>>5540987>>5541001>RingYou reach out and make contact with a twisting band of bright red metal.
For a moment, you feel painfully hot--and then warm, pleasantly warm all over as if you just slid into a wonderful bath.
Fireworld was where it was forged. In the plasma heart of the Lifeflame. It started as a trembling more of force, then it grew and accrued strength until it became this clot of strength.
The Ring of Potential. That is what they call it.
It grants power. Endless, raw, magical power. If you only knew how to shape it--but even so, raw, naked power is not a useless thing.
You see Fireworld.
A world of endless light, endless flame, and within the flame swims geometrical beings. Wedges and needles, spheres and pyramids.
"Wow." you say as your attention returns to Yomi's castle.
"You made contact with Fireworld?"
"It wasn't what I expected. I expected fire and well, I saw that and then some. But I was thinking salamander people."
"Like lizard salamanders? Why?"
"Never mind. I's an Earth thing, not an Earthworld thing. It's people are...shapes?"
"Yes. The people of Fireworld may seem strange, Izzy, but you'll not find better warriors. They, before all the beings of Homil, stood against the Corruption. They fought the Corruption not only in Fireworld, but in the aether, in the space between worlds. Their bodies, hardened by their world, were able to turn the plasma sparks that drift through the aether into mighty fortresses that stymied the advance of the Corruption, for a time."
"Aether, that's what outer space is like here?"
"It's similar. You have to go through it to get to other worlds. We of Earthworld have to construct vessels to travel through the aether, for it is cold and airless save for the plasma sparks. The beings of Fireworld do not have this problem and swim through the aether as they do fire."
"Wait. You guys have spaceships?"
"Yes. I suppose you could call aethervessels space ships, as they ship things through the space between worlds."
"It just...I'm not used to people that live in castles having spaceships."
"I don't understand, Izzy. You have spaceships back on Earth and people that live in castles. Why not here?"
...Come to think of it, people do live in castles on Earth...
You shake your head. "Don't mind me, Yomi. I'm getting my preconceived notions challenged, which is good. I want that. Hey, do you have a spaceship?"
Yomi grins. "I do!"
"Really! Neat! Is it all yours or is it like a family car?"
"It's all mine!"
"Where is it? Do you keep it in a silo?"
"In a silo? Why would anyone do that?"
"I don't know. But people keep missiles and rockets in silos back on Earth."
"That seems silly. Aren't they supposed to go into the sky? Why would you move it away from where its supposed to go?"
"I don't know. But where you do you keep yours?"
"Certainly not near the ground." Yomi points up. "It's kept up there."
"In the sky?"
"Yes in the sky."
"Is it like tethered? Like a balloon?"
