Page 510 -- LIX.

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Chapter Fifty-Nine: ‘Thy promised return...’
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The airplane was rather compact, with only a few seats left empty despite having a mere three passengers. Harper looked out the window and across the tarmac. The gray skies were a common fixture of this province, as were the drizzling rain and thick forest in the distance.

They hadn’t wasted any more time trying to convince Kohzek to help them, as apparently it was a rather long flight back to Atreya. Harper had never been there before. He’d barely even heard of it.

‘Are you sure about this?’ said Darsihm privately.

Harper had to conceal his chortle. ‘Would you stop asking me that already? It was your idea to go with them.’

‘I know, but are you REALLY sure? It’s been a while since you’ve seen combat.’

‘Is that your subtle way of tellin’ me I’m fat?’

‘Of course not,’ said Darsihm. ‘We both know I’m not that subtle.’

‘Then quit your worrying.’

‘Now that you mention it, though, you have gotten a little fat.’

‘Thanks.’

Harper wasn’t truly surprised by Darsihm’s sudden hesitance. There weren’t very many reapers who enjoyed flying by plane. As fast as reapers were, they were still outclassed by a typical aircraft, and since they couldn’t actually “sit” within the cabin like a living person could, they had to latch onto their servants in order to not be left behind.

It was a common fear that they would accidentally let go at some point during the journey and thus end up separated from their servants by hundreds or even thousands of kilometers. Of course, they would still be able to communicate with their servants, so meeting up again was an eventuality, but it remained a tremendous inconvenience nonetheless. If it happened over enemy territory, however, then it would be much more than that. Harper recalled various harrowing tales about servants being forced to jump out of a plane in order to go protect their reapers. It was because of such tales that most servant-owned aircraft were not of the leisurely variety, instead opting for an open door through which to jump in the event of such an emergency.