《Shattered Moon》


 Preface and Chapter 1

    Chapter 1


    The hub-hub and clamour of Everhearth fell away behind them as the Bightspark rose into the air, passing out over the rolling terraces and rice paddies that extended as far as the eye could see. Barges full of the cycle¡¯s second harvest plied the great, perfectly geometrically laid out waterways, heading for the standardised towns that housed the blocky grain stores. Ahead of them a mountain had been neatly bisected, almost perfectly sheer cliffs flanking the torrent of water that flowed from the peaks down to the Shattered Sea beyond the city, a testament to both the Imperium¡¯s might and its disregard for nature. The air was hot and sticky, the only real relief for those species given to sweat the gentle breeze generated by the skyship¡¯s thrust.


    ¡°Ghastly, isn¡¯t it?¡± said Xavier, coming to lean on the gunwale beside Adeena.


    The tall high elf druid had a rolled dreamleaf cigarette between his pale, calloused fingers, and smelt strongly of rice-wine. He was dressed, much like she was, in the fashion of the Shattered Sea: high boots, high leggings, flowing blouse, and salt-sprayed leather coat. Although he lacked her tricorn hat to cover his shaggy blonde hair, his pointed ears being too long to comfortably wear such headwear. That, and he wasn¡¯t a Captain, so it would have been considered a bit gauche.


    His baby blue eyes were also a contrast to her unnaturally bright green irises, which sat behind a set of large, circular glasses, more fitting a scholar than a mercenary. Also unlike the hand-and-a-half sword at her belt, he was ostensibly unarmed. Even so, standing at nearly seven feet, covered in scars and with a chest like a barrel, there were few people who¡¯d think him anything but dangerous ¨C particularly next to a slip of a woman like Adeena: five foot five, with a build halfway between a scrawny human and a waif-like cave elf.


    Xavier offered her the cigarette, but she smirked and took two cigars out of her jacket that she had been assured was a small slice of his homeland.


    ¡°Picked these up in Everhearth; vendor claimed they¡¯re Hal¡¯varian,¡± said Adeena. ¡°Didn¡¯t really believe him, but you¡¯re a better judge than me.¡±


    He immediately tossed his rolled cigarette over the edge where it unravelled and disintegrated, wafting away on the breeze. Xavier snapped his fingers, and a small orange flame jumped into existence. He lit them hers first, then took his.


    ¡°And?¡± she asked as he took a draw. ¡°Authentic?¡±


    Xavier inhaled, then exhaled smoke, before looking down at his cigar with a deep frown.


    ¡°You know¡­ I¡¯m not sure anymore,¡± he said eventually.


    They smoked for a few moments in companionable silence, staring down at the immense scale of the agriculture below as the Brighspark picked up speed and continued to ascend: unfurling its sails to catch more of the breeze. The figures working the fields, bringing in the last of the rice, grew smaller and smaller, until she could only make out the carts and the horses pulling them along the logical and evenly laid out roads and paths.


    ¡°Ghastly,¡± he said again.


    ¡°Imperium feeds the world,¡± pointed out Adeena. ¡°Progress, some might call it.¡±


    ¡°The Imperium,¡± muttered Xavier, jerking his head up towards the bridge, where the skyship¡¯s Captain was standing, a goblin woman resplendent in her black and gold uniform, chest gleaming with the furled scroll insignia of the Imperial Postal Service. ¡°Remind me again, oh fearless leader, why we took a contract with these cold-blooded bastards?¡±


    Adeena held up three of her dusky fingers. ¡°One, we¡¯re broke,¡± she said, tapping the first with the burning end of her cigar; it tickled, and smeared some ash, but she did not burn. ¡°You¡¯ve seen the accounts, we¡¯ve been haemorrhaging money since the Dauntless sank ¨C we¡¯re almost broke.¡±


    ¡°Two,¡± she said, tapping the next finger. ¡°Things were getting too hot in Hopesport. If we¡¯d have stayed, we might have lost our heads in the ¡®Queen¡¯s Glorious Revolution.¡¯ We did work for the Guilds for the better part of a hundred cycles, remember?¡±


    Xavier drew on his cigar. ¡°Seems like that would be less of a concern for you than me,¡± he said. ¡°Your highness.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re hilarious,¡± she said flatly. ¡°And three: the Imperium representative actually signed a proper contract. No second guessing if we¡¯ll actually see our gold, which is more than I can say for some of our recent employers.¡±


    ¡°They¡¯ll also roast you the minute you step out of line,¡± said Xavier. ¡°Don¡¯t you remember Chace?¡±


    Torrents of crackling lightning against a burning Dreaming sky-


    ¡°You know I do,¡± said Adeena, a shiver racing up her spine as a fragment of memory forced itself forward.


    ¡°And yet you still took the job?¡± he said. ¡°The Captain Yassin I met would have never treated with the lizards.¡±


    ¡°The Captain Yassin you met didn¡¯t see a million people turned to ash,¡± she said, perhaps a tad too sharply. She breathed in some smoke and centred herself before blowing a ring and continuing softly. ¡°Past is done, Xavier. They won, we lost. No use wishing it were otherwise, we¡¯ve got to adapt.¡±


    ¡°¡®Adapt,¡¯¡± he muttered darkly and looked away. ¡°But why an expedition? You know most of those never come back.¡±


    ¡°Most aren¡¯t bankrolled by the Imperium,¡± countered Adeena. ¡°And, again, we¡¯re broke.¡±


    ¡°Which doesn¡¯t even make sense,¡± said Xavier, gesturing into the distance, where an Imperial Destroyer was descending towards Everhearth, its dark steel hull glinting in the westward rays of the Setting. ¡°They have their own ships, the largest army in the world, fucking immortal flying lizards the size of castles. You¡¯re telling me they can¡¯t staff their own expeditions?¡±


    Adeena shrugged. ¡°Contract was genuine,¡± she said.


    ¡°You¡¯re sure?¡± he asked.


    Adeena raised an eyebrow and lowered her large circular glasses an inch, just far enough that the green vanished from her eyes, and her real, burning red irises peeked over the lenses. ¡°Remember who you¡¯re talking to.¡±


    ¡°And you¡¯re sure they¡¯re not going to just arrest us?¡± he said, blowing smoke at her.


    ¡°They know who we are, or at least, who I am,¡± said Adeena. ¡°Imperium wants you dead, they¡¯ll let you know.¡±


    Xavier fell silent. Above them the great, sky-sundering crescent of the Allfather lit up gold as the sun crept imperceptibly closer to its great blue, purple, and white gaseous bands, and lightning up its great icy rings, making them shine like a carpet of glittering diamonds across the sky.


    ¡°How are the new bloods?¡± she asked after a few minutes.


    ¡°Human barely know which end of the sword to hold; gnome has a shorter attention span than Clawdia; and the goblin keeps on talking to his dagger,¡± said Xavier. ¡°Real cream of the crop you found us, Captain.¡±


    ¡°You should have seen the ones I rejected. We¡¯ve got a few shifts before we reach the Seat,¡± she said. ¡°And a Long Night ¨C you¡¯ve got time, put them through their paces, they¡¯ll come good.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re the Captain, Captain,¡± said Xavier, pushing himself up. ¡°Suppose I¡¯d better go make sure they haven¡¯t fallen overboard.¡±


    ¡°Just watch where you step,¡± said Adeena, clapping him on the back. ¡°And relax. We¡¯ll get through this, old friend. We always do.¡±


    He gave her a strained smile and moved off, heading below decks to the small cabin her company had been assigned. Not booked, you didn¡¯t book anything in the Imperium ¨C you were assigned it after submitting the correct paperwork and, sometimes, paying an administration fee.


    ¡®Company,¡¯ that was some joke. Six people, three of them new, a far cry from the small fleet she¡¯d led in her heyday ¨C back when she¡¯d still been young, back when even a shattered world had still seemed to hold infinite potential. Before that terrible day¡­


    A shadow like a mountain; dark, steely scales-


    She sighed and shook her head, pushing back the memories. There would be better days, and there was no use dwelling in the past. What was done, was done. The dragons had won, and like everyone else, she just had to learn to live with that. Adapt, as she¡¯d said to Xavier.


    The Brightspark was one of the older generation of Imperial skyships. Rather than a metal hull like the Destroyer they¡¯d seen descending in the distance, it was made of wood, and the general lines were far more in keeping with a maritime tradition than the more recent designs. It had three central masts, and two side-rigs that pushed it through the sky, all kept aloft by the air elemental bound by imperial magic within the hold.


    Once it had been a warship, perhaps even one that had taken part in the Razing of Chace. But now its cannon-ports were closed forever, and it served to ferry post and passengers within the Imperium. From Everhearth, the Imperium¡¯s largest city, they were heading south, down the peninsula, skimming along the Dragonsteeth Mountains towards the great Wardline where Seat of the Stars was currently located. It would be six shifts before they reached their destination, some forty eight hours ¨C if the winds held.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Adeena cracked her knuckles and turned towards the mess at the back of the ship.


    Plenty of time to have some fun and deprive the good officials and bureaucrats of some of their hard earned coin.


    ***


    ¡°Interest you folks in a game of cards?¡± asked Adeena, smiling brightly at the group of sea elves who¡¯d resolutely ignored everyone else in the mess for the past trance, and who she hoped had not heard the howls and curses and despairing wails of her previous victims. ¡°I¡¯ve got dice too¡­¡±


    Adeena didn¡¯t like dice as much. Playing probabilities was all well and good, and the risk gave her a buzz, but there wasn¡¯t the same thrill that she got from departing from a simple game of odds and entering into the realm of guile. Xavier had his drink, Clawdia her catnip, and Adeena indulged in risk and bluff. Well, controlled, limited risk. Age and experience had taught her a degree of temperance, and now she limited her gambling to games.


    ¡°Leave us in peace, half-breed,¡± said one of the sea elves. His slightly damp skin had a greenish tinge to it, and his hair was pale-blonde, almost grey, mixed here and there with streaks of dark green. Three-fold slits of gills were visible on above either side of his collar, and his eyes were the colour of bright coral. All of that was fairly normal, as far as the amphibian elves went, but what stood out to Adeena was the symbol of Lassia around his neck.


    Lassia was the goddess of the Ocean and Storms, and in the post-Calamity world, one of the most worshipped, and therefore most powerful, deities of Elysium. The patron of most sea elves, who as a species were the greatest ¡®winners¡¯ from the fall of the Old World. If any people whose civilisation had been all but obliterated could be called ¡®winners¡¯ of Wyrdcoming. Lassia had readily found more worshippers amongst the Free Cities who depended on safe passage across the wild and dangerous Shattered Sea. The holy emblem was in the shape of a shell, and to Adeena¡¯s mystic senses pulsed with faint power.


    A glance over his five fellows revealed one more visible symbol, and from the prickly, uncomfortable feeling they gave her there were four more hidden beneath clothes, similarly blessed. Generally, only priests and priestesses had blessed symbols ¨C they were too expensive and rare for most people to get their hands on. That seemed odd. Adeena knew the churches were tolerated within the Imperium insofar as they were useful for the healing magic they could provide, but she hadn¡¯t expected a whole congregation of clerics to be travelling to the Seat of the Stars. The dragons didn¡¯t let just anyone into their citadel, after all, you needed an offical pass.


    His accent was also somewhat out of place ¨C Old K¡¯lavissian, far more nasal than the ¡®modern¡¯ imperial, which was more musical and lyrical, and different from the hodge-podge Shattered Sea accents that had emerged in the wake of the Calamity. He could be as old as her, if not older.


    ¡°Here I thought all were equal in the eyes of the Goddess?¡± said Adeena lightly, before letting her smile falter. ¡°And that such terms were banned within the Imperium. I¡¯d be careful there, friend.¡±


    The aquatic elf scowled at her, but one of his fellows, a woman with brown hair lined with streaks of blue, and who seemed to be the eldest, as far as one could tell with elves, interceded.


    ¡°Please forgive my young companion,¡± said the woman hastily, in the same K¡¯lavissian accent. ¡°He forgets his manners, and has not been long in these lands. Please, sit my half-elven friend ¨C that is the proper term, no? I have not played in quite some time, do you know Three Rivers?¡±


    Adeena smiled beatifically. Her favourite.


    ¡°Of course, and it is,¡± said Adeena, sitting and glancing around the table. ¡°I¡¯m Adeena, by the by. How many to play?¡±


    ¡°I am Gabrielle,¡± said the eldest, gesturing around the table. ¡°And this is Simone, Marcel, Gaspard, Gerard, and the foolish Pierre. We will all play, won¡¯t we?¡±


    There were a few annoyed looks from around the table, but it seemed Gabrielle was their leader.


    ¡°Wonderful,¡± purred Adeena, dealing the cards, two for each of the players, three on the table face down, and one face up. ¡°Ones and Swords high,¡± she said, tapping the face up card.


    ¡°Are you, perchance, the Captain Adeena Yassin who fought at Chace?¡± asked Gabrielle.


    A squadron of chanting Dragonsworn, cutting through her men and women like a scythe through wheat-


    ¡°I am,¡± said Adeena, hiding her expression by checking her cards: a seven of shields and twelve of dragons. Not a winning hand, on its face at least. ¡°Buy in is five talons.¡± She opened her coin purse and tossed a rectangular bronze coin into the centre of the table. ¡°I¡¯ll play.¡±


    Pierre, the one who had insulted her ¡®heritage,¡¯ moved to object, but Gabrielle cut him off with a glare.


    ¡°Of course, it isn¡¯t really Three Rivers without a wager, is it?¡± said Gabrielle. ¡°I¡¯ve read about your exploits. They say, until the Razing, you¡¯d never lost a battle.¡±


    Masonry exploding around her, the smell of blood and death. ¡°Retreat! Retreat!¡±


    ¡°Not true,¡± said Adeena, rubbing above her collarbone as she turned over the first of the central cards, the ¡®first river:¡¯ a ten of swords. Useless to her. She smiled slightly. ¡°A good story though.¡±


    ¡°I will see your five and¡­ raise ten,¡± said Gabrielle after checking her own cards, tossing two more coins into the centre, a bronze Imperial Talon, along with what looked like a Esperencian Starfish ¨C which was close enough in bronze content to be more or less interchangeable. Although, if that¡¯s where she¡¯d come from, she was a very long way from home. ¡°It seems strange to find you now working for the Imperium, after what they did.¡±


    White flags soaked in blood, stomped on by rank after rank of steel-shot boots-


    ¡°I do a job, I get paid,¡± said Adeena, clearing her throat and trying to focus back on the game. ¡°It¡¯s not personal.¡±


    ¡°A profitable attitude, no doubt,¡± said Gabrielle with what might have been a hint of disdain in her voice.


    ¡°And you? What brings you to the Seat of the Stars?¡± asked Adeena as the others betted or folded, surreptitiously noting their cards as she nodded at Pierre¡¯s holy symbol. ¡°I notice two of your friends are priests? A congregation?¡±


    Most of of the elves tensed, and Pierre and the other wearing the sigil¡¯s openly reached up to tuck them away. Gabrielle handled it better, and simply smiled. ¡°Not quite, Captain,¡± she said. ¡°We are, although not as famed as you, mercenaries. We¡¯ve taken a contract with the Imperium ¨C an expedition.¡±


    ¡°How interesting, so have we,¡± said Adeena, meeting other woman¡¯s raise.


    Another elf folded, revealing a far better hand than her own and leaving just three of them. Adeena turned over the second river, a three of shields. She smiled widely for a moment, before ¡®catching herself.¡¯ It didn¡¯t go with her seven and twelve of course, but the fun of Three Rivers was that no one else knew that.


    ¡°Shall we raise, let¡¯s say¡­ fifteen?¡± she said with a forced, stilted casualness, as if she was very, very eager to raise the pot but was trying not to appear like she was.


    Adeena had nothing, and Gabrielle studied her carefully from across the table. Adeena could almost see the cogs turning in the elf¡¯s mind turning, trying to work out if Adeena actually had a strong hand, or if she was bluffing. There was the possibility of a run of diamonds, which she suspected Gabrielle knew, although it was exceedingly unlkely.


    Adeena, for her part, was reasonably confident, given what was on the table in the centre and the other¡¯s folds, that Gabrielle had at least a pair, and possibly a run.


    ¡°Too rich for my blood, I¡¯m afraid,¡± said Gabrielle, folding and revealing her cards ¨C a one of dragons, and a three of suns. Which, with the ¡®rivers¡¯ was a double two pair, a very strong hand, and certainly better than the absolutely nothing that Adeena had. ¡°Your game, Captain.¡±


    As the rules dictated, Adeena laid out her seven and twelve ¨C which wasn¡¯t a run or a pair or anything. There was outraged sounds from around the table, and Adeena smiled as she swept the winnings towards her. Bluffing hard on the first round was one of her favourite ploys; sure, it meant that no one trusted you, but you could leverage no one trusting you when you actually had a strong hand.


    ¡°Nicely done, Captain,¡± said Gabrielle. ¡°I see I haven¡¯t played nearly as much of this as you.¡±


    ¡°Or maybe I¡¯m just lucky?¡± said Adeena, collecting the cards and shuffling them. ¡°Another round?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ll have to excuse us, Captain,¡± she said. ¡°But we have travelled far and haven¡¯t rested for nearly three shifts.¡±


    The rest of them stood and trooped out as one, and she watched them go. A group of six clerics posing as mercenaries? Those chosen by the Gods were rare, and six priests was more than some medium sized towns had. And they hadn¡¯t liked that she¡¯d noticed two of their holy symbols, which was also odd¡­


    She sighed and shrugged. Whatever they were up to, it wasn¡¯t her problem. If six racist clerics wanted to form a mercenary band, who was she to object? She was just here for the job: into the Wyrd, back out as fast as possible, and then onto less authoritarian pastures with a fat payout to tide them over. Quick and clean and easy.


    That was the theory, anyway.


    Now, there had to be at least a few people left who¡¯d consent to play with her.


    <hr>


    Addendum: A short note regarding divisions of time


    My editor had pointed out that the time units used in this historical account might be somewhat difficult to parse for those who have never dwelt on tidally locked moons like Ruvera, due to the ¡®strange¡¯ nature of such places. Personally, I find the time units used in my retelling of events perfectly clear, but Evie is quite insistent, so I have written this overview in the hope that it might both shut her up, and perhaps help some of my more easily confused readers.


    The dragons claim that they invented the Ruveran system of marking time. But, then again, they likely claim they invented the passage of time itself, so I take their words with a grain of salt. Regardless of how it came to be standardised, however, Ruvera does not have days, it has ¡®Cycles,¡¯ each one taking roughly sixty ¡®galactic standard days¡¯ and being based on the rotation of Ruvera around its planetary body, the gaseous Allfather, to which it is tidally locked ¨C the same, inhabited, side always facing inwards. As for rotations of the Allfather around the sun, there are epic cycles, which are eight hundred and seventy seven cycles, give or take a little, which works out to something like one hundred and forty five of your ¡®galactic standard¡¯ years.


    On Ruvera there are minutes and hours, as you might be familiar with, but also trances, named for the elven equivalent of sleep, which refer to four hours; shifts, which are divisions of eight hours; and period that last twenty four hours. My editor maintains that the fourfold base is due to the four talons on the draconic paw, but I remain unconvinced by her arguments.


    These cycles themselves are divided into six distinct ¡®phases¡¯ that last around ten ¡®standard¡¯ days. They are known as, in order: the Long Night, the Dawning, the Waxing, the Dreaming, the Waning, and the Setting.


    The first of these, the Long Night, is bitterly cold, with sunlight entirely blocked by the dark side of the Allfather. Temperatures plummet to forty or fifty below freezing, and howling blizzards rage across the inward facing surface of the moon. Anyone caught outside during these times will usually not survive long enough to find shelter.


    The Dawning brings with it relief from the pitch black. The moon moves out from behind the Allfather and direct sunlight strikes Ruvera¡¯s face, particularly strongly in the west. The snow melts, and eventually temperatures reach their second highest point in the cycle. Crops are planted, and the long hibernation ends.


    Following the Dawning comes the Waxing, when Ruvera¡¯s inhabited face passes from direct sunlight, and instead is warmed by the indirect light bouncing off the Allfather. Cool rain is typical of this phase, along with some storms, and the first harvest of the planet¡¯s fast-growing plants takes place.


    After that the rains ease with the coming of the Dreaming, a stretch of quasi-twilight as Ruvera turns it back entirely to the sun. During this time the air is calm and still, and temperatures cool further, with some light frosts and the occasional bout of gentle snow in its latter period.


    After the peace of the Dreaming, the Waning arrives with a vengeance. Thunderous storms lash the moon, and temperatures begin to pick up once again as more indirect sunlight reaches Ruvera¡¯s face. It is thanks to the violence of the Waning that the second harvest of a cycle is always lesser than the first, despite the heat to come.


    Last in the cycle is the Setting, where once-again direct sunlight bears down upon Ruvera. The weather calms, and things begin to get progressively hotter and hotter, reaching as high as the mid forties in coastal areas, and more inland, until, almost from one moment to the next, the sun retreats behind the Allfather and the Long Night once again sets in.


    I hope that this short explanation serves to help any confused readers of this account, and, more importantly, to appease my editor.


    A.


    <hr>

 Chapter 2

    <div>


    Adeena was awoken from her nap by an insistent knocking on the door of her tiny cabin. She groaned and rolled over. It came again.


    ¡°Go away!¡± she growled. She¡¯d been having a lovely dream about a merfolk lady she¡¯d known back in Crowncourt, and was none to amused to have been wrenched from it.


    ¡°Captain Yassin!?¡± came the voice of one of her new recruits, the gnome¡­ what was her name? Helga Himmelfahrt? Susi Semmelhaft? Why did gnomes have such stupid names? ¡°I¡¯m sorry to bother you-¡±


    ¡°Go away!¡± she shouted, rolling onto her back.


    ¡°But Captain!¡± wailed the gnome. ¡°There is a situation!¡±


    Heidi Hammerschmidt, that was it. Some artificer, of all things, from Althaea. Why she had signed up with them, Adeena had no idea. But she had good ¡®grades¡¯ in her ¡®physical education classes,¡¯ which seemed to mean she knew the basics of fighting, and one could never have too many spellslingers ¨C even weird ones who used magi-tek contraptions to channel magic ¨C so Adeena hadn¡¯t seen any reason to deny her.


    ¡°Whatever it is, it can wait!¡± said Adeena, pulling her pillow over her face.


    ¡°But Captain! First-Lieutenant Clawdia-¡±


    Adeena groaned and sat up, fumbling for her glasses before wedging them on her nose as she stood, waiting a heartsbeat for the familiar, chilly feeling of the glamour to reach her toes before moving to the door.


    ¡°What has that insufferable woman done now?¡± said Adeena, wrenching the door open and looking down at the three foot gnome.


    Heidi was dressed in brown coveralls, smelt sharply of motor-oil, and had grease smeared on her amber skinned face. Behind her, Adeena could see some kind of half-disassembled device of inscrutable purpose on the small communal table, one of them leaking some kind of acid that was slowly scoring the wood.


    ¡°She¡¯s out on the bowsprit ¨Cthat¡¯s the bit on the front, I asked¨C and Captain Bloodmoon is very angry, and we¡¯re about to hit the Seatstorm!¡± said Heidi. ¡°The Captain ¨Cnot you, ma¡¯am, the other one¨C says that if First Lieutenant Clawdia doesn¡¯t come in, she¡¯ll be knocked off or electrocuted. And I tried to tell her to come in, but she wouldn¡¯t listen to me, and Mr. Xavier is, um, a little bit tipsy, and I didn¡¯t know what to do-¡±


    There were two remaining veteran members of her crew ¨C the ones who hadn¡¯t retired, left for more successful companies, or been killed.


    The first was Xavier, her right hand for over a seven hundred cycles. He was an excellent fighter, a good drill sergeant, and generally, so long as he wasn¡¯t indulging in his various vices too heavily, an all around competent and reliable first officer. He was also a trusted friend and confidant, the last real one she had left.


    And then¡­ then there was Clawdia. Or, as she insisted on being called, ¡®Marquess-Sorceress-First Lieutenant Clawdia Bobblewhisk the Third.¡¯ She was an excellent sorceress, almost without peer in the Shattered Sea, really, but also a royal (did a Marquess count royal?) pain in her arse.


    Clawdia was a grimalkin, the least fey of all the fey creatures who made Ruvera home. Least fey, in that they were at least somewhat compatible with mortal societies and didn¡¯t try to randomly eat children or stab people for no reason, but still pretty fey. Standing at around three and a half-feet tall, they looked like upright, talking house-cats ¨C and usually acted like them. Clawdia had been with the company even longer, and had Adeena been human would have turned her red hair grey all by herself.


    ¡°Get back here, you stupid woman!¡± shouted Adeena as in the distance thunder rumbled.


    ¡°Mmm, we don¡¯t want to,¡± yawned Clawdia, who was lounging on the end of the slip of wood suspended at the fore of the craft out over the void and looking directly down at the scrubby grassland of the borderlands below.


    ¡°That¡¯s an order!¡±


    ¡°Is the Captain Adeena Yassin¡¯s request, mmm, related to our duties as part of the company?¡± said Clawdia, lazily flicking her tail and pawing at the air.


    ¡°Well,¡± admitted Adeena. ¡°No, not strictly speaking-¡±


    ¡°Then we don¡¯t have to,¡± said Clawdia smugly. ¡°Not in our contract.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ll fall, and then I¡¯ll be down a damn sorceress!¡± said Adeena. ¡°Get back here!¡±


    ¡°Grimalkin have excellent balance,¡± replied Clawdia with a yawn, licking one of her large, furry white paws and cleaning behind her left ear. The ship lurched as it hit a pocket of turbulence, and Clawdia¡¯s body moved alarmingly, but failed to phase her. ¡°We always land on our feet.¡±


    ¡°And will you ¡®land on your feet¡¯ after you¡¯re struck by lightning?¡± said Adeena. ¡°Or will you be very dead long before you hit the ground?¡±


    ¡°We cast a lightning ward,¡± said Clawdia, rolling over, closing her eyes, and stretching.


    ¡°Um, sorry, but First Lieutenant-¡± began Heidi.


    ¡°Marquess-Sorceress-First Lieutenant!¡± corrected Clawdia.


    ¡°Ah, yes, um, Marquess-Sorceress-First Lieutenant,¡± said Heidi. ¡°You, um, do know that the voltage difference between a conjured bolt of lightning, and the real thing is, um, very big? Right?¡±


    Clawdia yawned widely. ¡°Of course we do.¡±


    ¡°Oh, well, um¡­ then don¡¯t you want to come back?¡± said Heidi.


    There was a beat of silence.


    ¡°Get back here!¡± shouted Adeena.


    ¡°Mmm¡­ no,¡± said Clawdia.


    Adeena let out a deep, gravelly growl and pinched the bridge of her nose. ¡°OK, fine. How about I buy you a fish when we get to the Seat?¡±


    Clawdia rolled over and opened a yellow eye. ¡°Two fish,¡± she said immediately.


    ¡°Fine, two fish, if you come back here and you don¡¯t go back there, or anywhere else precarious, for the rest of this trip,¡± said Adeena, who had known the Grimalkin long enough to be specific in her wording. ¡°Agreed?¡±


    Fey creatures were, by virtue of their nature, bound by their word ¨C physically unable to willingly break a promise made. Of course, they were as adept as demons in using words in weasley ways, so you had to be careful: many a wanderer in the Feywild had been ¡®invited for dinner¡¯ to find themselves on the menu. Grimalkin didn¡¯t do that kind of thing ¨C unless you were a mouse, but they weren¡¯t above abusing the wording of their promises in a whole host of petty and annoying ways.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    ¡°Deal,¡± said Clawdia, rolling back over and standing. Adeena held her breath as the cat-like woman strolled nonchalantly back along the round and slippery piece of wood. Thankfully, she made it, and the small sorceress hopped down. ¡°You see, we have excellent-¡±


    Adeena grabbed her by the ear, eliciting an outraged howl.


    ¡°You ever do that again, and I will shave you. You hear me you stupid, ridiculous, irritating moggie?¡± said Adeena.


    ¡°Let us go!¡± yowled Clawdia. ¡°Let us go!¡±


    ¡°No,¡± said Adeena, leaning in close so that her small nose was half an inch from Clawdia¡¯s wet, black one. ¡°I¡¯ll do worse: I¡¯ll bathe you.¡±


    Adeena let go, and Clawdia hissed at her, and then raced off in the direction of their cabin.


    ¡°Thank-you, Private Hammerschmidt,¡± said Adeena.


    ¡°Ma¡¯am!¡± said Heidi, saluting and moving off, leaving Adeena to massage her temples.


    ¡°Much appreciated, Captain Yassin,¡± said the goblin in command of the Skyship, Captain Julvera Bloodmoon, coming up behind her. Yet another small woman, albeit one with green skin, silver hair that showed her age, bat-like pointed ears, and large red eyes. ¡°Seeing a passenger plummet to their death wasn¡¯t high on my agenda when I woke up. And the paperwork¡­¡±


    ¡°A lot of that?¡± asked Adeena lightly. Beyond greetings and showing her Writ of Passage she hadn¡¯t had much to do with the short green woman, or the rest of her crew apart from the mess¡¯s chef and bartender. They were pretty busy, and their quarters were in the rear section of the ship, separated from the passengers at the fore by the cargo hold full of post and cargo.


    ¡°A fair bit,¡± said Bloodmoon. ¡°Less than when I was in the Sky-Legion.¡±


    ¡°This was your ship?¡± asked Adeena.


    ¡°The Brightspark?¡± said Bloodmoon. ¡°Oh no, she was retired from the military¡­ must be three hundred cycles ago? I¡¯ve only had her about sixty. A bit of a step down from my old ship. Beauty she was ¨C the Skyrender ¨C Interceptor Class, fast and sleek, fifty cannons and a crew of two hundred. But I¡¯ve got great-grandkids now and this posting came up, so I applied for it and the dragons saw fit to reward my service with something a bit cushier. A few trips a cycle, the rest with the family ¨C not quite retirement, but that never interested me anyway.¡±


    It was always a bit strange talking to one of the Imperium¡¯s true believers. People who willing submitted to the tyrannical lizards, who really believed in the Imperium, who liked being servants. The very idea was an anathema to Adeena. She was certain now, given Bloodmoon¡¯s age and that she¡¯d been in the Sky Legion, that they¡¯d definitely fought on different sides during the Razing of Chace.


    A thousand sky-ships, volley after volley, a never-ending rumble of cannon-blasts-


    She should bid her good day, Adeena knew. Turn around and go back to her cabin. Drop it. But Adeena had never been very good at listening to her better angels. And she wanted to hear it from the woman, hear how she slept, how she played with her great-grandchildren after committing such wanton butchery. Adeena¡¯s hands weren¡¯t clean, she¡¯d been a monster hunter and a sellsword back when Crowncourt had been the largest city in the world and the Shattered Sea nothing but a treacherous backwater no one with any sense wanted to live in, but she¡¯d never killed someone who¡¯d surrendered.


    ¡°So you grew up in the Imperium?¡± asked Adeena.


    ¡°Aye,¡± said Bloodmoon. ¡°Ma was one of the first to take the Promise; I was born in Everhearth a few dozen cycles after the Calamity.¡±


    Around six hundred. Adeena hadn¡¯t known that goblins could even live that long, let alone still be so spritely.


    ¡°Straight into the Legion?¡± asked Adeena.


    Bloodmoon shook her head and laughed. ¡°I¡¯d be on an Admiralty pension if I had,¡± she said. ¡°No, I was a farmhand after basic education, painted in my downtime. Although I studied mathematics during the nights ¨C something to do, and the dragons encourage it. Always be learning, they say. Put me into the navigator programme when I signed up, fast tracked to officer when I showed a bit of flair.¡±


    ¡°So it¡¯s all you¡¯ve ever known?¡± said Adeena. ¡°Don¡¯t you want more? To live by your own rules? To be free?¡±


    Bloodmoon¡¯s entire body language shifted, from open to stiff and closed. ¡°More? Free?¡± she said with derision. ¡°Being a slave for the orcs? Hunted for sport by the wood elves? Dying at less than a hundred from malnutrition or exposure? Before the Imperium, that¡¯s all there was for my people. Under the dragons I get food, housing, education, health-care, respect.¡±


    ¡°Sure,¡± said Adeena. ¡°But you¡¯re still a servant-¡±


    ¡°My Ma came to the dragons as an illiterate slave, and what did they do?¡± said Bloodmoon, speaking over her. ¡°They burnt her captors to cinders and shattered her chains. They healed her, fed her, put clothes on her back, educated her, gave her a warm home and more opportunity than she could have ever dreamed of. She died in comfort and dignity at six hundred and fifty seven cycles as a renown botanist, surrounded by family and bouquets of orchids named after her. And what did they ask? Loyalty, and to contribute what she could while she could ¨C nothing more. I am proud to serve the Imperium, to serve the dragons: as far as I see it the whole world would be better off with their guidance. Don¡¯t pity me, outlander, for I pity you.¡±


    ¡°And Chace?¡± asked Adeena with a sneer. ¡°Did Chace benefit from their ¡®wise guidance?¡¯¡±


    Bloodmoon flinched, but refused to look away. ¡°The Chacians and the rest of the idealistic fools who followed them sealed their fate when they murdered Mithrezenthixia,¡± she said. ¡°They brought that on themselves.¡±


    ¡°All one and a half million of them?¡± asked Adeena bitterly. ¡°The children? The old? The sick? They burnt all the same.¡±


    Bloodmoon looked away. ¡°I don¡¯t have time to debate history ¨C I have to prepare the ship for the Seatstorm. I suggest you get below decks shortly, Captain.¡± She moved to leave, before pausing. ¡°And if I were you, I wouldn¡¯t say such things at the Seat of the Stars; you didn¡¯t break any law, but Dragonsworn have been known to kill for less.¡±


    Adeena sighed and drew out her half-smoked cigar as the goblin woman stomped off. That had been intemperate of her. She was used to speaking her mind, but the Imperium wasn¡¯t one the Free Cities of the Shattered Sea. If you said something that annoyed or angered someone with a bit of power there, they¡¯d probably try and stab you, or else drive you out of the port and that would be that. But here? Go ¡®too far¡¯ and the dragons would either throw her in a labour camp for a few epic-cycles, or else incinerate her, their preferred method of execution, and if they tried that¡­ well, then they¡¯d become interested.


    And things dragons were interested in were rarely seen outside whatever dark laboratory they ended up in ever again. She couldn¡¯t afford to be quite so cavalier with her personal safety, not on this trip.


    She relit her cigar with a match and looked ahead at the oncoming storm. The black and grey clouds rumbled and roiled, flashing with lightning, some twenty thousand feet above the scrubby grassland around the Wardline. Here and there, Imperial forts jutted from the flats like jagged fangs of obsidian, and she spotted a few low-flying airships patrolling the wastes, ever vigilant for any monsters that strayed in from the Wyrdlands that lay beyond the horizon.


    Up above the dark clouds she spotted the snow-capped tip of the Seat itself, which despite the immense heat of the late Setting remained unmelted. The Seat of the Stars, the true heart of the Imperium, the place where most dragons dwelled. It was a giant volcano that they had raised to the skies after the Calamity, some seven hundred and eighty Cycles ago ¨C a fall back, or so it was said, in case the Wardline hadn¡¯t stopped the oncoming Wyrd, which had travelled overland.


    But the Wardline had stopped the Wyrd, dead in its tracks, and now the Imperium dominated the last corner of the continent not twisted by the dimension-shattering wave into a kaleidoscope of shifting planes and myriad monsters that prowled the now dead cities and towns of the Old World. Even most of the Shattered Sea¡¯s many city states weren¡¯t beyond their grasp: being forced to pay mark-ups on rice that were nothing but disguised tithes, racking up trade deficits that cities would never be able to balance, making demands that couldn¡¯t be refused¡­


    The Seat was a colossal floating testament to how stupid she and the rest of the would-be rebels had been to ever think they could defeat the dread wyrms. It hadn¡¯t mattered that they¡¯d had an Avatar on their side: the incarnation of the Shamash the Sun God had barely managed to slay a few dragons before the mortal shell had burnt to a crisp by the channeled divinity. Adeena should have broken contract the minute she¡¯d seen that, taken her company and as many civilians as they could fit in her ships¡¯ holds and run. But no, she¡¯d stayed and fought and risked it all for the chance at a better tomorrow, and her people had died in their droves.


    Adeena sighed and ran a hand through her long red hair. It didn¡¯t show on her unlined face, but she was getting old. Xavier had told to her about how it was for his people: that once you started approaching your second epic cycle you began to feel differently. How the vast wealth of experience narrowed the imagination; how the fire of youth began to dim; and how you got grumpy, complacent, and comfortable with the way of things. She wasn¡¯t an elf, and she had more fire than most, but it seemed to hold true for her as well. And with what had happened at Chace, that had only sped things up¡­


    The wind began to pick up as the Brightspark approached the ever churning tempest that was the byproduct of the immense magic used to sustain the flying citadel. Sails were furled, lightning-catchers extended, and as the Long Night fell from the east like the blade of a black guillotine Adeena stubbed out her cigar and headed below.

 Chapter 3

    The Seatstorm had taken almost an hour to coast through, and when Adeena re-emerged onto the deck of the Brightspark her ears were still ringing from the combination of roiling thunder and Clawdia''s terrified yowling. The air within the mountain''s tunnels was still, and eerily quiet as they coasted forward in pitch blackness, the only sounds the creak of timber, the only light the lanterns the crew had lit and the floating crstyal buoys that shed green light out into the void. The Brightspark crawled between the tiny islands of light, keeping them firmly to port.


    "Problem, Captain Yassin?" asked Captain Bloodmoon stiffly as she made her way to the bridge.


    "No, just wanted some air," said Adeena, peering into the darkness and catching a glimpse of reflected light, here and there, from the dark crystalline formations embedded in the walls. "I wouldn''t recommend sharing a cabin with a screaming grimalkin. I''m not in the way?"


    "No, no," said Bloodmoon, her voice relaxing somewhat when she realised Adeena wasn''t going to reopen their argument. "Magma tunnels are about three hundred metres across here. Most passengers find it disturbing ¨C flying more or less blind."


    On Ruvera, generally, if it was pitch black, you stayed inside and as close to a fire as you could, and waited for the Long Night to pass. Darkness was strange and frightening. Only the cave elves and the dwarves had chosen to live where the sun never shone, and most of them were dead. The dark had never held quite the same terror for Adeena as it had for many others, but it was still unsettling in its strangeness.


    "I can''t say I''d come here by preference," said Adeena. "And idea how long until we reach the caldera?"


    "Regulations mean we have to cut speed, even while coasting, so about two hours," said Bloodmoon. "Don''t worry, this is one of the well trafficked tunnels ¨C and there hasn''t been an accident in hundreds of cycles. We''re safer in here than in the Seatstorm."


    Ahead of them there was a faint orange glow, and slowly the shape of another ship slipped into view, coming from the other direction. Sleek and metal, it was one of the newer Imperial Airships, lit up by lanterns. There were crew dressed in similar uniforms to Bloodmoon moving about, and they saluted as they passed by. Bloodmoon returned the gesture; Adeena didn''t salute.


    "They''re heading out this late?" asked Adeena as the glow retreated behind them. "Isn''t that dangerous?"


    "Newer ships can weather the first few periods of the Long Night ¨C so long as we don''t get a really bad blizzard come through," said Bloodmoon. "They''re probably going to Overnight in one of the closer forts. Last minute reinforcements, maybe. There''s been an uptick in monster activity the past few cycles, command is probably being extra careful."


    "An uptick?" asked Adeena.


    While she and other denizens of the Shattered Sea saw Imperial Forces semi-regularly, usually floating above convoys of rice, they were seeing only the tiniest fraction of their forces. The bulk of the troops and materiel were permanently deployed in the two dozen fortresses that ran along the five hundred kilometre long Wardline, where they guarded against monsters that wandered over. The Wardline stopped the Wyrd, but not the creatures who came through from the various realms where they overlapped with the Real.


    "Happens from time to time," said Bloodmoon. "Unlucky convergence of realms along the border. Usually when you get too many areas of Pandemonium ¨C the damn devils are tough and coordinated, and always try to take a fortress. That soaks up resources from the entire line, so the Fey and Shadowmere and Unseeming monsters get in further, sometimes as far as the border towns¡­ it can be a real mess."


    "Huh," said Adeena. She''d known that the Imperium, despite the massive Wardline protecting it from having its dimensions shattered, had to invest significant resources in holding the border. However, she had sort of assumed it was mainly just dealing with the odd troll or shoggoth that wandered in. But the way Bloodmoon made it sound, it seemed like keeping the peninsula safe was significantly more involved than that. Perhaps the reason for having the largest military in the world wasn''t just rampant draconic paranoia?


    "Or the situation we had, hmm, must be a hundred cycles ago?" continued Bloodmoon. "About ten shifts of nothing but Pandemonium and Elysium along the entire line. They were mostly trying to kill each other, but we still lost seven ships. Lord Adamantius and some of High Command had to get directly involved. It''s why the Seat was moved here ¨C rapid response, if needed."


    "Huh," said Adeena again.


    "Silvers say they''re ''working on a solution,'' but ''working on'' probably means it''ll be done by the time my grandkids are my age," she laughed. "They don''t see time the way we do. Well, you''re an elf, so maybe you have some idea?"


    Adeena shrugged. "I''m one and a half thousand, not a hundred thousand," she said.


    "So you''re a Survivor?" said Bloodmoon carefully. "Didn''t think, well, based on our earlier discussion¡­"


    "I wasn''t try to paint it as sunshine and roses," said Adeena. "In some ways it was worse than¡­" She trailed off. "Is that another ship?"


    Bloodmoon followed her gaze ahead, past two buoys and what must have been a curve in the tunnel, where a deep orange-red glow was highlighting the jagged edges. It was much stronger than the lanterns from the other ship had been, perhaps a dreadnought-


    "All hands!" shouted Bloodmoon, running over and ringing the bridge''s bell. "All hands, prepare for search and rescue! We have a ship down! Helm, increase speed! Communications, signal the Seat!"


    Adeena stepped out of the way as the crew began running around, setting up rope ladders, bringing up medical supplies, and proving that even as commander of a postal ship, Bloodmoon trained and ran a tight crew.


    There was a whirring sound as the Brightspark picked up speed, and she heard a faint groan from the ship''s bound elemental. Behind her Xavier and Clawdia made their way up onto deck, flanked by Heidi and¡­ whatever the goblin and human were called.


    "Whats going on, Captain?" asked Xavier.


    "Bloodmoon thinks there is a downed airship ahead, search and rescue," said Adeena. "We''ll let them take the lead, but Xavier, there will be wounded; Clawdia, we''ll probably need some more light. The rest of you, try not to get in the way."


    "Otto can help!" said Heidi. "He''s great at reconnaissance!"


    "Otto?" said Adeena, looking at the goblin and human. "Which one of you is Otto?"


    "I''m Lars," said the Goblin, sniffing and thumbing the hilt of his dagger.


    "And I''m Karl," said the human, crossing his arms over his brand new chain-mail that for some reason he was wearing aboard a civilian ship. "You don''t even remember our names?"


    "No, Captain, Otto is my drone," said Heidi, reaching into her bag and pulling out a small robotic dog. Even as she watched, a propeller emerged from its back and began to whirr, lifting the deranged contraption into the air. Its glass eyes lit up blue, and it opened its mouth jerkily and produced some kind of synthetic bark. "See?"


    ''Karl'' and ''Lars'' seemed impressed, Xavier looked scandalised, and Clawdia looked disgusted ¨C although that probably had more to do with its canine than artificial nature. Artificers, Adeena reminded herself, were very strange. Rather that just sticking to normal sorcery, they insisted on making weird half-machine, half-magic contraptions that normally no one else could even begin to figure out how to use.


    "Ok, fine," said Adeena. "Just don''t get in the way."


    The Brightspark rounded the corner, and Adeena had just enough time to see a massive, flaming wreck of a ship before a beam of blue light erupted from the darkness and struck the hull.


    The decking pitched, and Adeena lost her footing as something massive exploded at the back of the craft. And then she was falling, the world nothing but a swirling mass of burning debris and screaming people. The crystal-lined tunnel floor glowed like the Allfather''s rings in the light of the cascading explosions as it raced up to meet her.


    She landed with a terrible crunch and bounced, once, twice, then three times before she hit an unfortunately aligned shard of sharp crystal that rammed itself through her stomach and out the other side.


    "Ow," she gasped, gripping the sharp crystal with bloodied fingers, trying and failing to pull herself off it. Her vision flickered, and within her she felt the spark within her heart surge in response. Blazing golden fire raced through her veins as she lost her grip on her consciousness, and her last thought before it consumed her was that it was going to ruin the rest of her cigars.


    Then the spark ignited, and she let loose an agonised scream as she was wrenched back into full consciousness and golden fire exploded from every pore in her body. Crystalline peals of birdsong rang through the massive tunnel, so loud that they briefly drowned out the sounds of screams and exploding machinery as the rest of the Brightspark went down ahead of her.


    Then the fire retreated back into her body, and Adeena slumped to the charred ground. The crystal that had been sticking through her stomach was in a million pieces all around her, and the skin it had pierced was smooth and whole, visible through the hole in her favourite jacket which, like every item of clothing she owned was, by necessity, enchanted to be fireproof.


    She closed her eyes and lay still as the all-too-familiar post-resurrection pains took over: a deep, throbbing, jagged ache in every part of her body.


    There was a flapping sound, and she cracked an eye open to see a large tawny owl land next to her.


    "We both know you''re faking, Captain," said Xavier.


    The owl''s its form shifted and twisted, resolving into the familiar shape of Xavier, who squatted next to her and placing his hands on her shoulders.


    "Fuck you," she said weakly as soothing green magic washed over her, banishing the worst of the aching pain and the intense fatigue. "You have no idea how much that hurts."


    "Oh yes, ''woe is me, pity this poor immortal,''" he said, releasing his spell. "There, better?"


    "A bit," she said grimacing. "What''s going on? Status?"


    "The gnome had some kind of slow-fall belt ¨C I told her to head in this direction. Clawdia cast that ridiculous bouncing shield ¨C she''s probably a couple of miles down the tunnel by now, the damn idiot," he said, before pausing. "Lost sight of the human and the goblin."


    "Find them ¨C I need a moment," she said, levering herself carefully into a sitting position. "And figure out what shot us down if you can."


    Xavier nodded and transformed again, taking off and vanishing into the darkness. Her friend''s spell had taken the worst of the pain away, and over the next minute she managed to coax her complaining body into standing. Time was, she''d have just healed herself, but those days were behind her, and her Oathsworn powers rarely heeded her anymore.


    "Captain! You''re OK!" came Heidi''s voice a minute or so later. "I thought for sure you were dead! You were falling at such an extreme velocity-"


    "Tougher than I look," she said. "Report, Private Hammerschmidt."


    Heidi saluted. "Yes, Captain!"This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    "Don''t do that!" snapped Adeena, before rubbing her forehead. "Sorry, I just hate saluting ¨C go on."


    "Um, yes ma''am, sorry ma''am," Heidi said. "From what I saw, the bulk of the Brightspark crashed into the side of the tunnel approximately five hundred and twelve meters from this position. I saw First Lieutenant Clawdia use some kind of shield to protect herself, and Vice-Captain Xavier took owl form and directed me ''towards the birdsong.'' I am unsure as to the whereabouts of Private Grimstar and Private Blackstone, although given what I know of their abilities, it seems, erm, unlikely they survived."


    "Did you see what shot us down?" asked Adeena.


    "No, although my goggles registered the energy wave as hyper-entropic in nature," said the surprisingly competent gnome. "Which means, assuming it was not a mage, it is likely a creature of the-"


    "-Unseeming," completed Adeena. "What the hell is one of them doing underneath the Seat of the Stars?"


    "I have no idea, Captain, only empty conjecture," said the gnome. There was a ping sound, and she pulled her goggles down. "Captain, Otto has located Private Blackstone. He¡­"


    Her voice faltered.


    "He appears to be deceased," said Heidi in a weak voice as she pulled the goggles back onto her forehead.


    "Appears?" said Adeena. "What does that mean?"


    "He is¡­ in several pieces," said Heidi.


    A familiar tightness settled in her chest. This wasn''t even the mission, and she was already losing people. She couldn''t have predicted they''d be shot down, that wasn''t a foreseeable risk, but all the same, she still felt guilty. She always felt guilty. She was their Captain, it was her job to look after them, and Karl, like so many, was someone she''d let down¡­


    It hadn''t always been like this, had it? She never remembered it being so hard back in the golden cycles.


    Stupid kid, she remembered from his interview that he''d been full of heroic tales of monster-slaying and finding treasure in the ''Old World.'' Barely a hundred and thirty cycles, a veritable baby. She should have knocked him back, told him to go see a bit more of the world, try to get an apprenticeship or something. But he''d been so eager, and had begged her for a chance to ''let him prove himself,'' and she, stupid old woman she was, hadn''t been able to say no.


    Usually, she said some small prayer to whatever God they followed, but she hadn''t even learnt if he worshipped, let alone who. A proper burial and a letter to his next of kin, that was all she could see to now ¨C once the crisis was over. She could already see the words in her head: I am regretfully writing to inform you-


    She pushed away the thought; now was not the time.


    "Make¡­ make a note of the location," said Adeena, ignoring her still aching body and drawing her sword as she stood. "We''re heading for the wreckage. Keep a lookout for survivors, and stay vigilant. Whatever shot us down is still out there, and it can probably see a lot better in the dark than we can. I''m not planning on losing any more people today."


    "Yes, ma''am!"


    Moving through the forest of crystalline outcroppings was eerie. Ahead of them the wreck of the Brightspark burned, periodic explosions sending gouts of flame and debris high into the air. Some ways up and to their left the first, larger wreck continued to burn, and strange, eldritch, wet-sounding gurgles filled the air, along with the occasional scream that confirmed there were some survivors ¨C at least, for the moment. However, the sounds grew progressively more infrequent as Adeena and Heidi approached what remained of the Brightspark, until they faded away entirely as they stepped into the circle of firelight.


    The Brightspark had broken apart on impact, and was strewn across a hundred or so meters. There were bodies here and there, some very obviously dead, others perhaps clinging to life. She moved to the closest of them, a goblin man face down in the dirt and unrecognisable beneath a thin later of ash and dirt. She checked for a pulse and found one ¨C faint, but definitely there.


    "He''s alive," said Adeena, gently rolling them over and wiping some ash from their face. It wasn''t Lars. He had several broken bones, and did not stir. "Barely."


    "Private Grimstar?" asked Heidi.


    "No," she said, standing back up. "Another passenger, from the looks."


    "But you''re an incredibly powerful Oathsworn, right?" said Heidi. "You can heal him?"


    "No, I can''t," said Adeena, wiping her filthy hands clean on her jacket.


    "But I read-"


    "That was a long time ago," said Adeena, putting her fingers to her lips and letting loose a short, sharp whistle.


    "What was that?" asked Heidi.


    Approaching wing-beats answered her question, and the large tawny owl reappeared, shifting into Xavier a moment later.


    "Got a live one," said Adeena. "What did you find out?"


    "No sign of Lars or Karl," said Xavier, kneeling next to the goblin man and pushing soothing green light into his body. His breaths came less shallowly, but he still didn''t stir. Stabilised, better than nothing.


    "Hammerschmidt spotted Blackstone ¨C dead," said Adeena, forcing herself to keep a level voice. "Anything else?"


    "You''re not going to like it," said Xavier. "Vodyanoy ¨C I counted seven of them. But there could be more, and they''re headed towards the Brightspark ¨C I''d give us twenty minutes."


    Adeena hissed, and resisted the urge to begin swearing like a sailor. Heidi seemed to be handling everything better than could be expected for a new blood, but Adeena had been a commander for long enough to know that showing fear was a surefire way to immediately break whatever morale remained in a situation like this.


    "Let''s err on the side of fifteen," said Adeena.


    "What''s a Vodyanoy?" asked Heidi.


    "They look a bit like walking toads ¨C creatures of the Unseeming," said Xavier. "Powerful magic, and they hypnotise you if you look them in the eye. So don''t."


    "Alright, Hammerschmidt, bring him ¨C we need to locate whatever survivors we can, and then get as far away from the other wreck as possible," she said. "Fifteen minutes, then hells or high water, we''re out of here."


    She took point as they made their way up the trail of wreckage. The aches and pains had mostly faded, although they left behind them a kind of washed out, stretched too thin feeling that she knew from experience wouldn''t disappear for several periods.


    They found many more dead bodies, but also signs of others being dragged away, further up the wreckage, and after a few minutes of walking they heard voices ¨C thankfully intelligible, and not the twisted, mind-bending speech of the Unseeming.


    Some thirty odd survivors were clustered around several shattered crates, which seemed to contain medical supplies ¨C much of it burnt, but some of it salvageable. About a third of them were some degree of ambulatory, and were seeing to their immobile fellows. At the sound of Adeena and the other''s approaching footsteps, a few make-shift weapons were raised, but then lowered.


    "Captain Yassin," said one of the survivors, a goblin woman who it took Adeena a few moments to realise was Captain Bloodmoon. She was covered in ash and no small amount of blood. One of her arms was clearly broken, and she had a whole host of nasty burns on her legs. "Glad to see you survived, now, make yourself useful-"


    "We need to move," said Adeena, checking her antique pocket watch, which unlike the more modern ones with eight hour, shift long inner faces, was from Hal''varia and had just four hours, and six divisions of each period, rather than three in its outer ring. Ten minutes.


    Bloodmoon scoffed. "Move? We can''t move, some of these people wouldn''t survive-"


    "We have at least seven Vodyanoy incoming," said Adeena. "Even with my entire company, I wouldn''t take those odds any period of a phase, and I''m down half ¨C including my sorceress."


    "Vodyanoy, you''re sure?" said Bloodmoon.


    "Saw them myself, might be even more," said Xavier.


    "Grab what weapons you can," said Bloodmoon, speaking to her crew-mates.


    "Are you mad? We need to retreat," said Adeena. "I don''t think you understand how dangerous-"


    "I served on the Wardline for nearly four hundred cycles, I know what a Vodyanoy is," said Bloodmoon sharply. "But we cannot move these people, not without killing half of them. I don''t know how you do things in the Shattered Sea, but in the Imperium we leave no one behind. We hold this position until reinforcements arrive, or we die trying. If that is not agreeable to you, Captain Yassin, I am in no position to stop you being a coward."


    Adeena snorted and shook her head.


    "You stay here, you die," said Adeena, addressing all the survivors. "Come with me, and you might live."


    A few of the crew and passengers looked between Adeena and Bloodmoon, but none of them moved.


    Adeena shook her head again. Fools. Fools. Couldn''t they see this was not a winnable fight? "So be it. Xavier, Hammerschmidt, with me."


    Xavier fell in behind her, Heidi following a moment later as they began to move into the gloom on the other side of the wreck, away from the Unseeming monsters.


    "Captain," said Heidi after a few moments.


    "What?" said Adeena, turning to see that the gnome has stopped near the edge of the light cast by the burning wreck.


    "We can''t leave them," she said, gesturing back into the firelight, where the crew under the direction of Bloodmoon were grabbing pieces of metal and wood to use as clubs. "They''ll be slaughtered. We need to help them!"


    "That isn''t my fault," said Adeena. "I offered them a chance to survive, they didn''t take it. Now come on, Private, we don''t have time for this."


    "But- but-" said Heidi, stamping her small foot. "You''re the Captain Yassin! You don''t run away! You stay and fight the good fight, always! I grew up reading about you!"


    Adeena groaned. A fan-girl? How had she missed that during the recruitment interviews? Had she been that desperate for another spellcaster? What was wrong with her?


    "Those so called ''accounts'' of my life are hogwash," snapped Adeena. "Serials written by people I''ve never met eager to make some coin. I''m not ten feet tall, I don''t have lightning in my eyes, and I''m a sellsword ¨C not a hero."


    "During the Huxbridge revolt, you came to aide of the peasants even knowing they had nothing to pay you with!" said Heidi. "That wasn''t in a novel, I read that in a history book! The Huxbridge republic put up a statue to you! The- the Captain Yassin I read about would never just leave these people behind!"


    Adeena''s eye twitched. What did this whelpling know of Huxbridge? Of the Adeena that had been?


    "I am not losing more of my people," said Adeena. "Not one more, not if I can help it."


    "But-"


    "No buts," said Adeena. "You are a soldier, Private Hammerschmidt, and I am your commander. This is not a winnable engagement, so either you walk away, or I drag you."


    "You know this is wrong-"


    Adeena snapped.


    "I have lost so many people!" shouted Adeena, grasping Heidi by the front of her tunic and pulling her onto the tips of her toes. "So many good people dead; people who put their faith in me to lead them. No. No more. I will not throw away more lives trying to save people who cannot be saved!"


    "And don''t we get a say?" said Heidi.


    "Typically, no," said Xavier. "She''s the Captain, Hammerschmidt, she''s just looking out for us. Keeping us out of danger-"


    "I signed up for this adventure knowing it wouldn''t be safe! Knowing that I might never come back," said Heidi, taking a deep breath before continuing. "If you say retreat, then- then I will follow your orders. But staying is the right thing to do, and I think you know that too. You used to, at least."


    Adeena released her grip on the smaller woman and turned away, pulling her glasses up and rubbing her eyes. Being lectured on cowardice by a woman barely grown? Time was, she would have laughed at the very idea.


    Was she being a coward? Perhaps she was. Not in the sense that she was afraid for herself, difficult given what she was, but she''d seen where Heidi''s naivety and lack of proper risk assessment ended up, where the Captain Bloodmoon''s logic of holding the line no matter what led ¨C she''d seen both back in Chace. Heidi didn''t understand, Bloodmoon didn''t understand. You couldn''t always save everyone, you couldn''t always do the right thing, sometimes all you could do was run. That was the lesson that life had taught her in an ocean of her people''s blood. Extreme risk was for cards, not when the lives of others were in play ¨C especially those she was responsible for.


    Heidi and Xavier; it wasn''t her life she was risking, it was theirs. If she retreated, they would survive, she just had to give the word¡­


    Adeena''s gaze wandered back to the lines of injured survivors, the third that was mobile, and the two thirds that weren''t. Thirty two people, she counted. Yes, she''d be condemning them to death. She saw one or two aether-pistols at the waists of the officers, but beyond that, they were armed with sticks and broken wreckage. They''d be slaughtered. She''d tried to get the idiots to leave, to save themselves. It wasn''t her fault.


    Oh sure, if she stayed there was a chance they''d live. They were literally in the capital of the Imperium, reinforcements would be coming. They were on their way already, most likely; they might not need to hold for long¡­


    She took a step away, then stopped.


    "Hells," swore Adeena, looking back at the injured.


    Was she seriously considering it? Just because a whelp of a girl had struck a nerve? It was stupid. Sure, once she wouldn''t have hesitated to play hero, but she wasn''t that Adeena anymore. She was a wise and seasoned mercenary captain, not the idealistic young woman who ''always did what was right,'' as those stupid books put it-


    "Hells," she swore again, softer.


    Was that really what she''d become? A cynical old woman who would let a bunch of innocents be slaughtered because the odds weren''t that good? Her younger self would have hated her¡­


    She glanced sideways at Xavier.


    "You think I should help them, don''t you?" she asked, using the in soft, flowing High Elvish that almost no one outside of the closed kingdom of Hal''varia spoke anymore.


    "I followed you to Chace with open eyes, we all did," he replied. "I''m still here, Captain. I''ll follow you lead."


    "The odds are bad," she said.


    "Then make them better," he said.


    Better? What could she use to make those odds better? The survivors were unarmed-


    Well, there were at the moment. But Adeena had shot down an Imperium airship in her time, and unless they''d removed it, the Brightspark would have had an armoury. An armoury filled with aether rifles that even the slowest witted of civilians could use at short range. It was probably somewhere in the flaming wreckage, but that was less of a problem for her than most.


    Yes¡­ she could make the odds better. It was still risky, yes, but this wasn''t an unwinnable engagement; this wasn''t Chace, this wasn''t her nightmare. They didn''t need to hold forever against unwinnable odds, they just needed to hold until the reinforcements got there.


    Within her heart she felt a flicker of warmth stir, an ember of what she had once been as a plan began forming in her mind.


    "Private Hammerschmidt, use that drone of yours, I want plenty of warning before those toads get here," said Adeena, striding back towards the wreckage.


    "Yes, ma''am!" said Heidi in a worryingly excited voice.


    "Xavier, the wounded, as many as you can get fit to hold a rifle," said Adeena. "Even if you have to drag them into position."


    "Aye, Captain," said Xavier, trailing after her.


    Bloodmoon looked up with a frown as Adeena approached again, and opened her mouth to speak.


    "Bloodmoon, do all Imperium ships still have an armoury?" asked Adeena, cutting her off. "Sealed with magic? Hard to break into? Hard to destroy? Probably survived the crash? Full of rifles?"


    "What? I- yes," said the goblin, gesturing to a burning section of the hull toward the front of the vessel. "It''s probably still intact-"


    "Perfect," said Adeena.


    "But unless you''re fireproof-"


    "I''ll need the key," said Adeena, holding out her palm.

 Chapter 4

    ¡°Captain, Otto is seeing movement ¨C two hundred and three meters ahead,¡± said Heidi, who had her large goggles pulled down over her face and was using them to somehow scry what the dog-like drone was seeing. ¡°A lot more than seven ¨C and there¡­ it looks like blue light?¡±


    ¡°Undead?¡± said Bloodmoon, who was lying behind a low piece of debris that she was using as a makeshift barricade half a dozen meters behind Adeena.


    Adeena had, after a quick raid of the flaming armoury, retrieved and distributed two dozen aether-rifles to those who were fit enough to hold them, given them a brief lesson in how to use them ¨Cuse the sights to point them at things that need killing, pull the trigger¨C and set them up in what cover they could. She¡¯d also dragged the injured behind a large section of the hull, which would hopefully protect them from any stray blasts of magic.


    Adeena knew that they wouldn¡¯t be able to hold out long. The rifles would work against the undead, and deter the frog-like monsters, at least a little, but were unlikely to be able to be able to kill them. Creatures of the Unseeming were not like those of ¡®real¡¯ flesh and blood: blows that should have crushed or sliced often simply glanced off their skin, chitin, or whatever other hideous material their forms were clad in.


    ¡°Vodyanoy must have raised them.¡± said Adeena, sighting along her own rifle before raising her voice and addressing the rag-tag defenders. ¡°Alright, remember, don¡¯t look the frogs in the eyes; and you see glowing blue? You shoot. Those ghouls aren¡¯t people anymore, their souls are trapped and bound by terrible magic ¨C setting them free is a kindness. We just need to hold until the reinforcements get here.¡±


    She had positioned herself the furthest forward, with Xavier and Heidi back slightly and away from her on either side. In the perhaps inevitable event that the Vodyanoy reached them, it would be up to them to engage and hold the creatures as long as they could.


    Had she been at her peak then maybe, maybe she might have been able to hold the line. But even with the first stirrings of her old fire in her heart in nigh on four hundred cycles, she was still relying on skill and experience more than supernatural strength and speed.


    There were many sources of mystical power on Ruvera, and more in the six planes beyond: sorcerers tapped and tamed energy with mathematics and logic and symbology; druids and shamans made bargains with the spirits of nature; priests channelled the powers of their gods through ritual and devotion; and many more sects and cults and esoteric practitioners used other, almost infinitely varied methods. Generally, however, these people fell into one of two categories. Those who drew on the power of another greater, sapient being, or those who tapped more natural, mindless forces and powers.


    There was, however, another source of power: oneself. All souls had power and strength, although for mortals this was usually difficult to access and channel. Some did it through meditation, some through certain alchemical drugs, and others did it through some kind of powerful conviction, often in the form of some oath made to a God or Goddess. ¡®Oathsworn¡¯ was the term given to the latter.


    The nature of the Oath changed the ways these powers manifested, but, strictly speaking, there was no reason that an Oath had to be sworn to a God. The most famous order of Oathsworn in the age of the Imperium was arguably the Dragonsworn, who pledged themselves directly to the draconic council, and were granted frightening elemental powers by the strength of their zealotry.


    Back when she¡¯d first arrived in Crowncourt, tired and confused and scared by the strangeness all around her, Adeena had also sworn an Oath: not to any God or state or organisation, but to herself. That she would never allow herself to be beholden to anyone every again, and that she would follow her conscience, not laws or edicts or commands. And she¡¯d followed it, for hundreds upon hundreds of cycles.


    But then the Razing of Chace had happened, and something had broken inside her. Snapped as she¡¯d watch hundreds of her men and women turned to ash in a matter of minutes. Friends and confidants she had known for cycles upon cycles had been mown down by the overwhelming firepower of the Imperium. That had been the turning point. It hadn¡¯t happened all at once, but slowly, cycle by cycle, her mystical abilities had waned until she couldn¡¯t so much as smite a fly or predict a pea being thrown at her.


    There was something deeply ironic that her power had only stirred to defend citizens of the dragon¡¯s empire, including at least one who had taken part in the Razing.


    She spotted movement in the gloom, pulling her from her ruminations. Pale blue glinted in the dark, and she pulled the aether rifle¡¯s bolt, activating the weapon and sighting down its scope. The weapon hummed as it powered up, and a few moments later there was a click as tiny small light by her eye turned blue, letting her know the shot was ready.


    Her finger brushed the trigger as she centred on one of the shambling shapes. What had once been a tall sea elf man, dressed in an Imperial Postal Service uniform, its eyes a cold, blazing azure. Not a man: a shell, a puppet animated by the foulest of magics.


    She pulled the trigger, and the weapon kicked as a pulse of aetheric energy, somehow contained by dragonic genius, shot from the weapon and streaked through space, taking the dead elf in its chest. The force of the shot twisted it around, and it stumbled, but did not fall. Beside her cheek the rifle hissed and clicked, something inside it cycling and beginning to slowly build another charge.


    Behind her the others opened fire, Heidi¡¯s fire-based contraption much louder and brighter than the others, and Xavier¡¯s beams of whisper silent starlight standing out from the rest of the barrage. Most of the shots went wide, but a few hit, and one or two of the zombies fell.


    The humming of her weapon grew. It clicked again, and the light flickered back on. She fired, this time striking the ghoul she had hit before between the eyes and dropping it in a single moment.


    Fire, wait for the recharge, fire. The ghouls continued to advance, and far behind them she saw the first of the Vodyanoy, distinct by their glinting, wet skin, and the horrific eldritch croaks that came from their huge mouths filled with razor sharp teeth.


    There was something¡­ off about these ones, however. Adeena had fought the Unseeming creatures before, but she¡¯d never seen ones with metal grafted to the flesh, nor wires sticking out of their faces¡­


    She found herself staring, and turned away. Then she frowned and looked back at the foremost of them. Their eyes. Their eyes were missing. Or rather, they¡¯d had metal grafted over them, which were the sources of most of the wires. They clearly still had some means of sensing Adeena and the others if they had shot the ship down, but from the somewhat stilted way they were walking it seemed that they were not using their sight.


    The first ghouls began to approach their defensive line, and after one last shot ¨C this one at a Vodyanoy, which did virtually nothing except make it stagger ¨C she swapped her rifle for her sword.


    ¡°Don¡¯t you dare shoot me in the back!¡± she shouted as she rose from her cover raising her blade and for the first time in what felt like an age taking the fire in her heart and channelling it into her weapon.


    She half expected it not to work. That after so long she¡¯d have forgotten how to do it properly, or perhaps that she¡¯d just been imagining the shift within her. But, sure enough, her sword began to shine with golden light, pushing back the darkness and making the closest of the ghouls cringe away from its brilliant aetheric radiance, snarling in pain and holding its hands up to shield its glassy blue eyes.


    ¡°That¡¯s right, come on, come on,¡± said Adeena, waving her blade back and forth as she rushed forward to meet them. ¡°It burns, doesn¡¯t it. Don¡¯t you want to put out the nasty light?¡±


    The closest of the undead, what had been a large orcish woman roared around a slashed windpipe and lunged for her. Adeena swept to the side, dragging her sword up through the undead, not even waiting for the bisected corpse to fall before immediately moving to engage the left.


    Blasts of energy whizzed around her as she fought, slowly backtracking in the space she had made herself with her advance. She didn¡¯t get all of them, however, and although many were drawn toward her by their hatred of the radiant energy of her blade, many got past her. She heard Xavier, wearing the form of a bear, roar, and some kind of whirring, revving from what she assumed was the weird chain-sword-thing she¡¯d seen at Heidi¡¯s belt.


    And then the Vodyanoy arrived.


    A growl of static and a cloying, unnatural feeling was the only warning she got of the incoming spell, it was just reflex honed by long experience that meant she raised her enchanted blade in time to block the worst of it. The worst, but not all of it.


    The entropic energy tore at her, and she was sent flying backward, her legs clipping a piece of the cover that the others had been using and pinwheeling the back of her head straight into the ground.


    She blacked out for a moment, and when she came to the world around her was ringing with screams and shouts. A ghoul loomed above her, her own sword, no longer aglow, raised. It stabbed the weapon downward, and she barely rolled to the side in time to avoid being skewered. She kicked at its knee, breaking the joint with the force of the blow and sending it staggering.


    She jumped back to her feet and ducked its wild follow up, grabbing its wrist and stepping inside its guard, redirecting its momentum and tossing it over her hip. It crashed into the ground at her feet, and she finished it with a vicious stomp to the neck.


    Breathing hard she snatched her sword from the stiff grip and looked up to see that they were being overrun, and that almost all of the survivors had dropped their weapons and were routing. Lances of hyper entropic magic from the Vodyanoy were blasting through the meagre cover, burning or freezing or simply erasing parts of the survivors who were struck.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.


    Exactly as she¡¯d predicted. Exactly what was always going to happen. Why hadn¡¯t she run? She knew better than this. It had been stupid, foolish, a fit of child-like pique.


    To her right a ghoul knocked Bloodmoon to the ground, scrabbling and clawing at the ageing goblins¡¯ face. Adeena raised her hand to blast it, but nothing happened: the fire had gone back out.


    Bloodmoon thrashed as the larger, human ghoul began to choke her, her green face slowly turning grey.


    Futile, utterly futile¡­


    No. No.


    The reinforcements might still arrive at any time; her Oathsworn powers had returned because for the first time in a long time she was following her conscience. The others had chosen to make a stand, she had forced no one. This wasn¡¯t her fault, and they weren¡¯t beaten yet.


    The fire flickered, and her sword erupted into golden flame as she reversed her grip and raised her blade above her head, imbuing as much of her spiritual strength into it as she could muster. She brought the blade down, tip first, into the ground. Fault lines of radiant energy raced outward, and the ghouls screamed and shied away as they were gripped with a sense of deep, abiding terror. The ghoul strangling Bloodmoon let it go and turned, scrabbling back with its fellows towards its toad-like masters.


    The mutilated Vodyanoy turned towards her as one, sensing the anathematic energy pouring off her. The toad-like creatures regarded her cautiously, their malevolent, inscrutable intelligence correctly identifying her as the largest threat present: the radiant energies of her soul the polar opposite of their own eldritch essence.


    Adeena released the spell and pulled up her sword, sweat pouring off her. Time was, such a ¡®spell¡¯ would have barely winded her, but like a muscle long atrophied she was still weak, diminished.


    ¡°Reform the line!¡± she shouted, gesturing to the survivors. ¡°Reform the line!¡±


    The others moved to obey her, and shots began to ring out again as the survivors stopped routing, downing several more of the ghouls. She saw a blast of lightning from her right crash into one of the Vodyanoy, courtesy of Xavier, which drew its attention, and some kind of weird¡­ projectile sludge that she assumed was from Heidi that tied another up. The remaining five¡¯s attention, however, remained firmly fixed on Adeena, and magic swirled around their hideous, slimy webbed hands.


    She knew she wouldn¡¯t win.


    She didn¡¯t.


    She managed to blunt the worst of their barrage of spells with her first proper shield in untold cycles, and she was able to reach them at a dead sprint, but unlike the mindless ghouls she had cut through with ease, the Vodyanoy were both intelligent and resilient, even against her enchanted blade. They fanned out and surrounded her, and although she managed to cut the arm from one of them, all it took was one good blow from them to send her sword flying from her grip. Bloody and bleeding, she drew her dagger from her boot, and with a defiant scream she forewent any kind of defence and lunged at the nearest one, ramming the blade into its neck. The blade took, and she rode the monster to the ground.


    But then the others were on her. Viciously sharp claws and teeth ripped through her enchanted jacket, shredding and sundering and tearing the flesh beneath.


    Through a haze of agony she heard someone screaming her name, but then sound and sight and sense faded as the hurricane within her rose for the second time that hour, and had she still had a mouth she would have smiled.


    A moment of infinite light, and then searing agony as golden fire exploded from within her, repairing and re-knitting and resting flesh and blood and viscera and igniting everything around her in what Xavier had once dubbed her ¡®stupidest manoeuvre.¡¯


    But she doubted Vodyanoy who had been devouring her would have agreed as the radiant flames that had restored her consumed them. The peals of pure birdsong drowned out their terrible screams, and by the time that the flames retreated back into her body the five monsters were silent.


    Forcing a single eye open was an act of immense will, but she managed a weak chuckle as she saw their charred, twitching forms.


    Then she saw movement in the darkness, and heard the wet, slapping sounds several more toad-like feet against the rocky tunnel floor. More. There were more of them. Xavier would be able to handle another, probably, and maybe Heidi could help if she wasn¡¯t already dead, but the hope in her heart died as the movement resolved into half-a-dozen new forms.


    They skirted around her warily, unwilling to put themselves at risk of her repeating her strange feat, and despite her best efforts she couldn¡¯t so much as move her arms under her to try and push herself up. She couldn¡¯t even scream for Xavier to run-


    Boom!


    The world exploded from one moment to the next, and she found herself suddenly flying through the air, smashing painfully into a crystalline formation and rolling for a few moments before coming to a stop, sort of uncomfortably half-propped up against a rock. The position, however, did give her a perfect vantage point to see a pair of Imperial Destroyers come to a screaming stop and swivel on their axises so that they was side-on to Adeena and the Vodyanoy around her.


    Great spotlights lit up, and a moment later the ships¡¯ many cannons began to fire, carpeting the area around her in explosions that knocked and buffeted her. The Vodyanoy responded with spells, but honeycomb-like shields flashed into existence in front of warships¡¯ hulls, harmlessly turning aside the energy.


    Still, the Vodyanoy were tough, and began coordinating themselves, some summoning their own large barriers and while others continued to launch spells at the destroyers.


    Until, that was, that he showed up.


    And Adeena knew it was a he, because it was not the first time she had seen the monstrous creature.


    Massive scales like dark iron, wagon-sized eyes like burning coals, talons like sharpened ivory battering rams, the dragon must have measured hundreds of meters in length, its sinewy, whippy body undulating this way and that, held aloft by whatever strange, innate magic let his kind defy gravity. A crown of horns adorned his immense head, and each of his teeth were individually larger than she was.


    Lord Adamantius, eldest of the Steel Dragons, member of the Draconic Council, Supreme Commander of the Imperium¡¯s armed forces, and the Butcher of Chace. The dragon whose rage had slaughtered a nation. Even the Vodyanoy realised that they were doomed, and a few of them tried to turn and run as lightning crackled in his maw, and a moment later he released the gathered energy in a beam that obliterated everything in his path, consuming the Vodyanoy to her left, and then dragging back behind her and then around, somehow avoiding killing her yet again, but making her entire body tingle and sting as it passed by.


    And then it was over. The destroyers continued their search as a third, white medical ship landed and unfolded gangways from its hull. Adeena¡¯s eyes, however, were fixed on the giant dragon, whose form rippled and shifted, compressing and contracting until in the place of a titanic dragon was a tall, pale skinned, steel-haired elf bedecked with a set of horns like his true form and dressed in long, dark black and gold robes. He wafted to the ground like a leaf on a windless day, alighting next to the Vodyanoy that had been destroyed by Adeena¡¯s explosive resurrection. At a gesture one of them floated upward and slowly rotated before him as his burning red eyes studied it, focusing in on the burnt and charred metal pieces around its eyes.


    Then he turned his attention to her, and Adeena felt herself tremble as he calmly and purposefully approached her.


    ¡°Cambion,¡± he said, coming to a stop in front of her. His presence was suffocating, even masquerading as an elf, and she found she could not take her burning eyes off his. ¡°You did this? How?¡±


    ¡°Does it matter?¡± she said.


    ¡°Answer,¡± he said, his voice reverberating and ringing in her mind, bringing with it a powerful, overwhelming compulsion to speak.


    She tried to resist the power, but she was weak and exhausted and didn¡¯t even last a second before words came tumbling from her mouth unbidden.


    ¡°Yes,¡± she said. ¡°I have the ability to self-resurrect, it is quite destructive to anything around me ¨C especially creatures of the Unseeming.¡±


    A secret, one she¡¯d only ever told a handful of people ¨C drawn from her lips within a second.


    It was called ¡®Dragonspeech.¡¯ The eldritch ability that dragons had to compel those around them using nothing more than their words. It could be resisted, to a point, but such a thing was immensely difficult against a dragon as ancient and powerful as Lord Adamantius. The dragons hadn¡¯t built their Imperium on ash and bone alone, they were supernaturally persuasive when they wanted to be, and even those who despised them could easily be brought around to their way of thinking if they weren¡¯t vigilant.


    ¡°Interesting,¡± he said, turning his gaze back to the floating Vodyanoy.


    Behind him there was a rush of footsteps, and a steel-haired human man dressed in heavy silver plate armour etched with a red dragon, and a blood red surcoat that fell to the back of his greaves ¨C the armour of a Dragonsworn.


    ¡°Lord Adamantius,¡± he said, saluting, fist over heart. ¡°The survivors are being seen to, and we are attempting to locate the ship¡¯s memorybox.¡±


    ¡°Collect the remains of these creatures,¡± he said, gesturing to the floating Vodyanoy. ¡°I suspect Althaeaixistria will want what remains of her pets back.¡±


    Pets? Of course, they¡¯d been experiments. That was what the fused metal had been about, the dragons had been playing with the deadly creatures.


    ¡°Yes, my Lord,¡± said the Dragonsworn, bowing his head. ¡°And the Cambion?¡±


    Lord Adamantius studied her for a moment, and Adeena¡¯s heartsbeats grew louder in her ears as her system flooded with adrenaline and she could almost see his ancient mind turning over. There were worse things that could be done to someone than death, she had discovered that long ago. And if this dragon decided that he so desired there were few powers on Ruvera that could stop him from keeping her entrapped for as long as he liked, perhaps killing her over and over and over again to try and figure out how she worked.


    He stepped forward and squatted next to her.


    ¡°Afraid, little mongrel?¡± he chuckled in a low voice. ¡°Don¡¯t be. You are fascinating, yes, but I¡¯d prefer a tool of your¡­ resilience watching over my daughter than assuaging my dear Althaeaixistria¡¯s curiosity.¡±


    Adeena looked at him with weary confusion. Daughter?


    ¡°So I will keep your secret, for now,¡± he said, dropping his voice. ¡°But if you fail to protect my daughter, if any harm befalls her, then I will find you, in whatever place or whatever plane you try to hide, and I will deliver you to my mate myself.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t¡­ what?¡± managed Adeena in a confused croak. What was he even talking about?


    The ancient steel dragon stood and turned, stalking away without so much as a second glance. ¡°She is injured, is she not? Or, at least, exhausted,¡± he said to his aide. ¡°Have the medics take her aboard the Mercy. Also, I have changed my mind, have these creature¡¯s remains sent to my personal archive and placed in stasis ¨C there is no be no record or study of them.¡±


    ¡°At once, my lord.¡±


    Adeena slumped, exhaling the breath she had been holding as the Dragonsworn scurried off after his master. The dragon was letting her go, passing up on what she would have assumed had been an irresistible puzzle and instead¡­ had threatened her and told her to protect his daughter? A daughter she had never met, and, considering his age, could probably be dozens of different dragons. And protect her from what? What possible threat could there be to a dragon in the seat of their power? One that she could apparently deal with?


    ¡°C-Captain?¡± came a familiar voice ¨C Heidi. ¡°Vice-Captain Xavier said to- to find your glasses? I have them here¡­¡±


    ¡°Ah,¡± said Adeena, smiling weakly at the gnome. The small woman had scrapes and cuts and bruises, but seemed remarkably uninjured. Fan-girl or not, it seemed it had not been a mistake to take her on. ¡°Thank-you.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re- you¡¯re¡­¡± said Hammerschmidt. ¡°I mean, um, here.¡±


    The small gnome carefully put the frames on her face, and Adeena shivered as she felt the glamour roll over her like a bucket of ice-water.


    ¡°Thank-you,¡± she said. ¡°Report, Private Hammerschmidt.¡±


    ¡°Um, yes- yes, ma¡¯am,¡± said the shaken gnome. ¡°Vice-Captain Xavier¡¯s leg was injured, but, um, not too badly ¨C the medics were taking him aboard the hospital ship. We lost some people, but¡­ but most of them lived¡­¡±


    She cleared her throat.


    ¡°Have you- have you always been a¡­ a half-demon¡­? I mean, none of the books talk about it¡­¡±


    ¡°A Cambion? Yes,¡± said Adeena flatly. ¡°I¡¯d appreciate it if you kept it to yourself.¡±


    ¡°Of- of course!¡± said Hammerschmidt.


    ¡°Now,¡± said Adeena, closing her eyes again. ¡°If you¡¯d excuse me, I think I am going to pass out.¡±


    ¡°Oh, um, yes, Captain,¡± said Hammerschmidt. ¡°Um¡­ sleep well?¡±