“Who are they again?” asked Tucker, standing at the bow of the ship and staring at the makeshift and obviously new sky dock in the distance. It was surrounded by an enormous camp full of tents and a few more permanent structures like the sky dock. But Tucker was more interested in the tens of thousands of people scattered throughout the city-sized camp.
Potential customers, all.
“Resistance fighters,” Gira answered. Then, after a second, she added, “They call themselves Dawnbreakers. According to local history, they were subjugated by the Radiant Host nearly two centuries ago. Fully incorporated a little less than a hundred years after that. They were once considered a top-tier vassal on par with Adontis. Major exports are minerals mined from the Dragon’s Teeth Mountains.”
“Very succinct,” Tucker remarked with a slight grin. He knew that Gira had some sort of memory skill that allowed her to store and retrieve information. Often, he thought of her as a walking computer, but one look at the muscular half-elf put the lie to that perception. She was a more-than-competent fighter, which she’d proven time and time again since Tucker had first met her. “What changed?”
“They never forgot the century of subjugation, during which they were little better than slaves,” she replied. “Their work was exploited, they were taxed down to nothing, and they were given none of the benefits of being a part of the whole. That nurtured a long-running disdain that came to the fore when they heard about the war to the east. With the Radiant Host’s attention elsewhere, they were free to overturn the local government and establish themselves as a resistance.”
“That resentment must’ve run pretty deep. Why was the Imperium so hard on them?” he asked.
“The war where they were conquered was particularly brutal. The Dawnbreakers – or whatever they were called then – fought bravely and stubbornly, killing more members of the Radiant Host than they’d lost in dozens of other wars,” she explained. “The now-Imperium responded by executing their strongest people. Fighters, non-combatants, and even promising children were put down. Then, the Radiant Host scrubbed their existence from memory via a massive spell. Now, no one remembers the details, but the resentment remains.”
“Damn.”
“Indeed,” Gira stated.
It was one thing to defeat an enemy, but it was something else to go full scorched-earth on them, destroying even the memory of who they were. Tucker never even knew such a thing was possible, and yet, he was constantly reminded that, in a world full of magical things, the line between impossible and possible was incredibly blurry.
Those thoughts occupied Tucker’s mind as the ship slowly circled the town, waiting for an opportunity to dock. Gira and Iris had already set everything up, so they were allowed to be in town for an entire week. However, they weren’t the only ones who intended to take advantage of the war, so they had to wait their turn.
To address the issue, the Dawnbreakers had begun construction on a second sky dock, though it wouldn’t be completed for another week or so. Until then, the skies would be full of ships waiting to magnanimously assist in the war against the Imperium. There were also land caravans, but only the hardiest of wagon trains could make it through the mountain passes. Many of those wouldn’t have bothered, even with such a profit waiting on them.
“Their loss,” Tucker said, grateful that he’d turned to a life of sky privateering.
After a couple of hours of circling, one of the other ships – there were ten berths in the sky dock – departed, and the Mercury’s pilot was given the go-ahead to come in. Of course, Iris had no intention of letting the pilot guide the ship in, so it wasn’t long before she took her place at the helm and deftly maneuvered it into position. Only a few minutes after the berth had opened, they were sliding into place at the top of the sky dock.
The structure itself was more than five-hundred feet tall and at least half that wide, which let it accommodate ten ships. More importantly, it was bristling with various cranes meant to assist in the loading and unloading of cargo. The moment the Mercury was in position, a series of large clamps latched onto the mooring blocks on the side. Tucker could feel the dense mana in the atmosphere, the result of so many enchantments. That was the limiting factor in building such towers – the required hundreds of powerful enchantments in order to function properly, and the sorts of people who could work with such runes were fairly rare.
It made him think of Zeke, who’d shown such a talent for runecrafting in the past. Was that the path he would have taken upon entering the Eternal Realm? No. But Tucker hoped he hadn’t abandoned the trade altogether. There was plenty of money to be made with that sort of talent.
Once the airship was firmly docked, Tucker adjusted his hat and joined Iris on the other side of the gangway that connected the Mercury to the dock. “What kind of welcome do we expect?” he asked, still fiddling with his tricorn hat.
As he straightened his long coat, Iris answered, “Fair. We have goods they need if they want to wage their little war, but they’re not going to be happy with our prices.”
“Beggars can’t be choosers. They’ll pay what we tell them to pay, or we’ll sell elsewhere,” he stated.
“That’s what I love about you, Tucker. You’re so optimistic that you truly believe they’d just let us leave. We’re surrounded by thousands of volatile and desperate warriors,” she pointed out. “They’ll buy on their terms, or they’ll just take it.”
Tucker’s expression hardened. “If they try that route, they’ll find that we’re a tough nut to crack,” he stated. “I won’t hold back, either. I have no love for the Imperium, but I don’t particularly care for these Dawnbreakers, either. At best, they’re the lesser of two evils, which means I won’t feel the least bit guilty about –”
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“I know. That’s the other thing I love about you,” she said, nudging him with her shoulder. Iris wasn’t one for public displays of affection, so that little bump was the equivalent of her leaping into his arms and sharing a passionate kiss. “Your ruthlessness can be so sudden and unexpected.”
“Did I ever tell you about the time I killed an entire valley full of demons? There I was, stranded in the demon realm, and I saw these –”
“Incoming,” said Gira, who stood just a little behind them.
Tucker cut himself off as a cluster of men emerged from the dock’s main structure. At first glanced, they all looked very impressive. Four were clearly warriors, as denoted by the weapons strapped all over their armored bodies. However, the fifth was as richly dressed as any man Tucker had ever seen, with rings on every finger and a tangle of golden necklaces around his neck. Each pieces was practically bristling with unused mana, suggesting that the man was just as well-armed as the warriors.
“Mage,” he whispered through his teeth.
“I know,” was Iris’ response.
Of course, Tucker didn’t know the man’s actual class. There was nothing to say that he wasn’t a close-combat fighter. However, in his experience, people who decked themselves out in enchanted jewelry tended toward the more ranged approach. There was also the chance that his class and skills tended toward mercantile or administrative effects, but that wasn’t the impression Tucker got.
Regardless, they weren’t there for a fight. If everything went well, then they’d negotiate a reasonable tax rate before unloading their goods. It might take a few days for them to find appropriate buyers, then a further couple of days to search out new inventory to sell at their next stop, but in the end, they had no interest in starting a brawl.
Hopefully, neither did the Dawnbreakers.
“Welcome to New Navaria,” said the man upon approach. He had a nasally voice that did not give Tucker the best first impression. Or that might’ve been the guards’ clear readiness for battle. “What do you have to declare?”
As the captain, Iris took the lead, saying, “We have mana-rich food, decent quality armor, and a small store of natural treasures. In addition, we carry a stock of potent potions meant to meet a wide variety of challenges.”
With that, she handed the ship’s manifest to the man. He took it with a sneer, then looked it over. When he got to the section regarding the potions, his eyes widened, which wasn’t terribly shocking for Tucker. With access to so many natural treasures – even if most weren’t much more powerful than mundane herbs – he’d made great strides in his alchemical pursuits. As such, he was capable of creating some truly powerful potions, most of which would never make their way onto a ship’s manifest. Still, most of what was listed was head and shoulders above what the Dawnbreakers should have had available. More importantly, those potions would make their fight against the Imperium that much easier.
“I see,” said the man, schooling his expression to calm. “Of course, we will be taking half.”
Tucker burst into laughter, which seemed a bit of a mistake when he saw the bureaucrat mage fix him with a glare. “Oh,” he said. “I thought that was a joke. Clearly…it wasn’t.”
Iris cleared her throat. “What my colleague meant to say is that fifty percent is a little excessive,” she clarified. “Perhaps something more like –”
“There will be no negotiation.”
“But –”
“No. Negotiation. Our people will board your ship in ten minutes. Please do not resist,” the man said. “It will not be pleasant. Now, if –”
“Do you know what this is?” asked Tucker, suddenly holding a small globe. It was no more than an inch in diameter, but it was filled with whirling black smoke. When there was no response, he said, “No, of course not. Why would you? I only discovered this particular concoction last week. I figured it would be a nice deterrent for this sort of thing.”
He tossed it into the air, catching it in his palm a second later. “I’ve level eighty-two, you see. Pretty good, considering I only arrived on this plane a few years ago. It’s been an eventful span, though, and I’ve used that time to great effect,” he said. Grinning, Tucker went on, “Don’t let the hat and the dapper outfit fool you – I’m an alchemist by trade. But I’m a special kind of alchemist. I can make most of the same potions everyone else can. You know, health tonics and temporary attribute boosting potions. But where I really excel – my passion, as it happens – is with things that go boom. There’s just something so satisfying about a good explosion, don’t you think?”
“What is that?” asked the bureaucrat in a breathless whisper. He clearly knew just how dangerous someone like Tucker could be. Crossing the level seventy-five threshold was uncommon enough that doing so put him in an entirely different category of a threat.
“I’m getting there, chief. Just hold your horses,” Tucker said, still toying with the glass ball. “A lot of warriors of my level have abilities that can absolutely demolish an army. And that’s fine. But I don’t think any of them can do what this little ball can do.”
“W-what is it?” asked the man, clearly reading the situation for what it was. The glass ball was delicate enough that, if they attacked, it would surely break. And no one wanted to find out first-hand what it could do.
“I call it Death. Not very imaginative, I know. But it’s accurate. The moment this ball breaks, the cloud inside will expand a thousand-fold. Now, I know what you’re thinking – a thousand square inches isn’t that big of an area. But here’s the thing, bud. It’s more than enough to kill everyone in this little camp of yours. Not immediately, no. Before you die, you’ll wish it was that quick,” Tucker said. “It works like a disease, you see, jumping from one person to the next until there’s no one left for it to kill.”
“You would die too.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, chief,” Tucker said, still bouncing the ball of glass in his palm. “I’m entirely immune. Benefit of the trade, I guess. And my people? They’ve already gotten the antidote. So, you’ll die. So will everyone you know and care about.” He produced another marble-sized potion filled with crimson liquid. “Or I could use this one. It works a little differently. More magical than biological. It follows your bloodline like a curse. Learned this from studying some friends who were dealing with something similar. Anyway, it’ll slowly weaken everyone with even a drop of your blood. Children. Parents. Cousins. It doesn’t matter where they are. It doesn’t even matter if they know you at all. They’ll wither away until they’re no stronger than a child.”
“What do you want?” the man asked, having gone pale.
“Fairness, for one. Maybe an apology for trying to use your little army to extort us. I’m not asking to completely avoid tariffs. But fifty percent is a bit much. Even you have to admit that,” Tucker said.
After that, the negotiations proceeded in good faith. In the end, the tariff imposed was fifteen percent, which Tucker found fair enough. Once the delegation of the Dawnbreakers departed, Iris asked, “Do those potions really do what you said they’ll do?”
“The first one? Sure. It’s a nasty one I just developed. I don’t want to use it, because the ingredients necessary to create it were pretty expensive,” Tucker said. “Now, the second one is more…ah…theoretical in nature. I think I know how to make it work, but I haven’t quite cracked it yet. This,” he remarked, holding up the marble with the red liquid, “Is a healing potion.”
“You are a devious man, Eric Tucker. A very devious man,” she said with a slight smile.
“That’s why you love me,” he said, returning her smile with one of his own. “Now, let’s make some money. After that, let’s see what this town has to offer.”
“Or we could remain on the ship,” she said. Pointedly, she added, “The deserted ship devoid of distractions or other crew members.”
His smile widened. “I like how you think.”