***
Wake up without the arms of my angel. To add insult to injury, I'm not even in a bed, just waking up on a hardwood floor, which fucking sucks.
At least someone was kind enough to throw a coat over me and put something soft under my head.
Being on a voidship is nothing like a boat; there's no motion from the waves, for one thing. There's noise, but just from the people; the ship itself is eerily quiet. Hollywood led me to believe there would be more creaking.
'I need a plan.'
[Yes.]
'Has there been any word on Sophia yet?'
[No, she remains unconscious.]
'Fuck.'
[If there's any change you will be the first to know.]
'Okay, plan. I need transportation and a way to find out where she has been taken. I know they took her to the Realm of Shadows, but how likely is it they stayed there?'
[We are not certain; the obvious place to take her is back to Arthurian, but we know the Lord of Light was working with the Mother of Shadows, so it is possible that Sophia remains there.]
'Okay, that's something to go on at least. So we need a way to get to the Realm of Shadows, and not die when we are there. I guess I could just fold a rift there or whatever.'
[That may not be outside the realms of possibility. But a few micro-rifts left you drained to the point of near unconsciousness. You may need some practice first, before you try something bigger.]
'Okay, damn. Holy shit, this is really starting to feel like an insurmountable problem, fuck.'
[Focus. Panicking will not help you.]
'Okay, okay. Fuck. Okay.'
'Right, I need a way to travel to the Realm of Shadows and then to Arthurian if she's not there. I need a way to not die while doing it, and I probably need a bunch of firepower to help with the not dying thing.'
[Go find Maria. These are questions you need to ask her.]
'Yeah, good plan.'
Dragging myself into an upright position I stretch to get all the kinks out of my neck and walk to find Maria.
I didn't get a great look at the Voidship when we came aboard. I was only half-conscious by the end of yesterday. It's a sleek, elegant-looking ship, big elvish vibes, lots of wood and metal filigree adornments.
Reasonably busy as well. Both with the crew and us refugees? I suppose we are refugees now. Weird. I don't really understand what all the crew are doing, but it sure does look like important work.
Trying my best not to get in anyone's way, I move up to the deck where I find Lillian, Shiv, Vincent, and Bronson.
"Tans!" Lillian shouts, "Over here!"
I make my way over, and notice all of them look a little worse for wear.
"Are you doing alright?" Asks Vincent.
"Yeah," I reply. "I just need to find Maria and get a game plan together to save Sophia."
"A rescue mission to save your bit of totty. Hmmm yes, there is nothing more manly than that. I'm in!"
"Thanks Bronson, I knew I could count on you."
Bronson flexes at me, and far, far away I hear angels sing. But that might just be Mom fucking with me.
"I'm in too," Lillian pipes up, not to be outdone.
"Same, obviously." Says Shiv.
"Eh, yes, I would quite like to help save Sophia as well," Vincent joins in.
My heart bleeds. I don't know what I did to deserve such a good group of friends. "You all know it's going to be super risky, right? They took her through to the realm of Shadows. I'm not going to be very welcome there."
"Of course, real men will travel through hell for each other. And I have never seen a better group of men than these fine gentlemen around me now!" Bronson makes his pecks dance, then he whispers at me, pointing a thumb at Vincent, "Well maybe not him, he's a little bit womenly."
"Vampire hearing Bronson, although you are only five feet away from me, pretty even a human could hear you…"
"You see? He even bitches like a woman, not very manly at all."
Lillian strokes Vincent on the arm, "It's okay, baby. I think you are very manly."
Vincent looks utterly defeated, "I don't even care about being manly!" He moans quietly to himself.
I give Bronson a manly nod, then a bro shake, our pact of manlyness to save Sophia, forged in the iron of our GRIND. "Okay, that's a team. Now we just need a way to get to the Realm of Shadows."
"We won't be able to use any of the stable rifts, those routes will be guarded tightly," Lillian says.
"Nah, Tans can get us through," Shiv comments nonchalantly.
"I'm not sure I'm strong enough to make a rift for us to walk through yet."
"Not the rifts, an enchantment. You are actually pretty good at enchantments when they are at the scale you naturally operate at. We simplify a barrier spell so it only filters light, makes the light bend around the enchantment, and boom, invisible ship. It's probably not going to be perfect, so crossing over when it's dark might be good. But we should be able to sneak a ship across one of the more out of the way travel rifts without anyone noticing."
Huh, that's actually a baller idea. "If the enchantment is simple enough, I should be able to get it stable at the scale we need." I nod to all of them, "I'm going to find Maria and get us a ship."
'That's a crew.'
[It is. Excellent work.]
'I mean, I didn't really do anything there? They just volunteered.'
[The results speak for themselves.]
'Thanks buddies.'
It doesn't take long to find Maria. She is in what looks like a cross between a captain's quarters and a meeting room. A bunch of Rift Officers are around her. Astrid, Amber, and Gideon are the ones I recognize. It looks like they are planning a counterattack and organizing how to get everyone's families to safety. I really hope Derek and Emily are okay.
Maria spots me as I enter. "Tangerine, hun, it's good to see you awake. Are you feeling okay?"
"Yes, thank you, Maria. I just needed some sleep."
"That's good to hear. We need to talk about how easily you made those rifts. Do you think you would be able to support Gideon on the offensive?"
Ohhhh, awkward. "...I need to save Sophia."
Maria pauses for a moment, a number of calculations running across her face. "...yes," she says, "Yes, you do. But I will not be able to help you without the support of the Academy."
"I just need a ship, Lillian, Shiv, Bronson, and Vincent volunteered to come with me."
Maria looks at Astrid, who just shrugs her shoulders, then she sits down and looks at me. "You want to take a ship to the Realm of Shadows? To chase after Sophia?"
"Yes."
"If they capture any of you, they will torture you until you wish for death. It's called the Realm of Shadows for a reason."
"Yes, and Sophia is there now."
"You won't be able to use the safe room coin, they are compromised now."
"I have to go."
Maria sighs. "Yes, yes you do. But the risk is great, and I do not wish to see you hurt. And before you say anything, your Eldritch Mother said you would live to a ripe old age; that doesn't mean you or anyone else will remain unharmed."
"It's Sophia,"
"Yes, I know. I will not stop you. But I cannot spare you the support you need. You will be on your own until we retake the Academy and deal with the management dispute."
"Are you going to kill all of Lillian's family?"
"Just the Arthurian side, her aunt and uncle have already been in contact with me; they had no involvement with Lillian's father."
"You don't seem very surprised by any of this?"
"I am surprised that Edward would try this in the first place. The change of the Dean's position has always been a bloody affair; the same thing happened when I took the role. But at that time I had the support of the major families, which Edward does not currently have. And attacking the Academy with an outside force has earned him no friends. I did not expect this because it's so stupid. I believe that either he was promised support from the nuns or was put into a position where he had to make a desperate move. Either way, once we have secured everyone's families, we will retake the Academy and then make him pay for his transgressions."
"But until then, I'm on my own?"
"I'm afraid so, I can spare you a ship but I can't spare any Rift Officers to go with you until the Academy is retaken. But I also understand that I cannot make you wait. Take the Zero Gravitas, it's not armed but it's fast, and Tangerine."
"Yes?"
"Bring her back safely."
"I will!"
I didn't salute her, because that would be cringe. But I did give her a big, old Maria hug, and then left the room to give the others the news.
Huh.
The rest of the day is a bit of a blur. The five of us find the Zero Gravitas, which is a reasonable small voidship, but more than big enough to hold all of us. One small oversight I had, is that I have no idea how to fly a voidship. Luckily for me, Lillian and Bronson both knew how and were quite happy barking orders at each other. Vincent, Shiv, and I just did our best to help out and not get in the way.
We flew the ship past the Two Headed Orc, and with a bit of convincing, managed to get Rikky to join us, along with Daisy's weapons and supplies. He spent some time grumbling about being stuck on a boat with a bunch of kids, but I'm glad we have someone with a bit of experience aboard.
There isn't any major Rift from the City of Doors to the Realm of Shadows; it's quite a small and locked-down realm. But Vincent said he had heard of a way through from Morgoth, so that's where we're heading.
Please hold on Sophia.
I'm coming.
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