The Brazen Bell

Valor Loftlan shook his head incredulously as the shrouded black mage brushed passed him to stalk up the corridor. "I cannot believe she actually attacked us."

He looked over at Sana-Lynn, the blond girl's light hazel eyes focused hard on the black mage. "Her heart wasn't in it, Valor. I could feel it when my Shell absorbed her fire."

The Chosen of Earth just nodded. "I see. Still her constant abrasiveness is beginning to weary me greatly. And what was the point of that massive fireball she shot into the air?"

The white mage blinked her amber eyes a few times with an exasperated sigh. "I've no clue. Though we've all seen its effectiveness against Baigan at the castle, I still can't bring myself to trust her pernicious magic."

Valor suddenly put a reassuring hand on her shoulder and Sana gave a startled squeak, her fierce gaze quickly becoming a surprised one as it switched from Robin to him. "Still, Sana, if it brought you back to us, then I am glad she tried to scorch me, just as I appreciate your prevention of it."

The girl's face suddenly flushed and she turned away quickly. "O-oh, please think nothing of it, Valor, it is my duty," she suddenly looked down. "A duty I haven't kept as I should."

He removed his hand, his gauntleted fists clenching at his side. "We all let slip our guard at the castle, Sana-Lynn, but we cannot continue to dwell on it. We must move on."

"Oh… is that why you changed your hair, Valor?" the girl asked tentatively.

The boy started a bit, still so unused to his new hairstyle that he reached up to run a hand through it. Nearly his whole life, he had worn his hair shoulder-length, and it had always been a deep brown like his father's but with silvery highlights, an unusual trait granted by his mother, who, as it turned out, had been one of the eidolons in human form. Recently, however, Valor had had it cut shorter and dyed fully brown with an alchemical coloring he had gotten from a local barber. This change had been a necessary one for him after his mother had died. He couldn't completely explain why he had needed to, but the urge had been too compelling to ignore.

"I am not fully certain, Sana. It was simply a necessity."

"Oh, okay," the white mage said with a small smile.

He smiled back at her, but quickly frowned when Gantz came sauntering up. "Does that shrouded harridan even know where she's going?"

The old engineer had hung back, but now came up with both his burly fists on hips. "Nope, bloody little fire-starter is heading back to the shanty and me bloody cot."

Gantz folded his arms with a sigh. "Cripes, can't even admit when she's lost."

Valor took a few steps forward, raising his voice. "Robin Magus, you seem to be going the wrong direction."

The black mage didn't bother to stop, however, and so the others just went after her.

Old Cid scratched his nearly bald head. "Quite a headstrong little chit, ain't she."

Valor spoke up at once, "You do not know the half of it, Lord Rumsley," just as Gantz declared, "You don't know the bloody half of it, old man."

The two immediately stopped and glared at each other, prompting Sana-Lynn to giggle and the old engineer to laugh. Cid gave a nod, tugging at his bushy white beard. "Take it from an old man, whelps, you all have a lot more in common than you bloody think, even beyond your fate."

Gantz growled. "Don't be senile, old man, me and the blue blood ain't got nothing in common!"

Valor just clenched his jaw, glaring at the thief. He couldn't agree more.

Cid only shrugged his burly shoulders. "Of course you ain't gonna see what's right before your eyes, not at your age, but bloody what and whatnot. Let's catch the fire-starter and get a move on." He ambled ahead, replacing the heavy goggles over his dark eyes. "Hey, witch girl! You're headed the wrong bloody way!" he roared.

If Robin heard, she made no sign as she suddenly turned right up ahead, apparently switching down another path through the heaps that the rest of them were too far back to see.

Gantz suddenly ran and leapt up to the top of a junk heap. He looked back down at the others. "I'll head her off and try to talk some bloody sense into her. Old man, you lead these two sloths to where your new toy is. I already know how to get there." And he was off.

"Cocky little cuss, if you ask me," Cid announced and then barked laugh. "Kinda reminds me of me, when I was a young fool." He laughed again and turned back, "Come on, whelps, I know this place like I know me own arse. I bet you we can beat both those bloody brats to the prize." He gave them a big toothy grin.

Valor found himself growling at the old man's profanity, but Sana just giggled again, a pleasant smile on her face as she made a permissive gesture with her ashen staff. "Please lead the way, Master Rumsley."

As it was, it took only ten or so minutes for them to reach the very northern edge of the junk heaps. The piles of refuse tapered off here, as a large area had been cleared to allow room for a rather big, high-peaked something, hidden under a patchwork of canvas tarps staked into the ground.

Valor was a bit surprised to see that Robin Magus was the first one there, though Gantz suddenly came down from a long leap to alight only a few yards away from the black mage. He gave Valor a mocking wave, as the rest of them entered the area. Valor growled.

"Ooh, it is quite large," Sana remarked, "but still smaller than any airship I've seen."

Without preamble, Cid laughed uproariously. The burly, barrel-chested old fellow went up to the side of his covered possession. It was nearly forty feet from stem to stern but only about twelve across the beam, roughly half the size of the smallest class of airship Valor knew of. Its keel was flat, of course, so that it could land on solid ground, a ruinous design for any sailing ship, but long known to be the norm for air vessels.

Immense pride filled Cid's rough voice. "Here she is, whelps, the first of her kind: an airskiff that relies more on pure mechanical engineering than magical stones to fly! Of course, I ain't had her up once yet, because I could never solve the heat problem. She needs lots o' high-pressure steam and that means fires hotter than the blue blazes, though none of the bloody fuels I tried never had nearly enough kick." He stopped then, grinning in almost feral anticipation, pulling a simple knife out of the big pocket full of odd little tools on the front of his tattered leather frock. He put the thin blade to one of the taut ropes that tied down the canvas cover of the vessel and cut. With a whip snap, the rope broke, causing a chain reaction. All the rest of the ropes broke almost simultaneously and with several massive tugs, Cid pulled the mighty patchwork tarp off of his brainchild.

Immediately, the ship silently rose several feet into the air.

"Behold, whelps, the Brazen Bell!" Cid exclaimed, suddenly cackling so hard that his goggles filled with tears. He even started rolling around on the ground.

Valor noticed Gantz giving the engineer a dubious look. "The old coot might be missing more marbles than I thought."

The warrior didn't say anything though, because he was too busy admiring the so-named airskiff. It was mostly plain dark wood, but for a bit of bronze molding along the sides, and a bronze-sheathed figurehead in the guise of a fierce warrior woman under the stem. Unlike the half-dozen airships Valor had witnessed up close in his lifetime, this smaller ship didn't have any retractable canvas-covered wings fixed amidships, nor did it have a mast with sails anywhere to help it catch the prevailing winds once at cruising altitude. Instead, it had one exceptionally tall mast seemingly made of metal, missing any hint of sails and instead topped by what he could only describe as a windmill's blades, but not made of wood and pointed upward to the sky.

"It's a huge propeller," Valor realized, "But it is much larger than the smaller aft props I have seen on any other airship and it's in place of a standard mast."

"That's bloody right, boy!" Cid exclaimed as he got off the ground, his worn and frayed clothes now scuffed with dust. "You see, other airships don't need a lot of mechanical lift cause they have the bloody splinters for it. Their engines and props are underpowered and located farthest astern because the splinters make those ships light as air. My Brazen Bell, however, has a big fat engine and one giant prop. The big prop will get her up and move her around, though she'd never be properly stabilized without the artificial sliver. Don't get me wrong, she weighs more than any vessel twice her size, but she's also a lot tougher. Also, she only needs a helmsman, a fire-stoker, and two others to work the exhaust valves so that her pressure stays stabilized."

Gantz shook his head. "Right, and we're supposed to understand all that bloody jargon? Besides, I'm pretty damned sure I'd rather just run along the nice safe ground. I'd probably beat this brazen beast to wherever its headed with my own two feet."

Sana suddenly looked over at Valor. "Right, where are we headed, anyway, Valor?"

He rubbed his chin with an armored hand. "Our best bet is Truce."

Cid nodded. "Aye, the old fortress city located just south of the Warren Hills."

Valor gave a nod back. "Yes, heading south, the goblin army will be funneled down the Painstaking Pass that winds through the hills. It is the only way any sizable force can get to Cornelia on foot and Truce acts as a gateway from that route's southern point to where the hills give way to the rolling plains of central Highland."

Cid rubbed his thick hands together with enthusiastic glee. "We can make it there in five days flat, if your bloody fire-maker can keep up the heat."

Robin, who had just been sitting on the ground silent this whole time, used her charred black rod as a prop and got to her sandaled feet. She brushed dust from her robes before spitting them all with her glowing gaze. "Out of all that blather, I understand that you need my fire to get this abomination moving. So be it. If it will get me to a place where I can slaughter more goblins, I'll do it. I cannot stand the filthy little cretins anyhow."

Her quick assent caught Valor off guard. He thought for sure they would have had to argue for hours to convince her to fuel the ship. He moved to thank her.

She forestalled him with an upraised hand. "You are annoying enough, Chosen of Earth, do not add to it. I agreed and that's that. Let's just have this done with."

Cid clapped his hands in glee just and Gantz folded his arms. "Golly, Robin, is this you being friendly?"

The black mage gave no acknowledgement that Gantz had spoken.

The thief just nodded. "Yep, still ignoring me."

Valor turned toward him. "Leave her be, thief, she has decided to join us again of her own accord. That is enough."

Gantz batted his eyes and gave a big wistful sigh. "My, ain't it grand that we're all just the best of friends again."

Valor just rubbed a hand down his face and went forward. Gantz saw it and laughed.

The five of them stopped at the starboard side of the hovering skiff. Cid stroked his bushy beard. "Should be a rope ladder to let us up coiled just over the rim. Thought I left it down, but-"

"I got it, old man," Gantz announced. He retreated a few steps before rushing to jump up high, easily making the ten-foot jump over the hovering ship's railing. The thief got the bundled up rope ladder and threw it over the side where it cascaded down to unfold.

One by one, the rest of them climbed up. When Valor came to the deck, he noticed Gantz looking a little green about the gills. The thief shuddered a bit. "Can't say I'm looking forward to bloody sailing again. Only done it once before and it left a bad impression."

Valor gave him a narrowed glance. "Shall I venture a guess, you stowed away."

The shorter thief walked brazenly up to the warrior. "Right on the nose, Earth boy."

Sana came up to the two of them, wringing her white staff in her hands in what Valor could see was excitement. "I've never ridden on an airship before."

Gantz suddenly looked a little more queasy. "Its not all its cracked up to be, little miss mage."

Valor noticed Gantz's discomfort. "You don't have the stomach for this type of travel?"

Gantz just shrugged his shoulders. "Oh I'll make it as certain sure, blue blood."

"Right, but not without emptying the contents of your stomach, correct?" Valor grinned.

Gantz blanched, but managed a scowl. "Right, I get it, rib me a bit, Earth boy, since you never have any clever comebacks when I jab you."

Cid forestalled Valor's clever comeback, coming up to them all, fists on hips. "Okay, we're here, now you all need to follow me below decks."

Valor swallowed his retort, admonishing himself for sinking to Gantz's level. Such thoughts quickly disappeared, however, as the four Chosen followed the old engineer through the rear hatch just before the cabin astern. Down wooden steps they went into the breadth of where the main hold of a regular ship would be. They stopped before a large mechanical assembly made of various standing metal tubes, some harboring control consoles studded with dials.

Cid turned toward them to explain. "I'll keep it simple. This big ole metal cylinder is the boiler." He paused to point at Robin. "Fire-starter, it'll be your job to stoke the hearth, which is the opening in the bottom of the boiler. The heat from your fire will make the steam, which will get funneled into the working core of the engine passed the bulkhead. That will turn the prop, which will provide the lift and get the skiff up and running. From the helm I can tilt the prop to maneuver the ship and we're on our bloody way!"

He paused to scratch his head. "Okay, any stupid questions?"

Robin sighed irritably, but no one had anything to ask.

Cid gave his thumbs up. "Okay, good. Fire-starter, you stay down here. The rest of you whelps, come with me back above decks."

Gantz darted up first, leaving Valor to follow Sana and the old engineer up and out. Cid led them to the very center of the main deck where the huge metal mast towered above the whole ship. The five huge blades of the mighty propeller hung limp out above the vessel. Valor knew they would go taut and spin once the prop started up.

Cid brought the three of them up to the very base of the mighty mast. Valor wondered what kind of tools could sculpt such a thing.

Regardless, Cid pointed them toward two large dials, one on both the port and starboard side of the mast near its base. Next to these dials were long levers. "Okay, these two dials measure critical steam pressure for the propeller. Pressure levels will fluctuate depending on a hundred different factors, but don't worry about those, worry about keeping an eye on these bloody dials. When the needle on the dial goes from green up into the red, whoever is on that dial has to pull back the pressure release lever, which will open a valve and exhaust steam. Keep the lever released until the needle goes back down a comfortable distance into the green - not too far back, mind you, just into the middle or so."

Sana-Lynn quickly raised her hand.

Cid gave his bushy beard a yank. "We ain't in class, lass, just ask your question."

"Oh right, what if the needle goes down into the yellow?"

Cid nodded. "Just getting to that. Yellow means under-pressurization, not a good thing. If that happens, one of you comes up to me at the helm. I have redundant dials up there so I can keep an eye on all this, but in the case of under-pressurization, I'll need one of you to come up and take the wheel cause I'll have to go below and work at the assembly directly. During your time at the helm, just try to keep the ship straight and don't touch any of the levers. I can make course corrections latter after I fix the problem… if we bloody survive it."

He paused to run a hand down his beard. "Anymore questions?"

No one had any.

Cid nodded. "Right, you don't have to understand it, just do as I say and we can get the Brazen Bell to her destination in hopefully no more than five days."

Valor shook his head. "Five days is a long time, Lord Rumsley. When will we sleep?"

Sana nodded. "Yes, and how is Robin going to keep her fire spells up constantly? Between you, me, and Gantz, Valor, we can take turns at the levers, but Robin has no replacement."

Cid smacked himself on the head. "Yeah, okay, that will add a few days to our travel time. I just hope the artificial sliver lasts until then. It's not stable like an authentic sliver. I was told the alchemical compound holding it together would only last about a week. After that it will shatter and the Bell will critically destabilize if she's airborne."

"It's not a problem," Robin Magus suddenly announced behind them.

A little startled, Sana quickly sighed in exasperation. "Of course it's a problem, black mage, you're mortal just like the rest of us. You need food and sleep."

Robin made a sound of annoyance. "True, lesser mage, and yet constant casting for this purpose is not a problem. I learned a little trick down in the heaps. My fire is the living fire after all."

"What do you mean, Robin?" Valor asked.

"I have already told you, Chosen of Earth. Worry not, we will get to Truce in five days time." Without anything further, Robin turned and went astern, disappearing down the rear hatch to go below decks once again.