Chapter 8
The Skyship
Without warning, the skyship pitched to the side. The line of clouds that Terrill could see was lost from view as he fell into a side of the cabin, away from the stairs. Lumen rolled backwards into a chair, while just Charles was able to keep holding on, unless one counted Walter, who was desperately fiddling with the buttons and wheels.
“Walter, steady this ship out!” Terrill called, turning his body to find a better grip on something.
“What do you think I’m trying to do? I’ve never flown before and my eyes aren’t exactly what they used to be.” His venom was duly noted, but Terrill was more worried about a potential crash landing. Lumen looked more concerned with the contents of his stomach. Another jerk of the lever, and Terrill was sent skidding back across the cabin, landing on his stomach in the center. His ribcage still hurt, but the adrenaline of the moment was overcoming the pain. “I thought this would be like a ship, but I didn’t think about up and down.”
“I’d like to think more about up than down.”
ROOOOOOAR!
Terrill grimaced. In the heat of the moment, he’d forgotten that Blaise was there, still chasing after them with all impunity. He didn’t sound happy, but he did sound in pursuit. The skyship jerked again, bumped along some turbulence. Through the glass shield protecting them, Terrill could see the barrier of clouds coming closer.
“Terrill, go!” Charles shouted, planting his feet on the metal flooring. “We might need two people to stabilize this ship. Walter, is it? Focus on the part you know. I’ll handle the altitude.”
“I can-”
“Walter, just do it! We can argue after we’re not burnt to a crisp. Lumen, with me!” In spite of his sickness, Lumen nodded, crawling after Terrill. The Guardian pushed himself up as the skyship began to list once again, and he allowed his body to be carried over to the stairs. His hand snapped out to catch Lumen’s, and once the ship had stopped flailing about, Terrill began to pull them both up. “Keep this ship steady or we’re gonna be shot out of the sky. Once you can, lead us over the ocean.”
He refused to wait for any sort of acknowledgement. His feet hit the stairs and tromped up them with a clang, carrying Lumen with him until they hit a metal hatch, a wheel upon it. With both hands, Terrill spun the wheel and forced the hatch up. When he poked his head out, the full force of atmospheric wind hit him, chilly and breathtaking. Quite literally at that, as Terrill had to bring his breathing under control. The second he had, he climbed up to the wooden deck that paneled the top of the skyship. Lumen was hoisted up seconds later.
“Do you really think we can stop him?”
“No idea, but it’s about time we tried,” Terrill said, drawing his sword and walking to the edge of the deck away from the nose of the ship. Lumen joined him, clanging his sword and shield together. The skyship jerked some more, but they remained steadfast until they saw the glistening red wings hurtling at them with ungodly speeds. “Lumen, goal’s not to win. Just…heh… Just knock him out of the sky.”
“Understood. Luminous Shield!” His spell was called just in time. Not yet within full range, Blaise had opened his mouth nonetheless, letting loose his fire. The pearlescent shield blocked it, creating a half sphere around the ship and allowing the fire to split in multiple directions. One of the offshoots glanced the metal of the left wing, knocking some plating off, but the ship was otherwise unharmed. Blaise’s growl grew closer, and soon his tail swung through the air to crack into Lumen’s shield.
“You are not getting away, Chosen One!” Next came his claws, digging into the surface of the shield, beginning to wrench it apart with a feral grin. Terrill took his moment to act.
“Stone Shield!” It wasn’t as fancy as Lumen’s light-based defense, but Terrill didn’t use it for that. His feet slid along the deck, and his fist punched up. When it did, from within the wood emerged a stone slab that cracked into Blaise’s head before it could let loose flame. The surprise caused the Fiend to cry out and fall back. He recovered with a beat of his wings and let a quick spurt of fire shoot with pinpoint precision. Terrill and Lumen readied themselves to receive it, sharing a quick nod. “Splinters!”
“Shards!” The two clanged their swords together, hands held back. When they threw them forward, the air was populated with stony arrows and little knives of light. Those projectiles flew through the airspace, unaffected by the sudden jerking of the skyship. The men dropped, Blaise’s attack missing and scorching the top of the deck. It also meant his bulky body could not be moved in time to avoid the magical attacks from peppering his body. He growled in annoyance, but his scaly wings propelled him forth, his body beginning to wreathe itself in flames. “Terrill, are we aiming to cut his strings or…?”
“Just bring him down! Now, gather!” Terrill’s fist clenched, and his pieces of stone began to come together, drawn by an invisible magnetic force to the space above him. Blaise’s shadow was cast over the skyship, the fire heating the air and melting pieces of the craft around them. “Lumen, buy me a single moment!”
“If that’s all…” Blaise swung down, and at the same time, Lumen swung up, his blade imbued with light. Claw and steel met, their power shaking the skyship, though Blaise’s weight held the advantage, buckling Lumen’s knees before he bashed at the claw with his shield. Terrill finished gathering his stones together, just as a new sound entered his ears, like the whooshing of waves. “Terrill, now! Luster Ray!”
Light coalesced around Lumen’s shield, right as Blaise’s other claw came from the side to grab him. The light shot out as a beam that pierced the scales of Blaise’s claw. The creature screamed in pain, his hands recoiling as he bled fire. Terrill struck.
“Go away, Blaise! Stone Wrecker: Drill!” He swung down, and his sphere of stones turned into a spinning drill that drove into the dragon’s backside. Blaise shouted, his scales pierced and his body spitting fire that threatened to turn the skyship into an inferno, missing only by the oscillating speeds the vehicle was moving at. Unable to support his own weight, Blaise’s wings twitched, the force of the attack causing the Fiend to spiral downward, right for the ocean. Terrill didn’t hold his breath, careful to not fall over from the changing wind direction, and marshalling his voice to call down. “Take us up, above the clouds, before he recovers! Lumen, hold tight!”
It took all the concentration that Terrill could muster, both holding tight to Lumen and putting his magic into an entirely new spell. Torry’s lessons came back to him as the skyship turned near-vertical, climbing upwards at an alarming rate. With a muttering of the words “Earthen Lock”, Terrill held his breath. Stone pockets formed around their feet, securing them to the deck as the clouds reached higher. The engines whined and groaned, threatening to give out before they could make their destination, but Walter and Charles were trying, neither paying attention to the splash and mighty wave below.
“Do you think we killed him?”
“Wounded him, more like,” Terrill answered, hoping his sword wouldn’t go flying from his hands. “Those Fiends are made of sterner stuff, and it’ll take more than the elements we have on hand to finish them off. Now stop talking and focus on breathing.”
Lumen obeyed with a vigorous nod of his head, sucking in his cheeks while Terrill maintained the stones that kept them attached to the skyship. It truly sounded like it would give out at any moment, each part rattling, yet holding steady until the pair were buffeted by a turret of clouds. It obscured all from sight, trapping them in an endless world of white.
And then they broke above, and in one glorious instant, the sun shined upon them, waking up the world.
The skyship evened out, Terrill releasing his hold and collapsing to the deck. It took him a moment to realize he could breathe again, and when he stood, he could see the world stretched out before him, all the way to the horizon. Such a sight brought tears to his eyes, ones he didn’t realize he could cry. But when Lumen joined him, his eyes wide with wonder and his breath full of fascination, they knew this was a moment that could never be replicated.
For before their very eyes, the sea of clouds parting, Terrill could see the entire world. From the snow-stark lands of Niveus, to the sun-drenched shores of Ardoris and all in between. This vantage opened an entirely new world to Terrill, spinning on his feet to see all the world had to offer, right up to what appeared to be the edge of the world, its crashing falls heading off the map. Though it marked an end, all Terrill felt he saw was potential…and infinity.
This was the testament of humanity’s achievements.
This was what could be accomplished in not simply following the order set for them.
“It’s…beautiful…” Lumen gasped out. Terrill took him, wrapping an arm around him and hugging him with pride. “So…freeing.”
“That’s what we’ll fight for,” Terrill assured him. He clapped him on the back and left him behind, back for the hatch to descend. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, his blistering wound was acting up, but he hid it with a mild grimace while he climbed back down. He hoped Charles hadn’t bled out, either. They needed some sort of healing, and fast, which meant picking their first destination. “All right, looks like we did it. Blaise isn’t pursuing us and we managed to get the skyship going. Walter, do you think you can hit a specific… destination…?”
He wished he hadn’t spoken so soon about their success.
The cabin was deathly silent but for the rotors outside making their presence known. Terrill’s boots hitting the metal floor thudded with his presence, but neither of the older men there reacted to his presence. Neither was soaking in the wild achievement they had created. The longer Terrill waited, the worse it felt, and his whole body felt like sinking when Walter took one hand off the wheel to grip his spear.
“I lied, Terrill,” he said, the graveness of his voice conveyed only by its cracking. Terrill thought to grab his own blade, if he needed to intervene, while Charles stepped back against a wall, closing his eyes. “I did not come along just to save you, but to see with my own eyes. I wanted to look at their murderer face-to-face.”
“Walter, this isn’t the time.”
“There is no other time. I cannot remain in the same space without resolving this. Either my spear skewers him, or I end this all, myself.”
“Don’t be rash,” Terrill cautioned, stepping forward. The spear extended outward with a snap, settling right between his eyes to warn him to not come any closer or interfere any further. “Walter, I know your memories are conflicted, but you know that in both of them, Charles was controlled by Golbrucht. He doesn’t need to die for-”
“Let him settle it,” Charles said, his voice calm. In spite of his earlier proclamations, his words still carried with them that silent, damning wish. Now, Terrill wanted to intervene more than ever. Charles didn’t make the case any easier. “A puppet I may have been, yes, but still my actions were born at the root of my deepest desire to run away. That was a fear, a despair, that Golbrucht held on to, and in that despair, I committed unspeakable horrors. If you wish revenge for however I’ve wronged you, I would not blame you.”
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“How you wronged me…?” Walter snapped, letting go of all the controls and blitzing right for Charles, pinning him against the wall. His actions left the skyship to its own devices and it began to list. Terrill ran for it, grabbing the lever and wheel, hoping to maintain control of a machine he had no clue how to work. It didn’t do much, though Walter had Charles so stuck to the wall, that neither of the men could move. “Do you not remember their names? Their faces? Did you kill people and not remember a thing?!”
“If I could console you with lies, I would. Gladly.” Charles’s words did little but cause Walter to bare his teeth. In Terrill’s hands, the wheel began to spin wildly out of his control. No amount of toggling the lever did any good, either, and he felt his body lift off the floor. “However, I remember very little from my time under Golbrucht’s control. It is a time mired in a fog. I can only know what I’ve done, but not who I’ve done it to.”
“You would deny responsibility?”
“Walter, now is definitely not the time!” Terrill shouted. The banging of footsteps above their head told Terrill that Lumen was trying to get back down into the cabin with little success.
“I accept all responsibility. It was my hands that Golbrucht used to slaughter and lead to it. And in the end…I chose to help Sayn in its barbaric rituals to offer the Chosen Ones. Why else do you think I was willing to let you end my life?” Walter hesitated, his teeth grinding against one another. His memories could be seen behind his eyes, the only thing Terrill could pay attention to as the skyship dropped out of his control. It pierced below the cloud cover, streaking down with puffy trails of steam. “It has been a life of wavering causes and a broken road. If you wish to end it, I welcome it.”
“Charles!” Terrill lunged to grab the lever, hoping he was yanking it in the right direction, only for the skyship to pitch. Walter and Charles finally slipped, falling toward the other side of the cabin. “You said-”
“I cannot deny a man his vengeance. I cannot begrudge this man his vendetta,” Charles said, his eyes closed in peace as he slammed against a chair. Walter planted himself with his spear and looked at Charles, hatred burning from his singular eye. “I killed your family, as I took sons from so many others, and I cannot even remember them all. Do what you will.”
“You…” Walter could hardly breathe for all the emotions surging through him. Terrill flapped about on the lever, hoping to find the right setting, but offering no attention to it while Walter raised his spear.
“Walter, if you do that-”
“Quiet! He took everything from me! My brother! My parents! My wife! My town! Everything! Why should he get to live? He should sacrifice himself to burn upon the pyre as he did to them!”
“And what does that…accomplish?!” Terrill pulled the wheel towards him, the ship shuddering as he fell to the floor. “How does that make you any different from the Fiends? Starting wars to demand lives as sacrifices. And Charles, death isn’t an answer. Like your sister said, you’re not sacrificing anything. Just running away! We’re not like the Fiends who can endlessly regenerate. Our lives mean something, and death means nothing! So don’t throw it away!”
“I cannot deny him this. I have long accepted it,” Charles sighed, looking Walter in the eye. “Though I do not wish it, as I have things to protect, I will embrace your judgment.”
“And you shall! For Taro!” Terrill wanted to tackle Walter, but the pang in his breast from his wounds prevented him from lunging. The skyship began to spin, but it did not stop Walter from jabbing his spear forward, dead set on the quarry he had chased for years.
It found its mark…in the cushioning of the chair next to Charles’s head.
The Guardian sighed, emitting a low chuckle. “Denied again, then.”
The spear retracted, leaving a gaping hole in the seat while Walter collapsed, his back against another one of the chairs, letting loose haggard breaths. Terrill crawled forward to right the ship as the two older men nursed the animosity between them. It took a moment, but Walter finally found words to put to his conflicting emotions. “I hunted you for years… The mysterious Phantom Knight that razed my home, burned it to the ground. I could see you so clearly, it was the only thing I cared about. The war in Adversa, Terrill’s battle with the Fiends… They were all meaningless to me. Anything along the way was either an obstacle, or a stepping stone to greater power.
“And then, in the end, all you wanted was to die…and to find out that in Adversa, it technically never happened because you never existed there once Blessed…”
“For what it is worth, I am sorry.”
“I don’t care!” Walter pounded the floor, overpowering the wildly whining engines. “I can’t forgive you! I won’t forgive you! Control or not, you killed my family! You caused me that pain!”
“You’re right,” came Charles’s solemn response. “Then why not end it?”
That was something Walter could not voice immediately. He just let things spiral out of control while he collected those thoughts. Feet on metal and the sound of the hatch slamming closed indicated that Lumen had entered back into the cabin, but he stopped short at the scene. Eventually, however, Walter stood, stowing his spear away before speaking simply. “Because death is too easy for a man who wants to die.
“You said you had things you wanted to protect. Things you didn’t want to lose. Reasons you wanted to live, in spite of accepting death? Make those the only things you care about. Prove to me you’re not just some wanton murderer!” Walter rounded on Charles now, hoisting him up even while Terrill could see their altitude dropping fast. Lumen attempted to help him, but he was just as clueless, and unable to do a thing. “I will not permit you the death and peace you crave.”
“And if I do not prove it to you?”
“Then I will pour my hatred upon you at that time.” With those definitive words, Walter pushed the Guardian away, snorting loudly. Charles nodded, understanding fully. “For now, I will save my hatred for the one behind all of this. Not all of my pain is your fault. It’s theirs.”
Terrill blinked, something in Walter’s words hitting him differently. The hunter now strode back to the helm, and in mere moments, had managed to wrest control of the ship back from gravity. He kept the silence as he stared back at the dawn on the horizon. Terrill fell back on his hands.
He was beginning to understand Walter’s pain a little more, one that could drive him for revenge in two worlds. So, too, did he understand the accidental cruelty of Adversa forcing him into that pain, all so it could be in line with Dimidia.
With the cycle of souls that was fate.
From Blaise’s words, and his conflict with Winifred time and again, Terrill knew that the Fiends were bound by it, too. There was so much pain etched inside their souls, and in their pain they all lashed out, trying to find their purpose. And if Adversa was the cause of that continuous cycle…perhaps it made sense to want to end it.
He just couldn’t accept that it was at the expense of all those souls. There had to be another way.
“So, Terrill,” Walter spoke, breaking the silence and causing Terrill’s head to jerk up, “this means I’m with you. We’ll take down this Golbrucht, and put an end to the suffering he’s caused. I’ll achieve some semblance of closure that way, and if it means stomaching working with him, then I’ll manage it. I will not let anymore be lost.”
“Well, that’s a relief, I guess…” Terrill remarked, though in truth he was only feeling the pain in his abdomen. “So, now we have to figure out what’s next.”
“I thought that was up to you,” their current pilot said, a humorless chuckle tacked at the end. “You’re the one that’s been in charge of this whole affair. You would know what’s best.”
“He’s right,” Lumen confirmed, offering a smile. Charles nodded all the same, foisting the position of leadership into Terrill’s lap.
He wasn’t a fan, but he still pushed himself to his feet, breathing out through his nose in a display of dominance. Knowing he could make the shots was difficult as a thought, but it did put things in an easier perspective. “Take us over Gladius, then, while we head for Serotin. Er…you do know where Serotin is, right?”
“What do you take me for? I didn’t scour the world for nothing,” Walter said with a scoff. His confidence was a boon for Terrill, as was his next observation. “I’ll take us just below the clouds. No use alarming anyone.”
It was welcome, and the quartet grew quiet, listening solely to the humming, with some rattles thrown in. Walter brought the ship lower, revealing the green fields that made up Gladius, or at least the part that was in Valorda. That was about where the peaceful part ended.
“This…can’t have been how it looked in Dimidia when we left…” Charles was speaking as if he hadn’t known of the carnage wreaked through war. But Terrill knew.
Small patches of land were gone. Not to the extent it had been in Adversa, but enough to know that the ethereal had begun to eat over into the physical in a far larger way than the Shadow had struck. Dropping a little lower, Terrill set his sights on Fort Tierial, whose tower had collapsed, though no other signs of damage had been done.
The biggest sign of change, however, was that of the floating fortress right on the shore, one which could not have existed in the magic-less Dimidia.
“How is it possible?” Lumen asked, gripping one of the chairs with white knuckles. “All of that happened in Adversa. I thought it was impossible for the realm of souls to affect the realm of the body.”
“Under normal circumstances, it would be, but the Shadow has made pretty damn sure these circumstances are far from normal. The Lifebloods must be compensating.” Terrill nodded, having seen more than enough to confirm what he had already known from the events outside Rotarin. Now, it was time to put the pieces together. “All right, bring us to Serotin.”
“What’s in Serotin?”
Lumen’s innocent question was met by a groan from Walter. “That idiot?”
“They’re the two brightest I know, and if their own memories have returned, we should have no problem coming up with a solution to finish the Fiends for good.” Terrill pointed forward in a random direction, hoping it was towards the city he was speaking of. It was towards the sun, at the very least, which was rising faster than Terrill thought. Fast as the skyship was, crossing distances still took time, and crossing over the sea to the continent of Sagitta took the better part of that morning and early afternoon until the tall buildings and sprawling campus of the Academy was visible.
That was when Walter informed him. “Get ready for a bumpy ride. Landing’s not going to be as easy as taking off.”
Terrill had a split second to grab hold of one of the chairs while the skyship’s nose angled downward. It made a horrible noise, one that likely echoed on the air and was audible to all in the approaching city. Thankfully, Walter avoided that populated area, aiming the skyship for the rolling grasslands outside.
With little warning, the skyship made its first landing, bouncing on the land and creating clefts of dirt as they spun to a very final stop. Their bodies were shaken, but they were otherwise okay until a sudden hiss sounded out, and something beneath the console began to smoke.
“Looks like we taxed it… Or that Blaise did some real damage to it…” Walter noted, bending down to remove the metal paneling that concealed where the smoke was coming from. Once he had, the acrid smell filled the cabin, necessitating Lumen to open the hatch for some ventilation. It did little before Terrill walked to the back of the cabin and found what looked to be a release for the ramp that was already partially open. He opened the latch, and the ramp opened further to the grass, allowing the smoke to escape and Walter to see what was inside. “Looks like some kind of electrical damage? This is outside my field of expertise.”
“I might be able to help,” Charles said, stepping closer to Walter. The look on Walter’s face indicated his distaste for it, but soon gave way to resignation. “I might not know much, but when you grow up near Rotarin, you learn a few things. And I’m sure my sister left some tools somewhere here…”
Terrill watched the two men a moment, trying to figure out the problem with the skyship that would currently prevent them from going anywhere. He was fine with that, looking out the ramp and towards the city just a couple miles away. The course was set.
“If electricity is the problem, then it’s paramount to find Torry. I’ll take Lumen. With the Fiends targeting him, I don’t want to leave him alone. Can you two figure this out?” His order was ignored by Charles, searching the ship for wherever his sister might have stashed her supply of tools. Walter acknowledged it a little more.
“If we must.”
Dismissive as it was, Terrill knew it was all he would get, and with a jerk of his head, he indicated for Lumen to follow. He eagerly followed after Terrill, his excitement at seeing the city palpable, making Terrill wonder if he’d seen it in Adversa at all. That excitement buoyed him forward, making their short trek (which quickly became a run) over the plains a lively one, punctuated only by their entering the city.
To no surprise, there were only a few topics of conversation in the town, and many groups of huddled gossipmongers. Terrill didn’t need to pass by any of them to get a grasp on what they were saying, but keeping Lumen close as they ascended to the Academy, he chose to do so anyway.
“Did you see that giant bird crash on the plains?”
“Between that and those tremors, it’s like we’re living in a different world.”
“Fear not, ladies, the students at the Academy will have it all figured out!” Whoever the man was, he wasn’t welcome amongst the women, who went back to fearful mutterings. Some snippets of the conversation even turned towards that of Sayn, and the supposed ruckus that had taken place a few days ago. It made Terrill chuckle and speed up, Lumen hot on his heels until they had finally arrived outside the iron gates and fences of the Academy.
“Even without magic, it’s still here… Amazing.”
“And thriving! Science still has a role to play, and at this point, magic might as well just be science with the numbers filed off.” The voice was familiar, bringing a smile to his face at her informative lecture.
“We were starting to wonder if you would ever show up, but didn’t expect you to arrive on a flying bird. How’ve you been, Terrill? Lumen?” Terrill finished turning, realizing that right behind them, having come from town, were the unlikely couple of Floyd Margrove and Torry Rainert. For a second, the two groups just stared at each other, and Terrill wondered if the two were undergoing the same issue with memories as Walter. He decided to test that.
“Oh, you know, tracking down some Fiends, stopping nature from going crazy.”
“So, like usual.”
“Like usual.”
And with that, Floyd stepped forward to clasp Terrill’s hand and embrace him like a brother.