Ready for the Storm

The twins were woken the next morning by none other than Grandmother Stormrider. In the past she had gotten them up in unpleasant manners for oversleeping and nothing more. So, when Langley was punched in the shoulder with an accompanying, “Morning,” she instinctively dove for cover, off the other side of the bed. For a moment she crouched there, out of sight, and when nothing horrible – like a bucket of water – landed on her she slowly stood.

“Ah, morning Grandmother,” she said. Her heart was beating rather quickly from the early-morning panic. “And what warrants your attention today?”

“I want to see your ship and meet Crystal. Go get your brother and meet me in the study after you eat.”

Langley’s heart stopped racing. It sunk instead. This was anything but good.

The town was up and running by the time the three of them departed the manor. The market had assembled itself in the square and was as busy as it always was. Cargo was carried through the streets on wagons in the direction of the harbor. The shops were open and people called out to Grandmother Stormrider and the twins as they passed. In comparison the ship was quiet. There were crew aboard but from the looks of things, they were all still asleep. At least someone was on deck as a guard, even if he was laying flat on his back enjoying the sun. Langley was relieved to see him open his eyes when the three climbed up the gangplank.

“G’morning, Captain,” he said, then closed his eyes and went back to sunbathing.

“Right, this way,” Langley said and dropped down the hatch into the interior of the ship.

“Crystal has her own room,” Sabreur said, “we’ve got the ship partitioned into cabins of two and well, there’s an odd number of female crew, not counting Langley. So we figured despite Crystal being the newest, it’d be best if she had her privacy, due to, err.”

“Her practice of necromancy?”

“Yes. That,” Sabreur said miserably.

“Ajiin told you that too? I’m going to kill him,” Langley said, “Just how much did he tell, filthy little traitor that he is?”

“I now know that undead penguins are flammable,” she replied.

“Storm, wind, and waves,” Langley swore.

The trio stopped outside Crystal’s door and Sabreur knocked. After a moment the door creaked open and everyone could see the narrow profile of Crystal’s body and one of her eyes.

“I’m busy,” she said, and started to close the door until Langley wedged her foot in.

“You don’t do anything half the time,” the Stormrider replied, “What are busy with?”

“I’m talking with Mihos.”

The door opened a bit more and Langley could see a runic circle drawn in chalk in the middle of the floor. It was too dark to make out the individual runes but the twins had no doubt that it was a link to the underworld.

“Well, you haven’t started yet, or you’d be in trance. You can talk to him later.”

Crystal shifted her weight to one foot and considered.

“I trance when I talk to Mihos?”

“That’s how it works for normal ‘mancers. Come out, my grandmother wants to meet you.”

“I love grandmothers!”

And the necromancer shot out of the room, directly into Grandmother Stormrider, grabbing her about the waist in a bear hug. Sabreur coughed nervously.

“Uh, I apologize Grandmother,” he said, “She’s uh, a bit enthusiastic.”

“I can tell,” Grandmother Stormrider said dryly and concentrated on untangling Crystal from her waist, “You have a grandmother, Crystal?”

She stepped back and considered.

“I think so. I learned necromancy from one.”

“And why did she teach you that?”

“I have no idea.”

“I suspect that is the norm.”

Crystal didn’t notice the insult.

“Right. So. This is Crystal. Grandmother, you wanted anything else?” Langley said.

“A tour of the Ark.”

And she started walking off down the hallway, Crystal tagging close behind. The twins hung back, knowing that their grandmother didn’t need a guide. She helped design and pay for the Ark, after all, when the two dropped out of school.

“She’s doing this just to torment us,” Sabreur whispered to his sister.

“Oh definitely,” she agreed.

Grandmother Stormrider was surprisingly agreeable for the tour. She nosed about a bit in the cargo hold, which led Langley to suspect she was ensuring that no more of her family was going to get into trouble for smuggling, and refrained from making comments about the state of the twin’s ‘mancy lab. Around noon she announced that she had seen enough and was ready to leave. Crystal seemed disappointed to see her go, and so Grandmother Stormrider paused a bit to receive a hug goodbye.

“I do have a question,” Crystal said after letting go, “In the picture there was another person that Ajiin didn’t know.”

“Dearie, you’ll have to give me more information than that,” Grandmother Stormrider said. The twins merely looked at each other, utterly baffled.

“Oh. Well, I found a picture in Langley’s room-“

“You were snooping?!” Langley cried.

“-and it had them as little kids and then their parents and a brother and then a taller person who looked like them but Ajiin didn’t know.”

“Ah, I see. Well, that would probably be their brother Andriss. He was the eldest and I don’t think the twins ever got to know him that well.”

“Well enough,” Langley said miserably.

“Okay! Thank you grandma!”

And Crystal spun and bounced off to her room, probably to finish the circle and talk to Mihos. The twins just stood there on the deck, looking unhappy.

“You’ve taken care of the ship,” Grandmother Stormrider said, “That’s good. I suggest you two get a little extra sleep and then go spend some time with your mother. We need the more experienced Stormguard on the night watches and you two can replace one of our members that needs a brief hiatus.”

She turned and walked off the ship onto the dock. The twins watched her go and when she was out of sight Langley heaved a sigh of relief.

“Okay, that could have been a lot worse,” she said, “I think I even saw her nodding approval at the modifications we built into this thing.”

“Nodding? Hell, I saw her smirk at the shift generator. Too bad that thing is so unreliable, but she doesn’t know that.”

“I bet you anything she didn’t even know what it does, just that we built it. C’mon, if we’ve got a night watch we’ll need a nap.”

She started for ladder to belowdeck. Sabreur followed.

“Do you think we should talk to Ajiin?”

“Nah, Ajiin will be Ajiin. Besides, I already know what his answer to anything we scold him for will be. A ‘meh’ or an ‘eh’.”

“True.”

The two were quiet until they reached their own cabins. Sabreur paused at the door then, as did Langley to hear what he was going to say.

“Just how well did you know Andriss?”

“Well enough, like I said. But I didn’t understand what had happened until I was older so it was easier, I guess.”

“Same here.”

The two stood there awkwardly for a moment, lost in their own, similar, thoughts.

“Well,” Langley finally said, “Let’s get some sleep. Mother is going to be a mess tonight when she finds out we’re on night watch and we’ll have to help calm her down.”

“Right. Regret coming home?”

“Never,” she replied, and slipped off into her room.

Sabreur shrugged and did the same, shutting the door behind him. As soon as the sound of the door closing ended there came movement from Ajiin’s room. The first mate slipped out from beside the doorframe and quietly stole down the hall, past the twin’s rooms, and down towards the crew quarters. When he knocked on Crystal’s door it took a while for her to open it.

“I was talking to Mihos,” she said calmly.

“Crystal, did you happen to ask anything when Grandmother Stormrider was over? About that picture by chance?” he said.

She nodded. “He’s an eldest brother. Andriss.”

“Right.” Ajiin chewed his lip thoughtfully and stared at the ceiling. “I admit it, I’m curious now. Want to go into town and see if we can find out more? I’ve heard the twins talk about Deeah plenty, but never an Andriss.”

“You’re looking for him? I already found Andriss. Well, I asked Mihos to find him, and he did.”

“And where,” Ajiin said slowly, “is he then?”

“The underworld. How else would Mihos be able to find him?”

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