Chapter Six Hundred and Nine 

The next two days were interesting! 

We set up the rotation as Amaryllis suggested, making sure that everyone had the opportunity to vent mana before it built up too much. I think Amaryllis actually had a future as a teacher.

Not a good teacher. She explained things with too many big words and dove into the underlying concepts of mana theory which went over everyone’s heads. Her drawings on a board she pulled from the captain’s office weren’t terribly illustrative, and her examples were cast far too quickly and with a level of precision that a newcomer to magic couldn’t replicate.

But Amaryllis enjoyed it. 

Maybe I could encourage Amaryllis to spend more time practicing her teaching, and then she might pick it up as a skill one day? It wouldn’t hurt for her to be better at it! It would certainly help the crew.

Even with Amaryllis’ questionable teaching skills, the crew picked up a few things. Everyone had Light down by the end of the second day, and a few of us were well on our way to picking up Create Water. Bastion knew that one well, so he took some time to give us extra instructions when he had time to spare.

Somehow, the rest of the trip was rather calm. The storm had abated and we were mostly flying across clear skies. The only unfortunate thing was the timing with which we approached Elkensteel.

It was late in the evening, at about the time where dinner was going to be served and when we were about to switch to the first night watch when one of the Scallywags noticed lights in the distance. “Looks like the city’s out there, captain!” Oda called back.

I squinted ahead, then locked the helm in place and picked up one of the spyglasses that Awen had made before I walked up to the prow. I squinted out into the early evening, then nodded. There was definitely something out there. I couldn’t make out any buildings, but there was the glow of hundreds of lamps and candles and fires. It was that particular range of whites and oranges that I associated with that kind of lighting.

I leaned against the railing by the prow to hold myself steady, then brought the spyglass to my eye, and yeah, there was a city way out in the distance. 

Elkensteel, from what I could tell, was built on a flat lowland. Sparse woods decorated the landscape further away, but otherwise, the space where the city was placed was rather unremarkably plain. 

Maybe it had been a swamp, once? Or just a particularly flat section of the shore? I wasn’t sure, and from this far out, I couldn’t tell.

“Let’s tuck in our sails and reduce the engine to an idle,” I said.

We could either try to make it to the city now and anchor ourselves overnight, or we could wait until morning.

If we were in a hurry, I might push it, but as it was, I preferred taking the safer of the two options. Waiting until the sun rose was better. Besides, I couldn’t tell where we were supposed to come in to land in any case.

I jogged back to the helm while the sails were pulled in, then lowered the engine’s output to nearly nothing, letting it idle just enough to keep everything else onboard running. We circled around and slightly away from the city, flying in a large circular path that had us staying out of any obvious flight routes. I didn’t want us interrupting someone else’s flight path. 

Just to be safe, we set out some magical lamps to make it clear that there was something in the air.

Then, after taking my watch, I went and took a nap!

The dust bunnies that had taken over my quarters were fantastic roommates. They were initially very shy, but after just two nights, they got used to me, and soon whenever I went to bed they’d excitedly hop around. “Bed? Bed? Bed?” 

I nodded and told them that yes, it was bed time, and that meant snuggle time. 

Sure, it was a little tricky, sleeping without moving too much, but the sacrifice was well worth it. I got to experience what it was like to be buried in a pile of warm little bunnies. They made little noises as they slept, and they seemed to genuinely enjoy snuggling in wherever it was warm, so I always woke up with a few of them tucked in under my chin and grasped in my arms. 

Of course, some of the dust bunnies had a lot of energy. I didn’t know if bunnies were diurnal or nocturnal or a bit of both, but they always had a bad case of the zoomies around sunup. It was a nice way to be woken up, though, since most of their zoomies were about gaining speed so that they could properly dive-bomb under the covers. 

I gave them all little forehead smooches, then I noticed that Admiral Orange was sitting atop a dresser and glaring. “Did you want morning snuggles too?” I asked.

The cat sniffed, spun around, and strutted through one of the walls. 

She definitely wanted snuggles but was being too much of a cat about it. I understood, I also got a little envious when others were getting lots of affections. 

I eventually made it out of my cabin, grabbed some quick breakfast, and then had a little good-morning chat with Guinivere and Desiree, who were talking animatedly about the kinds of foods that they used to have back in their home country. Apparently rice and porridge for breakfast was normal there? I could see the porridge, but the rice felt strange to me. I’d still try it! 

Once I was good and full, I moved back up to the deck. With the sun having crested over the horizon over the very distant Harpy Mountains Elkensteel was far easier to make out.

The city was built in three parts, more or less.

There was a large section of it by the seaside, with homes right up against the docks reaching out into the Moonstruck Sea where a fleet of fishing boats were currently racing out into the deeper waters. 

Boast that, the city was a little disorganized, but soon things straightened out and the majority of Elkensteel was laid out in a neat grid pattern, with roads meeting at ninety degree intersections and each block being about as big as the other. 

Further out, on the far end of the city, things became a little disorganized again, but only to make room for some airship docks and the city’s outer walls, which looked rather small from way up high. They were maybe as tall as a single-story building? 

Elkensteel was rather spread out, and that might have to do with the environment the city was in. The entire area was flat.

I knew that there were some sharp cliffs way off to the south where Rosenbell was located, and plenty of rivers and hills to the north where we had flown before, but this area looked like it was particularly stable and even, with entire plains that stretched out for a long, long ways without so much as a bump or hill.

A lot of those were converted to farmland, with wide, open fields of neatly-planted crops with little farmsteads dotted around here and there.

“Where to, Captain?” Clive asked.

I squinted, trying to see past the glare of the sun. There was an airship dock, and it did look like some of the ships were in the process of unmooring and heading off... but we were carrying some rather illicit cargo and I didn’t need us to be so close to anyone that could snoop around.

“Do you see that dock, way off over there?” Calamity asked as he came over. He was fully healed now that a few days had passed. “Looks quieter than the rest. Bet it’s a lot worse, too, if everyone’s avoiding it.”

“A place that others avoid might be what we want,” I muttered. “Clive, twelve degrees port! Someone get the semaphore flags ready as well! We’ll signal as we come down and see if there’s available space for the Beaver. And I want everyone on high alert. We’re going someplace where we might find trouble. Let’s not make it worse by being careless!”

The Beaver groaned slightly as we turned, then we gently started to dip down, sinking through the sky on a direct path towards Elkensteel.

We had a lot to do here, repairs, finding the other Black Avatars, and figuring out what to do with an entire dungeon core. But I had high hopes for this city!

***