Skystead shone in the distance, illuminated by the rising sun just behind one of its copper pillars. Athera squinted against it and directed Talis west. The griffin complied easily, barely needing Athera’s touch on the reins.

Athera drew in a deep, contented breath. Cedar was wonderful, but Tallis, she had raised Tallis from a kit only a few years after she had moved to the village. A gift for the awkward girl terrified of pipes and open flames.

She patted Tallis’s neck affectionately. As a kit Tallis had been shy--rarely allowing anyone but Athera to touch her. Trying to train Tallis to be more comfortable around people had opened the door for Athera to do the same.

“It’s good to have you back, girl,” she murmured into the griffin’s soft ears.

They had been flying for the better part of the morning, but it was probably better to be heading back--leaving Geralt and Tarquin on their own for too long often resulted in blows. Leaning forward in her saddle she and Tallis started into a spiraling dive. Brilliant reds and oranges blurred together as the ground spun beneath them and a biting wind whipped through Athera’s hair, letting it stream out behind her.

This was what it was to be alive.

Tallis gave a triumphant cry fueled by her eagle half. The sound was ripped away by the wind, but Athera answered it with her own. Then the feeling of being pushed upwards as Tallis spread her wings and their mad descent ended just as quickly as it had began. She beat her wings furiously a couple of times, letting them glide just above the tree line.

Athera drew in a deep breath, forcing her racing heart back to an appropriate pace. “Good girl,” she murmured into the griffin’s soft ears. “Let’s go back.”

They touched down in the clearing a few minutes later. It was the same clearing the pirate ship was hidden in. She took a moment to appreciate just how strange airships looked on the ground instead of the sky where they belonged. The lower deck was shaped like a sea faring vessel, and the pirates had built a frame around it to stabilize it, but without the balloon that carried it through the sky, it looked lonely and out of place.

Fitting.

“Good ride?” Tarquin’s voice rang out as Athera slid from the saddle. He was striding over from a nearby tree where the griffin kits were playing.

“Really smooth skies today,” Athera told him. She quickly undid Tallis’s saddle and the griffin trotted over to her kits, nuzzling each one in turn and then Cedar. “They should still be good when we go out for the evening.”

Tarquin shot an amused glance at Cedar who was wreathing around Tallis. “If we can tear him away from the kits.” Athera smiled as she watched the little black and gray kit leap at Cedar’s tail. She had been worried that without Cedar there from the beginning he wouldn’t recognize the kits as his own. Luckily, she needn't have worried.

“Please exercise him,” a voice that made Tarquin glower said. “He won’t let me get close to the babies and your hippogriff freaks me out.”

She had missed Geralt initially, as he was obscured by the shadow of the ship. Beside him was Leather, standing tall and stiff as usual.

“He scares everyone, don’t be a baby,” Tarquin said with the edge of his lip starting to curl. Athera gently nudged his foot with the edge of her boot.

Geralt started toward them. Leather followed--walking exactly behind the pirate and Geralt froze. “You cannot tell me this is normal.”

“He knows to keep an eye on you,” Tarquin said briskly. He clasped his hands together and stepped over to the hippogriff. Leather flicked an ear in acknowledgement and allowed Tarquin to rub his neck affectionately.

“Right.” Geralt gave the pair another disdainful look and sidestepped them.

“Have you found anything?” Athera asked. Best to redirect them before they started fighting again.

“Maybe, a lead at least.” Geralt motioned for her to wait and deftly climbed up onto the deck of the ship and then down below.

“What if we just left--” Tarquin started.

Athera shot him a look.

“I’m just saying, it would be funny. We should try it.” He paused. “Or we could have Leather sit on the hatch.”

The said hatch opened about then and Geralt reemerged with the older pirate that Athera and Tarquin had fought. Elijah, he was called.

The elderly man regarded them for a moment. He had striking gray eyes that seemed to defy color entirely and a face well worn with hardship. He also seemed to be the most level headed of any of the pirates.

“Alright,” Geralt said as he leapt off the deck of the ship. “I think we can all agree that Slyvie’s uncle took her and Nestor, right?” He looked around the clearing eagerly.

“Slow down son,” Elijah broke in. “Don’t count--”

“On tailwinds that haven’t blown. Yes, I know Elijah, but really, what else could it be?” Tarquin scooped up the Zephyr as the kit began to tug at his boot. “Sylvie’s a citizen of Skystead and Nestor knows how to avoid the constables. Besides, we have backup for the more legal channels with those two.” He gestured at Athera and Tarquin.

Elijah gave a grim smile. “Well son, let’s hear it.”

“I’ve been following the uncle--”

“You what?” Elijah cut him off, his face starting to flush red. “Geralt, that is the most idiotic idea you’ve come up with!”

Athera pinched the bridge of her nose while Tarquin gave a short bark of laughter.

Geralt gave them all a withering stare. “Relax. I’m nowhere close enough for him to recognize me, and I’ve had Aurelia helping me.”

“The only person more foolhardy on our crew than you is Aurelia.” Elijah folded his arms. “The last thing I need is for more of our crew to go missing.”

“Wouldn’t that be a shame,” Tarquin muttered. An icy glare from Elijah was enough to shut him up.

“What about us?” Athera spoke up. Almost instantly all eyes turned to her and she felt the familiar brush creeping into her cheeks and the tips of her ears. “We might be able to investigate the man’s connections. We wouldn’t even have to get close.” She thought back to the smashed interior of the automaton shop. Even now, it hadn’t been reopened.

The older pirate gave her a kindly smile, a little too kindly. “When tracking, it’s best to not let that thing know it’s being tracked. Best to focus on that catalyst.”

“Which wouldn’t have been an issue if you hadn’t stolen it in the first place,” Tarquin said loud enough for them to hear.

Elijah gave him a measured look. “Then I’m sure our buyer would have hired someone else and you might be dealing with a less reasonable crew. It is what it is, son.”

Tarquin folded his arms, but didn’t say anything else.

“If this catalyst is really as dangerous as you all say, why are we trying to get it back from the guy that killed Amos? Let’s just find Nestor and get out of Skystead,” Geralt spoke up. “It’ll be safer for us all.”

The clearing fell silent except for the soft chirping of Myrsky and Vindyr batting a fallen leaf between each other.

“You might not be able to outrun it,” Athera said softly, never taking her eyes off the kits. “There’s something…wrong about whatever is going on in that city. The guild is nervous and I am too.”

Elijah nodded. “We need to recapture it for Amos’s memory if nothing else. No one harms this crew without retribution.”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Well that was something, at least.

“Fine. Just report back if you find out the world’s about to end,” Geralt said. “That’s the kind of thing a man wants to know about.”

“Find my brother and I’ll consider it,” Athera said easily.

Geralt grinned and left to disappear below deck after setting Zephyr back down. It was as good of an answer as she could expect out of him.

“He’s an idiot,” Tarquin muttered--barely under his breath.

Athera shrugged as she bent down to pick up Zephyr. The kit was eager to be held, but also had a penchant for chewing on whatever he could get his little beak on. “Tallis likes him.”

“Are you really basing who we can trust based on your griffin’s taste?”

“She likes you too.”

That earned a soft chuckle from Elijah and some pause from Tarquin. “Is that why you started talking to me?” he asked cautiously.

“Yep.” Athera began to run her hands over Zephyr, feeling tiny muscles beneath soft fur and feathers. He was growing well. “That’s also why I didn’t talk to Annise.”

“So I have a griffin to thank for--” Tarquin cut himself up and Athera found herself looking up curiously.

“For what?”

“For…all this.” He rubbed the back of his neck and glanced up at the brilliantly blue sky peeking out from the trees. “We should get headed back to the city.”

She resisted a groan with every fiber of her being. It felt like they had just gotten to the forest and it was already time to return.

“Don’t worry, girl,” Elijah said as she cast another look at her griffins. “I’ll get the babies back below deck. They’re safe here.”

Athera nodded reluctantly. All the griffins and the hippogriff had been kept at the pirate ship for the past couple of days. It was safer for the kits to be away from the menagerie and she and Tarquin had been running low on funds, but it still hurt her heart to leave them so far from where she was staying.

“This one,” Elijah said, staring at Leather. The hippogriff stared back, still too stiff. “Does he…does he need to eat meat?” The hippogriff bent down and yanked out a beakful of grass.

To Athera’s surprise, Tarquin spoke up. “Not as much as the griffins, but yes, he does. We’ll bring some more back this evening.”

“Good,” Elijah said slowly. Leather calmly swallowed his grass while staring into the elderly pirate’s eyes. The pirate shuddered.

“Come on,” Tarquin said, taking Athera by the hand.

She let him, and then they were off into the woods. The early morning chill hadn’t quite evaporated and she shivered against it.

“We might have to buy some winter clothing if we’re here much longer,” Tarquin said, glancing over at her.

Athera forced herself to stop shivering and Tarquin raised an eyebrow. “The city is warmer,” she said.

“The same city that you love spending so much time in?” Tarquin asked. She stuck her tongue out at him.

“I’m just saying, the griffins have fur and feathers, you don’t.”

They continued chatting until they came to the city gates. As usual, the attendant barely glanced at their paperwork before letting them into Skystead. It had gotten even easier ever since they had started working with Alaric. With the new passes he had procured for them, the attendants didn’t even bother asking what their business in Skystead was.

It was noticeably warmer in Skystead. Between the heating elements that ran through the pipes all throughout the city and the bright autumn sun shining down, the air felt cozy. Still bright and crisp, but warm in the way a hearth was in the late winter.

Beside her, Tarquin was tracking the movement of one of the sea traders showing a little boy an assortment of shiny shells from distant lands. He was smiling, an easy relaxed smile that she hadn’t seen from him since before they had begun their adventure.

“You’re starting to like this city,” she said, gently poking him in the ribs.

His smile vanished and he coughed. “It’s still full of pompous idiots with egos too big for their fat heads.”

“And?”

“Awe, come on Athera. The kid’s cute.”

She grinned as they started up the flights to get to the guildhouse. The spiraling levels no longer felt strange to her. In a way she welcomed the rows of plants overhanging the edges of the levels just above and the sprawling skyways. So very different from her village. What would it be like when she returned? If she managed to return, she reminded herself. They still didn’t know where Nestor was and the catalyst was just as far from them as the day they had started.

And yet she felt so much closer than she had.

The guildhouse stood above everything as they arrived, simply too grand to be allowed. At most, it housed around 50 alchemists, hardly enough to justify the three stories and elaborate stained glass windows when none of the alchemists even slept there. There. That was the part of Skystead she couldn’t allow herself to get used to. This city was still foreign, still strange, still hid her brother. They couldn’t afford to get too comfortable.

“Alaric,” a haughty voice called as they stepped across the threshold. “Your protege is here.” she said protege as though it left a bad taste in her mouth.

Right. Another reason to not be too comfortable in Skystead. At least Miriam was good for something.

A tall man wearing his customary suit stretched an arm up from where he was lounging on a couch. “Tarquin, Athera, here early today,” he said welcomingly.

Another alchemist was perched nearby, scribbling something down on a notepad. She barely looked up at their approach. Athera immediately liked her.

“Violet, my dear,” Alaric said. “Surely you can excuse us for a minute.”

The woman looked up from her pad, annoyance flashing in her eyes. “The social event isn’t until this evening, Alaric. I wanted to compare a precipitation method. We’ve done that.”

“Of course,” Alaric said, his cheeks tingeing slightly. “Of course.” He stood rather briskly and beckoned at the group gathered by the front doors to follow him.

“Subtlety is not your strong suit,” Miriam said as they approached her lab room.

“What--”

“I mean, if you would like to court our fetching alchemist, you have to ask her.” Miriam said it as briskly as she did nearly everything, but it still caused Alaric’s jaw to snap shut and Athera to swallow hard to avoid snorting.

Miriam laughed and pushed the door open to the lab. It had gotten a little messier ever since Athera and Tarquin had become regular visitors. They each had a temporary alchemy kit with access to plenty of hard to find components, although Tarquin would rarely use his. The hope was for both of them to become skilled enough that they could test any abnormalities themselves. The closest either had gotten was when Tarquin had somehow melted a bit of limestone into a crystal and Athera had changed the color of her mixture to a brilliant purple.

“Very well,” Alaric said with a deep sigh. “Have you two found anything unusual?”

Athera exchanged an awkward glance with Tarquin. They had spent most of the past day trying to coordinate with the pirates. Not what a man who was staunchly anti pirate wanted to hear.

“We’ve been talking with some people in the lower city,” Tarquin spoke up. His tone was calm, even bored. “We were hoping to narrow down who could have potentially hired the pirates.”

He was an excellent liar.

“I don’t suppose anyone in the lower city was very loose-lipped,” Miriam said with a bit of a scoff.

Tarquin shrugged. “The traders wintering here are eager for a bit of conversation. We think we’ve got an idea of where to look next, but nothing solid yet.”

“It’s something,” Alaric mused, striding over to one of the stained glass windows. “A pity they feel that they have to keep to our lower levels.”

“The…traders?” Athera could help asking.

Alaric nodded absently. “There’s more than enough room in this city to house everyone a bit higher. I think we would all benefit greatly if our lower levels were reserved for industrial work alone. There’s simply too much soot for families.”

“It’s natural for a vertical city,” Miriam said. She had moved over to her own alchemy kit and was busy examining a few powdered components through her goggles. “The flat cities still segregate by class. It’s as natural as the rain.”

Alaric sighed deeply. “Perhaps. I can’t help but see it as a great failing of our dear Ignis.” He cleared his throat. “But politics should be saved for conversations where alcohol is present, no? I believe it’s time for me to uphold my end of our bargain.” He shot a genuine smile at Athera.

Excitement gripped her chest. “You’ve found Nestor?”

“I don’t want to raise your hopes too much, but I believe so.”

“Where is he?” she asked. She gripped Tarquin’s hand tightly, suddenly needing something to anchor her.

Alaric’s smile slipped slightly.

“He’s in prison,” Miriam called from where she was busy with her powders. “Right where you would expect him.”

She didn’t have time to bristle at the comment as she was too busy looking at Alaric hopefully.

“I’m afraid Miriam is right, which…complicates things.”

Athera’s heart plummeted to her stomach and Tarquin gripped her hand tighter. “You’ll still be able to get him out, though, right? There’s a girl he went missing with too, did you find her?”

Alaric frowned, tilting his head. “I haven’t gone in person, so I’m not sure. There’s a certain component of optics involved. I can guarantee his safety, and probably the safety of anyone he was arrested with, but it will take a bit before I can negotiate his release.”

Athera nodded, trying to force her spirits back up. “But he’s safe? Can I see him?”

“He’s perfectly safe,” the alchemist said soothingly. “But prisons aren’t keen on visitors. Give me perhaps another week and I think I can get him out. Maybe half a week,” he mused.

“Alaric,” Miriam called warningly. She had begun melting a series of sulfurous components and was causing the room to smell vaguely like rotten eggs. “We can’t afford shortcuts for this.”

“Yes,” he sighed. “A week then. That should be plenty of time to negotiate house arrest at the least. As far as we can tell, he’s only been charged with trespassing and vandalism--that shouldn’t be too difficult to negotiate with the warden.”

“Alaric hates red tape,” Miriam said with a bit of a smirk. “But rest assured. You keep up your end of the bargain, and we’ll keep ours. And I’ll keep him from getting your brother into deeper trouble.” She smiled at them, and for the first time since Athera had met the woman, it seemed genuine.