It is a period of civil war. The Rebel fleet has for the first time prevailed over Imperial forces in combat. During the battle, rebel spies managed to steal plans of a weapon meant to secure control over the entire archipelago to the empress, lady Echo: a portal to Shukrute, an inexhaustible source of destructive shushu. A young partisan of the Rebellion, Flopin, has been entrusted with carrying the plans to the allied Sadida...
A cool breeze ruffled young cra's fair hair. Absently, he brushed it aside, eyes fixed on a dark shape on the horizon.
"How much time left?" asked the captain behind his back. The young man rested his elbows heavily on the railing.
"Unless you can control the wind, captain Antilles," he muttered, "we'll be caught up with by the Imperial craft within an hour."
In the shade of the ship, the water resembled crumpled dark silk.
"Ah hour?" an ecaflip sailor, who stood on the rigging, looked puzzled. "I can barely see it."
"Stasis engines." Cra eyes could easily distinguish the growing shape of the ship.
A seagull cried overhead. The captain joined him by the railing, in the corner of his eye Flopin saw white hair, fluffy like a dandelion.
After a moment's silence, Antilles ordered "Reef the sails! Get ready for enemy boarding. Don't make it too easy."
There was a patter of ecaflip feet. The young cra pushed himself back from the railing and stood there for a moment, seizing the Imperial man-of-war.
Heavy boots drummed on the deck overhead. Flopin quickly sealed his package. He whistled. In the ray of light from the porthole glimmered a yellow ball of fluff.
"You know where to deliver this."
The tofu twittered, the boy nodded and, ignoring the noises on the deck, he opened the window to throw out the little bird, package in his beak. He stared after it, until he couldn't see the yellow spot amongst the blue. Then he closed the porthole.
A door slammed nearby. Flopin picked up his crossbow from the table before retreating into the shadows.
Blue flare cut the ecaflip's body in half. It slid onto the deck, under feet of captain Antilles, who was studying the face of his man's murderer with a stony calm. Face, or rather a cloud of stasis, locked in a glass bowl. The empress's dog towered over most foggernauts, like a statue of a warrior cast in golden brass. Only the cloak on his shoulders was blowing in the wind.
"For the last time. Where are the plans you stole?"
Like all the technomages, he spoke in a mechanical, even tone, devoid of feeling.
"You have been misinformed, lord" Antilles needed to crane his head to look him in the glistening mist. "It's a passenger ship. We are carrying a diplomatic mission to Sadida."
The billows of stasis glittered, and just by captain's feet a blue-rimmed circle of a portal shone open, revealing a layer of grey clouds.
"Where are the plans?" asked Yugo.
"I have no idea."
The portal shifted by hand's width. Someone from Antilles's crew whimpered.
"If this is a diplomatic mission" said Yugo, addressing no-one in particular, "where is the ambassador?"
The hulking foggernaut turned, cloak billowing. Flopin bit his lip, when the soldier, who was clutching his arm, stood before the leader, ramrod straight.
Up to now the young cra pictured the Sword of the Empress as just another technomage, a puppet of metal, animated by an imitation soul, but Yugo's armour seemed to really contain a living body. It had muscular arms and legs instead of thin rods, it lacked an in-built stasis cannon, as well, although the purple fog of foggernauts did fill the glass dome on top.
"What happened to the plans you stole?" The mage asked, his voice echoing like from inside of a steel pipe. The young cra straightened proudly.
"I don't know what you're talking about. I'm on a diplomatic mission to Sadida."
"You are part of the Rebellion and a traitor. Take him away!"
A foggernaut pulled Flopin by the arm, another pushed his back. Marched away, he heard the mechanical bass order "Search the ship!" and he smiled inwardly.
Clouds, smoke-dark, were gathering on the horizon.
In one leap, Elely jumped over a puddle. There were lots on the path, making it shimmer in the sunlight like a stream winding among the emerald grass. And smell of rain filled the air.
The iop stayed in the village overnight, because she had been helping in the common stables till it got late, and stormy, and nobody would let her just go home. As if she was a kid, really. And they couldn't understand why she moved out on her sixteenth birthday.
The path turned, leading Elely into a grove of trees green like the greenest thing on earth, as if the rain washed dust off them, bringing out the real colours. She picked up a pitch black stick and twirled it expertly before spinning to attack her imaginary opponent, then finished him off with an elegant upwards cut and nodded in compliment to her own prowess. If only there were monsters on Muideat... yeah, she'd have shown them!
Pity that only the shoemaker from the Eastern Harbour could qualify here, and it was a stretch, though Elely still remembered how badly a well-thrown clog bruises. Other than that the island only had wodents and dirty stables. These people needed an eniripsa, not a iop.
Among the trees she saw the roof of her cottage, shiny wet slate shingles.
She hit a branch that hung over the path, knocking off a sparkly rain of droplets, spun, parried and there she was, breath steady, at the door. Thrown into the bushes, the stick produced a pleasant rustle.
And then - an indignant whistle. Huh?
There was another whistle, weak and pathetic, so Elely, smacking her lips, went to see. On the wet ground under the bush, just beside her stick, a small yellow pom-pom sat, feathers almost like spikes, so soaked the poor thing was, a condemning stare fixed at the iop girl. The effect sort of vanished when the tofu sneezed.
"You got lost?" she asked, sitting on her haunches. She reached for the tofu, but the bird exploded with twitters, pressing itself to the ground.
"Hey, knock it off! I really had no idea you were here. What's that, there?"
Because she got a glimpse of something underneath the yellow feathers, like a parchment, but the tofu spread out his wings and hugged this thing with all his weight. He whistled contemptuously.
The iop rolled her eyes. With one hand she picked the struggling tofu up, while the other dug the package out of the soil.
"Neither rain nor snow, huh? Listen" she added over a stream of indignant chirping "if that's for someone on Muideat, I can deliver it, I know everybody here. And you can rest."
The tofu gave her a long whistle, and she laughed.
"The Empire? Wouldn't touch this rock with a really long pole. But suit yourself, little courier."
She put the package in her trouser pocket and got up, the twittering tofu in her arms.
"Come on, I'll give you a warm bath. So you don't catch a cold."
Elely poured the bowl of soapy water out the window, then refilled it with warm water from the pot and put on the tabletop of raw planks, convenient for her little guest.
"Come on, rinse it out" she said. "What do you eat? Seeds, right? Cause all I got is rye bread. Bit stale." she added, opening the bread box.
The tofu stopped splashing for a moment to trill.
"Good."
Elely perched on a wooden chest by the table. She took the package out and, ignoring the indignant twitters, rolled it back and forth between her palms. There definitely was some hard, smooth, cool thing underneath the paper. Glass?
"What is it?"
The bird shot out of the bath so fast, he somehow got a full beak of water and coughed spasmodically, so Elely had to play lifeguard, using a large handkerchief.
"All right, all right, no reading other people's mail. Don't be mad."
She put the packet on the table. It was sealed with the sigil of Cra.
The tofu tweeted, clicked his beak and sat on the little package, as if it was an egg. Then he whistled, irritated.
"Goultard?" the iop smiled radiantly. "See how lucky you are? He lives just a stone throw from here. I'll be happy to show you. After breakfast." She waggled her finger at him with a giggle. The tofu rolled his eyes.
Goultard lived right in the middle of the island, in the darkest, most tangled tangle of a forest, difficult to get one's bearing in even when you weren't hungry and distracted. Which was why she had insisted on the breakfast.
"He thinks he's a fairy-tale wizard, or something" Elely explained, clambering over a slightly rotten log. The tofu's claws clenched on her shoulder.
"Oi! Calm down, okay? Wouldn't you be more comfortable if I carried this package in my pocket?"
But the bird only flinched, the package dangling at his beak tapping Elely's cheek.
"Not far now. I've no idea why he's such a recluse, maybe he just hates working fields. Careful."
The bird hugged her shoulder, avoiding by hair's breadth the branch that swept over Elely's face.
"And he says really weird things" she continued. "But he's all right, he's teaching me a bit of sword fighting. Goultard! Goultard, mail!"
Hands on her hips, the iop craned her head to look at the top of the half-ruined tower, picturesquely overgrown with vines. She snorted. In several long strides she got to the wall, pushed away the curtain of creepers and whacked her fist on the wooden door.
"Are you in?"
"No."
Elely rested both her hands on wood.
"Every time he does this" she sighed before turning round.
Her mentor was standing there, on the path, hands folded and an infuriatingly knowing smile on his face. There was a bright green leaf tangled in his red dreadlocks.
"What's new, Ely?"
The girl stroked the little ball of bristly feathers that was perched on her shoulder.
"A messenger, for you."
Goultard's brow shot up.
"I never gave anyone this address. What did you bring, little bird?"
The tofu grew even spikier, sharp claws digging right into Elely's skin. The man simply pushed by her to open the tower door and let the girl and the tofu inside.
"You know I'd be happy to help you fix the roof?" Elely said, stopping at the doorstep. She had to wait for her eyes to get used to the light, which filled Goultard's tower like golden syrup fills a bottle.
"A true iop sleeps under the stars" her mentor called briskly. The tofu brushed his soft wing at Elely's ear.
"I don't know" she said, stroking his head. She pulled a stool from the wall to sit, resting her elbows on the tabletop, grey from years of rains, and Goultard reached out, waiting.
The tofu hugged Elely's shoulder.
The iop laughed out loud.
"Yes, he really is Goultard, trust me" the girl gently put her little companion on the table in front of herself.
"You're right to hesitate" said Goultard, taking the package off him. He gave the seal a long, hard stare before breaking it. "What if I'm an impostor who got rid of the real Goultard? Eh?"
"Are you being funny? I'd have noticed" snorted Elely.
Inside the package there was a vial of sky-blue liquid, and it glistened with colours like mother of pearl when Goultard held it to the light. His brow wrinkled. Meanwhile, Elely reached for the package.
"Hey, there's a letter. Inside. Really tiny writing..."
"Yes, I noticed" Goultard shook the vial, squinting. "Read it, will you?"
Elely smoothed the paper out on the table.
"Master Goultard. For the sake of your old friendship with my parents I beg you now for help in our struggle against the Empire. The vial contains the newest achievement of alchemy, the self-writing ink. In this portion I have enchanted the plans for the portal to Shukrute the Empire has nearly completed now. They must be delivered to our friends in Sadida. This is our last hope. We beg for your help, Goultard. Flopin."
The iop girl looked up at her master, who was staring at the vial, forehead creased. Then he shook himself off and smiled at Elely.
"That village of yours" he said "could they do without you for a couple of months?"
"Yes!" The girl jumped on her feet, upsetting both the stool and the tofu, who, with an indignant screech, hid among Goultard's dreadlocks.
"Yay! Finally adventure!"
She danced around the table while her mentor, head shaking, walked up to the wall, opened a large wooden chest and began rummaging in it. The tofu sneezed.
"We'll get a ship in the Eastern Harbour, at the Red Dragon. It's a smugglers' cave, so-"
Elely snorted. "There's one harbour on this island, and only one inn. I've been there before. I've been all around."
Goultard threw a travelling cloak at her, which she expertly caught and coughed, on account of the dust.
"You may still end up missing the boredom, Ely" he said, still digging through the chest.
"Me? Not in this life, I won't! That's a cool one!"
"D' you like it?" the master unsheathed the short sword to give it a critical look. With a nod, he handed the sword, sheath and belt and all, to Elely.
"For me?"
"Used to be your father's."
Hands trembling with excitement, Elely buckled the belt around her waist.
"To adventure!"
"To adventure" nodded Goultard. The tofu whistled melodiously.