A foggy pallor had permeated the Mid Ocean sky, obscuring its pleasing blue with a heliotropic haze. It wasn't entirely uncommon for sudden changes to claim the skies of Arcadia but that was the sort of thing you'd expect in the roiling South Ocean or the voltaic Valuan continent. The gloom wasn't so much as to halt navigation but as Vyse and Aika guided their modest sloop back towards "Windmill Isle" the pace slowed as the wind abated. Fortunately, the freshly recovered moonstone's brilliance cut through the gloom. It didn't completely solve the impediment but it helped. And so their sloop listed homeward guided by silver light.
"Do you think everyone will believe us when they learn we battled a twenty foot tall stone… thing with a fire blasting arm?" Aika raised her hand up and let it trail through the fog.
Vyse turned from the helm and smirked mischievously at his friend.
"Is that the size you've settled on for your version of the story?" He chuckled. "Y'know, if you keep exaggerating stuff whenever you tell folks about our, uh.. misadventures.. they're never gonna believe you when the big stuff happens."
"This is big stuff," Aika protested. "In the last few days, we raided a Valuan admiral's flagship and slew his lightning shooting warbeast, rescued Fina… who for all we know is some type of princess… and we just went on a treasure hunt through Old World ruins full of rock.. machine.. thingies."
"Point taken," Vyse replied. "But isn't that already more than enough?"
Aika huffed. "Eighteen feet."
"Thirteen," Vyse counter proposed.
"Seventeen and a half."
"Fifteen."
"Fine," Aika relented. "Fifteen! But you gotta back me up on it this time! Deal?"
Vyse rolled his eyes. "When don't I have your back? Aika, you could jump into the Deep Sky right now and I'd dive in too."
The sentiment brought some color to Aika's face. The redhead played with her fingers bashfully. She'd known Vyse essentially all her life—that held double true after Captain Dyne all but adopted her—and there wasn't any doubt that he'd do pretty much anything for her. But when he said it aloud like that? A strange and uncharacteristic sheepishness set in.
"I know that," she said nervously. "But I also don't know why you tell me to cool it when it comes to telling stories. Everyone else does it! Chugging loqua and crowing that they fought off a dozen Valuan elite or whatever. Why don't you ever do that?"
Vyse sighed.
"Because I want it to be true," he said. "That's more impressive. Besides, I'm Victor Dyne's son. All my life I grew up hearing the stories about what he did to be called 'Blue Storm.' Sinking three Black Pirate galleons—including Logan Longbrand and Mad Eye Oakes—off the side of Cape Claudia. Breaking the Siege of Nasil during the war alongside Centime the Tinker…"
"You feel pressured," Aika said astutely. "To live up to that name. To be Dyne's son."
"It's not that," Vyse said, guiding the sloop forward still. "It's that I want to make my own name. I don't want to be "Dyne's Son" for the rest of my life. I want to be me, y'know? I don't want to punch up the stories to make them sound bigger than they were. I want our stories to actually be bigger."
Aika nodded sympathetically. "We'll get there," she said. "It's getting close to the time that we'll head out on ou-"
WOOSH! The wind churned as a dark something rushed above them through the hazy sky. It pressed with such speed that the fog shifted aside to reveal the same green-hulled ship they'd passed on the way to Shrine Island. Small but sturdy, it lowered altitude enough that Vyse could spot a dark flag emblazoned with grey-blue accents calling attention to the centerpiece: a black hand grasping a swordfish. Vyse narrowed his eyes. It initially seemed like a fishing vessel but he could see a row of impressive cannons along the side. Was a Black Pirate roaming the Mid Ocean?
"Hey, you bastard!" Aika stood up and began waving her arms fruitlessly at the ship as it sailed off into the fog. "Watch where you're going!"
Vyse turned his attention forward once more. "Whatever that ship's after, they sure as hell don't care if they smash a small sloop like ours in the process."
"Some type of pirate?" Aika asked the question in Vyse's mind. They sailed further and the fog began to darken.
"Who knows," he said. "Doesn't affect us either way. What matters is getting this moonstone back to…"
He coughed without warning as the fog continued to turn black. Another cough and then another. "What the hell…"
Aika squinted as her eyes began to burn. "Vyse, I don't think this is…"
"I know," he said. "It's smoke! Something's burning!"
It wasn't a mystery for long. The sloop drew closer, bursting through the fog and more detail came into view; shattered homes, cratered courtyards. Even the windmill sizzled. The unmistakable and terrifying signs of cannon bombardment. Their home was not simply attacked; it was broken and shattered.
Aika stepped towards the sloop's bow. "I don't… Vyse.. I don't understand.. What happened?!"
Ice flooded through Vyse's veins. He knew exactly what happened: Valua had returned to punish the pirates that dared challenge them.
Fina woke from a cold and pure black nothing, rubbing her eyes until the world came into view. This was the second time she'd awoken on a ship and it was far worse than the last. Her room, if it could be called such, was little more than four cold steel walls and a hardened bench pulling double duty as a bed. A locked door held her within. There had been no real conception of it back home but she understood it was a prison cell. Wherever she was, she was trapped once again. At the mercy of her captors.
It took a moment for her to remember how she got here. The explosions, the fire, the screaming and barking of orders. A dark-helmeted soldier who found her with such ease, and who struck a helpless child down with a swift flick of his hand. Then she remembered more, and the horrible confusion of it all threatened to move her to tears.
It had been Rami. Her dear, sweet Rami that played with her back at the shrine. Who had combed her hair and helped with her lessons. Who told her outlandish stories and legends of the Old World, some true and other imagined. Her lovely friend, sent before her to fulfill his duties. Her only friend before Vyse and Aika. His features were only half familiar. The same hair—a blonde light enough that some might call it silver. The same handsome face she knew so well, adorned with piercing green eyes that matched her own. He used to screw it up into silly contortions or grumbling scowls that made her giggle endlessly as a child. All of that had been replaced with cold malevolence and a gravity unlike anything she could imagine. And yet, it was undeniably him.
"Look what they've turned you into," he had said amid the flames. "Look at the price they made us pay." What had he meant? The Elders? The Valuans?
What happened to you, Rami? Why are you here, among them? What have they done to you?
That had to be the explanation. She had not been among the surface-dwellers long but the Valuans' cruelties were obvious. This had to be a mistake or some type of trick. They'd forced him into all of this. Manipulated or tortured him to serve at their side. That was what he was doing, right? Helping them, fighting like any other Valuan soldier?
Then something else dawned on her: He's how they found me. That tug on my mind. It was him!
Fina took a breath and let her hand fall to her wrist where her silver bracelet rested. She still had that and her magic didn't need any catalyst like the surface dwellers seemed to require. Did they not realize she might still fight? Did they not expect it?
Or maybe Rami hadn't told them…
She wanted to cry. It was all too much. She wanted Vyse to save her and take her away from everything. She wanted Aika to come to her rescue with a quip and a grin. But they weren't here and might never find her. That separation hurt more than any dagger might. Her heart ached for Rami, yes. For reasons she struggled to understand, it ached most of all for Vyse and Aika. Those two wonderful stars she'd found in a dark and confusing night's sky.
The door opened. Rami walked through. He frowned for the briefest of moments before leaning against the wall adjacent to Fina.
"You should be grateful," he said firmly. No greeting, no smile. "To be rescued from such filth."
Fina stood up. "Filth? They were helping me!"
The man made a swift gesture with his hand, cutting a glyph pattern within the air that Fina recognized as drilnos magic. Fina felt the shift in energy but it was too late. Rami's spell, one of the subtler forms of Yellow Magic, enfeebled her body and drained her strength. She stumbled back and fell to the cell's bed.
"Why are… you.." The words barely formed in her mouth. "These people are dangerous, Rami.."
Rami stepped forward and kneeled closer to her. His eyes flashed with the slightest hint of sadness before he nodded in acknowledgement.
"You're right, Fi," he agreed quietly. "The Valuans are a base and venal people. Most of them are no better than animals. They crave war and yearn for power. And yet…"
"There is a man amongst them that could change everything," he said devotedly. "The Elders were right; this world is poisoned. But their solution? Foolish, shortsighted, arrogant. He's none of those things…"
Fina slowly rose to a seated position. Her body lacked the energy to do more than that. She examined Rami with a glassy and confused look.
"What are you talking about?" She leaned back against the cell wall. "Our task is merely to retrieve the crystals so that what happened before won't happen again.."
Rami froze for a moment. He felt a flash of anger shoot through his body. It was too cruel, too hideous.
"They never told you," he realized. "You don't even know…"
He laughed, hard and devoid of warmth. "I suppose they said that retrieving the matrices was an act of mercy," he said. "From an enlightened people."
"Rami, can you imagine what would happen if these people found them? The destruction that they could cause?"
The young man rounded on Fina, pointing a histrionic finger at the woman. "You don't understand, Fi. This is what's best for everyone! Silvite, Valuan, everyone!"
Fina shrunk back nervously. "Rami, what have you told them?"
The cell door creaked open and an imposing man stepped through. Sharp eyes and a face that might as well have been etched from stone. Fina felt a chill run up her spine. Rami fell to his knees before the Valuan.
"Lord Galcian," he intoned. "I was just preparing to bring the prisoner to your quarters."
Fina's observed the two closely. Rami had responded to the man with such devotion, such deep fealty that everything she knew about her friend—his courage, his kindness—melted away. There was only Rami and his new master.
Galcian waved a dismissive hand. Rami stood up swiftly.
"There is no need for that, Ramirez," he said coolly. "I would be a poor host indeed if I didn't find time for our guest."
"Ramirez," Fina wondered. "Is that the name the Valuans have given you…?"
"I took the liberty of enfeebling her for the time being," Rami said. "She's more dangerous than she looks. We can take no chances. Especially with a priestess like her..."
"Your initiative knows no bounds," Galcian offered in reply. He paused for a moment. "Now, leave us."
Rami hesitated. "Sir?"
"Now."
Rami cast a passing glance at Fina before saluting and exiting the cell. There was the slight hint of… something in his eyes. Nostalgia, perhaps? Or was it a flash of shame?
Galcian walked further into the room and examined Fina as if she were a rare painting at one of the Empress' many estates.
"At last we meet, Fina," he said. The young woman found the strength to sit taller, more defiantly. "You cannot imagine how much trouble the Armada has gone through to find you. Particularly after your… pirate associates interfered."
Fina's eyes narrowed. "You know my name," she said.
"And far more than that," Galcian replied. "I know what you are and why you're here. Ah, but… where are my manners?"
He gave a formal bow. Ingratiating yet not enough that he lost any of his nobility. A practiced gesture that he'd clearly perfected for his own purposes.
"I am Galcian, Sworn Protector of Valua and Supreme Commander of the Imperial Armada. I am under direct orders from Her Royal Highness, Empress Teodora, to find you and bring you back to Valua."
"Even if that means taking me against my will," Fina noted sharply. "The first thing that greeted me when I arrived in these skies was cannonfire from one of your ships."
"Admiral Alfonso was overzealous," Galcian offered carefully. "His misconduct will be dealt with in due time. But it is as you say: you will come with me to the capital regardless of your own desires."
"How hospitable of you," Fina spat back.
"You are one of the last remaining Silvites," he said. "With valuable information. Your knowledge could ensure our nation's security, and the entire world's."
He extended a hand. Though he never understood the point of kindness, Galcian knew that its appearance could be persuasive. "Will you help us?"
Fina bristled. She turned her gaze away and said nothing. Galcian retracted his hand.
"I see," he crooned. "I did not expect you to help us without the proper motivation. However... I do believe we have the same goals. In time, you might learn to understand that."
He walked towards the cell door. "We will reach Valua in half a day. Do enjoy the comforts of the brig until then."
And with that, he was gone.
Desecrated.
The word filled Vyse's mind as the sloop drew near Pirate Isle's docks. He'd grown up thinking that his home was untouchable. That for all of Valua's might, they would never have the cleverness to catch Dyne of the Blue Storm or his crew and certainly not discover their hidden base. The Meridian skies belonged to the Blue Rogues and woe be to any Valuan vessel that strayed into their territory. He was wrong. Their home was not untouchable and seeing the topside shattered into a loose collection of craters and broken houses was as frightening a sight as it was necessary.
It was necessary because neither he nor Aika knew anything about war. That was decades ago and something only found in tall tales of Dyne's exploits or the vaguest veteran's reminiscence. Well, now they knew something of war; they knew the pain of seeing everything they loved fractured and laid bare. For all the midnight raids on Valuan ships, for all the fights with the Empire's soldiers and escapades dogging their forays into the Mid Ocean, the two rogues had never received a complete picture of their enemy's depravity. The casual and callous way in which they wrought destruction on those weaker than them.
Now they had.
The windmill spun even as one of the blades smoldered. Aika's house smoked; dull enough that the embers were clearly settling but that didn't change the fact that her home, the home her father had built, was mangled. Gardens that brought food were little more than scalding divots, the town square itself a monument to Valua's fury as nary a stone was left unscorched.
The two rogues walked dumbstruck into the village center. A black flag bearing the six-winged Valuan dragon of the Armada was planted into the ground. Vyse stared at it and trembled with anger. He walked over and slashed at it with his cutlass. The standard fluttered in the air and landed upon a burning heap of wood. He watched furiously as it was engulfed by the flame. There was no way that flag would be allowed to stand upon any island he called home. Or any island ever if he could help it.
"Vyse? Aika? Is that you?" A weak voice called out near a pile of rubble. It was Ben. The reliable lookout wiped a smear of blood from his face and peered at the two young rogues.
"Ben!" Vyse was at his side in an instant, nodding to Aika. The redhead was already fishing in her pouch for one of their spare sacres crystals.
"What happened?! That flag.. It was Valuan.. Where's Dad? Where are the others?"
Aika cracked the crystal over the injured man and watched as a spiral of curative magic flittered down and across his body. The older man winced with pain.
"Don't move too much," Aika said. "That's enough to stave off bleeding but if you shift about, you could tear something open.." She'd been around injured pirates enough to know that magic didn't solve everything.
Ben took a breath. He looked woefully at Vyse.
"It was the Lord Admiral, Galcian," he explained. "I don't know how but he found us. Shelled the island and took as many prisoners as he could. Some of us were left behind; the broken and wounded. Women, children…"
Vyse looked frantically about the island before heaving a sigh. Ben was correct; there was no sight of anyone else. They all must have fled below.
Aika leaned in, fear and concern etched on her face. "Punishment for piracy in Valua's death," she said. "Everything we've done? The crew… the captain…"
"They took my father?" Vyse needed more information.
Ben nodded. "Aye, and then some. I… saw the ships and.." Tears welled up in his eyes. "I tried to warn everyone in time.. I did, Vyse. I'm sorry! I should have been paying more attention!"
He slammed a plaintive fist into the ground. Vyse reached out to take his crewmmate's hand.
"Look at me," he said firmly, sounding so much like his father. Ben turned his gaze to the young man.
"This wasn't your fault. You did what you could and by the looks of it got most of the village to clear out. You saved lives, Ben."
"I should ha-"
"Enough of that," Vyse commanded. "Coulda, woulda, shoulda… We can't take back what happened. We just gotta figure out what comes next."
Ben wiped his eyes. "I'll rest here for a while," he said. "You should head underground to the others. Your mother was worried sick thinkin' that maybe they blasted you two out of the sky."
Aika smiled at Ben. "We won't keep her waiting," she said. "Once you think you're able, head on down and get some rest, okay?"
The old sailor gave a nod before closing his eyes and sighing again. "Go on then."
It didn't take Vyse and Aika long to reach the underground port. It didn't bear the same scars and craters as the surface but it had clearly been ransacked. Scattered weapons and spilled coins signaled a "reclamation of assets" on the Valuan parts. Spare droplets of blood on the walkways hinted of brief battles. Vyse imagined it; Luke or maybe Timmus doing whatever possible to delay the Valuans as his father and the others secured a hiding place for the women and children. He thought that perhaps that meant the Albatross' holds but that theory was quickly disproven.
"Look," Aika said.
She pointed down at the dock where only a few curved frames and scorched armor plates gave the slightest hint that the Albatross had ever existed. It rested at the dock, a tangled mess of crisped wood and fractured steel. The terror of Meridia, the flagship of the Blue Storm, was nothing more than tinder and scrap.
They rushed down into the underground cave; the remaining townspeople were present along with a scant few crew. Most notable, Mabel sat to the side, balancing her blue moonstone dagger upon her finger.
"Vyse! Aika!" The unmistakable cry of Johanna Dyne rang throughout the cavern. Heads turned as she ran towards her son and her all-but-adopted daughter and embraced them in a powerful hug. "Thank the Moons that you're safe. I feared the worst.."
She wiped tears from her eyes. "I kept thinking: what if they saw you? What if they shot down my boy…"
Vyse returned the gesture before stepping away. "The fog was so thick," he said. "If there were Valuans still prowling the Mid Ocean, they couldn't have seen us."
Aika frowned at Johanna. "Are you okay? Ben said that they took the Captain and most of the crew."
Vyse's mother nodded. "Victor and the others fell back down here," she explained. "Most of us fled to his office; there's a fake door there that leads to a small series of caves. And when it became clear they wouldn't be able to fight back… your father surrendered."
That made Vyse bristle. "Dad gave up?"
Johanna shook her head. "He made a choice," she said. "To save us. To save the island from being blasted into little more than shards. It was either that or they'd kill everyone."
Aika frowned. "Blue Rogue code says to always challenge someone stronger than you."
"It also says to take treasures and be thankful," Johanna said. She wasn't a Blue Rogue but you didn't marry Dyne of the Blue Storm without knowing the creed. "For you father? This island is a treasure. The people, his family. And he'd give anything to protect it."
"If they're taken to Valua…" Aika left the rest to everyone's imagination. A hangman's noose? A firing squad? What kind of execution awaited a pirate in the Empire?
Vyse paused. He looked around. There was Lindsi and Alan. What remained of the crew: Mabel, Peter, and even Matthew the deckswab. Granny Hofman. Landis' wife Martha, Barbara the Gossip. Erinn the "Merchant," although Valua had doubtlessly seized most of her goods. But no matter how hard he tried, he could not find Fina. His heart sank.
"Mom, where's Fina?"
He and Aika had rescued her from Alfonso; the Admiral seemed to want to escape with her over anything else. He'd forgone jewels and other spoils all to get Fina to a lifeboat. And they'd saved her, welcomed her as a guest. It was the right thing to do. Vyse believed that. But if doing the right thing meant accidentally guiding friends and family into trouble's path… was it really worth it? There was a sinking self-centered part of him that felt responsible for everything that had happened. And all because he and Aika had saved a kind young woman.
Johanna spoke deliberately, holding back a twinge of pain. "They took her," she said. "Along with your father and the others."
Aika gasped. "If she's tried alongside them she could be executed too! But she hasn't done anything wrong!"
"I tried to save her," a sour child's voice cut through the conversation. Jimmy made his way over to the group, his face marred by a massive bruise.
"We were playing hide and seek. She tried to fight with some kind of sword and magic but there was this Valuan and I wasn't just gonna do nothing! Blue Rogues help their friends."
Johanna smiled. "Yes, they do. But you nearly got yourself killed, young man!"
Jimmy shrugged. "I couldn't just hide," he said." I dunno what happened though; that Valuan smacked me good and when I woke up they were all gone."
Vyse knelt down to Jimmy's height and ruffled his hair. "Ya did good," he said. "Sounds like you were very brave, which is what you'll need to be if you ever want to be a sailor…"
"Buuut… Vyse's mom is also right," Aika said. "No offense but you're still a kid and rushing a Valuan soldier? That takes guts but it's a miracle you're alive."
"Alive…" Vyse began to pace in thought. "Well, I damn well know I'm not letting any of those Valuans have their way in all this."
"What to do you mean?" Aika seemed to understand but there was a hint of skepticism.
"We fly out there and rescue everyone, of course," Vyse said this as if it were no more difficult a task than running to a nearby island for a bag of sugar. "I know that won't be easy, but it's not impossible. Nothing is!"
"Yeah," Aika agreed. "We can't let them get away with this! Let's show them what happens when you mess with Blue Rogues."
Johanna groaned. "Vyse, remember what your father says: acting quickly and rushing are two different things. I… I don't think I can stop you from trying. But I can, as your mother, tell you to take some time and prepare."
Vyse tried to protest. Johanna held a finger to his lips.
"No talkback, mister," she said sternly. "You and Aika need rest. I… don't like the idea of you heading off but you have the look your father does when he's about to do something stupid… and brave."
His mother sighed. "I know I can't stop you two from going…"
Some distance away, Mabel flicked her knife up to catch the hilt. "They wouldn't be alone," she said, standing slowly. "I'm going too."
It would have been an impressive statement if the woman could stand and walk well. For all her boasting after returning from her neath-death experience, there had been little time to rest and recover. Green magic solved many problems, but coming back from your deathbed? It was bound to leave the even finest of rogues—of which Mabel was one—weak. Shaky in a fight at best.
Vyse shook his head. "You're not going anywhere," he said. The voice of authority had snuck into his tone once again. "Fina saved you, sure, but you were knockin' on the door to the great mystery. You need rest, Mabel."
The raven haired raider hesitated. "They have Luke.."
"I understand," Vyse said. "I promise I'll bring him back. Bring everyone back."
Aika nodded. "Everyone's coming back. Besides, someone needs to look after the place. Right?"
She winked at Mabel, who demurred a bit and smiled. "Suppose I can do that," she said. "Ain't but a few rogues here but with the village as it is now, who knows if scavengers or Black Pirates pay a visit looking to pilfer from the wreckage."
Jimmy slammed a fist into his hand. "If they do, we'll beat them up," he said. "I'll punch them right in the nose! Bam!"
Vyse smiled. "I don't doubt it," he said. "Just listen to what my mom and Mabel say, okay?"
Johanna laughed. "I feel safer already," she said. "For now? Rest. Your journey can start tomorrow."
Vyse was too late. He ran across the clouds and the very sky itself. His father and Fina and everyone else was far off in the distance. At first they were little more than dots. He rushed faster and faster. Eventually he had run countless miles. The blue skies darkened with each step. First, it was the purple haze that he'd encountered on the journey back from Shrine Island. The smog turned dark and acrid like the smoke that billowed from his broken home. He darted forward and dodged between voltaic lightning bolts and the blasting of cannons. Closer, closer, closer. Nothing was impossible. Not even this.
Right?
The storm of fire and lightning grew thick and began to hamper his progress. He got closer to his friends, his father… and they began to fall lifelessly to the ground. One by one, the crew collapsed and broke into glass-like shards. As if some dark shade had reached into their beings, tore out their very souls and broke them apart. He forced through the electric storm barring his way and made it within a few feet of his father. Dyne whispered… something and smiled before death washed over him like a wave.
Too slow. Vyse had been far too slow to make a difference. His father chipped and crumbled into dust. He was left with one thought now.
Fina.
He turned, heart cold with fear as he searched for the strange and beautiful woman. There she was. Immaculate in her white dress. He ran as fast as his legs allowed. Darting through lightning and soldiers and fire and pain. Slowly but surely he began to drown in the massing tide.
Just a little further… Just a little further… So close, so close… If only he could take a few steps forward, he might at least save her.
Then everything froze. Fina turned to look at him. She walked through all obstructions; the soldiers, the magick. She approached him and smiled. She looked so beautiful. She looked so sad. The blonde woman reached out and poked Vyse on the forehead. Like a child at play. Behind her, he could see the shadow of death itself. A black ghost creature, tall like a dragon, with lighting for eyes. He screamed, trying to warn her but she didn't seem to notice. And just as the specter reached, ready to claim her soul…
Vyse woke in his bed with a start, covered in sweat. He took a few breaths to find himself again. It was just a dream. A trick of the mind. He sighed, battling to regain his sense of composure.
"Dad, Fina… Hold on," he said quietly. It took another hour before he managed to sleep again.
Pirate Isle's makeshift topside port bustled with what little activity its scattered citizens could muster. Aika heaved a small box of supplies onto the sloop as Vyse worked to chip off a small piece of the moonstone they'd recovered from Shrine Island. Two things were important: having the necessary supplies to last the almost week-long trip to Valua and cutting that time down if they could. The first part hadn't been an issue; although the Valuans had raided weapon stores and treasure caches, it seemed that Lord Galcian's forces hadn't been so cruel as to deplete food stores. It was tempting to call it a kindness but Vyse could see the pragmatism behind it. If you left no survivors, there'd be no one to tell stories of the Armada's might.
The second part was trickier. Their sloop mostly traveled using sails and meager invocations of Blue Magic. That wouldn't be fast enough for their purposes. What little had been left of the Albatross was quickly turned over for scrap. That included a modest engine that was quickly affixed to their sloop. That was Peter's doing; the young deckhand had eluded the Valuans by guiding many of the island's citizens into hiding and guarding them on Dyne's orders. He was a decent sort with a head for engines and machines. He and Ben had worked through the early morning to get the makeshift motor to rest upon the sloop. Which left Vyse chipping off moonstone pieces for fuel. The stone held raw silver energy, fresh as any merchant could dream of. Fed into the engine, it would speed up the trip significantly.
Vyse hid his anxieties behind a determined gaze, focusing on his work and pushing away his doubts as soon as they snaked into his mind. What if they were too slow? It doesn't matter; we have to try. What if they made it to the capital and were captured as well? Not gonna happen. He chipped a moonstone shard off with each thought and, in the process, chipped the fear from his mind. Eventually, he had a collection of silvery shards. He deposited the shards in a small drum container on the sloop, leaving the rest of the raw moonstone beside it.
Taking a moment to break, he sat on one of the nearby benches. Jimmy, face still bearing a deep black eye, sat beside him. Within a few moments, Alan and Lindsi had gathered around too. Even Pow wandered up curiously. Aika turned back from her work organizing the sloop's inventory and smiled before returning to her task.
"Are you really gonna save them, Vyse?" Jimmy kicked his legs back and forth nervously.
"You know it," Vyse said. "Gonna sail right into the Empire and bring everyone back."
Alan took a step forward. "While you're gone, I'm gonna fix everything up!"
Aika ambled over from the sloop and whispered dramatically. "If you start with my place, I'll give you five whole gold…"
The group chuckled. All except Lindsi, who stepped forward to look at the two rogues with teary eyes.
"You both gotta promise to come back," she said. "No matter what, you gotta come back."
Vyse leaned towards Lindsi and grinned. "Have I ever let you down, Linsdi? Or has Aika?"
"No," the girl said. She kicked at the dirt nervously. "But this is super scary! You're going where all the bad people are!"
"And we're coming back," Aika chimed in. "Me and Vyse are gonna haul everyone's ass back safe and sound."
Lindsi frowned at the swear but stood her ground. "Promise! Promise!"
Vyse and Aika looked at each other. They spoke up in unison. "We promise."
Peter spoke up from the sloop's side. "She's as good to go as ever," he declared. "And time's as good as it'll get; fog's been churning in and out lately but things are clear for now."
Vyse stood up and stepped onto the sloop. Aika followed behind him. He looked about his home one more time; even if it was broken, they were not defeated. So long as there was strength in his body, he'd find a way to save his father. To save the crew. To save Fina.
And yet, for a moment, he let some of his nervousness slip across his features.
"A sailor setting out on their journey should have a little more hope in his eyes, I think." It was his mother. She walked up to the small dock and grinned at her son. "Stand tall, son, and give them hell."
Aika laughed. "You're so sweet usually," she said. "But every now and then I see why you're the captain's wife."
Johanna shrugged. "Victor's only ever wanted one thing: free skies for everyone," she said. "I married him knowing that he would cause trouble, and that a day like this could come."
"We'll bring him back, Mom." Vyse looked at his mother seriously. "You'll see."
"Do I look worried? Or doubtful?" Johanna Dyne gestured towards the sky. "Go on."
They were simple words but all that Vyse needed to hear. Aika trimmed the sails and he guided the ship away from the dock. He saw them all: his mother, Ben and Peter, the children… Even Mabel had managed to limp up to the dock to wave. Aika reached into the drum of moonstone shards and tossed one into the sloop's engine. It gave something resembling a belch before leaping to life and pushing the ship onwards into the Meridian sky.
For a while, that was enough. The severity of their journey kept Aika and Vyse focused on sailing forward but eventually they found a steady pace and heading such that they could take a moment to relax.
"You really think we can do this, Vyse?" Aika looked out nervously into the clouds. "It's just the two of us after all."
Vyse shrugged, keeping one hand on the ship's wheel as he looked backwards at his friend.
"I do," he said. "Doesn't mean I'm not scared though, or that there's no version of this that… ends bad for us."
"It's just strange," Aika said. "Do I worry leaping onto a ship's deck during a raid? Yeah, of course but I've done it enough that I don't freak out. Right now? I don't know what to think."
"I think…" Vyse started before taking a moment to find the words. "I think… that it doesn't matter if this is smart or if the chances are slim or whatever else. We're Blue Rogues, right? If we want that to last, and if we want to keep these skies free like my Dad does?"
Vyse smiled warmly at his friend. "Then we don't have a choice. This is the right thing to do, so we're gonna do it."
"Yeah!" She gave a clap of excitement. "Besides, we gotta be getting closer. The sky's darkening and they say it's always night in Valua so… No, we can't be that far, right?"
"Wait…"
Somehow, Vyse hadn't quite noticed the change. The sky had grown foggy, sure, but after the last day or so of strange weather that wasn't the surprise. Neither was the loss of visibility; he'd taken the sloop to half-sail a while ago as the fog formed. But the darkness? That was something different, something strange that left him confused. Because Aika was right. The sky had shifted from blue to the hazy purple pall from the previous day and now the sloop was covered in a massive shadow. He looked up.
"I don't think it's Valuan skies, Aika," he said. "I think it's because we're coming in low underneath that island above us."
Aika looked up and blinked. She reached into her pouch and pulled out a map. If they weren't close to Valua, and it had been silly of her to think that even with their moonstone-boosted speed, they would be somewhere near…
The redhead narrowed her eyes in confusion as she regarded the map. "There's… no island here," she said before looking up. Above them, the "island" began to fall downwards closer and closer.
"Vyse! Vyse! It's falling! The… thing is falling!" Aika's panicked yells grew into downright screaming.
"I see it," Vyse said. "Pulling us hard to port!"
The sloop cut sharply to the left as whatever the hell was falling at them continued to drop at a frightening pace. Vyse righted their course and turned to look. An arcwhale the likes of which he'd never seen trailed alongside them. Its purple skin wasn't smooth like one might expect; it was covered in scars and strange etchings. Portions of it were segmented and hardened like a shell or pieces of armor. For a moment, all was still before a large red eye turned to fix itself upon the sloop.
"Moons! I've never seen an arcwhale like that!" Vyse cried out.
The creature gave a bellow that could have shattered mountains.
"We need to back off!" Vyse wasn't even sure if Aika could hear him after the whale's bellowing. He began to move the sloop further away from the beast. "A stray rise of one of those flippers could capsize us!"
Aika nodded frantically in agreement. Apparently neither of them were deafened by the creature.
That didn't stop the young woman from being utterly confused. "I mean, it doesn't.. It looked but… Does it see us?! Like, did we piss it off?!"
Somewhere in the sky above them, an explosion rang out. It might have been thunder or even cannon fire. Whatever it was tossed the arcwhale into a frenzy. The noise burst once more and the air grew unbearably cold.
"What the hell is that?!" Vyse searched for the sounds' origin only to find another dark shape in the fog. Meanwhile, the arcwhale took a gasping breath inward that threatened to suck up the sloop entirely.
"Vyse! Brace!" Aika's voice cut through the confusion.
"No shit!" He held tight to the ship's wheel. "Grab something and don't let go! Even if i-"
The arcwhale exhaled a gout of icy wind, a sort of frosty haze that erupted into the Meridian sky and filled it with nothing but wind and cold and death. Vyse felt the sloop begin to spin about.
"We're breaking up! Aika!"
A tidal wave of glacial breath slammed against the sloop. Vyse fell down and cracked his head upon the deck. Everything went dark.
You won't escape me this time, Rhaknam!
The Captain, body aching with both the weight of years and the strange burning of phantom pain, pressed his ship's throttle to the maximum. The reliable vessel lurched forward in chase of his target: the Moon's damned arcwhale that had eluded him for so many years. How long had it been since that day? By now, he didn't even remember. Few memories remained, a choice few moments that he held in his heart. The rest was fit to burst with fury. This creature, this thing had taken everything from him and it was finally time to repay the monster in turn.
The arcwhale proceed swiftly, aware of its pursuer while also somehow distracted by… something. The captain didn't care what it was; the beast's attention was down. He pushed his vessel to the breaking point, drawing up on the arcwhale's side. He saw the scars and marks of their previous battles. The scorches from their skirmish off the coast of Maramba. The divots where he'd blasted off flesh and muscle near Cape Victory. The countless spears and harpoons resting in the beast's side, each of them attesting to one struggle or another. Many of them were hurled by dead men.
Yes, they'd fought so long and now it was time to end it.
The trump card? A row of heavy cannons stolen from unsuspecting Valuan warships. Let them call him a Black Pirate or Blue Rogue or whatever else for attacking them. He didn't care. The cannons were worth the Empire's scorn. He would give anything and everything if it meant ending the beast's life.
His ship drew close. The air grew cold. The Captain fired. One, two, three. The heaviest ordinance he'd ever brought to bear against the beast. Disastrous cannons built by the world's largest empire. Refined weapons of war that he'd stolen through cunning and kept by right of blood. Cannonballs slammed into the arcwhale. When the smoke cleared, the beast yet lived. Harmed, no doubt, but not slain. The Captain prepared for another broadside. He would fire all the shots he had and then stuff the cannons with cutlery and fire that too if he needed to. The air grew even colder and the arcwhale bellowed. The Captain braced as the monster released a swirl of frost and wind that tossed his ship about.
Not enough, you bastard. Never again. Not against my ship.
The Captain had planned for this as well. His hull was reinforced, his engines were finely tuned. So the ship held steady. But as he prepared to attack again, something caught his eye off the port side. A crumbling sloop twirling in the raging winds. He looked closer and could just make out its pilots: two young sailors clinging on for dear life. What did he owe to these fools? Nothing! The fog dispersed ever so slightly and he saw a boy. Almost as old as…
There was a choice to make. Between fury and something else, something that the Captain had all but forgotten. A metal hand slammed down on his ship's console. He spun the wheel, turning away from the beast and towards the scuttled ship.
"Damn it all! Moons damn ye to hell and back, Rhaknam! This ain't over!"
Vyse drifted through the dark. He felt the bobbing of a ship and smelled the crisp sky but for what felt like an eternity there was only a vast blackness like someone had reached up into the night sky and plucked out all the stars and cast down the moons. If this was death, he decided, it wasn't exactly terrible but it also wasn't very fun. So he drifted and drifted and drifted more until…
"Are ya goin' to sleep all day?" A rough voice reverberated in the dark.
Vyse tried to talk but he couldn't find words. He was stuck in the black, which he slowly started to understand wasn't the afterlife. His body felt too damn heavy to say anything, caught somewhere between a dream and reality. He fought as much as he could to wake himself.
"Get up!" The voice growled. Before Vyse knew what was happening, a splash of cold water slammed into his body. The young man coughed and sputtered. When he opened his eyes, a man was standing over him.
Old. That was the easiest way to describe him. The man wore his years on his face—years that had not been kind by the look of it—and scowled with a weariness known only to the long lived. Much of this was hidden behind a bushy grey beard. A stark black patch covered one of his eyes, the right one, which had been cleft by something that left a damn ugly scar. He wore a dirty green ensemble splotched with engine grease and was on the heavier side but also sturdy, which was important because of the most important distinguishing feature: a massive metallic arm extending all the way down from his broad shoulders. It came to end in a rudimentary hand with three fingers. It seemed to be made of steel but it was so marred by time that it was hard to tell.
Vyse rose up slowly and looked around. He was on the deck of a ship but that didn't matter for the moment. Instead, he whipped his head around until he could spot Aika. His friend lay nearby, rising from her own stupor. He sighed in relief.
"So... ya finally 'cided ter get up, huh?" The old man continued to scowl at the two. "Thought I were dealin' with two corpses for a spell there."
Vyse looked at Aika. "Are you okay?"
Aika stared back at him. "Why are you… all wet?"
The old man stomped a furious boot upon the ship's deck. "Six different hells upon you lot," he bellowed. "Because of you two, Rhaknam got away! I was so damned close…"
It took a moment for Vyse to remember what had happened. "Rhaknam...? We were… sailing and.."
"There was an arcwhale," Aika continued. "But something happened and it…"
"It blew us off course and.." Vyse looked at the old man. "I thought we were goners for sure, but I guess you saved us!" He slowly stood up and extended a hand towards the man. "Thanks!"
The old man punched him in the jaw. With his metal arm. Vyse went sprawling to the deck and began to rise again before slipping to the ground. "Ow…."
Aika whirled on the old man. "What are you doing, you crusty... err rusty... old man?! He didn't do anything!"
"Didn't do nothin'? Didn't do nothin'? You two useless swabs ruined everything! I've been hunting that damn whale fer years! Weren't but a scant few shots away from wastin' that wretched beast and yer both sailin' 'bout willy-nilly and screwed it all up!"
By this point Vyse had risen to his feet. "We're sorry, alright? We weren't trying to get in the way."
The old man gave a ha-rumph. "Bits and bobs of yer ship hit me sails," he explained."M'lucky my ship is still airborne. Yer luckier I were here to save ya."
Aika groaned. "Our ship's destroyed?!"
"Nothing but splinters in the wind, aye," the man said. "Tossed the last pieces overboard this morning save for a bit 'o gear and that damn big moonstone. Which I'm keepin'."
"Hey, you can't just take that," Aika crossed her arms angrily at the man. He glared at her.
"I damn well have," he said. "S'price fer savin' both yer arses 'specially now since I'm stuck with you!"
Vyse stepped forward cautiously. "We were using that moonstone," he explained. "We need to get to Valua fast."
"Well, now yer here instead," the old man scoffed. "If you don't like it, you can jump off... I need to keep the load light as possible."
Aika waved her arms angrily. "We don't even know where here is or who the hell you are!"
The man regarded the two before nodding. "M'name's Drachma Gealbhan. S'gonna be 'Captain' so long as yer on me ship."
Vyse looked around. "Your ship…"
"Aye, the Little Jack," Drachma said. He stormed to the side of the deck, picked up a mop and shoved it into Vyse's hands. "And this ain't a passenger ship. Yer sailin' under my flag, ya two best earn yer keep."