Mark, Isoko, and Sally, stepped past some crewmen, into cargo hold #2. It was a giant cavern made of metal with lights shining down from above and brawnies walking with big crates into the hold, or strapping down crates, or using cranes to haul crates onto stacks. Everything was labeled and foremen were on catwalks, overseeing it all, or else they were on the ground, waving hand held lights to guys working cranes, to get stuff into position. It was a chaotic mess—

And then Eliot was there, smiling and waving as he walked up the side, calling out, “Hey!”

Behind Eliot was a tall woman with pale skin, bright white hair, and eyes the color of a sunset, all orange and pink. She wore army greens with a darker shouldercape and she was right behind Eliot, walking this way at a sedate pace.

General Aurora Valen, of House Valen, was something like 38 years old, and Mark had only met her a few times before, but each time she left an impression. She was high nobility, and it showed in her looks, and her, quite frankly, perfect body. Mark didn’t notice that sort of thing too often, but it was hard not to notice Aurora’s beauty.

… How she looked gave a lot of credence to the rumor that she was more than just a bi-Talent.

Maybe she was a tri-Talent, like Mark.

Eliot smiled, asking, “You excited yet?! We’re about 2 hours from takeoff!”

Mark felt the excitement in the air, and especially from Eliot. He felt it a bit himself, too. He said, “This is the start of a very big chapter in our lives, and I’m glad to be here.”

Eliot chuckled. And then he said, “I’m gonna be busy as fuck for a week, but it should be repairs and shit after that, and we can go out and go hunting again! I’m so ready to explore Daihoon.”

Aurora walked into the conversation, saying, “A pleasure to have you here with us, Mark.” She nodded to Isoko and Sally, saying, “Welcome, Isoko. Sally Wuthers, I presume.” She did not hold out a hand for a shake. They did not do that on Daihoon.

Sally stood tall and yet deferential, before bowing slightly and then raising, saying, “Yes, ma’am. I look forward to breaking monsters and making a good home for myself in the settlement. It is a pleasure to meet you! Has a name been decided on yet? … Er. For the settlement, I mean… I…” She trailed off.

Sally was nervous, obviously.

Aurora smiled a little. “There has been a push to name it, but we won’t be giving it a name until a year passes, or we open the first portal back to Earth and we easily handle the kaiju swarm.” She looked to Mark and then gestured to the side, toward a small break room, as she asked Mark, “I understand you wanted a semi-private conversation?”

Mark nodded. “Yes. Thank you.”

Aurora went inside and Mark followed. A pair of guys were drinking coffee and reading reports, but Aurora told them, “I need the room, gentlemen. Shouldn’t be long.”

The two men rapidly bowed and then stepped away, closing their reports but leaving them there. They shut the door on the way out.

Aurora was tense as she asked, “Is something going on with Addavein?”

Mark paused. “… Uh. Not to my knowledge? That’s not what this is about at all. Sorry if I gave worry.”

Aurora paused. “Oh.” She laughed, completely relieved. And then she was confused. With a quirked eyebrow, she asked, “Then what’s up?”

The fact that she was very busy was left unsaid.

“I want to donate some adamantium to the settlement project, and read you in on a fact that is going to make waves.”

Aurora’s sunset eyes widened just a fraction— And then she looked oddly at Mark, saying, “You’re adamantium blooded.”

“… Er. Yes.” Maybe it should have surprised Mark that Aurora put that together that quickly, but maybe not. Mark pulled out a kilo of adamantium from around his wrists and then shaped it into long, thin bars, as he said, “I want to give some adamantium to the project, too. I can’t actually make it into a kaiju blade, and you probably already have one or five, but I have the materials for another.”

“Ahh…” Aurora glanced at the pile of floating black lines, each of them edged and ready to be set into a kaiju blade. And then she looked at Mark. “This solves a great deal of problems but gives us new ones. I will speak plainly: Do you wish to be put under protective custody?”

Mark very seriously said, “No thank you.”

“Who knows about you? Eliot, I hope.”

“Yeah, he knows. My team knows. A few other people, too. I would prefer it if no one knows, but I assume the truth will out eventually, and I don’t want it to be a surprise for the people in charge.” Mark set the bars of metal on the side, on the table. “I was going to pretend that Addavein gave me the metal, but I don’t want to do that at all. The next time I see him will have been too soon. So if people ask where it comes from I will say ‘from the sky’, or something like that, and let them think whatever they want.”

Aurora nodded, looking away briefly, and then she turned back and said, “I had already planned on you getting some big job at the settlement. Some way to show off your strength and scare off people. I’ll find you a bigger job. When people think they can’t mess with you, they won’t. Your strength will be your biggest way to fend off thieves, killers, and suitors... I assume you don’t want suitors?”

Mark was a little taken aback by where Aurora went with all of that, but… “No suitors, please.”

Aurora nodded, then she looked toward the metal. Reality flowed around the black metal, twisting the light with subtle rainbows, and then the metal floated in Aurora’s telekinetic grip. “I’ll read in our weaponsmaster, but only him. Have you met Tulo Khava yet?”

Mark shook his head. “No, ma’am. I do wish to learn how to forge, though, if such a thing is possible.”

“I’ll introduce you after the meeting tonight, or more likely, when he is free. The meeting is at 10 pm. It’s mandatory for hunters.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Aurora looked at Mark for a moment, and then asked, “What do you want for this, Mark?”

Mark had no trouble saying, “I want mage learning without the secrecy contracts associated with it for me and Isoko.”

Without missing a beat, Aurora said, “Can’t do it. Next option.”

“… Er.” Mark asked, “Really?”

“The Mage Guild is a massive power bloc and I will not undermine our settlement before it even begins. They won’t trade with you if you don’t adhere to Mage Secrecy. So, give me other options.”

“Then… Clearance for a flying castle. I want Eliot to make one, and I want to live in one, in addition to the normal property options, and I want to learn flight magic outside of Mage Secrecy.”

Learning just one magic outside of Mage Secrecy should be fine, right?

Aurora took a moment to think about all of that, and then she said, “The castle is doable, but it’s harder than you think, and in a lot of small, logistical ways. I’ll put you in touch with the people who can make it happen but it’s up to you to make it happen. You’ll only be allowed to have it hovering over your own property, though, and that’s only if you can guarantee that it won’t fall on anyone else’s property, or damage stuff when it falls. You should know that a flying castle is a liability. It will be crushed out of the sky by any passing kaiju, and not even directly. Big, floating problem? Easy target. First target, in fact. That’s why hoverships have such large amounts of firepower, and I am not clearing you for that sort of firepower on a castle.” She continued, “As for flight magic… If all you want is flight magic outside of Mage Secrecy then that is doable. That branch of magic is practically an open secret inside most noble families. You’ll need to learn flight magic before you can get a flying castle, too.” She asked, “Anything else?”

Mark felt the future coming together.

Mark added, “I want a path toward nobility, and I want to be put into touch with the best accountants you know of.”

He could always deny the accounting help himself, but Sally wanted an accountant and Mark could maybe get one for her, at least.

“To be a noble you must clear many gates. Three stand out the most, for you. These include land, people, and a lineage for inheritance that ensures that supporting you and yours will support other nobles in turn. You have none of these necessary things. Gain them, and the way might open. Simply having major power yourself does not make you eligible for nobility, but if you want nobility, then I expect someone like yourself to get that nobility eventually. Part of new settlements is the raising of new houses, after all, and I look forward to whatever house you might raise, Mark.” Aurora asked, “As for the accountants: Do you want a broker to sell your adamantium? We have accountants for the mithrilkinetics we have coming to the settlement— Actually. I’m going to send you a whole packet of information. I need to get back out there. Thank you for your service.”

Aurora began to walk away—

Oh.

That was it, huh?

Well.

Uh.

Mark bowed, and Aurora wrapped some paper towels from the break room concessions around the metal he had given her, hiding it from direct sight. With a wrap of more power, she grabbed a cardboard box that held cups, dumped out the cups, and stuffed the adamantium into the box. Holding the box in her own hands, Aurora left the room.

Aurora called out to some guys she saw, “Jaro! Runner to Tulo Khava!” A blur of motion stopped in front of Aurora and resolved into a crewman in green; a soldier. She thrust the box of not-cups at the guy, saying, “C-7, floor 3, weapons department. It’s an important package.”

The runner stood at attention, took the package, and then raced away.

Aurora went right back to the people she had been talking to, to organize the shipments and tap at tablet screens and talk to other people.

Mark moved to stand with Sally, Isoko, and Eliot. “That’s that.”

Sally asked, “What’d you get for it?”

“Enough, I think?”

Eliot smiled wide, whispering, “We only had two blades, but that makes three. Three is a good number.”

Isoko quietly asked, “How many does a settlement usually have?”

“One to none,” Eliot said. “Two is a semi-stable configuration. Three or more is where kaiju get a lot easier to kill. Most kaiju killers are big spell workers, though, like Aurora, but you still need those blades for the big kaiju that need to be carved open before they can be killed. But enough about that!” With an excited tone, he added, “Let’s go check out the planning room! We can pick out land plots!”

Mark was a bit skeptical at that, asking, “We can pick out plots already?”

Eliot led the way, saying, “Not really. But we can get a feel for it all! I want a place near the east coast, away from the river, but then again the riverside might be developed to be a big bustling city center, and…”

As Eliot led the way toward some place that Mark did not know of, Eliot spoke of all of the plans for the settlement, from castles in the beginning to open cityscapes within two months and a big wall outside all of that. They’d have big apartment complexes eventually, but while they were just a settlement, everyone should be able to have an individual house. Mark listened, sure, but he mostly focused on a pair of guards that trailed them at a respectable distance. The guys weren’t trying to hide, and they were focused on Eliot a lot, so… Mark was concerned.

Mark interrupted Eliot, thumbing backward, asking, “Uh?”

Isoko rapidly added, “Yes. Who are they? Friends?” She had been concerned, too.

Sally looked backward and had a tiny startle. She asked the guys, “Uh? Hello?”

Eliot looked back and said, “Oooooh, shit! I think I know what— That’s Leonard and Kadol! What’s up, guys?”

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Both of the guys looked put-upon, and in an embarrassing sort of way.

Kadol, Mark assumed, stepped forward and said, “Uh. You said you’d fix up the crew rooms, and we were wondering if you could—”

“Oh yes! I did say that! Uh… Let’s go that way, first.”

Mark was fine with that, and it appeared everyone else was, too.

Kadol smiled, looking relieved, and Leonard gave a small bow of the head. They led the way up a side passage, opening a door to a cramped hallway that Sally touched with her head, but she made it through just fine.

And then they were in the crew part of the ship, on what looked to be floor 2. The hallways opened up a bit, but not much, and the crew rooms here looked well lived-in, with people hanging out in their boxers and teeshirts with photographs of people tucked into the corners of mirrors, and welcome mats sitting outside of crew rooms. The rooms had names on the doors in addition to numbers.

Some guys in the hall noticed Eliot right away, right before Leonard called out that the builder was here, and to ‘get your fucking rooms in line, because the rebuild was happening right now!’.

In a rapid, yet controlled sort of way, Eliot walked down the line of rooms, talking to people who were all too eager to get things done to their rooms, while personally greeting every single one of them, and then fixing up every room. Wiring got redone, lights that flickered got fixed. Lights got added. Beds, which were attached to walls and fully metal so they were not easily moved, got moved how the people wanted them moved.

It took half an hour for Eliot to finish, but Mark wasn’t in any sort of rush, and it was really neat to see Eliot in action, doing what he loved. The guy really loved building stuff and meeting people, and Mark couldn’t tell which aspect of his calling he liked better. He smiled with people. He laughed with new friends.

Mark, Sally, and Isoko, all met crewmen and crew women, just as a matter of course. Somehow they got on the subject of food. Maybe Sally had said something, but then Mark ended up asking someone about meat on the trip, and they got invited to the crew mess hall, if they wanted.

“Yeah they got meat in the crew hall. Not much, but we do get some!” said a girl named Bess.

“But y’all are warriors, yeah? You’ll get meat in the warrior hall, just like us,” said a friendly guy named Carl, who was one of the crew who fought, when he had to fight. With a smile, he patted Mark on the shoulder. “And we might go kill monsters right beside each other, too! I’m a long range bomber, usual range at 3 kilometers, so I’ll be softening them up for the big boys and girls, and that’s you and your team, yeah?”

Mark said, “But my range is a lot shorter. 500 meters is doable, but stretching it. Union, though, so I got tricks.”

“Oh that’s plenty! You soften them up, yeah?”

“I do,” Mark said, grinning.

Sally asked, “Will we be harvesting monster meat on the way? We did that on the last trips, but none of it was actually viable for consumption, so it all got thrown away.”

“What? Some birds attack, or something?” asked Bess.

“Exactly yes,” Sally said.

Carl said, “We’re blasting and sailing, and not scavenging for food at all. This is the most loaded with Skills we’ve ever been on Grey Whale, though, so I’m sure someone is solving the meat issue. We’ve got tons of Farmers of Verdago here, so the God of Farming can surely get us some chickens, at least.”

Some other guy who had introduced himself, but whom Mark did not remember his name, said, “Probably just eggs. Maybe locusts, too. Locusts can eat Farmed grains on a ship just fine.”

Mark had an instant, visceral reaction to say, “Uuugh!”

The crew laughed.

Sally smirked, asking, “Bugs are good with the right sauces.”

“Crumchy!” Carl said.

Isoko made a retching sound and Mark wholeheartedly agreed.

And then Eliot was there, saying, “That’s the crew housing done!” He told Kadol, who was with him, “If you want anything else, let me know.”

“Thanks, Eliot!”

A chorus of thanks erupted behind Eliot, and Eliot smiled.

Carl chuckled a little and told Mark and them, “Nice to meet you.”

Mark nodded. “Nice to meet you, too.”

And then they were back in the halls, headed through the ship, Eliot talking about everything that was happening, and listing a few other last-minute adjustments he had been requested to make, but which he had not yet gotten to.

“I’m not really cleared to fix ships, or to work on any of the actual insides, but surface work is all-cleared. When we get back to the rooms then I can fix those up for us, too.” Eliot said, “But let’s go pick out plots, first!”

Sally asked, “How do we feel about hills and higher lands than normal? Flooding is a concern, yeah?”

Eliot easily said, “The lower lands are gonna be where everyone gathers. The town centers and such. High lands are going to be defensive locations. Flooding won’t happen… but obviously it will happen. The Shine is right there and it does flood. But we got walls for that. What you feeling like? Lowlands at city center? Or high lands and defensive and good views?”

Mark said, “I want a flying castle. So, you know, the highest land possible.”

Eliot smiled wide.

Sally scoffed, talking about the benefits of owning closer to the expected city centers, which rapidly evolved into a discussion about how they could only plan for city centers, but city centers happened where people went, and that meant that people had to make those centers happen, directly. And that could happen anywhere, even on top of hills.

Isoko was all aboard the flying castle plan, as soon as she learned flight magics.

Mark smiled at the mention of flying magics. He had a surprise to tell her later, when the four of them were alone in the room.

But for now, they reached the big map room and found it absolutely filled with people, so they turned around and went exploring elsewhere.

- - - -

It was time.

The Grey Whale was full. The cargo bays locked. The people moved in.

It was time to move on.

Mark stood on the upper deck of Grey Whale, alongside Sally, Isoko, and Eliot, and thousands of other people. Some people remained in their rooms, or down below in the entertainment lounges, or in the war rooms, or in meetings with others, to make plans for the settlement. All of the guilds and their representatives in the settlement were here, on this trip, and a few superheroes and villains and high mages and paladins and high priests were scattered around the place, too. Those people didn’t care about seeing Memphi vanish behind them, but Mark did.

Mark wanted to see it all fade behind him, and to see the open land ahead.

Overhead, some fliers flew. Some of those fliers would come back to the ship when Grey Whale was past the city, but most of those fliers would be headed back to Memphi. They were just here for a sendoff.

Twilight was already here. The sun had yet to set, but the sky was overcast, threatening snow.

The Grey Whale was decked out in lights, though. Holographic streamers flew from the air all around the ship, while hidden speakers blared an upbeat song, as the ship began to lift from port. Up, up it flew, the air whipping a flurry of snow past Mark, past everyone riding on the top of the ship. Some people gasped at the sudden chill, but mostly they cheered. People on the ship waved to people down at the settlement project zone, and people down there waved upward to the people on the ship. Fireworks cracked the air with color and sound, and the ship’s engines whirred to life, thrumming the metal underfoot.

Mark was a mote of existence, standing on the edge of a fall, feeling an ocean of people all around and down below and in the air, all of them wanting something. The exact natures of those wants were too nuanced to ever know at a glance, but the desires all had a flow to them, and Mark felt propelled.

Toward the future, toward his future.

He looked up at the fliers overhead, as they flew in formation, some of them peeling off and twirling in the air, and some of them landing back onto the ship. One guy landed on the giant silver ring that surrounded the back third of the ship, waving to everyone still in the sky.

Isoko looked up at that man with jealousy, and hope.

Sally was fully secured to the floor, her TT holding her tight. She seemed… wary of heights, but she powered through it all. She was not scared! No sir!

Eliot smiled softly at everything, letting the wind brush against him.

Mark looked over the edge, toward the ground, and then a little bit above, where a familiar hovercar floated in the sky like a tiny boat being passed by a shipping cruiser. His heart beat hard when he saw who was in that car.

Uncle Alexandro and Gabriel stood out of the sunroof, waving Mark’s way, and Mark waved back, tears clouding his vision for a moment. They cheered, and Mark did too, but he knew they couldn’t hear him, for he couldn’t hear them at all, either. But he was pretty sure they saw him. They started waving frantically, happily, and Mark did the same.

They had said their goodbyes earlier, and it had been tough, but Mark would be back, eventually.

He’d call them, for sure, when he arrived.

And then they were past the planning area, out over the city, and Mark gripped the railing of the ship as it flew toward the future. Mark’s uncles fell from view, along with all of the rest of the people down below.

All too soon, the ship ascended even further. The weather envelope flashed into existence around Grey Whale, and the wind died down.

One final, major round of fireworks blasted the sky with color and light.

And that was it.

Mark stayed on deck, but other people began to flow away, down below. Isoko spoke of wanting to get to the planning map and Sally wanted to see it too, and Eliot had ‘a whole big list of things to do!’, but Mark wanted to stay. He wanted to see Memphi vanish from view. He was not the only one that wanted that, but he was the only one of his team that stayed up top.

Soon enough, Memphi was a land of flickering light and millions of people, protected behind a big wall. Everything else was a sea of black, save for a few spots of light that were surely either monsters, or people fighting monsters.

Soon, almost no one remained on deck.

Mark hung out for a while, catching glimpses of the sun beyond the clouds, watching that sun set beyond the western horizon, beyond the dark land so far from civilization. They had left Memphi behind, too far behind to see, and the only thing out there were monsters—

A gasp from someone else, far down the railing, had Mark looking their way.

A woman held onto the shoulder of a man as she eagerly pointed up and outward.

Mark turned, and his heart beat hard.

He listened intently, and he heard them, as he saw them.

Sky whales.

They were like grey monoliths poking through the clouds, glittering softly in the dark. They were hidden except for their immense grey masses that glittered on the edges, their tiny wings on their sides that were lit up like blue neon lights, and their long tails that ended in a rush of flickering green-neon tendrils that were almost like fins. There were three of them, far as Mark could tell. Two elders and one smaller whale. The smaller kaiju was a stubby little thing, but it was still the size of the ship under Mark’s feet. The elders were huge. Too big to see beyond the thickness of the dark clouds. But their glows shone through those clouds. Like hints of light, deep below the surface of an ocean, they were leviathans in the sky and they were magnificent.

The baby was the only one fully visible, as it played in the deepening night, in the deepening clouds.

They sang, and Mark’s heart skipped a beat. Their’s was an echoing melody of chiming thrums that crested and faded and then crested again, the larger ones with deeper voices, the baby with a shrill song, all of them talking together in long signals. Where one voice stopped, the others took up the call, and so it went, back and forth, a song between parents and child.

Mark smiled to himself, since he was the only one of his group still up here, on top of Grey Whale. With a thought he took out Quark from his pocket and had him take a video, as he said, “Looks like you guys missed the sky whales! Gods, they’re impressive.”

They were lazy things, too, floating slowly.

One of them opened its maw and swallowed half of a cloud, and then vented most of that cloud back into the world, through its gills and blowholes. The baby played in the vented mist, in the night, in the thickening snow. Mark wondered what the kaiju got from eating clouds.

Maybe just water?

It wasn’t comfortable out there on the deck, but Mark was wearing webweave and taking in warmth from the world, so he was fine with the chill. It was bracing, really. And the whales were magnificent. Sky whales were some of the only non-violent kaiju on the two worlds, and they were beautiful.

Mark watched the whales until they vanished from sight, into the depths of night.

Eventually, Mark let go of the railing. He turned. He went down into the ship, feeling some sort of loss and hope in his soul. A desire for more. A desire to see the worlds, and everything else that lay beyond the safety of city walls.

He still had half an hour to get to the hunter meeting, at 10, so he took his time, walking the much calmer hallways of the Grey Whale, enjoying himself, feeling out the people all around. A lot of people were still in meetings with each other, making plans now that the major players of the settlement project were all on the same ship together.

… They were all on the same ship together, weren’t they?

Oh sure, some people for the settlement project were not here. They’d be showing up later, or maybe they were already on site. But this ship held 90% of the population for the new place.

Mark hadn’t truly comprehended that simple fact before now.

Gods! What a simple thing to not really understand, until now.

Every single passenger on this ship was going to be a neighbor. A friend. A coworker, or something else. Someone to fight alongside. Someone to make plans with. Someone to know, and to be known by in turn. To buy from, to sell to, and a whole lot more.

Mark grinned at nothing in particular.