Chapter 7 Part 5 of 7 (Patreon)

Erik felt the room shift as Marshal walked out of some side doors.

He scanned the room, smiling as he greeted those closest to the door.

His eyes scanned and stilled on the group with Erik.

Kameela turned around, just as Marshal looked away, talking to another person, he laughed and disengaged, heading for the group.

Esther called him her Uncle in the past, they aren't related by blood.

"Lord West and Rodriguez," Marshal took a few more seconds looking at Rugrat as they shook hands.

"Marshal Dujardin good to see you."

"And you, I have been hearing about the Alvan Empire constantly, your little Empire has done much!"

"Ah, that would be the council, we just sit around training," Erik smiled.

Rugrat grunted.

"I see you have met my old team members."

"Ah, once a team member always a team member," Harrod said, patting Edmond on the back with a gap tooth grin.

Kameela coughed out a laugh as Edmond looked at her bitterly.

A captain behind Edmond coughed, signaling for him to move on.

"Sorry, there is still much to plan and do before we leave for the sub-realm. I'll see you aboard the Le Glaive."

"Look forward to it, we'll be in your care." Rugrat said.

"Kameela, Niece," Edmond tilted his head and they curtsied before he was ushered over to another group.

"Team members?" Erik asked.

"Before all of this," Kameela waved at the rich chandeliers and artful raised ceilings. "We were just a group of people fighting together for one another. Edmond, Harrod, Myself, Zala, Esther's mother and Bartan her father," Esther hid her grimace behind her cup. "and even Robert were all part of the same party. We came together in the third realm, Zala, Robert, Edmond and Bartan pulled together different Clans to form the Sha."

"Sounds like one hell of a story."

"Ah, it is a long one, still ongoing." Kameela chuckled.

"Will you be going to the Violet Sky Realm as well?" Rugrat asked.

"Yes, a last minute change, not often that they allow us to go out," Harrod said, wrapping his arms around Esther and Kameela leaning down to put his head between them, he chuckled and went back to looking at Rugrat and Erik's armor and writing something on his notepad.

Roska gestured to Erik and Rugrat from the side.

"Well, we'll see you later, hope you have a good night." Rugrat said.

Erik waved to them and left, their special team guards moving around them as Roska led them away from the party with a Sha clan servant in the lead.

"Thought I heard that he was in a party before, didn't think that they were still around."

"You intersted in Kameela?" Erik asked.

"No, why?"

"Cause the Marshal definitely has a thing for her."

"He's the leader of the Sha Clans, why hasn't he done anything, haven't the clans been around for like hundreds of years now?"

"Well, not like our relationships are the best." Erik said.

"You been looking at the marriage proposals coming in again?"

"Didn't think that people were still marrying off their sons and daughters here."

"Sons, you didn't did you?" Rugrat snorted.

"You must not have been checking your mail. I should make sure it gets directed to your Momma."

"No, you wouldn't."

"Come on, she's always saying that you need to bring back a new lady, she's looking at grand-kids." Erik's grin stiffened rubbing his leg as they walked.

"Don't need to remind me."

They walked onto a teleportation pad and teleported.

"Please use this manor for the duration of your stay, all of the staff will see to your every need. Here is an itinerary of everything happening till the launch." Roska accepted the letter from the servant.

"Thank you, where are the sleeping quarters?" She asked.

"This way."

***

"You think it could be bigger?" Erik asked as they rode an open top carriage, showing off Le Glaive the flagship of the Sha Warships. The ship was covered in formations, the cannon ports were sealed, running down the length of the massive ship.

"Most of them are smaller than they could be, need to match their formation lift to the weight of the ship, thickness of the armor and such and then there is the barriers and the mana gathering range of the dungeon core to charge up the core constantly. Too big of a ship and they'd drop out of the sky. The higher the realm the greater mass the ship can support because it can draw in more mana to the formations."

"I thought you were a Marine, not a ship builder."

"Eh, I got to reading."

"The designs are based off of warships from Earth, the Sha utilize sails to increase their speed and their turning speed, as well as their gunpowder based cannons that allows them to divert more power to their mana barriers and internal formations instead of their weaponry," Egbert added.

Erik looked around at the shipyard that surrounded them. Aerial beasts moved in formation across the open air, warships glowed with power, mana distorting the air with the emenations.

Last minute preparations were underway as their carriage came to a halt.

“This way please.” A Sha officer took them up the gangplank onto the ship.

“First time on a ship and we’re not fighting,” Rugrat muttered.

Erik opened his mouth and cocked his head to the side.

“Shit I think that you’re right.”

“Just try to not break this one,:” Roska passed like a ghost moving with her people as they covered Erik and Rugrat entering the ship.

“Wood?” Rugrat said as they entered the ship.

Inside mana lights illuminated the halls of the ship, wooden beams crossed overhead.

“It’s all made from wood?”

“Sha ships utilize wood over stone and metal they grow it in their farms, the different kinds of treated woods are as strong as enhanced iron and they allow for greater flexibility. It has an outer casement of enhanced and compressed iron of the Sky grade, you could call it iron clad. They require very little metal, reducing the weight. Oh this is interesting.” Egbert’s eyes were rolling around in his skull inspecting the ship as he reached out, grabbing Davin without looking, pulling him away from the wall and casting a spell upon the imp.

“Ah! No more ice spells!”

“Makes it look like those old warships back on Earth, ships of sail,” Rugrat said.

“But wood, isn’t it really flammable?”

“Everything is with enough flame,” Rugrat rubbed his fingers on a wall and smelled them, holding them out to Erik.

Erik sniffed it, triggering his reverse alchemist.

He closed his eyes reviewing the ingredients.

“A base of Blackwood, when chilled it becomes flexible, when heated it hardens. Very strong. Resins are mixed to increase the strength of the wood and reduce changes due to temperature.”

“They must have laid down all of the wood, treated it beforehand and then used resin on it to harden it into form. Instead of being brittle and rigid the ship can shift and move.”

“Interesting,” Erik said.

They walked through the warship, teleportation formations allowed them to skip through the ship, seeing men and women in overalls, pants and shirts going about their tasks.

It wasn’t long before they arrived at the bridge.

***

“You have guests.” Captain Adamus looked over Marshal Edmond’s shoulder.

“Oh joy,” Edmond rolled his eyes quickly checking his attire with his hands.

He turned from the main map to see the different sect leaders and elders walk out onto the bridge. It hadn’t been his idea to invite them all, he would have been happy with just having the Sha. Through the different clan leaders they pressed the importance of bringing their allies to cement their ties in these uncertain times.

They were really focused on the Alvans.

He glanced at Erik and Rugrat, resting on Rugrat for a bit longer, he felt nothing from them, as if they didn’t have a cultivation. Their guards, twelve in total not including their mounts similarly didn’t reveal their cultivation.

From a life of fighting he knew that it would be a grave mistake to try and challenge them.

Is he interested in Kameela?

He hid his frown, clearing his throat and glancing to where his old team mates were sitting off to the side of his throne at the rear of the bridge, Robert was asleep from his late night. Harrod had a potion between his lips he tilted up occasionally, writing down notes or looking to the ceiling in thought. Kameela was pointing to something on her rifle to Esther.

Things were so much easier when it was just us.

He turned back to his guests.

“Welcome aboard Le Glaive. Seats have been prepared for you, please make yourselves comfortable, we will be lifting clear of Purkesh in ten minutes.”

They moved to the seats on the other side of his throne, attendants guided them to the food and drink tables and introduced them to the second map console.

Others move up, to look through the glass windows that looked over the warship. Marshal’s gardens and his manor rest on the top deck of the warship in the shadow of the bridge that allowed views clear over the front of the ship, sides and rear of the ship.

A forecastle rose beyond his manor and gardens, capped cannon batteries pointed skyward.

As he looked down on the sides of the ship, the batteries moved around and formations flared and died, the last checks being carried out by the crew below-decks.