The Notion shuddered, barrel-thick chains rolling from its foremast to its hook. Leveling out, it slowed to a crawl, inching toward the oncoming cloudbank. Karich's men set about their stations, tying ropes around their middles then arming with blades and nets.
The Ogre bellowed, "Hoy! If it's Whitepelt, keep clear, I'll manage the beast. Anyone else is bloodsport!"
"Hoy!"
Ablee slammed her shoulder into the cabin door and rebounded, falling flat on her back. "She's here, Cline, open the door!"
"N-no!" Cline stammered, rising to his feet and pressing himself into the cabin's back wall. A sharp gust of wind caught the vessel's side, sending it rocking.
Throwing out a hand toward the door's lock, Ablee shouted again, "Now, don't make me miss this!"
With a stuttering step, Cline worked his way to the counter, "You're not going to jimmy that lock."
"You have the key, now come on!" She clambered back up the table to look out the window and caught Ibera's eye. The veteran waved her off with his cutlass, "Get below, girl!"
"One hundred meters," called the man in the crow's nest, his spyglass gleaming, "It's the ivory lass!"
"Heard. All steel, men. Secure the hooks, the Gods want a demonstration," Karich wrapped his arm in a chain that trailed to the deck's center, winding it over and over until taut. Lines were thrown, and the hook-clasps snapped tight to the leyline, arresting their movement entirely with a baleful screech, "Cline, ready that box!"
Within, Ablee issued a counter-order, pounding her fist against the door's wood, "Don't listen to him. Door, door now."
Her hesitant brother made the wrong choice, proving his allegiance to The Ogre, and pulled the key from his shirt's neck, holding himself steady against the steel lock-box.
"Traitor!" Ablee rushed him, reaching for the key. The cabin's floor rocked forward beneath her, and outside, Karich called loudly, "Right here, temple kitten!"
He stood between the masts, massive and decked in dark furs, raising his spiked club in greeting. As long as the hooks and their chains held, the Notion would stay skyborn. The ship's entire structure was connected to a steel frame extending from the brig, where the two hook-chains were secured.
Whitepelt sped up the ley with a trio of Watchers behind her. Approaching the aftmast, she bounced her arm and dismounted the ley. Her associates mimicked the motion, landing across the deck in a clatter. Each wore a gray tunic and carried a short-blade. Whitepelt stood apart, with alabaster skin, a pristine, ornamented scimitar at her side, and a flowing mane of stark-white tresses in her wake. Her boots slammed onto the deck. She stood a head below Karich and three above the next tallest man. Her presence seeped across the ship, vertigo, knees trembled, stomachs rolled.
Paying Karich little mind, she turned to survey the vessel.
"These rats love their gimmicks," her eyes trailed up a mast, words carrying a world-hardened ennui, "Warlord, I'd even call this refined."
The Ogre's title afforded him a pittance of respect, an introduction preceding his execution. He stood already pardoned for numerous dogmatic crimes, but this act was too brazen. The Church gave only one response to Tower climbers.
Ablee caught sight of that wind-whipped white through the cabin window. The ship felt ready to capsize. Dragging the key's leather strap over Cline's head, she punched him in the side. The blow was waifish, effective only in its insult. "You cur," she said, and stumbled on suddenly unsure legs, to the door, attempting to fit the key into its lock.
"That's not going to work..." Cline said, approaching her with the lockbox in his arms.
Karich clipped his response, eyeing the window, giving the boy time to act, "Should you give us a chance to return, we would not honor it."
Tracing his gaze, Whitepelt spun to the window, coming face to face with the girl peeking through it. Her lip curled, "You brought kids?"
"Ablee..." Cline said, grabbing her by the wrist, "Open this."
"I don't have time for-" she tried pulling back to the window, but he held firm.
"Ablee," Cline said with import that she finally registered.
"Alright, what's in your dang box?"
Whitepelt glowered, bearing her complete disgust at Karich, "Cede the children, my men will carry them down."
Chain unwound from his arm as he trod across the deck, "In my estimate, this journey's tithe is paid. I cede nothing."
In the ensuing moment, Ablee threw the box's lid, Karich sprang, and Whitepelt placed her palm to the mast, shouting "Brace!"
Every plank, bolt, and rivet groaned as the Notion pulled against its chains, reorienting to the will of Whitepelt's Ambrosia. The commander's touch imbued gravitic pull. For the Notion, right was now down, and it behaved accordingly, rolling onto its side. Whitepelt remained firmly rooted to the deck; every other soul on board lost their footing. Karich's men braced against banisters or hung from ropes, Whitepelt's danced with the chaos, springing forth to take stance on walls and cross-beams.
Ablee and Cline tumbled through the cabin as Karich swung back into his chain, then forward, clashing club against blade. With each strike, he rebounded, throwing his whole body into a subsequent attempt. In the moments in between, Whitepelt hacked her blade into the mast, each strike scoring deep in a spray of splinters.
The repeated clanging of their bout reverberated through the cabin, where Ablee and Cline lay in a heap against a cupboard. The Ambrosia sat glimmering to their side, and Cline stretched out to nab it.
"Here," he said, pressing it to Ablee's chest as her eyes widened.
She knew exactly what it was, semi-solid and waxy, "When did you- Cline?"
Ever since she could speak the word, she had dreamed, had known that someday she would claim an Ambrosia. However, it had to be the right one. She only had one shot, and it wasn't going to be wasted on some sparkle rainbow Ambrosia, unless rainbow meant leprechaun and pots of gold at the snap of her fingers.
"What's it do?" she asked, oblivious to the weight of their situation.
"I don't know, just eat it!" he pressed again, but she shook her head, "I'm not gonna- No!"