Draith
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Chapter 141 - Inaugural Flight
🕑 Added 2025-06-24 14:00:12 +0000 UTCAs if in defiance of my desire to find Nexxa, the storm howled its rage below us, the calm of the last week wiped away beneath its fury.
Still, we didn't need it to be calm in Cape Aeternia. We were setting out to find Nexxa along the high road, and the storms always lost some of their strength by the time they'd been torn apart by the mountains on the west edge of my territory.
Combined with the much milder weather we'd experienced over the last few days, it was the perfect time to go searching.
Thankfully, Soaring Wolf had been found on the west side of Mistvale, having been tossed over a dozen miles during the storm. If it hadn't landed in plain view of Mount Aeternia, we never would've spotted it. And even then, it was only because of the calm days we’d had the last week. After retrieving it, I'd made another trip to the Golden Halls to cut down Balthum's time, once more looking over the recommendations for my Astral form.
I decided to put that off until after my visit with Nexxa.
For the inaugural flight, the airship crew would be rather light. It was just going to be me, Calbern, Selvi and her scouts.
Not that we were the only ones gathered on the peak prior to launch.
Tamrie was there, along with the several others I didn’t know to see us off. She’d wanted to come but she'd become vital to running Cape Aeternia. Which had kinda been the point of putting her on the council, but it was amusing that my assistant was already talking about needing one of her own.
"Place'd fall apart if I was gone more'n a day," she said, kissing my cheek. "You bring yourself back safe, you hear?"
"I hear," I said, giving her a kiss on her cheek in return.
Then she turned to Calbern. "And you make sure he doesn’t go dropping no mountains less he needs to, you hear? Miracle he ain’t dropped one on his own head."
"I’m certain his head could handle it, lady Tamrie," Calbern said, inclining his head. “Yet I shall endeavor to advise him best I can.”
"Best you do," Tamrie said, straightening her back while smoothing out her dress then marching off the peak.
Was pretty sure Calbern just called me hard headed. Considering his own tendency to throw himself into danger, I found that rather amusing. That was the sole source of my soft chuckling as Tamrie kept glancing back.
We'd already said our goodbyes to Inertia and Tresla. Tresla had actually wanted to join us but Inertia had been struck by another burst of inspiration. Besides she had no desire to spend days searching a road for a bunch of civilians.
As I was loading the last of the supplies we were bringing, enough to feed Nexxa's group for a couple weeks, just in case we had trouble retrieving them, Tresla showed up anyway.
"Hey, changed her mind?"
"Nah. She figures I'll be safe, long as I'm not throwing myself out the bottom like the rest of you," Tresla said, walking up the ramp that led past one of the diving platforms she was referring to. Figuring out how to launch and return to the airship had been one of the biggest hurdles after we’d decided on the circular design.
Eventually, for landing we'd decided to add grips everywhere we could, which the Tethered had worked into their artwork. There were enough that no matter where we landed, so long as it was on the upper hull, we could hold ourselves in place. Then whoever was shipside would bring out lines to haul us in through the large roof hatch.
The tests had been promising, though we had to be careful not to get too close to the center for the same reason that getting off was so much simpler. The center of the crescent had a strong downwards thrust at all times, so all we had to do to launch was step out and drop.
My attention returned to her as I followed up the ramp. "Well, glad to have you," I said, squeezing her shoulder. Which had the effect of reminding me how short she was.
"Someone needs to keep you out of trouble," Tresla said, waving a hand in my direction.
"I've got Calbern for that," I said, checking the manifest one last time. Everything had been loaded correctly, it was really just my nerves that had me checking again.
"Ha," Tresla snorted. "That man leads you into more trouble than out of it."
"That's not fair. He just realized he's not going to talk me out of it, so he might as well be at my side," I said, putting the manifest away. Somehow her comment had settled my nerves.
With everyone aboard, it was time to fire up the Granitas engine.
The test flight had gone without a hitch, so I wasn't expecting any problems… but the test flight hadn't pushed the Howling Defier. We’d flown it over to Verdant Point then the bluff before swinging back, all of it with clear skies.
This was the one part no one else could do. Only because I was the only one with the Spellcode to activate it. I’d also come up with a design for a keystone, in case I needed to create one, but for the moment, I wanted to keep the Howling Defier tightly controlled.
No need to make it easy to crash it into our settlements.
There was a second where the engine engaged, and it was like being near the top of a jump, that moment of weightlessness where you can almost believe gravity forgot about you.
Just like that momentary sensation, this too was fleeting, fading as fast as it came as the engine increased our effective mass. It was still way below normal, but it was enough to navigate the interior.
With the array engaged, I slowly lifted off the peak. There was a little bit of shaking, but we’d gotten out the worst of it after the test run.
While Inertia hadn’t been there, the rest of her crew were standing on the peak, cheering us on as we ascended. Despite knowing they couldn’t see us, I found myself waving at them.
Then I pushed us forward, angling towards the highroad to the west.
It was slow and ponderous at first, but once I tilted us forward a few degrees, our pace rapidly picked up as we sliced through the air. It was still startling that the shape worked so well, but the interaction of magic and mundane was bearing out. At the pace we were going, I would've almost been worried about the scouts being able to keep up.
Luckily, we were going in a straight line.
We'd been flying for roughly an hour when a thump came from one of the containers. One that'd been marked as containing extra clothes. We’d brought them in case Nexxa's people needed them. The state of her people last I’d seen them had left an impression.
Another thump came as we all looked at the crate. Then the top popped off, and a head of unruly brown hair popped out. Bevel scrunched up her face, her freckles clumping as she shook her leg, trying to free it from one of the jackets.
We all stared at her as she plopped down on the floor, the jacket still wrapped around her leg.
Tresla was the first to laugh, shaking her head. "Thought she'd have chosen the blankets."
"That was my bet as well," Calbern said, moving over and offering Bevel a hand as I returned my attention to the enchanted ball of light that projected the high road below. Didn't want to accidentally miss Nexxa and her people.
"Keria's gonna be outta her fraying mind," Selvi said, shaking her head. "I swear I had people check those."
"Probably got in after it was loaded," I said, glancing back at my apprentice with a smile. "People tend to forget she can fly without a glider."
Selvi grimaced at that and I chose not to say anything that might make it worse.
"Are we flying?" Bevel asked as she came over, holding Calbern's hand.
"We are, lady Bevel," he replied, taking her over to one of the viewports.
"Huh. Feels different being inside," Bevel said, pressing her face against the transparent stone. "Almost like we're hanging from a balloon."
"That is rather comparable," Calbern said. "You're aware there were balloons used in its construction."
"Not that many," Bevel said, letting out a loud breath. "Mostly magic. Pa-Perry made me do the math.” She let out a loud raspberry at that before shaking her head. “It's nice. Better than being on the ground."
"Right about that, she is," Selvi agreed before turning to her scouts. "Alright, let's get to it. Can't let the Magus have all the fun."
At the moment, I had to admit, it was kind of fun. But flying the Howling Defier wasn't anything like taking out Soaring Wolf. I could tell that having to pilot it for hours on end would be worse than driving. Luckily, it would also be much easier to hand off. Everyone except Bevel and Tresla had practiced with mock controls as well as taken a turn during the test run.
It was pretty simple, long as we weren’t landing or taking off. With all the enchanting that’d gone into it, just letting go meant it would return to a mostly stable hover.
"You want to learn how to fly it?" I asked Bevel.
"Yes," Tresla said, pushing away from the window she'd been looking out before Bevel could respond.
"Me too!" Bevel added, running over before she could be left out.
I spent the next hour teaching them both the basics of the controls while Calbern, Selvi and the scouts kept an eye on the highroad. Not that I didn't as well, but I wasn't paying quite as much attention as I could've.
Would've been embarrassing if I missed Nexxa.
After Bevel grew bored of having to hold the Howling Defier on course, Tresla took over. She decided to continue for most of the day, as the rest of us took turns watching the road. As the sun started to set, I was grateful for it, since the light didn't bother her and I hadn’t thought to enchant in any sort of filter for it.
"You know, I think I prefer this over flying with Inertia," Tresla said, breaking us out of a companionable silence.
"Have you tried a glider?" I asked, watching as Bevel and Calbern played a game I didn't recognize on the floor near one of the front facing port holes. It seemed to include pockets of cloth and knotted string woven with each other.
"Oh, threads no," Tresla said, her musical chuckle filling the cabin. "Even if Inertia was okay with the idea, it would feel too… Too much like being bound in darkness."
"I… that's a strange comparison," I said, drawing my attention away from the game to focus on Tresla. Only to be reminded of the blinding light coming from the display orb.
"It's not. Well, not for my people," Tresla said with another melodic laugh. "If I'm to fly with little more than a few scraps of cloth, might as well be by my own luminance. Being bound to Inertia keeps me grounded, and that's as it should be. Still, this is… nice."
"You know, you don't talk much about your people," I said. "Heck, I thought you weren't allowed to."
Tresla turned her hood towards me, giving me a flash of red. "Not usually. I suppose the bond has loosened somewhat over the last few months. Or my understanding of it has shifted. The oath is not a perfect thing."
"Huh, I…" I trailed off, having glanced forward and caught sight of movement through the viewport despite the light.
"Can't believe I was worried I was going to miss her," I mumbled, shaking my head.
On the high road, stretched as far as I could see, huddling against the wind even as the sun shone across their backs, was a mass of people slowly making their way east. Not the few dozen I’d been expecting.
No. There had to be hundreds down there, if not thousands.
Nexxa had been busy.
