Chapter 16

After Lyra kindly treated the Geovans to a very tasty lunch, they returned to the airfield and parted ways amicably. Lyra needed to return to her responsibilities as Skymaster, and Frankie wanted to do a quick inspection of Stonewing to make sure they were ready for another long-distance trip. Dan vanished into his lab in the back of the airship, leaving Maeryn alone with Terrance in the cockpit.

“So… how’d things go with the Council?” Terrance asked after they’d stood in silence for an awkward minute.

“Well… Lyra managed to get things smoothed over,” Maeryn informed him, a bit unsurely. Why did she feel so off-balance? “Apparently Cloudreach is on the verge of societal destruction because the nobles took a lot of the workforce with them when they left, and the Council’s desperately trying to hold things together?”

Terrance snorted. “I could’ve told ya that. Surprised that you managed to get those old farts to back off, though. They don’t want to arrest you anymore?”

“Well, I’m sure Sipund does,” Maeryn conceded. “But no, we’re all technically free to go. We’re even being given a copy of the research, and directions to Airspire. Supposedly they’ll have more information.”

Terrance nodded thoughtfully. “That’s probably true. Airspire’s pretty famous for being the home of cutting-edge advancements. Nobles sometimes like to send their kids to Airspire in order to get advanced copies. And if anywhere’s going to be trying to solve the Mist and mana problems, Airspire is where they’d be. Yeah, that’ll do perfectly for dropping me off.”

Oh. Maeryn had almost forgotten the terms of the deal; Terrance had helped them so much in exchange for passage to “anywhere”. She nodded, though - it wasn’t as though she could force him to stay, despite how incredibly helpful and useful he’d been. “You know, my offer stands for you to join the crew,” she suggested.

As expected, Terrance’s face twitched, but she didn’t know how to interpret the flicker of expression she’d seen. “I know I said we could talk about it after we’re all done here, but do you mind if we have that conversation while we’re in the air? I just… want to see this place behind me before I tell you more.”

“Of course,” Maeryn agreed immediately, taking a half-step back and raising her hands up in the air to communicate her good intentions. “Sorry for pushing.”

“You didn’t, it’s fine,” Terrance waved away her concerns easily. “But, I really must know… You told Lyra before that you resisted arrest. How under the sky did you get away from the Council before the air raid sirens went off?”

Maeryn blushed. “I, um…”

“She kicked our guards around like they were fresh recruits facing a royal guardsman,” an unexpected voice chimed in. They turned to see Lorn in the main chamber, greeting them with a cheerful two-fingered salute and large folder tucked against his body with his other arm. “Sorry for intruding,” he said brightly, “I’m just here to drop these off and say ‘thanks again for not leaving us to our well-deserved destruction.’”

Terrance’s face went absolutely stony, and his mouth clicked shut as he leveled a glare at the councilor. Maeryn glanced between him and Lorn a little awkwardly, before deciding she needed to do something to break the tension. “You’re welcome? Try to get those other airships built before the Rocs attack again, we won’t be able to help next time.”

“That’s the plan,” Lorn assured her. “The other councilors agreed to redirect resources to speed that up, we should have one or two complete in the next couple of days.” He glanced past Maeryn at the clearly furious Zephyrian boy, and his mask of cheerfulness cracked slightly. “Terrance…”

“Lorn.”

The councilor swallowed, looking… maybe a little vulnerable? Maeryn couldn’t quite figure out everything his face was saying, but he was certainly off-balance. “I… I’m glad to see you. How have you been?”

“I’m fine.” Terrance kept the answer short, curt, and gave absolutely nothing away. Maeryn felt distinctly like an outsider in the conversation, like she was listening in to family drama that she had nothing to do with and was distinctly unwanted. But there was nowhere for her to go; all she could do was stand quietly in the corner and try not to interrupt.

“That’s good. That’s good. I, ah… are you going with Captain Maeryn, then?”

“For now.” The boy’s voice remained flat and expressionless, and something about it seemed to pain Lorn.

The man slumped, ever so slightly. “I see. Well… take care in your travels. Stay safe?”

Terrance’s eyes flashed. “I’ll be safer there than I ever was here.”

Lorn actually flinched at that. “Yeah… yeah, you’re probably right about that. I’m sorry.”

Terrance’s eyes narrowed, and he turned away, looking out the cockpit. “It’s too late, now.”

“I… I suppose it is.” Lorn sighed. He glanced at Maeryn once more, then set the folder he was carrying on the nearby table. Then he reached to his belt, grabbed a small sack of something clinking, and set it down next to the folder. “Thanks again, Captain Maeryn.” Without another word, he left Stonewing, leaving Maeryn and Terrance alone once more.

After a long, tense moment, Terrance finally spoke again, not moving from his position staring outside the cockpit. “Don’t bother asking me about that. Ever. My history is mine. It has nothing to do with you or your mission. I’m not some traumatized kid who needs a listening ear or a shoulder to cry on. You keep to your business, and stay out of mine, and everything will be fine. I promise that my issues with Lorn won’t interfere with you and yours, so just stay out of it. Got it?”

Maeryn could only nod. “Okay. If that’s what you want.”

“It is,” Terrance affirmed with the coldness of finality, and that was that. After several seconds, though, his stance softened slightly, and he halfway turned to look at Maeryn. “So, what’re the rules for flying with you? Any forbidden areas, activities, conversation topics? Anything I’m expected to do for the trip?”

It was a clumsy attempt to change the topic, but Maeryn gratefully accepted it. Besides, they were good questions. “Dan’s lab is off limits to everyone, including me,” she began, pointing at the relevant door. “Basically comes down to ‘don’t startle the alchemist playing with volatile ingredients.’”

Terrance visibly shuddered at the thought. “Yeah, no, that’s fair. Anything else?”

“You get a room to yourself while you’re here. Just pick one, let us know which one it is, and pick up after yourself. I do a lot of the cooking, since Frankie’s the pilot and Dan’s usually busy in his lab, but you’re free to use the kitchen if you feel like it. We’ll probably ask you to have a quick training session with Frankie to make sure you can pilot Stonewing in a pinch, but unless you decide to join us we’re not going to have you take piloting shifts.”

“Piloting shifts?”

Maeryn shrugged. “It’s just the three of us, and getting to Cloudreach from Geova took a couple of days. Frankie’s gotta sleep at some point. When she needs a break, I take over.”

“What about when you need a break?”

“We stagger our sleep schedule and take our naps where we can get ‘em,” Maeryn admitted. “If it’s only for a few minutes, like a bathroom break, I’ll knock on Dan’s door and get him to fly for a bit. It’s not easy, but we make it work. I imagine we’ll be doing the same thing to get to Airspire. It’s not like we can land in the Mist.”

Terrance nodded slowly. “Right. That makes sense, I just never thought about it before.”

“Yep. Now, what else did you ask about? Oh right, forbidden activities and conversation topics. Hmm… nothing comes to mind. I mean, obviously don’t blow us up or anything, but you’re smart, I’m sure you know what not to do on an airship.” Maeryn shrugged. “If you do hit a touchy subject I’ll tell you. Dan’s pretty straightforward about telling us when he can’t talk about stuff with his work, and Frankie’ll talk your ear off about most anything. But if you wanna talk to me while I’m piloting, I’d appreciate the distraction.”

“Oh. I’ll do that, then. Thanks.” After a moment, Terrance shifted. “I’m just going to go pick out my room now. I think I could use a little time to decompress. It’s been a busy few days.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“It absolutely has. Get some rest, and I’ll see you later.”

With a final nod of acknowledgment, Terrance left. Maeryn watched him poke his head into a few of the doors before clearly deciding upon one. He caught Maeryn’s eye and jerked his thumb at it before striding in and closing the door behind him.

And with that, Maeryn was alone. Deciding she had some time to kill before Frankie was done with her inspection, she dug out her notebook and began writing a new log entry. There was a lot to cover from the last day or two that she hadn’t yet put to paper, and she didn’t want to forget any of it. One never knew what might be relevant in the future, after all.

It took her a while, and when she was done Maeryn peeked into the sack that Lorn had left. She blinked, sputtered for a moment, then sighed. There was an awful lot of money in that sack. She supposed it would be useful for their expenses in Airspire, at least. She pocketed it, then turned to the folder, opening it.

The very first page was a heading and expected distance and travel time, along with Airspire’s and Cloudreach’s current route information just in case they needed to make adjustments or return for whatever reason. Maeryn rapidly copied the route information into a new section of her notebook for reference, marveling that at this rate she might need another notebook just to keep track of everything. Maybe she’d buy one or two extras at Airspire.

The page underneath the heading information was a letter of introduction, which Maeryn hadn’t expected. She read it carefully, but it was pretty straightforward. It acknowledged them as Geovans, but in good standing in Zephyrian society, urging whoever read the note to assist them to the best of their ability. There was an odd wax imprint on the bottom, which Maeryn belatedly realized must be the seal of Lorn’s noble family.

“Huh. He never said which noble family he represented…” she murmured. “Well, too late to ask him now. Terrance probably knows, but…” She shook her head. “No, probably best not to ask him. Guess we’ll find out eventually if we ever need this letter.”

Maeryn folded the letter of introduction carefully, tucking it into an envelope that Lorn had thoughtfully provided, and stored the envelope in her room’s dresser for safe keeping.

With that, all that was left to do was wait for Frankie to finish her inspection, and they’d be on their way. In order to pass the time, Maeryn reached into the bottom of her dresser, where she’d stored her favorite weapons from her hunter days. She’d thought about wearing them to Cloudreach, but hadn’t bothered as she hadn’t been expecting combat of any sort. Almost being arrested, however, had proven that it might be a good idea to stay armed when they landed in Airspire. But first, she needed to ensure they were ready for use.

Maeryn carefully pulled out her weapons: a pair of leather vambraces with extendable steel blades embedded into the top section. The blades would extend or retract based on mana injection into a runic circle carved into the leather on the inside of the vambraces. They were simple weapons, really, but they held a special place in Maeryn’s heart. After all, she’d designed and built them herself, when she was thirteen.

It was traditional for hunters to create their own weapons, for several reasons. Maeryn couldn’t remember them all, but it boiled down to giving hunters valuable experience in crafting disciplines that they could potentially use later, in addition to knowing their weapons inside and out, which allowed them to recognize when there was a problem and be able to do their own maintenance.

Maeryn had designed her weapons to be dangerous when she wanted them to be, and perfectly safe and overlooked otherwise. She’d wanted to be ready at the drop of a hat should a Mistwarped beast appear, but she hadn’t wanted to be stuck holding a sword or a mace for hours. And while she’d had the option to make the whole thing out of metal, she’d decided not to for a very simple reason: she’d been thirteen, in the middle of a growth spurt, and she didn’t want to have to keep remaking the thing as she grew. Leather would do until Maeryn was done growing, at least, and the additional weight in a set of metal vambraces would slow her down.

Her instructors had praised the simple, practical design, though they’d noted that the blades themselves didn’t extend far past her fist, meaning that she would need to focus on being able to dart in close… which could be dangerous when it meant getting in range of teeth or claws. They’d encouraged her to make a long-range weapon as well, and Maeryn had tried - honest, she had - but nothing quite felt right.

So, Maeryn had made her up-close weapons work for the years she spent as a hunter.

With an ease borne of many years’ practice, Maeryn quietly and quickly disassembled her vambraces, extracting the blades and setting them on a clean cloth. Then she began cleaning the blades, using her preferred oil and cloth, making sure there was absolutely no rust, dust, or anything else that might harm the integrity of her weapons. Wiping them clean, Maeryn then took out a whetstone to give her blades a customary sharpening. Finally, she put her vambraces back together, put them on each arm, and channeled the barest hint of mana into each of the runic circles.

Shink!

The blades shot out exactly as expected, and Maeryn swung her arms sharply one after another in front of her, ensuring that the weight and feel was what she remembered. Yes… yes, everything felt good.

Finally, she sent another pulse of mana into the circles, and the blades abruptly shot backwards into the sheaths in the vambraces with a dull shunk. Maeryn nodded to herself. Good. Theywere in perfect condition.

With a satisfied nod, she replaced the vambraces back into the bottommost drawer of her dresser. She didn’t need them right now, and likely wouldn’t for a few days. Even so, it was always good to practice good weapons maintenance.

Stepping out of her bedroom, Maeryn found Frankie at the cockpit waiting for her. “Heya Rin! Everything’s good to go. I double- and triple-checked everything. We ready to go?”

Maeryn looked outside. Did she have anything left undone? Anything that needed doing before they left? The only thing she could think of was… “I’m going to go say goodbye to Skymaster Lyra one more time, and then we’ll take off,” she decided. “Go ahead and get Stonewing warmed up.”

“Aye-aye, Pirate Captain Maeryn.”

Maeryn, who had already been halfway out the door, came to an abrupt halt. Slowly, she turned around, utter disbelief coloring her face as she looked at the entirely too smug expression that Frankie wore. “What? What did you just call me?”

“Pirate Captain Maeryn,” Frankie repeated, her grin widening. “It’s an honor to be sailing a pirate ship, you know.”

“Frankie. We. Are not. Pirates.”

“Sure we are.” Frankie raised a hand, her index finger extended, to wave off Maeryn’s immediate rebuttal. “We stole this airship, right?”

Maeryn could already tell she was going to lose this argument, and she didn’t like it. “Yes…” she grit out.

“And when you couldn’t get what you wanted legitimately, you decided to steal it,” the pilot continued.

“Yes.” Maeryn drew out the word with a hiss.

“And when you were caught, you resisted arrest.”

Maeryn covered her face with one hand, regretting this entire conversation already. “Yes.”

“And you came back to your stolen ship to escape the authorities.”

“That still doesn’t make us pirates?” Maeryn tried weakly.

“I kinda think it does. And you’re our captain. Which makes you a Pirate Captain.” Frankie smirked and put her hands on her hips, completely satisfied with herself.

“Huh. Guess so,” Dan’s voice unexpectedly came from behind Maeryn, and the girl spun around to see him looking oddly thoughtful. “Well, one thing off the bucket list.” He turned around and walked back towards his lab.

“Wait. Wait! Dan! Explain that last statement! What do you mean that was on your bucket list?! Dan! What else is on there?!” Maeryn demanded, only to be completely ignored as her alchemist retreated with a little more alacrity.

She stood there, eye twitching for several long seconds. Then, she turned back to Frankie, and glared. “This is your fault.”

“Whatever you say, Pirate Captain Maeryn,” Frankie agreed with a cocky grin.

Maeryn sighed, slumping in place. “What will it take for you to stop calling me that?”

The engineer looked her up and down, putting one hand to her chin as she considered it. After a few seconds, she shrugged. “I’ll get back to you. But didn’t you have something you wanted to do?”

The newly christened pirate captain blinked, then smacked her face in exasperation as she remembered. “Right. I’ll be back in a bit.”

Maeryn left as Frankie gave a mocking salute, and made a beeline for Lyra’s office. The door had been left open, and Lyra looked up at her approach. “Captain Maeryn. All is well, I trust?”

“Everything’s fine,” Maeryn assured her. “I just… I wanted to say thank you. For helping us while we were here. And for, well, not treating us like a bunch of kids.”

Lyra’s lips turned up slightly, giving Maeryn a rare smile. “Of course. From the moment it was clear that you three were Geovan, it was obvious that you were on a mission you thought was so important it was worth leaving your home behind. That kind of dedication requires respect. I’m glad I was able to help you in whatever ways I could.”

She reached out a hand, and Maeryn took it, the two exchanging a strong handshake. “If I can ever return the favor, in any way,” Maeryn offered, “please, call on me. I promise, on the stone of my home, I’ll answer.”

It was the strongest oath Maeryn could make. It meant that her promise meant as much to her as her home, and that breaking it would mean much the same as having her home ripped from her. Perhaps that didn’t mean much now, considering how Maeryn had left Vert behind, but… it was all she could offer.

Lyra seemed to take the promise in the spirit it was given. “I will,” she replied solemnly. “I will call on you, should it ever be needed. Though I would think that your efforts in saving my home was more than enough to repay me.”

Maeryn smiled. “Let’s not get too caught up in counting favors, Lyra. Just know that I really appreciate you and your help. I hope we see each other again someday.”

“Likewise, Cap… Maeryn.” Lyra abandoned the title at the last moment, and something in her face warmed Maeryn’s heart. It was good to know she’d made a friend here.

“We’re about to take off. Good luck taking care of things here!”

“And may the wind guide you in your travels.”

Maeryn hurried back to Stonewing, now positive there was nothing left to do here. “Frankie? Take us to Airspire.”

“You got it, Captain!”