The sound of hammering filled the night air. The airmen were busy building a pair of large rafts, mostly from empty food barrels. Each raft featured a wooden mast capped with a glowing red lamp. The airmen working on one of the rafts began to shout and drag the craft toward the edge of the flight deck. There were lamps fixed on the flight deck as well, however black metal cones blocked the light. Angled slightly upward and toward the rear of the ship, the lamps would only be visible to aircraft on approach to land from the port side.
"The starboard side of the ship will be kept dark," Felix said. "The rafts will act as beacons in the water. The airship will be above the two rafts, not too far away. You should be able to see the landing lights on final approach. Our targets are the high mast and the parked airships, the airship factories, and any airplanes we see on the ground.
"We will fly pairs at the start. After each attack, fly back over the water toward the beacon before turning back to shore. Keep it organized. I don't want you crashing into each other. If you detect storm or draconic sorcery on the ground, then you simply attack somewhere else. Understood?"
"Yes commander!" the seven officers said in unison.
"Wait for the signal before starting your engine. If Shane is down in the city, he will instantly be able to detect your draconic sorcery and warn the city about the raid. The mission commences immediately. You are dismissed."
It had been a calm flight out over the ocean to the south. There were minor crises along the way, but nothing the Captain had not prepared for. On two occasions they came across Rilnese airships filled with refugees fleeing the new Chief of Chiefs, however the former Heritage Militia soldiers shed no tears as they burned those airships out of the sky. On most nights the weather was calm and Felix would lie down under the wing of his airplane, watching the clouds drift across the stars until sleep found him.
On this night, Felix was scheduled to meet with Shane in his dreams. The other man was likely asleep and wondering why Felix was missing. He would inevitably view this attack as a betrayal. There was still time in the night to meet him later. It was stretching his agreement with Shane, and Felix wondered if the Light Elemental had any method of forcing him to fall asleep.
The airmen on deck began shouting, and then their rafts began to move toward the edge of the landing deck. The aircraft carrier was very close to the water, hovering just a few feet above the liquid darkness. The crane on the deck rotated to pick up the first of the rafts. Felix stalked across the deck to his airplane, the first in line to take off. The Captain stood nearby.
"As soon as the rafts are overboard, take the airship up as far as you can manage," Felix said. "After we are back on deck, cut the engine. We will let the wind carry us back out over the water."
The Captain nodded in the dim red light. "How long will it take?"
"Not long."
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Felix was late.
Shane stood on the inky water staring up at the dull orange outline of the eclipse in the sky. "Where is he?" he asked.
Not here, the Dream Elemental replied.
"What could he be doing at this hour?"
Perhaps he has found a girlfriend or even a blushing bride? Perhaps he has gone to a brothel?
The Dream Elemental began to giggle. Shane sighed. "Wake me up," he finally said.
He opened his eyes in the darkness of his hotel room. He lit the gas lamp on his bed stand and then reached for the holy book that Alice had given him. The gilded edges felt gritty against his fingertips as he opened the tome. A cloth bookmark marked his progress.
The Binding of Ashe, Chapter 4, Verse 1: The first goddess to join was called the Goddess of Chaos, and she bisected herself into the divine powers of Water and Fire. Verse 2: The second goddess to join was called the Goddess of Foundations, and she bisected herself into the divine powers of Stone and Wind. Verse 3: The third goddess to join was called the Goddess of Connections, and she bisected herself into the divine powers of Metal and Lightning. Verse 4: These three goddesses used their divine powers to create the land and the sea and the sky. Verse 5: The fourth goddess, who was called the Goddess of Laws, saw potential in the new world. Verse 6: She bisected herself into the divine powers of Life and Heaven, thus bringing order to the chaotic universe. Verse 7: For a time, the living creatures had intelligence but no free will. Verse 8: The fifth goddess, who was called the Goddess of Freedom, bisected herself into the divine powers of Light and Dark.
Suddenly Shane felt the unmistakable sensation of draconic sorcery. He rubbed his eyes, closed the book, and set it back on the nightstand. "Are the Knights practicing night flying?" he muttered. He looked through the circular window above his desk at the night sky. It was dark and starless, with a hint of thin fog illuminated by the orange lamplight of the high mast. It seems like a terrible idea to practice in this weather, he thought.
Something about the draconic sorcery was deeply unsettling. The sorcerer must be quite powerful to be able to draw so much power through the three Realms. It was the type of unrefined and unmitigated power that was characteristic of the Paladin Felix.
It wasn't Rilnese draconic sorcery. It was Quarian draconic sorcery. "Felix is here!?" Shane gasped. It was clear to him then. He could feel the other man, to the south-east, out over the ocean somewhere.
Then he felt seven more Quarian draconic sorcerers.
"What the hell?" he hissed as he tossed aside his blankets. Still wearing his pajamas, he sprinted out into the hotel hallway, then used storm sorcery to float down through the foyer and out into the street. He felt a chill as the cold air penetrated his thin shirt.
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With a surge of draconic sorcery, he veered into his drake form right in front of the trembling valets and porters waiting outside. He amplified his voice with wind magic.
"The enemy is here!" he bellowed. The force of his voice rattled the windows of the nearby carriages. "This is not a drill! The enemy is attacking! Sound the alarm! Knights of Riln, take to the skies!"
Silence.
The first of the sirens began to sound somewhere to the east. One by one the alarms began to sound across the city of Dragon's Landing. Beating his wings against the cold night air, Shane took flight. His enhanced vision allowed him to make out the dark outlines of buildings, but it was still deeply uncomfortable. Shane feared that he would crash into a structure and injure himself. The enhanced hearing was also a nuisance because it made the sirens almost painful.
Once he was aloft, Shane could see the lights of the city stretched out all around. He saw a flash of crimson light in the east, the direction of the pier. A Quarian airplane was descending toward the pier, leaving two long streams of crimson flame in its wake. Shane could feel the familiar sorcery. It was Felix himself.
In a moment of horror, Shane realized that the pier was illuminated. Knights and their crews were scrambling to get the aircraft untied, like a swarm of tiny insects. With a sudden surge of draconic sorcery, a huge plume of crimson flame lanced out across the pier. Airplanes disintegrated in the flames. A second airplane followed behind Felix, and together they left a long scourge of blackened wood and burning corpses.
It was all over in just a few seconds. The two airplanes pulled up into a vertical climb, and in spite of his powerful wings, Shane was unable to immediately follow them. He heard an explosion from behind, loud enough to be distinct against the droning sirens. Craning his serpentine neck between strokes, he saw the source of the sound. The high mast, and the two airships moored there, had burst into flames as another pair of airplanes raced away. The coal storage on one of the airships had likely exploded.
He realized in that moment that he was being indecisive, flapping his wings wildly in-place over the city, unable to decide the best response to the sudden attack. Felix always said that making a decision, any decision, was better than doing nothing. What would Felix do? he wondered. The man would likely trust his instincts and act immediately.
Shane searched his own feelings in that moment. Fear, surprise, betrayal. The enemy was attacking airplanes and airships. They were afraid of an air battle, they wanted to cripple critical air assets and perhaps production capabilities. The high mast and the pier were both prominent targets, but the enemy would need to scan the whole city to find the specific factory buildings in the industrial sector.
He banked his wings, turning toward the burning high mast in a descending glide. The factory complex was highly visible, the darkness banished by countless gas lamps. Dozens of security guards roamed the facility with crossbows and sabers. Due to the need for tight security at all hours, the factory was, in fact, the most well-lit structure in the entire city.
"Douse the lights around the factory!" he bellowed. He was unsure if the guards heard him over the sound of the sirens.
The screaming sound of another airplane caught his attention to the east. Shane flapped his massive wings and lined up to attack. A plume of azure flame, nearly a thousand feet long, raced out over the city, striking the airplane head-on. Against the blue flames, Shane could make out the dark silhouette of the craft. With both wings ripped off, the thing looked like a paper tube flailing about in the wind.
There were other airplanes out there in the darkness. He could sense them, but they were moving very fast, and some of them were behind him. He was just one man, and he could not be everywhere in the city at the same time. However, he knew that they would want to attack the factory. He just needed to stand his ground.
The enemy must have been prepared for this, because they began to attack other parts of the city. Shane could hear men screaming across the city as buildings caught flame. He wanted to help them. He wanted to save as many lives as he could, but at an abstract level he understood that untold thousands would die if the factory fell and he failed to create a new Air Force.
Felix must have predicted this strategy, because Shane sensed his unique style of sorcery as he lined up to attack. Shane spread his wings, challenging the incoming aircraft. He drew in a gulp of breath, aimed, and prepared to release.
I forbid it, the Light Elemental said in his mind, her too-delicate voice surprisingly stern.
I figured that would happen, Shane thought. But if he was unable to attack Felix, then in theory Felix was unable to attack him.
This would have been useful except for the fact that Felix wasn't aiming for him. The man was aiming at the factory. A flash blasted just beyond the edge of Shane's extended wing. A crane exploded, raining down burning wood and smoldering cables. Fragments of roof tiles and other detritus smashed onto the factory floor, hitting one man on the head. He immediately dropped, lifeless, to the ground. The factory floor descended into chaos as the guards and night-shift workers fled.
"Save the tooling!" Shane cried, but he knew his voice was hollow. Another blast of sorcery rocked the building, causing one burning wall to collapse inward. The sound of the screaming propellers grew louder, distinct above the distant sirens, as Felix rushed by overhead, narrowly missing Shane's extended neck.
Another airplane raced over the docks, blasting the ground with crimson flames. There was a flicker of dark blue reflecting red light as the airplane flew past one of the five blue crystal spires in the city, bathing the side in draconic sorcery. As his eyes adjusted, Shane was astonished to see that the crystal spire was completely undamaged by the attack.
We need to get everyone inside the spires, he thought. Then he realized he was thinking too small. The city was lost. The enemy would raze it to the ground, and there wasn't enough space in the spires to house the entire population. Shane needed to discover a way to make more blue crystals. If he succeeded, then he could save the entire city, and if he failed, the city was going to burn anyway.
What would Felix do?
He sembled into his human form and leapt over the edge into the factory quad, descending slowly with storm sorcery. Once he was on the ground, he reached forward and summoned draconic flame in a small ball. He pressed both hands together, smashing the flames against each other. He imagined a shape, the shape of a seed, the shape of those small purple crystals that Astrid could make. He tried to remember the feeling, that tip-of-the-tongue feeling of the Purple Dragon's flavor of sorcery. But nothing worked. The flame would not take physical form. Something was missing.
Do something. Do anything at all. Acting is better than hesitation. Act, act, act!
That's what Felix would do. That's what Felix would say. The building shook as the other man attacked with more draconic sorcery, blowing a huge hole in the wall above the quad.
Shane stalked through the factory. He found guards and night-shift workers huddled under the tables in a workshop. The ones that saw him had fear in their eyes. Some were sobbing. A woman was hiding alone in one corner, gray robes draped over her shoulders, her face shrouded under layers and layers of gray hoods.
Trusting in his instincts, Shane floated across the room and landed in front of the geomancer. He figured he must have appeared completely ridiculous floating around in his pajamas.
"Open a portal to the Realm of Stone," he commanded.
The woman was shaking. If she wanted to protest that it would break her oaths, those words died on her lips. She stretched out her hand and with a flash of orange light the portal appeared.