Page a Day: Two Hundred Twenty Eight

            Let go, I’d said to them. 

            These Arks, did other things close about this time?

            My valkyrie shot over the rim of the cliffs above Kasora. Cleared it by a good ten paces. I released my legs, kicked myself forward, spread my arms. For all the difference it would make. My valkyrie fell away into the abyss. Then, so did I.

            Let oceans swallow you.

            What would you give?

            Made to work as one!

            You must go down.

            These Arks, let go. 

            Like the machines beneath—

            Oh. Oho.

            I sent a series of images to Jerem Cozak. He needed to understand. And it was how the White Swarm communicated, after all. I had no doubt they’d survive the fall, at least. I could feel them thickening around me, clinging, trying to slow my plummet.

            It wasn’t going to work. It’s okay, I told them. Today, I’ve done enough.

            A line of valkyries joined mine, more and more tumbling over the cliff’s sheer edge, flipping end over end over end. Some riders threw themselves clear, spreading out beside me. Most did not. Panicked, I supposed, in the end. The wind blew all south as we fell. Was there, amidst the Swarm, also a golden form beneath, with arms like wings spread wide, to try to save us still?