Nimbus gray skies rocked the aging spirit ship like a toy in a giant's fist. The air-faring crew swarmed the moss-slick ropes, bodies swinging wild, their grips iron-hard as a blacksmith's clamp as they fought to furl the sails.
On the deck below, those who had flown a few times before gritted their teeth, their inexperience plain but pride holding their faces still.
The true first timers clung white-knuckled to any wood or rope their hands could find.
'Couple hours till we land. I'm not the only one thinking ahead. Face disappears in a crowd, but it only takes one bastard who logs every scar off a single look to put a knife in me.'
Radeon watched Fay ride it out the same as the rest, tucked under a table nailed tight to the very middle of the deck. Her hand bled where she crushed it against the edge of the bench, knuckles white, breath coming sharp.
From the far rail Radeon watched, knowing he wouldn't snatch her back if she slid into empty air, and satisfied she'd chosen the safest spot left to her, unflinching as dirt and muck scraped around her robe.
'Time for me to move.'
He moved with a veteran's ease, fast and sure, swinging from rope to rope in wild arcs until he caught the narrow ledge that ran around the spirit ship's hull, the planks above his head and nothing but cloud yawning below.
"Disappear."
The cloak drank the light. Staying pressed to the outer hull, he edged along toward the cargo stairs, slipping past deckhands hunched over crates of dried meat and oats as they fought the ship's roll.
Radeon slid through the shadow of the cargo stairs and went down into the hold, where men stood in heavy silence. Their feet were planted firm as if rivets held them down, their hands wrapped around swords and shields.
'Not Breath Tempering. Second cultivation stage. Mid to peak Cornerstone Setting. Five. Six. Seven of them.'
His feet shuffled as he slipped past the guards, his body sliding past theirs one after another. Passing one more, his hand caught on a crate, precious herbs breathing through the seams and tempting him to start his heist right there on the ship.
'Not now.'
He shoved the greed back into his pocket and fixed on what he needed to know instead. What fed the ship's flight and whether it was worth the risk.
'One guard at the end, bored enough to lean on his spear. Too strong. Third stage, gilded core. I can't read him. Cloak might not fool his senses.'
Radeon kept to the crates, never crossing the man's direct line of sight. He timed each step to the ship's lurches, slipping forward when the hull groaned loudest.
By the time the guard straightened and frowned at the flicker of light, Radeon was already at the end of the cargo maze.
The array that made the ship stay afloat lay ahead. Twenty-four middle-grade spirit stones sat in a careful ring, each the size of a thumb and holding a soft inner glow.
He tried to pry one loose, but it didn't budge. Forcing it would blaze like a flare to a gilded core, so he dropped it and followed the heat along the boards instead.
'Shame. Spirit stones like that don't come easy. Burn this pattern in.'
Radeon left the hold and followed the tug of energy. The ship's hum pressed against his palms as he ran his hands along the boards.
Heat threaded the grain, packed deep in the planks and buried under grime near the stair up to the deck.
Radeon's touch found where warmth pooled. One plank lay a shade cleaner, the brown of it subtly wrong among the dark boards, edges faintly stained as if something beneath had been cooking it for years.
He put fingers under the lip and pried it up. Silver, old and smoke dark, stared back at him.
'There. Propeller or stabilizer array node. Won't drop the ship. Just make it stagger. Probably. Should be, right?'
His qi took the old sword form and he swept that unseen edge through the silver, cutting it open in a burst of blinding sparks. The metal screamed and the node split.
"What was that light?"
"Who's creeping in my hold? Show yourself, now!"
Wood cracked as the pattern failed. Light sputtered. The ship lurched. Barrels and bundles crashed to the deck in a thunder of loose cargo.
Below, the cargo hold filled with screams as guards fought to hold the crates while the galleon tilted under its weight.
"Emergency descent! All hands, brace!" a voice bellowed from the quarterdeck.
Radeon let the cloak slide from his shoulders and the world see him again. By the time he burst back up the cargo stairs the deck was already heaving, men and women pinwheeling as crates and bodies slammed together.
He threw himself into the chaos, rolling with men who had more pride than experience.
"Agh, it hurts, it hurts," Radeon cried, his acting blending with the others.
With each lurch, he twisted from side to side until the last sway flung him within reach of the center table, where he could make a clumsy scramble up beside Fay.
"S-Senior... why are you shouting? W-what happened? Did you do something?" Fay asked, her voice thin with fear.
"Later. For now, move."
The gale howled around the hull and drove sheets of rain past the rails. The helmsman's bell tolled, sharp as a slap.
"Prepare to anchor! Hands to the lines!" His voice cut through the storm.
The deck shuddered under their boots as the ship dipped. The fields below jumped into view, swelling larger with every breath.
He dragged Fay toward the bow. He had knocked on every plank of this cursed deck and knew this patch by sound.
Different wood. Denser. Enough to buy time, but not enough to lean their lives on.
The rope he had told her to pack bulged at the side of her bag. Radeon yanked it free, fingers working fast as he pushed a thread of qi along the cord to stiffen it.
He looped one end through the free rails near the bow and hauled it tight, then ran the other around her waist and under her thighs, cinching a rough seat against the rail.
"S-Senior, w-wait! What are you doing?" Fay barely managed to get the words out, mind lagging behind his hands.
Radeon said nothing. Still not satisfied, he pulled off the leather that held their pass and buckled it tight across her chest. Rope wove under her arms and shoulders, leaving only her arms and legs loose.
"Don't talk. Grit your teeth."
As if an omen, the captain rang his bell, his face cold as their lives were now on the line.
"Drop anchor! Strike the sails!"
"Aye, Captain!"
The anchor tore free and the sudden drag made the hull buck upward before it sagged again. Even the most seasoned crewmen went pale. Radeon knew this was the start of pandemonium.
Iron claws on the anchor-chain below hit the trees with a crack and tore through them, dragging a screaming wake of splinters and leaves.
The ship jerked as if a giant hand had grabbed its tail. Men and women who lacked the grit of the sky were ripped off their feet and hurled toward the rail.
"Merciful gods, I'm just a cook!"
"Senior Brother, help me!"
It plowed through the green and caught at last between two black rocks.
Ropes snapped out as the crew loosed their lines. Hooks bit through wet cotton and wool, snagging belts and sleeves and bare wrists, catching those who would have fallen.
Silk and cotton tore, knots slipped loose, and the unlucky ones fell screaming into the green below.