Islands up here came in all shapes and sizes. Often, one would find misshapen masses of rock like Fount Salt, but the ones most typically colonized were more like wide, flat disks. Heron Village sat upon one, but they weren’t usually so round or, well, flat. Islands like Lost Cloud were covered in steep hills and riddled with peninsulas or other strange landforms.
The underside of Lost Cloud, however, followed a consistent plane. For the most part. There was probably a few hundred feet of rock between Cira and the surface she fled just moments ago, and jagged spikes poked down into the sky. They (her dad) say these formations will eventually fill out over millennia as an island matures, but that suggested multiple stages of an island’s life and then it became a whole thing.
“I’ve never seen the Lost Cloud like this.” James gazed up at its rough underbelly from Breeze Haven’s Peak. “It’s too damn dark to risk. Just as easy to fly around.”
Indeed, they were within a great shadow. A few miles of earth blotted the sun out with little effort. While the veil of clouds grew somewhat thinner directly beneath the island, it was quite dark. With miles of open sky beneath and around them, though, Cira could see light in the distance through the fog, like they were inside a dark, misty bubble.
Naturally, Breeze Haven had lights in the form of her barrier. Cira could become the Lamplight. The large, oblong shield encasing her entire home had a few tricks that could be activated by touching a passive glyph on the console to the left of the helm. Now, would she use them here?
It would be unwise to become a beacon for Captain Wick who surely pursued her—his lackeys, at least. “I think it’s rather pleasant.” Cira leaned out the window and felt the breeze on her face, “Very quiet.”
“Yeah, and I can’t see shit. When are you gonna take over?” James had been nervously steering Breeze Haven for a couple hours at this point. “I’m surprised you let me in the first place.”
“I thought it couldn’t hurt to kill two stones with one bird.” She felt as refreshed as one could be after a gruesome battle like that, though washing blood the blood of her victims from her hair was a tumultuous experience. “I’m just glad you didn’t crash. That wouldn’t have been a fun bath.”
Cira nudged him out of the way to reclaim the wheel and they drifted through the shadows for a short while until it was bright enough to see the flagship again. Before they had been following a torch, and light of day revealed that Jimbo was way off course behind them.
“Uh oh.” James peered across to the treasure barge, “that’s exactly how it happened the first time.”
Turns out, the reason they avoid travelling beneath Lost Cloud and the reason Jimbo lost his leg were one in the same. The poor bastard drifted too far westward and wound up in the middle of nimbus shark territory.
“Should we help him?” As the distance between them closed, it became increasingly apparent that a school of sharks had claimed him as a meal. “This would be much easier with magic.”
“You’re gonna keep saying that until you have your magic back, aren’t you?” Cira’s expression did not change in the least as James tried to give her a deadpan stare, “You said this thing has weapons, right?”
“More like… artillery?” I have various weapons in the forge. Will it really come down to a melee? Something she wanted to avoid could be seen on Jimbo’s ship as he and his skeleton crew stood with their backs to each other, having a good old fashioned sword fight against the encroaching sharks. They were in a frenzy, closing in on all sides and lunging from above. It seemed the crew was actively avoiding gunfire in case Wick yet followed, so they at least had that much faith in themselves. “I’m not confident I can hit only the sharks. Not without my mana, anyway… I’d hate to put a big hole in ol’ Jimbo—or burn the ship down for that matter.”
“Well, that looks pretty bad. Doesn’t seem like Shores’ noticed either.” As he said, the flagship moved steadily into the mist. “We gotta do something.”
“Now there’s an idea…” Breeze Haven had many tricks, but she wasn’t sure if it would work. “You know what the nimbus sharks’ natural predator is?”
“Uh… really strong people?”
A fair answer. But, “Not even close. Ever notice how nimbus sharks migrate away or hide from harsh weather? Rather, if you see them doing so, it is very likely that you will find that storm home to a stromrak, or many. A rather fearsome species of bird with a beak about as tall as you or I.”
“Uh, huh…” James stroked his stubble and looked at the ten-foot-long sharks as they swarmed the treasure-laden vessel. “So, there are things like that.”
“The stromrak possesses an inherent affinity to lightning and can move indiscernibly through the storm. Have you ever heard thunder with no lightning? Or seen the clouds light up but produce no sound?”
James wasn’t very enthused about the knowledge. “Maybe… I guess.”
“Stromrak.” She dusted off her hands, “And that’s that.”
James’ expression gradually fell apart as he mulled over their brief conversation, “That’s WHAT? What do we do about Jimbo?!”
“Oh.” Cira peered to her side and looked over the barrier control glyphs, having to read them to remember which did which. “I think I can pretend to be one.”
James was pulling out his hair, “One what?!”
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“Stromrak. If we ever catch one, I make a mean Strom-stromboli.” Cira’s direct answer only seemed to confuse him further, so she proceeded to put a finger on the glyph of her choosing. Instead of light as she wanted to do earlier, this one would convert some of Breeze Haven’s mana into that of the lightning element and flood the barrier with it to disperse into the open sky.
As long as Cira had lived here, this was the first time she found a practical use for the ability. The yellow glyph lit up in response and she could feel a faint hum beneath her feet. Slowly the barrier around them became much more visible with the mana’s electric glow. Eventually, small arcs formed across the bubble and started to push back even the island’s shadow.
Finally, the crackling barrier shout small bolts of electricity out into the open sky before quickly dispersing. The sounds of a thousand little arcs popping off was almost overwhelming and Cira’s hair started to stand up. She almost felt tingly—it was a strange sensation, but she could only imagine that was what the sharks were feeling.
None of the lightning made it anywhere near the sharks, simply fizzling out, but that wasn’t her goal. Cira just wanted to fill the air with electricity, and ideally, lightning mana. It didn’t take long for the sharks to grow erratic, flapping their tail fins around and going for quick lunges. Some of them swam up and only circled Jimbo cautiously.
“This… doesn’t feel safe.” James complained beside her as he held his hands up, scared to touch anything.
“Don’t be a baby. We have to get closer, fast. They’re taking this as their last chance to grab a snack before running away.” Cira spun the wheel a little and fell inward to speed up.
“How fast does this thing go, anyhow?” His face told her he hoped she would show him.
“Depends on how you look at it. Without dumping mana into Breeze Haven’s dynamo, I can build up speed for a couple days and get a few hundred knots.” They were so close Cira could throw a rock and hit Jimbo square in the forehead.
Instead, she pressed on the glyph extra hard in hopes that Breeze Haven would increase the lightning’s intensity. I’m so glad she got to sit for a few weeks. Without entering a coma, her ship wouldn’t have had any time to regain its mana. It’s the little things…
Some of the sharks swam up and disappeared into the forest of rocky spires which hung down from the island, but the more frenzied ones still snapped at Jimbo and friends. There was a handful of dead sharks upon their deck, but the bigger ones took the wounds and merely repositioned. As their blood leaked from each gash, it spread out and floated away as if they were underwater.
Lightning trailed off the barrier and came dangerously close to hitting a few of them before blinking out of existence with a pop. Now she could even see her goons’ hair standing up on the deck of the treasure barge and the last of the sharks finally wriggled away in fear. They took one last look back at inconceivable mass of lightning before shooting off into the mist like darts.
Cira let out a deep breath and carefully took her finger off the glyph. “Okay… That went pretty well, don’t you think?”
James brushed his hair down with a hand as it kept trying to stand up, “It worked. I’ll say that much.”
Locking eyes with the crew below, Cira cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted, “Havin’ trouble down there, Jimbo?”
He only waved her off in annoyance and she whipped the wheel back around. “Crisis averted. Good thing we caught it before that got out of control.” Now she sailed toward the light and managed to catch a glimpse of the ‘Saint’s Wings’ before it disappeared into the white shroud.
“Shores knows where he’s going, right?” She couldn’t help but ask the dependable pirate next to her.
“Everybody knows Kuja’s.”
Everybody, huh? “You don’t think it will be the first place they look for us?”
“If they fell for our ruse, we might have bought a couple days, but they’ll come lookin’.” James confirmed her worries, then squinted his eyes, “How you gonna deal with that one, Captain?”
“One step at a time, James, but we do need to reduce our number of ships.” The good Reverand had pulled the flagship around the bend and approached the low, grassy shore and Cira decided to hover a little higher to get a better look. Not far inland, the land grew into a steep cliff that broke up into mountainous terrain. The bright mist which enveloped the island shone on her skin as they rose and eventually Jimbo could be seen tugging along behind them.
Good thing nimbus sharks aren’t smarter. The sails are still in good shape. Naturally, they only had an interest in meat—not so much for tactics. This went over well, but realistically, a swarm of sharks could become a huge problem. There were tales of sharks following a crew of days, picking off any who dared to try to go above deck to steer or adjust the sails. Of course, other stories existed where the whole crew became a quick snack before anyone knew what happened.
They really were a dangerous beast, and Cira did not envy those who had to face them in melee combat.
On another note, she was glad the third crew was just fine, and they finally breached the surface, rising above the shore. Cira inspected the mountainous terrain in search of a place to land when there was movement from a nearby plateau.
“That’s her.” James said. “Looks like she’s mad.”
There was a hovel carved right into the top and it was easy to imagine it leading underground. Now Kuja could be seen in her vibrant multi-colored dress standing dumbstruck with her jaw hung open on the edge of the cliff.
The Far Shore stayed low to the ground, evidently in effort to avoid their mast becoming the highest point on the island in case their pursuers were further along than she though. A real thoughtful fellow, that Reverand Shores.
Kuja’s expression shifted from anger, to fear, to awe, then all the way to fury as Cira came in for a landing. That was just how long it took for the woman to see her face as Breeze Haven finally settled. Waiting for her this time at the bottom of the stairs was a very irate spirit-sworn woman.
“Wh-what is all this?!” She had already turned red by the time Cira found her, “I demand you explain yourself, broken child!”
“Ouch.” Isn’t that a little harsh? “You told me to come if I found out anything about the soul forge.”
“The… soul forge?” She was confused but the keywords were all there and she looked Cira up and down in disbelief. “You mean you have discovered the method to reforge your soul? Already…?”
“I found it labeled under Arrrrr!” Cira made a pretend hook hand with her finger and dragged out her best pirate argh. If Dad didn’t alphabetize my archive for this very moment, then what was it for? Cira realized that her joke fell flat as Kuja’s eyes flicked back and forth like she had no comprehension of what she was looking at. All Cira could offer was a nervous laugh, so she whipped a book out and placed it in the woman’s trembling hands. “From what I gather, we need to melt me down, I just don’t understand how it’s supposed to all go back together. I think I get it up until I’m molten aether, but it lost me at essence propagation. The materials needed for the soul thresher alone—”
“Child, stop! Please, just slow down for a moment.” Kuja’s expression froze as she flipped through the pages with unsteady hands and eventually tears started to form in her eyes. She closed the book and carefully read the cover. “I… I don’t believe my eyes. This is really it. I thought it was forever lost to time. Please, child, tell me… Who is this ‘Gaww-zin’ who wrote this book?”
Cira jumped on the opportunity to put on a smug grin and proudly puff out her chest, “Heh heh.”