Goosebumps from the brisk wind driving the sails, a sea of clouds roiling below far as the eye could see, a full-bodied shout from the cap’n as the hands prepared for descent, the taste of crisp lightning in the air. I’m snapped from the reverie by a firm hand on my shoulder.

“You scared?” she says, eyes sharp and focused as ever, pupils shocked blue by a hundred dives.

I look over the wooden railing again to see raw, untamed weather crackle and snarl at those who’d encroached upon its territory. “Were you?” I manage to choke out.

Her laugh flows with energy. “Hell yes! And if you’d said you weren’t, I would’ve pulled you out of that suit faster than a flashstrike.” Gauntleted fist, coated by fine copper webs, swept at the inclement beast we’d been tasked to corral. “All you can do is be prepared, and if that’s the best you can manage then you sure as shit better be scared about it!”

She slaps me on the back and I fight off a wave of vertigo as I tip ever-closer towards the waiting cloud ocean. “Don’t be [i]too[/i] scared, though, I’ll be soaking up the worst of it. Just focus on keeping your wits about and watching how I handle things. No orderly schools’ techniques will prepare you for handling that chaos.”

“One minute ‘til we hit drop point!” barked the first mate.

She pulled her chainlink veiled-hood down. “If you’ve got second thoughts, now’s the time.”

“I was thinking more along the lines of last rites, actually,” I say with a wary smile.

Her smile more than makes up for the lack of enthusiasm in mine. “See, you’re already in the proper mindset for this! Said you were a natural. Now, stand still while I hook you up.”

I hold my arms out as she snaps thick, gold-plated cabling to the back hardpoints. Standing there at the edge of the precipice, arms like wings as the clouds swallow up more and more of my world, I feel… well, not like I’m flying, but at least like it’s a gracefully terminal fall.

I’m literally yanked back into reality as she checks the tethers. “Good to go?” I squeak out, half hoping there’s some catastrophic failure in the suit so we abort.

The suit fails to fail. “I could push you off right here and now and you’d [i]probably[/i] be fine.” She turns around and poses as well. “Right, double-check mine.”

My arms do their best, although it’s apparently not quite enough when she tries to subtly pull on them herself after I’m finished. Still, I appreciate her trying to shield my ego from my wiry frame.

“Ten seconds!”

She passes me my rod, a long metal shaft with wiring of its own intertwining with the safety cable.

“Nine!”

I grip desperately with both hands, treating it like the lifeline it is.

“Eight!”

Propellers whirl above, clouds swirl below, I fight the urge to hurl betwixt them.

“Seven!”

The railings slide aside, leaving plenty of space for her to jump and me to fall.

“Six!”

She shifts from side to side, even keeled even as the ship sways in the wind.

“Five!”

The lightning is tired of waiting, instead leaping and snapping up at us.

“Four!”

I swallow.

“Three!”

I breath.

“Two!”

I pray.

“One!”

I fall.

The clouds swallow us readily, and it becomes impossible to tell the difference between the screech of crackling electricity, roaring wind and screaming me. There’s screaming that isn’t mine mixed in as well, but hers is like a battlecry. While I simply try to catch any bolts cascading over my chainlink shell, she’s [i]hunting[/i] them like a hound pulling on its leash so it can bite back.

I’m not sure how long we were hanging down there, all I know is that all of my hairs on end and the ends of those hairs are smoldering. The ship ascends, pulling its two living lightning traps up with it before we’re finally hauled back onto deck.

While I retch sparking breakfast over the side, she dances out the excess energy. A few other crewmembers shout their approval at us from a safe distance. “Not bad for your first dive,” she says, still fidgeting. I mutter something along the lines of thanks, but am cut short by a mirror being held into front of me.

I look into my reflection and see teal. I’ll have eyes just as blue as hers yet.