Cassandra spun around, Sunlight appearing in her hand in a flash of light. Leon, Valeria, and Maia did likewise, the former two drawing their weapons while the latter summoned a relatively small water dragon.
Everyone else in the room with them who’d they’d just spent hours exploring the supercarrier ark with had just disappeared in what, to Leon at least, looked like teleportation spheres. Not even the Grand Druid had managed to avoid the same fate, disappearing along with the rest of the Evergolden team of engineers.
At the same time, the supercarrier began to groan and creak, and Leon could hear a low hum starting from deeper within the vessel, and it was slowly growing louder. Observing with his magic senses, he realized that the amount of power within the supercarrier had skyrocketed. The interior of the ark was fairly damaged, and through bent and broken interior panels, lightning started to burst out in wide arcs as more and more power gushed through the walls.
“Get down!” Leon shouted. “Center of the room!” He ran in the indicated direction, with Cassandra, Valeria, and Maia following behind him only a moment later.
Arcs of golden lightning exploded outward, not quite filling the air, but certainly making the area where they’d just been standing rather dangerous, even to mages of their power.
“What is this?” Cassandra shouted, her voice dripping with wrath and confusion in equal measure.
“I think someone managed to get the supercarrier’s power supply back up and running!” Leon shouted as another bolt of lightning flashed through the air above them, and he reached out with his power to intercept any more that may follow. A moment later, one arc did, but he managed to reflect it at the wall, leaving long black scars along the gray metal.
“And the others?” Cassandra followed up.
“Teleported?” Leon guessed. “Maybe? Can’t say more!”
Another bolt raced through a hallway and exploded out into the room they stood in, but again, Leon was able to deflect it away from his party.
“Where’s Gaius?” Valeria shouted as she shot Leon a look filled with meaning.
Leon bitterly smiled for just a moment in response before he returned his face to stoic seriousness. This wasn’t exactly what he had in mind, especially since Cassandra was still here, but he supposed as far as distractions meant to give him unfettered access to the supercarrier went, this wasn’t that bad.
‘So long as none of us die, that is…’
As if on cue, the power running through the ark and springing from its damaged walls suddenly ceased, leaving Leon and his party standing there in the dark, rather nonplussed.
“What’s going on now?” Cassandra whispered as she took an aggressive step away from their group as if she were attempting to advance on something unseen.
“Power’s out,” Valeria simply replied as she glanced once more at Leon, who nodded his agreement at more than just her statement. “Whatever started it seems to have stopped.”
“Then we need to find the others!” Cassandra insisted. “If they’ve been teleported, then they shouldn’t have gone far!”
“Likely not even off the ark,” Leon speculated soothingly. “If I had to guess, it’s a security measure meant to trap trespassers. Probably why it didn’t grab us.”
“You, I understand. Why us, too?” Cassandra asked as she turned to face him, her weapon dropping entirely and her aura calming significantly.
“I’m obvious. Valeria and Maia are my wives, so it’s possible the ark has enchantments sensitive enough to pick up on that. We’ve certainly spent enough time together…”
Cassandra made a stifled gagging noise. Taking the hint, Leon moved on.
“And you, Princess, were standing quite close to me at the time. Perhaps the teleportation wasn’t fine enough to grab you when we were that close?”
“Leon!” Cassandra responded, sounding faux-scandalized. “Are you suggesting that I ought to stay close to you? You dog!”
“Don’t sound so eager,” Valeria sarcastically replied, earning her a glare from Cassandra.
[Someone’s coming,] Maia whispered into their minds, and everyone turned in the direction she was pointing: down the hallway that Gaius and Nestor had traveled not so long ago.
From the hallway came Gaius, running full-tilt, with Nestor following just behind him.
“Everyone all right?” Gaius asked as he almost skidded to a halt in front of them.
“No!” Cassandra shot back. “Where’s everyone else?! What happened?!”
Gaius gave the Princess a quick look, and Nestor remained as silent as he had been since they’d left Occulara. Instead of immediately answering, Gaius turned his gaze to Leon.
It was faint, but Leon saw a hint of pride in the way Gaius was carrying himself. Just a shade of the confidence of a man who’d accomplished what he’d been sent out to do. Leon gave him a small smile and mentally stated, [Careful about the Princess, but speak your piece.]
Gaius nodded in response and thusly explained, “We were working on the engines, as ordered.”
Leon raised a hand, interrupting him, and explained to Cassandra, “The Ilian Emperor had a small ark that the Lord Protector wanted us to activate. As soon as we did, though, the engines immediately drained what little power the ark had stored up. Getting it back up and running on backup power was… problematic.”
Cassandra frowned. “How would a monster like this even be powered?”
“There are ways,” Leon replied. “Magic power can be generated, though most often this comes in the form of wisps created by post-Apotheosis mages powering magical devices to amplify what power they produce. This power goes first to massive gems that store the power, and then from there, the power is channeled to where it needs to go.
“It’s been long enough that basically all wisps used for such power generation have long since died off, leaving only stored power available for use, and that stored power will have been largely drained over the eighty millennia these vessels have been in storage or left to the elements.”
Cassandra’s frown grew deeper. Returning her focus to Gaius, she ordered, “Continue.”
Gaius lightly grimaced and looked to Leon, who again nodded.
“We’d barely gotten down to where we thought the engine room to be when one of the engineers started messing around with a control console—trying to get it powered up, I think. Precautions were taken, but power briefly surged and the golem tried to stop the engineer.” He nodded to Nestor, who stood there utterly silent and impassive. “We weren’t able to stop whatever she did in time, and things just… went off.”
“’Went off’?” Cassandra growled. “My grandmother and our entire team are gone! What happened!” Her aura began spiking as her tone grew angrier. Gaius’ seventh-tier aura was robust, but Cassandra was an eighth-tier mage, and Gaius’ aura couldn’t overpower hers.
“Cassie,” Leon whispered as he took a couple steps toward her. “Let’s find everyone first. Anger is counter-productive.”
Cassandra had paused at his use of her requested nickname, and her aura had flickered. When Leon finished speaking, she glared once more at Gaius, took a deep breath, and then relaxed.
“Fine,” she vehemently whispered. “It’s not like I haven’t made my own mistakes in the past few years. This thing is old and damaged. Problems were going to happen no matter what.”
Leon chuckled. “The number of times I’ve been in a ruin built by my family that’s still in good working order is not many.”
“Then I’ll defer to your expertise,” Cassandra said. “Where would my grandmother have been sent?”
“Can’t say,” Leon replied as he surveyed the room, using that as a pretense to briefly glance at Nestor. The dead man remained completely impassive, but Leon couldn’t help but think that he’d be just a little more obvious about it if something had gone wrong. So, he decided to run with his assumption. “Power’s limited. The enchantments are advanced, perhaps enough to meter themselves. The ark’s main entrance, a brig if this ark had one, or other areas that are more ably secured from within are all possibilities. We won’t know unless we get out of this place.” Leon gestured around the bay they were still standing in, the walls now blackened in many places from the wild lightning that had bolted through the air only a few minutes ago.
“Pick a direction you think most plausible,” Cassandra demanded. “We’ll start with the most probable and work our way down.”
“A good strategy,” Leon commented. He’d sent Nestor and Gaius to make some kind of distraction that might pull away more of the engineering team. This was far more than he could’ve hoped for. With only Cassandra there with them, while he didn’t quite feel like they could act with impunity, he wasn’t averse to moving on.
Over the few hours they’d spent exploring the ark, they hadn’t gone too far into the more sensitive areas, the doors being locked and neither Leon nor Nestor doing much to try and unlock them. Now, however, with their hangers-on out of the picture…
“Let’s head further in,” Leon said. “I’m thinking that a brig would be the most likely, and even if everyone didn’t land in one, we might find some way to find them.”
Cassandra took a moment to ponder it, then said, “Fine. Watch yourself, though. I’d rather not lose another arm.”
“I make no promises.”
That got a chuckle out of the Princess, and Leon immediately set off on the fastest route to the inner sections of the ark, where the power supply, central enchantment hub, bridge, and commander’s quarters would be located, all of which he was hoping would be worth the time taken to explore them.
The others fell in behind him, and as they got moving, Leon projected his magic senses, noting that Gaius, as he and Nestor took up a position at the rear, made a quick Legion hand signal for ‘all-clear’. While he couldn’t yet know exactly what Nestor and Gaius did, he still smiled.
When they reached the door, Leon and Nestor got it open quickly, reasoning to Cassandra that the door’s security enchantments now lacked power and the ark had likely damaged itself even further when the engines flared up. Cassandra seemed to believe that, but Leon made sure to watch her for any signs of suspicion.
As they moved through the security checkpoint further into the supercarrier, Leon half-expected another wisp, like what happened with Jason Keraunos’ personal ark, to appear before him and offer advice. However, no such magical construct showed itself, and they were left in the dark halls of the powerless ark.
As they moved to the center of the ark, where Leon reasoned both the central control room and the power supply would be, Leon noted the halls getting a little wider and a little nicer. Not quite palatial, but the halls had taken on a decidedly more trapezoidal shape and the ceilings were raised a bit. He could imagine if the ark still had the power to spare, the walls would be alight with murals, and the ceiling would have a projection of the sky painting its surface.
They found a few more compartments that looked like leisure areas, storage rooms, and separate control rooms, but it took almost another hour to find the Big Important Room that Leon was looking for, and Cassandra didn’t let her irritation and impatience be forgotten. Leon had wanted to take a few moments to study a few of the rooms they’d found, seeing a large number of worthwhile enchantments within, but even though he knew the Grand Druid was fine, Cassandra didn’t, so he hurried along.
But finally, they found it, the main control room. Upon entering it, Leon found it almost exactly as he expected: a relatively huge chamber with a series of terraces in the center. Each terrace was covered in control consoles, while at the top was the largest of the seats. Unlike Storm Herald, however, this was no throne, as the top terrace was shared by several other slightly smaller seats, all of them surrounded by control consoles of their own.
“This is it,” Leon said, reveling in the discovery. “Regardless of where they’ve been sent, we’ll be able to find our missing compatriots from here.”
“How?” Cassandra demanded to know. “There’s no power, everything here’s dead.”
Leon took a closer look around, noting that while the rest of the ark seemed quite damaged, the consoles here seemed fairly intact. None of them, though, were aglow with arcane light, and most seemed little more than slabs of smooth stone. Without magic power, they would be useless.
For a moment, Leon wondered about powering the consoles with their own magic power, but only powering the consoles would do little when the enchantments they were supposed to be controlling had none of their own, and none of them were even close to being powerful enough to power the whole ark. Not even the Grand Druid—and Leon didn’t even think all four Emperors—could do so. It would take nothing less than the most powerful of the post-Apotheosis mages, by his estimation, to single-handedly power the whole ark.
“Then we need to find the power room, too,” Leon reasoned. “Most of us will stay here and see what we can see. I’ll head out and—”
“No,” Cassandra interjected. “You’re planning something, Leon, I can see it.”
Leon gave her a look of utter innocence. “Me? I would never be so duplicitous!”
“You would and you’d likely relish it, wouldn’t you? Going off on your own, exploring a long-lost relic of your Clan, all without me there.”
Perhaps it was just Leon’s imagination, but it seemed like Cassandra was most angered by the last part of her accusation than anything else. Given the way Valeria seemed to stifle some laughter, he thought himself right on the money.
Leon took a moment to think it over. He didn’t particularly want to keep secrets from Cassandra, but he also didn’t quite trust her to keep anything they did secret. With that in mind, he didn’t have to do everything himself.
“Fine,” he said. “We can stay here and monitor the bridge, you and I. The others can explore in our stead.”
“That’s not what I—”
“Too late, the order’s been given, you’re stuck with me now, Princess.” Leon smirked as he nodded to Gaius, Nestor, Maia, and Valeria. He didn’t need to give any specific orders, he felt like they knew what to do already: explore as much as safety would allow. If they found the power supply, either come back and inform him and the Princess, or get it running themselves.
Gaius spared only the time to nod before turning on his heel and marching back out, Nestor in lock-step behind him. Valeria took a second to grin at both Leon and Cassandra before heading out after them. Maia took the longest time of any of them, giving Leon an intimate hug before glaring at Cassandra, and only leaving after the Princess took a step back.
“And so, we’re alone,” Leon said as Maia vanished into the darkness of the halls they’d left behind.
“Expecting something to happen?” Cassandra asked as Leon led the way to the top of the terraces.
“I rather thought you were expecting something to happen,” Leon replied, shooting her a somewhat suggestive look. “You don’t trust me enough to explore on my own, are you thinking that there’s something in this ark that might be hostile to us as well?”
Cassandra sighed as Leon took a seat in the commander’s chair. Instead of sitting anywhere else, she instead walked over and propped herself up on one of the control consoles, propping her head up with an arm resting on the console.
“Leon, I can tell that something’s going on. Your people are too calm, and you’re not that good at lying.”
Leon at least had the decency to look a little embarrassed.
“Just tell me one thing…” the Princess continued, a hint of killing intent permeating her aura, “is my grandmother safe?”
“While she’s obviously not here so I can’t say with absolute certainty, I would stake my life on her being fine.”
“You probably are staking your life on that.”
Leon frowned a moment. “I… suppose I am, aren’t I? The Grand Druid, her physical well-being aside, is probably pissed right the hells off, no?”
“She’s probably trying to force her way out of whatever situation she’s been teleported into, and raining the fury of the stars down upon anyone and anything in her way.”
“I’ll do my best to stay clear, then.”
“For both our sakes, please do. For now, why don’t you tell me what you thought you might find here?”
Leon gave her a long, evaluating look. “Tell me you won’t tell the Grand Druid. Or anyone else, for that matter.”
Cassandra’s serious look morphed into something more curious and intrigued, and she didn’t hesitate a moment to emphatically agree. “Yes! Yes, yes, yes! Just between us!”
Leon choked back a chuckle at her earnestness. “You sure? Such a dreadful secret getting out might destroy the whole plane!”
“You have to tell me now!”
Leon smiled and leaned in conspiratorially, Cassandra leaning in at the same time. They drew nearer than Leon thought they needed to, but he didn’t mind, and if she did, she was doing a horrible job of showing it, flashing him a dazzling smile and locking eyes with him.
Barely able to enunciate with how much he was smiling, Leon said, “I had no idea what this ark had. I just wanted to explore on my own and see for myself.”
Cassandra didn’t look at all surprised, not leaning back at all and whispering, “Bastard.”
“So I’ve been accused of being,” Leon stated, his tone a little bitterer than he’d intended it to be as he leaned back into the chair. Cassandra, if she noticed, said nothing about it, but any flirtation in her attitude disappeared.
After another minute of sitting in silence, the lights in the supercarrier came back on, the walls lighting up with familiar murals, and the ceiling glowing with a projection of the night sky, three moons prominently hovering over the terraces.
“Ha! Looks like someone found what they were looking for!” Leon exclaimed.
“That ‘Gaius’ retainer of yours, I’d think,” Cassandra guessed. “He has that golem of yours, Naiad and Val went off in a different direction after leaving.”
“My thoughts align with yours,” Leon murmured as he turned his attention to the consoles, all of which had reactivated along with the lights.
After his exploration of Storm Herald, Leon had Nestor give him a crash course on these control consoles. Given Nestor’s lack of military or command experience, a crash course was all he was qualified to give, so Leon didn’t think himself even remotely capable of actually using any connected enchantments to even boil water, he at least knew how to call up an overview of the ark’s situation, as reported by the wisps that power and help to control the place.
Unfortunately, the wisp that was supposed to aid the commander in reading the report didn’t appear, but the report itself did appear, a light screen appearing before Leon after he’d activated a few runic circles in the proper sequence. Diagnostics and floorplans for every one of the supercarrier’s levels were now at Leon’s fingertips, and he wasted not a second in skimming through them.
His heart sank the more he read, seeing the extent of the damage wrought upon the ark. His earlier estimation that it would never fly again was correct if his reading of the report was accurate. The ark’s damage, while not dealing too much overall damage to the superstructure, had still crippled it entirely. The subsequent crash and eighty-thousand-ish years spent buried and entangled in a massive tree’s roots had caused much greater damage than even that crippling blow, unfortunately.
While there was still time to check the place out, Leon realized that there would be very little he might be able to salvage from the supercarrier—at least, not without being even more obvious than he was apparently already being about it.
He sighed as he slumped back in his chair. It was looking like his coming here would be a waste of time—at least, for himself. The Grand Druid’s engineers would likely learn plenty from it, but the wreck was as portable as any other Thunderbird Clan ruin Leon had visited.
There just wasn’t anything here for him.
“Leon,” Cassandra said, grabbing his attention. “My grandmother. Is. She. Safe?” She spoke calmly, but the insistence in her tone demanded he move quicker.
On one of the consoles before him was a blinking light, indicating a security alert if he was reading it rightly. Sure enough, when he pressed the adjacent runic circle, it opened another screen that showed the Grand Druid and the rest of the engineers in the ark’s main entrance bay, trying to get through the locked door. The Grand Druid looked just about at the point where she was going to try and cut her way through the offending obstacle, while the engineers did their best to open the door without destroying the whole thing in the process.
Leon was able to open it remotely, effectively opening the entire ark in the process, but he’d largely exhausted his ability to control the ark. With Cassandra now a little more mollified at seeing the Grand Druid, Leon was left in enough peace to contemplate what would come next, and perhaps of more immediate importance, how to explain what happened to the Grand Druid in a way that Cassandra wouldn’t take issue with.
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