Solia was not sure when the silent accord had been struck between them, if it had, but the gratefulness she felt for Evander’s reaction was only cemented further as he went on considering their strategy. He had, in a rather singular manner by her experience, deduced and accepted her nature at once. It was a remarkably kind gesture for a stranger, and one she hoped could be repaid with the potential rewards before them.
Her gratitude compelled her to insist on his preference for their approach, but reason reigned her in. There was in fact much for her to consider now, between the two options.
She’d seen Gullspire on her way in—a monolith in its own right, but she had spent decades traversing a spire many times its height. Not so long ago she would have leapt at the opportunity to scale Gullspire on aether wings. It would have been simple, quick. Now, however, she doubted her engine could manage to get her even a fraction of the way up, assuming she could even get off of the ground. She was not necessarily opposed to climbing, she could still climb the rock, given tools sturdy enough to support her. What concerned her was falling. With how heavy she was, reacting quick enough to any sudden problems was unlikely, and if she did fall, her body posed a terrible danger to any below her, and of course the ship itself. Supposing she took the time to separate herself from the group and climb away from the ship, they gained safety at the expense of time, and they might as well climb without her then anyway.
Despite all of this, the other option, somehow, appealed to her even less. As if in insult to Aruth’s nature, Father had designed his children to inhabit the skies, and not the oceans. True, they had plunged themselves beneath the waves to rescue sinking crews and precious cargo, and Solia could recall a sister who herself had come to prefer the water, but these were exceptions to a rule: Maelstrom’s angels belonged in the air.
And this, Solia knew, was simply an excuse. Any other time, she would have thrown herself into the sea without even a moment’s hesitation if called to do so. She could walk the bed of the ocean for days, or weeks. She had done just that when Maelstrom fell, drudged through reef and weed under the crushing silence of Mother Ocean’s forgotten depths. In a dark which drowned the light before it reached her.
Before father, when aether golems and angels were tied to their creator’s lives, the angels who passed on were buried in the deep, at the base of the island which was the Spire’s base. Solia had never seen it before she’d been cast down there. What is it that could rest at the base of Gullspire? She wasn’t sure she wanted to know.
But then she considered Evander, as she ought to have instead, anyway. He claimed not to have been on a dive in years, but he had experience with it. She wasn’t sure if he had any climbing, but her cursory knowledge of the Frozen Sea had her doubting there were many structures like Gullspire to practice on.
“As it stands,” she said, finally.
“I...sink, much more reliably than I scale rock. It would be simplest, and I think safest for everyone if I were in the water instead. Of course I won’t impose a decision on you. If you find yourself more comfortable in a climbing harness than a diving suit as of late, I will readily accompany you in the climb.”
