her chin in a dignified manner, she turned around and stepped into the boat, casually brushing the dust off her robe. "Well? Get inside Terr. But we're not going south. We're going west, to the capital instead. It's at the base of this mountain. From there, you can take an airship home."

I was surprised by her sudden willingness to help. So much so, that I hesitated, wondering if this was some sort of trick.

"Well, are we going or not," she said. "Etsu could be here at any moment to take me back."

"So you don‘t mind helping me? I‘m grateful, but why are you so cooperative all of a sudden?"

She gave an annoyed sigh. "Because, dummy, yesterday was the day of the Cloud Spirits. A dragonfly, a well-known messenger of the cloud and air spirits I'll have you know, came into my room last night and whispered that I was to help someone on a desperate journey. You seem pretty desperate right now, so I imagine I have an obligation to you."

She was certainly crazy, but considering the audacity of what I was doing, I supposed the both of us were. Her pompous, impatient expression willed me quickly onto the boat. Though there were murmurs within the small crowd, there was not a single adult or senior student among them. All of them looked on with curious indifference, until Han appeared.

By then, we were already hovering high in the air, and with steady, sweeping arm and hand motions, Kassashimei and I slowly willed the boat to turn west. The children below had never seen a beginner student fly a sky boat before. They pointed up at us, buzzing excitedly.

"Terr, what are you doing?" Han bellowed. "You can't go back to Rune. You have no chance of flying there, and no airship will take you. Terr, please listen to me, Rune is sealed off. You'll never make it."

Kassashimei tugged at my shirt. "Rune? That's where you're going? No, I can’t let you go there."

"We have to go. What about the things you said?"

"I was wrong. No airship will ever take you to that horrid place. There are rumors that it's a wasteland of death and disease. There‘s no way you‘re going. You'll most certainly die, and I'm not going to lose the person I’ve been paired with."

"I‘m not taking us back to the temple. You said you would help me."

"Not if it means your death. Now help me land this boat.”

"No."

"Help me land, or we'll all fall."

I glared at her in stubborn silence.

"Fine, then I'll try landing by myself."

She violently shifted her weight from side to side, causing the boat to twist and turn like a bobbing cork. I lost my balance at the bow and fell backwards, landing clumsily onto Kassashimei's lap.

"Get off me," she growled, and shoved me to the side, focusing all her attention on a way to lower the boat safely to the ground. But without my help, she must have discovered that it was an impossible task. Though my vision was still cloudy and undisciplined, I could still see the turbulent currents around us; and in the distance, came a rippling swell that was sure to flip the boat.

"Turn right, hurry."

"So now you're going to help?" She said in a pompous tone.

"I said turn it. Do it now."

Telling her what to do, and willing her to manipulate the fragile currents with hand and arm motions were two separate things. What I was doing, was no more useful than if I had been a dog, barking mindlessly at her. In what must have been her blind, desperate attempt to turn the boat, she created a beast of a wave that struck the bow like a charging bull, sending the boat spinning and careening out of control.

Again, we were fluttering helplessly through the sky just as we had all those months ago when Kassashimei and I first took to the air. But this time, that free-spirited feeling I’d felt before was all but absent, replaced by a sensation of dread and fear.

We bounded off the roofs of buildings and slammed against the tall, massive outcrops of one pagoda after another. Roof tiles shattered, raining shards in all directions. Wood splintered and cracked, making horrific sounds like the piercing, cracking whip of heavy leather slapping against the ground. Hanging on the railing with all my strength, I had neither the courage, nor the skill to stand and guide the boat out of its helpless, lurching dance.

Then, all too soon, the ground came charging at us.