Favors Owed

[Hiver]

"Bored."

I looked up from the bunny on the deck, "I know."

Ren dropped down to sit next to me, her back against the railing, "Enchanting the bunny?"

"Working on it at least," I admitted, "It's surprisingly tricky to enchant something living."

"Impossible for most other people," Ren said and reached to pet the ears of the summon, "Is it similar to Alexis' spells?"

I frowned, "...Not really. They are all very temporary and while they do have some enchantment elements to them. in that they affect an object, in this case the bunny, they are very temporary and as such don't run into most problems enchantments do."

Ren picked the bunny up and put it in her lap, "Yeah. As I said, impossible for most people. You'll figure it out."

Smiling I reached to reclaim the bunny, "This is what I have so far," I said and wove an enchantment into the bunny.

Letting my magic infuse it, I twisted it, shaping it into a simple enchantment before putting the now shining bunny back into her lap. It was literally glowing from the light globe enchantment.

"It's working…" Ren said softly while staring down at the glowing bunny, running her hand along its long ears.

I sighed, "Watch."

A couple of minutes passed as we watched. Suddenly the glow just kind of fizzled out as the enchantment dissolved in a sparkle of wild magic.

"That happens. The creature's natural resistance to magic breaks the enchantment after a bit," I explained, and then zapped the bunny with an unsummon, causing it to turn into sparkles as well, "The stronger the enchantment, the faster it happens. A simple glowing one may last a minute or two. Anything stronger breaks in seconds."

"Which is why polymorphs don't last," she agreed with a nod, "One of the rules of magic, and why permanent spells are so difficult to do and why curses are such serious business."

"Yep," I agreed with a sigh and put my arm around her shoulders, "Did you read any of Alexis' books yet? For the boredom I mean?"

Ren shook her head, "Fiction books are more of Zrazta's thing," she admitted and then shrugged, "Have read all the books we brought, though."

"Go on a flight?"

She frowned, "Thought about it, but landing again would be difficult. Too many ropes about to land on the ship, and landing in the ocean and climbing up wouldn't be fun."

"True," I said and then looked around, "What's Sheila up to?"

"Spending time with Alexis. Wasn't in the mood to join them," she admitted, "Just… bored of being stuck on this ship."

"Yeah, I know," I admitted, "Me too."

We had been sailing for almost two weeks since we left the island. Wind had been really calm, and we only started to pick up speed when I finished the enchantment on the masts for self wind generation. We had been on this Plane for well over a month already, almost two actually, and most of it had been spent sitting around.

I finished the enchanting work on the masts days ago, so now I didn't even have anything to do anymore but try new things out, and try to figure out enchanting living things.

I was so close too! It was like I was missing the final piece of the puzzle, and I just couldn't get there. Incredibly frustrating.

"How's your head?" I asked and rested mine against hers. It had been weeks since we left the island.

"Aches," Ren admitted and sighed, "Yours?"

"...Same," I said and frowned, "We really should turn back again before it gets worse. We might not be able to fly and land back here easily, but we really should turn back while we have the chance."

"We should," she said and looked at the deck of the ship, "There is room for both of us."

"We should still ask Alexis first," I said and, "Her ship, and we shouldn't get in the way if we can help it."

Ren grumbled, but nodded in acceptance, "I'll ask," she said and moved to get up.

"I'll sit here and try to make glowing bunnies," I sighed, "Maybe I'll get lucky and manage to do the impossible…"

"Again," Ren said and smiled, leaning in to give me a quick kiss, "Do the impossible, again."

 

[Hiver]

"What do we have?"

"Land," Alexis said looked at the map spread out on the table on the aft deck, "Took us a bit longer than planned, but we got there. Sula Island. Uninhabited… or rather, thought to be. But if the temple pointed us here, there has to be something here."

"Seems to make sense," Sheila agreed, "Any sign of the ship we were following?"

"Not from the lookout," Alexis said and shook her head, "Atreus?"

"I'll have a look," I agreed and started to weave a scrying spell, sending a viewpoint flying high in the air, aimed towards the island in the distance.

Smaller than the last one, but not by much.

Sending the viewpoint flying towards the island, scanning along the coastlines. Really, how difficult would it be to find a ship…

...Oh.

"Uhm, guys?" I said and wove the companion spell to show everyone what I was seeing, forming an illusionary mirror that showed the image from the scrying spell.

"That's more than I expected," Alexis slowly said, "I was expecting one ship."

"Yeah, that's more than one," I agreed as I looked at the five ships, as big or bigger than the Archangel, "I suppose they want this thing bad."

Alexis nodded, "They do. But I didn't expect a full taskforce."

"Can we defeat them?" Ren asked as she joined us as well.

"That's a lot of guns," I said with a frown, "The enchantments on the ship would help, but not that much. We'd have to be sneaky about it."

"What about your kraken?" Sheila asked Alexis.

Alexis shook her head, "One ship, yeah, most likely. Five would be stretching it. Not sure I would want to sink them either, they may have information we need onboard."

Sheila nodded in agreement, "Sinking them would be easy compared to that," she said and then looked at me, "Rogue?"

"Rogue would be able to sneak onboard," I agreed, and moved the viewpoint closer and into the largest ship, seeking out the captains quarters.

It was a lot more ornamental than Alexis quarters, that's for sure. Gold leaf everywhere, "What would we be looking for?"

"There should be a captain's log on each ship," she said, "Check the desk."

Shifting the scrying spell around, I finally shook my head, "Not seeing it. Shall I check the other ships?"

She shook her head, "Don't bother. It's likely locked in one of the drawers. Most wouldn't bother, but I suppose if anyone was anal enough about it to lock it away, it would be an Aridia navy officer."

"So what do we do?" I asked, "Rogue could sneak onboard and see if she could snag the thing. If we get close enough for her to swim there."

Alexis frowned at the map, "Pull back?"

Nodding, I brought the viewpoint back into a dragon's-eye view of the ships anchored inside the shallow bay of the island. There was a major camp set up on the beach with wooden barricades around it.

"Would they have brought the books to the beach?" Ren asked with a frown.

"At least one of them would have, "Alexis agreed, "The captain in charge of the entire thing would have brought his. If we move around to the other side of the island, could she sneak across and find it?"

"Well… I would say so, yes," I agreed, "But wouldn't they spot our ship? I can't imagine that they wouldn't have scouts watching the ocean."

"True," she admitted, "Damn it, you're right. They would."

Sheila looked at the scrying spell for a long moment before she spoke up, "Alexis… what if we do let them spot us? What would they do?"

"If they identified us, they would most likely send a ship or most likely two to chase us," Alexis said, "What are you thinking of?"

Sheila smiled and then turned to me, "Atregos, do you remember the first time we traveled to Pandaria? When we ran into the pirates?"

I slowly nodded, "Yes. Yes I do. Think the same thing would work this time?"

She nodded, "I think it would."

"Yeah… yeah… I think it would, too."

 

[Hiver]

The waves moved above me as I allowed myself to drift in the current as I waited. I could see the shape of our ship disappearing in the distance.

Back in my real form, I shifted to look in the direction the other ship would be coming from. This gave me time.

Even without a water breathing spell on me, Blues are the best swimmers of all the dragonflights, and rather good at holding their breath. The addition of a water-breathing spell made things rather comfortable.

I did keep an eye and ear pointed downwards, even though I had a Blur spell around me. I did not want to get surprised by the cousin of whatever tasted the ship before.

But even so…

Everything was calm for the moment, giving me time to think. I liked enchantments, I was good at them. But if I had not insisted on using nothing but enchantments, I would have had better equipment, better gear.

I could have had that fucking flying ship with massive mana lasers then. Blasted that elf and her pet summons into the Blind Eternities. Well, assuming she didn't turn it into flower petals, too.

But we needed better gear, and I just have to get fucking over myself. If it needed gears and fucking steam engines, fine.

I was way less good at that, but I would just need to go into artificing for real, not just enchanting and smithing. Targos was better at it though, he would be able to give me some tips.

Movement in the water in the distance on the surface. A ship was approaching, just like planned. We had sailed close enough to get spotted and then moved around the island, two ships taking pursuit.

That was one of them.

Shifting my wings, I started to swim upwards. Unless I made this, things would get awkward fast. I really, really didn't want to get into a direct fight with these guys, I didn't have the armour for my real form.

Just a little closer. The ship approached quickly, I could see it's massive shadow beating it's way through the waves towards me.

Oh… no matter how I'm doing this, it's going to suck.

Swimming the fastest I possibly could to make the jerk as small as possible, I twisted around and lashed out, slamming my claws deep into the barnacle-covered hull.

Fuck!!

The feel of the hull was very familiar as I pressed myself against it, wings tight against my side as I dug my claws deeper as the wake threatened to pull me off the hull.

Pressing myself against the hull, I dug my bronze claws deeper into the hull while casting a quick scrying spell, sending a viewpoint shooting through the ship and up over the deck. The crew were on the decks, both upper and lower, reading the cannons and their weapons for battle.

What was clearly the captain, given his fancy hat, was standing next to the wheel, holding up a spyglass towards the ship they were chasing. Nobody had noticed me yet.

Shifting the viewpoint back beneath the deck to the captain's cabin, I looked around. There, a logbook. That should contain what Alexis wanted to know.

Clenching the bronze claws, I ripped them through the wooden hull, tearing a hole through it before sticking the paw through, summoning Rogue, and just because there was no way nobody heard me ripping a hole in the ship, a frost troll.

Rogue quickly faded into invisibility as the frost troll started to move back and forth inside the hull, splashing in the water that poured in through the hole in the hull. The first sailor to run down the stairs to see what had happened screamed as he got a face full of frost troll fist.

Time to move.

Rogue should have the book soon.

Letting go of the ship, I let the ship pull away from me. A little more.

I could see it moving above me, and I tried my best to keep away, those barnacles would chew through my scales if I ended up scraping against it.

Sunlight!

A quick beat of my wings, moved me towards the surface, and I swam upwards as fast as I could before throwing myself into the air, beating my wings hard as I climbed out of the ocean.

The second ship was to the right and forward, but that's not what I was after. Beating my wings hard, I turned to chase after the first vessel and pulled up hard, digging my claws into the ornate stern of the ship.

Folding my wings, I pulled myself upwards and let loose a stream of frost across the rear deck of the ship to clear anyone out.

"Master!" Rogue yelled as she broke through the rear windows of the cabin, "Catch!"

She threw the book upwards and I quickly turned and snapped my jaws at it, catching it between my teeth. With it safe, I gave her the order to sabotage the ship before I sent a couple of fireballs flying at the sails, then pushed back, throwing myself off the ship and spreading my wings, beating them hard as I flew away from the ships, weaving a quick invisibility spell around myself.

It wouldn't last more than thirty seconds, but would be more than enough to get me out of easy shooting range if they happened to have anything that could shoot at me. Then I could surround myself in a Blurr spell and circle around back to the Archangel.

Hopefully this book contained what we needed, because there was no way I was doing this plan again.

 

[Hiver]

Beating my wings hard, I hovered above the ship. Ships are a fucking pain to land on, ropes fucking everywhere.

Fuck it.

Banking around, I swooped around and up behind the ship, before pulling up hard and latching onto the stern of the ship, digging my claws deep into the wood and climbing onboard.

"You get it?" Alexis asked as she walked up to me, sliding her spyglass closed.

Dropping the book on the deck, I nodded, "Think so," I answered before transforming back and cracking my neck, "Remind me not to do that again."

Alexis picked up the book and then shook her hand, "...Ew. Dragon slobber."

I smirked at her, "Get it on your own next time," before I walked up to Ren, "If we're going to be landing and taking off from this thing, we are going to need a better way of doing it."

Ren nodded in agreement, "It is annoying," and leaned against the railing as she looked at me, "Everything went well?"

The sound of rolling thunder reached us and I looked back to see the ship I had assaulted turn into debris showering down onto the ocean in a massive cloud of smoke and flame. At the same time I felt rogue unsummon with the frost troll.

"Yeah, went pretty okay."

Ren purred slightly with a smile, "I can see that. Get what we needed, Alexis?" she asked and leaned to the side, looking past me as Sheila moved up the stairs.

Alexis flipped the pages, glancing through it as she absentmindedly nodded.

"Things went well I see," Sheila commented as she watched the smoke in the distance, the second ship still following, "Rogue and gunpowder storage?"

"Pretty much," I agreed, "Ordered her to make a mess after I left. Should help a bit."

Sheila nodded and frowned at the ships behind us, "...Making a mess is something Rogue does well. But we still have one ship following us."

"Well, not doing that again, not without my armour," I said, "it was a bit dicey."

"Oh my god."

I turned to look at Alexis, "What?"

"I… I just found out how they are ahead of us. They have Tarren."

"What's a Tarren?" Ren asked with a frown.

Alexis shook her head, "Not a what, a who. A friend of mine, the one that actually found out about the artifact in the first place."

"I didn't see anyone onboard."

She shook her head, "No, he's held onboard of the flagship. The large one."

"Speaking of ships," Sheila said and walked up to the rear railing, "That one is getting closer."

Closing the book, Alexis nodded and then handed it over to Sheila, "It is," she agreed before she stepped forward, slowly spreading her arms as she dumped a lot of mana into a spell, her eyes glowing a bright blue.

Nothing happened other than a slight splash and a movement of water behind our ship, but she lowered her arms and turned back, taking the book back, "Thank you. I'm going to go study this and see what else I can find out. Maybe it'll tell us what we need to know to get him out of there."

With that, she moved back down the stairs, giving my shoulder a pat on the way down. Giving her a nod, I moved up to lean against the railing next to Sheila, Ren joining us, "Well then," I said as I watched the slowly approaching ship as the wind shifted around us, filling our sails fully. I could feel the enchantment of the ship directing the air into the optimal speed and direction rather than the natural one, "Now we have to rescue a hostage. That makes things trickier."

"To say the least," Sheila agreed as we visibly started to pull away from the pursuing vessel, "Could you do the same thing again?"

"Maybe. Don't want to, though. Not on a moving ship at the very least," I sighed, "My claws still hurt from the tug when I latched on to the ship."

In the distance, massive tentacles erupted from the water around the chasing vessel, smashing through masts and rigging before ripping into the hull.

"...Is it me or is Alexis getting rather scary with her summons?" I then added, "Because she was dangerous when she just had self-enhancements and that angel summon."

Ren made a sound of agreement next to me as the kraken ripped the fleet ship into little pieces.

It just proved what I had discovered. I needed to pick up my game and stop being an idiot about things. I was an enchanter and artificer. I would just need to batman the fuck up and for that, I needed gear to be prepared for things and I had to stop being an enchantment snob about it.

Sometimes, adding some gears, pistons and levers just made things so much easier.

 

[Hiver]

"Hey, have a spare cannon?"

Alexis looked up from her book and frowned at me where I stood at the door to her cabin, "Another one!?," before she sighed, "What do you have in mind?"

"Need the metal."

She sighed again and then nodded, "Yeah, sure. The gunnery master found a crack in one of the ones in our port battery; I was going to ask if you could fix it, but sure, go for it."

"Thanks. So, how's it going?"

She closed the book, "Seems like they found and captured Tarren not long after I saw him last. They're having him translate and act as a guide."

I nodded, "Which means we can't just release the kraken to deal with those ships."

"Not until we know he isn't on one of them," she agreed, "We'll figure something out. We're returning towards the island now, circling around to the other side below the horizon."

"And we'll head to the back of the island and scry what we need to from there?" I asked.

Alexis nodded, "That was my thought as well. So get some rest, it'll be at least half a day until we're in position."

"Sure. Do you have any gems?"

"Get out."

Shooting her a grin, I moved off in search of that cannon. I wasn't even sure what I would use the metal for yet, but I was fairly sure it would come to me when I had some to work with. Not enough for a set of armour, not like bronze would work for it anyway even with enchantments.


Moving past a group of sailors gathered around some dice, I paused and looked at them before pointing at a pair of green bottles that looked empty, "...Can I have those?"

They kind of paused what they were doing before the largest guy nodded, "Sure thing, sir." he said and handed them over.

"Thanks," I told him as I continued on, peering into the green glass. Not pure, full of bubbles, impurities, easy to see even in the lamplight of the hold.

No matter, I could easily purify it into something capable of holding a magical charge. Hardly as good as even sapphire or good quality quartz, but worked well enough in a pinch. Annoying not to have real materials to work with.

But we don't work with what we want, we work with what we have.

And right now, glass was the best power storage I could get my claws on. At least without going into necromancy, those soulstones from Skyrim were rather efficient…

Shaking that thought from my head, I went off in search of that cracked cannon.


XXXXXXXXXXXX


"What are you making?" Ren asked as she dropped down to sit next to me.

"Refining," I answered and reached out to the whirling ball of bronze floating in the air in front of me, pulling a sliver of stone out of the mass. Something left behind from the casting of the cannon.

Ren frowned and rested her cheek on my shoulder, peering into the whirling ball of molten metal, "For?"

"...Not sure yet," I admitted and held out my hand, running my finger against the ball, gunpowder and coal residue gathering and falling onto the deck as my fingers knocked them off the surface, "But I've been thinking about things all wrong, trying to do everything with enchantments. Have you studied gnomish engineering?"

"A little," Ren admitted, "Not a lot. Enough to know it's mostly a waste of time."

"Hmm. I'm not so sure about that anymore," I answered, "Earth, at least the one Alexis and the one I am from, had no magic. Just engineering and math. With just a little bit of magic, gnomes and goblins do almost as much with only just a bit of engineering. Steam, gears, and pistons, and with that they make flying machines and teleporters. A hint of magic, a hint of engineering. And they pull off amazing feats."

"Or turn you into a chicken."

I grinned, "Or turn you into a chicken. I'll try not to have that design flaw, just get some ideas from the rest. But for now, I'm just getting some raw materials ready for whatever may be needed."

Ren nodded, "I'm sure you will figure it out, whatever it ends up being. Sheila wanted me to tell you that they' are serving dinner."

"Oh," I said and reached to touch the floating and whirling orb, making it solidify into a bronze pyramid before letting it sink onto the deck, "That sounds good."

 

[Hiver]

"Keep a round-the-clock watch," Alexis said to her second in command, "If there is any trouble, retreat back to the next island."

"Yes, Captain."

With that Alexis pulled herself up into my saddle, "Let's go."

Sheila and Ren were already circling overhead. I glanced up at Alexis, "If we're going to be doing much more flying from this thing, we need a better place to take off and land. Too many ropes."

"So build me an engine room," she countered and then patted my back as she tested the straps on the newly-made saddle, "Until then, more flying, less talking."

Giving her a growl, I spread my wings as I jumped off the back of the ship, beating them hard to gain altitude.

She wasn't wrong though, maybe ditching the masts and sails wouldn't be a bad idea. Simple propulsion wouldn't be tricky to build. A modified flying carpet enchantment would easily do it, would only need a small part of it even, the one that propelled it forward.

Could do it with maybe a kilo of glass and a dozen or so of bronze. Easy enough. Would just need to make sure it was properly attached; it would need to be able to pull a hundred tons of wooden ship after all, not go flying through the length of the ship like a runaway torpedo.

Still pondering the design, I fell in on Ren's left wing as we started towards the island, weaving a blur spell around us.

It felt good to spread my wings for a longer flight, even if it was just over the horizon. Still, it was nice to just fly with Rengosa again. Just missing Zrazta.

I really missed Zrazta.

As soon as we find this McGuffin, we'll head back home. The Life-Binder could heal my leg and I would get to see Zrazta again, and then get to work on actually getting things built.

Just, stay out of trouble for a while.

...Can't remember when that happened last. Okay, so that part might not be realistic, but perhaps I might at least try to stay around home for a bit and then just do the pick up and drop off missions… which are already behind schedule.

Damn it, Jaina is going to feed me my own tail for that.

Sighing at that thought, I followed Ren towards the island, past the reef below. Circling, we scanned the beach and treeline.

No humans or other beings that I could see. Birds and smaller creatures, yes, but nobody on this side of the island. Seemed a bit unlikely; if I was running the operations I would have had scouts to watch all approaches to the island.

Hmm.

Fuck it.

Circling lower, I went down for a landing close to the tree line, sand and dry leaves kicking up as I beat my wings, before settling down.

Ren circled above and then went down for landing as well, a little ways down the beach.

Alexis unstrapped and slipped off my back, landing on the sand as she looked around before she paused and sighed, "...Sorry."

"Hmm?"

Alexis shook her head and moved to look at me, "For back on the ship. Sorry, you didn't deserve that. I'm just…"

"Worried," I agreed with a nod, "I may know something about that," I agreed, before I gave her shoulder a bump with my snout, "And I don't remember you slamming me against a rock wall yet, so on our scale, I think you may still be ahead."

That got a bit of a smile from her and she scratched beneath my left eye, "It's not just Tarren. He's a scholar, not a fighter, but they need him, they wouldn't hurt him," she said before she shook her head and frowned at the closest tree, "If we fail… hundreds of thousands may die. Millions may be enslaved."

"I know a bit about that, too," I said and settled down on the sand as I looked at her, "But if they get it, nothing says we can't still get it or destroy it. It'll just be harder. This is not an all-or-nothing scenario, Alexis."

She took a deep breath, "And nothing says they will even find it, either. Might not even exist anymore."

"Indeed," I agreed, "Now, I have a plan."

"What's this about a plan?" Sheila asked as she and Ren joined us.

"The plan is that we'll scout the island out," I said, looking between them, "Sunset is pretty soon, and will make it easier to stay hidden. I brought some metal, I will craft us all some rings, three each: one to hide our sound, the second, a kind of blur spell, the third changed your colours to match the background. They won't make you invisible, but it will break up your lines among the trees and make you impossible to spot at a distance."

Ren nodded, "See what we are dealing with. And then figure out how to approach things."

"Indeed," I agreed.

 

[Hiver]

I moved silently through the forest, my wings folded to my sides as I kept low, barely a rustling of leaves betrayed my passing, any of my own sounds hidden by a bronze ring around one of my horns.

A second and third ones was blurring my outlines by quite a bit. Ducking low beneath a branch, I sniffed the air and peered through the brush.

A patrol of some sort; ten men in uniforms similar to the dead one we found, carrying some sort of firearms. Long ones, muskets or rifles. Likely muskets.

Third patrol I had seen so far.

Security was pretty tight.

"I don't know, Sergeant!" one of them said to the one in front, "I don't like this place."

"Shut up, Dary."

"I just know, there's something out here!"

"Shut up, Dary!"

Shifting my wings slightly, I watched them continue on their path through the forest. Third patrol… the closer I got to their camp, the more of them there was.

May have to transform soon. It was easier to sneak like this despite the size, they were looking for people, not beings. So even if they somehow managed to spot me despite the sound dampening, the blur ring and the third one I made that turned me, including rings and bronze leg, a striped brown and green instead of my natural blue, they might mistake me for some sort of local critter.

Combined with it being night, it made me basically impossible to see in the jungle.

But even so, I was bigger like this.

So far, it had worked out, but if patrols kept increasing or the landscape changed, I'd need to transform.

The patrol moved out of view and I moved on, passing the game trail they were following and moving into the forest on the other side.

Moving silently up the hill, I looked around through the underbrush before digging my claws into the thick tree next to me and starting to climb upwards.

There.

This gave me a view of the entire bay. Three ships, one larger than the rest. Forest cut down in a semicircle by the beach and barricades set up. Tents set up along the beach.

A strong position. Against conventional forces, that is. Alexis' summons,and my gear and illusions would make short work of it if it came to an attack, but a head-on assault would be outright stupid. The cannons on the ships and all those guns would be really, really dangerous.

No.

No, we would need to stay hidden as long as we could. If possible, get in, get what we need as quietly as possible, and then get out before they ever notice anything happening.

A problem when my best true invisibility spell only lasted something like thirty seconds. Enchanting it might be possible, but not something I had done yet.

Rogue. Yes, Rogue would be our best bet in getting what we need smoothly and quietly. Weaving a spell, I brought up a scrying viewpoint in front of me and sent it towards the camp below. Cannons, guards at the ready.

Tricky.

Rogue could do it. Get the information, but getting Alexis' friend out too… that was a different question. Yes, yes she could.

While she couldn't trigger a portal, I might be able to trigger one automatically on a timer. Fascinating. I had never done that before, never needed to see if that was possible. Should be possible.

Yes. Yes, that would work.

Now, where is he? Alexis' description was of an elf with braided dark hair. Everyone else here was human, seriously, he wouldn't be that difficult to locate. Was he away from the camp? That would make sense if they used him as a guide.

Which mean that he could be anywhere on this fucking island. Scrying for a specific species? Could that be done?

Yes. Yes it could.

The titans could. I had seen titan magitech that could do that. I needed to study more of their magitech, it was amazing. But how would I do it?

Blood. Blood magic. Yes… I would need a sample from one of the elves onboard of the Archangel. Normally only meant to scry for blood relations or links, but if I fuzzied the spell and it pointed towards any elf… linked with a…

Shifting the viewpoint, I could see a man run into the camp, yelling something. He was injured, blood from his left arm staining his uniform red.

The camp erupted into action below.

Something had gone wrong. Fuck.

Canceling the scrying spell, I jumped off the tree and spread my wings, beating them hard to gain altitude as I reached to locate everyone's medallions.

 

[Hiver]

Two moving slowly relative to myself. One moving faster, running. That's Alexis' medallion, she was running.

She was also the closest to the camp relative to where we landed, if more towards the center mountain than me.

Something went wrong.

Banking in her direction, I peered through the dark night in the direction of her medallion. Where was she? Somewhere down in the forest.

There. Flashes of light, and the sound of gunfire.

More shots. Muskets.

As I passed overhead, I saw a group of people chasing a pair though the forest; Alexis and an elf. Fucking damn it!

Of course she did. She'd spotted him and just had to break him out. And with the running and the shooting she had had no time to cast her summons.

Fuck it.

Banking around, I made another pass, this time half folding my wings and coming in for a dive between the thick trees.

I hit the pursuers like a lion on a fluffle of rabbits. Three got crushed to the earth as I slammed down on them, a swipe of my tail sending two more flying into the forest before I let loose with my breath, freezing the remainder solid.

Growling deeply, I scanned the forest before turning towards Alexis and her companion, while I deactivated the rings on my horns.

The elf yelled something and stumbled backwards. Alexis quickly grabbed his arm, "No, It's okay. He's a friend."

Growling at her, I moved closer, "What were you thinking!?"

"Friend!?" the elf squeaked.

I ignored him in favour of focusing my attention on Alexis, "You had to risk it!?"

"I did," she said and walked up to meet me, "They were making camp and I could sneak him out."

I snorted at her and shook my head, shifting my wings, "Get in the saddle back. We're leaving."

She shook her head, "We can't. We need the captain's logbook, it contains everything they know about the artifact, " she said and put her hand on her weapon, " and the next clue is somewhere on this island. We have to find it before they can."

Growling I finally nodded, "...You're right. Let's return to the meeting point, the others should already be on their way back."

"What is that!?"

I turned my head to look at Tarren only to find him staring at me. I then turned to look behind me, "What is what? What did you spot?"

Alexis groaned, "We don't have time for this! Tarren, come on and get in the saddle."

"It talks!"

She sighed and quickly grabbed his hand, pulling him to my side and then showing him how to climb into the saddle.

He seemed really hesitant so I turned to look at him, "You know, I could carry him instead."

Somehow, that changed his mind and he quickly scrambled to climb into the saddle, Alexis quickly following to strap both of them into place. I peered into the night, listening hard before activating the three enchanted rings again.

"Go!" Alexis yelled and patted the side of my neck firmly.

Nodding, I spread my wings quickly and took a couple of running steps before jumping, beating my wings hard and climbing into the air.

Well, on one claw, half our current objective was already done, which was good. On the other claw, this may make it more difficult to sneak in and grab that book. Now they knew we were on the island.

Then again, without a possible hostage, we wouldn't need to be as sneaky about it.

I'm thinking frost troll in enchanted bronze armour with a burning club. That'd cause a nice distraction for Rogue.

 

[Hiver]

"What happened?" Sheila asked, "We heard gunshots!"

"Wasn't me!" I quickly said as Alexis and Tarren climbed out of the saddle, "Well… mostly not me!"

Alexis nodded, "I saw a chance to break Tarren out and took it. Atregos was nice enough to bail our asses out."

The elf looked more than a bit spooked about this entire thing and even more so, almost falling over as I turned to mortal form, rubbing the back of my neck, "Did they find anything?" I asked him.

He stared at me for a long moment before he shook his head, "N-no. No, not yet."

"Then we still have time," I said with a nod, turning to Alexis, "I'll see what I can find out, I'm sending in Rogue. We should set camp for the night while we wait for her to return."

Alexis nodded and moved up to check on Tarren as he seemed a bit shaken by the entire event, which… was more than understandable to be honest. Especially if he wasn't the fighting type normally. I remember the first time I got into a real fight.

...Damn, that was a long time ago. I had been terrified. It was still scary, but…

Yeah, I got his reaction.

Leaving Alexis and Tarren, I moved up to pull Sheila and Ren into a tight hug, "...We should set a camp up."

Sheila nodded, "I found a spot a bit further up the beach, a semicircle of rock. If you put a hiding bubble over it, we should be safe for a small fire even."

"Lead the way. I'm just going to send out Rogue and Witcher, to see what they can find."

With some luck, we'd have the location we needed by tomorrow.



XXXXXXX



Sunlight woke me up. I had taken first watch and spent some time to work on some diagrams for Alexis' ship.

Most of the calculations were done by now, and about half of the diagrams. The sunlight was shining right on my face so I really, really didn't want to open my eyes, but not like I had a lot of choice in the matter.

Shifting my wings, I risked opening my eyes. Ren was asleep next to me, also in her real form, which made sense. It was just a lot more comfortable sleeping in our real forms when there wasn't a real bed.

Sheila was asleep, sitting with her back against my left foreleg, wrapped in a blanket. Tarren seemed to also still be asleep, lying down on the other side of the now burned out little fire.

Sheila's position meant I couldn't move, so I didn't bother, simply putting my head back down. Rogue and Witcher were both still active, so they hadn't been spotted. Not that I expected either of them to be.

While Witcher didn't have the same stealth abilities as Rogue, he was still decent at staying hidden, especially as I gave him a set of rings.

They were my two stealthiest summons, after all.

Wait…

Opening my eyes again, I raised my head and looked around. Where was Alexis?

It didn't take long for me to spot her, she was sitting on one of the large rocks nearby, looking out over the ocean.

She looked pensive. Which in all honesty, she had a right to. This might not be her world, not originally. But after she had been here for five years, it had become hers.

Like Azeroth for me. Now it was in danger, the same way Azeroth had been… and still was. The sound of sand moving to the right, revealing Rogue and Witcher exiting the forest, making their way over towards me.

Alexis must have spotted them too, as she jumped off the large stone to join us, "What did you find?"

"The ships have set sail," Rogue explained, "The camp is empty now."

"And I located what looked like a stone temple," Witcher continued, "It has been destroyed, completely torn down."

Alexis bit back a curse.

"They found it then," Sheila said, having been woken up by the talking, "And destroyed any clues."

I nodded, "We just need to chase them down and take it from them, then," I agreed, giving her a quick nuzzle before slowly getting up to stretch my wings before looking at Alexis, "Captain?"

"Back to the ship," she agreed before looking towards Rogue, "Do we have a direction?"

Rogue nodded, "South."

South it was then. We better hurry to catch them in case they change course.

 

[Hiver]

The bronze shifted, wrapping around the thick wood of the mast, tendrils digging into it as it tightened around it in a mesh, rippling blue magic glittering through it as I pulled mana from the sea outside the hull, pouring it into the enchantment.

Putting my hand on the metal, I solidified it into place, ripping down the previous wind enchantment I'd woven into the masts, redirecting the power relay matrices into the new work.

Finally, I pulled my hand back and slowly circled the mast, stepping over a bit of fallen rope on the way, boots splashing through a small puddle. I was at the very bottom of the ship.

Finding everything as it should be, I nodded and headed to check the forward mast as well. I finished that one earlier and I wanted to triple check it.

Ten minutes giving it a once over and then I did a third check of the rear mast.

Done.

Good.

Heading up on the deck, I took a deep breath of the fresh air, the sun shining brightly above, slowly starting to set.

"Atregos!" Alexis called from the upper aft deck close to the wheel, "There's something wrong with the wind enchantment!"

"No there isn't," I said as I headed up the stairs to join her and the sailor manning the wheel, "I tore them down."

"We're never going to catch them without them!" Alexis exclaimed, "We need the extra speed!"

I just grinned, "Pull the sails up," as I moved up to the bronze orb by the wheel that had so far been used to control the wind enchantment, "It's done."

"Are you sure?" She asked with a frown, "Because if you're wrong… how quickly can you get them up and running again?"

"Day or so."

The human planeswalker let out an annoyed sound before she finally nodded and stepped up to the railing, "Furl the sails!"

There were sounds of general confusion from the crew before confirmation shouts started to rise up and men started to climb up into the rigging.

While they got busy with that, I started to relink and rework the enchantment work of the bronze orb.

"Are you sure this will work?" Alexis asked as she moved up next to me, "Because we're falling behind again!"

"Not if you keep distracting me," I said absentmindedly, most of my focus on the enchanting work in the bronze sphere, "Then the ship might experience some sudden rough water and then… explode."

That made her back off.

"There," I finally said and lowered my hand, looking towards the masts. The sails were mostly pulled up. Good.

"Okay, exactly what did you do to my ship?" Alexis asked, crossing her arms.

"New propulsion system and magical actuators connected to the rudder," I explained, "Like you asked me to."

"When did I…"

"Last time we took off from the deck, before we left for the island," I said and raised an eyebrow at her, "You told me to build you an engine room."

She looked like she wanted to say something before she just sighed and rubbed her forehead, "...How does it work? My ship won't transform into some kind of giant robot, will it?"

"No…" I said before I grinned at her, "but…"

"No!"

I grinned and motioned towards the bronze orb, "Put your hand on this and just want something to happen. No need for the wheel anymore, just want the ship to turn and the magical actuators will affect the rudder."

She looked between it and me and then towards the sailor watching us warily, "Get to it, Daniels."

"...Yes, Captain." he answered after a second of hesitation before putting his hand onto the bronze orb, "...It's not doing anything."

"It's like when you used it to direct the wind onto the sails," I explained, "but instead of the wind, just want the ship to move."

Closing his eyes, he scrunched his face up in concentration.

There was a slight creaking of wood and the ship started to move beneath us once more.

"Faster," I said, putting my hands against the forward railing of the upper deck, "Forget everything you know about this vessel. How fast she is, how she handles wind. Want her to go faster! She can take it, she's magically reinforced."

Alexis quickly moved to climb onto the side railing, one hand onto a rope leading to the mast for support as she looked down at the sea, and then forward.

"Good enough for you?" I asked as I walked over to look up at her, "I'm afraid that if you want her to actually fly, I'm going to need something more to work with."

Alexis just grinned and shook her head.