Through the sliding glass the pair step, terribly out of place amongst the slew of workers that dart about, dressed in perfectly pressed uniforms adorned with badges denoting countless ranks and roles.
Neither cared too much for the specifics, Jaw’s eyes darting from side to side in search of anything to latch on to.
Edwin taps their fingers against her shoulder, glaring a look requesting her patience as they analyze the surroundings.
The ceilings of the foyer vault impossibly high above the two, weaving with flickering electronics and abstract, deathly clean sculptures that neither could discern a purpose for.
The Grove’s tendrils extended gently within the walls, small plants creeping up into the corners, breaking the pristine nature of their surroundings.
Edwin stared ahead, banking on the observation that the beings around them were far too enraptured in their own work to notice an odd pair wandering in.
They walk forward, gesturing to Jaw who followed suit. Odd glances pass their way, and slowly the facade began to crumble.
A small and snappy gravent steps in front of the two, its eyes squinting as it looks them up and down. In its hands is a clipboard, digitized and in Edwin’s eyes, needlessly complex.
“Excuse me,” it huffs, “You can’t be here.” It stands matter of factly, Edwin pausing a bit as excuses race through their mind.
The scowl on the gravent’s face grows deeper into a frown as it impatiently waits, tail flapping about.
“Look, I’m just here to talk to a colleague,” Edwin bluffs.
“I don’t think so, not without the proper–” its words are interrupted as Jaws blatantly disregards them, trudging forward without even a glance back. Edwin’s shoulders sink.
“HEY!” It barks, chasing after her to little avail, grabbing her long and trailing hood of a tail and flapping incessantly against her.
Edwin watched as she effortlessly dragged it along, footsteps tapping across the cold metal towards a humanoid form.
Edwin skips to catch up to her, frustrated that a scene has been caused.
“You!” Jaws growls, approaching the cool-headed nautipod that Jaws made a beeline for.
The tannish fins on the pod’s head flick with mild annoyance, a questioning grimace across his face.
The gravent still tugs at her, frantic feathers flying off as its efforts remain futile.
“Me?” The nautipod asks flippantly.
“Yes, you,” She huffs, “I want answers, Grim.”
“I might have them,” He sighs, looking past her to Edwin. Edwin responds with a frustrated shrug and a gentle shake of their head.
“Mal, let them in.” The gravent nearly immediately lets go and flutters off, leaving the three to stand awkwardly, side-eyes trained on them.
“Why have you been hiding from us?” Jaw bares her teeth for a moment at Grimace, who refuses a reaction.
“I’m not hiding, I’m working,” He sighs, turning around and gesturing for the pair to follow.
Grim leads them to an elevator, almost purely glass so that one could observe their surroundings as it ascended the building.
“I’ve been trying to find Ofae, just like I said I would. I’m happy to tell you we’ve done it.”
Floors pass at rapid speeds, passing through large hangars filled with incredible spacecraft, strange and towering machines, flashing with millions of lights as electricity poured through them like magic through Skire.
The harsh transition of Edwin’s home to that of Choice still jarred them, the crook so used to the rust covered foundation that they’d lived in all their life.
“Ofae still lives.”
Edwin raises their eyes and glances at Jaw, who glares intently.
“A piece rests here in The Grove, but that magic no longer truly belongs to Ofae. Skire amplifies it as if the two are bonded. I tried to find it too, but The Grove is fiercely protected… No longer what we knew Ofae as.”
The elevator doors open into a room lined with windows, gazing out over the sparkling city and into the night sky. In the center rests an oculus linked to a complex series of lenses pointed towards the planet’s halo.
“Take a look for yourself,” Grim invites. Jaw obliges, bowing down to stare through. The telescope trains in directly towards Ofae’s shattered visage, and Jaw’s claws clench.
Suddenly the moon shimmers and her eyes squint. For a moment the moon’s once lushly aquatic ring appears before flickering away once more. She can sense its twinge of magic and her hearts leap.
“What’s going on?” She sighs, her tone suddenly soft and lined with sadness.
“We aren’t too sure. Magic flickers off and on and sometimes we catch glimpses of the water.
This time though, it rings around the planet.
The planet remains, shrouded in magic, but magic we can't yet reach.
Only one other has made it to the surface and returned with success, and that's why you see the Grove."
"I don't understand, Ofae isn't dead?" Jaw turns back to Grim, gentle confusion across her face.
“That I cannot fully say. But there is familiarity in the water we see and the biomes we spot give us hope that it isn’t,” Grim paces around the telescope to find his place gazing out the window.
Jaw steps up next to him, wringing her tail in her hands. Edwin sits back, a twinge of pride in their chest as the case slowly falls into place.
“Then let me go. You said someone did it once, and that means they can do it again, right?”
Jaw lights up with a newfound determination and Grim turns to look at her with questioning, wary to allow another to take the same risks as those reckless enough to try.
“You really think you can?” Grim chuckles, somber expression turned to a cheeky grin.
“You think I can't?” She snorted back.
“I’ll see what we can arrange,” Grim shrugs, turning his way back towards the elevator with Jaw in tow. Jaw turns to face Edwin, her gaze still just as cold as always.
“I left the box in your office,” She pauses, “And once I’m back… Lets work together again. Maybe we do make a fine team.”
Edwin scoffs but they cannot help but smile, satisfied with at least one form of closure for the Nautipod. They step into the elevator as well, slinking out and back down into the recesses of the city.
Jaw and Grim work around the clock to rebuild an old cruiser, greatly needed to restore the spacecraft enough that it would not break at the high speed needed to escape Skire’s atmosphere.
Newfound passion and hope that their home had not been entirely lost was far more than enough to fuel the pair, and quickly Jaw found herself at the helm of her new ship, painted dark just like her,
the vastness of space an endless expanse ahead of her as she peered into the stars above.
Ofae was waiting for her, and she was confident of that.