Ambigious was woken up by Fire shouting something about change of plans and departing immediately. He groaned. He hadn't stayed up long the day before but it was still a pity to leave the comfortable bed he was in.

As he went down the stairs to the ground floor he saw that everyone else was ready to go already, luckily he didn't have many things he needed to grab before he was ready. After they had breakfast in the meal hall they followed Fire through the fog.

As they passed by the elevator building Ambigious asked: "Aren't we taking the train?"

Fire said: "No, I managed to arrange something different for us. A new airship prototype was just completed yesterday, we'll use it to get to Rockhaven quickly."

Ambigious asked: "It won't crash or anything, right?"

Fire answered: "Most likely not. We are past the part of airship development where we have to worry about fatal malfunctions. Now we are trying to make them faster, bigger and more efficient. This prototype is a step towards that direction, it's the first airship that can carry more than two people without having to move at a snail's pace."

The road they were walking on was quite populated, people were transporting resources in the direction of the airship port. The resources were mostly wood or different metals but there were also people with carts of redstone, glowstone dust or blaze powder.

TehLulz asked Unchosen: "How was the visit at Andras'?"

"It was interesting. He told us a bunch about his previous adventures and the creatures he encountered there, some of it might come in handy. Then there was the incident where Wodahs slid in under the door and started talking to Andras' demon leg armor, it was weird."

Shadow laughed: "I wondered where she went, seems like she found a friend in Tursnak. She really enjoys not having to follow me all the time."

As soon as the road left Drandin it wound its way up the valley in serpentines, it still wasn't very steep since it was a transport road. At the top there were the entrances to the airship port, one entrance to the workshop and one to the boarding area.

The boarding area was similar to the one of the train station, only a bit smaller. Currently there were five airships docked, four small ones and a big one. They were made entirely from firesteel and shared the same structure. The airships consisted of a gondola with an oval firesteel balloon above it, connected by several rods. Glass panes filled the gaps between the rods, forming a cabin. In the back of the airships were large propellers which would provide the necessary forward propulsion. The small ones had two seats behind a console, there were pipes going up to the balloon from the console. The big airship had a much larger passenger cabin with a glass floor and a separated cabin for the pilot, which was made from glass entirely.

One of the human airship engineers approached them, he said: "Hello, good to see you."

His voice seemed familiar to Ambigious, soft with a bit of a scratch. He asked: "Weren't you the one who came to get us in the quarry? Brad, right?"

This was the first time Ambigious had seen Brad's face, in the quarry it had been covered by his diamond helmet. Brad had short blond hair, blue eyes and a short beard.

"Yes, indeed. I'm glad all of you made it here." Brad said.

Ambigious went to shake Brad's hand, as he did he once again felt the resonance of his Eye-and-Claws mark, he still had to get used to meeting people who had it.

Ambigious asked: "So, you work on the airships here?"

Brad nodded. "Yes, I generally work on anything that requires mechanical expertise like maintaining the central engine. The reason I specifically work on the airship project is because I'm also an alchemist. To make them actually float you need to get the mixture of glowstone, redstone and blaze powder just right. Otherwise it either doesn't float, it floats too much or it melts the balloon."

"So, this is the first flight of this one, right?" Ambigious asked.

"I have flown it in the workshop yesterday but not yet out there, I don't think it'll perform much differently. It took a long time to make the whole construct light enough to fly, that and of course the mixture had to be changed a bit. I'll also be your pilot today. I'll set you down near Rockhaven and fly it back here."

The cabin was quite spacious, the seats were large and cushioned, not as much as the seats in the train but still very comfortable. After they all boarded the airship, Brad climbed into his pilot cabin, the chains holding the airship in place were released and it floated on the spot.

After Brad was done checking everything, the propeller in the back slowly started moving, driving the airship out of the port. All of a sudden there was just the seemingly endless fog below them.

TehLulz looked down and said: "That's spooky."

Ambigious saw Brad pull a lever and felt how the airship rose up further into the sky. The view was incredible, at the edge of the fog he could see woods on one side and a desert on the other. Now that they were in the open sky the propeller ran at full speed, Ambigious figured that they were moving quite quickly but couldn't confirm it since the ground below them was still covered in fog.

After a bit of time had passed Fire said: "I am a Rockhaven citizen, so is Shadow. You four are not, which means that under normal circumstances you aren't allowed in without a long procedure. We have ways to circumvent that. You'll have to do a bit of acting."

Shadow continued: "Thinking of a cover story for freeZe was easy, the apprentices of citizens are allowed free passage into the city. For you three it's a bit harder. I had the thought that you three and Fire are people I hired to protect me and my apprentice during our travels. Naturally you three are Fire's apprentices, that way everybody is able to get in."

Unchosen asked: "So, we just have to think of plausible mercenary backstories, right?"

Shadow nodded. "Exactly, make up some of your past jobs and you'll be fine. That and don't mention that Fire is my brother, that'll only create more questions. Once you are inside Rockhaven nobody really asks any questions."

Ambigious asked: "How is the security in Rockhaven?"

Fire explained: "There is exactly one active entrance to the city, which is the main gate, everything that goes in and out of the city needs to pass through there. The walls can't be destroyed by anything except highly enchanted diamond pickaxes and even then it would take a while."

"What are the walls made from?" Ambigious asked.

Fire extended the claw on his right index finger and said: "From the same material as my claws, people have taken to calling it 'artificial bedrock'. Rockhaven was built by the Mencur-Besh very early on. With enough magic we can grow this material into any shape we want, the entire Mencur-Besh population was involved in the construction. Although it turns out that humans don't take kindly to mysterious, powerful creatures building a fortress with unknown purpose in the span of a few months. We had to abandon it, it stood empty for years until a couple of humans decided to claim it for themselves and call it Rockhaven."

Shadow continued: "The political system in Rockhaven is quite interesting. Every resident is part of some kind of guild, there are of course guilds for the supernatural crafts but there is also the Weaver Guild for example. Each guild elects a leader who then maintains this positon until they die or retire, even if they have the ability to respawn. Each guild also has a representative at the royal court. The ruler is protected by the Royal Guard, which is somewhat like a guild in structure, the Guard captain is elected with the same system. The Guard is an extremely elite unit, they are the best equipped fighting force on the entire server, excluding the Mencur-Besh and Drandin of course."

freeZe asked: "I assume that the ruler is elected similarly to the guild leaders."

"Not entirely, only the guild representatives in the court can ever be chosen to be the next ruler, usually though the ruler is from one of the supernatural guilds or from the Guard since those are the most powerful and most influential parties in Rockhaven. The current king was elected about a hundred years ago, he used to be the captain of the Guard."

Ambigious asked: "What if there is some kind of coup?"

This time Fire answered: "That's where the Eye-and-Claws come in. While we don't have much official power in Rockhaven, we can still make a lot of things happen. We try to keep the peace as much as we can, we aren't interested in infighting and war. In case of a coup or any kind of foul play during the elections, a special rule comes into action, all representatives are returned to their respective guild and new ones are elected, then from those a new ruler is chosen. It has never come any further than this but if it did, the Eye-and-Claws would seize control of the city and reestablish order until things calm down, then a new court is elected and everything returns to its normal state."

TehLulz said: "It makes sense, you don't want to lose control over that eye…"

They were interrupted by Brad: "Hold on tight, I believe there is some turbulence coming up. Time to test what this baby can really do."

They could barely really grip their seats before the airship started jumping and shaking in the wind. The ride to Rockhaven wasn't going to be as smooth as they had hoped.