WSP 051
A Tense Situation
The Seeker didn’t have many interior rooms, most everything was exposed on the various decks and railings. The reason for this was simple: walls would just add more weight, and it was already hard enough to keep the thing airborne and stable. As such, there wasn’t so much a meeting room as a place where a table was set up and bolted to the railing. The chairs were bolted to the ground too, though at least they came in various shapes and sizes so different races could all sit together.
This came in handy since it was being used to finalize negotiation tactics. Jeh, Blue, Via, Sandy, Triset the green occulari, and Kayz. Kayz was there as a neutral party.
She was also feeling way in over her head. On one side was a secret society that had been guiding the course of Ikyu for millennia, and the other was a nation that had access to sunfire stones. They threatened her without even trying!
“So, that’s my plan,” Sandy said, folding her hands together. “Plan A, at least, I hope you’ll forgive me for not being upfront about Plan B.”
“As long as you keep to Plan A, I think I’m fine with it. Blue?” Via turned to Blue.
Blue furrowed her brow. “You expect Plan A to fail though.”
Sandy chuckled. “Yes. However, even if Plan A fails, our society will be exposed and the secrecy will be no more. That will get you primarily what you want out of this. I can reveal that Plan B involves revealing ourselves to other parties, but since we won’t exactly be allies if Plan A fails it’s best if I don’t mention the specifics.”
Blue sighed. “Yeah, that makes sense. But that means we are going to need some mutual assurances if Plan A does fail.”
“You’re pretty sure it will too, though.”
“I… don’t know.” Blue turned to Via. “You…”
“I don’t know.” Via shook her head. “Wyett and Tenii are very angry… Tenii usually can think her way through something, but Wyett…”
“Assurances are definitely needed,” Triset said. “We have one very important demand.”
“Oh?” Via tilted her head to the side.
Blue pointed at Jeh. “It’ll be about her.”
Jeh blinked. “Uh… I haven’t really been following. What about me?”
Sandy folded her hands together and smiled warmly. “I simply need to ensure you won’t reprogram a cube and conquer the world.”
“Oh, easy, done, I don’t want to cheat, I promise.” She put her hand on her chest. “In Dia’s name, and all that.”
Sandy chuckled. “I actually believe you won’t do it unless a situation becomes desperate. But I do believe the Crown has the capacity to force you to do it. It is paramount that you not be used to create another doomsday weapon.”
Via frowned. “I don’t think Tenii would do that…”
“What if, say, thirty years down the line, her back was pressed into a wall? Or she made a mistake and programmed a cube to be something seemingly harmless that really isn’t? I assure you, these things have happened before. Jenny was the… master of unintended dire consequences.”
“Right, right…”
“Fortunately, the answer is very simple. All of us here just need to swear to secrecy on Jeh knowing how to program the cubes.” She turned to Kayz with a warm, but somehow threatening, smile. “I assume we don’t have to discuss why you want to keep it a secret.”
Kayz adjusted her collar. “Y-yeah. Better for us if Kroan can’t make more doomsday weapons.” Also, either of you could fry Shimvale without too much effort…
Via folded her arms, nodding as she thought it through. “I can keep the secret. I don’t want Jeh being used either. However, I can’t exactly keep that I’m keeping a secret from Tenii and Wyett, they know me too well.”
“You can tell them you have a secret made in negotiation,” Blue said. “That’s not that unusual, right?”
Via nodded. “Yeah… Kroan has its secrets, and I know most of them at this point.” She closed her eyes. “Still, I don’t think they’ll accept it unless I can say for sure it was traded for something. I…” Her eyes flew wide open and a big grin crept across her face. “I’ve got it! I’ve got an idea! I never have good ideas, oh my…” She coughed, regaining her composure. “Miss Gallon, in exchange for keeping this secret and vowing not to use Jeh to reprogram cubes for the Crown’s purpose, I have a request.” She pointed a finger at Sandy. “You allow Jeh to reprogram your cube so a Third Cataclysm cannot be created.”
Triset flared brightly. “Absurd! That is our insurance policy!”
“Triset, calm yourself,” Sandy said. “Remember when I said we wouldn’t be allowed to pick one option and fall back on the other later?”
“Yes…?”
“This is why. I expected they wouldn’t let us run around with our own doomsday weapon.” Sandy looked Via right in the eyes. “I have already made peace with the idea. Princess Via Kroan, you have yourself a deal.”
Blue stared at Sandy dumbfounded. “You agreed to that way too fast.”
“I already knew I was going to agree to it. When I decided to pursue peace instead of resetting everything again, I was fairly certain I was going to have to give it up.” She lifted a hand into the air. “The crystal-shattering cube lies deep in the heart of Vraskal at a location disclosed only to a handful of our members. I will have to retrieve it myself and bring it back. I request a ride in a Skyseed to obtain it.”
“I’ll grant it,” Via said.
“What if Plan A goes out the window?” Blue asked.
Via frowned. “Oh yeah, Tenii probably wouldn’t like that…”
“Willow Hollow is a suitably out-of-the-way place,” Sandy said. “I’m sure you could have one of your personal pilots make a trip to Mikarol for some reason with me as cargo.”
“I think Margaret would be fine with it,” Jeh said. “You did help stop the Rigid Plague, she… will appreciate that.”
“Good.” Sandy turned to Kayz. “Now, let’s make it clear. You are witnessing the exchange between myself and Princess Via Kroan. We have agreed to exchange doomsday weapons, in essence. You are to keep this agreement secret unless it is broken by either side, at which point you will reveal it. This is the assurance put in place to make sure we stick to what we have said.”
Kayz nodded slowly.
“Now, I do have one little curiosity…” Sandy narrowed her eyes and turned to Via. “How concerned do I need to be that you are going to melt the planet with sunfire stones?”
Via shook her head. “Not very. We only have one now.”
Blue coughed. “Wanderlust has more.”
“Oh yeah…”
“How many?” Sandy asked.
“Don’t know,” Blue said. “I do know it takes a lot of effort for her to make one, she has to send out a lot of missions to compress the fire of the sun. I’ve run some calculations in my free time, it has to take several years to make one. Even if she was devoted to it, she can’t have more than a few hundred, and I know she’s not devoted to it and it took a lot of trial and error to figure out.”
“Hmm…” Sandy frowned. “That’s still enough to do quite a bit of damage.”
Via nodded. “I know. There’s going to have to be some kind of policy about them if we get more…”
“There’s also the chance Wanderlust just won’t give us any more,” Blue pointed out. “No one exactly told her they could be used as weapons.”
“...She’s gonna be mad isn’t she…?” Jeh said.
Blue frowned. “Well, we only used it to end the Rigid Plague, which is easily justifiable…”
“Then I shall simply make a request that you be honest with her,” Sandy said, looking at Jeh. “She’s a friend, isn’t she? Tell her what’s going on, and all your concerns and thoughts about the situation with the sunfire stones.” Sandy smirked. “If I had to guess her response, it would be to only give them out for specific purposes after that. Also, tell her I said hi.”
Jeh nodded. “Will do!”
~~~
“...and that’s the plan,” Tenrayce said, her hands gripping the edge of the table in Memory’s chamber extremely tightly.
Wyett sighed. “Good enough, I suppose…”
“I’m still reeling that she wants to talk peace,” Hyrii said, holding Wyett’s hand. “That… doesn’t make any sense to me. Why?”
“It could be a lie.”
“Something tells me it isn’t,” Riikaz said. “I doubt she knows we have her people in our custody. Or that we have the records of her society.” She crossed her arms. “Though it may not be of as much use if she’s coming out of the shadows like this…”
Tenrayce’s grip on the table tightened. “I don’t think it’s a lie. She wouldn’t reveal herself like this unless she felt like she had to. I’m still not sure why she thinks she has to. I can’t find the motive. Even if she does somehow know about what you did, two people and some records aren’t worth changing everything. I don’t know what she’s going to bring to the negotiating table.”
“Via in exchange for peace?” Hyrii offered.
“Call it a hunch…” the Memory began. “But I do not think she views this as an exchange of hostages, as we do given our situation. She views this as a show of goodwill.”
Wyett ground his jaw. “Goodwill my foot.”
Riikaz nodded. “To turn from assassination to… peace negotiations.” She shook her head. “Something happened out there in the Shinelands. Something important.”
“No doubt. But we cannot know what that is until the moment we confront her. Benefactor can only receive the message, she does not know how to transmit it.”
“We need to walk very carefully…” Tenrayce said, finally releasing her grip on the table. She had left some dents in it.
“Tenii…” Riikaz expression softened. “You…”
“No, Mom, I’m not okay.”
Riikaz blinked in shock. It had been a while since she’d heard that biting tone from her daughter. “Tenii, you don’t have to be.”
“Yes I do, though, don’t you get it? Dad’s dead, you left on a quest for revenge, and Wyett’s a broken husk! I’m the one running this place!”
“I’m back now, and… I am sorry. While it worked out, I should not have set out on that quest of revenge.”
“...If only I could trust you to rule now. But you already went galavanting off on that quest…” Tenrayce shook her head. “Mom… I’m sorry but…”
“Hey, we’ll work through this.”
“Will we?” Tenrayce sighed. “Or will it all blow up in our faces, ruining everything, leaving nothing behind?”
“The Lineage of Kroan has survived this long,” Memory said. “And through many dire straits.”
“...I suppose you’re right. Until your purpose is fulfilled… the Lineage is likely to remain.” Tenrayce locked her hands behind her and turned her back on everyone. “But… I was thinking more about… this family.” She looked down at the ground. “We’re breaking, Mom. And we can’t get a moment to catch our breath.”
“Tenii…”
“And it’s all this stupid Sandy’s fault and now she wants peace and all I want to do is crush her stupid head like a melon.” Tenrayce let out a sharp, tense breath. “But I can’t do that, she has Via, and getting her to talk about her society will be very useful. I have to put revenge aside.”
Riikaz looked at the ground, ashamed.
“...Riikaz does too, Tenii,” Hyrii said.
“Well she doesn’t seem that unhappy about it.” Tenrayce turned back around. “She got to go on a journey of self-discovery while the rest of us rotted here.” With a sigh, she sat back down in her chair. “Mom, I… I am really, really mad at you.”
Riikaz nodded. “...Then we’ll work through it. From here on out, I’ll remain by your side.” She turned to Wyett. “Yours too, my son. I will stay until you come out of the mire you are stuck in.”
A hint of a smile crawled up Wyett’s face, but he said nothing. The room fell silent.
“We should finish our preparations,” Tenrayce eventually said. “We know where we’re going. Wyett, you and Hyrii are staying here. Hyrii, I’ve left you the list of all the ongoing situations that might need dealing with.”
Hyrii saluted. “You can count on me!”
“Mom… you and I are going out there to face her.”
Riikaz took in a deep breath. “Let’s see if we can avoid strangling her…”
“That’s why we’re both going. So we can stop each other.”
As they finalized their plans, the Old Queen Ursilii watched them from her chair in the back.
I can already see it falling apart. Via… I truly have placed it all on you. Have you done well out there? Is this attempt at peace your doing? I hope so… I hope so.
But I do wonder… how are you able to show kindness to those who murdered your father?
~~~
“This is unbelievable,” Itlea said to no one in particular as she paced in circles around the Seeker. “This can’t be happening. None of this makes any sense!”
“Can you give it a break already?” Kayz asked. She was sitting on a nearby crate with her cheek pressed into one of her hands.
“Give what a break?”
“Your delusions.”
“I am not delusional!”
“Wow.” Kayz blinked and sighed. “It’s amazing how much of myself I see in you.”
Itlea glared at her with a deep fury. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Convinced of my own greatness. Thinking the world owed me everything. That I was the center of it all. The difference between you and me is that a massive explosion taking out one of the greatest threats this world has ever seen was enough to make me realize how small and stupid I was.”
“I am not small and stupid!”
Kayz raised an eyebrow.
“I won’t be stopped from speaking the truth just because of some dumb thing like comedic timing.”
“...I’ve known a lot of stubborn fools in my time…”
Itlea ground her jaw hard enough that Kayz heard it. “One of these days, I will prove all of you wrong. All of you. Everyone will know the name of Itlea!”
“Oh, you’re doing a well enough job of that.”
Itlea growled. “You know what I meant, Shimmer.”
Kayz sighed, hanging her head. “In a way, I envy you.”
“...What?”
“I don’t like feeling small. At least you’ve avoided that.”
Itlea blinked. She decided she was done talking and walked off to find another area on the ship to rant and pace.
Kayz hardly had five seconds to herself when she heard the sound of someone sitting down next to her. She looked up… shocked to see the form of Via sitting there.
Via was giving her a look of… legitimate concern.
“...What do you want?” Kayz asked.
“I heard you say you were feeling small.”
“None of your business.”
“Maybe. But I’ve felt small too.” Via looked out into the distance. “I’m the youngest sibling. It’s been clear ever since I was young that my brother and sister were… far better at all this than I was. They got to sign treaties, face evil, plan great projects… and I was just there, smiling and waving. When I was younger I felt inferior.”
“Why are you telling me your sob story?”
“Because I think you need it.” Via gave Kayz a sad smile. “I preferred being small.”
Kayz took a moment to take this in. Then she laughed. “And I preferred being delusional, thinking that I was big and important. That’s where Itlea currently is.”
“That… hmm.” Via put her hand to her chin, frowning. “That sounds wrong, somehow. Like… you shouldn’t want to be delusional?”
“...Why not?”
“Um. Well… Truth is good, and knowing it is better?”
Kayz snorted. “I can’t believe I’m still surprised by your idiocy.”
Via chuckled, kicking her legs back and forth over the edge of the box. “You’ll get used to it if you hang around me more.”
“Why would that ever happen? I’m your enemy, Via. You don’t seem to realize that. Heck, you don’t seem to realize what Sandy is.”
“I know full well what both of you have done to us. Your kankathi tormented Blue. Sandy killed my…” Via choked on that one, taking a moment to breathe. “But… things would be better if we could just… stop. People could stop being tormented. People could stop dying. …I don’t want to take anyone’s… anything from them.”
“...You won’t make a good ruler like that.”
“I know. Grandma tells me I have to make the hard decisions. But… it would still be better if things didn’t have to be that way. So… so I’m trying. I’m trying for peace. Which is why I’m here, talking to you.”
“I tried to kill you, you know.”
“Yep! But we still had to work together to get out of that mess! That’s worth something, right?”
Kayz looked down at the ground. “...Why are you so… unlike the other royals?”
“Because I’m stupid, I think.”
“Oh, there have been plenty of stupid and cruel rulers.”
“Um. Well. In that case, I don’t know.”
“Not much help in figuring things out, are you?”
“Nope! Answers are always pretty far from my head, I just stumble through things and try my best.”
Kayz was silent for a moment. “...I think I know why you are the way you are.”
“Huh? Well, uh, I was here to help you but… I’m interested!”
“You were lucky enough to be born in peace to a stable family that was trying desperately not to fall into the mistakes of the previous generation. You were loved and cared for but were not allowed to become proud because your lack of intelligence was obvious to everyone. So unlike virtually every other one of your kind… you don’t think yourself that important.”
“Huh? No one’s supposed to think themselves important, that’s one of the main parts of the Aware creed.”
Kayz smirked. “Do you have any idea how few of you Aware actually listen to that?”
“Well. Uh…” Via hung her head. “...Yeah. Even I can see that.”
Kayz looked down at her hands. “We have a creed too. A creed of magic itself. We are called to be one with the world, one with nature… Cora is a goddess of nature and knowledge. We are to exist in balance, and to grow. To see the beauty in the world…”
“That sounds really nice, actually.”
“To accept one’s place in everything…”
“Yeah, that… Kayz? Kayz are you…?”
A tear ran down Kayz cheek. “...What have I been doing…?”
“Hey, hey, you’ve been a leader…”
“Yeah. A hypocritical one. And you say you’re the stupid one.”
Via pulled her into a hug.
“Wh-hey! What in…”
“You’re not stupid. You were able to tell me things about myself I didn’t even know.”
“I… it just… I hate…”
“You don’t have much hate in you right now.”
Kayz had no response to this. Nor to much else for quite some time afterward.
~~~
The meeting place was the road just outside Axiom. It was a cobbled road, well maintained and well traveled, but at this time it was completely abandoned. The Crown had made sure of it.
Kayz walked alone to the location first, carrying a collapsible table and chair on her back. A lot of complicated, confusing thoughts were swirling around her head; mixtures of hate and sorrow, confusion and defiance. She didn’t know what she was going to do with herself in the future, everything was a torrential whirlwind.
But one thing was certain—she was a member of the Shimvale Council. And she had a purpose here. To be a neutral observer. No matter what was going on in her head, she had a job, and she didn’t get to her position of political power without the skills required to keep working in the midst of turmoil.
She set the table up and the chair. None of the others would be sitting down for this, but she intended to.
She took out her violin. For a moment, there was a consideration. A consideration to use it to destroy everything, to betray the trust she had been given in this moment as a neutral observer, to cause chaos and lash out at anyone and everyone.
She sighed. She put the bow to the strings and played a song with no spell associated with it—the signal that it was time to begin.
She looked up into the sky. On one side, there was a massive Kroanite balloon whale. On the other, the airship Seeker. The sun was high in the sky, glinting off the crystalline facets of the airship’s mechanisms and the film of the whale’s mustache. Immediately, both of them started lowering their delegation.
Kayz folded her arms and tried to remain calm. She didn’t, but outwardly she looked pretty close.
From the Kroanite side came Riikaz and Tenrayce. They had no need for a guard, Riikaz herself was more than sufficient for such a task. The Princess notably didn’t have a book with her. Behind them were two… prisoners? A short green creature and a sleeping human girl on a floating Orange-powered platform. Both of them were tied up; the green one was gagged. Kayz didn’t have any clue who they were or why they were here, this wasn’t part of Sandy’s plan at all. This was going to heavily complicate things.
From the airship came Sandy, Triset, Blue, Jeh, and Via. Via was completely free, not tied up at all, and even had a smile on her face. There was no sign of hostility from their side, though there was evident concern on everyone’s faces. Even Sandy.
She is a master of secrecy and subversion… she doesn’t have to show her emotions, and yet she does.
Riikaz and Sandy strode to the front of their respective groups, looking right into each other’s eyes. Riikaz had a glare of barely restrained fury, while Sandy’s was… one of concern.
“Hi, Mom!” Via said with a wave. “Glad to see you’re back! Sorry, hug’s going to have to wait, I’m staying over here until this is resolved.”
Riikaz gave her daughter a smile. “I understand. It’s… good to see you in such high spirits. Did… anything happen to you?”
“It was pretty rough, but that was the Rigid Plague. Sandy here saved us. And Jeh too, the little hero.” She patted Jeh on the head.
Riikaz nodded, her expression hardening. “It appears I owe you my thanks, Miss Sandy Whiskers Gallon.”
“Queen Riikaz Kroan,” Sandy said, bowing to her. “Last I knew, you had vanished in Vraskal.”
“Was looking for an opportunity,” Riikaz said, dryly.
“I’m surprised you managed to find one.”
“Had a little help from a magic potion.”
Sandy’s eyes widened. “Aaaaah…”
“And no, I don’t know who gave it to me.”
“That is how it usually goes, it seems.” Sandy locked her hands behind her back. “At least you’ve treated my people well. I take it Winerik is sedated?”
Riikaz glanced at the girl. “If that’s her name, yes.”
“Understandable. I won’t hold it against you.”
“I’ve got a lot of things to hold against you.”
“Also understandable.”
“But you want peace, Miss Gallon.”
Sandy nodded. “I do. Are you aware of my organization’s purpose?”
“I’m pretty sure I have a good idea, but I want to hear it from your mouth first.”
“Very well.” Sandy cleared her throat. “We have witnessed firsthand the destructive power that the spirited can unlock through various means of studying magic. The most obvious of these are the black cubes, but there are other methods that can be used to cause widespread destruction, intentionally or not. I do not exaggerate in the slightest when I say the destruction of all life on Ikyu is within the realm of possibility. Our goal is simply to prevent this from ever occurring by securing all black cubes and ending all individuals and societies that would have the capacity to make use of such things. The most important part of our work was ensuring that as few people as possible knew such doomsday weapons were even feasible by any means necessary. As you can tell by the fact that I am standing before you today, we are currently reevaluating this standpoint.”
“And there’s my biggest question. Why?”
“We have seen two doomsday weapons that had nothing to do with magic at all, revealing that we are unable to tell where the threats might come from. The Rigid Plague sought to devour the world, and there was not a hint of magic in anything it did.”
Riikaz tensed. “...How is that even possible?”
“Furthermore, the use of the sunfire stone reveals that the non-magical power of the sun itself is also sufficient to be a threat.” Sandy folded her hands together. “To put it simply, we could never have predicted either of these sources. Thus, world-ending weapons and artifacts could be around any corner. To make matters worse, our efforts to keep things secret may have made it easier for the Rigid Plague to rise to power.” Sandy shook her head. “I cannot deny the blatant fact that our efforts are insufficient to the task.”
“So what, you want help monitoring Ikyu and controlling it?” Riikaz scoffed.
“No. The conclusion I’ve come to is a bit more out there.” She turned to her left and pointed at the crescent moon. “Nothing we have ever seen could destroy both Ikyu… and the moon. So our new plan is a simple one. If we can’t keep Ikyu safe, we make it so that it doesn’t have to be safe to ensure the continuation of life. Your little space program has my solution. We just need to keep Ikyu alive long enough to spread to other places.”
Riikaz stared at her in silence.
“Therefore, I seek peace, peace to encourage the development of spaceflight technology and space infrastructure. I have access to lost technology from before the Second Cataclysm that may be of some use to you. Primarily, communication devices, and the knowledge of how to make them, as well as some metal alloying techniques. We did not keep… advanced records of most things, so the more incredible technologies are still lost, but we still have much to offer. Furthermore, we have access to a wide variety of physical resources ranging from rare metals to unusual biological compounds. In essence, we are offering vast quantities of knowledge in exchange for peace and hope in the future.”
Riikaz narrowed her eyes. “And what assurance do I have that this is not a ploy?”
Tenrayce tensed. “You can’t be considering…”
Riikaz held up a hand to silence Tenrayce.
Sandy leaned forward. “The fact that I am revealing myself and my organization should be reason enough, but I have further assurances. One, I am willing to let you hold onto my people, though I will ask that you unsedate Winerik so she can actually have a life. This is largely because I don’t think you will torment them. Two, Via will vouch for my intentions.”
Riikaz turned to Via, expression unreadable.
Via took in a sharp breath. “Sandy is a bad person, she believes the ends justify the means. But so do you, and so does Tenii. I’m the one who doesn’t. Sandy’s willing to kill and destroy and control everything and… yeah this isn’t a very good vouching, is it?” Via coughed. “But she’s honest, and she cares. She has a big heart, and she only does what she does because she believes it necessary.”
Kayz lifted a hand. “If I may add something as a neutral observer…”
Riikaz and Sandy nodded.
“Sandy was also giddy like a child to get to play the hero against the Rigid Plague.”
“She really enjoyed herself,” Jeh said. Blue glared at her. “Hey, I know I wasn’t supposed to talk unless asked, but… she was having a ton of fun. And… I saw who she used to be. She was friends with Jenny, and they were trying to be heroes.”
Riikaz looked Sandy up and down. “...You must certainly be something to get people to speak on your behalf despite your actions.”
Sandy nodded slowly. “It… is a skill of mine, yes.”
Tenrayce stepped in. “Blue, you aren’t likely to be blinded by a good attitude. What do you think of her?”
Blue looked at Sandy. “She’s a lying weasel who has decided she’s the only one who knows how to take care of the world. She’s wrong and delusional in basically every sense I can think of. But she’s not stupid, and she’s deathly afraid of the future. Her offer, best I can tell, is honest, but she’s also a schemer. There’s more angles involved than she’ll ever tell.”
“I will not deny that,” Sandy said. “I have backup plans in case this meeting goes south. I have not told anyone here what they are, but they are aware they exist.”
Riikaz nodded slowly. Silence fell over the table as Riikaz stared intently at Sandy.
“...Your offer is extremely lucrative,” Riikaz admitted. “Further progress and the constant fear of you trying to take us out with subterfuge removed. However, there is one problem.”
“Oh? I am willing to negotiate.”
“Justice has not been met.” Riikaz slammed her hands on the table and leaned in. “My husband is dead. This crime must be answered for.”
Sandy gestured at Winerik. “You have managed to take out our primary base of operations, and no doubt have taken a few of our operatives. Furthermore, we are giving up our secrecy. Is that not enough?”
“No,” Riikaz said.
“Mom…” Via said. “I thought you said…”
“This isn’t about revenge,” Riikaz said. “This is about justice.”
“But… what about forgiveness?”
Riikaz grimaced. “...Your father would have done that. Yes. But… look at where we are now.” Riikaz stared deeply into Sandy’s eyes. “A price must be paid.”
“A price of blood?” Sandy asked.
“...No. I see that would just be needless escalation. You are right, we have already dealt a blow to you, asking for your life would make it uneven. Before I make my request, I have a question. Who was it that ordered the death of my King?”
“That order came directly from me,” Sandy said. “There were others part of the planning, but I was the final ‘signature’ on the order, even though we don’t keep those kinds of documents.”
Riikaz smirked. “Then the solution is simple. I request a duel.”
Via gasped.
Sandy took in a sharp breath. “I have to refuse.”
“Why?”
“Ask your daughter.”
Via shook her head. “Mom, don’t do it…”
Riikaz frowned. “You doubt me…?”
“She has the power to cause the Second Cataclysm within herself. You… you wouldn’t be able to do anything.”
Riikaz frowned. “Surely…”
“She could kill everyone at this table with a thought except Jeh,” Blue asserted, dryly. “And Jeh couldn’t win.”
Jeh shook her head. “Yeah, she used the power to save us, and it wasn’t even anywhere close to all of it.”
Riikaz shook her head. “...I have requested the duel, I will accept the loss with honor.”
“Mom!” Via squealed. “You can’t!”
“Don’t worry, I’m refusing,” Sandy said. “If I were responsible for the death of Queen Riikaz, peace would never occur and this negotiation would fall apart. And if I spared her it would be a slight against her honor as a warrior.”
Riikaz folded her arms. “You’ve studied my culture.”
“You were one of my primary enemies. This does not have to stand.”
“A price must still be paid, justice is necessary. If not a duel… I will accept your imprisonment.”
“Ah… a far more reasonable request.” Sandy shook her head. “Shame I can’t do that either.”
“Why not?”
“There is a very simple reason. Blue said it earlier. I am the only one who knows how to take care of the world.” She snapped her fingers.
She and Triset vanished.
Kayz sighed. “I guess that means negotiations have broken down…”
Riikaz slammed her fist into the table, smashing it in half.
Tenrayce pointed at the Seeker. “Let’s capture their ship!”
“It’s not their ship,” Riikaz muttered. “They paid for it.”
“Then we need to organize a search and…”
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“You need to let her go,” Via said.
Tenrayce looked at her in disbelief.
“I already made a deal with her. In exchange for keeping a few secrets, she is going to disable her ability to cause a Third Cataclysm. I can’t tell you how it will be done, but I can say she can’t do it if you capture her.” Via clenched her hands into fists and set her jaw. “And I will not go back on my word.”
Riikaz’ eye twitched. “Via… you can’t…”
Tenrayce turned her back on the situation, sighing. “Mom… I hate to admit it, but that’s probably a fair trade. A secret… for assurance that she won’t end the world. My only question is if you’re sure this will disable their capacity.”
“Yes,” Blue said. “I can confirm, it will.”
Tenrayce didn’t look at Blue or her sister. “...Then we are done here. It looks like she elected to leave us our prisoners in some vain attempt to earn our trust despite this all.” She paused. “She will never get it.”
“Tenii…” Via began.
“Via, your actions are strangely logical. Usually, I’m the one who puts aside emotions and morals for the thought-out course of action. But now it’s you putting aside your grief, while I cannot stand what’s happened.” She started walking off.
“Tenii!” Via ran after her. “Tenii, I don’t want this to… come back!”
Riikaz put her hand to her forehead and sighed. “What a mess…”
“You should have taken her up on it,” Kayz said.
“You have no right to speak.”
Kayz stood up. “The negotiation is over, I have every right. Things will be harder for you, now.”
“You’re chiding me? You, who has a vendetta against royalty that runs so deep you send brainwashed spies?”
Kayz didn’t seem surprised that she knew about that. “A vendetta against royalty…” she looked to the receding form of Via… and smiled. “Turns out, it’s just against a particular sort.” She stood up, packed away her violin, and walked off to the north.
Riikaz closed her eyes and shook her head. “Blue… Jeh… thank you. This must have been hard on you.”
Blue bowed. “It… was an honor?”
“I’ll be sure to get you two back to Willow Hollow. Soon. But not now. Now…” She turned around and started walking toward her daughters. “There are some… things I need to deal with.”
Blue and Jeh were now the only ones remaining at the broken table.
“...I was hoping everyone was wrong about the way it would go,” Jeh said. “I thought…”
“Too much blood has already been spilled,” Blue said. “Sandy knew that, but she thought it was worth a try anyway.”
“What do you think she’s gonna do now?”
“...Find some other way to get people off Ikyu. Maybe she’ll start her own space program, I don’t know.” Blue sighed. “I hope Tenii and Via can move past this.”
Jeh didn’t know what to say to that.
~~~
Blue didn’t get to see Tenrayce or Via again before they were flying off to Willow Hollow. Originally Blue had suspected they would take a Skyseed, but no, the Seeker was carrying them there. Evidentially the captain had been antsy to get moving, though Blue still wasn’t entirely sure why.
Not that the motives of the captain were of particular interest to Blue.
She couldn’t stop thinking about Tenrayce and Via.
They’re sisters. They’ll make up… right? They’re very close…
“Blue?” Jeh asked.
Blue looked up from the bamboo “ground” she was staring at. “Eh?”
“You seem… lost.”
“I am.” Blue shook her head. “But there’s nothing I can do about it now. And… I should be happy, excited even! We’re going home, Jeh, and we just survived quite an intense ordeal. We…” Blue blinked. “Holy eights, Jeh, I think we saved the world.”
“Yeah! That Rigid Plague is down! Whoop!”
One of the airship’s other passengers, none other than Envila, spoke up. “It is certainly a monumental achievement.”
“It just hit me,” Blue said, shaking her head. “I felt like we were being dragged along the whole time, but it really is true that if we weren’t there things would have gone very differently… Jeh uncovered the secrets of the Rigid Plague, unlocked her own capacity, and…” Blue chuckled. “And I was just kind of there.”
Jeh chuckled. “Hey, if you hadn’t been there I wouldn’t have done everything I did!”
“So I’m your sidekick now, is that it?”
Jeh clapped her hands. “Sidekick! Yeah! Jeh, legendary hero, and Blue, the paperwork manager!”
“It’s… strange,” Blue said, turning to Envila. “Many times over this… whole thing, people have praised me for my genius and my influence. I can’t say they’re wrong, but it all rings kind of… hollow. I was there, I was important, but I wasn’t really the hero. I was a chip on the board.”
Envila smiled warmly. “It sounds like you’ve gained some humility.”
“I guess. Doesn’t feel like much of anything.”
“Humility rarely does. It’s a rather subdued virtue.” Envila closed her eyes. “Those of us in the limelight of the world who get involved with the motions of society and their grand adventures… it is a constant danger to become full of ourselves. From what I hear, this was Jenny’s main failing.”
Jeh nodded. “She did seem to be rather full of herself.”
“Speaking of Jenny… are you going to keep the hair?”
Jeh put her hand to her hair, running it through the pale teal strands. “...I’m still not entirely sure why I thought I had to change it. It’s just hair. It’s not like it makes me horrible or anything. It sure felt like it, but… not anymore? I don’t know, it doesn’t seem to be very… scientific.”
“The spirited soul rarely is,” Envila offered.
Jeh shrugged. “Anyway, making it brown just sounds like a hassle now.”
“...What about the gloves?” Blue asked.
“Hmm…” Jenny curled one of her hands into a fist and punched her other hand, disintegrating it into dust. It regrew with a red glove on it. She removed the red glove and examined it. “...No, I don’t think so. It… doesn’t really feel like me, you know?”
“May I see that?” Envila asked.
“Sure.” Jeh handed the glove over.
“...What fine craftsmanship…” Envila ran her fingers over the seams in the glove. “Brilliant red. This isn’t leather, but that’s the closest material I know of… far stronger than leather, too.”
Jeh blinked. “I can make an infinite amount of this stuff, Blue. Can we use it in space somehow?”
Blue chuckled. “Already thinking about space again?”
“Well, yeah! That’s what we’re going back to do, right?”
Blue nodded. “It is… but I can’t think of a real use for an endless amount of super-leather. Yet. I’m sure I’ll think of something eventually.” She turned to Envila. “So… enough about us, how about you?”
“I’m conflicted, to put it mildly,” Envila said. “Inner turmoil is the order of the day.”
Blue tilted her head. “You seem so… well put together, though.”
“I’ve simply been in this state a few times before. Enough to know that it is good to talk about.” Envila gained a distant look in her eyes. “I killed a man out there, intentionally, and by my own hands. At the time I thought it was necessary, but it was later revealed to be pointless, and now the ‘enemy’ is seeking peace. And yet, we obtained good information, and it seems as though Dia was watching us to ensure we did not fall into the enemy’s trap.” She looked up to the sky, eyes settling on the crescent moon. “I do not know if I did Dia’s will or not. I may have misjudged.”
“...None of us can be sure,” Blue said.
“I am aware, though… your words ring of experience.”
“You were there with Jeh when she came back. I was shown how little I knew there.”
Envila nodded. “Don’t think you know your own ignorance, even now. It will be shown to you again and again.” Envila smiled awkwardly. “Just look at me, I thought I could know, and I have been shown I did not. Whether or not my decision was right, my belief that I could know was certainly incorrect. Either way, I have to accept what has been done and what is… as with all things in life for all people.”
Jeh put a hand on Envila’s back. “It’ll be fine, you’re, like, one of the coolest and wisest people I know.”
Envila smirked. “Oh? What about Blue? Vaughan?”
“...I’d call Blue smart, not wise.”
Blue blinked. “Well, you’re not smart or wise.”
Jeh grinned. “You got me!”
Envila chuckled.
At this point, the captain ran up to them and started talking rapidly.
Envila tilted her head. “She said we’re approaching Willow Hollow.”
“Man, this thing moves fast…” Blue shook her head. “Wait. Wait. You can understand her?”
“She’s speaking Vraskalian with a thick accent, but yes.” Envila blinked. “Wait, you didn’t expect to be able to talk to her?”
“No! Sandy was the only one who ever talked to her!”
Envila chuckled, turning to the captain and saying something in Vraskalian.
The captain gasped and launched into a long-winded and stumbly spew of words.
Envila blinked. “She… is trying to communicate a lot of details about her ship and how it operates, but it’s beyond me to parse at the speed she’s saying it. However, she is saying she wants to see your ships.”
Blue nodded. “Tell her she can see the Moonshot II all she wants, it’s right there.”
The captain squealed when this information was relayed to her. She started jumping around everywhere.
Envila smirked. “Such young joy… her name’s Auburn, by the way.”
“Auburn…” Jeh said. “...I wonder why she didn’t try to tell us that before.”
“Because she’s captain first and foremost.”
Blue stood up. “Well, better be prepared to go down there… Envila, could you stick around for a bit? I think you’re the only one who can speak Vraskalian.”
Envila nodded. “Your Moonshot II is fully functional and ready, and I believe Jeh wanted to take me to space one day. I’ll stay for a while. Besides, what else would I do, start my journey again? If I really wanted to go all the way around I’d just ask Jeh to carry me back to Vraskal in a Skyseed, and that’s almost all the way to Descent anyway. The patch of wilderness between the two is the only part I haven’t crossed.” She looked far into the distance. “After all, traveling around the world was just a general goal, I never really needed to do it.”
Jeh gasped. “You’re staying?”
“For a bit. After all, you’ve got space to show me, right?’
“Yes! Yes! Yes! Oh, you’re going to love the moon…”
~~~
“Vaughan!” Jeh shouted, jumping off the Seeker’s ladder and onto the Red Wizard, hugging him tightly. Vaughan not only managed not to fall over, but also spun her around him in a circle, prompting her to giggle madly.
“I’m so glad to be back!”
“I’m glad you are back!” Vaughan said. He set Jeh down and turned to Blue. “And… you too.”
“He was worried,” Suro said. “We all were.” He flicked his tail back, gesturing at everyone who had gathered. Lila. Seksii. Mary. Big G. Krays. Alexandrite. Margaret. Keller. Scurfpea. Rissy and Rona. The various wizards from the lab. Several of Lila and Suro’s kids.
Tears started welling up in Blue’s eyes. “This… I… I missed all of you.”
Seskii shoved Vaughan forward. “Hey, she needs a hug, give it to her, you old grump.”
Vaughan blinked. “Um… how, exactly?”
“You just hug her!” Jeh said, waving her arms in exasperation. “Like this!” She wrapped her arms around Blue’s neck and shoulders.
“I’m a lot taller than you. Her horn would impale me.”
Jeh blinked. “Uh. Hmm. Right. Yes. Er. Well…”
Blue shook her head, removing herself from Jeh. “I’ve never been one for big hugs and stuff. But…” She held out her hoof to Vaughan and pressed it on his chest. “It… really is good to be back.”
Vaughan tilted Blue’s pointed hat back slightly and patted her on the head. “I missed you, my apprentice.”
Blue chuckled. “You don’t call me that often.”
“Sometimes I forget it.”
Blue nodded. “I do too.” She took a step back and looked at everyone. “Well… a lot of stuff’s happened, but most of it’s probably top secret soooo… Keller, I’ll talk to you first about it.”
Keller tipped up his hat. “Understood, and reasonable.”
“Yep. Though… I think I want some real rest first. …Though I don’t get to have that yet, I suppose I have to explain the giant airship.” Blue sighed. “This is Auburn, Captain of the Seeker. She wants to see our Moonshot II. In exchange she’s letting us look at her airship.”
Auburn gave everyone a thumbs up and an excited shout with strange words.
Blue glanced at Envila. “Uh…?”
Envila shrugged. “She was saying that in her native tongue, I have no idea what she said.”
“This is gonna be fun… Anyway, to the lab?”
“How about you let Suro and I handle that?” Lila asked. “We can show Auburn our facilities, you can go back to the cabin and rest. You’ve been through an ordeal.”
“Yeah… that sounds good.”
“Plus, we have a surprise house guest!” Vaughan said, grinning. “A blast from the past, you could say!”
“Oh?”
“Come on, she’ll be thrilled to see you.”
~~~
Vaughan, Blue, Jeh, and the Sourdough twins headed to the Cabin. The twins were there simply so they could talk to Jeh.
“So you have magic punches now?” they said in unison.
“Yeah!” Jeh punched the air, sending out pink sparks. “It’s awesome.”
“Absolutely fascinating…” Vaughan said, stroking his beard. “I can’t even begin to fathom how that works…”
“You couldn’t fathom how my regeneration or the cubes worked either,” Jeh said. “Actually, you don’t even know why crystals work, Gronge figured out the whole field thing.”
“I can’t wait to hear the full story on everything you’ve uncovered.”
Jeh nodded. “A lot of it wasn’t very fun… but a lot of it was cool! And awesome! And… some of it was pretty sad.” She frowned. “I have mixed feelings. I flip between aww yeah we saved the world and there’s a lot of dead rigids and that Uriah was pretty nasty and…” She shrugged.
“It was a bit much,” Blue admitted. “We found out a lot about the secret…” Blue suddenly stopped talking and glanced at the twins.
“It’s not like we don’t already know about the secret people,” one of them said.
The other nodded. “The Tempest was…” she glanced at her sister in concern. “...Fun?”
“...At times.”
“I know, I just don’t know if I should tell you,” Blue said.
“Well, we want to know,” one offered.
The other grinned. “They’re the ones currently closest to ruling the world it seems, gotta take notes, y’know?”
Blue rolled her eyes. “Suuuure… but yeah, they were there.”
“You can tell me about it when you tell the whole story,” Vaughan said. “Should have Keller there too, like you said. And Seskii.”
“I’m here!” Seskii said.
“AUGH!” Vaughan flailed back from her. “Don’t… do that!”
Seskii grinned. “We both know you have fun too.”
“One of these days I’m going to have a heart attack!”
“No you won’t.”
“You say that like you’re so sure…”
Seskii winked at him. “Maybe I am!”
Vaughan adjusted his hat and grumbled to himself, but Blue caught him smiling. Crazy old man.
Wait… old?
Blue got a closer look at Vaughan. There was… more gray in his beard now. It wasn’t a ton, but it was easy to see streaks of silver among the rest of his black hair. He was also moving a little slower than when Blue had first met him, and there were wrinkles in his face.
He’s becoming the wise old wizard he always wanted to be. …Though, maybe he already was. Left the Academy, found solace in a quiet town… Blue glanced at the trees all around them while the others chatted each other up. She allowed their voices to fall into the background as she simply took in the quiet simplicity of nature.
It… might be better to have a simple life. No world-changing events, just… Blue chuckled to herself. I can’t believe it, I actually miss being a courier a little bit.
“Life’s interesting, huh?”
Blue didn’t jump at Seskii like Vaughan had. “Yeah… it is.”
Seskii put her hands behind her head and grinned. “Now, while you’re thinking about it… you can look back and see how much you’ve grown.”
I could never have been satisfied as a courier before. But now… I think I could, even though it’s not what’s going on. Blue chuckled. “Yeah, a lot has changed.” Blue looked to Jeh, who was currently running around everyone with the twins, all three of them giggling like mad. “...I think I just realized, I was alone before.”
“And now you’re surrounded by people who would go with you to the end.”
Blue looked Seskii right in the eyes. “You really mean that, don’t you?”
Seskii nodded. “Jeh did a lot for you out there, didn’t she?”
“Yeah… …Seskii, I think I owe you an apology.”
“Oh?”
“I was… very rude to you for a long time at the start of all this. Even if I didn’t trust you, I didn’t have to be that way.”
Seskii laughed a delighted laugh. “Apology accepted! And you’re right, you were rather rude. But I didn’t exactly make the best impression you know. Came off as a charlatan!”
“But you aren’t, are you?”
Seskii shook her head. “Not at all.”
Blue looked ahead, frowning. “...Why us?”
“Ooooh, someone’s figured something out and knows how to use subtext.”
Blue rolled her eyes. “Avoiding the question are we?”
Seskii laughed, but the laugh slowly died away until a frown crossed her face. “...Maybe.”
“It’s all right, I… think I get it.” There’s some reason you can’t tell me.
“There’s a lot of things I can’t tell you.”
Blue stared at Seskii in shock.
Seskii winked. “But I can tell you this. I am one of your friends, and I am watching over you.” She patted Blue on the head. “Always.”
“...Did I thank you for coming with me that day I hid in the box?”
“Don’t remember, but you’re welcome.”
“You…” Blue shook her head. “Nevermind. I don’t need to know.” She chuckled.
“...I hope, one day, you get to,” Seskii said.
“Thanks.”
At this, they arrived at the cabin. Vaughan strode to the front door and opened it wide. “Welcome home everyone!”
Blue took a deep breath and stepped into the cabin. The familiar smell filled her with such a rush of emotions that she just had to stand there a moment.
It was over. She was home.
Home.
This place felt more like home than any place had in her entire life.
Even though there was an unfamiliar sight sitting on the entryway couch… a dryad… with fake cat ears on her head…
Blue reared back and whinnied in shock. “S-sandy!?”
“In the flesh!” Sandy said, twirling around and bowing.
Vaughan chuckled. “Told you we had a surprise guest. Sandy came back yesterday, looking f—”
“How did you get here so fast?! We were only held up in Axiom a day!” Blue stammered.
Sandy smirked. “That’s for me to know and you never to find out.”
“I… wh… eh…?”
Vaughan blinked. “Wait, you saw her in Axiom?”
Blue put a hoof to her face. “We were supposed to talk about this later… ugh… Vaughan, that’s Sandy. Not only is she the one we had in our cabin a few years ago—”
“Our cabin?”
Blue stammered over her words. “S-he, hey, that’s, uh, I live here too it’s my cabin but that’s beside the point. Sandy’s the head of the secret society!”
Vaughan snorted. “Please, Blue, that’s absurd.”
“I’m not messing around!”
“What kind of head of a super duper secret shadow society would almost succumb to frostbite in the middle of winter on our doorstep?”
“The kind who wants to look as unsuspicious as possible,” Sandy said with a big grin on her face.
Vaughan rolled his eyes at her. “Please, who would be that crazy?”
“Me. I would.”
“...This is some kind of elaborate prank.”
“Nope,” Jeh said. She walked up to Sandy. “She saved us out there in the Rigid Plague. When we returned to Axiom negotiations fell through. But she’s here now and… wait, that’s probably dangerous for you!”
“A bit,” Sandy admitted, patting Jeh on the head. “However, I did make a deal with Via, and I am here in regards to that. My power is housed back in Vraskal, and for all my mysterious methods of fast travel, a Skyseed would be much faster. I believe you said Margaret would be able to take me?”
Blue nodded. “That’s right. I’ll have to go find her though… oh, Seskii, could you do that?”
Seskii deflated. “But a meeting with the great leader of a secret society sounds fun!”
Vaughan blinked. “You all… why are you all taking this… this can’t be…”
Sandy laughed. “Ah, one of the perks of no longer living in the shadows. I think I’m going to enjoy messing with people from here on out.” She put two fingers to her eye in a “cute” pose.
“I think it’s a good look for you!” Seskii said.
“Thanks!” Sandy grinned. Then she tilted her head. “...Seskii Potions, correct? The secretary?”
“Guilty as charged.” Seskii bowed.
“My agents find you confusing, but amusing. And also hard to work around.”
“I aim to please!”
Sandy chuckled. “You certainly sound fun to talk to.”
“I’ll go get Margaret,” Blue said. “I’m the fastest anyway.”
“W-wait,” Vaughan stammered. “You’re just leaving us with her?”
“She’s a psycho but she’s only here to keep her end of the bargain, you’re fine.”
“But… but…” Vaughan held his hand out to her as she ran out the door.
Sandy put a hand on Vaughan’s shoulder. “Now the fun begins.”
Vaughan jumped back and pressed his back to the wall.
Sandy chuckled. “Ah, a new page in life, so refreshing.”
At this point the Sourdough Twins walked up to her and curtsied, looking her dead in the eyes. They spoke in unison. “Sandy, as the leader of the great secret society, closest to ruler of the entire world… do you have any advice for us?”
Sandy’s expression suddenly became deadly serious. She kneeled down until she was eye level with them. “To seek power makes you unworthy of it.”
The twins narrowed their eyes.
“I see in you two the fire of conquest and the desire for control. Others may find this cute or amusing, I do not. The path you are treading is a dark one that leads to the suffering of millions.”
There was a sudden, stark silence in the room.
“My advice to you is to stop pursuing this dream of yours. Not because you couldn’t accomplish it, oh no, you are exactly the sort with the right mindset at the right place in history to pull something like it off. But once you do accomplish it, one day you will stand and look back in horror.”
The twins glared at her with an intense fire. “Someone has to be in charge,” they said as one.
“And whoever’s at the top should not be one who wanted to be there.”
“Those people won’t make it to the top.”
Sandy’s expression softened. “That’s… usually true. I’ll let you in on a little secret. I never wanted this. It was just necessary.”
The twins glanced at each other, uncertain.
“Of course… even I stand and look back in horror.” She stood up and locked her hands behind her back. “Perhaps leading is simply a curse no matter how you slice it.”
There was silence in the room once again.
“Geez, that was a mood-killer,” Sandy said, shaking her head. “Perhaps I was overreacting.”
“No, thank you,” one of the twins said.
The other nodded. “We asked for advice, you gave it.”
“We’ll probably ignore it.”
“But we’ll proceed forward more cautiously.”
Sandy smirked. “And that in and of itself will make things a lot better. If you insist on going through this path… remember those close to you, and never make a hasty decision.”
The twins nodded, bowing to her.
“Wow,” Jeh said, blinking. “It’s like… you three understood each other.”
“Creepy…” Vaughan said.
Seskii shrugged. “They’re similar sorts. What’s so weird about that?
“I said creepy, not weird.”
Sandy chuckled. “Ah… a serious conversation that becomes lighthearted. I really did miss… all of this. Too bad I’m a wanted criminal and if I do this regularly Riikaz will have my head.”
Vaughan scratched his beard. “I… can’t seem to hold in my head the picture of you and the diabolical secret society at once.”
“Maybe that’s the idea!” Seskii said.
Sandy shrugged. “Not really. I’m just killing time right now., waiting for my Skyseed ride.”
“Oooh! Want to play a game then? I have cards!”
“...Sure.”
Seskii won.
~~~
The next afternoon, almost the entire Wizard Space Program sat down to discuss science. There had been an earlier meeting where Blue and Jeh had told Vaughan, Keller, Seskii, Suro, and Lila details about what had happened—the fact of the matter was not everyone needed to know all the things that occurred or the secrets that had been uncovered during the Rigid Plague incident.
It had been unusual how that discussion had started to feel… routine, to all of them. This was hardly the first time they’d been roped into some grand adventure, and at this point it was clear it would likely not be the last.
But they were home now, and they could talk science and space travel. And they just so happened to have a special guest with a very special airship and a good translator. Envila enabled them to have an extended conversation with Captain Auburn for the first time.
Now that this was possible, Blue was quickly realizing Auburn was insane.
Auburn had her goggles on her face and her hands on her hips like she was staring death in the face, prepared for anything—yet she met it with a smile. The scarf wrapped around her neck flapped as though it were in a rushing wind, which was impossible as they were in one of the laboratory’s meeting rooms. She was talking so fast, so incredibly fast that Envila’s translation took significantly longer than the time it took Auburn to speak the words. This was decidedly unusual as Vraskalian was a language generally spoken slowly and with much deliberation. It was almost as if Auburn treated that as a challenge.
“...and I just want to say that your Moonshot II is such a marvel of engineering why Grandpa would have been absolutely ecstatic to see such a thing, bless his soul, I bet he would have made the Seeker even better if he had access to such metal and glass manufacturing but it sucks to suck I guess but that’s all we get down in the Wild Continent why do they even call it that its name is Kathamastirap—okay I get why they call it that cheeze louise what a dumb name how did I never realize sure Wild Continent and I guess that’s not even really the Wild Continent just nearby but whatever getting to the point I want to take a ride to the moon can you take me please?”
Envila let out a gasp for breath and put her hand on her chest.
Auburn seemed satisfied with this result.
Vaughan turned to Lila. “I don’t see why not, as long as she lets us look at her ship closer and she explains how it works.”
Lila nodded. “Seems reasonable enough.”
Envila relayed this.
Auburn clapped her hands together, reverting to her native tongue. “Oh YES yes yes yes YES yes yes YES YEEEEEEEES!” Nobody had any difficulty understanding her this time. Then she turned and pointed to Vaughan. “You yes you the lucky man with the fancy hat good gravy I like your hat can I get a hat like it? Anyway, what do you want to know, what should I explain, why doesn’t your ship have propellers?”
Big G let out a long, drawn-out sigh while Envila slowly relayed the information.
“Too much energy for you?” Mary asked.
“Yes.”
“You think Seskii would have prepared us for this.”
Seskii was suddenly behind the two of them. “I tried my best, oh well.”
Envila finished relaying the information. Vaughan took in a breath. “That’s a lot of questions… let’s see… if you want a hat like this you need to become a wizard, which generally means demonstrating skill with crystal magic—I can’t believe I have to specify that now—and an understanding of magical theory. I mainly want to know how your ship manages to stay level automatically since for our ships we have to correct for that manually, and how you manage the size of your ship and all its disparate components. And our ships don’t have propellers because there’s no air in space, propellers wouldn’t work up there. They could, theoretically, help us go up, but we have yet to figure out how to make things rotate without spinning the occupants.”
Auburn nodded in understanding as Envila relayed each individual bit. Then she responded to everything. “I’m a girl with a lot of questions it was how I was raised Grandpa always told me that asking questions was the way to success and he was right because answers are awesome and space is awesome and the sky is awesome and you always have to specify magic there’s crystal magic, attributable magic, and… uh…” She had a rare pause at this point that allowed Envila to catch up by writing some things she said down. “Vraskalian doesn’t have a word for it. So I’ll name it! Wild magic from the Wilds but I guess you don’t have the Wilds here or anywhere except maybe in the Tempest but I could never fly into the Tempest which is really really really really really really annoying like come on I’m a professional adventurer and I can’t go into one of the coolest places on the planet I swear I’ve been everywhere else at least once even the Dark Country which I do not recommend by the way.
“Sounds like I could totally be a wizard, have to use the crystals all the time to maintain the Seeker and boy do I have to know a lot of theory to make that work but it’s all practical stuff Grandpa wasn’t one for books mainly because most of his life he didn’t know books existed and our people didn’t use to write things down which is a shame really but you know what isn’t a shame? I get to actually explain things now!” She paused to do an excited little twirl and throw her hands wide. “See it’s all based on an idea of Grandpa’s about communication lines…”
She had to be asked to slow down and explain it in several different ways. They eventually started drawing diagrams on the chalkboard to get a full understanding of the interior of the Seeker.
Maybe half an hour later, Blue stood up. “I think I get it.”
“Please save us…” Suro muttered, face resting on the table.
“I’ll try.” Blue walked up to the blackboard next to Auburn, levitating a spoon and using it to point at a schematic of the Seeker. “First off, the simple part. Every thing that rotates in the Seeker has a counter-rotator associated with it. This includes both the propellers and the ‘mass wheel’ as I guess we’re calling it, as well as some mini gyroscopes dotted around the ship. This means that when one thing rotates, instead of spinning around the ship itself, that spin goes to the counter-rotator. This is an example of the conservation of angular momentum. Ships have zero angular momentum when sitting still, and when in the sky there’s very little way to change that. So when you spin part of a ship up, the rest of the ship automatically turns in the other direction to keep the angular momentum at zero. However, if you have a counter-rotator, you can keep your angular momentum at zero without spinning the entire ship.”
The basic concept behind the Seeker I figured out just by observing. The mass wheels are so heavy they greatly resist changes in motion, so bumps and jostles don’t make the Seeker turn to the side. Much. Much. The thing I couldn’t figure out is why little bumps and jostles didn’t build up over time to destabilize the ship. That’s where all this Magenta wiring comes in, it’s very carefully monitoring the way the various rotators in the ship spin; the propellers, the mass wheels, and the mini gyroscopes. Those mini gyroscopes are really important. See… I’m going to need a physical thing to demonstrate this with, uh, Vaughan, throw me a plate.”
Vaughan shrugged and tossed a plate at her. Blue caught it in her telekinesis and started spinning it in midair as though it were balanced on an invisible pin. “So, pretend this is a rotator. When something occurs to try to change the angular momentum…” She tapped the side of the plate with a spoon. That side lifted up, but then the section of the plate that was upward started slowly oscillating around in a circle. “This is called precession. Now, for the mass wheels and propellers, the presence of the counter-rotators cancels this out. The mini-gyroscopes, on the other hand, are allowed to move independently from their counter-rotators and thus you can observe this effect. Which can then be measured, and used to determine exactly how much the ship has been perturbed. The Magenta wiring keeps a very close watch on all of this to figure out where it is at all times. The complexity of this device is on par with what our best Magenta Wizards come up with, I’m extremely impressed.”
There’s more in the specifics of how the ship uses this information. It has a lot of Blue and Orange within its circuitry to rotate the propellers but also to make different sections of the ship accelerate at different time rates to allow for precise rotation and elevation control. And there’s a motion sensor that’s basically just a marble in a box that corrects for the curvature of Ikyu by noticing when the ship isn’t sitting still. Which I still don’t think will work in outer space freefall but otherwise it’s a lot like Krays’ level.”
“I told you it was a good idea,” Krays huffed.
“Not for space.”
Vaughan scratched his beard. “So the Seeker is ultimately supported by Orange and Blue?”
Blue nodded. “The Orange provides the majority of the force to lift the craft; but rather than lifting it directly all the force is shunted to the propellers, and the ship itself is kept extremely light. Blue is used for fine-tuning the behavior of the ship, while Magenta monitors everything and automatically runs calculations. It’s an entire calculation device created simply to keep the thing level and aloft under a variety of circumstances.”
“Xexrxes would love to have a look at this.”
“I bet he would.” Blue turned to Auburn. “So… that right?”
Auburn waited a bit after Envila translated everything. (At this point Envila was looking quite exhausted.) Then she pulled Blue into a hug—how she managed to do this despite being taller than Blue without any sense of awkwardness was beyond Blue—and shouted “Akblavta!”
“...I don’t know what that means,” Envila admitted.
Auburn grinned. “It’s the exclamation of the man of science the declaration of discovery the idea of success and ingenuity!”
“Eureka, then,” Jeh said.
Envila blinked. “Huh, Vraskalian doesn’t have that concept.”
“They are a very subdued people,” Vaughan said. “So… believe it or not, the biggest use we can get out of the technology in the Seeker is not the wheels; I think until we make the interplanetary ship we won’t have to deal with complex orientation problems. The most useful part will be the magenta stabilization device. This thing that can monitor and adjust situations everywhere on the craft automatically. What I’m currently wondering is why your grandfather made such a thing; even our wizards would have difficulty creating something for so specific a purpose.”
Auburn chuckled. “Oh you silly silly silly silly the Magenta managing device was designed to try to monitor and predict the Wilds! It didn’t work but he repurposed it into the Seeker so I could have my dream of becoming an adventurer.”
“Predict… the Wilds?”
“How about in exchange for you taking me to the moon I take you to the Wilds? A dangerous journey in exchange for another dangerous journey what do you say?”
Jeh lifted her hand. “I want to take her up on the offer!”
Blue rolled her eyes. “Oooof course… didn’t we just have enough adventure Jeh?”
“But this sounds fun!”
“Of course it does…” Blue sighed. “Anyway, thank you, Auburn. I think the Magenta Wizards would like schematics of your Magenta device if you have them, otherwise they’re going to want to study it very closely. Meanwhile, I think we are giving you a ride to the moon soon, just have to clear everything first… and… right, Vaughan, the airlock design was finalized, right?
Vaughan nodded. “Everyone agreed, and by agreed I mean Mikarol started building one and said everyone else needed to fall in line.”
“Geez, forcing their design on us?”
“They actually started to build a hybrid design based mostly on Descent’s.”
“...I sense political maneuvering.”
“Probably.”
“Definitely,” Lila said. “Which I suppose we should discuss. New legislation is being passed about international trade, we are going to have to be somewhat careful with what we load on the Skyseeds…”
~~~
The Emperor of Mikarol drummed his armor’s fingers on the edge of his truly massive throne. The throne was a behemoth of metal and red velvet, covered in spikes shaped to resemble various bladed weapons. Numerous gemstones were slotted into the throne in almost every place one would consider placing one, making the entire thing sparkle with a rainbow of colors.
The rest of the throne room was like a cathedral, with large vaulted ceilings, and Mikarolian banners hanging from a ceiling so high up the details painted on it could not be made out. But everyone knew what was up there, the history of Mikarol itself, painted bit by bit as the Empire grew and developed. They still had not run out of ceiling space, even after all this time.
Usually, there were hundreds of people in here. Guards. Advisors. Servants. At least one chef at any given time. It was almost never a quiet place, for even in the presence of the Emperor there was simply too much to do and say.
Today, it was deathly quiet. Gone were the guards, advisors, and servants. In their place were the members of the Silent Legality, all dressed in their black armor which, unusually for MIkarol, had no spikes to speak of. No weapons were visible on their person, but anyone who knew of the Silent Legality knew that they did not need them. They were not exactly a secret organization, but neither did the public ever see them for what they were.
The fact that so many were gathered here today, and in their armor, was even more unusual than the silence in the throne room.
The only individual present besides the Emperor who was not a member of the Silent Legality was a human woman in light (but properly spiked) armor whose hair shifted colors through every vibrant hue of the rainbow, forming a beautiful gradient across her locks at any given moment. Each strand of hair moved as though it were alive; or perhaps as though it were part of an ocean.
The Emperor glanced at her without moving his head. Her expression was even harder than usual today. She knew full well why she was here. Why she had been requested. Not by the Emperor, but by their… visitor. Of course, she said nothing, because to address it would not be proper, and potentially suicide.
Thus, the Emperor decided to bring it up prior to the meeting, in hopes that it would smooth over what was about to transpire.
“She is forcing me to play my hand,” the Emperor said.
The woman nodded. “It seems that way.”
“Simply by requesting your presence alone, the others will believe you are my successor.”
“An unfortunate consequence. I will still serve you until my last.”
“Naturally. But this meeting will be tense enough. Ease yourself. She is correct.”
“...I am ashamed that you have been put in a place where you are required to say.”
“A feeling I share. I am baffled as to how she managed to determine this… the information is known only to me and a handful of the Silent Legality, all of whom I am certain are not traitors.”
“She probably made a guess.”
The Emperor frowned. “To be so certain of a guess…?”
“Or, perhaps… she cheated.”
“Hmm… a distinct possibility.”
The great double doors at the front of the throne room opened with a great noise that thundered through the entire hall, echoing to the ears of every member present. None of the Silent Legality turned their heads. They did not need to.
A single individual strutted into the throne room. She showed no fear, and her smirk was beyond smug. The Emperor did not know what he had expected when he’d been informed she wanted to meet, but the face of someone clearly enjoying this was not one of them.
She nonetheless did the proper routine of stooping to a knee and lowering her head before the Emperor. “Your Majesty, great Emperor of Mikarol…” She lifted her head slightly to look at the woman. “And miss Thaumaturge. I never thought I would be able to stand before you like this.”
“Sandy Whiskers Gallon…” the Emperor said, clenching his jaw. “Every bone in my body and every mandate of honor demands that I execute you right this very now.”
“And yet, you can’t,” Sandy said, simply. “I am well aware that, at this point, you have received word from Kroan about my attempts to negotiate there. And that I have a deal with Via to end the capacity to cause a Third Cataclysm.” Her smirk turned into a full on grin. “I have not yet kept up that end of the bargain. Slaying me here will ensure that capacity remains with my society.”
The Emperor narrowed his eyes. “To risk the world… for honor. A dangerous thought.”
“And, under normal circumstances, one you might even want to consider. But, oh great Emperor, I have something else to offer you.”
“No doubt what you offered Kroan. Your resources and knowledge in exchange for greater development of the Space Program. It is clear that your options are limited, and now that Kroan has turned you down you wish to negotiate with us. Since you’re placing yourself in such a vulnerable position, I suspect you do not believe there’s a single hope the Blimps will accept your offer.”
“Correct.”
“But you have tormented Mikarol and the world at large since before our Empire began. And we are not Kroan. We remember what has been done against us, and we return the favor. You have been revealed as our most ancient of enemies.”
“And yet, I have something else to offer you, something I could not have offered Kroan, for they would not have appreciated it.”
“What could you possibly have to balance out your unimaginable debt?”
Sandy put her hands behind her back and leaned forward. “Why, it’s simple, Emperor. I can give you Vraskal.”
The Emperor’s eyes widened.
“Our people are so embedded into that country that I could make it collapse in a day. But that’s not the plan, the plan is to disable their leadership and their military from the inside to enable a simple, easy conquest, simpler than your current campaigns in the southern lands by a wide margin. The age-old thorn in your side that has resisted all attempts at being pushed would fall to you like paper. The Empire would have a triumph at the end of your reign. It would give you an excuse to send the Thaumaturge out on a campaign, ensuring both her safety from local elements in the court now that I have outed her as your replacement, and also giving her the necessary glory to be unquestioned as Empress in the next administration. And, furthermore, it will enable the Empire to transition into an area of greater peace with none that could be considered ‘enemies’ at your doorstep, which I am well aware is both of your desires in this new age of innovation.”
Sandy stopped. Her grin spread ear to ear.
She knew full well that this was an offer that they couldn’t refuse.
And they knew it too.
“...You play the game remarkably well,” the Emperor said at last. “Not surprising for one in your position, I suppose…”
“You honor me with your compliment.”
“Do not insult me by pretending you care about my opinion,” the Emperor seethed. “You see yourself as above us, plain and simple.”
Sandy tilted her head to the side. “And what, pray tell, makes that untrue?”
The Emperor sighed. “...Let us discuss the finer points of this agreement.”
“Gladly!”
~~~
SCIENCE SEGMENT
So, now they’ve seen reaction wheels in action. Except the way Captain Auburn is using them, they aren’t really being used as reaction wheels for the most part. A reaction wheel is a motor attached to a heavy rotating thing, so when the motor spins the wheel, the wheel induces a counter-rotation of equal strength to the motor (due to the conservation of angular momentum). This, in turn, makes whatever the motor is attached to spin. If it’s a particularly heavy object this is hardly noticeable, but in the case of large reaction wheels this is massive. This is why there needs to be a second wheel in the Seeker so it can spin the other direction and prevent the entire ship from tumbling out of control. However, the entire point of a reaction wheel is to cause the counter-rotation, if you cancel it out you lose the ability to rotate yourself using completely internal machinery. You can probably see why this is useful inside spaceships or satellites. Consider a telescope. It has no rockets or thrusters, but if it has a bunch of reaction wheels inside of it, it can rotate itself in any direction so long as it has power to rotate the wheels. If you have really small reaction wheels in relation to the telescope as a whole you’ll have to spin them really fast for a long time, but the rotation will get there. Blue has basically figured out that this will be quite useful in space travel, and while it would be possible to create a system like this that could be managed manually (especially in space), having what essentially amounts to a computer doing it would be much easier.
Most of the control systems in the Seeker involve adjusting the relative speeds of various rotating objects within it, namely the propellers’ speeds in relation to each other, allowing for adjustments. The “reaction wheels” in the propeller sections should never be used as such, as they would try to rotate the ship around an unusual axis, sending it who knows where. In such a situation, these devices are more accurately called “flywheels,” which are simply ways to convert mechanical into rotational energy. But the Seeker does use the central massive wheels as reaction wheels: it can purposefully spin one faster than the other to turn the entire craft without actually moving it. This is rarely necessary as the ship is rather symmetric, but since they blew off one of the propeller sections they did need to reorient a few times in flight this time. However, this only allows for rotation around the axis of the reaction wheels themselves: there is no way to tilt the ship upward using these wheels. But that’s easy enough to do by making one propeller spin faster than the others in exactly the right amount, hence the Magenta “computer.” Honestly, it’s more impressive that it’s able to actively counter the effect of wind, but that’s not really what we’re talking about here.
Of course, all of these spinning objects maintaining everything, and the small ones detecting forces applied to the ship, all depend on one law of reality: the conservation of angular momentum. And one may ask: why is angular momentum conserved?
Well, the simple answer is that it is due to a law of nature: the famous Newton’s Third Law of Motion. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. When you push on something it pushes back, when you try to turn something (called applying a torque to it), it tries to turn you back. Now, when you’re trying to turn a heavy crank you’re usually applying a force at a particular point, and so the pushing back doesn’t manifest as a rotation for you, but rather a direct push into your hand. Only when both objects involved are able to spin along the same axis is the reaction clearly rotational in nature. (There are cases in between the two, where an object is rotating another at a weird angle, but that gets real complicated real quickly.)
There is a sense in which rotational motion is a bit of an illusion. In reality, every particle in a spinning object is trying to move in a straight line, it’s just being pulled by other forces from other particles that are also trying to move in slightly different straight lines. When examined in this lens, angular momentum isn’t really a real quantity, but rather an emergent phenomena. Things in rotation are simply a bunch of translating objects pulling on each other, and due to all this pulling they exhibit the weird effects of resisting changes in rotational direction and precession.
Except quantum mechanics has to come in and throw a wrench into things.
See, atoms have internal angular momentum to them: the electrons are spinning around atoms, after all. The exact way they “spin” as nebulous quantum clouds is a little weird, but the effect can be measured, and shown to be related to the shape the electron cloud takes around the nucleus, and it can be modeled as a single particle orbiting the nucleus with the force of the nucleus keeping it nearby. So the angular momentum here is simply because the nucleus is pulling on the electron.
The problem is when we measure the magnitude of this angular momentum, there’s more than there should be. As it turns out, particles themselves have a quantity called “spin.” The quantum property of spin is one of the things that makes the least sense in quantum mechanics. Particles that seem to have no real size or shape to them act as though they are spinning around something, as though they had internal angular momentum. However it is physically impossible for them to actually be spinning. For instance: we suspect the electron has no actual size and is just a point in reality, but if it has a size we know it has to be obscenely tiny. So tiny that in order to physically spin fast enough to generate the observed effect of quantum spin, the surface would have to be moving faster than light. Which. Uh. Doesn’t happen.
So individual particles appear to have a sort of fundamental angular momentum that makes them act as though they were spinning objects, when spinning objects only have angular momentum because they are composed of smaller objects all pulling on each other. Confused yet? Good, so am I.
It gets even weirder when you realize that the amount of spin a particle has determines whether its particle properties fall into the “fermion” or “boson” class but that’s getting deep into quantum mechanics and we all want wizards in space.