Here we go, said Cirrus as Cynthia jumped over the edge.

For a moment, she felt weightless as she fell. Then with a flash of blue, Cirrus's power kicked in. The winds gathered around Cynthia, slowing her descent - then redirecting it upwards. Cynthia let out a laugh as she rocketed upwards. It was shockingly cold, but what did that matter? She was flying.

All of a sudden, a Hyxali was directly in her path. Cynthia yelped and tried to dodge out of the way. She wasn't quite fast enough. Instead, she bounced off the worker and went into an uncontrolled spin, careening off in a dizzying spiral.

She felt the winds buffet her to a stop in midair. Slow down, Cirrus advised.

Of course, thought Cynthia, chastised. She shot up in the air again - but this time at a much more manageable speed. Still, it was only a minute or so before she reached the top of the chamber. As she approached, she noticed thousands of person-sized holes in the crystalline barrier through which Hyxali would occasionally fly. Curious, Cynthia let the winds carry her through one of the holes.

The first thing that struck her eyes as she ascended beyond the ceiling was how bright it was. High in the sky hung a light source so brilliant it was painful to look at. A sun, she realized. She resisted the urge to stare at it. It really was bright. Much brighter than she could have possibly imagined. It made the brilliant white of the structure even more blinding. Looking around now, she realized she could see large white stone columns in the distance. Other Outposts, she supposed.

Twirling around, she was immediately struck by the massive pillar at the center of the structure, easily double the height of  the one she had just flown out of. Then, as she flew higher and higher, she realized that it was actually miles away.

Wonder how long it took them to build this, Cirrus mused.

Me too, thought Cynthia. Her father probably knew, but that knowledge had not been passed to her. Probably a long time. Look, it's still under construction. Sure enough, near the circumference of the Outpost were several columns midway through construction. There didn't seem to be many Hyxali working on them, however. Odd.

Where should we explore first? asked Cirrus.

The center column, Cynthia decided after a moment of thought. But we should try to get there through the tunnels. We'll see more that way. 

Makes sense to me, Cirrus replied. Cynthia sank on the winds back down into the column. She picked a hole that seemed to lead in the right direction and started flying. For the next several minutes, she flew through the tunnels of theh Outpost. Layout wise, it seemed to consist of mulltiple giant columns of empty space connected by short tunnels. Made sense for a species whose primary method of locomotion was flight. The other thing she noticed as she flew through the outpost was the color of the Hyxali. Most were olive-skinned, but many were... gray. Lifeless-looking. They acted more or less the same as the non-grey Hyxali, although Cynthia found their buglike eyes hard to read. Altogether, they seemed to be about half of all the Hyxali she passed.

What do you think? she queried Cirrus.

They look... undead, Cirrus replied. Cynthia felt a slight chill at the thought. What reason could they have to use so many reanimated corpses? Perhaps that was simply the custom here, to make the most use out of each worker. Cynthia made a mental note to ask her father about it later.

How close do you measure us to be? she asked Cirrus after several more minutes of flying.

A mile or so, Cirrus replied. We should- He cut off suddenly. Wait. What was that?

What was what?

Something red. It went down the tunnel to your left. 

Cynthia turned down the tunnel Cirrus had indicated - and nearly flew into a red, scaly humanoid. She took a step back, stumbling, and swallowed. A holed, she realized. He was looking right at her now, along with the Hyxali who had been conversing with him just moments before. Her eyes, unlike the other Hyxali, were unmistakably human. Cynthia didn't have much time to think about that, however, panicked as she was by the holed's appearance. She stood frozen like a squirrel in the eye of a fox for a few moments, too terrified to move.

Run! Cirrus hissed in her mind, and she snapped out of it. With a burst of blue energy, she dissipated herself into nothingness.