CRACK

A bolt of lightning lit up the cabin as its ocean-rending light shined through windows. Hard, heavy raindrops burst against the ship’s hull. The winds howled and hissed like the moans of a dying beast. The whole ship rocked back and forth as it crested over towering, tumultuous waves. A ceiling of grey thunderclouds loomed overhead with only a few furtive sunrays piercing through. I looked out over the waves. A thick, billowing fog had rolled in.

There was muffled shouting coming from above deck, just barely audible over the wind. I listened to it intently but couldn’t glean anything from it other than a state of panic. The deck crew was probably scrambling to tie everything down before it slid or rolled into the sea. The storm had come out of nowhere in the dead of night and showed no signs of letting up. My ear perked up. The shouting was getting louder and more heated.

KRACKOOM

A bolt of lightning landed right beside the ship and sent of spray of heated water up into the sky. I rolled over in my hammock and saw Sherri staring at me anxiously. I’d learned over our travels that she had a deep-seated fear of thunderstorms. It wasn’t any single component of the storm that freaked her out (as you’ll recall she was completely fine when Fonteen brought lightning down on Stethis in Valas), but rather the whole thing when you combined them. I can only imagine the destruction her little seaside village faced whenever a furious typhoon rolled in.

“How are you holding up?” I asked.

She curled up into a ball and said, “I-I’m fine. Just a little, um, frazzled?”

I nodded and smiled at her. According to Jedda, we’d be arriving at the Prism Palace tomorrow. It’d been almost two weeks since we’d left Balistag, and, while I hate to admit it, it’d been a fun ride so far. I knew that there was the whole return trip to account for, but it just wouldn’t be the same. The anticipation of reaching the goal was a major driving force for me. The ride home would pale in comparison.

“Attention! Attention! Darni Voker and Sherri Hanefeltz, please report to the bridge as soon as possible!” came Jedda’s voice through the pipes. “I repeat, Darni Voker and Sherri Hanefeltz, please report to the bridge ASAP!”

“O-Oh no,” said Sherri. I knew why she was getting nervous. Traveling up to the bridge meant crossing the deck in the middle of the storm. It wasn’t far, but it wouldn’t be a pleasant trek.

I rolled out of my hammock and flipped my storage chest open. I was off duty today due to the storm, so I happily put on all my armor and grabbed Bravesreign from the wall. After a moment Sherri flopped out of her hammock and got dressed as well. She was slow about it though, taking as long as she could each step of the way. It was obvious she was doing everything she could to prolong the inevitable. Once she’d finished tying up her boots’ laces, she shuddered and stood up.

I extended my hand to her. “Come on, I’ll be right there with you,” I said with a smile.

“I-I know . . .” she said. She took my hand and followed me out of the cabin and up the stairs to the deck. We stopped there for a moment as a stampede of heavy footsteps rushed past overhead, then flipped open the hatch to the surface.

KRAKOOM WHOOOOOOOOOSH

The fog was so thick I could barely see ten feet in front of my own face. Frenzied sailors came in and out of view like mirages, all scrambling to secure everything in sight. Raised voices rang out in every direction, but each one was masked by the bellowing of the wind and sharp shrieks of lightning. I couldn’t even make out Sherri’s whines as trudged our way across that slickened wasteland. About halfway through our journey, a drenched ghoul of a sailor burst through the fog wall waving his arms to ward us off. I was going to grab him by the shirt and toss him aside since we were in a rush, but then the ground directly behind him burst open as one of the ship’s huge great ballistae rose from below. I shouted an inaudible thanks to him and continued on my way. From there we hurried into the command tower and up the stairs.

“We’re here! What’s the big emergency!?” I shouted as I threw the door open. I shook the water from my hair like a shaggy dog and dragged Sherri in a few more steps so she could fall to her knees dramatically.

The captain turned in his chair and wiped a few drops of water from his cheek. He had a wide grin on his face. “Good morning, girls! There’s a couple of towels hanging on that rack,” he said. I looked to the side and saw a hat rack stocked with nice dry towels. I took one and handed it to Sherri, then took one for myself. “Nice and dry? Good. Now, for why I called you two up here suddenly.” He stood and strode over. “As you both know, we’ll be arriving at the Prism Palace tomorrow morning, sometime before noon. I wanted to have the briefing early so you could spend the rest of this dark, stormy day preparing for the expedition.”

“W-Will the storm let up before we arrive?” asked Sherri as she dried her hair. I couldn’t help but notice how she expertly maneuvered to avoid displacing her hair bow as she did it.

“Not a chance. This typhoon is a continuous presence ‘round the palace,” said Captain Kastel. “Nard, I want you to keep us on course. Don’t let the waves push us astray.” Nard raised her fist and flexed her arm without turning around. I assumed that meant she’d do her best. Captain Kastel turned to Ufie, who was leaning over her table measuring something with a ruler. Ufie, give these two the rundown.”

“Aye aye, sir!” she said with a salute. She grabbed her long pointing stick from the wall behind her and smiled. She had a bruise on her side the size and shape of Jedda’s fist. The two had gotten into a scuffle early in the morning, and in my half-awake state I witnessed a hungover Jedda land the blow after being called “a bleary-eyed tube-talker”. We went over and stood across from her.

“As you can see here,” she pointed to the carving of Priss’ head, “The Klazmitz is catching up to us at a breakneck pace. They slowed to a crawl after we tore up their sails in the battle around Dolsten Island, but it seems they’ve been working their invokers overtime to close the gap,” said Ufie.

“Hope she burns them out,” I said under my breath. I could imagine Priss stomping her feet and commanding them to “invoke harder” every hour of the day.

Ufie slapped her stick into the palm of her hand, then grabbed a small carving of a house from the edge of the table and set it on the map. “This is our destination, The Prism Palace. I scrounged up a whole heap of information after our last voyage, and I noticed a trend in its documented appearances. It only appears in this specific spot, only around noon and only for a window of about ten minutes.” She traced a series of circles around the wooden carving. “Surrounding it is a constant localized typhoon, which we’re currently on the outer edge of. In the center, directly around the palace, is a fearsome whirlpool. We previously managed to breach the storm and enter the vortex, but we were flung out by its currents and landed roughly . . . here.” She tapped a spot of open ocean far west of our current location. “I’m sure the captain’s told you the story already.”

I put my hands on my hips and said, “Yeah, it’s how we got wrapped up in all this in the first place.”

Ufie giggled to herself and traced a line between the carving of my head (which represented The Escallion) and the carving of the house. “We should reach the edge of the whirlpool by noon tomorrow, assuming nothing goes awry.”

“Will we have to go outside in the storm to get to it?” asked Sherri anxiously. She was holding her fists to her chest and rocking side to side slowly.

“Nope!” said Ufie. “The palace is located right in the eye of the storm, and that means calm winds and clear skies!”

“Thank goodness,” sighed Sherri.

I crossed my arms. We’d been talking about reaching the palace and all that for a while, but I still only had the vaguest idea of what it actually was. I’d been so annoyed with Priss that I’d signed up for the adventure without much thought, and I’d been putting off thinking about it in favor of hijinks. Guess it was finally time to ask.

“So, what exactly is the Prism Palace anyway?” I asked. “The royal archives didn’t have much information on it, but it seems like you know a ton, Ufie.”

She slapped her pointing stick into her hand again and looked to the side. “Well, it’s a— a, um, building. A building that floats above a big whirlpool and uh . . .” her voice trailed off as she pouted. “I don’t actually know,” she finally huffed. “I’ve been reading all these reports but nobody ever says anything more than ‘oh it’s so beautiful’ and ‘if only I could see it again’! They never give any hard details, but that’s probably because nobody has ever actually set foot on it before.”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“And that’ll all change tomorrow!” bellowed the captain. “Picture it, The Escallion, the first ship to ever reach the Prism Palace and uncover its secrets! We’ll go down in history! Gya ha ha!”

“Captain, could you please quiet down. My head . . .” grumbled Jedda as she rubbed her temples.

Captain Kastel covered his mouth and nodded his head sheepishly. “Right, sorry about that,” he said. “After we’re done here you should guzzle down some water, as much as you can stomach. It’s the oldest cure in the book for a night of gill wettin’.”

Jedda set her head down on her deck and rolled it side to side. “I’ll try to remember that . . .”

“Um, I have another question. How does the palace float?” asked Sherri.

There was silence for a moment as we all looked at each other blankly. That was a good question. How did the palace float? I can’t imagine they stuck a big furnace and balloon on top. That’d just be silly. We all stood there pondering the question until Captain Kastel broke the silence by saying, “No idea, and before you ask I haven’t a clue where it came from either. The darn thing is a mystery in all but its location, and we just recently figured that part out.”

“Lame,” I said. “Do we even have a plan to reach it? Something to keep the ship from getting flung halfway to Obran like last time?”

“We do, but I’m keeping it under wraps until the moment its needed. Wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise!” said Captain Kastel with a big smile.

“You were ready to use it against The Klazmitz though,” mumbled Jedda.

“That was in the past, Jedda,” said the captain. He raised a finger and smirked smugly. “The Rucas Kastel of then and the Rucas Kastel of now are two completely different beasts, and the Rucas Kastel of now is saying to keep it secret!”

CRACK KRAKOOM

A bolt of glowing lighting flashed in front of the ship and unleashed a deafening roar that shook the whole ship. Sherri yelped and crouched down into a ball, then stood up and blushed once the thunder dissipated. I crossed my arms and let out a little sigh. What was the point of this meeting if nobody knew anything? I could have been sleeping instead!

“I’m going back to bed . . .” I said. I turned to leave the bridge, then recoiled as the captain quickly dashed to block the door.

“Wait! Wait! Hold your horses there, Darnini! I can see I’m losing you, so I’ll quit playing around. There is a point to this meeting, I swear on my honor as a seaman.” He looked over to Ufie and took a stern expression. “Clear off the table, I’ve got something serious to show you all.”

One chance. I’d give him one chance to wow me, and if that turned out to be a flop I was leaving for real. I returned to Ufie’s table and watched as he pulled his sword from the wall behind his chair.

He cradled it lovingly, then set it down on the table. “You too Jedda.”

Jedda groaned and shuffled from her station. She had dark spots under her eyes and her hair was a mess. “I’m not on the away team though!” she whined.

“Don’t go deciding things on your own. We’ve yet to solidify our party. Now, look closely.” He slid the sword from its sheath slowly and smiled as its polished blade glinted in the light. “This sword was passed down to me by my father, and to him from his. The men of the Kastel family have been carrying this chunk of metal around for the better part of a century. My grandpappy won it in a game of chance, but little did he know it’d become a blight upon his descendants.”

“What makes it so special?” I asked. I wasn’t impressed, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t interested. The sword was fairly plain outside of having a cross guard that looked like a fish’s fins.

He smirked and grabbed hold of the sword’s pommel, then twisted it a few times. It popped off and revealed a compartment inside. “You see,” he said as he tilted the sword up, “someone stowed a little secret inside!” A tightly wrapped brown scroll fell from within the sword’s hilt and into his hand. I leaned in. Now I was impressed! “I haven’t the foggiest idea why the original owner would cast aside such a thing, but the fact of the matter is that it’s mine now! Gya ha ha!”

He unfurled the scroll and set it down. Drawn on it was a mess of diagrams, sketches, and scribbled notes written in beautiful calligraphy. Most of the text was too flowery for me to read, but from the pictures, which were just as beautiful as the writing, I could tell that it was all about the prism palace. Oddly the diagrams were all labeled Sare Valtameri. I ticked my head to the side to get a better look at one of the diagrams, then bonked my head against Sherri’s as she did the same. We apologized to each other, then hushed as the captain began his explanation.

“My old man and older man did the brunt of the work making sense of all this, but neither of them managed to reach the dang place. That’s the one fault of the notes. All this information but the egghead that jotted it down forgot a map!” he smacked his hand down on the table. “But I found it! Or should I say, our excellent navigator did! Give her a hand you three.”

Sherri and I clapped as Ufie took a bow and beamed with pride. Jedda just grumbled to herself and looked away. “It took a lot of doing, but I got it done!” she said.

“And I can’t thank you enough!” said the captain. “Alright, let’s get to the meat of the matter. What I said earlier about us being the first to the palace was a load of hot air. This little document here details the author’s exploration through the palace. As far as I know he’s the only one to ever set foot on or in the thing, so at least we’ll be the second. If you look here,” he pointed to one of the diagrams, “the place is more of a labyrinthine dungeon inside than a proper palace. It’s got a multitude of dead ends, winding paths, and roaming guardians.”

“Guardians? There’re people living inside of it?” I asked. I was imagining a race of little gremlin things scurrying around in the dark eating rats. I stuck out my tongue, then drew it back in when I noticed Jedda giving me a stink eye.

“Not exactly. According to this section here,” he pointed to a paragraph on the far-right side, “they’re golems about Ufie’s size that’re all fashioned to look like the same woman. The author says he almost wept at their beauty, but I get the feeling that’s a bit of artistic embellishment. No respectable fellow would get so worked up over a statue.” I doubted that, but I kept quiet. “He also says they’re made of stern stuff. You could bash their heads of and they wouldn’t so much as flinch.”

“Then we’ll just have to bash their everything off!” I said happily.

I’m sure you already know what a golem is, but I’ll go over it quickly just in case. Basically, they’re any inanimate thing given life by whatever means. A man made of stone shambling towards you in an ancient ruin? Golem. An empty suit of heirloom armor attacking you in a crumbling castle? Golem. A giant wooden effigy in the middle of some ancient ritual coming to life and dancing as it’s lit on fire? Golem. You get the idea. It’s an incredibly broad category and you know them when you see them.

After that, we discussed our party composition. Sherri, Captain Kastel, and I were a given. The other options were Jedda, Ufie, Doctor Heize, and a few of the more competent sailors. Jedda seemed like the best option since she was reliable and, according to the captain, could “box her way through a whole army if needed”. The issue was that someone needed to command the ship while the captain wasn’t around, and she was next in charge. Ufie vetoed herself by saying that she signed up to be a navigator, not an explorer. I personally vetoed Doctor Heize the second he was brought up. Sure, he’d be a valuable asset with his invocations and healing ability, but I don’t think I could stand being trapped with him at length as we explored the palace. Nard didn’t even come up in the conversation. In the end, we decided on having Jedda come along.

“Does the scroll say anything about treasure?” asked Sherri. She pulled me aside and took my place next to the captain. Her eyes had gone sharp at the prospect of riches.

“Aye there is,” said the captain. He tapped the bottom center of the scroll. “Says right here there’s riches beyond belief to be found, assuming you can get it out onto your ship and take it all home. He also rambles on something fierce about a queen and a triad, but I’ve never been able to make heads or tails of it. By my guess, he started going a little loony while in there, probably the reason he didn’t bother to jot down a map.”

“It’s as good as mine!” said Sherri confidently. “And I’ll have Darni bust down any golem in my way!” She mimed swinging Bravesreign a few times with terrible form.

“What, are you just going to watch?” I said with a knock against her shoulder. It was funny seeing her get so pumped up.

“Arrows are ineffective against statues,” she said with a raised finger

“Why don’t you bring a hammer then?” I said.

“And cheat on Antioch? I would never!”

I crossed my arms as I thought for a quick moment. “And using that knife of yours isn’t cheating?”

She recoiled and bumped into Captain Kastel, who was watching our exchange with a smile. “T-That doesn’t count! It’s a, um—,” I could see the gears in her mind spin as she searched for an excuse, “It just doesn’t count, okay?”

KRAKOOM

The flash of a nearby lightning bolt lit up the bridge a bright white and made everyone cover their eyes. Sherri cried out and crouched down, then rose once the thunder died down.

“Can we get back to the briefing, please?” asked Jedda sharply. She was grinding her fingertips against her temples and clenching her eyes shut.

“Maybe we should call it here for now,” said the captain. “Jedda, take the rest of the morning off. Ufie and I can handle it up here while you get some rest. I’ll tell Heize to get you something to soothe your skull too while I’m at it.”

“I’m fine, I just need—”

“No buts! As the captain I’m ordering you to recuperate. We’ll be needing you in top shape for tomorrow, after all. Understood?”

Jedda pouted and said, “Understood . . .”

“I’ll man the pipes!” said Ufie happily. She smirked and looked off to the side devilishly. It didn’t take a genius to tell she was planning something rotten.

“Touch anything and I’ll rearrange your face!” hissed Jedda. She saluted at the captain, then to Sherri, then to me, then to Nard (who didn’t notice), then pinched Ufie on the ear before stomping out of the bridge. We could all hear her booming footsteps as she made her way down the stairs, and even the slam of the door as she exited the command towers.

The captain laughed and turned to us. “You two take it easy as well. Tomorrow’s the big day, and I get the feeling that Afinsheer girl isn’t going to let us reach the palace without a fight!”

“Haha, yeah! Knowing her, she’d rather ram us than lose,” I said.

“That’s what I’m fearing.” He turned to Ufie and adjusted his cap. “Where is The Klazmitz right now?”

Ufie rubbed her ear and winced, then straightened up and said, “They’re northeast of us sir, relative bearing two-twenty-five degrees. With their current speed they’ll be sailing parallel to us, port side, by tomorrow morning.”

“You girls heard her. Expect a big old brawl tomorrow morning before we reach the palace.! I’ve got a little something special planned, so look forward to it!” He clapped his hands together. “You are now dismissed! Do as you will!”

With that, the meeting was over, and our preparations began. Tomorrow was the big day!