I had to leave Neil to fill out his side of the paperwork and get his interview and induction over with as I spent over an hour working my way through all the bureaucratic nonsense that Mageos tended to saddle me with every time I tried to do anything in one of their messenger halls. This whole apprentice business was starting to turn into a headache I was starting to not wish on my worst enemy.

It wasn’t unusual for an independent messenger to take on an apprentice, but usually that apprentice came from an existing family that was well known to the guild, or it was one of the local snots from the academy on the rare occasion that one managed no not piss us off and showed real promise.

The fact that Neil was a traveler wasn’t explicitly mentioned in the paperwork, but it caused me no end of headaches. As far as I could tell after hours of getting the runaround I was the first person to ever take on a traveler as an apprentice and somehow that meant I had been unlucky enough to set a new precedent, well at least here in the Bagliona messenger’s hall.

It was an uphill battle to get everything settled in time on my end, but I still had to wait for another two hours before a very drained and tired looking Neil stumbled out of the induction offices and sagged into the chair next to me as I pulled up my now tinted goggles and yawned sleepily at him. I had kept the goggles tinted to ease my tired eyes and had been in a light doze when he had sat down.

“I just want to go and log off, it’s getting late, I need sleep.” He complained. I nodded and looked out a nearby window, surprised to see that the sun had long set and the lamplighter was just finishing his rounds. “They have rooms for us in the guesthouse. I already sent my shore bag there.” I pointed to his filthy clothes.

“Bath first then you can get to bed. We have to be up early tomorrow to watch the first of the qualifications. I want you to see them, it’s pretty interesting.”

We trudged wearily out of the guildhall across the street that ran along the aerodrome to a stately looking building of ancient construction. It had once been the original Bagliona messenger’s guildhall centuries ago, or at least this was a replica of it. The original had been wrecked in some long-forgotten war or some such.

The guards at the gate recognized me and gave polite greetings as they opened the gate for us and I glanced at my key to see which room they had tossed me this time. I had taken a two-bedroom suit on the ground floor of the captain’s quarter.

As I passed the common room where other independent captains were huddled around a crackling fireplace, sharing a drink and strumming out a few odd songs to pass the time, one of them looked up and called out to me.

“Becca! Hey it’s Becca!” She called out in an astonished voice and the small somber group turned and grinned at me as an old woman with an eye patch and Fortunate’s insignia on her shoulder rushed over to me to sweep me up in a crushing bear hug. The others gathered around me and I smiled weakly at them as I exchanged handshakes and pats on the back. The old woman turned and her single beady eye alighted on my shadow.

“Who is this fine lad?” She cawed and the other captains studied my apprentice with open astonishment and evaluation. The fixed scrutiny from nearly a dozen sky captains caused Neil to shrivel as I held him out.

“This is Neil, he’s my new apprentice.” I said weakly, trying to keep a straight face as the slack jaws around the room and the looks of wonder told me that I’d not hear the end of the gossip on this for ages.

“You finally caved in and took on some crew?” One of the ship captains, a man in his late thirties shook his head as if trying to make sure he wasn’t seeing things. “Yes, I finally took on some crew, but he’s a full-blooded magus with at least water and wind attunements. The woman turned and pinched Neil’s arm. “Needs a bit of filling out Becca. Looks as green as one of the brats he does.” I smiled at my godmother and nodded.

“Yep, and he’s a traveler!” I remarked and they all froze. Staring at him with renewed interest, I winced as I could feel the barest touch of the great seal as several seemed to try and ask questions before getting distracted by something else.

“I bet they loved that when you told the induction office.” One of them laughed and I rolled my eyes and reflexively shook out my weary hand that was still sore from the hours of writing up paperwork. “I’ve never seen a traveler so young before, mostly they are all adults.” The old woman remarked and bit off any more questions abruptly when she saw how uncomfortable and tired Neil looked. I felt as drained as him and handed him the key to the room and pointed down the hall.

“Ring for a bath, tell them to set one in each room. There is a bronze cart in there with coat hangers, make sure you leave your clothes on it to get cleaned by the staff.” I instructed and he nodded and I watched him go as I turned back to the captain of the Fortunate, my aunt, Gracie Marshall.

“Good to see you Aunt Gracie. How’s Uncle Roark?” I said with a wide grin as she slapped me on my back and invited me over to a seat by the fire. It was a rare treat to run into family, especially since there wasn’t many of us left. “Ah you know, he’s off at the pub with the rest of his crew. I’m here to give old Forty her yearly overhaul.” I nodded. Ben Roark was the captain of the Argos and while not related to me by blood I had grown up with him as an honorary uncle.

Because Bagliona had one of the best repair facilities on the continent it was a favorite stopover for the wind folk for overhauls. I had been lucky to have blown Sweetwind’s mountings so close by.

I settled in to listen to them, and try to catch up on a bit of news. Small gatherings of captains like this was probably one off the best ways available to catch up on stuff, as in this small group were people that had been all over prime, soaking up what was going on.

There was muted talk about the ongoing war between the Empire of Nadir and one of the loose alliances of kingdoms, and I realized that much of the depressive atmosphere of the gathering was because of the prospect of war. Mageos hadn’t chosen a side yet but there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that they were getting ready.

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I thought of the message cylinder that I had sent off with my deliveries from the Yamania priestess and wondered just why Mageos was allowing a war fleet to sail to the Empire’s aid when it was quite possible that they would soon be fighting them. I had no doubt that the extensive air patrols had already long ago spotted the fleet and let them be.

There was no real reason to hash over thoughts of a future that I had little to no part in. Messengers didn’t fight in wars, we were neutral. Few of our airships were armed with anything more than the odd lance or flame caster. Mostly to deter the odd attempt at skyjacking, or piracy. There were more than a few aerial threats from various monsters, but airships could fly higher than most of them and escape rather than fight.

Thinking back at my fight with that wyvern, I know that I could have outclimbed it, but would I have had enough reserves of power in my storage crystals to stay aloft? That was the biggest issue with an airship, while a vessel like mine was a bit faster than most larger airships in terms of burst speed, I really didn’t have Sweetwind in top shape at the moment and my reserves were very small. I could be run down if a chase lasted long enough. If I was being chased by a large airship it would easily be able to catch me with its massive reserves of power once I exhausted my energy trying to flee.

I needed a proper crew. Not just Neil. At least one other Magi and a good artificer. That would allow me to hold proper watches and not rely on my autohelm while I slept. When I did that I had to keep Sweetwind high up, and sleep with a mask on. My ship was very old and I was fortunate to have a rather unique guidance core that was able to do a lot of compensation for turbulence and could track wind shifts rather well.

The artificers had long ago lost the art of making such devices and modern airships were fully crewed or used old cores from salvaged airships. No doubt Costas would spend months carefully disassembling my poor Sweetwind and recovering every scrap of value he could if I would ever sell to him. They didn’t build airships like her anymore. While I could probably buy a larger airship with the money I’d get selling Sweetwind to Costa’s family, I’d never forgive myself for disposing of a family heirloom. If I was partial to the quack that the Yamani professed, I’d be afraid that my ancestors would come and howl over my bed at night.

Not that I didn’t believe in ghosts, spirits, wraiths, and everything else within the unseen as I had had my fair share of encounters with odd things over the years, but I always suspected that they had better things to do than to bust my chops if I did something they didn’t like.

“Aunt Gracie, you know I be thinking I do need a crew. I’ll go looking over the brats tomorrow, see if there are any promising ones.”

She nodded, her beady eye looking me over. “Just watch yourself, a new crew, especially a few green brats will probably need an old hand or two to help out, at least until they are broken in. I recommend you find a couple of old windogers that are looking for a few last fights or are swapping halls.”

I thought about it for a second and grimaced. Neil would be hard enough to train, and she was right, if I picked any of the brats I’d have my hands full retraining them on the older vessel. They would have been trained on newer ones, and probably never even dreamed of serving on a messenger skiff.

It would likely be better to go though the hall and find the best crew I could, but I knew that wouldn’t work for several reasons. The first being that I just couldn’t afford to pay any senior flyers that could ask for a higher rate. The younger ones would do it for free if you came right down to it. To them flight hours would be more valuable towards their journeymen’s papers than any pay, although I would still have to pay them. Neil, as my personal apprentice should be getting a decent wage, something I’d have to discuss with him later. Fortunately, I had the feeling he was so enchanted with the idea of flying he wouldn’t really consider it a big priority.

The older windogers would all talk pay first, risk first, and I’d never get any decent ones on. Especially once word got around about the state of my ship. The older ones knew just how dangerous and unforgiving the skymarches were, and what I’d end up with were the incompetent ones, the crazy ones or the desperate. I had seen those type aboard before and they never lasted long, and one had tried to shank my da and run off with a sheath of skywhale scales. Those types were just trouble.

The brats would be a pain, they would be arrogant and insufferable, but I knew they took well to discipline and would obey my orders. Say what you will of them, I’d rather take my chances with someone who disliked me but wanted to be there rather than someone who would resent being shortchanged or was an old sweat no one else wanted.

After talking with the captains, who also had been following the grapevine on who to watch at the qualifications, I made mental notes on who to pay special attention to. Many of them would also be there tomorrow. The wind folk may dislike the Academy Aeronautica’s graduates but they wouldn’t pass up a chance if they could scoop up the odd prodigy or two.

Returning to my rooms, I opened the main door and noted that Neil had already finished his bath and was sitting at a desk in a white bathrobe, trying to read one of the books from a nearby bookshelf. His face was a mask of confusion as he tried to read. His wet hair had been combed back and I reminded myself again to take him to the grand bazaar and later have his hair shorn as tight as possible. My own was cut short to fit easily inside my cap, to help hide my heritage. Long hair was good for the covers of copperback romance books about flyers, but in truth you had to stay cleanshaven and close cropped for very good reasons.

Reading the cover, I smirked. He was trying to read a book of wind charts, with figures and small diagrams covering the pages. It was also written in Salazar scripting, something that was nearly impossible to read even if you knew it.

Walking over to the small library maintained in the common room, I selected a book on basic geography that looked like it had been left behind by some previous apprentice. Later, I would have to ask the desk if I could pay for ownership of the book, or rent it until my next stay. I sighed and groaned about all the stuff I would have to buy Neil. He would need a full mage kit, new flyer’s equipment and many other items. Books would also be important.

I handed him the book and he squinted at it. “Can you read the book?” I asked and he stared at it for a long while, squinting and concentrating, then his eyes brightened. “Yea the text is rearranging itself, and I can read it!” Neil remarked and I nodded. I had heard that travelers could do such things from grandpa and had expected it. If legends were correct, the seal would let travelers understand any written language. I knew that the issue with Salazar scripting wasn’t in the language, it was the symbology that took learning because it was a magescript and needed training to read the patterns properly.

That was what grandpa had told me about them. I looked at the book on wind currents, and noted it was like my own. The book would update off of masterbooks as conditions evolved, or changed in various areas. I seldom used a wind almanac, but had been taught to read most common forms of symbology and scripting styles from a very young age.

“I’ll pay for that book, and in return I’m going to constantly test your knowledge on it ok?” I pointed at the basic geography book and gave him a hard glare.

He nodded and seemed awed by the information he was finding inside it. Highly suspecting that I wouldn’t have a hard time getting him to pay attention to his studies, I walked over to my room and saw that a bath was drawn for me in a metal tub. Now this was bliss…