Mea paced the deck nervously, muttering to herself as the rain continued to splash across the deck of the Fortune's Favor. It didn’t bother her the way it did her teammates, but right now she didn’t even notice its gentle presence as she worried about her crew. It wasn't long after she was left that she heard some sort of commotion from beyond the garden walls. She could have just written it off as the sounds of the storm, until she heard the distinct sounds of Aka firing their gun.

  “What do you think the odds are that that was just very, uh, gun sounding thunder?” Mea turned to look at Mittens who was scuttling after her as she paced and clicking his claws. “I mean, it definitely sounds like they’re in trouble and we should go help. But I shouldn’t leave the ship, if they’re actually not in trouble and just like setting off fireworks or something, I'll get in trouble for leaving my post. What if they fire me? How will I afford sea weed if that happens?” ((“Sea-weed?” “...yeah?” “No, shut up it’s funny I’ll allow it.”))

  Mittens bubbled at her feet, waving his claws as if he wanted to be picked up. Mea ignored him and resumed her pacing. “But if they all die because I didn’t go to help them, I think I'm also technically out of a job. I can’t run the ship on my own. Or like, at all.”

  She looked down at Mittens and finally picked him up. He gurgled. “You’re right Mittens! I can call for the dock master, he can go inside and make sure everyone is not being killed horribly!” Annie Mea lifted her familiar to her shoulder and clapped her hands together as she made a decision.The aquan woman pivoted on her path and made for the gangplank to call the man that had given them permission to land their boat in the first place.

  As she stepped onto the plank she heard a clicking noise, and looked up to see two men under the ship on the edge of the dock. They were hitting two rune stones together, and with every strike the pair was producing sparks. However, it was immediately apparent they were not going to be able to set fire a thoroughly soaked ship in the pouring rain. Or at least it was obvious to Mea, who grinned with delight to see them struggle. The two men looked up as she stopped, and they made eye contact.

  “Hello there! Can I help you two fine gentlemen with anything?” Annie Mea asked sweetly, hanging over the dock. Mittens clicked his claws in annoyance.

  “Uh,” One of the men hesitated in confusion.

  Before either of them could move, Mea held up a hand to wave, and with practiced ease drew a rune in the air. A sheet of rain over the pair froze suddenly, and the pane of ice crashed down on them and shattered. They both yelled in surprise, and the man who was holding the rune stones dropped them as he lost his balance. He toppled off the side of the dock, falling the twenty feet to the ground below with a dull crunching noise. Mea winced as it became obvious he was not getting back up.

  “Oops. I like genuinely did not mean to do that,” Mea apologized as she drew a new rune while the second intruder tried to recover. One of her bubbles formed around him, and his confused screaming became muffled as he thrashed against his new confinement. She should have just lead with this honestly. It quickly dawned on the pirate that the bubble was not going to pop so easily, and he struggled to pull a knife from his belt loop.

  Mea's eyes narrowed, she was sure the bubble would hold against a non magic knife; What were the odds such a shabbily dressed man had an enchanted weapon on him? As he struggled, Mea heard the sound of someone approaching quickly from the dock. Keeping one hand up to hold concentration on the bubble, she turned towards the noise. With a practiced flick of her wrist she froze some of the rain around her into a small dagger like shape to throw. Fortunately she managed to keep a grip on it as she realized it was Sola bounding up the docks.

  Her crew mate skidded to a halt when he saw Mea was pointing a dagger at him, raising his hands in alarm. “It’s me! I came to see if you needed help!”

  “Sola!” Mea cried with relief, dropping the weapon and giving her first mate a one armed hug. Oh thank the goddess she wouldn’t have to look for a new crew yet. “What happened? I heard a commotion and then I found these two guys trying to set fire to the boat!”

  “Two?” Sola repeated with concern, looking at the singular pirate trying and failing to pop the bubble he was trapped in with a very non magical knife.

  “Yeah, two,” Mea repeated, leaning over to look in the crack between the boat and the dock. The lump below was still unmoving. “I don’t think we’ll have to worry about him anymore. Again, I am so sorry.” She added, addressing the bubbled man.

  “And they were trying to set fire to the boat?” Sola repeated incredulously. He looked past Mea and frowned, “are you insane? That boat is so saturated right now it wouldn’t catch fire if we flew it through a volcano.” Not exactly true, trying to catch a boat on fire in the rain was a Sisyphean task. The pirate whimpered now that he found himself being berated by two people.

  “What happened out there?” Mea asked as Sola started to climb the gangplank past her. “What was with all the yelling? And the shooting?”

  Sola glanced over his shoulder at her as he quickly summarized what had happened at the temple for her. As he started to unfurl the sails and get the ship set up he told her about the rest of the pirate crew attacking Keizeron and capturing the unity captain. About how the rest of their crew mates had gone in after her, but he had been sent back to the ship to make sure it was safe. He quickly added that he was going to check on Mea as well, but it didn't look like she needed any help.

  Across the docks the other two ships were silent. He wondered why they were the only crew to leave a guard, when it occurred to him that the two pirates who had tried to sink their ship were probably stationed on the docks and got bored. It would explain why none of them came to help when Mea attacked their friends. Which meant only the unity ship was unguarded. It struck Sola as odd, maybe they didn't think anyone would be stupid enough to try to damage their boat? Or maybe something else was going on here.

  Mea watched him work from where she stood on the dock, she wouldn't be able to hold her prisoner forever and she wanted to help the first mate with his task. “What should we do with this guy?” She asked him, tilting her head. The bubble shrank ever so slightly in response. “Should we kill him?”

  “What? No!” Sola shouted in alarm.

  “Why not? He tried to kill us. Fair is fair,” Mea narrowed her eyes. She had felt bad about killing the first man on accident, but now that she knew they were pirates she lost all remorse.

  "He didn't try to kill us," Sola argued. "He just tried to set fire to our ship. Look, we'll just ask the captain what to do with him when he gets back. Can you hold the bubble up and still help me?"

  Mea rolled her eyes at him but still considered what he said. Since she only had one bubble up it was easier to concentrate than when she had bubbled a whole flock of cloud chasers. She would at least be able to hold it for a few more minutes, though she wasn't sure how long the air inside would last. Probably long enough, not that she cared too much. Mea wouldn't be able to cast other spells while it was holding, but she should at least be able to help her first mate with simple tasks.

  Annie Mea instructed Mittens to keep an eye on the bubble, and climbed back onto the ship with Sola. Her familiar gave her a one clawed salute, and took to shuffling under the floating bubble, snipping when the man tried to move at all. He wasn't the most intimidating guard dog, but he sure was cute.

  As Sola moved around the ship getting things set up, Mea followed him, doing whatever she was instructed to. Since most of Mea’s work was below deck she had not spent a lot of time setting sails and messing with the lev stone. Fortunately, Sola was a patient teacher to inexperience sailors, and the work went relatively fast. Even with his comforting presence, Mea was still worried about the rest of the crew. It was strange, splitting her concentration between a spell and physical tasks. Mea was never really the sort to stay focused on one thing, let alone many, and she quickly tired out.

  “I think I need to stop,” Mea gripped the railing to keep her footing, looking down at the dock. Mittens waved encouragingly at her.

  “That’s fine, I can get the rest done-” Sola started, before the pair heard another loud boom, and looked up to see part of the temple had been destroyed. Black smoke billowed through the rain, obscuring their view of the lands beyond. Sola and Mea glanced at each other, their jobs temporarily forgotten with this new set back.

  ~*~

  “Where the hell is Bardi?” Lycus bellowed as he swayed. “Those explosives weren’t supposed to go off until we left!”

  Keizeron staggered from the force of the explosion, but managed to stay on his feet. Around the room the pirates and unity officers alike attempted to recover from the ill timed explosion.Most of the back wall of the temple had been demolished, and there was a huge crack running through the ceiling, right through the skylight over the statue. Chunks of broken marble and shattered glass now littered the room, making it precarious for Keizeron to move. It looked like a number of the unity officers were hurt but the falling rubble, but the woman who'd been standing by the statue was the only one of Lycus's underlings to get hurt.

  Once it was apparent he wasn't in immediate danger Keizeron stared down at the piece of the rod, the blue sapphire in it glittering in a way the felt off the him. With a confused snort he looked up to where Lycus was still holding onto Aster. While the disguised captain hesitated, two of the pirates that had been standing near him sprung into action. One of them tugged a leather rucksack from where it had been hidden in the folds of his clothes and began to feverishly dig through it. Keiz watched in surprise as he pulled out a second nearly identical piece of the rod. A decoy that he tossed to the ground next to the real piece, which he scooped up in the same motion and tucked back into the bag.

  “Come on Howl! Let’s get out of here!” The second pirate reached forward to grab Keizeron’s shirt. Keiz quickly pulled away from him, his spell was only an illusion; if someone were to touch him the jig would be up. The pirate started to protest, when he was struck by an arrow from the back. The unity officers had regained their sense, and even with their captain still in danger they had started to fight back.

  Keiz quickly lost track of the pirate with the real piece of the rod as the two sides resumed their conflict. Dammit. The pirate captain roared furiously, and tensed the arm that was holding his sword to Aster’s throat. Keizeron couldn't keep track of both things at once, and without even thinking about it decided Aster would have to be the priority. There wasn't time to hesitate now, lives were on the line.

  With a resolute motion Keiz turned towards the back of the temple and quickly traced a pattern in the air. The rune glowed hot purple for a second before Keizeron’s disguise dropped and a purple bolt shot from his hand. It sailed across the room with a loud sizzling noise, and seared across Lycus’s raised arm. The bull man roared in pain, jerking his arm back and giving Aster the chance she needed to break free. With a violent kick the two of them fell in different directions.

  If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  Aster hit the ground with a dull thud, her hand over the small cut on her neck. She spared a glance at her savior, and shouted something that Keizeron couldn't hear over the din of the battle. It wasn't hard to guess what she was trying to tell him, once he dropped his disguise the pirates that were around him finally noticed one of their friends had been replaced. The one that closest to him let out a strangled yell as he charged at Keizeron, but was caught by Zero. The automaton hoisted him up and squeezed him tightly to prevent him from breaking free.

  “Hello boss!” Zero exclaimed in a cheerful tone that did not match it's actions. “You sure looked like you needed help!”

  Willow stood behind him, her eyes darting back and forth so fast Keiz was sure they were about to start spinning. Aka was standing at the ready just behind her, surveying the room and marveling at the damage that had happened in such a short amount of time. Then their eyes drifted towards the piece of the rod that was still on the ground near Keizeron. With a start they bent down to pick it up, but Keiz grabbed their arm to stop them.

  “Don’t!” He warned, “they brought a fake, one of the pirates stole the real piece!” Keiz held his hand up to point at the thief, but he had long since disappeared into the fray. At this point he may have even escaped, he'd had ample time while Keizeron saved Aster.

  The fight itself was starting to look dire for both sides. Even though a few of the guards had been knocked out in the blast they still outnumbered the pirates two to one. Now that Aster was freed and they didn't have to hold back they were desperately trying to regain control of the situation. However the pirate crew didn't seem discouraged by the clear imbalance. If anything they were fighting harder now that they had nothing to lose. With both sides acting recklessly, Keizeron realized he needed to get his crew out to prevent any of them being hurt in the crossfire.

  But the other captain had other plans for Keizeron. Lycus gripped his burnt arm with a furious snarl, watching as Aster was pulled away from him by one of her crew mates. He fixated his just rage onto Keizeron; the person who had ruined everything for him. Months of planning gone because one other ship had turned up on the wrong night. "You!" Lycus roared, lowering his horns and charging across the room.

  “Oh dear,” Zero said as he noticed the change. He dropped the struggling pirate and prepared himself to intercept.

  An unfortunate unity guard had stumbled into his way while dueling with one of the interlopers, and was quickly swept out of the way by the rampaging bull. Keizeron narrowed his eyes and raised his arm to cast another spell to stop him. He hesitated just a moment, his first spell had barely affected the minotaur what could he cast to stop him? And in the moment Aka stepped in. The lamb faun moved to Keizeron's side, raising their gun and putting two quick shots into Lycus's shoulder. He staggered but didn't stop, and the only thing Aka accomplished was he had changed direction and was now charging at them.

  “Shit,” Aka realized with a panicked yelp. It was too late to fix their mistake, neither Keizeron nor Zero were in a position to help them. They took a step back in a clumsy attempt to get away, and tripped over a stray piece of debris. Seeing them move Lycus swung his head, but he hadn't adjusted for the smaller target and instead of goring the other faun he only cut across their forehead. A flick of blood scattered across marbled tiles as Aka hit the ground with a pained bleat.

  Keizeron snarled in fury. Zero and Willow wouldn’t be fast enough, Aster was still trying to get to her feet, her hand on her injured throat. The rest of the unity officers were either exchanging blows with the pirates or tending to their own wounded; none of them were going to help the crew of the Fortunes Favor. Keizeron’s eyes darkened as he knew what he had to do.

  Without drawing a rune Keiz made a quick slashing motion at an angle towards Lycus. The minotuar had raised his head and pulled out an ax to deal the finishing blow, but instead a bright golden beam sliced through his arm and the tip of his right horn, severing the two appendages. It continued beyond to the ceiling, cutting through the marble and glass with a loud crash. Unity guards and pirates alike yelled in surprise as shards of stone rained down on them. Lycus halted his attack, and stared up at his new stump in bewilderment as the ax fell to the ground with a resounding crash. He looked back down at Keiz in disbelief, but couldn’t utter a sound before Zero slugged him across the jaw.

  Aka gasped in pain, raising a shaking hand to put pressure on their head wound. The felt slick blood as they touched it, and let out a pained whimper. Aka could just barely make out the rest of their friends trying to stop Lycus from attacking them again, but everything seemed slow and fuzzy. Their head throbbed painfully as they tried to push themselves up, and they sank back down to the floor to stop the world from spinning. Then, through the haze, they could hear something calling out to them. Aka blinked hesitantly, and noticed something glowing under one of the broken tiles. They reached out and grabbed it, feeling something warm. It felt comforting in a way they couldn't understand in their current state, and Aka pulled it closer to them. Then the very real voice of Willow cut through, and they shoved the object in their pocket.

  “Aka!” Willow repeated, kneeling over her hurt friend. She put a hand onto Aka's forehead, trying to stop the flow of blood. “Can you hear me?”

  From across the room Aster raised to her feet, a sword in hand and her eyes blazing furiously. As the rest of the crew watched, her burning hair intensified, incinerating her hat as she drew upon her elemental magic. “Captain Keizeron, I wont forget this favor!” She shouted, creating a rune in the air with the sword as her conduit. “Now get your friends out of here, its about to get hot!”

  Willow looked up nervously before turning back to Aka. She cautiously lifted the hair around the wound. The cut looked shallow, but was bleeding badly and soaking Aka’s curly white hair. Willow grimaced, and tapped her holy symbol to prepare a minor healing spell when Keizeron cut her off.

  “No time,” He hissed, kneeling next to Aka, “We have to get out of here right now.”

  Aka whimpered in pain as he grabbed them under the back and legs and lifted them up as if they weighed nothing at all. Keizeron held them close to his chest as he made his way back to the foyer, Willow and Zero running closely behind him, moving as fast as they could through the ravaged temple. They heard the roar of a flame building in intensity as Zero slammed the door shut behind them.

  The four of them sprinted from the temple back out into the rain. Willow kept watch behind them, but no one followed them as they made their escape. She noticed that the lizard man, as well as the bodies of the monk and the guard were gone but didn’t say anything. No time to dwell on that now. Behind them black smoke poured from the building, and spouts of flame started to flicker above the roof.

  “Captain?” Aka asked in confusion as the rain started to drip on their face.

  “You’re alright, we’re almost back to the ship,” Keizeron tried to reassure them. Rain thinned blood had started to seep into his sleeve and Aka sighed. “I know it hurts, but we aren’t safe. Willow can heal you when we’re back on the boat.”

  Aka managed a snort. “It’s the reasonable thing to do,” they agreed, their voice taught with pain.

  Keizeron was grateful to see the sails raised and the ship ready to go as they made their way past the walls of the garden and back onto the dock. The dock master was no where to be seen, but Keiz quickly spotted Sola as the first mate untied to rope that had tethered the ship.

  “Keizeron!” Sola shouted, “What the fuck dude?”

  “I’ll explain when I can, you and Zero get this ship in the air now!” Keizeron yelled back as they bounded up the dock. He noticed a bubble next to the boat, inside was another struggling pirate. So it had been the right choice to leave Mea at the ship.

  “Mea drop him! We’re leaving!” Sola called as he followed the rest of the crew back on board. With a pop the man fell to the dock, gasping for breath. Sola pulled up the board behind him, and once it was secured he headed for the helm. He stole a glance at Keiz as his captain gently lowered Aka to the deck, and noticed the blood dripping from his friends head.

  The ship started to shift as Zero activated the lev stone. Keizeron waved Willow over, and Mea followed, looking nervous. Though still dazed, Aka was still trying to come back to attention, gripping Keizeron’s jacket tightly in their hand. Maybe it was the rain, but their captain felt so cold as he looked down at them.

  Willow knelt on the navigator's other side, lifting their hair to see the wound again. Now that it had been washed by the rain it didn’t look as bad, but Willow knew better than to assume the severity of a head wound. She should have stopped to heal Aka as soon as they were out of the temple, but the thought of pirates following had kept them moving until they were safely back on the ship. Honestly, she should have healed them in the temple before Keizeron moved them at all. Holding onto her symbol and thinking of her roots, Willow made a small circular motion over the wound, and a faint green glow emanated from their skin. As they took to the air, the small cut started to seal itself up, leaving a thin white line on Aka’s forehead.

  Aka groaned, rubbing the wound as Keiz finally let them go. Their jacket was soaked, and it would take them ages to get their hair dry, but at least they didn’t feel dizzy anymore. “Thanks,” they mumbled to Willow.

  “Hey, now that we're like not in life threatening danger, what is that?” Mea asked from behind them, and Keizeron turned to look, worried someone was following them in the air. Instead he was surprised to find Mea was pointing at something on Aka.

  They gathered crew looked in wonder as a thin beam of light radiated from around Aka’s stomach, piercing the cold night air and eventually tapering off in the distance. It shifted as Aka did, and they reached into their jacket pocket. There was something metallic and warm, and slowly Aka retrieved their prize.

  It was the real piece of the Senka rod, glowing warmly in Aka’s grasp, a beam of light directing the crew out into the world beyond them.

  ((“And that is where we’re going to end tonight’s session,” Caine said, looking around the table at their gathered friends.

  “What!” Ren exclaimed, almost knocking his drink over in the process. “You can't just say, 'this is the real piece of the rod, time to stop'?!"

  “We’ve been playing for four hours already, and if we keep going I’m not going to be able to edit episode in time,” Zenith informed him as he stood up to stretch. Caine reached over him, shutting off the microphone.

  The rest of the group started to chatter excitedly about the session they had just had. “Annie Mea is so funny, I already love her!” “Stooop, when that ox guy was charging Aka I thought they were about to die. Imagine having to reroll a character right after session one.” “There’s no way Zero would have let that happen, he already loves you guys so much!”

  Caine smiled as he started packing up his notes on the session. Zenith had been the one to suggest their Saturday night group start a podcast. He figured it would be a great way to boost his streaming. Lucky, Blair and Winter had all been down, and Winter had invited an old friend named Ren. He had never played a role playing game before, but came in swinging with Annie Mea, and Caine was glad they had let him join. It was shaping up to be a fun game.

  “How long until you get the first episode edited?” Blair asked, looking up from where they were typing on their phone. While not a streamer like Z, Blair had their own following on social media for silly fandom animatics and part time modeling.

  “It probably wont be for another month or two, but I'm going to try to have this whole session edited into three episodes,” Zenith responded. “That way we can have some episodes in reserve before I start posting.”

  “A month!” Blair exclaimed. “I’ve already told my friends to be hype for it!”

  “And who’s fault is that?” Caine shook their head.

  The group started to pack up their supplies, and finish off the last of the snacks that had been presented while they played. Once the game notes were out of sight, Caine took down the screen that separated them from their friends and stood up to see them out.

  “I noticed several discrepancies,” Winter held up her notebook to Caine. Even though they'd only had one session, it looked like several pages were already been filled with notes. Did she write the session word for word? “Like in the aside with the queen and the researcher you said that the solovar trees could only grow in the forests of south Reglilis, but then when we reached the temple in north Reglilis you said there were some growing there. And-”

  “I told you that the rods power had mysterious effects on the land around it didn’t I? Look, Winter, just post those notes in the group chat, and me n’ Zenith will go over them while we’re editing the episode. We probably wont rerecord anything but we’ll just have it on hand for the next session,” Caine sighed, pinching the bridge of their nose. It was a bit taxing at times, but they did appreciate someone paying attention enough to the story to help them keep things straight. Their own notes were pretty wild and scattered, and very, very disorganized. Things that were fact in the world were easily forgotten when they were written on the back of a fast food receipt that Caine had scrawled ideas on at three in the morning.

  “Thank you for the game!” Ren said as he walked out, and the rest of the group echoed him. “Can’t wait to play again next week!”

  The door shut behind them, and Caine let the placid smile drop from his face. Zenith walked up behind him, giving him a hug and a kiss on the top of his head. “That was very fun,” He said comfortingly, giving his partner a squeeze before letting go.

  “You think? I was worried about having an npc be the captain, but everyone seemed fine with it,” Caine said, walking back to the table and reopening their journal.

  “We voted before hand, no one was going to get mad at you for having an npc in the party. We vote on doing anything anyway, its not like you’re going to be accused of rail roading.” Zenith assured them.

  “And what about Sola? No one thinks I gave you the job of first mate cus we’re dating right?”

  “You gave them the chance to protest and no one did. Look you’re doing great, people are going to love the story. Though, I think we need to brush up on your ship lingo.” Zenith cleared up the dishes from the table and brought them over to the sink.

  “I do not know why I, a person with zero boating experience, decided to do an airship campaign,” Caine sighed. “All my knowledge of sailing is from Pirates of the Caribbean and the Wind Waker.”

  “Not exactly the most, uh, realistic examples I will admit.”

  “We're here to play a game, not sail a boat.”

  “Fair enough my sweet. Want to bring me the last of the cups?” Z pointed to the table. Caine grabbed the few cups that had been left on the table and brought them over for his partner to wash. They continued to clean in silence for a moment before Z asked; “so who’s your favorite character so far?”

  “You can’t ask me that. Asking the DM their favorite character is like asking a mom who her favorite child is,” Caine complained. “Also, it’s Annie Mea.”

  “Mea!? Not your himbo boyfriend Sola Rea?”

  “Sola isn’t my boyfriend. And I think he’s too traumatized to be a himbo,” Caine disagreed.

  “I didn't realize that being traumatized was a disqualifier for being a himbo,” Zenith teased, “but that’s fine, I don’t really trust your judgment anyway. It was super lame of you to tell Ren he couldn’t name his familiar dick snipper.”

  “Do you want to be demonetized before we even start our podcast? Because that’s how you do it,” Caine snapped back.

  “We’ll release the uncensored version for the patrons,” Zenith nodded, making Caine laugh. Together the pair finished cleaning their apartment, and settled down for the night. Despite their reservations, Caine was sure that the nights session would be a solid start to what was sure to be an epic endeavor.))