For this operation, Cira had to limit her crew. Kuja would be staying behind as she was too old to be ambushing strangers from the sky. Jimbo wouldn’t take no for an answer, and James came along because he seemed like the kind of guy to be good at negotiations.

That only left five slots for her strike team because Kuja’s skiff was too small to fit any more than that. There was no way someone of her age would walk all the way across the island every time she went into town. It was nothing special—just about the same as what Cira commandeered from that dastardly criminal in the queen’s nest.

Hey, where the hell is Nina? It had been days since she last popped up, and Cira thought it would be strange for her to join in escaping Fount Salt only to find a new home here. Something’s up with her… but it’s not like I can do anything about it.

She wondered where the little nymph had buzzed off to, but it wasn’t the time to ponder. Currently they looked down on the verdant lands of Lost Cloud and made their way to a crook in the Koran River, according to Jimbo’s map. It was the largest waterway that flowed from the spring and where they were headed was on the tail end near where it fell off over the nimbus shark nests.

The fog made it difficult to keep an eye out for pursuers on the horizon, but it was clearer than most mornings. Wick had to come looking sooner or later, the only problem was once they were close enough to Cira to see, she would also be in plain sight.

Pirates notwithstanding, this side of the island in general was not somewhere people wanted to be. Even without the sharks, this part of the jungle was home to large, striped cats and poisonous snakes. If Cira knew anything about tromping around in nature, it was to avoid large cats. It couldn’t be helped if they ran into one though. They each held a pistol on their waist in case of such an eventuality.

Her paladin defender’s name turned out to be Oliver, and he was the only one of four holy men to join on this excursion. Then she left Rictor and Gil to keep working with Rocky on the thresher’s frame and brought the remaining four mages.

James brought them down to the supposed meeting location and the boat descended past a tree with massive fronds which shaded a small lakelet or pool where the river bent around a stone outcrop. There was a pack of knee-high canines of some sort that scattered as they heard the crew’s approach and then a brief commotion among the birds, but the spot was otherwise peaceful.

As per the plan, it would only be James and Jimbo waiting by the boat. The others encircled the area and hid in the trees or nestled within the vines equipped with random magic weapons Cira had distributed to them. They were all throwables, though she was tempted to equip everyone with shining swords. Only the paladin would really know what to do with one, though, and they would otherwise make her two stereotypical pirates look far too conspicuous.

There were a lot of artifacts on the boat and Cira placed them into arrays where she thought they would do best before having Tawny charge them with mana.

“You sure all this is okay?” James asked, “What if it’s just a middleman? He’s probably just the first in a chain—we don’t even know if this stuff is staying in the Gandeux Skies.”

“Fair point,” Cira admitted, “but your negative attitude won’t get us any closer to that nectar.”

The only thing to do was wait. Cira found herself a perch in the crook of a tree behind some bunched up vines and couldn’t even see the others. She didn’t watch them hide specifically so she could gauge how good they were at it. None wanted to disappoint the Saint, so they were very well hidden.

The agreed upon meeting time was high noon—that’s what Tom discovered in the note he found in Juan’s footlocker. That time, of course, came and went, but they couldn’t give up. They waited there in the foliage for at least another hour before Cira started to get uncomfortable.

I hope we didn’t miss this one. I might really have to scour the Dead Belt if I can’t find somewhere to source it… Dammit, why do souls have to be so complicated? Couldn’t I just become an island for a day and be on my merry way? The more she thought about it, the less reasonable it sounded. Cira’s corporeal form was so vaguely defined while her consciousness drifted across miles with less effort than rolling her eyes.

Cira was stuck in the tunnels of her mind for an indeterminate amount of time and returned to reality when the dappled light passing through the canopy briefly dimmed like a lamp’s flicker. Something had passed by overhead.

It couldn’t be seen from where she sat even if she leaned out, but Cira thought she heard wind brush against a sail. The plan was to stick it out until sunset if nobody showed, but judging by the sun there was plenty of day left.

This could be Wick’s men, of course. They were halfway across the island with a glorified dinghy, so that would certainly spell trouble. Cira’s negotiators looked up and by the expressions on their faces, it wasn’t a hit squad. James scrutinized whatever he saw and after a few seconds, gave a subtle nod in Cira’s direction. The plan was a go.

With bated breath, Cira readied a crossbow at her side loaded with a bolt she walked Eros through enchanting that morning. It was her job to signal the start of the ambush and her mages were instructed on which traps to activate when. They wouldn’t leave these guys a single escape route. Cira just had to aim and wait.

Watching the beams of light hitting the pond below, the boat circled around slowly a few times. Surely, they would notice the people waiting were completely different, but it descended eventually. When the branches rustled, a wooden hull broke through the canopy. At least twice as long as the one they rode in on and a bit wider.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

As the boat came lower, Cira saw the entire back end of it was enclosed for cargo. They would need to be careful about anybody popping out to attack, but there was one man on the bow leaned back against the cabin and holding onto something like reins. They were a bit more rigid, but some smaller vessels were piloted this way. Usually not for travel between islands though.

There weren’t even railings to his sides, he just sat on the front. This would be as simple as simple could be. Now they were fully beneath the fronds and closing in on James and Jimbo, whose hands fidgeted on their blades, ready to fight at a moment’s notice. The man waved down below with a troubled smile as he slowly descended, and Jimbo returned just about the same gesture.

Something caught the sun around his collar and glinted in the light. Artifacts… This man is either a mage or protected by one. He didn’t strike her as one at a glance. Cira placed him in his forties, but he had the weathered face of a merchant. His body lacked muscle and he wore simple woven clothes. That’s more or less exactly how she could expect an incognito mage to look though with the artifacts under his shirt.

Cira chose this moment to let loose her arrow and watched the man’s eyes widen at the mechanical sound of the trigger. Before he could turn to see its source, the projectile had already found a home in the hull with a loud knock, just under the bow.

With a sharp crackle, ice jutted out and buried the bolt. The man quickly fell into a panic, “Wha—an ambush?!” He desperately pulled down on the reins to escape back into the sky, but the boat didn’t respond how he wanted it to. Each time the jarring sound of splintering ice rang out, it doubled in size. The crystals compounded on themselves with each passing second.

It didn’t take long before the weight began to pull down the smuggler’s vessel as its nose almost pointed straight toward the lake and the man’s attempts to flee only served to add spin. He was seconds away from capsizing it as he slid over to the edge, uncontrollably grasping for something to hold onto in vain.

“Tawny!” Cira uttered her next command and a ball of rippling wind shot out from a shrubbery on the water’s edge. Like a cannonball, it flew through the clearing and percussed the air as it slammed into the falling smuggler. He too became a cannonball as the distance between him and the boat grew greater at an alarming pace while his screams became increasingly distant.

The girl’s aim wasn’t bad, and he skidded to a stop along the shore where multiple arrays were hidden in the tall grass. As per the plan, Oliver kicked it off by sending a stream of holy mana into the first array, which lit up a slightly different color.

Metallic cables sprung out of the ground and wove themselves together to form a net that wrapped around the poor smuggler. “Gyehh!!! –The hell is this?!” He cried as the net tightened around him and Cedric began the next phase of the plan.

There was a single crack of thunder and a single bolt of lightning lit up the clearing. Countless more flashed in a circle and all arced towards the center, relentlessly zapping the imprisoned man. “Gahhhhh!!!” His wails were quickly smothered by thunder as smoke poured from his body.

“What is that shit?!” James demanded answers as he gawked at the cluster of electricity that ruthlessly embroiled their target. He was practically yelling over static.

“Hurry, get the boat!” Cira shouted as she met eyes with James. It would be a dead giveaway to this man’s employers if his boat were destroyed and he ended up stranded on Lost Cloud. It would probably be necessary to use it in their plans, too, depending on how this developed.

Tawny started to melt the ice and James squatted with his hands locked together. Jimbo stepped up and James launched him into the air, arms flailing. “Shiiiiiiit!” As the boat lost weight it nearly rose out of his grasp, but he managed to just grab the side with one hand. Jimbo yelled frantically as it caused the boat to tip and he squealed as his foot passed through Tawny’s flame. With one final push, he swung himself over the edge and sprawled out flat so he wouldn’t slide off.

“Goddammit, this boat sucks!” Jimbo channeled his inner crab and scrambled his way onto his ass so he could finally take the reins.

Meanwhile, the lightning crackled one last time—that was Tawny’s next signal. Her flames activated another array and pillars of fire spiraled out of the ground into a blazing lattice. He was trapped in a dome of hellfire and it flashed crimson every few seconds with an explosive blast.

James opened the back of the boat the moment it was within reach with a pistol drawn, “It’s clear!”

“We don’t have long until his bindings disperse!” Cira hopped down from her branch and the other mages all left their hiding spots to make a run for the prisoner.

He was still encased in roiling flames, but the crew was only afforded a brief window before both arrays ran their course. If they made a mistake here, their assailant’s chains would crumble, and he could potentially cast a deadly spell in that split second. Their whole plan would be ruined.

When the inferno faded out, it revealed a charred man letting out raspy groans with each breath, weakly writhing on the ground. Metallic dust rose off his collar and around his wrists from the burnt-up artifacts and Cira took one look before she ordered, “Tie him up and heal him!” Oliver was quick on the case with a length of enchanted rope.

Cira pulled a shimmering dagger from her pouch in case the man merely feigned injury when all of a sudden, the space around them rippled. Her crew seemed to hesitate, and she was about to ask why they stopped when a wave of mana pulsed through her body.

“That will be quite enough of that.” The voice of a dignified man came from over Cira’s shoulder and her muscles froze in place. No, my foot is still in the air. We’ve been locked in place with spatial sorcery… “Do you aim to torture the poor merchant?”

The presumed smuggler they trapped was enshrouded with holy light and Cira watched his burns heal rapidly while he remained unconscious. Then a glittering light caught her eye as sharp blades materialized all around her. Now she was the one in a cage, and not a particularly pleasant one.

Her crew could only watch with wide eyes as Cira’s aethereal iron maiden formed, unable to make even a peep or wag a finger in her defense.

“What luck.” Cira said as she turned around and crossed her arms, appraising the man before her. One of the rings on her hand started to burn and threatened to crack from just this much, “I take it you’re here for the deritium?”

He was a decade or so older than Cira, but youthful for that age. Dark and purple robes hung loose on his body and his eyes were a bright amber. She noticed his beard was rather well-kempt.

When Cira turned around and assumed her scrutinous pose, his brows creased warily, “That’s a surprise. You can still move under my domain… and you seem to know a great deal more than Don.”

“You call this a domain?” Cira scrunched up her face with exaggerated disgust, “Just who are you? I don’t take you for a pirate.”

“I will be the one asking questions here.” He pulled a small wand from his sleeve and wagged it around until one of the floating blades found its way to Cira’s throat. He looked her up and down with confusion which shortly turned into amusement. “Don’t tell me, this is the fearsome Captain Dreadheart I keep hearing about? A little girl with no aura?”