Tucked behind a tree, Mea watched with dismay as the warden smashed through the wall and did not blow up. She gripped the bark in front of her with panic, but wasn't sure how to react as the warden crashed to the ground, taking a tree with it. For a moment she was sure it had gotten Aka, when it reared back up revealing that it’s jaws were empty. Mea’s relief was short lived however, as it went to strike again she heard the bang of Aka’s gun followed immediately by the warden recoiling as half it’s face erupted into flames.

  Unlike the other more frightening screeches the warden had made up until this point, it now screamed in pain with a shrill pathetic wail. The creature flailed about, leaving a trail of smoke in its wake before smashing its face into the ground. It rubbed the injury in the snow to put out the flames, but when it rose back up Mea caught a glimpse of the gruesome wound. There was a pit in it’s face that was still smoldering, several of it’s eyes and one of it’s mandibles was now missing.

  It continued to shriek as it crashed away through the woods, and Mea could still see wisps of smoke from where it went. Gradually the wail grew quieter, and once Mea couldn’t hear the sound of it destroying trees in its haste she decided it was safe enough to come out of her hiding spot.

  The clearing was deceptively silent now, and it had started to snow again. Mea tucked her tentacles back into her hat as she walked forward, calling out her friend’s names in distress. “Willow? Keiz? Aka!”

  None of them responded to her cries.

  Mea blinked rapidly, trying to keep from tearing up. The tears would just freeze and make it harder for her to search for them. She rubbed her eyes, struggling to remain calm. Where did Sola and Zero go? Why had it just been the three of them fighting before she arrived?

  After a moment she heard something that dragged her from her worried thoughts. Close to the edge of the city Duchess hooted at her from where she was perched in a tree that was missing several branches. Mea looked up at her, and carefully made her way across the path of destruction the warden had left.

  Willow and Keizeron were still laying in the snow, but as Mea approached Willow sat up slowly, rubbing her stomach where the warden had kicked her. “Are you alright?” Mea jogged over to her crew mate. “Do you need help to stand?”

  “Where’s Aka?” Willow asked quickly, taking a quick inventory of who was around them. She hadn’t been unconscious, just winded and the proximity of the explosion concerned her.

  Mea pointed to where the exchange had been. “We got separated, but they were really close to where the bomb went off last I saw them.” She should have gone there first, but she wasn’t a healer. If Aka was hurt, they would need Willow more than her.

  Willow grimaced, and reached over to find where her pack had fallen in the snow. She shuffled through it for a moment before pulling out a small vial of shimmering red liquid and tossing it to Mea. “Give this to the captain, I’ll go find Aka.” She commanded. Willow slowly got to her feet, shaking and holding her hands on her knees for support. Mea watched her with concern, but with a painful wince Willow started to make her way over to where the aquan had indicated.

  Mea took the vial and kneeled next to Keizeron, a worried Duchess coming to land on her shoulder with a subdued hoot. “It’s going to be alright,” Mea assured her, and Duchess sent an image of a larger healing potion.

  Keizeron was no push over, but he had been hit hard enough to rattle him. Mea carefully put a hand behind his head to lift him up, and using her knee for support she popped the lid of the vial. She opened his mouth slightly and poured the contents of the bottle in. Mea had never given someone a healing potion before, and for a worried moment she wasn’t sure it would work on an unconscious person.

  After a beat his brow furrowed and his eyes fluttered open. Their eyes met, and for a moment his eyes glowed with a golden light. Mea flinched in surprise, but he blinked and sat up in her arms, his eyes returning to their normal shade of violet.

  “Mea, are you hurt?” Keiz asked, as if he wasn’t the one waking up from being unconscious. He put a hand on her shoulder to steady himself, only for Duchess to jump over to his shoulder, nudging him affectionately.

  “I should be asking you that, captain!” Mea retorted. “You got hit pretty hard.”

  “It’ll take more than that to kill me,” Keizeron shrugged. Mea let him go, letting him sit of his own volition. He seemed to be fine, other than being a bit stiff, but she had no idea what could have caused his eye color to change. It had happened so fast, she could tell herself she had gotten it wrong or had been confused. But. But she had the nagging doubt something was wrong.

  “Mea?” Keizeron stood up, his hand on the tree for balance. “Where are Aka and Willow?”

  Mea stared at him, before turning to point in the direction Willow had gone. She could only just see Willow’s figure through the snow flurries, and jumped when the cleric looked up at her suddenly and shouted; “Mea! Can you come here? I need help!”

  Keiz took a step forward, only to sway on his feet and have to lean back on the tree as his head started to spin. Mea got to her feet to help him, but he waved her off. “Go help Willow, I’ll be fine.”

  Mea nodded, knowing full well he wasn’t fine but also that there was nothing else she could do to help him. The aquan woman jogged across the field, looking up at the path the warden had taken to get away from them. Several large trees were snapped like twigs in it’s desperate flight, what would happen if it came after them again? Wide swathes of snow were pushed aside where it had rubbed its face on the ground, exposing the frozen earth underneath.

  As she got closer Mea noticed Willow sitting in the snow, something red buried in the snow next to her. Aka’s coat, with small pocked burn holes in it. Willow had her hands over Aka’s form, a green light almost completely covering them. Mea covered her mouth as she got closer. Aka had several burns across their body, though they were already starting to fade in response to Willow’s magic. Even Mea could tell the magic was working faster than it normally did, and saw a faint glow coming from Aka’s bag a few paces away.

  It was obvious to Mea that the cleric had the burns handled, and as she continued to watch she realized what it was Willow needed her help with. A thin shard of ice was skewered through Aka’s left leg, blood dying their fur around the wound a deep crimson color and spilling into the snow. It wasn’t large, but it looked like it had hit something important.

  “Can you melt it? Sola said you were learning, and I’m only going to hurt them worse if I pull it out myself. I’m running pretty low on magic, I don’t want to tear something I can’t fix.” Willow asked, her voice strained with concentration.

  “I can try,” Mea replied, her voice shaking. It was hard enough seeing Keizeron so hurt, she hated looking at Aka like this. She kneeled on Aka’s other side, ignoring the sting of the cold on her legs. With her hands trembling, Mea touched the shard of ice. There was a reason she had never tried to learn healing magic despite the fact that aquans took to it quite easily. But even if it made her uncomfortable Mea had to try to help her crew mate.

  She took a deep breath, trying to mimic the calm she experienced back on the ship but it was so much harder now.The wind was still swirling around them, mimicking the snarls of the warden and unnerving her. Mea couldn't help but stare, watching as the pool of blood under the fauns leg continued to expand. She doubted they could lose much more and still be alright.

  Willow sat back once the burns were fully healed, panting heavily. She had used more magic than she normally did in a day, and would need to rest for a long time when they got back to the ship. It was incredibly helpful that Aka’s piece of the rod amplified healing, all of the burns and some of the other injuries had all been healed without leaving a single scar. Something Willow had never accomplished before. She had always been more focused on healing injuries than making them look pretty, but had started being able to heal scars bit by bit. Not only did all of the scars fade, but Willow still had a bit of magic left over to try to close the leg wound once the ice was out.

  While it looked like they’d be able to help Aka, Willow knew she wouldn’t have any mana left over to heal her own badly bruised stomach. The next time they encountered the warden, they would need a better plan. They cut it too close today for her comfort.

  Once her breath started to steady, Willow noticed that Mea was shaking in front of her. She had barely made any progress on the ice at all. Willow sat back up. Time was of the essence right now, if Aka lost too much blood there wouldn’t be anything she could do for them. Resurrection spells were extremely high level, and she didn't have the magic to cast one if the navigator died now. The success rate of those kinds of spells dropped dramatically the longer it took between death and casting. After ten minutes it would be useless.

  Willow had seen this hesitance before, when she was first learning clerical work with her mother, Amira. Nurses who helped out changed from steadfast and reliable to petrified and scared when they knew the person being treated. Drawing from her experience, Willow reached out gently and took Mea’s hand. “You can do this, just take a deep breath. It’s alright.”

  Mea looked up at her, her eyes welling with tears. “B-but,” She whimpered.

  “It’ll turn out okay.” Willow repeated confidently.

  ((“Roll again, with advantage because Willow is helping you out this time.”))

  Mea took a deep breath, rubbing the tears from her eyes before they could freeze. With Willow steadying her, she closed her eyes and focused on on melting the small amount of ice that was left. It was harder than melting the snow on the ship deck, but after a moment the ice started to shrink until it was small enough to be pulled out of the injury without further damaging the leg.

  Once the shard was removed, Willow drew one last rune, sending a prayer up to Vothos to heal her friend. She channeled the magic into the wound, and the injured muscle and skin started to stitch itself back together. It didn't heal completely, Willow simply didn't have enough magic to restore her crew mate completely, but it was enough that Aka was no longer in mortal danger. Willow’s largest concern now was the fact that the navigator had not yet woken up.

  They heard a soft noise in the snow, and looked up to see Keizeron slowly limping towards them. Seeing he still was hurting made Willow wonder if any of them had the strength to carry Aka, and suddenly she found herself regretting leaving both of their fighters behind.

  “That could have gone better.” Keiz admitted as he stopped behind them. He eyed the blood on their leg and the puddle in the snow and asked, “how are they?”

  “Alive,” Willow responded quickly. “But they’re not waking up and I’m out of spells.”

  “I can try something,” Keizeron said slowly, and for a moment Mea wondered if they were going to see more of his strange magic. Then he leaned over the three of them and said, “I think it’s sort of a waste to make paper maps. Given the curvature of the planet, a globe is so much more efficient.”

  “Excuse you,” Aka croaked, before groaning as they opened their eyes. “I hurt.”

  “What happened?” Keizeron asked, standing back up.

  “Bomb didn’t go off,” Aka muttered as they struggled to sit up.

  “Careful, I couldn’t fully heal your leg, I ran out of magic,” Willow warned, helping to steady them.

  “I was too close when I manually detonated it, got caught up in the blast,” Aka finished wearily. They looked around, accepting Willows help. “But it seems like it worked, is it gone?”

  “For now,” Willow confirmed.

  “How did it look? Did you see?” Aka asked curiously. They had made a smaller version of the bomb back when they lived at home, and it had not gone very well when they set it off. This one had been much bigger, and they had to use it in a battle situation. They needed to know how well it worked, but they hadn’t seen it’s full effect.

  “Oh it was brutal!” Mea exclaimed, and then described what she saw when the warden got injured, pointing to the displaced snow and broken trees. “It lost like half it’s face! How did you do that?”

  “We can’t be the first people in over a hundred years to think to attack it from the inside, how did we do so much damage against it’s shield?” Aka wondered.

  “I- We should get back to the city hall. We don’t know how fast it’ll recover, we shouldn’t stay out here for too long.” Willow pointed out. She got to her feet slowly, dusting snow off her dress.

  “Right, I’d like to talk to Meridia again to see what she knows, and we need to pick up our crew mates.” Keizeron agreed.

  “Oh yeah! Wheres Sola and Zero? Where are my boys?” Mea asked as she helped Aka to their feet. Hooves? She helped them stand up, only to find they couldn’t fully support their weight with their leg injury.

  “Sola hurt his leg too, one of the centipedes bit him so the townsfolk we encountered took him to get an antidote.” Aka explained, wincing as they leaned against Mea. Their leg throbbed with pain, but at least the injury was already being iced. (("That's not how that works."))

  “Those gross bugs are poisonous? Good thing that fucker- ((“Language.”)) good thing that asshole- ((“Thank you.”)) didn’t bite anyone.” Mea glanced at the path of destruction the warden left behind and shuddered at the thought.

  Willow followed her gaze and noted the warden had bitten a tree in half when she tried to use it to slow him down. “I have a feeling that if the warden bit one of us poison would be least of our worries.”

  “Venom.” Aka corrected quietly.

  Willow just rolled her eyes. Even though it had only been a few minutes her stomach was already starting to feel better. The pain had dulled considerably, though it was still very present. Even when she wasn’t casting magic the power of the rod worked fast. But looking at the way Aka was leaning heavily on Mea, their leg twisted uncomfortably, it wasn’t working fast enough.

  “Aka, you’ll need to be carried. We can’t risk you reopening your leg wound right now,” Willow observed.

  Aka sighed heavily, looking down at their leg. After a moment they reached up to feel their face. They had been burned pretty badly before they passed out from the force of the bomb, but now they didn’t feel anything. Willow must have healed it all before they woke up, they couldn’t be mad at her for not finishing the job. Aka noticed some of their hair had been singed back as well, they supposed healing magic couldn’t fix an unexpected hair cut.

  “Uh, I could probably trim your hair when we get back to the ship.” Mea offered, noticing Aka was playing with the burnt ends.

  “It doesn’t matter, let’s just get out of here,” Aka replied curtly.

  The crew started making their way back into the city of Saburn as the snow started to come down in thicker sheets. It was slow going for the four of them, Keizeron and Willow were still badly bruised and Mea ended up carrying Aka on her back. Being the only one who wasn’t injured she offered to carry the faun, but it was clear she had never carried something so heavy for so long. At least Aka was the smallest crew mate. If Keizeron or Willow had been just a little more hurt, Mea wouldn’t have been able to lift either of them.

  Fortunately they hadn’t gotten far out of town before they confronted the warden, and it didn’t take long before they were back in the streets of Saburn. Before they even made it a block they heard the sound of approaching footsteps, and saw Zero and Meridia turn a corner ahead of them.

  “Friends!” Zero shouted, his eyes lighting up. “I am so glad you’re alright!”

  “Well I’ll be damned,” Meridia said in awe, coming to a stop as Zero ran up to them. She scratched her head thoughtfully. “You dun scared off the warden. And ya’ll don’t look good but none of ya look dead. Just who are you people?”

  “Right now, we’re just tired,” Keizeron said wearily, holding a hand to his injured side.

  “Would you like assistance?” Zero asked as he approached Mea. She let out a sigh of relieve as he lifted Aka off her back, holding the faun up happily. It was clear that Aka was displeased to be carried around like this, but they kept their annoyance to themselves. However instead of his back, Zero put Aka on his shoulders and their eyes grew wide. They’d never been up so high before.

  ((“Look. Aka is barely over five feet tall, and Zero is six and a half feet tall. They are annoyed they have to be carried but oh the novelty of being tall!” Winter said, clearly torn between which emotion they thought would be prevalent.))

  “Well, I suppose ya’ll can spend some time restin in the town hall, it’s the least I can offer since you really scared off the warden.” Meridia sighed, putting her equipment back on. Just because the warden was gone didn’t mean all the glacedea were, and it paid to be vigilant.

  “Thank you,” Keizeron nodded graciously.

  “So how’d you do it?” Merdia asked as the crew started to follow her back to the hall. While the rest of them were already starting to get used to the silent streets, Mea was looking around curiously. It was all so, rustic. Not exactly her style.

  “Bomb,” Aka said simply from where they were perched. Zero was almost a whole foot taller than Mea, they had already forgotten how annoyed they were about the whole situation.

  “Sorry, what sorta bomb did you make that could hurt a creature like that?” Meridia asked skeptically.

  “We just had to hit it where it wasn’t defended.” Keizeron explained.

  ((“Gotta work smarter, not harder,” Zenith said, tapping his temple.

  “Yeah sure, says the tank who got poisoned and missed the entire fight,” Lucky teased, picking up Sola’s mini figure that was still off the map. Caine watched them with interest, not adding to the conversation. They didn't exactly have it right, there was a different reason they managed to hurt the monstrosity that no one else had, but they would just have to figure that out on their own.))

  “We’ve been trying so hard for so long to hurt it, I didn’t think it was even possible,” Meridia commented in wonder. “Why do you need to kill this thing so badly?”

  “It has something that we need.” Keiz replied. They turned a corner and the city hall came into view. Signs of life were starting to return to the city as a few of the villagers were walking around the outskirts of the main building, picking up various bits of debris. Broken fences and roofing, the crispy bodies of the centipedes that got to close to the fire shield, the arm of the slain villager.

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  Meridia watched them clean up the blood in the snow, her face grim. “Whatever it is, is it important enough for ya’ll to risk your lives like this?”

  The crew looked at each other, an understanding passing through them. “Oh shit, yeah I guess so.” Mea said after a beat. “I kinda thought of it more as risking my life for you guys instead of the treasure though.”

  “Whatever works for you,” Meridia shrugged. “Cus if you kill it, that works for me too.”

  A flabbergasted Killian greeted them as they walked up to the city center. “Well I’ll be damned! Ya’ll didn’t die!” He called out. The orcish man started to make his way over to them, but his shout alerted someone who was standing nearby.

  Sola turned suddenly from what he had been doing, and dropped a broken beam as he raced towards his crew. “Captain!” He paused. “Why is Mea here?”

  “Please,” Willow pleaded as they came to a stop. “I need to lay down.”

  Killian walked back to the entrance of the city hall and opened the doors for them. The building had calmed down significantly since Sola and Zero arrived, but it was still bustling with activity. Only a few of the villagers were bold enough to head back out and get started on damage control, most of them were still huddled together in the area they knew to be safe. Chiru and Rudanite were still moving around to talk to villagers and offer whatever comfort to the injured they could. Chiru had long since run out of magic, but she didn’t let it stop her.

  A number of the villagers looked up wearily as they entered. It was weird enough to see travelers in such a small town, but this was such a large group that were getting special treatment from the village chief that it was hard not to stare. Meridia ignored the vacant gazes of her stunned constituents as she lead them to a small alcove. “You can stay here for now, but I have other responsibilities to attend to before we can talk.”

  “Of course,” Keizeron nodded. He understood how difficult it was to delegate during a crisis, he had taken classes about it in school. However none of his classes could compare to the feeling he got dealing with the real thing.

  She walked off as the group got settled, Willow, Keiz and Aka finding spots to lay down as best they could. Willow took a moment to properly wrap Aka’s leg. It had healed significantly since the initial injury, but it was still better to cover it until she had rested enough to start casting healing spells again. She started to sweat slightly as she worked, which was something she had not expected to happen since arriving in Flolon.

  “Wow, it sure is hot in here,” Willow commented as she finished clipping the edge of the bandage down.

  “It’s enchanted with a bunch of heat runes, both for the cold and to keep the warden and his kin out,” Sola explained. The crew looked at him. “What? I didn’t just sit here while you guys were gone, I talked to people.”

  He jumped as someone cleared their throat behind him. One of the villagers, an older looking cat kin woman had approached them, her ears back with nervousness. With a start, Keizeron recognized her. She had thin black fur and a bandage on her ankle, but she looked like she was doing better than when he had seen her last.

  “Is that your owl?” She asked in a slow tone, pointing to Duchess, who was perched on an over turned chair behind where Keizeron was sitting.

  “She’s my familiar,” Keiz replied.

  “I didn’t hear the alarm bell go off, and by time I got outside I didn’t think I’d make it to the shelter in time. She saved me from one of the glacedea, so thank you,” The woman explained, bowing slightly before rejoining her fellow villagers.

  Duchess hooted softly as Chiru and Rudanite approached them in her stead. The doctor introduced herself and her assistant to the others who weren’t there earlier, and turned to Willow. “Are you the cleric friend? Is there anyway you could help us?” she asked cautiously.

  Willow shook her head sadly. “I have nothing left.”

  ((“What’s the range on the rod? We should be able to just help out the villagers by being here right?” Lucky asked hopefully.

  Caine nodded, “it doesn’t include the whole building, but since you’re kinda near the center of the building it’ll get everyone who’s still injured.”))

  As they spoke the building seemed to quite down. The aura of the rod, while not immediate, was certainly felt and spread between the resting villagers. It didn’t appear that any of the them noticed what the source was, aside from Chiru who was staring at them intently.

  “What is this?” She asked slowly.

  Aka felt for their bag, putting their hand on the rod. Even though Keizeron had done an identification spell on it, there was still so much they didn’t know about the artifact. Up until now Aka had assumed it would only work on their crew, but even these people they had never before were benefiting from it. Did they have to want the people near them to get better? Would adversaries who used healing magic near them gain the benefits as well? Aka left the rod in the bag, but took out one of their leather bound notebooks and made a few notes without acknowledging the doctors question.

  Keizeron sighed. He was laying behind Willow with a hand on his chest. “We’re not really in a position to tell you that. But I can say that we want to help you.”

  “You want to help us, but your hesitant to tell us your name captain, how you’re using magic with no mana, or even why you want to kill the warden?” Meridia asked as she walked back over to them. She had taken off most of her gear at this point, and they finally got a good look at her. They knew she was orcish by her bulky frame, but now they could see her pale green skin and wide black eyes more clearly. She had a few scars on her face, and her tusks were chipped. Meridia was a person who had been through it, and come out the other side.

  “Kill the warden?” Rudanite exclaimed. “That’s insane! You were lucky enough to escape with your lives after tangling with it, and you want to do it again?”

  Keizeron could only give the avian man an empty stare and a shrug.

  ((“Keizeron can not do all the talking, please guys,” Caine pleaded as no one stepped between their argument. “I can’t just talk to myself for the whole podcast, one of you have to roll persuasion. Or all of you, please.”))

  “We know we can do it. Chiru, I promise we will bring this thing down,” Sola said, looking at the doctor. After she had healed his leg, Sola didn’t just sit idly by waiting for his friends to return. He used what Willow had shown him in the few weeks they had sailed together to help out some of the other villagers. Chiru asked questions, things he couldn’t answer, but Sola had been as honest as he could be.

  The doctor looked at him, a frown creasing her face. Finally she broke the awkward silence. “Meridia, I think we can trust them. I’m sure they have their reasons for wanting privacy, but I don’t see why it matters if we can be the generation that sees the end of the warden?”

  Meridia pinched the bridge of her nose. “Fine. I’m going to take a team out to make sure the last of the glacedea are gone and when I get back we can talk.”

  “My name is Keizeron,” their captain said without looking up.

  “Yeah I gathered, your crew has been chattering it since you got here,” Meridia huffed. “It’s the principal of it.”

  She turned to give instructions to Killian and a few of the other villagers who were wearing some heavy armor, and the team left the building.

  “That could have gone better,” Mea said.

  “Well, none of us are really charisma builds,” Willow sighed.

  ((“Wait, that should have been out of character,” Lucky said, dropping the accent she used for Willow. Zenith, who's character actually had decent charisma remained silent.

  Caine laughed. “It stays in.”))

  “Could Zero and Sola continue helping us?” Chiru asked hesitantly. Rudanite had gone back to working with the injured villagers, but the cleric had yet to leave the area.

  “I would like to talk to them first, then they are free to do what they want,” Keizeron replied. His tone was curt, but quickly softened. He was tired, but Chiru was the one to stand up for them. He couldn’t just ignore her request.

  Chiru nodded, and left the crew to themselves.

  “So what happened?” Sola asked as soon as she was out of earshot, sitting down next to Aka.

  Aka, Willow and Keizeron took turns explaining what happened after the party split. Mea interjected with what she was doing a few times, sure to include how she had saved Aka. Twice. When they explained how badly the fight with the warden had gone Sola frowned.

  “What do you think our odds are to actually kill it?” The first mate asked seriously. He wasn't one to pick fights he couldn't win.

  “With a better plan and gear we can do it,” To his surprise it was Aka that replied with confidence. “We hurt it, bad. Now that we know what we’re up against, I have the utmost confidence we’ll stop it the next time we meet.”

  Keizeron nodded in agreement, he hadn’t expected Aka to be the one to take point but it made sense. They were the one who had injured it after all. Now that he knew what they were up against, Keizeron was sure that the navigators confidence was well earned.

  Once the crew was caught up on what each other had done when they split, Sola and Zero got back up to help the villagers. Mea, who hadn’t actually taken any damage in the fight and was only winded from carrying Aka, got up to go with them. Gradually, the other three recovered with the help of the rod. While Aka’s leg didn’t heal completely, they felt well enough to put pressure on it again and stand up.

  Meridia, along with the rest of her crew, came back after an hour and gave the all clear for the whole town. They had already started working on cleaning up the city center, but now the doors were opened and the villagers headed back to their homes. It had stopped snowing, but as it grew darker out it got gradually colder.

  As soon as Keizeron was feeling sufficiently healed he gathered Sola and together they went back to the ship to move it closer to the city. It was dark when they returned, this time properly tying the boat down at the very small docks Saburn had. Fortunately none of the centipedes made it this far, and they were able to disembark without any troubles.

  After they returned to the city hall, they were approached by chief Meridia and Chiru. Killian emptied the rest of the hall, closing the doors behind him as he left so they’d be able to speak privately. Even with how long they had been working, the hall still felt disheveled. Not a lot of the furniture had been put back to it’s rightful place, and Sola could still see spots of blood on the floor. Even though everyone had been moved out after the all clear, it was hard to forget that a villager had died here only a few hours ago.

  Meridia pulled a chair up to the nook where Aka and Willow were still resting, and sat down facing the crew. The doctor hovered nervously behind her, clearly too anxious to get her own chair. “Alrighty then,” Meridia sighed, leaning forward and resting her chin on her hands. “I think it’s high time we told everything we know about the warden.”

  ~*~

  Much to Aster’s surprise, Queen Odella ordered them to take the teleportation rune from Kreincliff to Tasca in Flolon. It was the only unity base in the frozen country, and was a bit north of the capital city. Keeping the base had been quite the fight with King Laimen when he took over as reigning monarch, and Aster didn’t want to think of the lengths the queen had taken to win that particular battle.

  However, the teleportation rune wouldn’t be able to transport her boat, the Forgers Dawn. Instead she and her crew, as well as the one prisoner they hadn’t turned over to the justice system had to disembark and be assigned a new ship. Most unity ships had the same layout, so it wasn’t too much of a challenge to adjust to a new boat. Still, Aster felt like she was trespassing when she boarded the Perseverance, and wanted this mission done as soon as possible.

  The captain made her way below deck to the new, but identical, brig. Actually, there was a noticeable difference here, the new cell was devoid of the blood stains from the injured pirates and the bars of the cell weren’t melted. Yet.

  Lycus seemed to be enjoying the extra room now that his two other companions had been turned over to the authorities. No honor among thieves and all that, he was glad they were gone. His small victory was short lived and his expression turned sour when the captain approached him.

  “Where would your crew be right now?” She asked, sparing no time for formalities.

  “Ah, right about now they’d be in Petersfield, enjoying a drink at the Boiled Crow before making their way to see the king,” He mused. The pirate captain could be lying, or just wasn’t sure the crew would still be there. It wasn’t worth it to Aster to use a truth spell on him, she doubted he knew for sure either way. In all honesty it would be better for her personally if they had already done their victory lap and returned to the king. She just hoped they hadn’t.

  Aster left the brig and found her navigator, an entalitian man named Daryle who was currently in conversation with the first mate. “How far are we from Petersfield?” She asked abruptly.

  The man hastily pulled out a map of the continent, making a few quick notes of the map key. “It will be a half a days trip to the south east of here Ma’am.” Daryle replied quickly.

  Aster nodded. “We set out in an hour,” She commanded to her first mate, an elven man named Thistle. He exchanged a glance with Daryle before confirming and heading out above the deck to get the crew organized.

  Though the crew worked in silence, the untiy workers of the Perseverance all knew what this meant. Aster had been publicly instructed to recover the rod from the king, not the pirates. Some of the officers had already reported her decision to the queen, some knew they’d be in more trouble if they argued with Aster than just following her. And some of them were just interested in seeing how it all shook out, and how deep of a grave the captain could dig for herself before it was over.

  Many of the older crew mates had seen it all before. Someone with such promise, graduating from the academy with honors, only to not have the nettle to do what needed to be done in the coalition. It didn’t take long for the queen to sense the weakness, and often she’d set up her own captains for failure. Other high ranking officers were not immune to her plot, but if she had a young inexperienced captain to play scapegoat, well. They’d inevitably be the first to go.

  Regardless of how the crew of the Perseverance felt about the mission or their doomed captain, they got ready to sail to the small town of Petersfield so they could raid a bar. The unspoken truth of the journey hung over them as they got set up in less than the hour the captain had given them.

  Aster watched as they set the sails and raised anchor. The crew worked together efficiently, but she had finally noticed something was off. It had been hidden behind her own concerns, but as Thistle raised the lev stone and took off it finally dawned on her how quite the crew was. A normal ship of this size was full of chatter and merriment, even when they were on official missions for the queen. However as they sailed over the snowy landscape the freezing temperatures chilled the crew and the only sounds to be heard were hushed conversation just out of her earshot.

  As a fire elemental Aster was largely unaffected by the cold. The rest of the crew were given equipment to keep them warm in the snow, but it was clear they didn’t really like being out here regardless. Occasionally a stray snow flake would get close enough to land on the captain, and would immediately sizzle away.

  After a few hours of uneventful and suspiciously quite sailing the village came into view. Petersfield was a place that could be described as quaint on a nice day, like most of these rural snow bound cities could. The businesses and homes were all made of uniform white planks, making it hard to distinguish them from one another. The most unique ones were two stories, or were further out in the woods than the others were. Just on the edge of her vision Aster spotted a logging mill, a thick column of smoke pouring from a chimney.

  Being such a small town their docks weren’t very large, or well maintained Aster noted as she hailed the dock master. The person, a younger cat kin man, looked nervous to be admitting a unity ship, but they had no problems as they settled Perseverance in.

  The ship secured, Aster double checked that the prisoner was properly guarded before she disembarked with a handful of her officers, Daryle and Thistle among them. The town was small, and even though she had asked the dock master for directions to the bar she hadn’t needed them. Coalition officers were not a common occurrence this far north, and the townsfolk gave her crew a wide berth and strange looks as she walked down the cobblestone roads.

  Since becoming a captain a year ago Aster had grown accustomed to the strange, sometimes fearful or outright hostile looks she got from the locals of the foreign countries she visited. It had been uncomfortable when she started, sure the unity had a bad reputation outside of their home country, but she hadn’t done anything wrong. But as time wore on she started to understand the scared faces she saw. They often reflected the looks she gave herself when she looked in a mirror. Aster moved on.

  The things she was doing now have been in motion for longer than she was aware of; it was too late to stop it now. If she didn’t do it someone else would. At least if she could succeed one life would be saved. Was it so wrong if that one life was hers?

  It didn’t take long before the group found themselves outside of the Boiled Crow. Even from the outside she could tell it was just as homely and degenerate as the name implied. The white wooden planks that made up the exterior were chipped and damaged from years of drunkards making scenes just outside the tavern doors. The sign was made from painted wood, and showed a plucked bird sitting in a stew pot, trying to eat it’s own legs. Aster gave it a look of disgust as she walked through the doors.

  This late in the evening the crowd was just starting to pick up as locals left their jobs for the night. People of a diverse set of races were packed in around scuffed tables as harried looking as the wait staff that brought around mugs of ale and other alcohols of varying strengths. It reeked of spilled beer and desperation, in the way that only small towns with no where for people to go did. Aster had been in an immeasurable amount of bars and taverns just like it. In fact, she was pretty sure the story teller man in the back entertaining a crowd of drunkards was one she had seen in at least three other bars so far.

  The loud sounds of chatter dulled considerably when Aster and her crew mates stepped in, but in an attempt to prevent a panic the band on stage kept playing without missing a beat and the mood quickly recovered. It didn’t take long for Aster to scan the whole area, and just as quickly she put together the pirates she was looking for weren’t here. She was confident she would recognize their faces, and was even more sure they wouldn’t be wearing a disguise.

  Aster knew this wasn’t going to be so simple, but deep down she had allowed herself to hope they would still be there. With everything else that had gone wrong this week, it would have been nice if this one thing had worked out for her. It was fine, she was prepared for this outcome. Aster nudged her way through the throng of people to the bar.

  The bartender, a white dragon kin, looked up as Aster approached, and nodded curtly to the elf woman she had been talking to. The elf glanced to where the unity officials were, and frowned before heading into the back room. The bartender was wearing simple clothes with light leather armor over it, but the ensemble had a lovely dark fur trim. It was clearly to blend in more with the patrons, most elemental dragon born were immune to extreme weather conditions like Aster was.

  “How can I help you fine folk?” The bartender asked cautiously, putting her claws on the bar in what was supposed to be a welcoming gesture but came off extremely defensive. As much as the glaring looks got under Aster’s skin, it was nice that people were as efficient as possible when talking to unity officers. While she wouldn’t turn them away, it was clear the dragon woman wanted this conversation over as quickly as possible.

  “I’m looking for some friends of mine,” Aster replied in a casual tone, leaning over the bar so she didn’t need to raise her voice. And so she could surreptitiously slip a gold coin under the dragons claw. To her credit, the bartender didn’t even look down. “Some fun folk who work with captain Lycus. They’ve been holding onto something important of mine and I’ve come to collect.”

  The woman narrowed her eyes, and while she put her palm onto the counter over the coin, she didn’t take it. Aster could see the gears turning behind her reptilian eyes. She wasn’t fooled by what Aster was saying, was it worth it to sell out some regulars to avoid further trouble?

  After a few moments she slipped the coin into her pocket in a smooth motion and leaned back to reply, “They returned from a job yesterday, but it went bad from what I could see. They lost about half of their crew, it wasn’t exactly a triumphant return ya know? But the ones who did make it back are still in town. A few of them work and board at the north side of town, at the logging mill. It’s decent work, and our towns economic heart. Would be a shame if it got damaged over an unrelated incident.”

  She leaned back, crossing her arms to indicate the conversation was over. Aster looked back at her crew. Most of them appeared disinterested in what the bartender had to say and were instead more focused on the locals who were still eyeing them wearily. Aster indicated to Thistle it was time to leave, and he gave a curt nod to the rest of the crew.

  As they started to file out Aster turned back to the bartender. “Thank you for your help.” She said, as sincerely as possible before she followed the rest of her crew.

  The crew made their way north of town, not needing to stop and get directions as Aster had made note of the mill during their decent. They simply checked their compass and started heading in the direction it told them too. Once they were out of town it was the only thing they could see. A large fenced off area, with several buildings on the grounds and a wide ring of felled trees around it.

  As they approached a large hunting dog chained to a post started barking, alerting a large man who was clearly already expecting them. At first glance he looked entalitian, but was far taller than the average man. He had a sturdy build, his biceps larger than Aster’s head, and had a thick bushy beard that was powered with snow. He had probably been waiting for them since they landed. The logger had his arms crossed and a sour expression on his face as the unity officers came to a stop a mere ten feet away.

  “I knew somethin was up when those morons all scampered off when we spotted the unity ship approachin. They’re out in the woods somewhere if you feel like huntin ‘um down, it’s not like they have anywhere else to go in this weather. I’m not gonna stop ya.” The man called in a thick accent. His brow furrowed. “But I can tell you one thing for certain. They ain’t got it.”

  “Excuse me?” Aster asked immediately, taken aback by what he said. Her crew shifted nervously behind her, watching her hair flicker slightly. They breathed a sigh as it quickly settled back to it’s normal appearance and waited for the man to continue.

  “They ain’t got it,” The logger repeated. “We get the news out here in podunk nowhere. If they had that rod they would have been parading it all over town, the crew members they lost be damned. Not exactly the brightest bunch to be sure. But they either failed or ditched it already cus they came home like a bunch of scolded dogs actin desperate for a new job. If ya’ll want to go into the woods I can even take you to the stolen ship they been using, but you’re wastin your time.”

  “He’s bluffing,” Thistle muttered under his breath, stealing a look at his captain. To his surprise, Aster held a hand up to silence him.

  It had been her first thought as well, but the people here didn’t seem that stupid. Even out here in ‘podunk’ nowhere, the people knew the coalition and what it was capable of. They knew it was far wiser to tell the truth than to try to lie to an unpredictable officer. Aster didn’t need to tell them that if she caught him in a lie she would in fact burn the entire mill down. And the bar, for good measure.

  Which left them with two options; this man was risking his life and home to protect some pirates, or he was telling the truth. And finally it dawned on her, what she had been on the verge of realizing this entire trip. The pirates didn’t have the rod.

  Aster looked up to the sky. It had stopped snowing a while ago, and the sun made a brief appearance from where it had been hiding behind the clouds. It was starting to warm up ever so slightly, not that Aster would have ever noticed the difference. The rod couldn’t be at the temple, she had combed through the wreckage herself for hours with the rest of the crew. That left one possible option.

  “Head back to the ship.” Aster commanded.

  “What? But-” Thistle started, but froze when he saw the look in his captains eyes as she turned down to look at him.

  “We’re going back to the ship, I know where the rod is.”

  Her crew looked at each other, even more concerned. The thinly veiled hope that she would make it out of this was cracking. They muttered amoungst each other, but no one said anything else to their captain as they turned to leave.

  They started on their way back, the mill master holding his ground until the whole group was out of sight. He loosened up, dropping his tough facade. She must have been new, any other unity officer would have searched his mill, maybe even still destroyed it out of spite for his honesty. Despite the mercy she showed him, he headed back into the mill hoping she never recovered the rod. It didn’t belong to the queen in the first place. He stopped by the door, sparing a glance back at the city in the distance. Whoever had it now, he hoped they kept it far away from the coalition.

  The crew of the perseverance took a different path back to the ship than they had come from, there was no need for them to stop by the bar again. However with their captain a bit, distracted, they got turned around on their return trip and ended up lost. It was embarrassing really, given how small the town was, but it had started snowing again, harder this time. since they left the mill and Daryle couldn’t see the ship above the buildings anymore. The streets leading south kept coming up as dead ends and eventually Thistle got fed up with him.

  Eventually they found themselves in a tiny town square, with a few open shops around the street. While Daryle stopped inside one of them to get directions, Aster surveyed the area. A wide community board posted outside of the sheriffs office caught her attention. There was a number of fliers posted to it, by the townsfolk or by Flolon officials. Help wanted for jobs around town, or quests outside of their small jurisdiction. Lost livestock, rooms for rent, warnings about the monsters in the woods growing more bold. But only one poster caught Aster’s eye.

  In the center of the board, posted above some of the other papers indicating how recently it was added, was a wanted poster with a familiar face. Keizeron Yin, wanted for crimes against the queen and the kingdom of Reglilis. For his live return an unimaginable ten thousand gold coins was being offered. A small fortune for a single man’s capture.

  Aster plucked the poster from the board, staring at it intently. The seals on it were official, this had been sent directly from the palace’s orders. Aster spared a glance back at the board. There were a few other wanted posters, some local some not, but none offered this level of reward, or carried such a high ranking officers seal of approval.

  As the paper caught fire in her hands, the last of the puzzle pieces fell into place in Aster’s mind. The pirates never had the rod, and it was so obvious now that everyone but her knew it. Or maybe she knew it to, but would rather believe her queen wanted her to topple an entire nation over believing her old classmate would betray her after saving her life. The embers of the paper scattered in the wind. She guessed it didn’t matter now.

  When they made it back to the ship Aster ignored her crew and made her way down to the brig. The dark room was illuminated by her burning hair, the glow casting a violent flickering motion.

  “Judging from all that stomping you’ve finally figured it out,” Lycus observed, barely moving from where he was sitting propped up on the bars. After a moment of silence he finally looked up, and misinterpreted the fury in Aster’s eyes. “Of course they didn’t have it you incompetent fireball. Those scabs were nothing without my iron clad leadership, but if your queen was going to punish you by sending you on a wild goose chase, well I was just glad to be along for the ride.”

  “It’s not over yet,” Aster said finally, slamming her hands on the bars of the cage. They started to glow red hot, and Lycus backed up as he felt the heat. “You’re going to get your wish you washed up old man. We’re going to kill Keizeron.”