Almost at the same time Leona’s group took off to the skies, captain Olivia was dealing with the Arcadian envoy inside the barracks. Sitting on the opposite side of the captain, there was a long eared black haired woman wearing a white overcoat with a sizeable crimson red ribbon and gloves of the same color, she was rather laid back with the left arm over the back of the chair.
“Archmage Kaeli, I’m sure you understand, due to the former prime minister’s actions our fair city was by no means welcoming to travelers or merchants alike. If any Arcadians were indeed harmed I can only ask for forgiveness and help the families of those who lost their loved ones.”
“Captain, captain… while you aren’t wrong, most of the merchants that would come this way were, as you sure are able to tell, half demons, Arcadia does not care for them.” Who spoke was a high elf in her twenties, long straight hair black as the night and gentle yet ominous deep blue eyes. “Who we really are after is a convict who escaped with a knight at her employ. Her name is Leona Crossford, a young woman of around her twenties, long blond hair, aquamarine eyes, somewhat short, have any of your soldiers encountered her?”
“Leona Crossford… the Arcadian princess? If someone that influential had come to this kingdom I’m sure there would’ve been at least talk amongst the soldiers.”
Olivia hoped she could bluff her way out but as she was about to keep the conversation going, a loud rumble shook the building as a loud noise coming from the outside caught both the captain and the archmage’s attention. Kaeli quickly stood up and ran to the doorway and once she opened and looked towards the sky the sunlight briefly made her eyes squint before a shadow quickly passed over her and she saw it clearly.
‘A flying ship?!’
Her eyes widened as she looked to the two Arcadian mages wearing dark blue robes just outside the barracks.
“We are heading back, now!”
“Huh? But Lady Kaeli-”
“It’s an order!”
“Y-yes!”
They began to quietly chant whilst holding both hands together. Olivia just appeared behind the arch mage.
“Is there something wrong?” The captain asked, hoping to buy off more time. “If we have done something to insult you and yours we-”
“No need.” Kaeli cut her off. “We’re heading back, but do not think this is over. If you are somehow assisting her this kingdom will face Arcadia’s wrath.”
As she turned around the mages helped the high elf lift off with wind spells, causing the snow to lift up in a cloud of white as she flew off. Olivia and the other soldiers looked to the sky where they headed south just after the flying ship.
‘I pray with all my might for your safety, Princess Crossford.’ The captain closed her eyes while holding her right hand close to her chest. ‘May the light be ever with you.’
High in the sky, Leona was controlling the speed of the vessel as best as she could while gripping the steering wheel firmly.
“Leona!” Krieg shouted, unsurprisingly his voice was loud enough to be heard over the working parts of the flying ship. “Some mages are flying below us! It may be that envoy Athena was told about!”
“Keep on the lookout!” She shouted back. “If they seem ready to attack us we’ll just have to make use of the gunpowder!”
He nodded and kept peering over the left edge of the ship. Meanwhile Phoebe had pulled her longbow off from Krieg’s belt and prepared her quiver around her waist as if she was getting ready for a fight. She then proceeded to climb up the staircase, almost falling once due not being used to her new prosthetic legs, to speak to Leona.
“Can you go a bit faster?!”
“Why?!”
“I think I might be able to kill that envoy with arrows from here!”
“What if they attack us?!”
“They would’ve done so if they could!”
“Alright!”
After pushing the lever forward the ship began to pick up speed, leaving the mages flying behind them. The high elf turned to the stern of the ship and began to draw the longbow.
“Winds of time, grant thy power upon myself, Windshot!”
Wind gathered at the very tip of Phoebe’s fingers and as she released the arrow from the string it began to spin rapidly as the deadly projectile gained speed.
From below, Kaeli noticed something being thrown from the back of the ship but little she knew it was an arrow, only realizing what it was after it hit the mage beside her directly on his back which sent the lifeless flying body to hit the ground of the snowy forest.
“Slow down now!” The other mage followed her order and they landed between the trees below. She clicked her tongue while looking at the flying ship moving further and further away. “My little sister is more skilled with the bow than I imagined.”
“What do we do now archmage? We can’t let them reach Akrapocalis before us.”
“We’ll fly lower while also keeping a greater distance from it. There won’t be a next time if either of us get hit by an arrow shot with the aid of magic like that.”
“Understood.”
It took some time for them to take to the air again and by that time Leona and her group had already created quite the distance between them.
“Did you manage to hit them?!”
Leona shouted at the high elf.
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“One! Not the one I was hoping for!” She was preparing another arrow but seeing how the intended targets were nowhere in sight she simply put the arrow back in the quiver. “Aim small, miss small I suppose.”
The tactician turned her attention to where she was going and began to notice the white forest giving out to the vast plains of snow but right after it there was a mountain formation beyond it which the ship would crash into if they kept on the same height. Leona instinctively pulled the lever out of the socket to fly higher but as she did so Phoebe quickly grabbed her arm and began to shout at her.
“Whatever you do, circle around that mountain!”
“Why?!”
“We’ll die!”
“Die?!”
“I heard stories where people die in mountains as tall as those!”
“Fine! I’ll go around! Just check if we have enough fuel!”
“Where?!”
“It’s below us!”
The high elf nodded and carefully made her way down the stairs and into the cabin below. Inside, there was a piece of wood bolted to the wall to serve as a makeshift seat while occupying most of the room was the manafication engine and a small metal barrel beside it. Its blue tinted pistons were working and many exposed gears were grinding against one another. Phoebe wondered how the cumbersome load of iron was keeping everyone afloat but that thought quickly faded away as she noticed the fuel gauge beside it showing it was about halfway empty. She picked up a glass vial the size of her hand and inspected the lid.
“How do I even open this thing?” The high elf thought as she tried to wrap her head around the strange looking needle-like lid. She peeked out of the cabin while shouting. “Leona! How do I fuel this thing?!”
“Just insert the pointy part in the slot beside the engine!”
‘Pointy side inside the slot beside the engine…’ She thought as she returned inside and checked around the engine and noticed a small empty cylinder on the side of the barrel so she spun the small vial on her hand and jammed it inside the slot and the moment she did so the vial began to empty it out. ‘Huh… interesting…’
The moment Phoebe walked out of the cabin she noticed the knight was sitting against the wooden railing of the ship with his head down.
“Sir Krieg?”
She said upon getting very close to him. He simply glanced at her way and answered.
“I’m not feeling well.”
Before turning his head down again. Phoebe tapped his shoulders a few times before standing up herself. Leona motioned to the high elf to approach her and as she climbed up the tactician asked close to her ear.
“What’s wrong with Krieg?”
“Sea sickness probably. Or in this case I think I should call it air sickness?”
Leona knew what it was since she had previously read in a book, a strange phenomenon that would strike even those somewhat accustomed to the sea. She felt sorry for him but at least she knew it was something that would go away once they made their way back to Akrapocalis.
The way to the dwarven citadel was mostly uneventful saving for a flock of birds almost colliding with the ship’s helices, but by the time the towering castle came into view, so too did the smoke from an ongoing siege at the western side of the capital’s walls, the blue banner and golden trimmings of two crossed swords signaled whose kingdom the army was.
“Arcadia…”
Leona muttered bitterly to herself. From a commoner’s perspective, that was just an act of treason, attacking a neighboring kingdom when it was being constantly assaulted by death angels. But in the tactician’s mind that was one of the power moves available to Alexander as the acting king.
Arcadia and Akrapocalis were once a single kingdom until the dwarves who had control of the eastern mines decided to break off the human controlled capital, another age of blood came and went, only five years later the two formed kingdoms entered a treaty to avoid further conflict as the demon kingdom far to the west began to grow exponentially before eventually coming to the Great Forest.
But now after the demon kingdom was dealt with and Akrapocalis being constantly attacked by death angels, Arcadia could have a shot at retaking the city and with it, controls of the mines to the east.
“Leona!” Phoebe’s shouting snapped the tactician from her thoughts as she was almost right up against her face. “What should we do?! At this rate we won’t be able to go down without being attacked by one of the cannons!”
She knew what had to be done, but even with that option right in her face she still hesitated.
“The reason why Fye had this ship to be loaded with gunpowder…” Leona looked at the fires and smoke coming from the dwarven city. “...very well.” She turned to Phoebe. “Take control of the ship! Keep it moving and don’t let it go lower than it already is!”
Upon nodding, the high elf took the steering wheel and Leona quickly climbed down the stairs where Krieg was standing, albeit a bit dizzy still.
“Krieg! Bring me one of those barrels!” He grasped one in each arm and hauled it over at the left side of the ship where she was standing. “Once I light it up I want you to throw it in the direction of the forest! Make sure to not hit anyone directly!”
He nodded and with that she began to light the fuse of each barrel he put on top of the wooden railing. One by one he began to toss it overboard.
Inside city gates the elven twins Frey and Lest were commanding the soldiers from house Loraexion in the efforts of evacuating the west side of the city.
“Hurry! Hurry! This way! We’ll keep you safe!” Lest shouted as hard as he could but the impact of cannon fire hitting the reinforced gates made it a fruitless effort. “Come on!”
While her brother tried his best to evacuate the citizens, Frey noticed one person amidst the crowd was her employer and without giving any explanation she simply sprinted towards an incoming multitude of people in order to reach her.
“Lady Fye!” The elf shouted. “What are you doing here?!”
Her calm demeanor as she simply turned around to see who addressed her left Frey even more distressed.
“There is no point in running away. With more than half of our army fighting death angels this is a death sentence whether we fight them or the Arcadian army.”
“Let us at least try to stall them! Was this not the reason why we were here?!”
“Not to stall, no…” The horned woman glanced up to the clouded skies where a vessel approached from the north. “Gather the troops, we’ll go to the offense.”
“Lady Fye, how can we possibly-”
When the elf followed her mistress gaze she noticed the flying ship moving beyond the walls as it dropped what seemed to be barrels from the sky before they exploded violently just above the trees.
Outside the walls, Arcadian knights were moving cannons in an attempt to destroy the wooden gate at Alexander’s orders as he used a longsword to rally the troops.
“Focus all firepower into that gate! I want it destroyed on the next barrage!”
“My king!” One of the knights came running to him. “There is something coming from the skies towards us!”
“In the sky?!”
The acting king just had time to glance upwards as the forest on the left side of the cannons was obliterated by an explosion which sent branches, rocks and other debris towards the main army which made some of the knights panic with the sudden attack.
“They have mages!”
One of them screamed but Alexander used a wind spell to amplify his voice in order to organize the knights once again.
“We have an enemy above us! Spell casters deal with that nuisance now!” In front of him a few dozen robbed mages began to aim their hands to the ship but before they could fire a single spell a volley of bullets hit the backline. “What the hell?!”
A line of Akrapocalian soldiers fired their weapons from the top of the city walls, managing to disrupt the mages.
“Retreat! Retreat!”
“I don’t want to die!”
“Mama!”
As the knights were running away, more explosions lifted mud and stone into the air as the flying ship approached the center of the army.
“Fall back!” Alexander shouted with his amplified voice. “Fall back now!” While he ran, he looked up to the sky and made a mental note of what he should’ve been informed of by Kaeli. “Damn you, Leona!”