I sat down at the table, and poured myself and Soriya a cup of fruit juice. “Eshaan, please go bring Lakshmi and Daniyel in. We’ve got some things to discuss.” I rubbed my temples.
Eshaan looked at me with concern, and frowned. “We need to discuss you pushing yourself like this when it’s over.” He said seriously, and left.
Soriya laughed lightly, and I glowered at her.
“See?” She said. “Even Eshaan agrees with me!”
I rolled my eyes at her, and opened my mouth to reply, but closed it without saying anything. She’s right. This is what a healer princess does, and it never ends well for her. I… this part of me really is at risk of self-sacrifice. How do I rein her in?! Do I… no, I have to.
My thoughts were interrupted by the return of Eshaan, Daniyel and Lakshmi.
Lakshmi immediately rushed over. “What was that?! I felt a strange… was that magic?! Was that what a ritual feels like?!”
I blinked at her in surprise. “You’ve never…?”
Her eyes were sparkling with pleasure. “No, never!”
Huh. Now where does this fit into the story…? I scratched my cheek in puzzled thought.
“Well, actually…” I trailed off and then sighed. “Ok, so. I have… encountered a hole.”
Daniyel frowned, and Lakshmi said “What’s that? Some magic thing?”
Soriya cleared her throat and joined the discussion. “Our ritual was successful. We found the closest location of an Arcanum. One of the Locks to the System. About 2 days journey to the southeast. But then something happened. Something very unexpected.”
Daniyel’s brows slowly lowered. “Unexpected… for a Seer?”
I spread my hands and nodded. “There are precedents, but it was definitely an unexpected event. Some… thing? One? Took umbrage at our spell. Said it was ‘too loud’, and then it…”
“It exploded.” Soriya said bluntly.
I winced at the crude expression, and equally at the look of horror on Eshaan’s face. Way to reassure my boyfriend, Soriya… oh that cunning little witch, this is all to make sure he… sugarwater, how long has she been… ?! Like a picture of a vase becoming two faces, I suddenly realized Soriya had been doing just this kind of manipulation all along! I was a little put out, but even more… I felt an odd sort of warmth inside, realizing that she really really did care about me!
Maybe even enough to mother me. I frowned, thinking of mother’s own manipulations to keep me safe.
“Turned inside out and exploded, all the way” Soriya cheerfully continued.
Daniyel uncrossed his arms and leaned forward. “That is… concerning. A powerful force, disrupting the ritual from a great distance, that does not wish us to move forward. And an object that we have decided we must retrieve.”
I raised my hand to interrupt. “Well, yes, you’re not wrong. And… I… I think maybe we should go to Hecate. We owe Eideth, she’s been very patient with us, and I think she’d like to see the new airship.”
I sighed and pressed my lips together then nodded to myself, and added reluctantly “And I think maybe… we should not go after the Arcanum just yet. It has the feel of… of something that we’re not yet ready to face.”
Soriya snorted. “If we ever face it. You know as well as I do, that felt like an end game boss. Or worse, an optional boss!”
I twisted around to look at her. “An optional boss guarding a key item? You know that’s not how it works.”
Soriya scowled at me. “How do you know it’s a key item?! Maybe you don’t have to get all the Arcanum, are you trying for a hundred percent run?”
Eshaan, Daniyel, and Lakshmi exchanged glances. “Is this… normal?” Lakshmi said hesitantly.
Eshaan smiled a crooked grin, and Daniyel shrugged impassively.
“I have found it to be so.” Daniyel said gravely. “We must attribute it to the vagaries of the Seer’s visions.”
“Excuse me.” Camaxtli broke in. “Where is this ‘Hecate’ you spoke of? Come to that, do we know what lies to the south of us?”
Lakshmi perked up. “Oh! Yes, of course! You’re 4000 years out of date! Well, my geography lessons say that to the south is the jungle nation of Nanwe. I know! Let me get you a map!” She dashed out of the room.
Camaxtli shook his head slowly. “Nanwe. This is not a name I am familiar with.”
Daniyel shrugged again. “While our seers think it strange that the languages have not shifted greatly, the nations have ever been in flux. Nanwe is one such.”
Lakshmi dashed back in, holding up a roll of brightly colored paper. She unfurled it on the table, revealing a colored map of the continents. Daniyel, Eshaan, and Camaxtli leaned over to examine it curiously.
“Wow, this is a really nice map!” Eshaan muttered. “Reminds me of the one in the Commander’s office.”
Daniyel raised a single eyebrow. “That is no surprise, given the province of this item.”
Eshaan blinked and then his eyes widened. “Oh! Right, of course!” He rubbed at the back of his head awkwardly.
Lakshmi pointed to the map, at a deep green peninsula on the southeast edge of the map, clearly marked ‘Nanwe Jungle’.
“Here!” She said. “We’re really far from home. The empire has never reached this far, not even in the old days. And we must be somewhere around here.” She slid her finger upwards to where the map turned to a golden tan color, a deeper tan color in the center marked ‘Sand Sea.’
Daniyel nodded. “This is also not within the Empire’s borders. Though they wish to make the effort, to be sure.”
Lakshmi glanced at him curiously. “What do you mean? The Empire wouldn’t be stupid enough to start a war over sand and dust.”
Daniyel shook his head. “Sand and dust, maybe, but the Church makes claims on souls. And the desert wastes hold a great many souls.”
Lakshmi scowled, and crossed her arms. “Father would never agree to something so stupid!”
Soriya said quietly “Not even if the church’s holy Saintess was kidnapped?”
I blinked and shook my head in disbelief. “Oh come on! A war plot?! Of all things?!”
Soriya shrugged gracefully. “Why not? So far, we’ve had-”
She ticked off the points one by one on her fingers.
“-a political intrigue plot, a runaway princess, a heroic thief ex-solider, a corrupt war mad general, a church obsessed with ancient secrets… if this was poker, we’d have a Royal Flush.”
Eshaan frowned again, then said “But why is the church so obsessed with the ancients?! What do the ancients have to do with religion?! And do you really think they’d start a war?!”
Camaxtli slowly raised his head. “I believe I may provide an answer to the first question. The origin of the Alliance Goddess… a ‘god’ is typically worshiped by a ‘church’ of some kind, is it not?”
The room descended into silence as the others stared at each other. Soriya’s eyes met mine. We turned and nodded in unison.
“Yes.” We said, in chorus.
“Then it follows logically that this church is the descendants of the Alliance, and its goddess. This gives them sufficient reason to hunt artifacts.”
Lakshmi spoke up. “But they’ve only recently really started doing that!” She stopped, and in a voice of dawning horror added. “And… and they’re using my father to do it!”
Camaxtli’s eyes flickered with thought, then he said. “If they have truly only recently started this action, then there must be some reason. Perhaps they have lost access to the System, or perhaps they see the existence of Keyholders as a threat to their power.” Camaxtli’s eyes flickered again, and then he added. “A most intriguing proposition, if true. It implies that the Keybearers were not summoned by the church, despite being critical System infrastructure.”
I said hesitantly “I think… it might be the ‘Keybearers’ one. Eshaan? You said that you’d seen the wanted poster with the vague description of me on it before. How long ago did that show up?”
“About a year ago, I think.” Eshaan replied.
“Lakshimi, how long ago did the Church start pressuring your father to start digging up those artifacts?”
“Lets see…” Lakshmi thought back, mumbling under her breath. Finally she said “Well, I don’t know, exactly, but I think it was before I was born.”
I blinked in surprise. “Oh. Huh. That’s-”
“-perfectly in keeping.” Soriya said, unexpectedly.
I spun to stare at her. “Eeeh?” I stammered at her.
Soriya laughed at my expression. “Whatever it was, whatever brought us to this world, that’s roughly when we arrived. That’s when… well, I’m betting that either the day of, or the day just before our birthday, the church did something that… well, I think maybe the System called in some troubleshooters.”
Eshaan huffed angrily in frustration, waving his arms. “Less Seer talk! More sense, please! I’m begging you!”
It does make sense though. I thought. If I was just… asleep… while Lily grew up… no, if we were just asleep! Soriya is a Keybearer too!
Soriya said in a tone of patient explanation. “Eshaan, we think this means the church did… something… to the System. When that happened, the System brought helpers.”
“The System?! But… but that’s impossible! We would have noticed! The whole world would have noticed!” Eshaan protested. “And I thought the church only started really doing things when that shadow Lily showed up!?”
Daniyel shook his head. “Not if the attempt was thwarted. Or failed.” He turned to me. “Miss Lilyanna, we could inquire of Miss Holly.” He turned to Soriya. “Or perhaps we could ask your family?”
I choked up, and Soriya’s eyes grew dark.
“I… we…” I licked my lips.
Soriya spoke up, her voice quiet. “We’re foundlings, Daniyel. We don’t know our parents or where we came from. We both showed up on doorsteps of our village the same day.”
I slowly turned to Soriya, my eyes getting wide. “Or… or did we?!”
Soriya frowned in confusion. “What do you mean-? Oh! Oh my goodness!” She clapped her hands over her mouth.
“Holly!” Both of us said in unison.
“You think the whole village kept a secret for eighteen years!?” I blurted out.
“How hard could it be?!” Said Soriya. “Your mother is an adventurer, and the village is very tightly knit!”
My own head spun in sympathy. This was… a lot to take in!
Eshaan shook his head in confusion. “I’m really not sure what’s going on… weren’t we trying to figure out where we’re going?!”
Camaxtli turned to him. “Your friends appear to have pieced several separate pieces of information together into a new conclusion. I am unsure if this will result in a different outcome.”
Daniyel shook his head. “If the empire is going to be pushed into a war with the desert kingdoms, then the border of Kushistan will be where the first battles will occur.”
Lakshmi grimaced. “So… our choices are southeast, where something scared our omnipotent seers silly, or northwest to Galgados, where you seem to think my father has lost his fucking mind and gone to war as some sort of favor for the pope?!.”
Our group traded glances with each other.
Hesitantly, I said “You know, when she puts it like that, it does seem rather unlikely… and we really do owe it to Eideth to get her home.” I trailed off.
Soriya snorted and shrugged, then turned to Lakshmi. “The Sparrowhawk is faster, better armed, and armored now, right? Do you think you can outrun an imperial battleship?”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
The smile that slowly spread across Lakshmi’s face was positively feral. “Oh… yeah.” She crooned. “I’ll need to make a few more adjustments, but… yeah. Eshaan, come with me! You’re good at calibrating the mana baffles, and I need help with that, since I keep… things keep exploding when I touch them now!”
Daniyel gave us a grave and silent bow, and then followed Lakshmi, Eshaan trailing after them. I felt an unreasonable stab of jealousy watching them walk off. Eshaan really was very good with the tech… or at least, he and Lakshmi shared a genuine love of the Ancient’s technology and their workings. And speaking of which, a stray thought that had been bothering me finally landed home. I turned to Soriya, and pointed at finger at her.
“Did you… did the {Loremaster} class put all this together for you?!” I said accusingly.
Soriya grinned. “Not the class itself, but {Focused}, and {Flash of Insight}, and all the research, reading, and investigation I’ve done. You know, plus the adventure we’re on. Clues tend to just pop up.”
I shook my head in bafflement. ‘Just popped up.’ She said it so casually, as though it was a trivial thing! Clearly, I had been underestimating the System. If it was the System, and not… just how smart was Soriya?!
For that matter, how smart was Lakshmi? She didn’t make the kind of logical leaps that Soriya did, but… well, I’ll be darned if I could understand her when she talked magical engineering!
I shook my head. “So, do you really think that the church will force the empire to start a war?”
Soriya shrugged. “It seems likely.”
“Lakshmi didn’t seem to agree. You’d think she’d know her father better.”
Soriya flipped her hand from side to side. “It’s actually an interesting theoretical exercise. Have we altered the course of the story enough that things will start slipping out of their groove? Or will the grooves pull them back in? It was… unexpected, that it was Lakshmi who organized the rescue and pushed us forward. But then the gravity of the storylines pulled us back in.”
I tapped my lips thoughtfully. “Do you think that’s related to the System as well?”
Soriya nodded. “It might be. It doesn’t seem like it was an intended result though.”
Camaxtli spoke up, startling me. He’s so quiet when he’s just listening!
“You speak of ‘storylines’ and ‘grooves’. Are you indicating that people are forced to take action by the System? My understanding is that the System was merely to provide supplementary assistance, to act as a skill bank and repository of learning.”
I blinked in surprise. “That… actually makes sense, I think?”
Camaxtli shrugged blankly. “I cannot speak to that. My creators did not believe it would be useful or helpful. Indeed, their predictions were that it would fail sometime after 5000 years, due to a loss of understanding of the fundamentals that underlay the skill assistance.”
“Hm. That’s troubling.” Soriya said.
I sighed. “Is it really so bad?” I pleaded. “It’s… it’s exciting to be able to cast healing spells. It’s pretty cool to summon the Arcanum.”
Camaxtli shrugged again. “Those actions could be taken without the System. Indeed, you cast a ritual with your companion, that displays an understanding of magical theory that is deeper than rote. But have you ever received formal training? Do you understand what you’re doing?”
I frowned. I didn’t, really. It just… came to me. When I bothered to look, or ask. And how often would someone look or ask?
“A library of real world skills that anyone can access.” Soriya mused. “But how many people are going to study it?”
I perked up. “Wait, you’re a {Loremaster}! Doesn’t that mean you’re like… a librarian? You could ask anything you wanted to know!”
Soriya nodded. “I could, yes. But how would I even know what questions to ask? We didn’t know the Wake was real until I’d traveled there. We didn’t know the Arcanum were part of the System until it was forced from them. You can’t answer questions you don’t know to ask. I’m starting to understand why Nocturnus’s inhabitants decided to just… check out for a few thousand years.”
I stomped my foot in frustration. “Well I don’t! If they could see it coming, then why didn’t they try to stop it!”
“It was judged that a war was the only way to prevent that outcome, and the outcome of the war itself was uncertain. When Nocturnus began the Jubilee, there were indications that such a war was fought.”
A memory flickered in my mind, Eshaan telling me that the Sylvan were not well liked, considered ‘heretical’ by the church.
I shrugged. Well, what can it hurt. “Soriya, would you try to ask your {Loremaster} skills if the Sylvan fought against the activation of the System?”
Soriya blinked. “I… suppose I can try?” She frowned in concentration, staring into space for a moment. “Oh that’s so strange…” she said softly.
“What is it? What do you see?”
“See? Well nothing, really, but it’s like… a hazy kind of… like I can see a way to learn the information, hints that indicate it’s likely true, directions to research… but it’s not clear cut, not a direct and simple answer, or facts that indicate it.”
She shook her head. “What a useless design! Who would make a library that gives you skills but not knowledge?!”
“Maybe that’s what broke?” I guessed.
“No, that doesn’t seem right. But if the Sylvan fought the System, they didn’t do a very good job of it.”
I spread my hands. “Well now we know why the storyline wants us to visit the Sylvan, at least. Lost knowledge and ancient information. Possibly semi religious.” I twitched a grin. “And I admit, a tour of our game world wouldn’t feel complete without meeting every race at least once.”
Soriya smiled, then lightly swatted my shoulder. “Remember what you promised me. Don’t go treating this as a game world, just because its got plot groove and a System!”
I nodded sheepishly. “Right, right. Can’t exactly log out, now can we?”
“Who would want to?!” Soriya waved her arms energetically.
I smiled a little sadly. “Well. You know. It might have been nice to say goodbye.”
Soriya reached out and hugged me, and after a moment I returned it. It wasn’t quite the same… and every mystery we solved; it seemed like four more popped up. What a perfect jrpg kudzu plot. I thought wryly.
With the new potential of an actual battle for the Sparrowhawk, Lakshmi’s refits were setback a few days. Or possibly it was because with her newly functional mana vessels, she had a tendency to make things explode. Daniyel confided to me that the explosions were actually fairly normal.
“Nonetheless, she is the happiest I have seen in her a very long time.” Daniyel turned to stare at Lakshmi as she fiddled with something deep inside an open access hatch. “That was worth the trip, I feel.”
I smiled, then winced as another explosion echoed through the hangar. Lakshmi popped out, her hair smoking faintly. “Lily? What are you doing here?” She looked confused, then shook her head. “Never mind, you’re just in time, come here, come come!” She rushed over and grabbed my hands. “I’ve been wanting to test something!” She pulled me into the Sparrowhawk’s cabin, where I found several passenger seats had been added to the design, and the color scheme was decidedly Nocturnus influenced, with cool blues, greys, and black fabric and material. Lakshmi pulled me over to a strange looking chair, half science experiment and half tortuture device. She then pushed me into it.
“Uh, Lakshmi!” I said, alarmed as I started to stand up.
“No, no! Stay there! Sit, sit! Now!” She grabbed a metal helmet with wires sticking out of it and plonked it onto my head. “Focus your mana flow! Grab the handles at the edge here.” She guided my hands to blue crystal grips on the chair. When I touched them, I immediately felt the strangest sensation, like I’d been plugged into an active circuit, a void that wanted to pull my mana out of me, and push new mana in!
I immediately let go of the grips, shaking my hands in discomfort. “What the honeysuckle is this?! That felt… weird!”
Lakshmi pulled the helmet off my head so she could see my eyes again. “Are you ok? It hurt? That’s odd, it shouldn’t hurt!”
“Well no, it didn’t hurt-”
“Oh, good! In that case-!” Lakshmi slapped the helmet down on my head again. “Let’s do a test run!”
“Lakshmi, stop!” I shouted at her. “What is this torture device even supposed to do?!”
Lakshmi paused in her headlong rush. “It’s not a torture device!” She said huffily. “It’s a mana focus device! You push a spell into the flow, and it’s guided into the Sparrowhawk!”
“Are you… so… so I can cast spells… on the Sparrowhawk?”
She nodded eagerly. “That’s the theory! I got the idea from when you summoned Tower to shield us! This should be much more stable!”
“Huh… ok…” I reached out to gingerly grab the grips again, feeling that strange ‘empty pulling’ sensation from before. This time I let my mana join the flow, softly chanting a {Barrier} spell as though I was casting it on another person. Outside the hull, a flickering burst of silver white light snapped into existence. Lakshimi whooped in excitement and danced around, waving her multitool. “Yes! It works! It works it works it works!”
I let the spell drop. It was exhausting to cast a {Barrier} like that, easily double the cost of shielding a large group… but the excitement on Lakshmi’s face was infectious.
Maybe its ok? Maybe I don’t need to… I quashed that feeling, the desire to flee from conflict, or avoid any disharmony. Come on, Lily. You know how this works out if you just let the plot flow. Not well.
I cleared my throat and released the spell grips. “Um, Lakshmi, to tell you the truth, I wanted to talk to you about something.”
Lakshmi looked at me, her smile shifting into a puzzled frown. “What’s wrong?”
I smiled awkwardly up at her. “Are you… mad at me? Because the church is pushing the Saintess title on me?”
There was a flicker of pain in her eyes, then she shook her head. “No, of course not! Don’t be stupid, that’s not…”
I reached out and grabbed her hands in mine, looking up into her eyes.
“Lakshmi. Please. I don’t want to have something between us. We’re friends. Crewmates. Right?” I pleaded with her.
Her fragile smile fell away, and she looked away from my gaze. “I hate it when you do that.” She muttered. “All… earnest and…” She looked back at me, her lips pressed together. “Sometimes… just occasionally, I really hate you. You’re like a better me, somehow. Magical, special, right from the get go… you’ve even got the rare pink hair boys like.”
I blinked in surprise, feeling the knowledge of that fact blossom inside me. It’s true, boys in this world are supposed to prefer pink.
“But that’s stupid, and it doesn’t matter!”
I frowned at her. “Lakshmi… if you’re angry about it, it does matter!” I said earnestly.
“It’s stupid!” She exclaimed. “It’s not logical!”
I laughed softly. “Who ever said emotions were logical, Lakshmi?”
Lakshmi shook her head, fiddling idly with her multitool. Finally, I said “I won’t press about this. But how about if I talked around it?” I sat up and cleared my throat. “I’m not…”
I stopped. It wasn’t true that I wasn’t special. I was clearly very special. In a whole lot of stupid predestined ways! In point of fact, most of my struggle was to stop being so special!
“I don’t want to be special. But that’s not going to make it any better. So let me put it another way. You’re special. Right now. You can do things that bend my mind. You put this wonder together. But all your life you’ve been told you need to be special in a different way.”
I could see tears threatening in Lakshmi’s eyes. “I don’t want to talk about this!” She stalked away from me, and I leapt up to grab her hand. She whirled on me, her multitool raised a microsecond from hitting me. I let go of her hand and backed off slowly.
“Ok. It’s ok, you don’t have to talk about this. Lets talk about something else! Lets talk about the Sparrowhawk?”
Lakshmi blinked away tears, her face still clearly confused and struggling with hurt.
“Has Camaxtli been able to give you any help? Any cool exotic super materials he’s given you?”
Lakshmi frowned even more, and nodded slowly. “Yeah… the… the crystal grip things.” She pointed to the chair. “They’re some kind of mana conductive material. Kind of like glass, only not. A bit like the Ancient’s mana regulators in their golems.”
“I guess they sort of are the Ancients… just a different faction.” She said slowly.
“It’s a really cool idea, Lakshmi. Have you tried it yourself?”
Lakshmi pressed her lips together. “Why would I do that, I can’t cast spells! I thought we weren’t going to discuss this!”
I held up my hands. “We’re not, honest! We’re not! I’m just asking about a cool project.”
“Well I can’t, so no!”
“How did you install it without touching it?”
Lakshmi got an expression on her face that I knew all too well. The ‘you must be dumber than anyone has ever been before’ look.
“Well of course I had to touch it to install it, duh! Wore gloves the whole time, so the stupid things would stop exploding on me!”
“So they didn’t explode when you used gloves?”
Lakshmi scrunched up her face. “Well… they exploded less?” She said wryly.
I laughed, and after a moment Lakshmi joined me.
“I guess that makes sense. Less contact with the mana field, less explosive results.”
“Yeah… I guess so.” Lakshmi rubbed her head ruefully. “I’ve never had to worry about things like this before.”
“I guess it makes sense.” I said thoughtfully. “How could you have made all these amazing machines if you couldn’t use magic?”
Lakshmi scowled again. “What do you mean?! I can’t use magic!” She shouted, then paused. A moment later she added in quieter voice. “Couldn’t. Couldn’t use magic. But that’s not magic, that’s technology!”
I blinked slowly, and tipped my head to the side in confusion. “Lakshmi… you are using magic to animate technology. You can feel magic and mana when you put your hands on it. You felt it in the Tol Jaegren dig site!”
“Anyone can do that!” Lakshmi waved her hands.
I hesitated for a bit, then went on. “I don’t think you’re right. If you were, the {Tinker} class would have a much wider spread.”
“Anyone can use a magical tool!” Lakshmi glared at me. “You could use a magic tool, and your head is emptier than Eshaan’s!” She yelled.
I winced. That stung. “Alright, that’s fair.” I said, feeling it wasn’t very fair at all. “I’m just a backwoods village yokel. But that’s my point. This… all of this!” I waved my hand to encompass the Sparrowhawk and everything else. “Is amazing to me. And it sure looks like magic to me. You use mana conduits and glass crystals and fiber flow regulators… and I use paint on the ground. But we both have to shove mana into the things to make them go. I think you’re every bit as amazing as anything Soriya and I could come up with.”
I pointed at her multitool. “You just use those, instead of a staff. And your spells are a lot more durable than mine.” I giggled. “Hell Lakshmi, we’re going to fly in your spellcraft! That’s… amazing! Even Soriya can’t fly!”
Lakshmi jerked in surprise. “She can’t? Don’t witches… fly on brooms or something?”
I smiled at her. “I don’t think Soriya could build a flying machine, broom or otherwise.” I paused, and then continued. “I know you’ve got a voice in your head that tells you you’re not doing it right. That voice is wrong, because how else could you possibly do it? You’re Lakshmi Maung. Not that imaginary someone else.” I patted the spell chair. “You just figured out how to cast white magic on a machine.” I frowned, and reached out to take her hand. “And you came to rescue me. You did that. When I was sure that I was being pulled into a story undertow, you got me out. So please don’t sell my friend short, Lakshmi.” I squeezed her hand. “She’s amazing.”
I gave her a last smile and turned to go.
As I reached the hatchway, Lakshmi said “Lilyanna?”
I turned back. Lakshmi’s eyes were dry, but they sparkled suspiciously. “Thanks.” She said, then turned away and started adjusting something with the spell chair.
“You’re welcome.” I said, and left.
There. I hope that stop a potential betrayal plot. Though there’s always the risk of the self-doubt ploy. I shook my head and hugged myself. God, Deacon is a complete meadowlark to do that to such a sweet girl. I bit my lip again. I’m not that impressed with her family either.
A day later, Lakshmi finally announced that she was ready. Camaxtli had directed us to various storerooms and stockpiles of material, and all our equipment had received at least some improvements. Eshaan had a guilty look about him. I took a moment to explain that it was sweet he wanted to keep the sword I’d bought him in Farna, if he had the opportunity to get better equipment, he should take it.
I’d gotten some very nice gear, a white crystal staff with intricate silver inlay like a circuit pattern, and I spent some time geeking out about it. When I’d warmed him up, Eshaan finally showed me the sword that Camaxtli had given him. A beautiful midnight black sweep of crystal inlaid with a circuit pattern that focused his mana like the pen that Camaxtli had demonstrated for us. The swirling color of blue and red around the blade was something Eshaan had called an ‘Aura.’ Apparently, he’d only seen some extremely skilled blade artists use it in the military.
I smiled in pleasure. Then I hope we’ll have a nice surprise for our enemies when we meet them. And I’ll have to hope that Soriya is wrong about that war plotline.
The next morning, we gathered in the hangar to board Sparrowhawk II. When we were ready, Camaxtli transmitted some sort of request or pass phrase to Nocturnus, and there was a blink of black and silver out the cockpit windows, and then the glaring bright light of the desert all around us, the rippling waves of the sand sea sloshing gently away from the Sparrowhawk’s hull. I could hear the soft hum of elemental crystals kick on, and Soriya suddenly laughed.
“Oh my! Our girl’s invented air conditioning!”
Daniyel frowned at her. “It is a well known invention; we are not savages.”
Soriya grinned at him. “Oh really? How many troop transports or shuttle ships have comfortable seats and air conditioning?”
Daniyel smiled slowly. “One, that I’m aware of.” He gestured to the cabin with a hand.
“Hey, settle down! Everybody buckle up! I’m gonna light up the engines!” Lakshmi shouted over her shoulder to us.
A quick check ensured that we had in fact gotten our seat belts on. It was kind of refreshing, actually… I had a flashback to the rather unfortunate ride that I’d taken in the Pelican, before it’s rather untimely demise.
The thrum of mana flowing through the hull of the Sparrowhawk II was entirely different from the crude, loud, and painful construction of the Pelican. And with barely a whisper of sound, the ship lifted from the sand, and floated into the sky, rapidly gaining speed.
Down below, the silent black dome of Nocturnus watched the ship vanish into the blue sky, with a cracking boom of displaced air. The only trace left was a slowly fading streak of white cloud.