"There he is!" I call out, walking up to Baltanthan while he shuffles off of his armed air-taxi. I offer to take one of the items out of his hands but he's adamant in keeping a grip on them. My claws rise and show their palms and I leave him to it, though, I'm already with him at this end of the hangar. Can't imagine much is going to happen to Liada and Seigunfrei because I am a few dozen metres away.

"Stay bloody still..." he swears at his pouch of money.

"We're going on a job to handle dangerous people and or beasts. Not down the road for milk." I remark and he looks up with a settled, sour mood.

"It's to pay for a spiral-tram afterwards." he explains and I stop mid-step. I blink a little and chitter quietly.

"The airship that takes us there will take us back, just so you are aware." I say and he starts to shake his head before he awkwardly presents a box. Once again, I offer to alleviate the troubles he is facing keeping it all in his arms and am refused much the same. He's more than happy to dump it on an empty tool trolley, though. My tongue clicks and I go back to Liada as she finishes up her idle gossip with Seigunfrei.

"Alright, I suppose we'll be boarding, now?" I ask the two pointlessly while my gaze turns towards Inerish. Some men salute her and head off and what seems to be the flight crew start to clear the area around the airship. A lot of tubes, toolboxes and odd things are pulled away and stored back up. A loud bang comes from under the floor.

The floor starts to rotate and without turning myself in the slightest, the walls go on by without those next to me coming into view. It's amusing how easy to grasp it is and yet it still feels weird to turn and not see the one next to you. The airship behind us hisses and the ramp comes down. I watch as Inerish grabs onto one of the pneumatics in an almost heroic fashion.

We thud to the side and stop overhanging the city, wind in our hair. Or, well, theirs.

Liada scoffs and I can hear Baltanthan's grumbling before he finishes up gathering his stuff. Seigunfrei forces the issue and helps him out while Liada snatches up my arm. A silent groan goes off within my armoured skull, the rebounds doing more than enough to ache this head of mine. It only takes one step onto the ramp before Inerish starts to tug at my side.

"You're going to like what I have planned." Inerish giggles and Liada is left behind, her strength not up to the task of keeping me in place. As quietly as she can, she shuffles into the airship and her armour makes some slight scrapes once she settles into a corner. We go through another set of doors and briefly, I can hear the ramp close up behind us. I smile a little and look around.

I'm not quite sure of the specific role this airship has, but what it does have is a fair bit of legroom and an on-board conference table. Some kind of magic activates and I feel my feet become almost magnetised to the flooring. I tap one of the machine's lights and then scratch a bit at what is obviously a window port. Though, why it is locked up so tightly I have no clue.

Maybe the armoured plate will slide up once we're in the air?

Whatever is going to happen, it has Inerish wearing a right sinister smirk. She lets go of me and relaxes into one of the plump recliners, a fizzing glass of all things popping out from a slot. A sip wets her lips and she idles her gaze around Baltanthan before she pushes some armchair buttons. A storage cabinet slides into the open and she gestures to it in all seriousness.

"Best do as she says." I tell him and he rolls his eyes.

"She hasn't said anything." he reminds me and I applaud his efforts to point out the obvious. Staff, box and other bring-alongs are devoured by the dark confines of the storage box and it goes away again.

"Don't worry, I'll bring it all out when we reach our destination. I imagine your staff is essential equipment." Inerish explains before she starts to press some buttons on the table console. I peek around to her end of the table and look under it a little. This entire thing is one big computer? All those buttons are on a little hinged plank.

The lights of the aircraft turn off and the table starts to glow a soft, pear-ish colour. An angled block of a landmass starts to form from the winds blowing in from the table edge. I tease the mechanics of the machine, disrupting whatever it is Inerish is trying to do. A quick, childish laugh leaves me and I let her air hockey table get back to it.

To think I'd randomly be reminded of my time aboard the Vightorhian again.

I smack my lips, my thoughts naturally turning towards the food I had during my time there. It's been years but I can still clearly recall that blackberry tart and the other things made for me. Liada's a good cook, the many girls I have known since I left Tobaballe have been good cooks. Even Heiya when she made that honey thing back in the mountain wreck, though, that's probably because I hadn't eaten in a while.

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My eyes glare at Inerish's glass, is her chair the only one with something like that, can I get a snack in this airship? It looked big enough from the outside, the thing is massive compared to the rest of the hangar's contents. You would not be able to convince me if you tried that this otherwise sleek, luxury-having aircraft didn't at the very least have a pantry the size of a cupboard. At the very least!

Inerish coughs into her hand, putting an end to all mental tangents, mutterings and talks.

Putting my attention on the table again, I blink at how much its imagery has progressed since my mucking about. There are a lot of small dots listed all over this angled block of land with four distinct megaliths dominating what must be the total border space. This Seven-Peaks Union outscales everything else put together and the north is all but theirs along with the continental core. To its right or east, rather, is something called Founder's Point with three specially marked spots detailing...

Ark Cities.

"Wait, is that, as in...?" I quietly ask myself, the basics of my theology lessons coming to mind. That place is meant to be THE Founder's Point, the place where the gods returned life to the world after the betrayal of the Moon Gods? Well, I'll be.

Focusing back on the map, my eyes turn westward just before Inerish zooms it in on Thrurstradtur-Suhurlodst's lot of land. I may not be able to see it anymore already, but, I saw that shrinking blob above. Waionr's Chosen Theocracy, the home of the first friend I made in this land. That's Vapooliar's home and even on this map, it is shrinking with the aid of warbled colour and expression.

"Alright, I suppose the specifics of where we will be going don't matter to you four so I'll let you pretend there's a city nearby. The important thing is, we are heading to a listed no-go area and the problem is obvious. Now, this area is the way it is, is because we are specifically aware of ancient weapons in the area too unstable to be handled." Inerish explains, the general area of our target flashing and blinking.

If I didn't already know that it's a giant canyon further west, it would look like the last mountain range before the stretch to the coast. Whatever is there, the stakes are fairly clear. Keep the old bomb out of the hands of those who probably intend to knock it on the doorframe on the way out. My eyes shift to Liada as she works up the courage to speak.

"How ancient?" she asks and Inerish waves her hand without a care.

"It doesn't matter, it could be some old Grand-Kingdom flooding device for all I care. Ancient Jhermonikra magic destroyer or something else. What I want is to make sure that it stays in its old, undisturbed mountain resting place. This country has enough problems on its borders, I don't need issues arising inside of it as well." Inerish elaborates and Liada goes back to being quiet. A bitter air about her when she slams herself into a seat.

I walk around to her and put my claw on her shoulder, squeezing gently. I want to guess that she's still handling her thoughts about her inexplicable age problem. Four thousand years as a minimum strikes me as more than enough time for something to be considered ancient. But, this is not something I can really get her hopes up for, I can't look into the future to settle her thoughts here and now.

Liada leans against me and I can hear her exasperated sigh.

"So, who are we dealing with exactly?" I ask, the last job I went on being nothing more than some bandits and their witch mistresses.

"Unknown, only that they have the capacity to initiate an extensive dig and have the resources to find the site to begin with. My spies within Suhurlodst have ruled out that it is them so we're looking at either a foreign incursion or one of the mountain-states within our borders getting uppity. Much as I like to look at our territory and want to be sure of it. The fact of the matter is, we're more like webs forcibly built around those who insist on independence." Inerish drones on and my home flashes across my mind.

Tobaballe was like that, the Civil Mountains, rather. The largest countries were only a few cities strong and most were built around about as far as their guns could fire from their walls. Rather amusingly, I can only remember half as much as I do because of the jokes that used to pass through our political geography lessons. The details are lost to me right now, perhaps forever, but it was about an old general who nearly turned the Civil Mountains into a single empire.

He failed, and all because of a ditch with spikes.

"Oh, wait, maybe that's what the joke was?"

"What joke?" Liada asks me and I blink, realising I spoke a little too loudly.

"Don't worry about it, just thinking to myself." I tell her, moving my claw close to her face and compressing it against my thigh.

"Anywho, that's the general information of what we're dealing with. We're going to need to improvise a lot once we get there so I hope you're up for keeping to your word, Dark Crow." Inerish says, her smirk coming back while her glass vanishes back into the chair. She clicks on her chair's belt harness and a loud bang sounds off the clamping of the airship. My stomach moves and it becomes clear that we're being moved about. Though the magic in the floor keeps me still, my cloak is more than happy to be moved by gravity to the point it is nearly straightened out.

I put a claw on my hat and take it off so I can scramble to find an open window. Oh, I have got to see this, even just a little. Seriously, I have just spent five years fighting a monster who's forced me to keep my senses in tune at all times and I never picked up on us not moving. Come on, something let me see!

"Ah-ha!" I eagerly go, opening up an emergency door and causing all sorts of problems for the launch. A click races after me just like a person is. I climb around and cling onto the airship's outsides, the daredevil in me screaming for the fun.

"GET BACK IN HERE!" Inerish screams and I shake my head, my grip readjusting once again. I watch carefully and spot her sudden change in behaviour, suddenly, she wants me to stay out here. The door is closed back up and the additional alarms go quiet, leaving me with just the steady, thick-sounding ones.

"This should be fun..." I mutter in anticipation as I watch the hands of the cranes release the airship. Wherever they have moved us, it seems to be that we are now in some kind of runway built into the Gnomon. I guess another marvel of engineering designed to come out when it is needed.

"Airship ignition in three... Two..." the speakers go.

"Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh!" I chitter, settling into the tightest grip I can manage.