Cadenza had only been gone for a few days when word came back that an expedition had already been approved. Sera was just returning from fletching arrows when she ran into Tiriana in the common area and heard the news that it would only be a week before the research team departed from Atlantis.
“Something about this doesn’t feel right to me,” Sera told Tiriana when she heard the news. “This whole thing has been progressing unnaturally fast, like sending Cadenza out here was a formality and the expedition was pre-approved. Why would this Hippodamides guy be that interested in what little we’ve learned so far?”
Sera wouldn’t speak it aloud, but she actually suspected one of the adventurers already here was already employed by him. A spy. She couldn’t figure out what the point of it would be, though. There was no way he could have known anything about what could be found here ahead of time, and if he didn’t, why arrange to send a spy to this particular frontier? Deploying spies to every new frontier was also possible, but needlessly extravagant, so Sera ruled that out pretty quickly.
“Who knows?” Tiriana shrugged, unconcerned. “I’ve been involved a couple expeditions before and the sponsors are always a bit…quirky. Maybe he just makes his decisions quickly.”
“There’s fast and there’s being prepared already. Arranging something like this should take time, right? It feels like he must have already been putting the expedition together before you sent a report back,” Sera replied, frustrated at Tiriana’s lack of caution.
“It’s possible the team is being redirected from another, less significant job. Or they may have been on retainer so they could be deployed quickly,” Tiriana suggested.
“…and if it’s related to that prophecy of Vivi’s?” Sera asked. That got a response form Tiriana. A dangerous look arose in her eyes that scared even Sera a bit.
“Then I’m in the perfect place to interfere,” the elf stated with finality. Sera took noticed of the verbiage there: Tiriana had said ‘I.’ Not ‘we,’ not ‘Vivi and I.’ While Sera had seen the power Tiriana had at her beck and call, she couldn’t shake the feeling her friend was being overconfident.
“I hope you’re not intending to fight them some rich guy’s entire forces by yourself,” Sera responded.
“If there’s no other choice, then maybe. I don’t know what he’s after, so it would depend. But more than that, being here before his people means I don’t have to infiltrate them. I’ll be a known quantity and I can make myself a trusted guide from the beginning,” Tiriana explained, calming Sera’s fears somewhat. It seemed she wasn’t as unprepared as Sera had thought, and had at least thought things through.
“Okay. I’ll trust you on that,” Sera sighed. “So, what now? Do we need to prepare for their arrival?”
“Vivi and I will probably be joining them at the fortress, and I’m assuming you’ll be coming too, but we’ll be leaving the base largely as-is. The new team will have all the magical tools we’ll need at the new location and some of our anti-social types will likely stay behind,” Tiriana told her, rolling her eyes at the end. “It’s not like we have a whole lot of luggage, aside from Broviss’s equipment. Just give him a hand if he asks for it.”
They left it at that and busied themselves with other work in the meantime. Sera continued her efforts at learning Sylvan and Atlantean, mostly, but progress was slow. She could now ask Vivi to pass the salt and other simple phrases like that, but conversation remained beyond her. Once the expedition arrived even that rudimentary level of conversational skills would be important, though, because not everyone learned translation magic.
Sylvan and Atlantean had had thousands of years to mingle and someone that grew up learning one only needed to expand their vocabulary to learn the other. Most of the population resided in the inner ring, as well, and they didn’t have the need to communicate with people in the middle ring where other languages were more common. And while Sera had only needed a day to learn it, that was with the benefit of an applicable mental image from Earth, which relied on different methods of communication.
Odds were good that the leadership and adventurers would know the spell, but that the bulk of the staff wouldn’t, because everyone in the group already spoke one or both of the common tongues.
A week passed as Sera redoubled her attempts at learning at becoming multilingual, and soon it was the day of the research expedition’s arrival. Sera stood with Vivi and Tiriana at the head of a herd of flokkas. Layla and Rinnie were present as well, but they were on opposite sides of the cluster of avian mounts, mostly to avoid talking with each other. A few other adventurers were out of camp and would meet them at the fortress, and the support staff were around somewhere, as they weren’t remaining here either.
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To Sera’s left was a large crate with air holes. Broviss’s dislike of the outdoors was so great that, although he’d decided to accompany them, he’d also sealed himself in a box and refused to emerge until it was inside one of the underground workshops they’d found.
Sera looked up at the descending airship. This one was much larger than Cadenza’s courier ship, meant for transporting hundreds of people and a significant amount of cargo on top of that. It was much wider, like a manta ray in appearance, complete with an ovular structure at the front that Sera couldn’t identify. Like the smaller ship she’d seen before, it was flat on top to accommodate a deck, and although this one had wings, they didn’t seem to be for aerodynamics. Judging by the windows she saw, they were likely meant to provide more space for passengers.
On final approach, the ship spun around, facing its rear to the field camp. Landing struts emerged when the passenger ship neared the ground, and when it landed, a massive cargo door descended at the rear. Only one person came down from the ramp, a scaled being with a stride and posture not dissimilar to a chimp’s, suggesting an arboreal lifestyle by nature. Their face was lizard like, but the snout curved down like a bird’s beak despite clearly being a scaly mouth and nose. They were clothed rather neatly in an outfit tailored for their form, with stretchy and tight fitting pants that accommodated their odd way of walking and a nice looking shirt, its sleeves long enough for the wearer’s very long arms.
When they reached Sera and Tiriana, they settled into a squat, unable to stand straight up, and moved their hands in what Sera assumed was a greeting. Fortunately, when she reached out to connect to them, she found that they also had a translation spell active- which wasn’t surprising, really, as it was unlikely either Sylvan or Atlantean was their first language.
“Greetings, greetings. I am Doctor Dividy Kahnton, the leader of this expedition. Would one of you happen to be the leader of the advance party here?” the scholar said in a pleasant baritone, which Sera hoped meant he was male, as assuming such incorrectly would be rather awkward.
“I am Adept Tiriana Henia,” Tiriana replied. Now that she thought about it, this was Tiriana’s first time using her full name and in Sera’s presence. “I’m just the most…personable one available, I’m afraid, but I can at least speak for most of those present.”
“Ah, very well. I was told we would be picking up a number of people here who would be accompanying us to our destination. Will this be everyone?” he asked, glancing around at those present. Though he couldn’t actually see everyone from his current height.
“Yes, there are a few others, but they’ll be meeting us there after doing some more scouting.” Tiriana paused for a moment, clearly hesitating to say something. “Pardon me if this is rude, but would you mind sharing your species? This is my first time meeting anyone like you and I don’t know how to refer to you.”
“Not to worry, very few of my people have had the opportunity to study in Atlantis as of yet. I am heesu, hailing from a small nation in the middle ring that is quite far behind in development by the standards of the Armistice Alliance,” the man replied amiably, bobbing his head. “But we can speak more on the ship. Come, come.”
With that he turned and hobbled back the way he came, waving awkwardly for the adventurers to follow. Tiriana turned towards the others first to relay his words.
“We’re good to board, everyone! Layla, would you please handle Broviss’s crate? He told me to tell you to be careful with it, or else he’ll misalign all the joints in your armor so they screech, and it will be so loud it will, and I quote, ‘wake your furthest ancestors in the world your kind came from’ the next time you need maintenance,” Tiriana yelled loudly enough for everyone to hear the first part, quieting down to speak to Layla specifically.
“That mole should watch his words, lest I forget where he is and trample him,” the armored woman snorted.
“You used that one on Rinnie already,” Tiriana pointed out as Layla stomped past, drawing an irritated ‘harrumph’ from her. Sera noticed, however, that Layla was quite gentle when she lifted the crate.
Sera had no luggage of her own, and Tiriana’s was already stowed in a large backpack, so with that handled and everyone moving, they were free to follow the doctor aboard his ship. They found him waiting at the top of the ramp, which led into a large cargo bay with most of its contents stacked tightly at the opposite end to clear space for luggage, equipment, and flokkas. A door to the side led to a staircase up to the passenger level, which seemed to be laid out more like a cruise ship or passenger train than a plane. The wings were home to rooms for the passengers to sleep in, Sera gathered from a sign.
She couldn’t actually read it, but it did have a bed and arrow on it.
This airship seemed to be equipped for long voyages, which made sense considering the trip here was a distance greater than the circumference of Earth. The central section had a dining room and a handful of lounges, from what little of it Sera saw on the way in. It was either bigger on the inside or she had misjudged its size when viewing it from the outside. She weighed the two possibilities as equally likely at this point.
Sera and Tiriana were led to a parlor room where Doctor Kahnton climbed atop a perch designed for his physiology, clinging to a bar with his prehensile toes and resting his rear on a padded seat above and behind the bar. The other chairs were designed for humanoid bodies, fortunately.
“Have a seat, please. We’ll be taking off as soon as everyone is aboard. The remaining journey will be short, but still long enough for a chat, so shall we have some tea and discuss arrangements for our field camp?” the doctor offered, waving a crew member in with a tray of snack cakes and tea. Sera wasn’t really a fan of tea, if she were honest, but trying not to be rude, she accepted a cup.
“What arrangements?” she asked after taking a sip.
“Since you’ve already been there, I was hoping to get your opinions on where it would be best to set up camp and how to prepare the defenses.”