Captain Krawl's office was pretty much exactly what one would expect of a captain's quarters, if that captain ran one of the most lucrative illegal entertainment venues and was also a centipede.

There were no chairs, Null noticed immediately. Other rooms in the skyship had chairs, since the average Skavenger was a bipedal canid, but there were none here. Krawl couldn't use them. Instead there were cushions, rather a lot like most dragon furniture. Behind the large desk bolted to the floor, in one corner with a more substantial stuffing, and in a couple of other places were lavish cushions.

The second thing Null noticed was the abundance of trophies. Stuffed heads of monsters and sea creatures, but also of sapient races like dragons and canids. Swords hung on racks, made of exotic materials and laden with gems and gold. Ancient scrolls in locked cases, tomes bound in rare leather, magical trinkets and artifacts in cushioned boxes. It was mind-boggling just how many things Krawl had accumulated in this room alone. And if the treasure vault was as richly filled as this room alone it would be a trove of valuables.

Krawl himself, however, sat on the cushion behind his desk. His recently severed arm was bandaged, but it wasn't that one that Null focused on. One of the limbs that had been nothing but a stump yesterday was slightly longer than before.

"Yes, I am - klik - regenerating at a steady rate."

Null's eyes snapped to the centipede's face.

"Your ckonssern is appresshhiated." Krawl clicked to himself before continuing. "But not reckquired. Silver."

The canid first mate entered the office, closing the door behind him as he approached the desk. "Sir."

"What would you do with this - klik - dragon? He has dis-obeyed my direckt orders and has en-dangered presccchious ckargo." Krawl tilted his head.

"I would have 'im disciplined, sir. Insubordination is not t' be tolerated," Silver answered immediately.

"I see." Krawl nodded. "And that is why you are not the ckaptain, Silver. Short-sighted as you are."

"Sir." Silver did not visibly react.

"Null. Tell me. How did you do this?" Krawl placed a gray crystal on his desk. The heart of the tidestrider.

"I…" Null had to be careful. Tell too much and he might put himself in great danger. Tell too little and Krawl would find him useless. It was lucky, then, that he barely knew anything about his own abilities. "I have no magic, and I am immune to magical effects. I think that what happened was it was trying to siphon my magic - that's what the hearts of elementals do, after all - and when it couldn't it rapidly drained through its own reserves trying to."

"I see…" Krawl turned towards Silver for a moment, then back to Null. "Silver, retrieve my… personal projeckt."

"Yes sir." Silver stepped over to a display case and produced a key from somewhere on his person. He placed the key into a slot on the side of the case, and a hidden compartment below the main display case popped open. From that compartment, Silver retrieved a blackened scroll case, inscribed with runes. He brought it to the desk and gently put it down.

"Null. Open the scroll and tell me what is within," Krawl commanded.

Null picked up the case and slowly unscrewed the end. He noted how the cap was made for digits much larger than his, and his paws were already roughly the same size as the hands of most bipedal species. Interesting. The scroll inside was some kind of dark blue fabric, the sort of thing that survived thousands of years in the right conditions. Once the cap was off and the contents poured into his hand, he glanced up at Krawl and Silver. Both were watching him intently.

Well, nothing to lose.

He unrolled the scroll, scanning the diagrams written upon it. There were runes all about the edges of the scroll that made his eyes hurt when he tried to look at them, but there was no other effect.

"Well? What is-," Silver strode around to look at the scroll, only to crumple to the floor in an unceremonious heap. He was still breathing, but his eyes were unfocused and his body limp.

"Idiot." Krawl shook his head. "What do you see, Null?"

"It looks… like a blueprint." Null furrowed his brow. He couldn't immediately tell what it was for, but it was complex and had multiple components. Either that, or there were multiple blueprints on the scroll. He couldn't tell yet.

"A blue-print for…?"

Oh. Null suppressed a smile. He knew what this was now. He had his escape plan.

"A map," Null lied confidently, "Or more specifically, a holographic projector that produces a map."

Krawl started laughing, his awful screeching amusement filling the room. He wouldn't be laughing for long if Null had any say.

"Ckongrat-ulationss, Null. You have been pro-moted," Krawl said.

"Does this promotion include letting me and Apex go?" Null raised one brow.

"I'm sshhoore it can be arranged." There wasn't a hint of sincerity in the centipede's voice, but there was plenty of greed. "I thinck this will be very profitable for all of us…"

O-O-O

Null's position on the ship changed literally overnight.

After Krawl declared him to be the Captain's personal tinkerer, most of the deckhands treated Null with respect. Nobody wanted to get on Krawl's bad side, and picking on Null had turned into the quick way to do that. The first deckhand to lift him by the collar and shake him like a doll had found seven sharp points in his back and a pair of mandibles in his ear. There wasn't a second incident after that.

It turned out that being the only one able to read a cursed scroll made him incredibly valuable in the eyes of the Captain. Doubly so when Krawl was convinced that the map in the schematics would lead to the ruins of an ancient civilization, full of forgotten technologies and ancient treasures.

And Null would continue to let him believe that, until it was too late.

What the blueprints supposedly detailed was the creation of was a holographic projector that, under the right circumstances, would display a detailed three-dimensional map to some ancient draconic city. The second component was a key that would set the map to the proper coordinates, a required part of the process. Both components required materials that, surprisingly, the Lady Albatross had on-board. Mostly in the treasure vault or the cargo hold, but they were there. The hardest part to acquire was a special tool called a thaum-wrench to assemble the entire contraption, and Krawl was able to leverage a connection with a visiting pirate crew to get his hands on one. To make the rest of the process easier, Null was given unquestioned access to the treasure vault, as well as the entire rest of the ship while he worked on the projector.

Silver voiced his complaints at this level of freedom, at least when Krawl was around. The first mate often talked about how giving a slave full access to the treasure room was playing havoc with motivating the other slaves. But when Krawl wasn't around and Silver was alone with Null, he sang a very different tune. He constantly tried to make himself seem like Null's biggest ally and closest friend, even though Null didn't buy any of it. Null was just waiting for the other shoe to drop on that particular matter.

Silver was convinced that Null's reticence was due to a loyalty to Krawl. The joke was on him, though. Null had no intention of giving his loyalty to slavers of any kind. How crucial he was to this project made him a lucrative ally, but he didn't budge.

It was kind of ironic, actually. Null was the only one capable of reading the scroll, but not for the reasons the pirates thought. Yes, his magic immunity helped, but that wasn't the factor that mattered.

No, what made it possible for him to read the scroll was the fact that he was a dragon.

The instructions written on the scroll were very clear on that matter. Only a dragon could read the scroll, because only a dragon would have use for the blueprints. At least, that's what the writers of the scroll thought, all those millennia ago. Null was pretty sure most of the poor saps on this skyship could use the designs inscribed on the dark blue fabric.

The historical implications of the scroll and its uses were fascinating. Were dragons at war with another major force at some point in the past, and that was why this scroll existed? Was it designed for a specific dragon to escape captivity? He would love to think about it, but there were more important things to worry about.

In any case, Null worked near-constantly on the device. He was invited to watch arena matches or partake in other luxuries, but he had passed. Even when he knew Apex would be in the arena. It was tempting, but he wanted this done as soon as possible.

Thus, he wasn't exactly sure how many days had passed. He got up, ate whatever Silver had procured for him - usually something high-quality and filling - and got to work. Every day was the same. Krawl watched him work some days, Silver others, and some days he was left to his own devices. Null figured it was a test of some sort, making sure he was loyal and still working. He passed, if only because the premise of the test was already undermined by his very first act with the scroll.

The primary device, the "map projector" was a roughly pyramid-shaped mechanism. It used spirit gems - placed by Krawl since Null couldn't touch them - as its main power source and a rare gem of the light element as its focus. The secondary device was egg-shaped, small enough for Null to hold in one paw. He had told Krawl it was a key, but it could open a lot more than just a door.

He had waited until Krawl and Silver were away to finish the device. Krawl was having him build it in the captain's quarters, which was a beautiful little piece of irony, but it made doing anything surreptitious much harder. But he managed it. While both captain and first mate were watching the arena, Null put the final touches on the device.

The plan was to activate it for as long as possible, then turn it off before Krawl would be back. It should have been foolproof. He even had the "key" in one paw, as a contingency.

Null put his paw on the button, activating the device. The gem at the pinnacle of the pyramid glowed gently, then fired a beam of yellow light up into the ceiling.

That… was not the expected result.

The door of the captain's quarters burst open, and Krawl scuttled across the room in moments. One of his hands grabbed Null by the collar and lifted him up, slamming him into a wall next to a trophy shark head. Two more hands grabbed his wings, pinning them to his sides, and a fourth hand grabbed Null's tail just below the blade. Krawl put his mandibles right up to Null's face, the stench of rotting meat rolling out of his maw.

"There had best - klik - be a good ecks-planashhun for the beam of light above my ckabin," Krawl hissed.

"There is," Null said evasively. He needed to stall. If the beacon was to work, he needed to stall for time.

"Tell. Me."

There was a click, and Null saw Silver moving in the corner of his eye.

"Iss thiss a mutiny, Silver?" Krawl turned his head, just a bit.

"That it is," Silver growled. He had his rifle up, pointing it at Krawl. "I'm sick o' ye, an' I'm sick o' yer threatenin'. I won't be havin' a cannibal fer a Cap'n."

"Thiss iss a poor time, Silver." Krawl's grasp on the common tongue was rapidly degenerating, his essess elongating and clicking sounds becoming more prevalent. "Right - klik - on the cusssp of greatnessss."

"On th' contr'y, I think this's a great time." Silver didn't budge, but he did look at Null. "Kid, when this bug's dead, I'll make yer life glitter with gold n' gems. Ye'll live in lux-"

Krawl shot Silver. As the canid stumbled from the impact of the bullet in his gut, Krawl shot him several more times with his various mage-pistols. Silver was reduced in moments to a smoldering heap on the ground.

With the brief mutiny unceremoniously dealt with, Krawl returned his attention to Null. A sharp point pricked Null's belly scales. "What iss the devisse doing? Honesssty may lead to leniensssy."

Well, Silver had given him some time, and there was a chance Krawl would give him more by waiting for an explanation, so…

"It's a distress beacon," Null answered.

"A dissstresss…" Krawl seemed confused for a moment, then the knife he held to Null's belly pushed just a bit harder. "Who? Who are you ckalling?"

"If the scroll is accurate, Warfang."

"...The dragons." Krawl's antennae twitched, and Null recognized it as the physical result of his annoyance. "Wass there any-thing of value on that sssscroll? Wass thiss all a ploy?"

"There was blueprints for the beacon, and for this." Null lifted the egg-shaped device in his paw so that it was between him and Krawl, one claw placed securely on the activation trigger. The centipede actually backed up, tilting his head to look at it. "An explosive device that releases a burst that ignites the magic in everything around it. Everything. Alive or not. It's enough to melt steel. The scroll was an escape plan, and you dropped it right into my paws. Thanks, I guess."

Krawl hissed to himself for a moment, then snarled. "Put. It. Down."

"I'm sure it can be arranged."

"Name your price," Krawl's voice was calmer, as though he had managed to regain some measure of control over the situation. He didn't really understand what Null was willing to do.

"Let me and Apex go. Whoever answers the beacon, they pick us up and take us to Warfang. No stopping us. Apex can bring any of his friends from the arena. You stop kidnapping people for your own amusement."

"You can-not be ssseriousss," Krawl's voice was a hiss once more, "You would banck-rupt me."

"I would have you stop being a slaver."

There was a brief moment where Null wasn't able to tell what Krawl was thinking, followed shortly after by one where he knew exactly what Krawl was thinking. Krawl drove the knife in-

Null pushed the button.

The first thing that struck him was the stabbing pain in his stomach. The knife pierced his scales and bit into muscle and flesh, but he didn't feel it hit any organs. Then again, he wouldn't know until later.

The second thing that struck him was a wave of concussive force. Krawl went across the room, hitting the opposite wall with enough force to splinter wood. He hadn't splattered, somehow surviving the impact, but the magic burned his chitin black. Null was launched sideways due to the angle, the collar on his neck cracking and falling apart as it was dragged along the wall. Friction scratched his scales down to tiny layers, burning his nerves. He didn't feel the worst of the explosion, though. The roof disintegrated, and he saw the shockwave ripping through the deck as well in the brief moments before -

The third thing that struck him was a display case, right in the back of the head.