Keron
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Chapter 128 - They Know
🕑 Added 2024-11-18 18:00:11 +0000 UTCAsh stares at Emily in stunned silence. Emily tilts her head in confusion as her expression slowly returns to normal.
“What?” she asks.
“Nothing,” Ash says, quickly shaking their head to clear their shock. “I was just surprised you smiled like that. You looked like you’d cut off anyone’s head if they tried to talk to you this morning.”
“Ha,” Emily scoffs. “I probably would have. My head was killing me. Oh, speaking of, I asked you to put aside time for me then totally bailed, sorry about that.”
“It’s fine. We have time now, don’t we? So, how are you planning on improving the ship?”
“Well…”
Emily pulls out some paper and starts drawing out some of her ideas, picking Ash’s brain for their experience working on the ship to improve her plans. Podrick comes over to quietly listen to them chat, giving his own input when possible, and Anton leaves the trio alone, watching the hole in the floor for any signs of the drone returning.
After only fifteen minutes, he breaks up the enthusiastic discussion about armour-plating material choices and calls the other three over again.
“It’s moving again,” he says, a frown creasing his brow.
“That was fast,” Emily comments, storing her illustrations of the ship and walking over to the winch as he turns it on.
“Too fast,” Anton agrees with an uncomfortable nod.
“You’re really expecting shit to hit the fan, aren’t you?”
“Aren’t you?” he retorts.
“Fair point,” Emily responds with a mischievous grin that sends shivers down the spines of everyone in the room.
Anton flashes her a cautious look, but Emily chuckles and waves away his concern.
“Don’t worry. I’m not going to cause too much trouble.”
More like can’t if I want my full quest reward.
“I just suspect they will have identified me as the culprit already.”
“How would they know?” Podrick asks. “It didn’t look like you left any survivors.”
“Well, for one, I did. I only killed everyone in the main mansion and everyone who gathered to fight me from the other wings. I left the servants who weren’t in the main building alone and went back in to set up that explosion. I know a couple of them ran away when I was inside, and there’s a high chance they told people what they saw.”
“Why did you leave witnesses?” Ash questions.
“Simple. I want them to know it was me,” Emily says with an unsettling lack of change in her expression. “And, I doubt it would make a difference even if I’d killed all the servants. I didn’t exactly go in quietly, I was far too angry for that, and I used a lot of lightning. It’s my main element, but it’s actually pretty rare. There aren’t many lightning mages in the country, and I only personally know one at third circle.”
As her explanation finishes, the drone arrives below the hatch, steam pouring from its outlet pipes as it rises closer to the ship. The winch cable slides over a pulley at the edge of the hole, pulling the drone up into the gap. Ash moves to the lever beside the hatch, waiting for the perfect moment to push it, causing the open hatch door to pivot up, catching the bottom of the drone and lifting it into the ship completely.
Emily reaches out and flips the selector switch on the side of the small machine to disable the steam flow to both the balloon and the propellers, increasing the amount of vapour pouring into the room.
“Thanks,” Ash says with a nod, moving to open a few vents in the floor to remove the steam.
Anton quickly moves to open the storage compartment, pulling out a letter telling them to dock immediately at hangar twelve. He stares at the note, reading it carefully as if looking for a hidden blade about to lash out at him.
“Anything out of the ordinary?” Emily asks.
“No, but how much do you want to bet someone will be waiting there to arrest us?” he responds, glancing up at her.
“Oh, I don’t think you want to gamble like that with me,” Emily says, her hand moving up to rest on The Clock’s pouch at her belt. “You won’t win. Don’t worry though. If they are waiting for us, I’ll deal with it.”
“I think that makes it worse,” Anton sighs, walking out of the room as Emily grins savagely.
He returns to the bridge, starting the ship on its descent towards the docks as Emily remains behind to chat with Ash and Podrick about the planned modifications, making the most of time she suspects will be rewound. As the ship touches down, Emily moves to the main exit, meeting Anton there to leave together.
They stand side by side in silence as the track below the ship carries it into the city with a constant low hum.
“Maybe we should wait on the bridge so we can see if there are any guards waiting for us,” Anton suggests, shifting uncomfortably on the spot.
“I doubt they’ll be visible until I show myself,” Emily explains. “They should know no mortal guards stand a chance against me alone, so they’ll probably try to wait till I move deeper into the docks to surround me with mages.”
Not that I’d let them.
“I see.” He nods before falling silent, waiting for the quivering underfoot to stop.
After a few moments, the ship halts with a deep clang, locking into place as the hanger doors shut behind it. Anton flips the lever to open the door, and Emily steps out into the seemingly empty hangar. Walking down the steps, she focuses on her magical senses while calling upon her connection with lightning, feeling several powerful magical signatures slowly converging upon their position.
Yeah, they know.
With each step down the stairs, a dense pressure builds around Emily before bursting out as her foot hits the floor and her connection solidifies. She lifts a hand to rest on The Clock’s pouch as crackling lightning dances along her skin, her eyes lighting up in an azure glow. In an instant, three panicked third circle mages rush into the room from different doors on all sides, magic circles prepared behind them as they finish their chants. Several second circle mages follow them in, joined by a flood of city guards.
Emily presses The Clock’s button as several spells and a hail of bullets start flying towards her.
I guess they don’t want to take me alive.
She steps aside, lightning wrapping her body and almost leaving an afterimage from the speed of her movement, dodging a powerful lance of wind that carves a deep groove into the side of Calypso behind her as time grinds to a halt.
***
Emily is thrown out of her lightning-charged state as she finds herself back in her room aboard Calypso again, her plans for the ship’s modifications floating in the air before her and a loud thunder crack from outside shaking her to the core. The irritating buzzing in her mind has returned, and a sickening blend of emotions fills her chest to join it.
“Fucking great,” she growls. “I guess the emotional severance doesn’t reset with me.”
Sighing and rubbing her brow, she focuses on the thunder crack to distract herself.
Curious. I guess my connection with lightning is still there, so this is now considered the time I made it?
She calls upon her connection again and, after a few seconds to solidify her control, she forms a twisting maelstrom of charge around herself to satisfy the True Elementalist quest’s requirement, before pushing herself off her bed and leaving the room.
She runs into Anton in the corridor and waves off his concerns about the thunder before sending a stream of machina into the floor and using it to search for Ash.
Locating them deep in one of the storage rooms repairing a damaged pipe, Emily approaches them and explains her plans to modify the ship before continuing to pick their brain to optimise her ideas. Come evening, she’s finished the purely mechanical part and is ready to move on to planning some enchantments to help reinforce it against magical attacks like the wind lance that tore a hole in the hull with ease.
She eats with the rest of the crew, the conversation flowing much the same as the first time as she volunteers to take over at night and informs them about New Denntimo. Afterwards, she awakens Podrick again before returning to her room to continue working on some large-scale enchantment designs.
After a long night of throwing herself into her work to avoid focusing on the sickening emotions churning in her chest and buzzing in her mind, she meets the crew for the morning meal.
“Hey,” she grunts as she drops down between Ash and Podrick.
“Hey,” they both greet her back.
Emily reaches out, a light purple mist flowing up and along her body to form together above her hand into a clockwork bird that she offers to Ash.
“Here you go. I threw it together last night.”
“Thanks,” Ash says with a grateful smile, taking the bird carefully and drawing curious glances from Angela, Tony, and Sam.
“No problem,” Emily replies without much change in expression. “I’m always happy to share my babies with people who appreciate them.”
Emily turns her attention to the rest of the crew, glancing around to check Tony, Angela, and Anton are paying attention to her before her next words.
“I maintained the same speed last night, so we should be six hours out from Ashdon. I’m gonna go sleep for a bit now, but when we get closer, stay out of sight of the city. Try to find some dunes to set down behind. It doesn’t matter even if it’s a fair distance from the city.”
Anton raises his brow and anxiously looks to the rest of the crew, who share his concern.
“You’re expecting trouble?”
“Aren’t you?” Emily says, repeating his future words back to him. “I’m pretty certain they will already have worked out it was me that wiped out the Mandragos, and this ship left the docks in a hurry right before the estate blew up. Even if they aren’t certain I’m on board, they’ll at least send out a message to stop and search it, and even if they don’t find me, they recognise the ship as Mandrago property so they’ll try to take it back.”
“Fair point. Are you thinking we should walk into the city without you then?”
“Ha,” she scoffs at his question. “Quite the opposite. Who cares if they’re searching for me? They’ll never find me if I don’t want them to. I can close the distance between the ship and the city quickly, sneak into the city without being noticed, and carry all the supplies we’ll need in my magic storage. So, I was planning on going myself.”
She finishes emptying her bowl of porridge and passes it to Sam as she stands up.
“I’ll put together a list of things we need then,” Anton says as she starts walking out.
“Sure,” Emily says before pausing and glancing at Podrick as he hurries to finish his food to follow her. “Actually, give the list to Pod. I’ll take him with me.”
The boy’s eyes light up at her words, but she simply waves him off and continues out to return to her room.
***
Emily wakes up as a shudder passes through the ship. Looking through the eyes of her scout on top of the balloon she sees sand all around, with a tall dune stretching up to cover the horizon a few hundred metres ahead. The buzzing in her mind has subsided, the cold apathy of severance having set in once again.
She rises from her bed and leaves her room, making her way to meet Anton and Podrick by the ship’s main entrance.
“Oh, hey, Emily,” Anton greets with little surprise as she approaches, her footfall nearly silent despite the metal floor. “I was just about to send Pod to grab you.”
“No need,” Emily shrugs, glancing at the freshly awakened mechanic and noticing the spatial bag hanging at his hip now. “You got a list?”
“Yep!” He grins, pulling a sheet of paper from the pouch and presenting it to her.
Emily reads over the list quickly before nodding and handing it back.
“Perfect. Let’s get going then.”
Anton flips the lever beside the exit hatch and the door swings open as the metal stairway lowers to the desert floor.
“Good luck,” he says as they walk past him.
A dry wind blows by as they descend the steps, carrying a fine mist of sand into their faces. Podrick squints, lifting a pair of goggles from around his neck, and Emily grabs her scarf, unravelling it from around her neck before deftly wrapping it around her head to cover everything, leaving a small slit to see through.
“Nice goggles,” she says as she glances over her shoulder to check on Podrick.
“Thanks! Angela lent me them.”
Emily’s foot lands on the soft sand below the steps, the uneven, shifting ground offering a sense of familiarity as she shifts her weight to compensate, walking with unnatural stability. Podrick stumbles as the surface beneath his feet slides away a little with each step, the slight slope they’re parked on doing him no favours. Emily reaches out a hand to steady him.
“Let’s do this quickly. I’d rather not leave the ship alone out here on the ground - you never know when a pack of stalkers will come across it,” she says, receiving an enthusiastic nod in return. “Climb onto my back. I’ll carry you to the city.”
Emily turns around and crouches on one knee, offering her back to Podrick.
“Really?” he asks nervously.
“Either you get on now,” she replies, glancing over her shoulder and letting him see her unamused gaze through the slit in her scarf, “or I throw you over my shoulder. It’s up to you.”
Swallowing down his apprehension, Podrick immediately wraps his arms around her neck and his legs around her waist.
“Good,” Emily says, turning to the dune ahead and casting lightning step, a crackling magic circle wrapping her legs. “Hold on tight.”
Podrick tightens his grip, looking down at the mesmerising twisting of runes and power with awe for a fraction of a second before the ground below them blurs. He lets out a surprised yell as Emily rockets forward, each step leaving a glistening glass footstep on the sand as it melts under the heat of the crackling plasma pouring into it. She rises up the dune with the boy holding onto her back for dear life, cresting it and immediately seeing her target in the distance.
Emily runs over dunes and open sands alike, ignoring the changes in elevation and incline while putting one foot in front of the other, nothing breaking her even stride until she reaches the last dune close to the sprawling city border, with familiar towers of scrap metal junk on the other side. She skids to a halt, digging her heels into the sand and sending up a spray of particles around them.
Cancelling her spell, Emily taps Podrick’s arms to tell him to let go before turning to face the spluttering boy, trying to clear the sand from his mouth.
“That,” he says, spitting out the last few grains between his teeth and looking up at Emily with shining eyes, “was incredible!”
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Justin Drake
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