by Eric Vall
Chapter 1
“It feels so good to be going back home,” I said with a relieved groan as I paced around the cabin of the airship. “I’m pretty much done with chasing Phi around Mistral.”
“I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of her yet,” Layla added, “but I totally know what you mean.”
“We finally have everything back,” Varleth said, and he even cracked a smile as he considered what it meant. “The ciphers, Gawain, all of it. Let’s get the hell out of this desert.”
“See you guys when we arrive,” Erin said with a smile, then she ducked back into the pilot’s area to steer the ship.
“Here, let me get you a blanket,” Cyra said to Gawain, who looked a bit miserable in his tattered and sliced up clothing.
Gawain had been injured by Phi before we found him in the rift, and he still looked more than a little worse for the wear. Still, he seemed out of danger ever since I gave him those healing herbs, so we wouldn’t have to worry about him much.
He nodded and peeled off the remainder of his shirt before he draped the blanket over himself.
We all sat down in our spots and buckled in our safety straps. Gawain sat next to me on my left, and Layla was on my immediate right.
“Who’s up for a game?” Cyra asked with an uncontrollable grin.
She brandished two packs of cards, and Kalon chirped out happily from her shoulder to echo her delight.
“Gawain doesn’t know the rules,” Layla pouted as she pointed at the fire mage. “We can’t play that one.”
“I’m not sure any of us know the rules,” Orenn admitted with a sheepish laugh. “Notice how we don’t know who won the last round?”
“I was winning,” Layla said with a confident wink. “Erin interrupted when we set down the ship, so I didn’t get my fairly-earned points. Don’t worry, I will graciously allow you all to say you didn’t lose.”
“Thanks,” Varleth replied dryly.
“How were you possibly winning?” Orenn wondered with genuine interest. “Did you have more heart cards than the rest of us?”
Gawain looked around at us with wide, confused eyes. “Should I ask what happened while I was in the Shadowscape, or should I just accept this as normal?”
“This is what you get, I’m afraid,” I answered as I patted him on the back.
“Maybe hanging out with you all is my penance for what I’ve done,” Gawain mused with a soft sigh.
“Actually, you could be right,” I considered out loud. “You burned Erin’s last airship, so it’s only right that you suffer while you’re on this one.”
“I burned her last airship?” Gawain asked with a bewildered blink.
“Er, yeah,” I informed him. “Remember when you set the Bathi Highlands outpost on fire?”
He squinted and tilted his head. “I guess so. I remember seeing you had Sera’s mark.”
“You were really out of it, so I’m not surprised you’re confused,” I observed in a quiet voice.
Gawain’s eyes grew fearful. “I didn’t kill anybody, did I?”
I shook my head and delivered the news slowly and carefully. “You injured a lot of people in Millervale, but nobody died. The outpost had lots of building damage, but almost nobody was hurt. You shouldn’t worry too much about what you did when you weren’t yourself. It was Phi making the calls, not you.”
Gawain’s eyes darkened, and he looked away.
I could tell he was going to keep blaming himself for this one for a while, but I would’ve done the same if I was in his position.
I had to make sure Sera never got a hold of me.
I turned my thoughts to lighter things as the group discussed which card game we would do next. We bickered about the potential options and tried to upsell our own ideas about what to play. It was ridiculous and fun, and I caught Gawain laughing a few times even though he didn’t participate in the argument.
Finally, we settled on Flip Seven, a somewhat childish game that relied mostly on luck instead of skill, but it was fun to bend the rules of it. Gawain barely spoke and rarely touched his stack of cards, but he flipped them obediently whenever it was his turn. Some of us made sure to argue for his card’s superiority just to keep him involved in the game.
As we played, the distant sounds of thunder rumbled softly through the hold, but we were safe. The airship was equipped to withstand lightning, and I knew Erin was a great pilot. No amount of rain or wind would take us down.
In the end, we played four rounds, two of which Layla won just because she was so good at making persuasive arguments for why the rules should go her way. None of us were too mad to see her crush a round, because her mischievous excitement was contagious whenever she got her way.
We talked about starting a fifth round, but we never got the chance to begin it.
Suddenly, an enormous jolt shook the ship, and a booming sound echoed through the cabin.
“Uh, what was that?” Cyra asked nervously.
Erin emerged from the pilot area with a frightened look on her face.
“Guys, we’ve got company,” she squeaked out. “I’m putting the ship on autopilot, ‘cause we’ve got a battle on our hands.”
“What?” I asked in alarm. “What do you mean?”
A second boom vibrated through the ship, and Erin’s eyes widened in response.
“There are monsters attacking us,” the mimic wailed. “My poor Diomesia needs help.”
“Who’s Diomesia?” I asked in bemusement.
“My airship!” Erin replied in a shout. “She’s getting hit, we need to do something!”
In a flash, Erin ran to the metal crank along the wall that marked the emergency exit. She grunted as she heaved at the lever, and metal screeched as it moved haltingly to one side.
“Orenn, go help her,” I ordered as I unbuckled myself from my seat harness.
I ran to our travel packs and recovered Cyra and Layla’s pouches which they used for summoning before I threw both to their owners.
“Thanks, Gryff,” Layla shouted back as she caught her bag.
Cyra gave me a wave as she clipped her own pouch to her belt. She didn’t need the extra monsters, I suspected. Kalon squeaked and let out a series of angry chitters from her shoulder, and I smiled at her antics.
I adjusted my own bandolier and pulled out a few crystals as I approached the emergency exit.
“Where the hell does this even go?” Orenn grunted as he wrenched at the lever with Erin.
Before she got a chance to answer, the door screeched and clanged open.
Outside, the storm raged, and through the lightning and rain, I could see the dark silhouettes of monsters who swooped and shrieked around us.
I was worried the exit would drop straight off the ship and into the sky below, but Erin stepped out into the raging storm without fear.
There was a thin, metal balcony that extended around one side of the ship as a walkway. The metal railing along it kept Erin from pitching overboard as she hurried along the balcony. The ship wasn’t moving any longer, but I could feel the wind of the storm blow us sideways.
My stomach lurched in response to the turbulence, but I calmed myself and ran out after Erin.
“Quick,” the mimic demanded as she gestured for me to come closer. “Earth magic does nothing up here, I need your summoning power.”
“Happy to oblige,” I joked as I stepped in close to meet her lips.
The kiss was insanely great, as per usual, though it always came as a slight surprise to me. We panted into each others’ mouths as the power tugged through me and flowed into her body. She moaned as our magic mixed deliciously, and there was a dizzying moment where I could feel her pleasure just as easily as she felt mine.
Erin licked my lips as if to savor th
e taste of me before she pulled back with reluctance.
“Got it,” she said with a wink as she pulled out the crystal for her voluscura.
Her voluscura had come in handy before, in another aerial fight. It was diminutive in size, but the little feathered rodent packed a serious punch when Erin used it in the air. I once watched her battle a horde of flying sprucebore with it, and her voluscura’s fangs had torn through the monster beetles with frightening efficiency.
“Great,” I replied breathlessly as the storm crackled around us. In that moment, I couldn’t care less about getting struck by lightning.
“You’re all nuts,” Orenn exclaimed as wind whipped his thinning hair around his face. “I’m going to go back ins--”
The metallogue was cut off as a blurred shape streaked from the sky and knocked him in the chest, and then he shouted as he was knocked back into the hold of the airship.
“Fuck,” I swore before I charged back into the ship’s cabin.
A monster was on top of the metallogue, and it tore at him with sharp, hooked talons. In an instant, my eyes flashed over the creature’s elongated beaklike face, its membranous wings, its two clawed legs, and its long, naked tail. It looked a little like a hairless bat crossed with a bird, but something was just so wrong about the shape of it, and I couldn’t help but shudder internally.
Orenn yelped as the monster raked at him, and I caught a glimpse of blood on his leg. Quickly, the metallogue switched to his other form, and the damage stopped. The monster made a birdlike screech as its claws glanced off the reflective metal that flowed over Orenn’s skin like water.
“Get the fuck off him,” Cyra yelled, and her familiar, Kalon, leapt into the fray just as I threw out a bullet bass to protect the silver dragon.
The bullet bass floated in the air on its rubbery little wings, but other than those and its stubby arms, it looked a lot like any normal fish. The only difference was, its scales gleamed metallically in the light of the airship cabin.
Kalon’s silvery scales shone even brighter as the chromelike coating from my bullet bass protected her.
The beaky monster turned and shrieked out a harrowing noise as its attention was drawn from Orenn to Kalon.
In a split second, the two monsters clashed in a fearsome struggle that rolled down the aisle of the cabin hold. They bit and slashed at each other, but Kalon had the upper hand as the wicked talons glanced off her metallic skin.
Then Kalon pinned the beaky monster, and it struggled to free itself from her four-legged grip.
A loud bang split the air, and the head of the beaky monster exploded into blood. It slumped limply to the floor and began to disintegrate.
“Phew,” Gawain sighed out, and I turned to see him slouched in his seat with his gun in one hand.
“Glad to have that weapon back on our side,” I told him as my jumping nerves calmed.
“I’m going to get Erin,” Layla said quickly before she rushed outside.
“What kind of monster was that?” I asked as I hurried over to Orenn’s side.
“A beakrok,” Varleth answered with a grimace as he looked over at the injured metallogue. “Sharp claws, wicked fast, but no special abilities to speak of. We got unlucky.”
Orenn groaned as he let go of his metal form, but his eyes were clear, and the color of his skin seemed normal.
“You okay?” I asked as I pulled up the tattered remains of his pant leg.
Jagged, bloody marks ran down the length of his shin and calf, but it seemed like the attack had missed any important veins. Still, I was sure it hurt like hell, and those deep muscle tears would take a while to fix.
“Been better,” Orenn grunted out in pain as his eyes watered, “but I’ll be fine.”
Erin rushed back into the cabin, but I held up my hand to stop her before she went any further.
“Varleth can put a tourniquet on it,” I said. “I need your voluscura out there.”
“Sure thing,” Erin responded with a smart salute before she dashed back outside.
“Layla, get your keichim,” I instructed as I swung around to look at the petite summoner. “Cyra, you use Kalon, and Gawain can join with his gun if he feels well enough to dodge attacks.”
Gawain unhooked his harness and stumbled to his feet to follow us, but I rethought my decision.
“On second thought,” I ordered, “Gawain, you have to stay here. You’ll be a liability in a battle.”
“I would’ve been fine,” Gawain responded tartly, but he sank gratefully back into his seat without complaint.
The fact he didn’t leap into battle was a sure sign the fire mage was feeling pretty bad. Usually, Gawain was more than ready to prove himself in a fight, and I’d never seen him back down so easily.
The girls and I ran outside to confront the horde of flying monsters that plagued our ship. For some reason, they had turned their attention away from our ship, and instead they clustered together as they shrieked and swooped.
“What are they doing?” I asked as I eyed the swarm.
“Trying to take on my voluscura,” Erin replied as pride filled her voice.
“Tough little monster,” I said with an impressed whistle.
“It’s nothing compared to your pyrewyrm,” Erin admitted, “but it does a pretty good job.”
I had to admit, she made a pretty great point there. I grinned as I removed the grayish, green-tinted crystal from my bandolier. It was shaped somewhat like a wing, which seemed pretty appropriate for the shadowy, swirling wings on my wormlike creature.
I crushed my pyrewyrm crystal between my hands, and the fell beast emerged with a flash of light and a swirl of smoke.
“Fuck ‘em up,” I ordered with a sly grin, and my pyrewyrm emitted a short wail of agreement.
The verbal command was totally unnecessary, but it sure felt good.
My monster clambered onto the metal railing of the balcony and launched itself into the thundering sky. Then Kalon roared, and her pink wings flashed in a series of powerful beats as she took off after my pyrewyrm.
In the distance, the lightning illuminated our summoned monsters as they tore into the pack of creatures that swarmed near Erin’s voluscura. My pyrewyrm twisted its serpentine body around as it ripped off enemy wings and tore through soft stomachs with its powerful talons.
“Get ‘em!” Layla cried with a whooping sound of excitement as the fight escalated and our monsters wrecked their competition.
I’d never seen Layla’s keichim leave, but I knew the near-invisible, batlike creature would be practically impossible to see in this storm. I’d noticed several monsters fizzling and dropping dead out of the sky, so that had to be the work of her familiar’s electrical powers.
Another jolting vibration shook our airship, and I looked up to spot a flock of beakroks as they tore at the reinforced metal and canvas frame of the ship.
“How lightning-proof is this airship?” I asked as I eyed the swooping forms of the beakroks overhead.
“Completely,” Erin responded over the noise of the thunder. “We’d never be able to fly anywhere without protection from electricity. Even when there’s not a storm going on, ships get hit by lightning all the time.”
“Great, let’s get inside then,” I advised. “I’m about to light this place up.”
“He’s got that look in his eyes,” Cyra warned with a nervous, excited note in her voice.
“I’m not sticking around to see what he does,” Erin joked back.
“Me neither!” Layla added.
I threw out my sprucebore, and the large, dog-sized beetle emerged onto the balcony beside me. Its red carapace gleamed in the flashes of lightning that cracked across the sky.
Its most important function was the metal, treelike structure that grew from its back. This beetle couldn’t produce its own electricity, but it sure could harness it better than any lightning rod.
It fluttered its wings as it listened to my mental orders, and I grinned as I left it
and ducked back into the cabin with my teammates.
“Should we shut the door?” I asked my gathered crew.
“No need,” Erin replied. “All static is directed away from us.”
“Great,” I exclaimed. “This show should be nice.”
My bond with my sprucebore let me know when it began following my commands, and it flew to the top of the airship. There, it joined the crowd of attacking monsters that screamed and scraped out our precious ship. My creature was eager to respond when I told it to gather electricity, and its satisfied sense of duty and loyalty echoed down through the bond between us.
Lightning crackled against the sky with fierce, ripping sounds, and an odd smell filled the air as the charged bolts struck toward the top of the airship. The hairs on my arm stood up as my sprucebore gathered electricity down its metal tree and into its body, and I laughed in disbelief as I felt the power enter my summoned creature. The beetle must have been lit up like the afternoon sun as it tried to contain all that electricity.
Just when it couldn’t hold the lightning any longer, I ordered my sprucebore to discharge it all in one complete blow.
Suddenly, a percussive crack of sound split the air as my sprucebore obeyed. My ears rang, and the sky outside the door lit up with pure, white-hot fury as lightning raged around us.
Layla screamed as the overwhelming blast rocked our ship, and I nearly did the same as the shockwave vibrated the entire cabin.
“Maker, what did you do?” Cyra asked breathily as the white light faded and the sky’s fury calmed.
Monster bodies began to drop from the air, and each and every one was fried to a blackened, unrecognizable crisp.
I rushed out to watch the aftermath of my sprucebore’s blast. I’d taken out way more monsters than I thought possible, and the air smelled unnatural in the wake of all that electricity. Even some of the swarm my pyrewyrm had engaged with were now shocked dead, and they plummeted earthwards like stones.
“I think you took care of things,” Erin said with awe as she emerged onto the balcony beside me. “Though, you gave Kalon a little bit of a shock.”
“I’ll tone it down next time,” I promised.
Even I was a little stunned by the effect. Erin was right about things being taken care of, since the fight was now reduced to our monsters picking off the survivors of the electric blast.
