“Ooohkay.” I said. “So, I’m going with ‘no’, then. Soriya, this is… this isn’t you!” I squeezed my hands in my skirts tightly.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were in so much pain?!” I protested. “I… I don’t like killing!” I said with anguish. “If those people attack us, if we’re forced to defend ourselves, then alright! But please Soriya! Don’t make me kill people just because of bad memories! Bad memories from another life! Please. As… as a favor to your best friend?”

The darkness in Soriya’s eyes flickered, and she slowly took a deep breath, and I saw the whiteness of her knuckles slowly fade.

“We don’t even know that it’s sylvani who stole the airship! There’s way more catkin in the city than there are sylvani! It’s more likely that it’s the catkin!” I pleaded with her. Greatly daring, I pushed a {Persuade} at her with all my mana behind it.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Eshaan open his mouth to speak, and Camaxtli elbow him hard. Mercifully, he took the hint.

“Alright.” Soriya finally grated out. “But if they make even the slightest wrong move-!”

I nodded hurriedly, biting my lower lip. “Alright.” I breathed a sigh of relief, dropping the {Persuade}. Kneeling down next to her, I said “If… if you’re in pain, I want to help.”

“As do I.” Daniyel said softly.

Soriya took another deep breath and then nodded slowly.

Eshaan looked between us, and then through some miracle, remained silent. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to punch him or kiss him for that.

The remainder of the flight was quick. Whoever was piloting the Sparrowhawk was clearly unfamiliar with its true capabilities. We caught up with it just as the heavily forested coastline of Pristina came into view on the horizon ahead of us.

That’s when they finally figured out the Sparrowhawk’s guns.

Our only warning was Lakshmi’s sudden screamed “Brace!” and then the whole mothship slammed its hull against us as Lakshmi pitched hard to the right to avoid a thunderous blast that shook the hull like a leaf.

Everyone except Camaxtli fell against the hull in a tangle of limbs and bodies and quite a few elbows in my gut that I really could have done without thank you.

“Lily! Get us a shield, now!” Lakshmi screamed over her shoulder at me.

I struggled to free my staff from the tangle of limbs, muttering under my breath the whole time. I barely managed to chant a hurried {Barrier} before the impact of the Sparrowhawk’s guns slammed into it, the bubble of force rebounding and vibrating like a giant bell.

But it held! My spell held against the guns!

“How long can you hold that?!” Eshaan asked worriedly.

I gritted my teeth. “Not all that long, actually. Two more shots, maybe three?”

“Soriya! Do that thing with the engines you did to the Pelican!”

“The overcharge?!” Soriya asked incredulously. “That only worked because of your crazy modifications to the engine!”

“It doesn’t need to work more than once! Just long enough to get us over the Sparrowhawk for boarding!” Lakshmi said.

Soriya looked doubtfully at the engine room then back at Lakshmi. Her lips firmed and she nodded. “Alright. We’ll try this.”

She and Daniyel hurried towards the engine room. Camaxtli said “I will assist. I believe that I have some ideas that may provide a useful-”

“Just do it!” Lakshmi shouted at him. “If anybody can make it work it’s you!”

Camaxtli paused, and then gave a faint smile and a quick half bow before hurrying towards the rear to join Soriya and Daniyel.

The Sparrowhawk’s cannons roared once more, and I felt my {Barrier} shudder, and my mana dropped precipitously.

Well I guess that’s only fair, the ship has leveled up with us, so of course I can’t really be angry that I can’t tank an attack from her guns as easiliy as I can tank an attack from an Imperial cutter. I rolled my eyes. “Who am I kidding, I am angry.” I muttered.

“Don’t worry Lily, we’ll get the Sparrowhawk back!” Eshaan said cheerfully.

I let out a long sigh. Eshaan stared at me in puzzlement. I shook my head. “Later.” I said. “I’ll explain later.”

“If you say so…?” Eshaan said, frowning at me. “But you were just complaining that Soriya wouldn’t share her emotions with you.”

I felt the truth of that statement like tasting a bitter lemon, and my face showed it. Eshaan’s look of triumph made it even worse.

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“Alright, alright, fine. I’m warning you, this is seer stuff though. I’m angry that the Sparrowhawk leveled up with us, so it’s guns deal more damage than the Imperial cutter we fought back in Galgados.”

Eshaan blinked slowly, then said “I don’t get it.” I was in the middle of rolling my eyes when he wrapped his arms around me and gave me a hug from behind, which almost made me drop my {Barrier}. “But I don’t need to get it. I can see you’re upset, and I’m here to listen. We’ll get through this, like we get through everything. Our friends are our strength.”

I could feel my cheeks turn pink and my ears tingle with the force of my blush.

Stupid optimistic hero, saying stupid optimistic hero things! I thought, though I could feel my lips twitching up into a happy smile even as I thought it.

Camaxtli pushed past us and said calmly. “We are ready to attempt the process.”

Soriya shouted from behind us “I make no promises about this! You get one shot at this, the engine will be fried once we do it!”

“Then I’ll just have to make sure we do it right!” Lakshmi said.

“What do I do?!” Eshaan asked, excitement coloring his voice.

“We’re going to overshoot them with the burst of power. When we do, I’m going to tip the ship, and snag our wings on the Sparrowhawk’s. Then, we open the hatch, and jump out!”

“Oh! Sounds simple!”

I closed my eyes and sighed again.

“You’ve done this lots of times before, right?”

The pause before Lakshmi said “O-oh yeah! Absolutely!” made me want to strangle her slowly. Eshaan of course, didn’t notice.

“So! Lets do it! Everybody hold on to something! Daniyel, do it!”

I wedged myself against a bulkhead and closed my eyes. There was a loud explosion from the engine room, and the little elven mothship pressed me against the bulkhead, the Sparrowhawk vanishing in front of us like a magic trick.

Almost immediately the engine noise cut out entirely, an eerie silence filling the ship, only the sound of wind noise outside filling my ears. The ship tilted sharply, and I staggered. There was a grinding ripping sound, and the mothship suddenly tilted sharply the other direction, causing me to lose my grip.

My {Barrier} popped like a soap bubble as I lost concentration and the mothship suddenly jerked and settled in another new direction. Eshaan slapped the lever to open the hatch, and the roar of wind and the sounds of the Sparrowhawk’s engines straining and whining in protest filled the air.

Outside, I saw that Lakshmi had locked the ships wings just like she said she would. However, the ocean below us was growing closer at an alarming rate. The hatch opened onto a perilously narrow patch of the hull, which Eshaan blithely jumped out onto, followed a heartbeat later by Camaxtli.

“Lakshmi?!” I looked at the cockpit to see Lakshmi heading towards the hatchway.

“Alright, everybody out! We’ve got a ship to steal back!” Lakshmi said and then hopped through the hatchway onto the hull.

I let out a little whimper. Daniyel and Soriya stepped out towards the hatch. Daniyel put his hand on my shoulder and said “Don’t worry. You already know she’s much more reliable than she appears.”

Then he was gone out the hatch and I was left to catch up on an empty ship. Outside, Lakshmi was already working on cracking open a hatch to the gun turret. I hadn’t even known our guns had a hatch!

The locking mechanism turned green, and Lakshmi heaved the hatch open, a triumphant grin on her face. She got as far as “Heave too, and-” before a blast of energy whooshed out and turned a few locks of her red hair to ash grey.

Daniyel was there in a blur, faster than I could follow, his energy gauntlets knocking the second blast away before it could reach her, followed by a punch into the darkness of the hatchway. A moment later, he was diving through, followed by Eshaan and Camaxtli.

Lakshmi didn’t seem the slightest bit put out as she watched the boys vanish into the darkness below. She turned to Soriya and I and said “Well. It appears that they will need to learn of Lakshmi the Red.” And with that, she turned and vanished into the entrance with a grin.

I blinked and looked questioningly at Soriya. There was a bright feral light in her eyes that worried me. I reached over and laid my hand on her arm. She looked up at me, the feral glint fading. She shook her head as though shaking off thoughts, her long hair whipping in the slipstream, then smiled her familiar daredevil smile. “Don’t worry. I’ll give them a chance to surrender.”

A loud explosion and the sound of swords crashing together emerged from the hatchway, and Soriya added “Provided they leave anything for us.” She dropped into the open hatchway and I followed nervously.

Inside the ship was chaos. The type of chaos I was starting to become all too familiar with. Battle had a rhythm and flow all its own, and a logic too, if you could keep up with the lightning fast movements of Eshaan, Daniyel, and Camaxtli. Which I couldn’t, not really. I could track their movements, of course, but the idea of blocking such a blow? Impossible. Very much beyond me. Well, unless I used a {Barrier}, of course.

The sylvani and catkin pirates inside the Sparrowhawk clearly felt the same way.

I felt a guilty relief seeing that there were catkin in the ship. Two, in fact. Big burly bruiser types with muscles on their muscles, and scars crisscrossing their fur.

I shot a quick glance at Soriya, my lips twitching into a wry smile. It’s a good thing Daniyel is here, or she’d have to wipe the drool off her lips. I hurriedly threw up a {Barrier} for my friends, followed by a {Heal}.

Several sylvani and third catkin were already sprawled on the ground, bleeding. I gasped and hurled the fastest {Heal} I’d ever cast at them, and breathed a sigh of relief as the faint flickering shimmer of dissolution faded. The sylvani behind the catkin were already hard pressed, and with Soriya and my arrival, the battle was all but concluded.

Now I just need to make sure that Soriya doesn’t murder them all.

Lakshmi posed, and gestured dramatically with her own firearm as the catkin were knocked backwards into the bulkhead by another of Daniyel’s ferocious fists.

“Surrender! You cannot win this fight, but Lakshmi the Red does not kill without cause!” She pointed to the healed pirates on the ground.

Drama queen. I thought, then giggled. Drama princess, actually. I wonder that she hasn’t taken any {Orator} levels… and I wonder if she should?! I shook my head at the thought. No, of course she hasn’t she’s rebelling against her role, why would she take any {Orator} levels. She’s convinced she’s a Sky Pirate.

Looking at the swirling flame of her hair and her red long coat flapping in the wind, I thought. And I can’t even say she’s wrong, actually. She looks incredibly cool.

The catkin paused, and then raised their hands. Behind them, the sylvani looked like they were about to fight on, when Soriya appeared from a cloak of darkness behind them and placed the barrel of Ægishjálmur at the back of their skull.

“Please. I’m begging you. Try something. You pieces of shit, just try something.” She said, her voice low and dangerous.

I hadn’t known that Ægishjálmur had a hammer until she cocked it.

The clatter of the sylvani weapons hitting the deck coincided with Soriya’s annoyed ‘tch’, but the sight of all the pirates raising their hands in surrender was a sweet relief to me. Now we just had to figure out why they’d stolen the Sparrowhawk when there was a perfectly good mothship docked right next to it.