Dealing with the other-world raiders who had abducted Jacob’s innocent friend and taken him away with their star vessel was far easier than certain rescue missions Gaia had been on throughout her long life. The fact that she could control so many of their weapons and the digging tools they used was an incredible boon. Seldom had she ever been able to utilize her gift so thoroughly. In most cases, the technology of her own world was primitive enough that there was relatively little she could do with it. Occasionally, she had come across one or two of these odd weapons, which clearly originated somewhere far away. But in this case, they all had those weapons, and she was able to turn each against its owner. Which raised a thought. If she had always been able to utilize this ability so well, and could turn the weapons of those who had previously threatened her against them, how much would things have changed?

Too much. It would have changed too much. For too long, her enemies had been her own brother and his people. She had lost herself in that rage, so incapable of seeing things from anyone else's point of view. She had seen herself as morally correct, morally justified in anything she did to enforce her own sense of justice on the world around them. Her outrage, sense of betrayal, her… everything had closed her mind and she had spent years doing everything she could to attack Arthur and his people. If she had done all that with this advantage… It would have changed too much. Better that she had been far more limited back then. Besides, if she had been able to use this gift so much, she wouldn’t have become so adept at using magic to compensate for the lack of readily-usable technology. Which would be almost crippling.

In any case, between her own power and Jacob’s Necromancy, they made short work of the men here, on this crashed and half-destroyed vessel. The single Necromancer the enemies fielded was no match for Jacob, and was soon as contained as the other prisoners. Once she was, Gaia was surprised to see that this other Necromancer was truly little more than a child. Some would've called her a demon, considering her bright pink skin (not the pink that many referred to their own slightly blushed white skin as, but genuine carnation-pink), shockingly white hair, and especially the tiny nubs of horns sticking out of her forehead that were probably not even fully grown yet. Yes, there were those who would have immediately tried to kill the girl simply upon meeting her. And that was before even considering the fact that the girl had attacked them.

But no, there was more to this girl. She could be more. That much was apparent to Gaia even before Jacob announced they were keeping her alive. Which only seemed to enrage the Necromancer even more than she already was, a truly impressive feat indeed. But before she could continue her extended and very enthusiastic rant about everything she was going to do to them (and gods did she have the elaborate imagination), Gaia used a spell to put the girl to sleep. They could deal with her later.

As part of that, Jacob opened a bag and stowed the girl within it, before closing it up and putting the bag back in his pocket. At a look from Gaia, he explained (blushing somewhat) that the bag was bigger on the inside, and had plenty of air as well as emergency food supplies. Apparently it even had an enchantment on it that would make it so if someone were close to death inside, they would be transported out of it. Just in case anything happened to the two of them out here and no one was left to open the bag, the young Necromancer would be released from it before anything too terrible happened to her. Which, to be honest, made Gaia want to ask the young man exactly what sort of situations he had been through to have had this bag ready to go with such precautions.

Together, the two of them began to explore the rest of the quest ship. As they walked, Gaia couldn't help but occasionally glance toward her strange, intriguing companion. He was so very different from any other Necromancer she had previously met. Well, to be fair, she hadn't actually met that many. And one stood out far above the rest. Or perhaps the better term would be below. Fossor stood far, far below any other Necromancer, or even most people in general. And he most certainly stood below Jacob. If these two ever met… she didn’t know what would happen. Had they met at some point in the future? Hold a moment, wait, Jacob was from the future, she’d put that much together. Did he have a connection to Fossor? Could he possibly be some--

“Here,” the man himself abruptly announced, pointing down a corridor. “You still have the prisoners on the cameras? It’s this way, right? Is uhh, anything wrong?”

Only thing did Gaia realize that she had been standing still, staring intently at the corridor ahead of them with a frown for the past few seconds as she was lost in her own rambling thoughts. Unable to help the faint blush that jumped to her face, she quickly checked her mental connection with those magical eyes, the ones this Jacob called ‘cameras.’ Her head bobbed hurriedly. “Yes, the prisoners are still there. They seem to be well enough. And I believe the one you were looking for is there too. He fits the description you gave. The rest are human, native to this continent.”

So, the two of them continued on. In most cases, Gaia would have been more wary of an ambush. But these cameras allowed her to see the entire ship at any point, both inside and out. She could see the battlefield outside, where most of the raiders lay in a deep slumber, having exhausted themselves enough for Gaia’s sleep spell to take hold. In all honesty, she would have killed them, but Jacob insisted they had to be careful. The way he put it was that they needed to be able to question them later and didn’t know which of them might be important. But she knew it had more to do with the fact that he was from the future (a fact he still hadn’t willingly divulged) and was afraid of changing that future too much by killing the wrong person. Still, she’d politely agreed. The raiders were all asleep, and could be dealt with more permanently later.

Well, almost all of them were asleep. They had two more guards to get through, two men who had remained at their posts guarding these prisoners throughout all of that. They also seemed to have no idea just how badly things had gone for their side, lost as they were in some sort of gambling game involving dice and dominoes.

All of which meant the two men were taken quite thoroughly by surprise. Soon, they were as thoroughly unconscious as their companions. With that taken care of, Jacob began to go in and see to the prisoners. But in that moment, Gaia felt something. It was incredibly faint, and if she hadn't been quite as focused in that exact second, she easily could have missed it. There was something, some sort of energy field, surrounding the young Necromancer and getting stronger by the moment. He clearly couldn't feel it yet, but she did, and it was about to do something to him.

Gaia didn’t even hesitate for an instant. Even as that field around the man grew stronger, she threw herself that way with a warning cry. At the same time, she reached out as hard as she could with her own power, trying to shove whatever it was out of the way. And yet, barely a syllable had escaped her, even as she collided with Jacob, before the field gained full strength. And just like that, the world seemed to spin wildly around her. It was sort of like several teleportation spells she had either used or been subjected to in the past, but far stronger and less gentle. Her vision went completely white for a moment, stomach twisting around wildly, to the point that she nearly lost the last several things she’d eaten. And wouldn’t that have been embarrassing, considering Jacob would have been the target of such… upheaval.

Fortunately, she managed to keep it under control. And she even felt a response to that desperate push she had sent with her power. It wasn’t enough to stop whatever this field was, but it did do something. There was a reaction, though a faint one and from very far away. What exactly that reaction was, she had no idea. Not yet, anyway.

They landed then, their feet still on hard metal flooring. Jacob staggered backward, but Gaia caught his wrist to keep him upright. In the same moment, she spun, stretching out with her senses. Not just her normal senses, but her power. She stretched it into the ship around them. Instantly, she knew several things before she had even managed to blink the white glare out of her eyes. First, they were on a different vessel, not the same one they had been on a moment earlier. Unlike the crashed version, this one was fully functional, an active ship with all its security measures and crew intact.

Well, one of those was useful for dealing with the other. Even as Gaia was blinking her vision back, still holding onto Jacob’s wrist, she put the vessel’s security to work. In short order, the crew was locked out of every system and was dealing with all of their onboard security as well as their own weapons turning against them.

By that point, Jacob had finally righted himself, getting his bearings with that staff of his raised defensively as he half-spun in place to look for threats. “What--where--huh?”

“It’s fine,” Gaia assured him, finally getting her own vision back. They were standing in a large open metal room, surrounded by several smaller one-person flying vessels. The guards who had been standing at the ready around them were on the ground, being held down by a rather useful security implement that Gaia had discovered. It somehow drastically increased the gravity centered on a single person, holding them helpless against the floor. Between that and their own weapons being taken away, the crew, which had apparently been ready to take Jacob himself prisoner, didn’t have much of a chance to react. Truly a remarkable ability for this vessel to have, and yet it wasn’t magic. It was technology, something she could manipulate with ease. To go from barely having crossbows and muskets that her power could use, to this? It was staggering. Was this what the world was like in the time Jacob came from?

“Fine?!” Another voice bellowed angrily from nearby to interrupt her train of thought. “You think this shit is fine?! Do you have any fucking idea what you’ve done?!”

Only then did Gaia and Jacob both focus that way. Gaia saw… a strange, bald man with pale skin and dangerous-looking teeth. She also felt… technology inside him. A lot of it. The man was full of implants, almost more than he had flesh and bone. He was held down by the same security measures as the rest of his crew, though it took substantially more effort to do so. He was strong, that much was clear. Stronger than anyone else here. And yet, even if he hadn’t been contained already, Gaia was pretty sure she could have kept him under control purely through those implants.

“Fahsteth,” Jacob snapped, sounding annoyed, tired, and exasperated. “Of course it had to be you. Isn’t that just--” Whatever he had been about to say, the man stopped himself before letting out a breath. “What were you trying to do here?”

“Here?” For some reason, that word made this ‘Fahsteth’ laugh. “You really are a stupid fuck, aren’t you? Can’t believe you brought this one with you.” His eyes shifted toward Gaia herself, and she felt him trying to deploy some sort of poison gas. Well, enough of that, she shut that down, and gave him a tiny shock through his implants. It was enough to make the man jerk and curse. “Knock it the fuck off!”

“What--” Jacob seemed to realize something had happened, and put his staff right up against the man’s throat. “Look, whatever you’re doing here, it stops now.”

Another laugh came, before Fahsteth snapped, “Okay, I meant to do this with only you, Mister Necromancer, but I guess we have to involve her too. Which ought to do fun things to the timeline, maybe we can deal with that later. I know how to whip up some magic ‘forget what you just heard’ juice that oughta fix things real good.”

“Wait,” Jacob started, while Gaia felt her own realization in the same moment, “timeline? You--” He stopped himself and seemed to physically reel backward.

“Yeah, yeah, we’re from the future. This whole ship is,” Fahsteth confirmed, sounding arrogant despite his position. “Which is why you’re gonna listen to me. I can help you more than you know. I can give you something you want a hell of a lot more than anything you could get out of stopping my people from doing our job. I was gonna give it to my pet Necromancer for all the good work she did, but you seem to have taken care of her.” He gave a wide, dangerous smile. “Which means her loss is your gain.”

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The man’s callous words about the girl, especially considering he clearly thought she was dead, made Gaia give him another shock through his implants. That drew a new yelp and curse from him, even as he strained hard against the gravity holding him down. It was almost enough to overwhelm the security measures, until Gaia took control of the implants within his arms and legs and forced them to relax. Which, judging from his low, dangerous growl, he very much objected to.

Gaia was reeling mentally, though she did her best to keep her expression carefully neutral. The future, this man was from the future as well. How far? Were he and Jacob from the same time? That seemed impossibly coincidental. But then, she wasn’t certain what had brought the Necromancer back here to begin with. Maybe they both came from the same source? Maybe they were both here for the same reason. Were they rivals in the future? She knew this probably wasn’t Jacob’s true form, perhaps that was why Fahsteth didn’t seem to recognize him. Maybe--she had to stop and focus.

Jacob seemed no happier with the man’s remark, but restrained himself to a simple, if somewhat growled, “Right, and what exactly were you going to give her for the help? Hell, why would you come back from… from the future to begin with? When are you from?” His voice was tense for reasons Gaia could somewhat begin to guess.

Fahsteth shrugged. “Let’s just say that when I’m from, you’d probably finally be the strongest Necromancer around. Your competition is, well, dealt with by then. That’s one thing I can give you. Play nice and I’ll take you to that time, so you can skip right over a lot of very stupid, dangerous shit. Cuz if you stick around in this time, I guarantee that ‘competition’ will find you and things won’t end well. I’ll take you into the future and you can do whatever you want then. But if that’s not enough…”

He then proceeded to tell them about some sort of tower, Lashra Vaeil. Gaia had heard some rumors about the place, though they were fairly vague. According to this man, the tower was full of exciting treasure and artifacts specifically for Necromancers. The way he worded it made it clear that the artifacts in the tower were supposed to be incredibly rare and powerful. Enough so that many had searched for the tower, only to fail in the end. It wasn't exactly the first trove of life-altering powerful tools Gaia had heard of, to say the least. There were dozens of hidden treasures like that, a few of which she had even found herself. But on the other hand, it was the first one that seemed specifically centered on empowering Necromancers. Those people seemed rather rare to begin with, especially with Fossor running around killing his rivals.

That was a thought that sent a pang of worry through Gaia as she looked toward the young man in question. He was too focused on Fahsteth to notice her attention, while she felt her own fist tighten slightly. She honestly didn't know if there was a connection between Jacob and Fossor in the future, but she did know if that monster found out there was another powerful Necromancer in this time, he would absolutely make himself and his displeasure known. He didn't exactly put up with competition gracefully. And the thought of her new friend being targeted by such a creature…

Jacob gave her a brief look, his expression unreadable. After a moment of that, he turned back to the pinned man and spoke flatly. “Intriguing as a new treasure hunt might be, how about you start by telling me exactly what you're doing here in the first place? Why did you come back through time? Because somehow I really doubt it was just to abduct a few natives and take your little Necromancer assistant to get a big power boost.” He shrugged pointedly then. “Or, I guess we could always get some answers from one of your buddies here.” With that, he looked around at the other, equally trapped guards. “How about it? Any of you guys wanna try to shove your boss out of the head of the cooperation line? It could definitely work out really well for the first person who makes it so I don’t have to talk to this piece of shit anymore.”

One of the men started to say something, but was interrupted by Fahsteth muttering, “Eh fuck.” And in that moment, the man who had opened his mouth to speak, along with every other guard there, abruptly seized up and began to spasm violently. Gaia had felt only the slightest hint of technology being used, some sort of implant in a couple of their teeth. It poured what appeared to be just a couple drops of liquid down their throats, and suddenly they were dying rather dramatically and painfully. There was no chance for her to interrupt it or save the men. One second they were fine, then they were spasming, coughing up blood, and dying right there on the floor.

Jacob had stumbled backward a bit, eyes wide as he cursed before giving Fahsteth a sharp look. “What the hell did you--poison? You fucking poisoned--I’m a Necromancer, you piece of shit.” He sounded almost as incredulous as he was angry. “Do you really think killing your troops is gonna stop me from talking to them? I’m pretty sure the only thing you managed to do was make their ghosts much more willing to fuck you over.”

Fahsteth, however, just gave a faint chuckle. “Maybe I would’ve, if I hadn’t spent so much time working with a Necromancer who is a hell of a lot worse than you, little boy. You think I’m stupid enough to let my people go around leaving ghosts when I kill them? Go ahead, give it a shot. Might be a bit harder than you think.” His voice was a deep snarl. “When I stop my people from talking, I make good and goddamn sure it sticks.”

Jacob did indeed make the attempt, only to sigh while looking at Gaia. “He’s right, he made sure they wouldn’t leave any ghosts behind. So I guess that means we’re stuck getting answers out of him.” His eyes turned back that way, voice hard. “Or maybe we just say to hell with it and put him down like the rabid dog he is before this gets worse.”

It was obvious that seeing those men die helplessly on the floor like that bothered Jacob. They were enemies, but they were also contained and no longer a threat. Which made Gaia briefly think back to another key, pivotal moment when she had insisted on killing prisoners who had done something terrible. That moment had driven a wedge through Arthur and her, a wedge that had… no, she couldn’t think about that now. She had to focus on the here and now, on this moment with Jacob. This wasn’t the same as that moment. She wasn’t the same person as she had been then, and it wasn’t the same sort of situation. She could keep her temper under control.

“You could kill me,” Fahsteth agreed, sounding unbothered. “Or try to. Better than you have taken a few shots at it, believe me. I’ve got a habit of surviving things I shouldn’t.”

Jacob muttered something under his breath, silent enough that Gaia couldn’t make out the words. Then he gave an audible sigh before pointing his staff down against the man’s throat. “I’d say you’re on thin ice, but you’re basically treading water at this point. You killed all your men because you didn’t want them to talk to us. Which means they could’ve told us something important. And that means you can tell us something important. So either do it, or we’ll take our chances on Gaia here getting what she needs out of your ship computer. I’m sure you’ve got all sorts of tasty data in there.”

The man in question seemed to almost vibrate with deep annoyance bordering on outright anger before giving a heavy sigh. “Alright, since it seems like you and the technopath there have me at a slight disadvantage, I guess I might as well tell you what's going on. Hell, you're already going to be screwed as it is, so why not?”

With that, he proceeded to explain that there was supposed to be someone very important to the future born from a person who visited the villages those natives his people had abducted belonged to. This woman, the mother of whoever this important future person was, wandered around a lot and couldn’t be located in any easier way. So, they abducted those Natives to search their memories for what they knew about her in order to narrow down the location. That Necromancer girl, Laein, had been setting up spells around the villages in question that would stop anyone who died there from leaving a ghost. All that seemingly to ensure that when they killed this woman, there would be absolutely no chance for her to be brought back in any form. Which made Gaia briefly wonder just who she was, and who her friends were, for that to be an issue. Especially given the fact that she was clearly someone important to Gaia herself. Or she would be, considering the way Fahsteth seemed to carefully avoid saying who she actually was. Or who this important person she was supposed to give birth to would be. The way he was dancing around that issue so carefully made it apparent that he specifically didn't want to say too much in front of her.

It made Gaia want to press him on the issue. Especially given all the options about what sort of important person that could be. But she restrained herself. Finding out too much about the future had the awful potential of changing that future. And if she was interpreting the way Jacob looked at her correctly, this was a future she really didn’t want to change. He trusted her, he believed in her, the way very few had for so long. She wanted to become the person who made Jacob look at her that way. Which meant not changing that future.

But that wasn't the only reason they were here in this time, apparently. They were also looking for some sort of invisible star vessel. Gaia wasn't sure she followed the specifics perfectly, but apparently there was a ship out there that had become permanently invisible, along with its crew. That crashed vessel had had some sort of information about where that invisible ship could be found, which was why Fahsteth’s people had been going over it so thoroughly. They had been picking through every part of the ship, including the parts that had fallen off or been buried during its long slide across the ground, looking for the thing that held the information about where that invisible ship was.

Jacob certainly seemed to completely understand both situations. He asked a few follow up questions, but it was clear that he wasn't nearly as clueless about what was going on as Gaia felt. He was completely in control, calm and collected. It made the woman gaze at him in a bit of wonder. Yes, she had been through quite a lot, starting when she had driven from her village by the arrival of a dragon. A dragon her own brother had been bonded to after seemingly abandoning her to… to things she didn’t want to think about, ever. She had done so much with her life, yet something like this… being aboard a star vessel belonging to someone who had come back from the future, talking about searching for some other vessel, and about changing that future by killing a single woman… It was staggering. She was doing her best to stay calm, but that was increasingly difficult given everything that was being thrown at her.

Jacob. Jacob was there, a calm presence in the storm of chaos. Just looking that way made Gaia feel a little calmer and more collected. She could breathe better, could keep her anxiety about being so overwhelmed from spiraling out of control.

And yet, even then, a rather loud part of her wished Hecate was here. Her mysterious mentor, who had taught her so much not only about controlling her emotions and her abilities, but also about life itself. Hecate could have done something useful with Fahsteth’s memories, could have taken the information they needed and made certain it was accurate. And… just their mere presence would have been comforting.

With an audible exhale, Jacob straightened up. “Okay, well, maybe we’ll still shove you out the airlock at some point. In a few pieces, just to make sure. God knows you deserve it. But for now, why don’t we see if we can land this thing and get back to that other ship. Or just use the transporter again. We can figure out how to do that, right?”

Fahsteth gave a hearty chuckle before Gaia could respond. “Oh uhh, I’m pretty sure you’re gonna find that to be just a little bit more difficult than you think.”

His words made Gaia’s eyes narrow. The way he said that… it didn’t bode well. He wasn’t threatening them, or making promises. He was just chuckling, amused by something. Somehow, that was worse. “What are you talking about?” she demanded, taking a moment to strengthen the hold the gravity trap had on him.

After giving a slight grunt and shifting as much as he could against the floor, Fahsteth met her gaze with a visible, somehow infuriating smirk. “Well, see, you’ve got control of my ship. That wall over there is a screen. Like a viewing crystal. Tell it to show you a view of the outside. Shouldn’t be too hard for someone with your powers, Witch.”

Gaia wasn’t sure what he was getting at, but she looked toward the wall in question. He was right about it not being difficult to take control of it, and soon she had made the screen show them what was outside the ship. Stars. She had already known they were not on Earth anymore, but seeing it like that, seeing the darkness all around them, was still staggering. The view shifted to show the left side of the ship, then the right, then below--wait--

“That’s not Earth.” Jacob abruptly snapped, taking a reflexive step that way to stare at the purple-red planet they were apparently nearest to. “That’s not--what the hell is that?”

Fahsteth chuckled again. “Honestly? No idea. It’s some world very, very far away from Earth. See, when the Witch over there jumped in while we were trying to teleport just you up here, she lashed out with that technopathy of hers. Long story short, she hit our Slide Drive and supercharged it. We jumped to some random location out in the middle of nowhere, and now the Drive’s all-but busted. You’ll have to use minimal boost until you can find someone who can fix it. And good luck with that.

“My guess? You’re gonna be stuck on this ship for at least six months trying to get back to Earth.”