Warning: graphic violence ahead.
Despite Burmecia's newfound arid climate, violent tempests still sweeped the land from time to time and the season had been rife with them, rendering aerial navigation highly dangerous.
Having been captured by Ulrich's forces in a remote village, Sir Fratley was being transported by aircraft to the capital of the kingdom to be tried and executed for high treason. Unfortunately for his captors, a deadly thunderstorm had formed in the middle of their intended route and they had soon found themselves struggling to even stay aloft due to the roaring winds and the blinding downpour; in fact, they were so busy trying not to crash that they didn't notice the smaller ship that had been tailing them.
"We have a visual on the target, sir!" Sigfred shouted, "Should I cloak our vessel now?"
"Go ahead." Sir Wulfweard replied, eyes fixed on the flying colossus, "Bryn, stay low, if they see us, we're screwed."
Hidden in the clouds, the Partisans were discretely following the dreadnought-class airship, intent on boarding it to recruit the legendary Irontail for their cause. Sigfred abandoned the copilot chair and let the colonel take his place. He then sat on the ground, took out his lyre and started playing a strange melody that sounded more like disorganized noise than music.
"Is that vanish spell ready, Sigfred?" Wulfweard asked, "Because we are a little too close for comfort to that thing."
"Almost there, sir!" The bard exclaimed as he plucked the strings of his instrument. After a few more notes, an intense blue light started radiating from the sapphire embedded on it. "It's ready!" the musician exclaimed, "Cloaking in three, two, one, vanish!"
A surge of translucent magic shot out of Sigfred's lyre and wreathed the airship in a light-distorting field, making it almost invisible from the outside.
"Good job, boy!" Wulfweard said, "Sigrunn, get ready to jump, we'll try to get as close as possible to the target!"
"About godsdamn time!" Sigrunn exclaimed, approaching Sigfred, "How are you holding up, partner?"
"Sustaining a spell like this... is hard…" he mumbled, clenching his teeth due to the immense strain that hiding an entire airship was putting on him, "Here… grab my hand..."
"Admit it, you just want to hold hands with me." she quipped, earning herself an exasperated glare from the bard, "Okay, okay, just kidding... jeez..."
"Ha, ha..." the musician said as he used his magic to make her invisible, "There you go... as long as you don't stand right in front of them, they shouldn't be able to see you."
"Man… this is always so weird!" Sigrunn said, staring at her own translucent body: she seemed to be made of living, shifting water.
"I don't know... how long I'll be able to... keep you invisible, so don't linger… okay?" the musician wheezed, breathing hard due to the effort.
"Understood. Hang on in there, Freddy, I'll bust Fratley out before you know it." she said, giving him a pat on the back and turning to leave the command bridge, "Brynhild! Are you ready?"
"I was born ready, kiddo." the musclebound pilot answered with a smirk.
"Move it, Sigrunn! We're directly above the enemy ship!" Wulfweard ordered.
"Yes, sir!" she replied, heading for the main deck. The youngest Partisan hopped onto the taffrail and took a look at the dreadnought below. The wind howled and the rain roared, making her heart race. She felt like a dragon, itching to swoop down on her unsuspecting prey. She donned her hood, more out of habit than necessity and took a deep breath.
"Father Berlioz, give me strength!"
The Allfather made his presence known via thunder and lightning. Sigrunn grinned, overjoyed: her god was calling her to battle. Without hesitation, she leaped into the abyss and dove like a hawk, targeting the enemy warship's curved roof. Seconds before impact, she spun like a cat and cast a fall dampening spell, landing without a sound.
"Contact! Siggy has successfully boarded the ship, sir!" Sigfred confirmed, sensing his squadmate's location through their mystical link.
"Bravo!" Wulfweard exclaimed, "Brynhild, pull back and fly under that dreadnought!"
"Aye, aye, captain!" the pilot replied, hiding their ship beneath the warship's hull.
"Good job, Bryn." Wulfweard said, "Sigfred, you can uncloak us now, we're out of sight."
The bard closed his eyes and focused on the impossibly delicate task of dispelling their ship's light distortion field without accidentally revealing Sigrunn in the process. His temples were soaked with sweat and his head was killing him, but he managed to do it nevertheless.
Above them, Sigrunn had finally managed to find a solid anchor point on the ship's fuselage and was preparing herself to rappel down to the main deck. She took a deep breath and initiated the descent, treading as softly as she could on the metallic surface to avoid alerting any nearby crew members to her presence. She craned a brief look at the dark ocean of clouds around her and admired its terrifying beauty until nearby thunder reminded her that she could get struck by lightning at any moment. After a couple tense minutes, the Partisan made her way to the lifeboats deck, where she left one of them running to serve as her getaway vehicle and finally infiltrated the airship via one of the nearby hatches.
"Left... right... right... stairs..." she muttered, memorizing the layout of the flying colossus. Luckily for her, the dreadnought blueprints that Brynhild had stolen two days ago were very accurate and she had no trouble navigating the vessel's labyrinthine corridors, expertly using any shadows and noises that the environment provided to conceal her presence.
"Hmph... he must be behind that door..." the partisan thought when she came across a thick metal gate at the end of a narrow hallway, sealed shut by a force field and guarded by two very bored soldiers. She drew a pair of throwing knives but quickly discarded the idea due to Wulfweard's strict no-killing policy. She was about to store them back in her armor when a huge lightning bolt struck Sigfred's airship, setting one of its wings on fire. Much to everyone's dismay, this distraction was enough to break his frail mystical link with Sigrunn, accidentally uncloaking her in front of the guards.
"Oh, fuck..!" she blurted out when she saw the astonished expression on the wardens' faces. Without giving them time to react, the Partisan threw her blades at the hapless soldier on her left, piercing his throat to prevent him from screaming. She then pounced like a panther on the other one, her Dragon's Crest flaring to life mid-air, and smashed his snout in with a single, skull-shattering punch.
"Damn it, Sigfred!" Sigrunn thought as she scrambled to disable the magic barrier. After tampering with the control panel for what seemed to her like an eternity, she managed to unlock the gate and proceeded to drag the lifeless guards inside the cell block. Unfortunately, they were so badly injured that they left a highly noticeable blood trail behind them, one that she didn't have time to clean up.
...
"... Who's there?" Fratley weakly muttered in the dark, startling the Partisan as she closed the door behind her. Sigrunn turned around and realized, to her horror, that her long-lost comrade in arms was barely alive.
"Oh gods... what have they done to him..?" she thought, taking a look at the dragoon's grievous wounds, "What an idiot... to think that we could have avoided all this if he had just listened to Wulfweard..."
Fratley dragged himself pathetically across the floor of his cage to try and get a peek of what was going on outside. The sight of it made Sigrunn feel a mixture of sorrow, compassion and anger; she wanted to punch him for defecting to Ulrich's side and to hug him at the same time.
"Do you want to atone for your sins, Irontail?" she asked him, approaching his cell.
Fratley immediately recognized her voice. "... Sigrunn?" he mumbled, his lower lip trembling so much that he had trouble talking.
"Who else, knucklehead?" she retorted, focusing her power into her fist, "Clear the way, I'm gonna get you out."
The dragon knight obeyed and Sigrunn smashed the magic stone next to his cage, shutting down its force field. She then ripped the door off its hinges with a powerful kick and tried to release her old comrade from his shackles, but failed due to their magic nullifying properties.
"Dammit! I can't break them!" the Partisan spat, "Do you know where the keys are, Fratboy?"
"I think one of the guards had them..." the grizzled knight recalled. Without losing a second, Sigrunn started emptying her victims' pockets. "Aha!" she exclaimed when she found the missing key.
"Why are you here, Siggy? It's way too dangerous..." Fratley muttered.
"Because you might be a moron, but you are our moron..." she replied, unlocking his shackles with a satisfying click, "... and we're not leaving you at Ulrich's mercy."
"We..? Is Freya with you? Is she alright?" the dragoon blurted out, grabbing Sigrunn by her shoulders and softly shaking her.
"I can't give you details right now, but she's fine, don't worry about it." the Partisan answered, a little disappointed. It was no secret that she had always envied the heroine of Burmecia for getting to marry him.
"Thank goodness..." Fratley whispered, shedding tears of joy.
Sigrunn's ears suddenly perked up and she stared at the door with an alarmed expression, "Shit! We've got company!" she hissed, "Can you walk?"
"I'll give it a try..." Fratley said, doing his best to stand up, but his badly injured legs gave way beneath him and he collapsed on the floor.
"Pray to Berlioz for strength, dummy!" the Partisan exclaimed, crouching to help him up.
"Even with his power I'd only slow you down, Siggy..." the dragoon grunted, shrugging her off, "Leave me here and flee... cough... before they put the ship on lockdown!"
"Huh..? What is this..?!" an unknown voice boomed from outside the room.
"It's blood! Ring the alarm!" another voice replied, "Guards! Help!"
Sigrunn knew that if the soldier outside turned the cell block's force field on, they would be as good as dead. She stared at her old comrade, then at the door, then back at him and made her choice.
"I'm sorry, master Wulfweard..." she muttered. The mark on her shoulder seemed to catch fire as she prepared to cast her mightiest spell.
"Siggy... what are you doing..?" Fratley mumbled when his fur began standing on end due to the Partisan's insanely powerful aura.
"I'm switching to Plan B..." she answered.
"Wait, wha..?" the dragoon managed to say before the Partisan pointed her fist at the door and unleashed the dragon souls trapped within her. Delighted to wreak havoc in a burmecian ship, the spirits dug a burning tunnel through the aircraft's bowels, disintegrating everything and everyone in their way until they pierced the hull and dissipated into the storm.
"Holy shit!" Brynhild yelled when she saw the specters bursting out of the dreadnought's armored hide.
"That's Siggy's magic! She's in trouble!" Sigfred exclaimed.
A deafening detonation interrupted the bard: the youngest Partisan's attack had accidentally punched through the battleship's engine room and the resulting chain of explosions had begun ripping it apart from the inside.
"Godsdammit! Brynhild! fly us closer to that hole! We need to extract them ASAP!" Wulfweard barked.
"Aye aye, sir!" the pilot replied, skillfully dodging the falling debris.
"Bryn, watch out!" Sigfred shouted, pointing at a rapidly growing fracture that threatened to tear the doomed battleship in half. Gigantic metal shards started raining from above and the Partisans avoided them by the skin of their teeth.
"This is where the spirits came from... but where's Sigrunn?" Brynhild said, gazing at the fiery innards of the warship through its ruptured fuselage.
"Come on... come on... come on..." Wulfweard muttered, scanning the flames for signs of his students.
"There, look!" Sigfred yelled, "They're alive!"
Running full-speed and carrying Fratley over her shoulder, Sigrunn emerged from hell itself, her Dragon's Crest ablaze. "Father Berlioz! Give me strength!" she howled and with the Allfather's power flowing through her veins, she covered the last few meters and jumped off the warship, landing on her team's vessel seconds before a massive detonation finished off the fatally wounded colossus, making its flaming remains rain from the skies like a meteor shower.
"Siggy, Fratley! Get in!" Sigfred yelled, holding the hatch open for his comrades. Without losing a second, Sigrunn leaped onto the main deck and carried the wounded dragoon into the airship, closing the door behind her.
"Come on, Bryn... let's get out of here before something else happens." Wulfweard ordered, burying his face in his hands.
"Yes, sir..." the pilot replied, steering the ship away from the crash site.
Due to Fratley's delicate condition, Sigrunn and Sigfred had to immediately carry him to the ship's infirmary. As the bard prepared to start treating his wounds, Wulfweard summoned Sigrunn to the captain's quarters over the PA system. The Partisans exchanged worried looks, for they knew exactly what the colonel wanted to talk about.
"Siggy... I'm so sorry..." Sigfred stammered, "I... I'll talk to Wulfweard later, I'm sure he'll..."
"Don't worry Freddy... it's okay." Sigrunn said, interrupting him, "Now go help Fratley, I'll be alright."
The bard stood there with his mouth open, unable to say anything. "Uh... Siggy!" he finally exclaimed when his squadmate turned to leave.
"Yeah?"
"Next time, the drinks are on me."
"See? You just wanted to hold my hand earlier on..." she quipped, winking at him before heading to the command bridge.
"You two have grown closer..." Fratley commented, startling Sigfred, "This is a far cry from your days at the academy."
"I guess suicide missions have that effect on people." the musician replied, "Sorry for getting distracted, I'll fix you up right away."
"Oh, don't worry, that was quite amusing to watch." the dragon knight said, flashing him a cheeky smile.
"Ha ha, very funny, you should have seen yourself when... oh... oh, shit... man! What have those bastards done to you..?" Sigfred mumbled when he cut open the dragoon's blood-caked shirt. His torso was covered in festering cuts and he was missing several patches of fur. The bard gasped: the skin on those areas was horrifically burnt and twisted.
"... Those are just scratches compared to what I truly deserve..." the grizzled knight muttered.
Sigfred stared at the morbid spectacle until he managed to shake himself out of his trance. "We all make mistakes, my friend... I mean, look at me, I've almost got you two killed, like, ten minutes ago..." he said, taking out his lyre. As he plucked its strings, the sapphire embedded on his instrument started glowing brighter and brighter. "What truly matters is that in the end you did the right thing... that's why we're here. Now hold still, I'm gonna disinfect those wounds."
When the bard finished playing the arcane song, the shining gemstone flooded the room with pure golden light. Fratley let out a sigh of relief when the pain he felt suddenly subsided and he marveled at the much healthier color that his exposed flesh now had.
"Blue magic... the wondrous art of the Qu..." Fratley muttered, fascinated by the healing spell's power, "I'll never understand how did you master it..."
"Master it? Oh, no, this is but a parlor trick next to what a Qu sorcerer is capable of." Sigfred replied, "My only merit is having realized that my passion for music could be worked into a substitute of the obsession for food that fuels their spells."
"You're a talented mage, Sigfred..." the dragon knight said with a kind smile, "I've always known that one day you'd achieve great things."
"Thanks, mate, but I think you're exaggerating." the musician replied, checking for signs of persisting infection, "Does it still hurt? How do you feel?"
"Like shite... but alive at least." Fratley quipped, making his comrade chuckle, "Sigfred, I'm sorry for changing the subject, but there's something I need to ask you about."
"You're talking about Freya, aren't you?"
"Indeed. Has she managed to safely flee the kingdom?"
"Yes, and she's under the personal protection of some very powerful friends."
"Garnet and Zidane?"
"Yep."
"So they now know about Ulrich. Great." the dragoon muttered, staring at the ceiling, "Um... how do I put this... does she know that I got caught?"
"No... we didn't tell her. We didn't want to stress her out more than she already was." the bard nervously replied.
"You did well. Thank you, my friend." Fratley said with a smile.
"She'll be overjoyed to know that you're with us, though!"
"No!" the grizzled dragon knight cut him short, weakly grasping his arm. Sigfred blankly stared at him for a moment, surprised by his reaction, "Please, let her keep thinking that I went into hiding. Do it for me, Sigfred."
"Uh... sorry pal, but it's not up to me to make that call." the bard replied, "I can only promise you not to tell her as long as I'm not ordered to..."
"Ordered? Who are you working for?" the dragoon asked, arching his eyebrows.
"Ah, you're gonna love this: Wulfweard is putting the team back together and you're formally invited to join us." the Partisan explained with a lopsided smile.
"M-master Wulfweard is here?!" Fratley stammered.
"Oh yeah, Irontail, and he's royally pissed off at Ulrich and his court." the musician replied, "I'd take him up on his offer right away if I were you."
The graying knight found himself thinking that maybe dying at the usurper's hands wouldn't have been all that bad after all.
"Sit down, please." Wulfweard said, pointing at a chair.
"Yes, sir." Sigrunn replied, immediately obeying his order. She knew better that to contradict her old teacher when he was furious.
The hardened veteran grabbed a half empty liquor bottle from a shelf, poured himself a drink and sat in front of his student, trying to calm himself down before saying anything. Knowing Wulfweard, Sigrunn had come prepared to be chewed out for her trouble; what she wasn't ready for was for the disarmingly dejected stare that he gave her. The younger Partisan swallowed hard: she would have certainly preferred to be yelled at.
"This is all my fault..." the old dragoon sighed, "I knew you two weren't ready, but I brought you along nevertheless... guess I've lost my touch as an officer."
"it was an accident, sir." Sigrunn replied, lowering her eyes in shame, "I didn't mean to..."
"An accident..." Wulfweard brusquely interrupted her, "There are less than ten living dragonslayers capable of doing what you just did, and three of them are aboard this fucking ship... how much time do you think we have before Ulrich's troops show up on our doorstep?"
"I'm sorry, sir..." the youngest Partisan muttered, her gaze fixed on the ground, "We were cornered and about to get captured... Fratley was too injured to move and I couldn't think of any other way to save his life..."
The colonel sighed and downed his drink in a single gulp. "I'm glad that you're alright." he said, fidgeting with his now empty glass, "When I saw the fireworks, I... I thought for a second that I'd lose you two..."
"Sir..?" Sigrunn muttered, daring to meet his gaze. Instead of the unwavering protector of Burmecia, she saw a tired old man, too stubborn, too passionate to let himself die, but too burdened by grief to be truly alive.
"Listen close, Siggy: under any other circumstances, I'd have you tried by a military court for disobeying a direct order, committing large scale manslaughter and putting the whole operation and your squad in danger... but... given that Sigfred lost control of the cloaking spell mid-infiltration, that getting caught simply wasn't an option, and that we're very low on manpower, I'll let you fill in a report about what happened aboard that vessel. Astrid and I will then decide if you're fit to remain in active service or not. Am I clear?"
Sigrunn found herself at a loss for words. The Partisans were the closest thing to a family she had, and the idea of getting dishonorably discharged terrified her even more than death itself.
"Am I clear, Siggy?" Wulfweard asked, his slightly broken voice giving away how miserable he truly felt.
"Yes, sir." she replied with all the dignity that she could muster.
"Good. Dismissed." the colonel said without even looking at her. Sigrunn rose to her feet and saluted him, but Wulfweard didn't stand up. He gave his student an inscrutable stare for a moment before acknowledging her gesture with a slight nod of his head.
"I understand..." the young partisan muttered, clenching her teeth and blinking back tears.