ventus

Liliana's rest

Arthur woke early as the light band had started rising and looking to his right he could see Britt still asleep on the bed. Arthur got out of his chair and stretched a little groaning as his muscles loosened up a little before walking out onto the deck of his skyship. It was just as the night before except for The devil bird that was now staring at Arthur as if daring him to approach. Arthur chuckled knowing that those small seagull sized bird couldn't really be anything more than be annoying although Arthur was sure that the bird thought it was bigger than it was.

Arthur checked the magnetic dial to see that the ship was still on course and if his instinct told him anything they would likely reach Liliana's rest by late afternoon. Arthur walked back past the bird who simply glared at him and straight to the engine and sure enough the energy crystal was completely spent and as he sifted through the wind crystals in the engine's reservoir about a quarter of them had already worn out.

"Damn cheap crystals." he grumbled to himself realizing why those crystals were so cheap.

After sifting through the whole reservoir he realized that most of the crystals were already starting to dim and figured that he would just replace the lot of them than risk them losing their power at the worst possible time. He puts the dim crystals and drained crystals in a separate box as he filled the reservoir with fresh wind crystals. Arthur put on a rubber glove and took out one of the glass cylinders containing an energy crystal before gently cracking open the cylinder and removing the energy crystal inside. Even through the rubber glove Arthur could feel the vibration of the electricity inside of the crystal at one point in his youth he had made a stupid decision to touch an energy crystal without the glove and was unconscious for 2 days.

He took the dead energy crystal out of the engine and replaced it with the new crystal suspending it carefully over the wind crystals. The way the engine worked was simple the energy crystals proximity was enough to generate the wind crystals activation and the closer the energy crystal got to the wind crystals the more wind the wind crystals produced and by pushing the throttle it lowered the energy crystal towards the wind crystals. At one time Arthur heard a story about a bunch of stupid kids who modified a bunch of these old engines to let the energy crystal fall right into the wind crystals and sure it generated an incredible burst of speed that rocketed them a good hundred yards in an emergency however if it failed their whole engine maybe their ship would be blown to bits.

"Hey." Britt said coming out of the cockpit with a yawn.

"Good morning, glad you slept well." Arthur said closing the panel on the side of the engine.

Britt noticed the bird as she walked past when it raised its wings and squawked in an effort to be intimidating unlike with Arthur however who's seen them fairly regularly Britt jumped back nearly falling backwards and earning a chuckle from Arthur. You could see her face turning a little red but she calmed herself down and walked past the bird to Arthur.

"How are you feeling this morning Britt." Arthur said. "You look a little better than you did last night."

"Yeah I'm fine but you didn't have to let me sleep." she said.

"I only just got up myself." Arthur said looking to the horizon for any signs of a storm like dark clouds or flashes of lightning. "I just had to check to make sure we were still on course and that the wind crystals and energy crystals were still functioning."

"What do you mean crystals."

"I'm sorry I forgot you are new to this."

Arthur opens the reservoir again and shows Britt the collection of greenish somewhat glowing crystals and the yellow crystal suspended above them.

"You see my dear this yellow crystal is an energy crystal It gives off electrical energy and the green crystals are wind crystals that produce gusts of wind when exposed certain factors like intense heat and in this case electricity." Arthur said as Britt looked on an amazement. "After the wind is generated, it's forced through the pipes and out those twin thrusters in the back giving us propulsion."

"That's amazing it's like magic." Brit said with her eyes full of The same wonderment that Arthur and many others had experienced upon seeing this for the first time. "And you don't even have to touch the crystals together."

"That's correct if we were to touch the energy crystal to this batch of wind crystals this whole ship would likely be blown to bits from the sheer amount of wind it would generate." Arthur said shutting the reservoir again and walking back to the cabin with Britt in tow.

"I wasn't thinking at all last night but have we been moving all night?"

"Yes you're right normally you would never want to have your ship in motion while you're asleep however we're on a bit of a time crunch." Arthur said pushing the throttle on the controls making the ship lurch forward.

"How fast does your ship go Mr. Pendleton." Britt asked taking a seat at the small table.

"It can get pretty fast my mechanic tells me it can go 180 mph however I've never bothered clocking the speed myself." Arthur said cranking the speed up a little more. "Are you hungry?"

"Yeah I'm starving actually I didn't eat before finding myself in this world."

"All right but first I need you to hit the button on the coffee pot." Arthur said pointing to the counter in the kitchen area.

britt did as she was told and within minutes the smell of coffee had filled the cabin as Arthur had cranked the throttle up again to the final notch and looking out the window britt could see that indeed boulders were passing them by quickly. Arthur took some eggs out of the small refrigerator as well as some cured bacon and cooked a simple but decent meal. frying the eggs in bacon fat was a pretty messy way of cooking however it was efficient because he didn't need to use any other oils to fry the eggs and Arthur didn't really eat much anyway so his refrigerator was lacking extra rations however he did pull out a small loaf of bread which to Britt's surprise and curiosity was has red as blood. The two ate the breakfast and drank the coffee in silence Britt drank her coffee with cream and sugar Arthur meanwhile just drank his black most didn't like the taste of just plain black coffee but he always found it to be a better wake up call than something sweet.

After the meal Arthur looked out the front of the cabin to see that the magnetic dial had started pointing straight up and stabilized indicating that they were now in the nova stella cluster. He got up and reduced the throttle by about half before walking back to the table and putting the empty plates in the sink. Britt to her credit began doing the dishes and setting the greasy pan to soak.

"Excuse me Mr. Pendleton."

"Just call me Arthur."

"Okay, Arthur I just wanted to know how all these appliances work I mean do you have water tanks and generators somewhere and we don't have a balloon of any kind keeping us afloat so how are we actually flying."

"I'll show you." Arthur said walking over to a hatch in the floor of the cabin and throwing it open. "This way my dear."

The two walk down below deck to find the lift generator the most important piece to any skyship as Arthur explained it to Britt. It generated the same kind of energy that kept the islands floating like the one boulder that she had been huddled on the day before and that if it were damaged the ship would just fall right out of the sky and into the mist sea below. In the corner of the engine room where the sink would be is a large blue somewhat murky crystal which Arthur explained was a standard water crystal that could be purchased for general use and provided clean enough drinking water for short voyages.

"Did the stove use a crystal as well? Britt asked staring at the amazing sights.

"Yes, and so did the coffee pot." Arthur said. "They use what is called fire crystals."

Arthur couldn't help but chuckle at the girl who despite being an adult or at least close enough was wide-eyed and as giddy as a child who had just seen a rainbow for the first time. All the while Britt ate up every word he said without a single break in her attention. Arthur proceeded to go into an explanation about the crystals themselves as the two of them walked back into the cabin.

Arthur explained that crystals could be found on almost every sky Island and even some of the residual boulders that can be seen occasionally floating between the islands. It's been determined that the type of crystal you find on an island determines what kind of island it is. An example would be a beautiful oasis covered with everything from trees to moss would usually have an abundance of water crystals. If an island has no crystals it is still somewhat livable although you would have to get creative when obtaining resources like food and water, However some islands are made uninhabitable by crystals for example too many deposits of energy crystals could make the island of massive lightning rod while too many fire crystals could turn it into a volcanic caldera simply floating through the sky.

"So does the lift generator operate with a type of crystal." Britt asked.

"No, although it's similar to a crystal the Lift generator operates on a magna Stone." Arthur said stepping to the controls of the ship.

A magna stone was a special metallic rock not necessarily a crystal nor was it simply a stone that had its own magnetic field. Depending on the size and number of magna stones sky Islands could be small or continent sized The same principle applied to ships. Arthur's vessel only needed a magnet stone the size of a small boulder while the largest naval vessels would need one the size of the boulder Britt had found herself on or multiple generators depending on the length and width of the ship. The purpose of the generator itself was to apply pressure and heat which caused the magna stone to activate and provide the lift.

"I was trying to hold it but do you have a bathroom on this ship." Britt asked looking a little embarrassed.

"You want to take a bath." Arthur looked at her with an eye quirked before he realized her meaning. "Oh you mean the toilet."

Arthur filled a bucket of water and lead Britt to a door on the starboard side of the ship opening it revealed what Britt had dreaded a small seat with a hole in the middle that you could see from an angle led underneath the ship. Arthur left Britt to take care of her business while he went back to man the controls. After a few minutes pass and he could see Liliana's rest in sight. Britt walked in bringing the now empty bucket with her and after washing her hands joined Arthur by the controls.

"At least you had toilet paper." Britt said.

"I don't give myself too many luxuries but toilet paper is one I refuse to go without." Arthur said. "Perfect timing though here we are that's the quaint town of Liliana's rest."

"I've been meaning to ask who is this Liliana was she the founder of this town." Britt asked.

Although it was a simple question it was not a simple answer so Arthur would only explain the simplified version. Liliana was a child of the storm who had come to ventus 200 years ago and despite this cluster being a particularly abundant source of natural resources the cluster was in its own civil war for reasons even they didn't know. Liliana with no roots in this world and no reason to pick a side could see the truth for what it was that the only people suffering were the ones caught in the middle of the conflict so she gathered several people formed a small coalition of her own and with this group she would bring down the two rival factions through diplomacy and only a few times did she have to use violence or subterfuge. After 10 long years she brought all the islands in the cluster together and was elected to be their queen and according to a reliable source she didn't want the job however she knew very well that now that she was too deeply involved there was no backing out. To this day her bloodline sits on the throne in the Capitol and Liliana's rest was the last island she made an official part of the kingdom before she passed away at the age of 61.

"She sounds amazing." Britt said staring at Arthur with full attention as he told the story.

Arthur didn't miss a beat as he pulled into the port which Britt noticed looked like a cross between a dock and a garage hanging over the edge of the island. Arthur turn the ship around where the engine was facing the bay doors and Britt couldn't help but notice just how simple get clearly intricate the process was noticing how Arthur adjusted each lever in perfect synchronization with the next one. Arthur set the levers back in neutral and walked with Britt out into the back of the ship and with the wave of his hand signaled to one of the workers on the dock. The worker threw him a hook which Arthur connected to a bar on the right side of the engine that sat on the back railing before repeating the same process with the other side and with a lurch the ship was pulled into the bay area.

"Good to see you Arthur, was worried you wouldn't get back in time." said the large dock worker and although his face was covered with a welder's mask britt could tell that his accent was Jamaican. "Did you finally hire some help."

"Not quite James, I picked her up on the way back." Arthur said extending a wooden ramp from his ship to the dock where James stood. "She's a child of the storm and as luck would have it I was in the area between the clusters where she appeared."

"You don't say." James said removing his mask to reveal the face of an old dark-skinned man with a white beard and a balding head.

James was dressed in a thick gray jumpsuit or at least the equivalent of a jumpsuit with thick gloves and wore a pair of work boots.

"I recommend closing up shop and waiting until the mother storm passes." Arthur said handing James a handful of coins that he fished out of his pocket and handing them to James.

"Good idea old friend." James looked over to a girl who looked to Britt like someone about her age.

As if sensing the old mans stare the girl turned around still holding the crate in her arms. She has been stacking into a pile against the wall of the garage. Seeing Arthur there she sat the crate down and walked up to him giving him a hug.

"Arthur it's so good to see you." she said as Arthur returned the hug.

"It's good to see you too Alvita." Arthur said looking her over. "Looks like you gotten stronger since the last time I saw you."

"That happens when you lift cargo for a living." Alvita said flexing one of her arms and showing off the definition of her muscles.

"Oh right, Britt let me introduce James and his granddaughter Alvita the owners have this garage." Arthur said, "James and Alvita this is Britt maybe the first child of the storm this time around."

"Wow really where did you find her." Alvita said looking Britt over.

"You can ask questions later Alvita, right now we need to lock up and secure the shop because the mother storm could be here at any time." James said to her before turning back to Arthur, "Don't worry Arthur I'll get your ship into the secure hanger."

"Thank you James, I'll see you and Alvita at Duncan's later won't I?"

"Yes most definitely old friend."

Arthur and James both shook hands and Arthur and Britt walked away leaving them to their work. leaving the port was as simple as walking through a door and they instantly found themselves looking into a fairly empty open market area with only a few people operating the stores and less people buying. Arthur Leads Britt through the market and into what appears to be a large circular area of town that most would recognize as the town square to see many people chatting but compared to the amount of space in the center of town it was empty.

"It doesn't look like a big town, but where is everybody?" Britt asked.

"Probably sitting at home just waiting for the mother storm to pass." Arthur said turning to walk towards a small building with a sign hanging just above its door, "Here we are Britt the wild woman tavern."

"Interesting name, is there a story behind that?" Britt asked.

"My friend Duncan named this tavern in honor of his late wife." Arthur said smiling sadly, "That woman was a fighter through and through after she passed Duncan settled here to raise their lad as sky sailing could be a bit rough for a newborn."

"I see."

"Well we've wasted enough time just standing in the doorway Britt."