Among the Blessed

When Langley was fourteen she lost control of a sloop in a storm and was carried far off along the shoreline and finally wrecked among the rocks.  She managed to hang onto a piece of wreckage until the tide carried her to shore and there she lost consciousness.  A small fishing village found her and she spent several days resting in a stranger’s house with no idea of what had happened or where she was.

That was, until Deeah and Sabreur came and fetched her back home.  She did remember how they made fun of her the entire way back.  That was what she was hoping for now, waking up alone in a strange place.  That her brothers would show up and laugh at her and take her back to the Ark.

Everything was fuzzy after she fell from the tower.  She’d tried to do something to slow her fall… and then from there she had no recollection of what had happened.  She frowned, trying to remember, and quickly gave it up as a lost cause.  Turned her attention to her surroundings.  It was a small room, stone walls, a bedside table with a candle burning low on it, and the bed she was in.  A small pile in the corner held her belongings.  That was all.  

“Well,” she said to herself, “I’m not dead.”

And she fell back to sleep.



When she woke again the candle was out.  She sat up, slowly, and felt muscles ache in protest.  But everything seemed to be working like it was supposed to – just stiff, just weak.  Langley stood, wavered a bit, and with one hand on the wall made her way to the door and pushed it open.  The hallway was empty and she crept out, letting the door shut behind her.  It was a heavy door and the bang echoed through corridor.  She winced.  A few seconds later another door further down the hallway opened and someone poked their head out.

“You’re awake!”

And he stepped out and started walking towards her.  A skiridian… Langley had the vague memory that she’d seen him before.  

“You’re… that captain.  From the temple,” she finally said.

He stopped before her and put both hands on his hips.

“I am indeed.  Well, ex-captain.  Getting you out of there blew my cover.  Shooting someone between the shoulders with a crossbow does that to you.”

“Ah, pardon?”

“I’ll explain over food.  I bet you’re starving.  Follow me!”

He led her down the hallway and up some stairs until they reached a mess hall.  It was fairly deserted save for three skiridians in a corner playing cards.

“Welcome to the Order of Truth’s headquarters,” he said, setting her down at a table, “Our secret location, buried deep under a sympathetic clan leader’s manor.  Natural limestone caves and all.  Very handy.  We just did some fixing up and moved in.  I’ll go get you some food.”

He returned shortly with two plates of something that Langley didn’t have the energy to discern.  It was spicy and it was food and that was all that really mattered.

“So, after you fell, the high-priest gave out orders to dispose of you and hunt down your brother and the wayward Sparrow.  My unit was one of the ones ordered in pursuit and one of my men stopped to make sure you were dead and get rid of the body.  I ordered my unit on and shot him in the back before he could slit your throat.”

Langley coughed on her food.

“Carried you out and got you to an Order safehouse.  Course, by that point I had to get myself to safety as well because it wouldn’t take long to put two and two together.  The priests know that they’ve got spies in their midst – just don’t know who.  And I’m sure that with enough thought they’d be able to figure out I’m one of them.  So we were sent out here to the headquarters where we’re out of the high-priest’s reach.”

He leaned back in his chair.

“Course, that means I’m out of a job.  Not that I particularly mind, the management around there was horrible.”  He chuckled.  “Worth it though.  The priesthood is going to take a nasty blow from this one because we know what they tried to do and if they get too uppity we can flaunt it to the world and bring their little empire down around their feathered ears.”

“You’ve got no proof though – I’m not risking my crew to testify or anything.”

“Propaganda doesn’t need truth, Captain.  Besides, wouldn’t look good coming from an Academy-trained ‘macner, begging your pardon.  Lots of the common folk are still quite superstitious about you lot.”

“They should be,” Langley mumbled.  She paused for a moment, spoon still in her mouth.  After a bit of thought she pulled it out and waved it at the skiridian.  “I have a question.  Was there anyone in my room while I was unconscious?”

“Well, just the ‘mancers we have around here… the healers and the like.”

“Hrm.”

“Why do you ask?”

She sighed.  “Oh, nothing… I just seem to remember talking to someone.  Must be my imagination though.”

The skiridian shrugged in response.  After a moment he started speaking again.

“So anyways, we contacted your brothers.  Deeah was very glad that you were all right and regrets that he can’t come pick you up himself.  He’s got to get his skimmer out of skiridian territory.  Sabreur is taking your skimmer around here the long-way around the island as to shake any pursuit and fix the Ark up at some port or another.”

“Wait.  Fix the Ark up?”

The skiridian shrugged and scratched the back of his head.

“Eh, yeah, Deeah said there was some damage during the fighting.  They got in a tussle with the skiridian navy on their way out, sunk a couple ships and pissed everyone off.  Great fun, he said.”

“They damaged my Ark,” Langley said flatly.

“Not badly, I don’t think?  Sabreur said to tell you that Deeah did it.”

Langley scowled at the table like it had personally insulted her.

“Of course he wouldn’t come see me,” she growled, “Won’t even stick around to apologize and bribe me to not be angry.  Next time I see his Pelican’s Piety I’m setting the rigging on fire.”

“Ah, can I assume this is a sibling rivalry thing?” the skiridian asked cautiously.

And Langley just glared at him in response.  



Nearly the entire crew was gathered up on deck to watch the monstrous bird fly closer.  A couple people made signs to ward off evil.  And Sabreur just sighed and buried his head in his hands.
“So I’ve got to ask,” Ajiin said, giving the giant bird only a brief glance, “Why on earth did you collapse back there in the city?”

“About time you asked.”

“Well, I wanted to wait until you weren’t busy and Deeah had left.”

“So you pick when we have a giant skeletal bird bearing down on the Ark?”

“Eh,” Ajiin replied.

“Fine.  Twin ‘mancers are a bit special in how we react to things.  Call it empathy, if you will.  Once when I was little Deeah got mad at me and tried to drown me a bit.  Langley was at home and went running to mom and when we got back she was already knew what had happened and was ready to drag Deeah off and paddle him.  We can tell when things happen to the others just by gut intuition and I guess it kicked in really hard there when Langley about got herself killed.”

“Ah.”

And the two stepped back a few paces to give the giant bird room to land.  Most of the crew scattered for hiding places.  The bird’s head swiveled and glared down at Ajiin and Sabreur with green fire in the hollow eye sockets.

“You forgot something,” Mihos said, and extended one skeletal wing.  A few seconds later Crystal slid of his back, swinging herself down off the shoulder blade, and landed on the deck before the two.

“Sabreur!” she cried, hitting him about mid-waist in a hug.  After a moment she caught sight of Ajiin and did the same.

“Crystal, let go, this isn’t appropriate,” Ajiin gasped, turning red and prying at her arms.  After a moment he disentangled the necromancer and shoved her to the side.

“Thanks Mihos,” Sabreur said, “Don’t you have better things to be doing than carrying around an insane necromancer?”

“No, not really.  It’s quite dull in the underworld right now.”

And the bird leapt from the deck, impossible wings lifting it into the air where it vanished into green fire.  The crew started to creep back out of hiding and a couple were immediately tackled by an overjoyed Crystal.

“I’ve miiiiised you, Elan!” she cried to one.

“Uh, Elan is over there,” he said.

“Oh.”

“Alright,” Ajiin cried, gathering the crew’s attention, “Who among you wagered that she’d find her way back to the Ark before we managed to go back to pick her up?  I’ve got the tickets right here….”

Sabreur chuckled and started to make his way towards the helm.  Crystal somehow appeared before him, head up and hands behind her back.  She took a deep breath.

“Mihos told me to tell you that I’m sorry that I wasn’t there when the Ark left port but really I think it wasn’t very fair that you left at a different time than what you said you would.”

“Ah, that’s fine,” Sabreur said, “You don’t have to apologize.  Just… where were you, anyways?”

She paused, thinking for a moment.

“I have no idea.”

“Didn’t think so,” he muttered, and patted her on the head as he passed by.  “C’mon, I’ll let you steer the Ark for a bit if you follow me.”

“Really!?  Yippee!  Where we going?”

And Sabreur grinned.

“To pick up my wayward sister.  We’ll be at port in about an hour.”

And then Langley would be back onboard, everyone would be where they were supposed to be, and the Ark would be back to normal.  Well, it was still missing a gun, but hopefully Langley wouldn’t mind too much.

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