Alvec

After a few hour's nap, Rem roused him and led him to the deck of the boat. Another boat had pulled up alongside the Audacity. It was a smaller boat, only manned by a few individuals. A man in his fifties or sixties with a well-trimmed beard and long gray hair tied up in a ponytail stepped onto the Audacity. His clothing was well-tailored, and the brass of every button was polished. Alvec groaned, knowing this would be far more adversarial than he wanted. “It’s a pleasure to see you again, grandfather. It’s been a long time.” Alvec said as he gave a slight bow to Iridel Reynore, the very same, no-good, devil-fucking grandfather who had spawned Alvec’s bastard branch of the Reynore family. He wasn’t ready for another familial spat among the salt soaked sea.

“I thought I told you to meet with me in private; I expected you before all of this,” he said snidely. “Figured you were smart enough to follow instructions.”

“Sorry, we were a mite busy working with LouCol,” Alvec said, smiling devilishly at him. Iridel’s eyes widened for a moment as he assessed the situation. No doubt Iridel was under surveillance even among the Blue Banner, so working with their spymaster certainly was a very worrying sentence.

“I see. Would you care to elaborate on your work with him?” he asked, clearly sweating a bit.

“When we arrived, before we could track you down, he invited us to speak with him. He wanted some free agents to look into his theory about the Devil’s plotting something. We went and spoke with a Child of Akrixi and confirmed his theory. From there, we had just a few hours to enact a plan to thwart them. My team stormed Crowely’s island under darkness, destroyed the anchoring Styxweed root, stole back the audacity, rescued some prisoners, fought and possibly killed Crowely, and worse, an Erinyes.” Alvec said with intent, pushing the implication at Iridel with his words. The man took a moment to consider all the information, silently observing Alvec.

“You believe it was your grandmother?” he asked.

“I suspect it was. I’m more interested in something I overheard her say and another coincidence I’ve observed.” Iridel nodded, encouraging him to continue speaking. “Tyir, commander of the 3rd arcane regiment of the Red Banner army, looks suspiciously like me. You didn’t sire anyone other than my father, did you?” Iridel laughed at the idea.

“No, he very well may be kin to you, but it's not through my blood,” Iridel said.

“Alright, so others may have made the same deal. Understood. Secondly, she indicated she wanted one of us to sacrifice. Have any idea what she might have been talking about?” Iridel frowned.

“No, I don’t. I do not like the idea, though, as blood sacrifice is usually reserved for powerful infernal spells. Her presence... and the Styxweed... they were using it for what exactly?”

“Seemed like they were using it to pull a bunch of scuttled ships back from the depths to be crewed by devils,” Mavec said as he joined the conversation.

“And worse, there seem to be a few other worrying things.” Alvec said as his thoughts drifted to the third banner, which was conspicuously absent. “The Gold Banner isn’t anywhere in sight. This operation was massive; their network should have caught it. LuCol has a lot broader of a focus as one of the spymasters of the Blue Banner; if he was able to catch this, they should have seen it far in advance... so where are they?”

“That's been troubling me; after your contact with me, they should have stopped by to check in on me. Not a word,” Iridel said.

“And then there's still the business with the Valley of Steam,” Sarbie said as she joined Alvec standing meekly behind him. Iridel gave her a quizzical look.

“The Valley of Steam, you say? What's going on there?”

“We fought a Devil there. He wielded a twin-bladed sword and told us he would “Raise the Iron castle,” Alvec replied.

Iridel’s eyes went wide. “Damn them all, they’re trying again. “How well-warded is this boat?”

“Very.”

“Then let's go below deck to continue this conversation. We can’t afford prying eyes,” Iridel said before heading below deck. Alvec and the others, including Naya, followed along, ending up in a sparse room with chairs and a table. They took a seat around the crowded table, and both of the Reynores spent a moment adding their own wards to the array that the Audacity six already possessed.

“So you going to tell us what that's all about?” Alvec finally asked satisfied with his own handiwork.

“The Iron Castle was an idea... a goal the devils had. I’d have sworn before today that I’d never have heard that phrase before. No one is supposed to know about it. Hell, even most of us who fought through the Anarchy and Ageneon's war don’t know about the Iron Castle. You see, it was a ritual designed to bring the shattered facet into our world. The barrier between the realms has always been weak in the Empire of Fire and Water. They found a way to exploit that.”

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“Well, sounds like their plan failed,” Mavec said.

“It didn’t,” Iridel said darkly.

“What?” asked Alvec,

“It worked. They completed the ritual. The only reason we’re not being enslaved by infernals is that their presence woke up Akrixi. He literally dragged them back to hell.” Iridel confirmed.

“HA, I told you the spirits were good!” Naya shouted as she pointed at Mavec.

“Ok, OK, IF TRUE, then Akrixi did us a solid,” Mavec admitted. “So, how did you find this out?” He asked.

“I offered shelter to a demon being hunted by the Gold during the chaos of their plan being foiled,” Iridel confirmed.

“So wait a second, the Throne land... it's connected to the ritual, isn’t it?” Alvec asked.

“They’re exclusionary zones! No one's supposed to go there because it's still somehow connected to this ritual, isn’t it?” Mavec asked.

“My understanding is that ritual is carved into the very earth. War is hell, and they brought war, and conversely hell to the Empire.” Iridel pointed toward the twin sword. “May I see that?” He asked. Alvec placed it on the table before him, and he turned it over a few times. “It's as I feared.” He said, shaking his head from side to side.

“Yeah?” Sarbie asked nervously, still staying behind Alvec.

“This sword, it's too new, the devil carrying this, he wouldn’t have been here since the Anarchy. This means they’re at it again, trying to raise the Iron Castle. I hid a stash of my old books. I’ll need to consult them to see what this ritual your grandmother wants you for is. For what it's worth, I’m sorry you're suffering for my mistakes,” he said with a long sigh. “Think you could have LuCol offer me some protection? If the Gold barges in here, I’ll lose my head just for accessing these books I need.”

“I’ll mention it to him,” Alvec said. “I promise.”

“Do we think the Gold is... compromised?” Sarbie asked.

“It's an alarming possibility,” Iridel said.

“We can’t know for sure,” Alvec said. “But we should operate under the assumption that they are. If they try to capture us again, I think we have to fight back. This mystery with Kavaas, and now their strange absence here in Ac-Aziza despite obvious infernal plots... all I’m saying is that if we get taken into their custody again, we’re not coming back.”

“I’ll leave word for TaeCol in Ac-Aziza,” Sarbie stated.

“Ah, so you work for the church too. Interesting company you keep, grandson.”

“Better than yours,” Alvec replied without missing a beat.

“Any word on if Tyir survived?” Mavec asked.

“Yes, he’s being held on a medical ship. The third arcane regiment came under a lot of infernal pressure. He’s got a bad case of healer’s burn. They won’t let anyone in till he’s been treated. You’ll have to wait a day at least. What do you need him for?”

“We’ve got him decoding a secret cipher. The first time we killed one of those strange monsters, the man who died shoved an encrypted notebook in our hands.”

“Well, hopefully, it contains some answers. If you don’t mind me, I’ll be taking my leave. There's a lot of work to be done,” Iridel said as he strode out of the hold.

Alvec gripped the table tightly, his fingertips digging into the wood. Sarbie placed a hand on his shoulder.

“My turn to tell you it's going to be ok.” She said, giving a weak smile.

“Want a cig?” Mavec said as he pulled one out and lit one for himself.

“No, but a drinks sounding pretty good right now,” Alvec admitted.

“Yeah, there's a lot of fucked up shit going on here,” Mavec said. “We’ll just have to wait to see what tomorrow brings.

Illaria

Illaria and her parents dined alone on the Audacity Six. There wasn’t much for her parents to recount. Their lives had been exceptionally dull, and their contact with others beyond captives on the ships was minimal. Instead, they spent the meal grilling Illaria over all manner of things she had done since the day they parted ways. Most curious to them was her friendship with Bait. The two of them looked to be such an odd couple from the outside. There were dozens of questions about Alvec and Mavec, followed by some gentle ribbing about whether either man drew her fancy. The answer was no, but they were both great lads, and she hoped they found good ladies or lads to settle down with someday. Eventually, as their drinks began to drain, the topic turned from the past, both long gone and more recent, to the future. For the first time, she could consider a future that held more than just blood, steel, and gunpowder on the backdrop of salt water and warm sun.

“The tower in Sha-Laial doesn’t have much space, but we’d more than welcome you there,” Illaria finally mentioned.

“We couldn’t put you out like that. Perhaps we could stay somewhere close by?” her mother asked.

“Perhaps the boarding house next door. Edis and Nora would likely have some spare rooms,” Illaria replied.

“That sounds like a good place for us to restart our lives. I can’t promise I won’t want to return to traveling around again shortly, but we’d like to stay with you for at least a little while. We’ve already lost so many precious days,” her father said, giving her a smile.

“It's settled then; we’ll have you return with us. The caravan is just large enough to accommodate a few extra people,” Illaria stated.

“So when do we leave?” Her mother asked.

“It will probably be at least a day or so. We’ve got an important meeting tomorrow morning. We’ve had a mystery on our hands for a good while, and we’ll finally be getting some answers. I’m sure Alvec is thrilled to finally know. It's been annoying him for months now.” Illaria admitted. The trio bedded down not long after their glasses were empty. Dishes and other menial chores could wait till tomorrow.