Eletheria flew through the expanse of the sky, only a few tiny white fluffy islands sharing the vast heavens with her. She could see the coastline they were following ahead, the light blue sky above and the dark deep blue of the sea below. The feeling of freedom and flying through the sky took hold of her heart.
A shiver of joy coursed through her as she held a copper-plated yoke in each hand. She could almost believe she was flying without the ship. Looking past the controls of the airship, and looking out the floor-to-ceiling window in front of her. Silently, Eletheria wished for more clouds, then, the illusion would be a little easier. Her dreams about flying always involved speeding through clouds and seeing them whisk by. Muting the people quietly talking behind her, the wooden support between the glass panes, and the airship creaking as it pulsed with power. Her power.
“Sir, a ship was spotted,” said a voice behind Ele and to her left. The voice wasn’t talking to her, but it had already started a little worm of disappointment digging into her heart. Some whispered words were exchanged, but all Ele could make out was, ‘balloon.’
Another voice whispered, “Hope it isn’t the Red Sun.” Just loud enough, everyone at the navigation table could hear it. “Faex pirate scum.” The voice continued. Ele turned her head to look around for the Windmaster. She knew he would want to take control of the airship back.
“Eyes forward, Ele.” The deep, calm voice of Windmaster Sal Erus came from behind her. Ele immediately looked forward to the horizon, hoping to see the other airship. Seeing nothing except clouds and a blue sky, she couldn’t help but focus on the feeling of someone standing behind her. There was a sound of a clip securing to a harness, and then she felt large hands covering hers.
“Ele, I need you to let go of the power first with your right hand when I say 3. Nod if you understand,” Sal’s voice said. Ele nodded her head and then heard, “1, 2, 3.” When she heard three, she dropped the power in her right hand. There was a slight shift in the ship’s movement. Perhaps now I need to drop the other hand so I can move out of his way was Ele’s thought as she couldn’t remember the proper trade-off procedure. She dropped her power in her left hand, and the ship lurched this time. For a brief moment, everyone on the ship felt it start to descend. After a long second of terror, it regained stability when Sal took over power and control.
“A little early, but next time, let’s wait for the second count of three.” Sal told her in that ever-encouraging tone that he had.
“Sorry, I thought I needed to…” Ele started to explain as she turned to look at Sal. His soft brown eyes that matched the color of their skin looked back at her. Ele’s face came up to the top of his chest. He was wearing the harness most pilots wear when they are expecting turbulence. The harness looked like a leather jacket tightly strapped to the pilot and had two ropes attached to the back, one going to the ceiling and the other to the floor. “Would we have crashed?” Ele quickly followed up, worried that she had almost destroyed the first ship she was allowed to fly.
“No, it takes more than your ability to keep the ship in the air. There is a backup but they aren’t as powerful as you, or I,” Sal replied and motioned with his head for her to move out of his way. Ele took a small step to the left but stayed looking out the window. “Now I need you to go to your cabin and stay there. This may get bumpy, and your parents would kill me if you got hurt.”
“Wait, are we going to be attacked?” Ele said. She looked towards Sal and then back out the window. She couldn’t see anything on the horizon, though she did not have a spyglass or anything to help her vision.
“Probably just a merchant, nothing to worry about,” Sal replied, staring out the front window.
“If there is no danger, then why do I…?” Ele started to ask, looking back at Sal who was focused on the sky through the window.
“One of the things you must learn is to obey your superiors,” Sal interrupted. His tone was much more serious, and this was one of the few times Ele had ever heard it lose its softness. Ele shrank back a little from a glare she knew was there. Luckily, she was behind him and didn’t suffer the full effect. She backed away towards the door to the deck.
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“Yes, Windmaster Erus, thank you for allowing me to see a Windmaster in action. Your will be done.” Ele said as sarcastically as she could and even threw a swift salute with her right fist and knuckles outward to her chest. The thump was loud and hard enough; she gasped. While Sal wasn’t facing her, she was certain he had at least heard the salute. Turning around, she saw there were several people in the room, and her childish act was witnessed probably by half the command staff. She quickly left the room through the double doors that led to the deck before Sal could reply or reprimand her.
Ele resisted the urge to slam the door while exiting the command room. She wasn’t angry with the ship, just with how Sal Erus and others treated her. With a pause outside the door, she closed her eyes momentarily, realizing the irony in that thought. Such quips and mocking of one’s superiors will not help her achieve Windmistress. A brief thought of going back in there and apologizing came to mind. Now was a bad time as he would be focused on steering the ship away from the other vessel. Tthe spotter called it a balloon. It meant it was flying without the use of Quantitas. The airship Vol Mortem used Quantitas, or quan for short, to provide lift, requiring at least one Windmaster at the helm.
She glanced across the deck, busy with people running around seemingly in chaos, the riggers in the sails securing ropes and sailors on the deck tightening things down. When she had reached the foremast, the ship slowly started to turn starboard. She hurried towards the aft cabins and was a few steps from the main mast when she caught the image of something in the air in the corner of her eye. With a sudden stop, she turned and looked towards the dark shape in the sky above them. It had approached them from the aft side, and because it didn’t use quan to provide lift, it had come in high above them. Its angle also explained why she couldn’t see it from the command room. The spotter must be up in crow’s nest.
Ele had seen drawings and crude representations of the G’Aequor airships. Rarely did they dock in Ascalon, so she never got to see them. Balloon was an apt name for them, and the large canvas structure hovering above the actual ship looked like an elongated sphere. Even though it seemed far away it looked huge, possibly three times as long as the Vol Mortem. Beneath the giant balloon hung a ship that was not unlike hers and about the same size too. But instead of two pontoons on each side for stability, it was a single shape, as if someone had taken a seafaring vessel, attached the large balloon, and filled it with lighter-than-air gas.
The Vol Mortem shifted a little as it angled downwards. Ele thought Sal must be trying to run from them or at least get closer to land. Since they had only announced the ship a little bit ago, they were not taking a steep dive to give people time to anchor themselves to their post. Along the masts and near the railing there are hooks to connect tethers to. Ele currently did not have a tether or suitable harness. Even though the other ship was a good distance away, she could see the ropes that connected the ship to the balloon above it.
A small white cloud and a small flash of light appeared towards the front of the other ship. A few other puffs followed along the side of the ship. Something nagged in the back of Ele’s mind as she watched eight puffs of white smoke appear on the other ship. It took a moment for her brain to process that they were being fired upon. She dropped to the deck.
A second later, the shots whizzed by. One tearing a hole in a sail. A second later, the cracks of the cannons followed, filling the air like the rumblings of an angry god. She quickly got to her feet and immediately fell back down as the ship dove to avoid the second volley. She reached to grab a rope but it moved away as the ship turned portside and dove. She rolled and slid across the deck. Her shoulder hit the rail with a thump. Both arms wrapped around the rail as she held on tight. A few seconds later the pain in her shoulder was growing into a burn. Still, she held on, even going so far as to entwine her legs around a rope tied to something.
The Vol Mortem started leveling out after diving for a few seconds. Ele loosened her injured arm’s grip on the railing and tried to pull herself up. She was able to stand, but between the ship leveling out and her movements, her foot was caught in the tightening rope. Bending down to loosen the knot that had developed, she couldn’t complete the task because of her injured arm. There was just too much pain when she tried moving her shoulder. Without knowing where the rope went she knew she had to free her foot. Kneeling she let go of the railing with her good hand and started loosening the twisted loop of cord holding her foot.
“LOOK OUT!” a shout went out from across the deck. With her foot free, Ele saw a young sailor pointing upwards in her direction. Instinctively Ele grasp the railing with her hands, as more cannonballs hit. The whizzing sound of the ball drown out anything else the young man was trying to yell at her.
The wood explodes, throwing chunks of wood and splinters everywhere. The deck she clung to shook, and suddenly, she felt the railing pull away from the ship. The sound of the cannons being fired upon the Vol Mortem filled her ears, then was quickly replaced by the sound of the cannons aboard her ship. The blasts interrupted her thoughts as the railing she held onto started falling away from the ship’s deck. She was almost completely off the deck when she freed her arms from the rail she had previously clung to. With a push against it she was able to slide a little further back upon the ship. She got into a kneeling position on the edge of the ship, crawling away from the open hole that emptied out into the sea far, far below her.
Ele was able to get far enough on the deck not to have to worry about falling off into the abyss. She also started working her way towards the remaining railing when she saw someone in the corner of her eye waving their hands. She couldn’t hear what they were trying to say; the young man was again trying to warn her of something. A sudden jerk of her leg caught her by surprise as a rope must have been secured to the part that fell off the ship. While the coil was not wrapped around any part of her, her knee and leg on it as she crawled towards the rail still on the ship. The sudden jerk took her legs out from under her.
Ele’s forehead hit the deck with enough force to cause her to see stars. The rope kept falling as she, in a daze, tried to climb off of it and pulled her along. Reaching with her hands for anything to grab onto but too slow. She looked across the deck at the sailor who tried to warn her, and their eyes briefly met as she was pulled into the abyss.