Before any of them could approach the weird ship, they all felt a collection of minds trying to assault theirs. The psions on the ship had combined their power to jointly attack them. It wasn’t very subtle, but against weaker defenses it would work well, especially if the target was a mage that had just been distracted by their inability to cast spells. Unfortunately for the people on the ship, Dee’s group had three powerful psions of their own, and they slapped away the attempt to influence them rather easily. They would have to protect Nessera and Shioko from such attacks going forward, but that was not a problem as long as the two stayed close.
Timed to happen almost at simultaneously with the psionic assault, a large wave of ki shot off from the prow of the ship. The attack was not designed to kill them, as the inhabitants of the ship most likely aimed to capture them instead, but it was meant to strike at their defenses and try and stun them. Nyx dispersed the incoming wave with contemptuous ease. At that point, the inhabitants of the ship noted that their attacks had failed and that maybe they had picked targets that were a bit harder to take on that they would like.
This was also the point that Shioko barreled towards the dark wooden ship with surprising speed considering her current size. She was followed by a ticked off Moirai who wanted to vent her earlier frustrations. Nyx and Dee glanced at each other but decided to follow the two with a shrug of their shoulders. They still weren’t exactly sure about the nature of their foe, so it was better to stick together in case they ran into something unexpected. It turned out to be a rather good thing they did, as a sudden loud clang sounded from the ship as if someone had struck a large gong.
The sound showed that the enemies on the ship were not without their own skills and had a plan or two prepared in case they ran into trouble. The sound carried a psionic shockwave that took effect when heard by the target. It somewhat bypassed normal psionic defenses and was especially effective against targets with better than normal hearing, which in this case included all three of the psions in Dee’s group. They could all shake the effects rather quickly, but it did stun them for a short moment. By the time their heads cleared, they had all figured out ways to prevent the same thing from happening again, but the sound was not meant for continuous use.
As the voice stunned the group for a moment, aside from Shioko who was protected by her gemlike form, the ship turned sideways and opened what could only be described as weapon ports on its side. Several hundred tubes covered in magical runes were aiming out of the ports, and they could see power gathering at the mouths of the tubes in preparation to do something unpleasant. While the suppressing field prevented any mages from forming spells, these weapons didn’t really cast spells. They only fired off concentrated bursts of mana, which was floating around the Astral Plane in abundance.
The weapons all fired at the same time and the bursts of concentrated mana all shifted their flight towards the group. Apparently, the things had some homing ability. That was not the real problem though. Shioko had already placed herself in front of the incoming projectiles, and her solid form was perfect for taking small and feeble attacks like this. Small in feeble in relative terms that is, as the blasts would still make a decent hole in a non-enchanted city wall. The problem was that the shots were a distraction from the real threat. The whole ship had started glowing as it was gathering power. It seemed the whole ship was a weapon of some sort, and that weapon was now charging.
“I’ve just about had enough of this!” Moirai declared angrily, and suddenly a large distortion made of psionic power appeared above the center of the ship. The distortion ate away anything it hit, and it tried to draw in everything that was not firmly attached, but there was a slight problem. There was no real gravity in the Astral Plane, and any phenomenon that used it didn’t work right. Gravity, even artificially created, didn’t do anything. The attack still took a chunk out of the ship’s mast and sails, as well as disrupting the gathering of power, but it sputtered and died much more quickly than it should have.
They all looked at Moirai with a raised eyebrow. It was clear none of them had much experience fighting in these conditions, and that might become a problem. Or at least it might if the opponent was a more even match with them. As it was though, the ship had been disrupted enough to stop the buildup of power and they could freely approach. As they did, they got a first good look of their foe. The enemies were roughly humanoid with a yellowish-green skin tone with occasional brown splotches of coloring in places. Their faces were very flat with a pair of slits in the place of a nose. Most of them had dark wild hair and long but thin braided beards, though some of them were fully bald with no other hair on their bodies either. It took the group a second glance to really tell the difference, but it seemed the bald ones were female.
As Shioko crashed into the ranks of the warriors on the deck, the warriors tried to counter her approach with large silver colored swords that seemed to have their blades rapidly vibrate for added effect. Not that it did much against Shioko’s almost invulnerable form, but against something softer it could’ve been very useful. It seemed there was some sort of a caste system aboard as the soldiers tried to protect the unarmed psions at the back. The language spoken by the creatures in loud shouts to each other was completely foreign to the group, so diplomacy seemed like an unlikely solution.
Not that the members of the group were feeling very diplomatic in the first place. Shioko crushed the forms and wills of the warriors while Moirai hurled psionic lighting and those weird spatial distortions among the enemy psions who were unable to defend themselves. Dee decided to join in on the fun as hundreds of psionic blades and the small dark pearls and gems she controlled cleaved through the enemy ranks. Nyx didn’t really take part as she stayed ready in case something unexpected happened and protected the largely defenseless Nessera.
Not that Nyx was really needed as the group cut their way through the enemy almost without resistance. It seemed the enemies had some well-prepared plans against targets outside the ship, but fighting against an enemy of their level within the ship was beyond them. It was clear the enemy had not been expecting this level of resistance. As the group fought their way inside the ship, they started seeing signs that the ship was something designed for raiding and taking slaves and prisoners. Shioko also showed that she could become smaller and denser when necessary. Otherwise, she would not have fit inside.
It seemed as if their group was one of the first targets of this particular raiding party, as the hundreds of cages and cells inside the ship were empty. The cargo holds, or what was left of them after Moirai went a little wild when fighting a particular group of determined defenders, was largely empty aside from provisions. They did find a small group of prisoners at the very bottom of the ship, but they looked emaciated and didn’t react at all to their approach. The prisoners were a group of gnomes, peasants judging by their attire.
As Nyx entered their minds to find out what had happened, she recoiled back in disgust. “It seems their minds are almost completely fried. Apparently, our enemy tried to dig out anything useful and did a thorough job. I did manage to find out that the ship appeared above their village one day and took whatever they could before quickly vanishing to avoid retaliation. From what I can tell the raiders were trying to find more lucrative targets, but these poor bastards knew nothing. There’s nothing left of their minds anymore. Best we can do is put them out of their misery.” That grim work was left to Dee due to everyone understanding that she was simply the best suited for the job. She made it quick even though the gnomes were not really able to feel pain anymore.
With renewed vigor the group cleared their way through the ship, not caring to leave anyone alive. Finally, Dee pointed out that they might want to capture one or two for questioning. At that point their choices were rather limited, as Moirai was busy working her anger on the last group of the yellowish-green bastards. Dee lifted one heavily maimed enemy from the floor with a single hand and applied some basic healing. “This one’s still alive. Barely.”
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Nyx got to work on the male creature, seemingly having some difficulty, not because the enemy resisted but because there was a gap in understanding. “Well, this is interesting. Somewhat at least. Apparently, it is possible to travel between…what I can only describe universes through the Astral Sea, but it takes special equipment, knowledge and a whole lot of luck to do so. These buggers are not from around here, hence why we have such difficulty understanding them. They are here to scout potential places for raiding. It seems they call themselves Githyanki.”
“So assuming the special equipment means a ship like this, does that mean we could use it to travel somewhere else?” Shioko asked with great interest.
“Not really. See this guy didn’t know how the whole process works. Only the captain did. The captain was the fancy dressed one that my Moirai killed eight rooms back. So there goes the special knowledge required. This guy doesn’t know a thing. Also, the special equipment needed includes some of the things my darling daughter smashed in that room filled with all the mechanical stuff a while back.” Nyx replied her mocking grin growing.
Moirai looked a bit ashamed. She had really gone wild on the enemy. It had proved quite relaxing in fact. Big parts of the ship were busted as a result though. “Judging by what we got from the gnomes, the ship could still go outside the Astral Plane. At least tell me we have a flying ship.” Shioko suggested feeling let down.
“Well about that. If Dee can make the portal large enough, then yes. Theoretically. We did do a number on it so it would require a lot of repairs once we arrive, but it should still fly. Here’s the thing though. You know that field that keeps Nessera and yourself from using spells? Yeah, there’s no way to turn that off without stopping the ship from flying. The same thing that makes the ship fly creates the field as a byproduct. As you know, the Four Winds have a lot of mages and those that use magic as warriors. The Anshar are almost entirely magic users. I would think they would be less than pleased if we plonk down a ship that stops spellcasting next to our headquarters. It would hurt us more than help us I think.” Nyx explained the problem.
“Dagon and the wolf tribes.” Dee suddenly blurted out.
“Oh. OH! That’s right! We have new allies that are majority ki users. They might find more use for the ship. As long as they keep it away from the headquarters and their own mages, that is. And you’re right. The Dagon are already incapable of using magic, so the ship could work well for them.” Nyx realized Dee’s implication.
“We could also probably shut the field down for repairs, right?” Shioko pointed out. “And it doesn’t need to be powered up while in use. From what I observed, we could do some improvements on some of the enchantments of the ship. Interestingly enchantments are not influenced by the field, assuming we take some precautions.”
“Well, we might as well. There’s no point in leaving it rotting here.” Nyx agreed with a shrug. “Now how do we control the damn thing?”
------
The welcoming committee was waiting for the group as the ship made a less than gracious landing roughly a kilomel outside the Four Winds headquarters. Crash landing might have been a more appropriate term to describe the process. “That’s the last time I’m letting you drive the ship.” Shioko cursed Nyx, who in turn was laughing her tail off. With the ship’s systems powered down the Jun representative was able to fully utilize her magic again.
The two male representatives and several members of the wolf tribes approached the group with weird looks. “Nyx. It seems you had an interesting girl’s night out.” The Anshar representative greeted them. He could also both sense and see some of the corpses inside the large vessel. Yet somehow he wasn’t the least bit surprised. Something always happened when Nyx and Shioko went out by themselves.
“Smoky! Oh yeah, you know it’s never boring once me and Shioko get into the groove.” Nyx greeted the fiery man with a grand smile. She thumbed backward towards the ship. “Though for that one you can thank Dee. She’s fun company and we’ll definitely be taking her along the next time as well. She elevates our girl’s nights from great to legendary status.” That last statement worried the Anshar representative much more than anything he had heard in recent memory. And that included the news of the attack by the Night city communities.
“What is that?” Kawhena, the Dagon representative asked examining the ship.
“That’s a gift for you actually.” Shioko pointed out.
“Me? What do you mean?” Kawhena suddenly felt suspicious. The two women never brought gifts when they went out. Just trouble.
“Well, the ship projects a field that prevents spells from forming while the ship is operational. That’s why we landed it here. It’s pretty useless for the other races beyond maybe the wolf tribes, so you’re the most natural fit. It’ll need some fixing up and cleaning, but it should be a decent addition to our defenses.” Nyx explained.
Kawhena noted that Nyx could just as well take part in the repairs and cleaning as the field that prevented magic didn’t do anything to psions. “You’re just trying to get away from doing the cleaning.” He grumbled but didn’t really fight it. A little handy work was a small price to pay. Proper flight capable vessels were not unheard of, but they rarely came in this size. Also, he liked it more and more as Shioko explained the exact capabilities that they observed during the battle.
All of that wasn’t Dee’s problem though. She started tromping off towards the city, only to be stopped by Moirai. “Where do you think you're going?”
“To find some rest from my relaxation. That hunk of junk is not my problem. I think I’ll check up on Eilian now that I’m here. Maybe watching her paint will be less stressful.” Dee shooed her former teacher off. She knew the diminutive woman was planning on dragging her into working with the ship and was not having any of it.
Using the Mindscape Dee was able to locate Eilian rather easily, or at least she found the correct building. It still took a bit of searching to find the correct room. Finally she found the former Sidhe princess in a fairly large atelier with several Jun girls in various stages of painting a portrait of a fruit display. It all looked rather basic and boring to Dee. Eilian noticed her approach and waved her closer, proudly displaying her work. “What do you think? Be honest!”
Dee looked at the rather sorry excuse of a painting. Truth be told, she had assumed Eilian would be much more skilled at painting, considering how much the Sidhe princess had wanted to do it. “Honestly? Your path to mastery is still very long.” She decided to be at least a little blunt.
Eilian smiled. “I think you’re right. That’s part of what makes it worth it, I think. As you might have guessed, I didn’t really get much of a chance to indulge myself like this with my parents driving me towards the throne. I also spent so much time training my magic that it didn’t really leave much time for hobbies.” She said a little sadly.
“I suppose we all have to start somewhere.” Dee replied, keeping her tone neutral. She had almost mentioned a quote she had read somewhere: “Sucking at something is the first step to becoming sorta good at something.” In the end she had decided against using the word suck to describe Eilian’s efforts.
“Indeed. As a Sidhe I have all the time in the world to become better. Assuming my sister doesn’t manage to kill us.” She said the last sentence a little wryly.
“That reminds me. I never asked what her real name is.” Dee realized. Noyala was the name she had taken when interacting with Dee, but it was not her real name. That much had been made obvious.
“To be frank, I’m not entirely sure what she picked as her new true name when she shed her childhood name. Shadows rarely share their names and she most certainly wasn’t going to volunteer me any information. That said, I heard she’s being called Queen Artenia officially, so that’s what she goes by now.” Eilian sounded a little apologetic due to her lack of knowledge. It was a bit of a shame how things went with her sister, but the situation was what it was. Regret was useless and she rather enjoyed her new lot in life.
“Well, you’re going to have to paint my portrait when you get to that point with your skill. How are the Jun treating you?” Dee inquired, thinking Eilian might need some help adjusting.
“Rather well actually. I’m sure it has absolutely nothing to do with my rank as an immortal mage, not at all. They tiptoe around me a bit, but they’re not bothering me at least. I’m starting to make a few friends as well. Mostly among the musicians as the painters seem too scared of me.” Eilian replied, rather pleased with herself. She was still trained as a princess and a future ruler, so she was adept at social situation even if the Jun were rather skittish around her.
A sudden wicked thought occurred to Dee. “I’m glad to hear that. You’ll have to join us for our next girl’s night out. At least it shouldn’t be boring.”
They exchanged some more pleasantries and gossip before Dee felt it was time to allow Eilian to return to her art. They had made some plans to meet another day in any case. As she stepped outside of the atelier, she realized that the whole area was filled with various buildings dedicated to arts and crafts. She had not paid much attention when coming this way because she was too busy observing the Mindscape. That ability was still a bit clunky for her to use, as it was something that relied on time and practice. As she was powerful in many ways but young, such time and practice were in short supply. Too many skills to develop. She much rather relied on her other senses anyway, though the ability did have its uses as she had just seen.
She suddenly noticed a rather familiar sounding tune of instruments being played. One in particular caught her ear, as the sad vibrating sound of the stringed instruments brought up nostalgic emotions. The sound was something she had heard before, and she had a hunch about who might be playing. The music slowly led her towards a large amphitheater carved out of stone, with a large stage in the center. On the stage a large group of musicians was practicing their craft, as the seats only held a small smattering of people, and the musicians weren’t even all playing the same song.
Dee recognized the young Jun woman playing the stringed instrument in front. “Mina.” Dee whispered the name of the person that had drawn her attention so many years ago.