by Liandra Jake
Iode, Corenden, and Michael were already waiting at the front. Rose and Aqua were standing with them. Maeil left Flake and Arend with the others, continuing forward to a high stage against the back wall of the room, running from side to side. The controls for the fortress were seamlessly worked into the wall near the middle. Massive cogs turned to power the ship via mechanics Arend didn't recognize. A Sereph emerged from the door beside it, from what Arend guessed was the captain's quarters.
Two halos hovered above his head, perfectly level. The second was a few sizes smaller and floated above the other. The tile beneath everyone's feet changed to the same golden color as his hair and eyes, save for the ten feet around Arend.
He addressed the gathering. "Good afternoon everyone. Today Kale will deliver today's announcements."
"As you know, we've taken on a few guests since out last meeting." Kale began. "As off-put as I was with how some of you originally treated our guests, I was pleased to find things had worked out. Iode has discovered a structural problem we did not know off, and proved very dangerous unless taken care of. I myself was astounded by his feats that he performed to save the lives of many Serephs. Outside of that incident, nothing warranting a mention here has happened." Kale said.
"Thank you Kale. My people! I believe it's time for-"
A metallic shriek filled the air. Numerous cogs behind him were being stripped and a few even fell from their pins. The entire fortress tilted to one side and they began to descend, very, very quickly. Everything on the far wall was warped in some fashion. Panic rose in the Serephs. Corenden, Arend, Michael, and Iode all glanced at each other, nodding in unison. Arend took control.
"Michael, I need every detail on how this control room is built and how it functions. Iode, I need you to manually stabilize the fortress. That large cog over there should be what we need. Hold it as steadily as you can, I don't need something perfectly level, just not as harsh. Meanwhile, I'll transfer what I can to the Stabilizing Korvan to slow down our decent and help with the tilt." Arend dished out the orders as he marched to the computer station controls across the room.
"And me?" Corenden asked as the others scattered.
Arend hopped unto the platform. "Look for any Orenth abnormalities in the wall. And kind of discharge could prove fatal." Arend looked to Maeil. "I need you to translate anything I can't read." The fortress leveled slightly as Iode began to turn the massive cog by hand. Corenden fluttered back and forth across the room.
Michael came running with the blueprints, finding Arend half buried in massive cables as he rerouted the Orenth from unnessicary places. As it turned out, the entire back wall was a gigantic Matrix that reigned over every Korvan in the fortress. The fortress was still descending rapidly.
"We've dropped over five hundred feet!" Someone shouted out.
Maeil and Michael were pouring over the blueprints. "C'mon guys! Give me a little somethin'! There are hundreds of wires and cables, but I know it's something big!" Arend yelled as he worked his way deeper through the Matrix.
"These only go to the five main systems. All five would have to fail for us to drop like this!" Maeil called back.
Michael compared the blueprints to a readout from the computer. "One of the junction boxes must have overloaded! There are over a hundred, but almost all of the power comes from there!"
"What kind of system is this!? Why does it all have to be connected like this!?" Iode shouted over the ratcheting in his ear. Arend swore as a cable zapped him.
"It's a different kind of Matrix! It turns mechanical forces into Orenth output through the Korvan! The Korvan alone can't hold up something like this and deal with the interference from thousands of sentient beings! Emotional reactions change how the Orenth fields flow! It's a complicated occurrence I can't explain right now!" Arend explained.
"Arend! All the energy is being directed from a spot just to the left of Iode! Everything seems to be back feeding from that point!" Corenden called out.
Arend popped out from the cables. He ran over to Iode and placed his ear against where Corenden directed him. "Right! Good work Corenden!" Arend said as he ripped a part of the metal paneling from the wall of the Matrix.
All the mechanical innards could be seen. Powdered rust coated everything. One of the gears meant to prevent the main shaft from overloading the system had broken, letting it spin incredibly fast. The other looked sound, but the teeth weren't able to catch in the spinning shaft.
"Sixty seconds to impact!" Someone shouted.
"Everyone hit the deck! This will be a little rough!" Arend yelled out, turning to the crowd. His words were ignored.
The large wooden doors had shut and the doorway was slightly twisted, wedging them closed. No one was able to push their way though. Arend' gaze snapped to the double haloed Sereph.
"YOU! Get these people under control. Impact or no, this place is about to rock like a bathtub in a hurricane." He seemed surprised to be addressed so coarsely. He nodded slowly.
Arend dived into the Matrix without pause. He stumbled over loose cables and ducked under spinning shafts and cogs to reach the spinning shaft to the rear. Corenden, Michael, and Maeil were crowded around the hole to watch him. He was right by the shaft at thirty seconds. He latched onto the shaft with two hands, hooking his legs around the base of a nearby support arch. Red flames cloaked him completely.
With pure friction and brute strength, Arend began to slow the shaft down. "Holy…Fuck." Maeil gaped.
Real fire began to light up around Arend' hands, burning away Hunter's gloves and the majority of his shirt. Ten seconds from impact, the backup limiting gear caught onto the threads near the end of the shaft. Arend relaxed as the shaft returned to normal speed, and stayed like that. The fortress was fifty feet above the tops of the trees below. Arend crawled slowly back out and gave Iode a thumbs up.
The Serephs slowly got back to their feet. The fortress steadily began to ascend back into the sky. The double haloed Sereph had a look of wonder about his face, echoed by every other Sereph.
"That," Arend pointed back at the wall. "Is why I'm the best at what I do."
The double haloed Sereph turned to his people and cleared his throat. They grew silent. "I'm sure it's come to everyone's attention that our home is in dire need of repairs. If they would agree, I think our guests would be a great asset to performing them. A meeting with the Serephs on the floating Hi-islands north of here will have the parts we need. And I'm sure a few commodities would be welcome to everyone."
Arend nodded. "I don't see why we shouldn't. You've already helped in my goals for a weapon. A few household repairs shouldn't be too much for us."
He smiled. "Good. It will be about three days until we reach the islands. We can't push a crippled engine I suggest you all relax until then." The Sereph disappeared back into his room.
With help from the bulkiest Serephs, the two doors were pushed open. Arend and Iode managed to push open one by themselves. Arend and the others regrouped. He looked around at them. "Anyone else as starving as I am?" He asked.
- - Under the Rippling Starlight - -
The day of the near crash, Arend and his group were eating lunch at a picnic table in the Recreational Tower. Maeil had ordered food to be delivered and Arend brought the assembled Mark II Dragon Drive for a bit of fine tuning. Arend had easily given the blade a sharp edge. Arend only had to polish and fit everything together.
"It's a lot bigger than the other one." Corenden commented.
"Actually, you're wrong. It's not much bigger than the old one. The length and width is the same, but it's a solid blade now. Other than the wing guards, nothing's changed." Arend replied.
The blade looks standard at first glance, doubled edged and balanced perfectly. The very tip of the blade was the Filter Korvan, unmodified. Two other Korvan were spaced evenly from the tip and each other in the last two thirds of the blade. They were meant to absorb Orenth and transfer it through the capillary tubes that ran all the way do
wn to the Drive inside the blade.
A different bundle of tubes ran to the spouts to either side of the two Korvan that interrupted the edge of the blade. The metal couldn't be sharpened around them, so it left the blade with four patches of flat metal on its edges. A small area cut 450 to the unsharpened areas extended the cutting area by a small amount. Unlike the previous blade, this one was meant to solely use Orenth to cut.
Two exceptionally large spouts were attached to two guards that extended out from the Drive and had the same flat edge as the other spouts. Unseen inside the box of the Drive, the blade hooked up into the two guards to keep it in place. The startup mechanism was now fully electric, and the handle was fitted with a knob that controlled the Orenth output.
"Hey Corenden," Rose started. "How can you sense Orenth? It's a rare ability even among our kind. A few things are forfeited on our end. It's why I'm a different color and don't have a Holy Mark."
"Like you said, it's not common. I learned I could and did what I could to use it. Sometimes you don't know why you were given a gift." Corenden replied.
"So, could one of us tell you that Sereph was?" Arend asked Rose, Flake, and Night. Fanscaro's words about being a God if you had two halos were sticking in his mind.
"You mean Nova." Rose said. Flake and Night flinched at the name. Arend raised a curious eyebrow. "As you could tell, he had two Holy Marks, a sign of great power among us. He may have not seemed it, but he's violent and manipulative. He's the reason many want to leave here, but none dare try."
Flake and Night were uneasy. "I kind of figured. I could smell the bloodlust as he returned to his room. I assume it's because he didn't want to go to these Hi-islands. I'm also assuming he's the reason for all of these structural issues and general ignorance of everyone on board." Arend replied.
"You really are part Pendragon." Rose said as she leaned farther across the table.
"That reminds me, why were you alone on the roof?" Arend asked.
"Because I don't have any friends. The Holy Mark is a sign of the ruling power to the Serephs. Without one, I'm exempt from many of the rules Nova has in place. I can say what I want and go where I please within the city." Rose replied. Arend finished his food and stood up.
"Sorry to break this powwow, but I've got work I need to finish before I start on the fortress." He and the Dragon Drive left with Flake in tow.
"Is there anything to do around here?" Corenden asked.
"Well, most of anything is sports or some kind of social gathering. There's not much to do if you don't have a job." Night replied.
Michael glanced up from his book. "You could always read something. Their stuff is old but well kept." He suggested.
"I came here to train, not study." Corenden replied.
"Train to fight?" Night asked with a raised eyebrow. "Why would a Pog need to know how to fight?"
"I'm in a Guild; Dragon's Den. I need to be prepared to face anything as I work alongside Arend." Corenden replied.
"You're seriously in a Guild?" Night asked, genuinely surprised.
"Aye. And I don't plan on being a delivery man anymore. This way I can actually afford to have children." Corenden replied.
Michael glanced up from his book again, this time with a question. "How old are you Corenden? I never heard."
"Twenty-seven." Corenden replied.
Iode's jaw dropped. "Twenty-seven? You look fifteen!"
"Well, how old are you?" Corenden asked.
"Twenty." Iode replied.
"Same here." Night added.
"Nineteen." Rose said.
They all glanced over to Michael. "Twenty-two." He replied. "My birthday is in about three months."
"So Corenden, you want to learn how to fight?" Night asked. Corenden nodded. "What about you two?" She turned to Michael and Iode.
"Trained and skilled." Iode replied.
She glanced at Michael. "I know two martial arts, a way of thought, bits of a way of life, and can hit a target within two inches at six hundred feet with a crossbow." Michael replied with a serious look.
"Cha-Lac right?" Night asked.
"Born and raised." Michael replied.
"Well If I'm going to help out Corenden, I still need to keep an eye on you." Night said.
Michael stood. "Fine by me. I haven't done this in a while so I may be a bit rusty." The three left for a space they could spar in.
"Keep an eye on the big guy!" Night called back to Rose.
"She doesn't seem to mind us that much." Iode said, now alone with Rose.
"Pog you mean? That's not really true. While she isn't like the others, she doesn't think of you of anything more than workhorses." Rose replied.
"Well what about you? Am I nothing more than a dirt-poor, loveless workhorse?" Iode asked.
"I wouldn't say loveless. It may not be what you think of as love, but your group shares a kindred spirit. They'd do anything for you." Rose said.
Iode laughed and scratched his chin. "I guess you're right there. I noticed it myself when I first saw them in action. From that moment on, I knew where I needed to be. Did you know that the three of them, along with our kidnapped friend Richard, charged headfirst into a burning foundry that was hot enough to melt the walls? They then charged back out, hooking the cage of a buggy on a hook dangling five hundred feet above the ground."
"You're certainly a lively bunch. What did your family think of you leaving with Arend?" Rose asked.
"I have no family. My father died in a foundry accident and my mother died from some kind of poisoning, a day after her initial symptoms. I later learned it was Bloodrock. A bout a hundred others died until they traced it back to tainted drinking water. As it turned out, thanks to my dad, I was immune. It's much more than Bloodrock, but I digress."
"Oh…I'm sorry to hear that." Rose said quietly. "My parents left me here without a glance back. Seventeen years and I haven't even gotten news whether they've died or not. I can only wonder where they've ended up."
"Ever thought of moving somewhere else?" Iode asked.
Rose shook her head. "I've got no one to travel with. The previous Grand Patriarch before Nova was much more lenient with leaving the fortress. "Nova however, he demands the wings from those 'who betray Sereph kind.' You don't have to spend much time here to know that the Serephs here distance themselves from the world, and it's slowly killing us. We have a large enough population to prevent mutations, but it's insufferably boring here. You're friends put themselves to work because there's nothing else they can do. We're culturally starved."
Iode stood. "Come with me." He offered his hand.
Rose took it cautiously. Iode took to the air, pulling her after him. He led her through the front gateway and up to where Arend had first seen her. The thin strip of concrete was cold below them, but would protect from prying eyes.
Iode laid back on the concrete. "You've got a nice view up here."
"Why did you bring me up here?" Rose asked with crossed arms and an anxious look.
"I thought you'd be more relaxed out here, and frankly, I'd like to be free from constant surveillance." Iode replied.
Rose sat down, letting her feet dangle over the ledge. "I heard you speech." Iode glanced over. "I just want to know why you can trust him so much."
"He left an impression. I have no money or belongings; I have nothing to my name except my strength and my skills with building. I can't tell you how a Matrix can work, but I can build a two story house that can survive earthquakes and hurricanes. It'll be more useful when I settle down and find myself a proper wife." Iode replied.
"But that's not enough! You follow his words like a lost puppy! You need more than feats of amazement to follow a man." Rose exclaimed.
"Look who's talking." Iode replied.
"That's not fair! Nova is something that is way above this!" Rose said.
Iode laughed. "Not to Arend. To him, Nova's just a man."
"Do you have any idea how influential a doubled Holy Mark is?!
It doesn't help that his father was one of our greatest leaders."
"I can't argue with someone scared of faith. Arend isn't one for secrets. He doesn't keep his from others, nor looks for them. Honesty, Strength, and a will like his are rare. Tommori, my old employer, lacked any kind of strong conviction. He had given up on the world, and hesitated when it wasn't nessicary." Iode said.
"You're trying to defend yourself by talking about other people. I'm not questioning what kind of person Arend is; I'm questioning why you follow him so passionately. You're strong, intelligent, handsome, and yet you follow him without a hint of insubordination. Why do you consider yourself such a weak person to need someone to guide you through your life?"