Rain jiggled his foot impatiently, watching from his position on a crate as Mig and Del worked. The pair were hunched on hands and knees as they sanded their way across Temerity’s freshly planked wooden deck. The wood wasn’t structural, simply frozen half-embedded in the pykrete to create a surface with better traction. Keeping them clear of icy buildup was a tedious, labor-intensive, and low-skill task. In other words, it was one of the few things these two chuckleheads were qualified for. Rain had debated forcing them to do it with toothbrushes rather than the traditional sandstone bricks—known as ‘holystones’ in English. He’d also debated straight-up expelling the pair from Ascension. Selling secrets to the Bank hadn’t been their first offense, after all.

Ultimately, he’d decided to stay his hand. With Sana verifying the truth of their words, he’d been astonished to learn Mig and Del had thought they were helping. After selling the dagger and flashlight, they’d hurried straight back to the ship, offering Smelt the money for the items they’d borrowed from stock and informing him of the ‘sucker’ they’d swindled. Calling them pigeon-headed was an insult to pigeons, no mistake, but if he threw them off the ship, he wouldn’t be able to keep an eye on them. There were also their families to consider.

“Bwaak!”

Rain glanced to the side, spotting Dumpling, Ujesh’s ‘tame’ Fatbird, bearing down on the hapless pair.

Uh oh.

Rain glanced at the timer on his HUD, then swore and peeked into his cupped hands, inspecting the slowly crystallizing Purify anchor. Getting off the crate would be a bad idea at this sensitive stage, as would be enabling his macros, but a manual cast wasn’t out of the question.

Force Ward

“Run for it, Del!” Mig shouted, scrambling, only to be bowled over by the blubbery monster.

At twice the size of a turkey, it was no small impact, and if not for Force Ward, it could have ended quite badly. Both were still sent tumbling, the Fatbird rolling quite a bit further but quickly righting itself and rushing at Del this time. Rain also felt the impact as a draw on his mana. The matrix of magic between his palms wobbled, but didn’t destabilize.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, WHOA!” Del shouted as Rain let out a sigh of relief. Tossing aside his holystone, he sprinted for cover.

“Sorry!” Ujesh yelled, the Tamer rapidly sprinting toward them from the bow. “She won’t hurt you! She’s just trying to knock you over! It’s how they show dominance!”

“Bwaak!” Dumpling cried in confirmation.

“Bad chicken!” Ujesh shouted, diving for her. “Down, damn it! You two, don’t run in a straight line! Zig zag! Zig zag!”

Rain found himself chuckling, watching as the Fatbird eluded Ujesh, then tore off after Del in hot pursuit. “Hey!” he called. “Are you two working, or playing?”

“Seriously?” Mig shouted accusingly, getting between Del and Dumpling in an attempt to head her off. Happy to change her target, Dumpling cannonballed into his stomach, making him let out a huge oomph as he was sent flying.

“Don’t just sit there!” Del yelled, hauling Mig back to his feet as Dumpling rolled back to her feet after the rebound. “Help us!”

“I am helping,” Rain said, adjusting Force Ward just a tad higher.

Ujesh made a heroic dive, intercepting Dumpling’s next charge and managing to brush a hand against her feathers. “DOWN!”

Like a glowing golden wire, a link formed between the Tamer and his bonded monster, making Rain sit up sharply. It was the first time he’d seen any connection between souls other than the one linking him to Dozer.

In response to the empowered command, Dumpling pulled her feet into her body, plopping to the deck like an enormous water balloon and rolling a few times before coming to a stop, upside down. Not for the first time, it crossed Rain’s mind that Fatbirds might be related to slimes in some way, and the idle thought was apparently enough for him to lose focus. The link between Ujesh and Dumpling vanished as swiftly as it had appeared, the Tamer already busy scolding his feathered partner.

Show’s over, I guess. At least I saw the link, though. I’m making progress. Slowly.

Leaving Ujesh to restore order, he checked on his anchor, then sighed as he looked longingly at the horizon.

Five days.

Five full days, they’d been stuck in Eastspar, counting the half-day of their arrival and the half-day that had slipped by since morning. Five full, frustrating days, filled with work, distractions, annoyances, and a sense of impending doom.

Rumors were flying every which way, making it almost impossible to get a clear picture of what was going on in the south, but they’d pieced together enough to know the Empire’s army was either retreating or holding position. The soldiers hadn’t been reduced to a thin layer of meat paste buttering the countryside, as one might expect. Whatever Vatreece had done with the Citizens—and she had done something, Rain was sure—it hadn’t been dealing with Fecht’s armies. No, he expected she’d gone for the head, hurling the Citizens against the source of the problem deep in the heart of the Empire.

The worrying part was that she hadn’t returned to mop up the mess.

Feeling more than hearing a tiny crack, Rain cursed, then clamped down on the magic between his hands and gently guided the dissonant threads back into place. If he lost the craft with only two minutes left, he’d scream.

I need to solve the problems I can solve. A spy satellite would be nice, though.

Working his jaw, he looked up to find Mig and Del still struggling to catch their breath while Ujesh rolled Dumpling away like an overstuffed footstool. Shaking his head at that, he returned his focus to the timer on his HUD, waiting patiently. When it finally hit zero, a small chime sounded, and there was a clink as the completed anchor dropped into his palm. The slightly cracked crystal was white and smoky, like a piece of dirty quartz, and about the size of a kidney bean.

Bind Unnamed Anchor?Purify – Tier 2Yes No