[Runesmith]

T minus 3 years, 3 months and 24 days (13 August 2016)

It was the longest flight she had taken in her life... and it would probably be the last.

The first leg of the journey was very short, about 3 and a half hours. The Learjet landed at an airport in Turkey. She recognized the airport - it was the kayseri Erkliet airport, in to which she had flown in a couple of years ago on a holiday trip to Cappadocia with friends. It seemed like a lifetime ago that she had a life other than this. After the flight landed in Kayseri, it taxied to a remote part of the airport away from the main terminals where a set of hangars were located. In front of the hangars was a much larger private jet, with "Gulfstream G650ER" printed near the tail, and the Learjet came to a stop parallel to it, wingtips nearly touching. The two men in black suits disembarked and she was left inside the plane. About an hour later, another man, dressed in similar clothing but dark and Asian looking, boarded the plane and motioned her to come with him.

She was whisked out of the Learjet and immediately led in to the Gulfstream. The aircraft was very spacious, and was luxurious. Four huge, white leather recliner seats sat in two rows facing each other across a polished wooden table. Further back in the cabin was a leather sofa facing a large TV. Behind a wooden divider she could see a galley, and behind that, an area with a closed wooden door.

Sitting on one of the recliner chairs was a small, stern-looking Asian man with leathery brown skin, a thin pencil mustache and swept back salt and pepper hair, clad in an expensive looking navy blue suit. Behind him on the sofa was a plump, balding Asian man, rifling through the contents of a leather briefcase. An attractive tall blonde woman in a sky blue uniform dress was busy in the galley.

The man in the blue suit slowly looked her up and down, and then gestured for her to sit on the seat opposite to him. The man who had accompanied her sat on the seat across the isle her.

A man in a pilot's uniform came out of the cockpit and pressed a button, and the boarding door/stair lifted off the ground and hissed shut. "We are ready to take off, Your Highness," he addressed the man in the blue suit. "Doctor, would you please take your seat?"

The plump man came ambling over, and after a nod from the man in the blue suit, took the seat across from him. The stewardess served them all a brilliant yellow juice in crystal glasses. It was mango, and it tasted like heaven, after the time she had spent in the cabin in the woods.

In a few minutes, the Gulfstream sped down the runway, reaching the speeds at which a Neunelfer would speed down the Autobahn, and leapt in to the air as gracefully as an eagle taking flight.