Part two: Shiver

  The sound of Queen Odella’s heels clicked ominously as she made her way down the hall of stars. This part of the castle was made entirely of black marble that was studded with enchanted gem stones, glittering like constellations down the entire halls length. Normally it was a spectacle to behold, and the hallway would be full of visiting dignitaries and nobles. Today it was empty aside from three people.

  The queen, wearing a stunning golden dress which flowed behind her like rays of sunshine between the clouds. On her chest was a dazzling diamond necklace, one that she had started wearing more often in recent weeks than her aides could remember her ever wearing. She wore black satin heels and an expression on her face that barely contained a dark storm.

  Behind her was her personal attendant, a high ranking noble named Lady Muir. The second woman wore a much more subdued outfit, not daring to outshine her monarch. She didn’t have any of her journals out, she didn’t need them right now. Muir pushed up her glasses, trying to avoid the gaze of the person following them.

  Just a few paces behind the pair was a figure enshrouded in darkness, their features lost in manufactured shadow. Their dark robes seemed to shift in the low light, making them hard to spot and harder still to evade. The queen’s favorite assassin kept their distance, waiting for orders in the dark they brought with them.

  In the adjoining hall several foreign dignitaries were waiting for the queen, having come from Iwix that morning by one of the most expensive teleport runes in all of Entilita. They were here to speak to Odella about the number of lev and enchanting stones Regilis was importing, and they had made it clear they wanted that number to be lowered. Fortunately, the queen was quite sure none of them would be able to stand up to her when the negotiations started.

  The Grand Duchess Anlita had discovered the week before that her husband was cheating on her. The queen may not have personally introduced the Grand Duke to the bard he was currently sleeping with, but she had made sure it happened. The month before the high wizard Xolo’s son died in a tragic accident. A horrible fate, but an inevitable one, given he was dabbling in magics that were considered highly dangerous and unstable. His father was outspoken about his studies; perhaps a bit too loudly. Completely unavoidable.

  As for Prince Neuroti, well Queen Odella scoffed thinking his name. She hadn’t needed to mess with his personal life, he was a spineless coward who wouldn’t dare speak up to her during the meeting. He was only on the delegation party because his older sister, Princess Skyla had fallen ill after a recent gala. The illness wasn’t actually Queen Odella’s doing, it was just a happy coincidence that the stronger of the two royal siblings couldn't be here before her today.

  No, the queen was not at all concerned with how her talk with the Iwix delegation would go in a few short minutes. Instead she was thinking about her intentions for Flolon and it’s annoying king. A powerful paladin himself, King Lamin was too strong for her to outright murder. Flolon was also one of the few countries to maintain it’s own army outside of the unity coalition. That, coupled with the permanent frozen nature of his land messing with her armies sensibilities made a land invasion risky. She was sure if it came to war she would win, but not without more casualties than she could afford. Holes in her defenses would leave her vulnerable to the many enemies she had made during her reign.

  But war was not the only way to make a nation fall. Her attempts to bring about a civil war were fruitless so far, but not so quick to be given up. In her experience it was so easy to pay off soldiers to start stirring up trouble when she needed them to. However, the local police force in Flolon was less corrupt than she thought they’d be, and the people were more loyal to their frozen land and king than she could have imagined. Her influence couldn’t reach into the cold heart of Flolon. Not Yet.

  Her current plan was much more direct, simply because she didn’t think it would work. Leaving the real piece of the Senka rod at the first temple to Aria was a serious security risk and she knew it and accounted for it. The myth that the rod would lead a worthy crew to the rest of the missing pieces originated long before Odella came to power. While she had reason to doubt it’s validity, to outright dismiss it would be a folly she couldn’t afford should she be wrong.

  So the rod was left where her predecessor had left it; in the public eye. Should the rumor be true, and one of the many airships on it’s maiden voyage be deemed worthy, then in order to set off with the rod she would force them into contract with her. Any ship under her flag could easily be bought off, and if Aria decided a crew was worthy that she couldn’t own. Well, she wasn’t above threatening people. Family lines were so fragile and easy to wipe out. Everyone had someone they loved, except for Keizeron Yin it seemed.

  The secondary risk of leaving the rod out was that it could be stolen, but Odella considered that to be even less likely than the rod finding a worthy crew. She thought no one would be so bold to steal it, but the people of Flolon continued to surprise and delight. When she received the report that King Lamin had hired mercenaries to steal the rod queen Odella almost laughed out loud. She had managed to restrain her emotions to only smirk, but the slight smile alarmed all of her nearby staff anyway. It was a stupid little plan from a stupid little man.

  But the reports she had received from Captain Aster and several other officers present on the scene revealed a secondary complication; there had been another ship at the first temple of Aria docks that night. Not in itself a great problem, the challenge came when Odella found she couldn’t look up the ship.

  It hadn’t properly registered with the dock master, so she didn’t have a name or a home port. From Aster’s report she gleaned the captain’s name was Keizeron, and that he had gone to school with her at the sailing academy. Unfortunately the captain proved just as vexing as his vessel.

  Keizeron Yin was born to two poor sailors, and his father passed away in an accident before he was even born. His mother’s mind was shattered by the loss and he was raised by his maternal grandmother. Keizeron showed exceptional talent at a young age in both magic and intelligence, and was summarily accepted into the royal sailing academy on scholarship. Queen Odella had many programs to fund the under privileged for higher learning; there was no reason for her to pass up exceptional talent because they weren’t born into money.

  While he was staying at the academy a sickness passed through his home town, and both his mother and grandmother were taken by the disease. He was only eight. Now an orphan who regularly out preformed his rich classmates, Keizeron was picked on relentlessly. When she was given his paperwork Odella flipped through incident report after incident report, culminating to one that happened right after he turned eighteen.

  A group of classmates with a long list of grievances attacked him. None of the various reports gave specific reasons, just that they felt justified. Odella suspected the teachers didn’t care enough to dig too deeply into it, some of them were related to the students they taught and were trying to cover it up. It’s not as if the reports would go too far, a bunch of pompous nobles beat up a lower class orphan? Who would bat an eye?

  During the fight Keizeron was badly wounded, but none of the reports really detailed to what extent. One of the reports even went so far as to say he died from his injuries, but it was quickly redacted as an exaggeration. It must have been, Keizeron didn’t have any personal sponsors who would have paid the hefty fee for a resurrection spell.

  Following the incident Keizeron continued his studies, and despite the threat from his disapproving classmates Keiz continued to be at the top of all his classes. Odella would have admired his courage for this act of defiance if it were not for the fact that he now publicly and vehemently hated her for doing nothing about his assailants. If she had realized what a problem he would become maybe she would have done something, but at the time no one wanted to stand up to a group of nobles on the behalf of a nobody. Reports of the incident never even graced her ears.

  Once he graduated Keizeron was promptly offered a unity ship like every other student who graduates at the top of their class, and just as quickly the offer was rejected. The files indicated that they offered him a few different positions on various ships, and every time he turned them down. They even offered him a few under the table jobs with their off flag ships, and he simply reported all of them as slavers. How insulting, only one of the positions would have been on a slave ship.

  Regardless, they got the hint and stopped trying to get him on one of their ships. In fact, at this point he was put onto one of their watch lists, which made it all the more frustrating Odella couldn’t find him. Following his graduation he continued to stay boarded at the academy for another year, until just under two weeks ago when he was offered a guild job and vanished. With how close the coalition was following him that shouldn’t have been possible, and no one at the guild even knew who hired him since it was all done anonymously. Whoever hired Keizeron had done it with the express intent of hiding him from the queen’s grasp.

  Captain Keizeron had no family, no friends, and no home he left behind, making him the perfect person to have taken the rod from under the queen’s careful watch. But the captain was not without flaw, and he had the great misfortune of running into Aster at the temple. Maybe the two of them weren’t friends, but Aster Ella wasn’t so deep in the affairs of the state that she was irredeemable.

  The unity captain had received the orders she thought she’d get following the loss of the rod, and her crew reported her hesitation. She would fail, and for that she would pay, but Captain Aster would help the queen recover the stolen rod whether she was a willing participant or not.

  The queen came to a stop at the end of the hall of stars, taking a deep even breath. Behind her, two people waited for confirmation of their orders.

  The queen barely glanced over her right shoulder at her aide. “You have the graduation portrait of Keizeron?” Her aide nodded. “Put the wanted posters in every corner of the world we have access to. He’ll be much easier to find when everyone is looking for him. And Delta,” The second figure snapped to attention. “I want you to tail Captain Aster until she runs into Keizeron Yin again. Do not engage, I only want pictures of his crew. Once that’s done please escort captain Aster back to me. Alive, for now.” She commanded.

  Delta nodded, though the gesture was unseen by the queen. There was a soft noise, like wind blowing, and the other two were completely alone. “Now, with that unpleasantness out of the way, shall we?”

  The aide nodded, pulling her notebooks back out to begin writing in, and they entered the next chamber.

  ~*~

  Their first night in Flolon passed slowly, and each of them felt miserable in the chill. Though their days leading up to their arrival were cold, it didn’t compare to their first night over the land. The crew of the Fortunes Favor had taken precautions against the extreme weather, but it just wasn’t enough.

  ((“You are going to take ambient cold damage if you don’t add something to supplement your winter outfits while you’re outside. This excludes Zero who has a racial trait that makes him immune to weather, and Aka and Keizeron only take half damage thanks to their resistances.”

  “Aw,” complained Zenith, looking over his character sheet. “But we went and got new coats when you told us we were going to snow land!”

  His complaint overshadowed Winter muttering to herself; “What resistances does the captain have? Isn’t he the same race as Sola?”

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  “This isn’t normal cold, it’s advanced cold,” Lucky nodded, before laughing at her own joke while the rest of them decided on a new approach.))

  “I’m afraid the crew is a bit under prepared for this weather,” Aka informed Keizeron as they stood on the deck together, looking out at the nearby mountains. Aka stopped brushing their hair, and it had really fluffed out to keep them warm. As they were the youngest crew mate the rest of them had taken to calling Aka a lamb, but they looked like a full ram now. Keiz noted even their horns seemed a bit bigger than when they started this journey, starting to curl ever so slightly.

  The captain considered the other options they had for warmth. He could add a heat spell to the lev stone, but he had never tried one before and wasn’t sure how effective it would be. And while it would help them when they were on the ship, they weren’t going to be able to stay in the Fortunes Favor’s presence the whole time they were in Flolon. Which left one other option; stopping at a settlement and getting better gear. It wasn’t ideal, they hadn’t been paid since they left Regilis, but the crew wouldn’t be able to carry on in this weather for long.

  “Are there any towns are nearby that we could stop at?” Keizeron asked after a moment. He’d cover the cost for now, he was the one who brought them here after all.

  “There are a number of towns and villages around, two of which are relatively close to our path anyways.” Aka replied immediately. They had consulted the map not too long ago after they heard Sola asking about enchanted gear.

  “Pick whichever one you think best and let Sola know to change course.”

  Aka nodded before trotting off to the helm where their first mate was working as Keiz returned to his chambers. Sola looked up as Aka approached, and they noticed that he was shivering despite his heavily padded clothing. When the navigator told him about the change in plans he sighed in relief, and quickly adjusted the ships heading towards the new coordinates they gave him. A small town called Saburn, too tiny and too far inland to really be known for anything.

  ((“Oh, I guess if we’re going to go off path a bit I should check on the rod. I haven’t done that since we made it to Flolon,” Winter observed thoughtfully. Behind their screen Caine smiled.

  “Sure, you pull out the rod while you’re next to the helm with Sola, and the light flickers on at your command. Go ahead and make an intellect check with advantage, since this is your area of expertise after all.”

  The table held it’s breath as Winter rolled her dice, frowned, and rolled again. She glanced at Aka’s character sheet and did some quick math before looking up at her DM. Caine was wearing his fox hoodie, with his ears up for maximum silliness. It was never a good sign when he offered up assistance unprompted like this.

  “It’s a nineteen.”

  “It’s subtle, but the rod is no longer pointing in the same direction. You’re not sure when it changed, it’s been almost a full day since you lest checked.”

  Winter nodded, as if she expected this. “And which way is it pointing now?”

  “Forward.”))

  Once Sola started to change the course of the ship, Aka decided to check on the rod to see how the change would effect their path. The light flickered on, and Aka stared at it. The path should have altered the light’s direction, but not as much as it had. Even without the map, Aka could tell it had shifted more than it should have, and their fur bristled in surprise.

  “Aka?” Sola asked, glancing over at the faun.

  “The direction changed!” Aka gasped, looking down at the rod and then back up to Sola. They brushed some fur out of their face and held it up for him to see.

  “What?” He set the helm and walked over to them. “I didn’t know it could do that?”

  Aka started to head towards the lower deck to find their captain when a noise stopped them in their tracks. A loud ghostly wail emanated from the woods around them. It sounded menacing and Aka felt a chill down their spine that had nothing to do with the cold. The low howling grew fainter, and after a moment it faded just as quickly as it started.

  “Didn’t like that,” Sola observed, gritting his teeth. Aka noted that he was just as affected by the noise as they were, and he had taken his hat off to flatten his hair that was standing on end. They looked around the scenery, but neither of them could see what had made the noise. “How long do we have until we reach that city you directed us towards?”

  “Should only be about an hour,” Aka responded, looking up as the door the Keizeron’s chambers slammed open. Their captain walked back onto the deck, looking around like they had just done moments before. He didn’t look as spooked as Aka and Sola were, but he didn’t look exactly settled either.

  “What was that?” He called up to them. “Do either of you know what made that horrid noise?”

  “Not a clue boss,” Sola shouted back down, before Aka cut him off.

  “The rod!” Aka shouted, making their way down the stairs to their captain. They thrust the artifact at their captain, explaining how the direction changed towards the same way they were heading now. Keizeron frowned, taking the rod from Aka to examine it himself.

  “Then we need to reach Saburn quickly. Go below deck and tell the others to be ready for anything.” Aka nodded solemnly as Keizeron gave them direction and headed down to the rooms. Once they were gone Keiz made his way to the helm to take over for the next shift.

  Sola paced the deck as they sailed over the frozen woods. It was still relatively early, the sun peeking out occasionally around the clouds and giving him a brief amount of warmth before disappearing again. The winds were blowing against them, but not at fast enough gusts to disrupt the magic propelling them forward. The first mate looked over the trees as they went, but he doubted he would see whatever made that wailing sound. It had to have been something big, and he had the feeling he would hear it again before he could see it.

  Now that he was paying attention Sola had the sinking feeling that they were being watched. As he looked out he kept noticing movement out of the corner of his good eye, but by time he focused whatever had alerted him was gone. He rubbed his wrist where he had put tempest and walked back up the helm. Sola had seen a few leviathan in his time sailing, and the best option for fighting large monsters was to not fight them at all. He'd been able to avoid trouble on the other ships he'd been on, but now that he was on a crew actively seeking out the senka rod he had the feeling it wasn't going to be an option anymore. The first mate could only hope his new crew was up to the task.

  “Do we happen to have a cross bow on board?” Sola asked as he noticed something disturb one of the trees close to the ship. Whatever it was, it had a talent for staying just out of view. That, or Sola’s vision was getting worse in the cold weather. The only thing he had been able to tell about it so far was that it had light colors that blended in with the snow and was about the size of Zero. He doubted it was the same thing that made the noise, but just smaller creatures that roamed the woods of the north.

  “We don't have extra weapons in storage, if you didn’t bring your own bow I can't supply one.” Keizeron responded. “I can use ranged spells to defend the ship if that’s what you’re worried about, but if you want a physical bow Aka is our only martial mark smith. You would need to talk to them.”

  Sola considered this, but was hesitant to leave the captain alone on the top deck despite his assurance he could handle himself. Honestly Sola wasn’t even sure Keizeron needed the support, whatever the things in the trees were they were keeping their distance. While they were watching, they weren’t showing aggression towards the ship or any of its inhabitants.

  In the end Sola continued his watch alone, and the figures in the woods never grew any closer. He was finally starting to relax when he heard a new sound in the distance. It was a low rhythmic sound, and it took him a few moments to realize it was a bell echoing loudly through the air. It sounded for a minute before the village started to come into view, and just as they started to see the trees clear and roof tops come into view the howl started again. It was nearly deafening now that they were closer, Sola winced and put his hands over his ears. When it died down the bell had stopped as well. Not a great sign.

  Alarmed by the sound, Keizeron pulled on the helm, bringing the Fortunes Favor to a slow stop. He quickly made his way down the deck to look over the port side at the village. In the distance the two of them heard a distinct scream, followed by a loud crash.

  “What should we do?” Sola asked, looking hesitantly at his captain. He knew what he wanted to do, but he wouldn’t be able to go down and help without permission. It wouldn’t behoove him to go help the villagers if he left the ship unguarded.

  "Let’s get the ship anchored.” Keizeron said, turning as the trap door to below deck opened and Willow poked her head out.

  Sola quickly rallied the rest of the crew, and they began the normal procedure for tying down the ship when they weren’t at a port. Keiz continued to assess the cacophony before them, scanning the tree line to see if he could spot the offending creature. He saw the movement Sola reported, and now that they were stopped he could more easily see the creature that had been stalking their flight.

  A large monster scuttled between the trees away from them and towards the village of Saburn. It was lengthy to say the least, almost eight feet if he was judging correctly. It seemed to be made of several long segments, each the size of a tree trunk, and had many legs that glanced over the snowy ground. Keiz had seen many types of centipedes in his studies, but never any that had a thick furry coat like this one did. He marveled for a second at how the creature adapted to its environment, before realizing they would need to be dealt with.

  With a flourish of violet magic Keiz summoned Duchess, who immediately mewed loudly in displeasure to be out in the cold. She leapt up onto Keizeron’s shoulder to get her delicate paws off of the snow dusted deck. “Sorry darling, we have work to do,” Keiz told her, and tapped the gem on her collar.

  His familiar hissed in annoyance, but allowed her master to shift her appearance. Duchess grew wider, her soft fur becoming long feathers and her small snout hardened into a beak. Within moments the delicate cerdea had been transformed into a large snowy owl. She beat her new wings, and Duchess took to the sky to scout ahead for the crew to have a better idea of what they were dealing with.

  “Whats going on?” Mea asked nervously, taking a moment to tuck her hair into her cap to avoid the chill.

  “Not sure yet, Sola answered honestly. Once he double checked everyone’s work he made his way over to his captain. Keiz didn’t say anything, but reached up and put his hand on Sola’s shoulder to steady himself. Once he had support, Keiz made a quick rune with his free hand, and concentrated on seeing through Duchess’s eyes.

  “Can we lower the ship a bit more first?” Willow asked, standing close enough to the edge to see over, but not getting too close. Even tied down the boat was still swaying slightly in the breeze. It wouldn’t be enough of a problem to actually move the ship, but it was certainly unsettling for someone who wasn’t used to being on a ship this long. As it was, they were still about thirty feet above the ground, with the tops of the trees around just barely scratching the bottom of the boat.

  “The problem with that is something is in the trees that has been watching us for some time. And while it has not been openly hostile yet, I don't think it’s friendly either,” Sola warned. Willow groaned in annoyance, and stood close to the center of the deck with her mace at the ready.

  Duchess glided over the trees, making her way towards the nearby town. With her keen owl eye sight Duchess could make out more of the strange fuzzy centipedes through the thick foliage. They snapped at each other as they crawled along the ground and through the branches, their stiff spiked fur helping them blend into their surroundings. None of them seemed to notice as Duchess flew high above them, but she gave them a wide berth regardless.

  From where he was watching Keiz could see there was about five of them, but even with Duchess’s superior sight it was still hard to see them clearly. However, getting an accurate count was the least of his concerns as another scream ripped through the air. Duchess turned her attention to the village that had just come into view, looking for the source of the noise. She could see a number of villagers in thick winter coats fleeing towards a central building as several of the centipedes started crawling in the streets and over fences.

  Without the trees to properly hide in Duchess could count a dozen of the large segmented creatures- oh, eleven- as one of the centipedes went up in flames after a villager threw a green bottle at it. It wailed in agony as it’s icy exterior started to melt, before curling into a death ball on the street. Just like most bugs, fire was a quick killer. Good to know.

  Duchess continued to scan the area, searching at Keizeron’s command for some sort of leader, or at least the source of the howling, when another high pitched screech caught her attention. One of the villagers below them tripped as a centipede bit them on the ankle. It only glanced her leg, but given the size of the bug it was enough to send the feline kin woman sprawling. She turned to face her attacker and backed up against a nearby shed, her fur bristling in fear as the centipede raised itself to strike.

  Without waiting for Keizeron’s command, Duchess dove at the creature with a loud screech. She dug her sharp talons into it’s head and ripped out a chunk fur, as well as one of it’s antenna. It let out a loud pained wail as it struggled to throw off the familiar, and the panicked villager used the distraction as a chance to limp to safety.

  Keizeron gasped as the centipede turned on Duchess, furiously snapping at the snowy owl as she continued to claw it. He lost concentration on the spell as he took a step back, Sola looking at him with alarm. With a quick wave of his hand he dismissed Duchess, hoping the spell was interrupted before the creature could hurt his familiar. If Duchess was injured, or even killed, he could resummon her easily enough. But she would still feel the pain of it, and would need to spend time in her home plane to heal before she could be brought back.

  “Captain?” Sola asked slowly, seeing how heavily Keizeron was breathing after Dcuhess’s bold attack.

  After a moment Keiz could feel his familiar’s presence in his earring and he calmed, straightening himself up. “It’s some sort of raid by these strange frost centipedes. They could use our help.”

  “Of course,” Sola said quickly, at the same time Willow twisted her mace and added; “I’d like to be off the boat for a bit.”

  Aka nodded as well. “We can’t really buy supplies if the village is under siege.”

  “I’d like one person to stay with the ship while we go, in case there’s anymore of them that I didn’t notice,” Keizeron glanced at his crew mates, waiting for a volunteer.

  “Frost bugs?” Mea said in disgust. “You guys go, I’ll stay here.”

  Keizeron nodded in appreciation. He was going to ask Mea regardless, until she could control her temperature she would be safer on the ship than in the snow with the rest of them. “I saw that the monsters are susceptible to fire magic, if any of you have that on hand. You have until I lower the ship to get ready.”

  Once he finished talked he made his way to the helm to move the Fortune's Favor into a better altitude to disembark from. They were tied up in such a way that he would lower them to the ground without having to redo the anchoring lines. Sola and Aka made their way below deck to grab supplies, while Zero and Willow were ready as they were. Willow almost looked excited as Keiz put his hand on the lev stone and brought them down. Once they were low enough to drop the gang plank he stopped, and Zero got them ready to disembark safely.

  Aka was first to return from below deck, fiddling with a ring they were trying to fit on the barrel of their gun. It was bright red, and had a sharp sigil on it. After a moment it slotted into place, and Aka quickly holstered it. Sola reappeared a moment later, but instead of any sort of weaponry he had changed out his scarf for his normal bandanna which was pulled over his nose to protect his face from the cold.

  The plank lowered and the ship settled snugly between two large trees, the crew disembarked from the Fortunes Favor. They moved carefully off the ship to avoid detection, with Keizeron going last. With a flutter, he resummoned Duchess, her feathers still ruffled and her claws still bloodied from the fight.

  “Tell Duchess to call for me if you need help,” Keiz instructed Mea, who nodded solemnly before he followed the rest of his crew off the boat.