The purple flashes and booms blinded and deafened Twila as both ships unloaded everything they had. She felt her beloved Hourglass shake and twist underneath her, and the wheel jerked toward port in her hands. When the ringing in her ears faded and her vision cleared, her heart plummeted.
The Hourglass burned around her.
Its railings had shattered, and its whole port engine burned and screeched. The bow [Long Five] was gone. Rojir stood next to its shattered mount, covered in soot and coughing. Twila coughed too; the deck was awash in mystsmog, though it cleared quickly as the ship sank through the air.
She reached for the altitude dial, but when she went to push it up and stabilize the Hourglass, it was already set to go up. A moment later, the ship’s wheel jerked to port against her. “Someone, help hold it steady,” she shouted over the roaring wind and fire.
Rojir staggered back toward the helm. His forehead dripped blood, but he grabbed the wheel, and together, they stopped it from spinning. Twila dropped the speed dial to ‘Full Stop’, and the Hourglass plunged into the one spot in Iswixel that Twila guessed would be empty: the town’s skywright’s shop.
The Hourglass’s brass hull rammed into the thatch-and-board roof, which buckled under the airship’s weight. Twila’s ship—her beautiful ship—careened into the mostly-finished fisher below with a horrible screeching, cracking sound. Then the hull gave, and the ship tilted onto one side.
The starboard engine gave out a moment later in a cacophony of purple smog. And, for the first time in days, the Hourglass was quiet. Not silent. Ship rats groaned and called out to each other, and a fire blazed from the port engine. But the engines’ constant roar had stopped.
Twila picked herself up off the wheel, wincing at the pain that ripped across her chest. She’d have a bruise there later. She looked around at the rails and the stern [Long Five], which lay a few yards away, embedded in the shattered skywright’s floor. Her heart pounded—was it fear and panic from the crash or sadness? The Hourglass, she thought, had flown its last flight.
But her crew still needed her help. Her directions. She was skipper, after all. Even if she wasn’t sure what she was skipper of. She pushed it down. Blink, breathe, and scream later.
“Ship rats! We’ve gotta go! Street rats, get Charlie! Sam, Ellie, grab a [Puckle Gun] if you can. Everyone else, we’ll meet by the docks!”
----------------------------------------
Neither Rojir nor Jamis was in any shape to fight.
The bigger boy had hurt his wrist. It sat at a funny angle, and he whimpered or screamed whenever he tried to move it. He’d one-hand-lifted Charlie on their way out of the Hourglass. She’d screamed almost as much as he had, though her missing hand had at least started to heal.
Twila hoped.
As for Jamis, he’d hit his head. He wasn’t listening to orders, and Twila understood that. Head hits hurt.
“What now?” Asked Rosie.
Twila took a deep breath. Then another. The crew sat sprawled along the narrow path, sitting on stairs and lying in the dirt. They had guns, swords, and a single [Puckle Gun]. The rest of the Hourglass’s supplies were inside the smoke-filled skywright’s shop, though it hadn’t caught fire behind them.
Rojir, Jamis, and Auntie Charlie couldn’t move much, and they’d need protection, too. Twila groaned. “Alright, Sam, Ellie, and Marianna, you’re with the boys and Charlie. We’ll leave the [Puckle Gun] here too. That leaves…”
“You, me, and Becca,” Rosie said hesitantly. “That’s…that’s not enough.”
“No,” Twila said. She blinked and breathed. Then she screamed in frustration. Shockingly, it helped. “Not for fighting. We’re not going to fight. We’re sneaking through the village.”
“I can’t…” Becca started.
“I know. But you used to live here,” Twila said. “Just come with us. You can show us how to hide. If everything works out, we won’t be fighting anyway.”
“Alright.” Twila and Rosie grabbed their weapons, and Becca led them into Iswixel.
The fisher—the same one Twila had rammed in their escape from Iswixel—was moored to the docks outside the harbor crevice. Its hull had been patched, but poorly. Becca dipped toward it and scurried up the gangplank. Twila and Rosie followed, looking at the town.
“We should hurry,” Twila said as soon as they stood on deck. Vayne and his crew, if they’d survived their crash, had to be heading down the path. They were going to get to the key first!
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“I don’t think so,” Becca said. When Twila crossed her arms, she crossed hers too, staring and continuing. “Look, no one in town wants to see you right now. Your crew brought the Sable Tide down on them. You got a bunch of people killed. And then you stole the Hourglass—”
“It was mine!”
“—and crashed it into their fisher. You want to take it slow.”
“Becca’s right. Look!” Rosie pointed.
The From Hell’s Hart was descending on Iswixel’s lower side. Its bulk blotted out the setting sun for a moment, throwing a shadow across the lower village. Then it disappeared.
“We can’t rush into that. Gotta be sneaky instead,” Rosie continued.
Twila nodded slowly, and Becca led them across the way. The wind whipped against the cave houses’ doors and windows and tore at the ship rats’ clothes. Twila grimaced. A storm was on its way.
“We’re going to make a mess. Most of the villagers should be inside, though, so it should be fine,” Becca said. Then she grabbed her sword and smashed the nearest mystlamp with it.
“What the hell are you doing?” Rosie asked, eyes widening. Twila couldn’t blame her for panicking. The last time they visited Iswixel, the Sable Tide had taken advantage of a missing lantern and killed Skipper Anton.
“Unlike your old skipper and crew, the villagers know enough to stay inside if there’s a storm and the lanterns blow out. We’re just helping the storm along.” Becca smashed another lantern, then another. “Keep your lights close and ready. It’ll be dark soon.”
Sure enough, as Twila followed Becca from shadow to shadow, she could see the few villagers still out and about with the whipping winds and dueling airships heading for their homes. The first raindrops splattered across her face, dripping down like tears.
The tavern hadn’t been repaired yet. Becca ran from a shadow into the burned-out cave as the storm truly broke. The wind howled through the shattered windows. Sheets of rain soaked the ground outside. And through the pounding rain, Twila heard roaring thunder—and something that sounded almost like thunder.
They hadn’t seen anyone with weapons in the streets or airships coming back over town, so Twila breathed a sigh of relief. Wherever the cannons were, they probably weren’t attacking her crew.
“This way,” Becca said. She ran down the path toward a gate and then started banging on a door. A very, very familiar-looking door.
Twila gulped as it creaked open, and a little girl, perhaps four or five years old, peeked out. Her face lit up as she saw Twila. A moment later, the redhead skipper found herself being dragged into the house. “Mum! Mum, Carter’s friends are here!”
“Carter’s friends?” A woman stopped cooking and stared at Twila and Rosie. Then she blinked, jaw dropping, at Becca. “You. You’re alive? We thought you got eaten by the Tide.”
“No, Ma’am,” Becca said. “I left town. Listen, make sure Beth and Grace stay inside tonight. There’s going to be a—”
She stopped talking as a heavy fist started knocking on the door. Grace ran toward it, and Twila flinched and reached for a pistol. Whoever it was, that knocking meant trouble.
[Twila Tighe, Ship Rat Mystgineer, Equipment Level 1.33 (Myst 12/12, Hit Points 1/2)]
[Head - Empty]
[Eyes - Myst Lens (lvl. 1) Myst Sight (passive) See own status block and others’ classes]
[Chest - Platejack Coat (lvl. 2) Plated Coat (passive) +1 Hit Point]
[Waist - Apprentice Mystgineer’s Bandolier (lvl. 1) Deep Pockets (passive) - Equip an additional Gizmo]
[Legs - Canvas Overalls (lvl. 0)]
[Gizmo #1 - Loaded Dice (lv. 2) - Roll the Bones (active, 1 myst/roll) - gain a random myst enhancement; Skill - Trickery]
[Gizmo #2 - Empty]
[Gizmo #3 - Nola’s Embrace (lvl 2) Unknown Effect]
[Gizmo (Belt) - Mystwork Lantern (lvl. 2): Mystlight (active, 25% failure chance, 1 myst/attempt) - start the light; Adjustable Light Aura (sustained, .5-2 myst/tick) - light a variable area; Skill - Perception]
[Myst Battery - Condensing Battery Mk. 2 (lvl. 1) Myst Storage (passive) - 12 myst maximum, requires condenser to refill; Condense Myst (passive) - Condenses 1 myst/6 ticks]
[Weapon/Pair - Anton’s Paired Pistols (lvl. 2) Smoothbore Myst-Shot (active, 1 cartridge/shot) - fire a ray of heated myst; Rapid Shots (active, 2 myst/shot) - fire twice/tick; Skill - Marksman]
[Weapon #2 - Heatblade (lvl. 2) Heat (active, 1 myst/tick) - cause the blade’s edge to superheat; Skill - Acrobatics]
[Weapon/Pair - Empty]
[Skill #1 - Trickery 2]
[Skill #2 - Perception 2]
[Skill #3 - Empty]
[Skill #4 - Marksman 2]
[Skill #5 - Acrobatics 2]