The next day, Bron, Celestia, Durix, Raziel, Verticule, and Nate were to be found walking through the streets of Undertown. They had been given food, rest, and new clothes by workers in the Stone Gardens Council Tower, and it was time to make their presence widely known.
"It's incredible," said Nate, gazing around at the trees lining the cobbled streets of the city. "I never thought I'd see this place again…and it's more beautiful than it ever was. So…where exactly are we going?"
"Library Rock," said Raziel. "We think that Murtus Lodd is the best one to inform. And then we can come back down and head to Senate Hall."
They came to a halt in a wide square. In the very center was a statue of three young fourthlings.
"Quint, Twig, and Rook," breathed Nate. "The Immortals. And to think I was the last one to see them."
"We can sightsee later," said Raziel.
Nestled between the stone likenesses of Quint, Twig, and Rook was the base of a gigantic chain, extending up into the sky. It was the anchor chain of Library Rock.
"Excuse me," said Raziel, calling out to a gnokgoblin basket-puller. "We need to go up."
The gnokgoblin's eyes widened. "Captain Tollinix! But…but they all say you're dead!"
"I still have a hard time believing I'm not," said Raziel grimly.
"Well, step right this way, madam, sirs…" jabbered the gnokgoblin excitedly, ushering them towards a basked.
A few minutes later, they were walking in the shadow of the Library of Soil, heading for the New Palace of Lights, headquarters of the Most High Librarian and the Library Legislature. Soon, the great building came into view, the sunlight glinting off of the hundreds of elaborately paneled stained-glass windows.
Under normal circumstances, it would require extensive scheduling and authorization to pay a visit to the Most High Librarian. However, the presence of Raziel Tollinix so stunned the librarians that no one made any objection, simply gaping at the famous Pirate Academic, evidently back from the dead, and waving the six of them on through doors and halls.
When they reached the top floor, they found the door to Murtus Lodd's study guarded by a tall, spindly tree troll, wearing the distinctive red funnel-hat, leaf-adorned breastplate, and blue borella-head insignia of a librarian-at-arms. Peering at the visitors, the tree troll's eyes widened with astonishment. "You!" he cried, pointing shakily at Raziel.
She nodded. "We have come to speak with the Most High Librarian."
The tree troll looked hesitant. "The Most High Librarian is busy at the moment. He is discussing the approaching flight-rock harvest with the stone marshal from the Old Sanctaphrax district…"
"This cannot wait," said Raziel firmly. "It concerns the safety of all Omniphrax."
The tree troll's eyes darted to the door, then back at Raziel, then at the door again. What should he do? This was most irregular…and yet…
"I shall check with him," said the librarian-at-arms. He knocked gingerly on the door three times, then opened it a small amount and slipped inside. The voices within the office faltered, and Bron heard rapid muttering. Then, the door swung open to reveal Murtus Lodd, staring at the six visitors, a look of complete shock on his face.
"Captain Tollinix!" he cried, jubilation and incredulity choking his words. "But…but you…and…Bron Rackis, too!" He seized Bron and pulled him into a tight embrace. When he let go, Bron could see tears in his eyes. "I've grown fond of you over the years. Never had I seen an apprentice with such eagerness and bravery. When I heard you had died during a raid at Twilight's Edge, it broke my heart…and that's nothing compared to how your poor grandmother took the news. She hasn't been the same since. When Leris hears that you are still alive…"
He turned to Durix and Celestia. "Am I to assume that you are the two apprentice Twilight Officers seen aboard the Squallskipper as it drifted off towards the Deadwoods?" They nodded.
Murtus then looked down at Verticule in astonishment, who promptly answered the Most High Librarian's unspoken question aloud. "I helped them escape from New Edgelands."
"New Edgelands?" cried Murtus in astonishment.
"It's a very, very long story," said Bron.
Murtus now turned to the last individual in the group. "And who are you?"
"I am someone whose nightmare has finally reached an end, thanks to the help of these brave souls," he replied.
"This is Nate Quarter," said Raziel. "He has been imprisoned in New Edgelands for nearly five hundred years."
Murtus swayed on the spot, clutching the door frame for support. "I…I…" he spluttered, "I don't understand any of this. I need to hear the whole story."
"You must," agreed Nate urgently.
"We've discovered something terrible," said Bron. "Something that could spell the end of Omniphrax…something that is already happening. I don't know what can be done about it, but the Senate must be warned."
Murtus's face drained of color. "I…well, all right," He turned to a man dressed in the robes of a Sanctaphrax raintaster. "I'm sorry, Prosperix, but we shall have to discuss the flight-rock harvest some other time. For now, take your queries to Viceroy Nemulis."
The indignant stone marshal looked as though he wanted to protest, but after a glare from Murtus, he rose to his feet, departed the office, and trotted past the six visitors, throwing them a resentful scowl.
"Now, then," said Murtus urgently, ushering Bron, Celestia, Durix, Raziel, Verticule, and Nate into his office and closing the door behind him. "Tell me everything…"
Two days later, the governing bodies of Omniphrax were all gathered in Senate Hall. Normally, the senators, councilmen, and governors babbled among themselves incessantly, but today an unnatural silence hung over the crowd. They had been summoned to Senate Hall for what they had been told was the absolute gravest of matters.
The curtain blocking the central platform rose, to reveal all of the principal governors of Omniphrax…Most High Academe Arnix Filatine, Most High Librarian Murtus Lodd, Stone Gardens Council Viceroy Ferrix Nemulis, Dormitory Towers Headmistress Naria Lintrax, Chief Farmer Academic Drubber Grope, Twilight General Thurt Grayle…and in the center of the group, High Senator Tesener Burlix, the most important representative in all of Omniphrax.
Tesener Burlix rose to his feet, cleared his throat, and spoke. "Fellow elected representatives of Omniphrax…we are the last shining beacon of freedom in all of the Edgeworld. Nobody can deny this. Beyond the walls of Twilight's Edge, every city, every village, every trog, troll, goblin, and fourthling languishes under the fist of the dictator, Vartolius Xax."
He strode to the edge of the platform, and gazed around at everyone gathered on the great stone tiers of the hall. "But after all our centuries of resilience, of dedication to the rights of individuals, of refusal to bend to the will of tyranny and autocracy, we are now threatened as we have never been threatened before."
The words echoed around the hall. Nobody said a word. Tesener Burlix continued.
"You see, legislators and governors of Omniphrax, Vartolius Xax has discovered a fatal flaw in our defenses…which is that damage to Twilight's Edge is far more devastating to us than an equivalent amount of damage to the Empire's glistership fleet is to him." He paused to let those words sink in, then went on. "We take time to mourn our dead. The Empire does not. We do not have the entire Deepwoods at our command, to strip of natural resources and repair our defenses in a matter of days. The Empire does. We have neither villages of powerless forest-dwellers, nor the wherewithal to enslave them or draft them to fight for us. The Empire has both."
Tesener Burlix cast another sweeping look around the hall.
"And now, Vartolius Xax has decided to use these things to his advantage. This is why we have suffered multiple assaults from the Vilnix Pompolnius in the past few months…he's trying to wear us down."
Panicked whispers swept the hall. Was it true? Could it be? If it was, then it was surely the end of Omniphrax!
"So now I ask each of you to think about this crisis. Can anything be done? Propose any suggestions you might have now, for time is short. The Vilnix Pompolnius is surely approaching again…and the current damage to Twilight's Edge is so extensive that I do not believe the fortress will hold up against another attack."
"We must increase our repair efforts!" cried one of the ten other Senators, sitting on one of the first stone tiers.
"It won't do any good," said Thurt Grayle darkly. "Based on the most recent intervals between the attacks, the Vilnix Pompolnius is likely to arrive in a matter of days. We won't have come close to making sufficient repairs by then. In any case, I have already assigned more of the Twilight Marines to repair duty than I feel comfortable doing…if any more are called off of the defense gantries to fix the damage, there will not be enough soldiers on duty to defend from a siege."
"Well, what if we supplemented the repair task force with Pirates Academic?" piped up the Professor of Wind, rising to his feet and looking around at his fellow Sanctaphrax academics for support.
"Yes…they're excellent at repairing their sky ships," agreed the Professor of Cloud, standing up as well.
Philbus Venvax turned to face the professors. "You seem to forget that the Pirates Academic are themselves key players in defending Omniphrax. Take them off duty, and we won't stand a chance."
"We won't stand a chance anyway!" snapped Ferrix Nemulis, pounding the armrest of his seat. "The least we can do is redouble our attempts to repair Twilight's Edge."
"But with such a short frame of time, extra hands will make no difference," protested Thurt Grayle. "And even if it would, what good is a sturdy fortress without active soldiers manning the defense gantries, or Pirates Academic swarming the invaders?"
Several councilmen spoke up angrily, and the hall was suddenly full of the din of shouting, pleading, demanding, and insults. The mood of the gathering had turned ugly.
"SILENCE!" roared Tesener Burlix. Somehow, his voice carried over the cacophony of arguments, and the noise died down. "This young individual wishes to make a suggestion…" He pointed to Bron Rackis, who was sitting in the second row of tiers, next to Nate. Bron rose to his feet. An idea which had been growing in the corners of his mind for a while had finally taken shape.
"I've heard all of you talking about fortifying Twilight's Edge…acting defensively," said Bron, looking around at everyone in the hall. "But here's another idea…perhaps it's time for us to strike back."
The hall filled with whispers, with murmurs. What did this peculiar youth mean? Tesener Burlix raised his hand, and the muttering died down.
"Here's my idea," said Bron, looking at Tesener Burlix. "We meet the Vilnix Pompolnius in the air, and fight it. In the Edgesaver."
A much longer, more pronounced silence swept over the hall following these words, as all of the government officials considered this daring, radical idea. The Edgesaver, flagship of the Pirates Academic, was the largest stone-powered sky ship ever constructed. Twice as long as the Loftus Tower was tall, the Edgesaver contained a spectacular flight-rock a quarter the size of the Sanctaphrax rocks themselves, and boasted a sea of magnificent sails supported by a forest of nearly fifty ironwood masts.
During the First Age of Flight, sky galleons a fraction of the Edgesaver's size were famously cumbersome, due to their use of multiple flight-rocks to stay aloft. The Edgesaver, on the other hand, was marvelously maneuverable and fast, thanks to the aerodynamically perfect spherical shape of its single massive flight-rock, which had taken two hundred years to reach its full size, secured down with chains and miniature crystals of stormphrax until it was large enough for the cage of the great sky ship.
The rock was in fact so enormous that it could not be heated and cooled by the use of conventional flight burners and cooling rods. Instead, the temperature of the flight-rock was regulated by a pair of phraxchambers mounted on either side of the rock cage. When the rock was too cold, the phraxchambers could be swiveled so that their white-hot propulsion ducts faced inwards towards the cage. When the rock was too hot, the phraxchambers could instead rotate so that the funnels were pointed at the cage, bathing the flight-rock in clouds of ice-cold steam.
The Edgesaver had never been used in battle, despite its obvious value as a weapon against the Empire. Vartolius Xax was unaware of the Edgesaver's existence, and the Pirates Academic knew that if he was, he would surely not rest until the ship was destroyed. They feared that if they used the Edgesaver at the wrong time, it would be demolished, and they would lose their only real hope against the forces of the Empire. But now, it seemed, the time had come for the Edgesaver to be put to good use.
"That lad's speaking with a damn sight more sense than we've demonstrated today," said Drubber Grope, his belly-sling quivering.
"What he's suggesting will risk everything," said the Dean of Mist nervously, glancing at the academics sitting beside him.
"In exchange for everything," said Thurt Grayle. "We have no reasonable alternatives. It's our only hope now…and think of what would happen if we won."
"The Vilnix Pompolnius, destroyed!" shouted a Senator excitedly.
"Xelius Pulnix, vanquished!" roared another.
"Perhaps we could even liberate all of Great Glade!" exclaimed Naria Lintrax. "The feeble and infirm can find a home in the Dormitory Towers, and the rest would surely help us rebuild the city as it once was!"
"If we liberate the Deadwoods, we can cure the Blight!" proclaimed another voice.
"Vartolius Xax will surrender at once!"
"The Empire will crumble!"
"The Edge will be saved!"
Senate Hall exploded in cheers and screaming. Once again, Tesener Burlix shouted for quiet, but this time it took several minutes before he could restore order.
"We must not get ahead of ourselves," he said. "Remember, the Empire still has the upper hand…and even if we are victorious, it will hardly mean the end of Vartolius Xax's regime. We have far more to lose than he does. But all the same…if we win, this will be our first real blow against him. Who knows what might happen afterward?"
Tesener Burlix strode once more to the edge of the stage. "Nevertheless, our victory is far from assured. The Edgesaver is a mighty vessel indeed, but whether she could hold her own against the Vilnix Pompolnius is not something I am at all convinced of. We will need to outfit her with whatever weapons we can, crew her with our bravest, most skilled volunteers, and send out the entire Pirate Academic fleet along too."
"The librarians-at-arms will be eager to fight for Omniphrax, too!" said Murtus Lodd. "They are trained quite as rigorously as any Twilight Marine or Pirate Academic. They will serve us well."
"The Edgesaver's flight-rock will need to be in the most skilled hands we can provide," proclaimed Ferrix Nemulis. "We in the Stone Gardens understand flight-rocks. We'll serve as the stone pilots."
"Through all of this, we must not neglect Twilight's Edge!" said Arnix Filatine. "We shall effect whatever repairs we can while the Edgesaver sails into battle."
"There are many in the Mire Provinces who would be eager to man the defense gantries, too!" said Drubber Grope. "With a bit of practice, we'll be as good as the Twilight Marines, no problem!"
"Then it's agreed!" boomed Tesener Burlix. "We shall outfit the Edgesaver immediately!"
Bron leaned against the balustrade and felt the wind in his hair. He adjusted the magnificent bicorn hat on his head, and ran his fingers over his leather breastplate and blue greatcoat. Finally, I am a Pirate Academic, he thought to himself. And I'm off on my first quest!
He, Durix, and Celestia had immediately signed up to join the crew of the Edgesaver, along with Raziel, Verticule, Nate, and Leris. Bron felt odd, seeing his grandmother dressed in her old uniform…he had seen it many times as a young'un, but always folded up in his grandmother's wardrobe.
The Edgesaver was sailing over the Phraxfields now. Because time was limited, the academics of Omniphrax weren't waiting to outfit the vessel with weapons before setting off. Instead, the sky ships of the Pirates Academic kept flying up alongside the Edgesaver, lashing to the hull with tolley-ropes, and unloading the catapults and phraxcannon as the ship continued on. The whole process was surprisingly efficient, and soon the deck of the Edgesaver was lined with an impressive arsenal of weaponry, which was manned by Twilight Marines, Undertowners, and…the banderbears.
Drubber Grope had been very reluctant to allow the banderbears to volunteer. As he had argued, they were the very last of their kind, and if they were killed in battle, their race would become extinct. However, as Meerowa reminded the Chief Farmer Academic, they would be doomed just as easily if the Omniphrax academics lost the battle, and furthermore the banderbears were strong and enthusiastic. Finally, they had been allowed to come.
Meanwhile, another armada of sky ships, captained by those librarians-at-arms who had a working knowledge of skyflight, swarmed around the Edgesaver's gargantuan flight-rock cage, forming a protective huddle. Because a volley of phraxfire or glister-bombs hitting the flight-rock or the phraxchambers could spell disaster, the "escort" ships acted as a shield, placing themselves in the line of fire to protect the most vulnerable sections of the great ship.
Of course, this would do little good if the Vilnix Pompolnius fired its terrible glisterbeam at the flight-rock, as the great blast of energy would simply tear through the "escort" ships and the cage, drilling straight into the flight-rock and causing the phraxchambers to explode. This would spell doom for the Edgesaver. As a result, the first part of the battle was going to be the most dangerous, while the glisterbeam was still active. However, the Pirates Academic, led by Philbus Venvax and Raziel Tollinix, were planning to launch an immediate assault on the glisterbeam, hoping to take it out before it could be fired. Because the glisterbeam had to be charged for a minute or two to reach maximum power, the Pirates Academic would have time on their side. More worrisome was the possibility that a party of hammerhead goblins or shrykes would board the pirates' sky ships before they could demolish the glisterbeam.
"How are you feeling?"
Bron started, and looked around to see Celestia staring at him.
"I can't wait for this battle," he said fiercely. "After seeing the horrors of the Empire, I'm ready to take them on in a fair fight."
"I feel the same way, except…" Celestia's voice trailed off, and she looked out over the Phraxfields miserably. "So many academics will perish."
"Unless we fight, all of us will perish," said Bron, seizing her hand in his. "It's sad, but nothing can be done about it."
"I know…but I still can't stop thinking about it," said Celestia, tears in her eyes. "You know as well as I that the Empire has no mercy. If we lose, we all die. And…" she paused, and sniffed, "…and I don't want to lose you."
Bron didn't know how to react to this. He hugged Celestia awkwardly. "Go and get some rest," he said to her. She nodded, and trotted off towards the aftcastle at the other end of the great deck.
He looked back over the balustrade, down at the misty coils and shimmering glow beneath the Edgesaver. He knew that Celestia was right…no matter what happened, many lives would be lost. He turned to look at the aftcastle. "I don't, either, Celestia," he whispered. "I don't want to lose you either."
Suddenly, Tesener Burlix's voice boomed out, amplified by speakers positioned all over the Edgesaver. "We are now crossing over into the Deadwoods," he said. "And the Vilnix Pompolnius has been sighted through our telescopes. I would estimate the time until the battle at roughly seven hours."