Private Catch a Ride: Crorefell to Crown's Hold

[Param]

​

---

T'was a fine as day as any for sky-sailing , and the Narcisca hummed along, steady as she was so prone to doing. It was the third day of their five day voyage, and so far, things were smooth sailing as they flew over the valleys of Altalusia proper. A few guests, and a full load of cargo logged in the manifests, bound for Crown's Hold.

The Cisca's crew milled about, tending to their duties, but the ship was underway, its shroud-engines singing, lift-bladders lifting, and wind wheels churning. All together, the sounds created a hum against the wind. Almost a song its own.

Param never grew tired of hearing it.

"You paying attention, son?" Shroud Master Cromherr asked. His ever tired eyes boring holes into the back of Param's skull.

"Oh?" the Devanhi turned about, and looked at the old man with a blankness to his expression. "Uh," he laughed.

Cromherr's frown, which was normally there anyway, and would by no means be attributed to anything Param did, or failed to do, if you were to ask Param, deepened the more. "Was it not you who had asked me to teach you some about being a Shroud Master, Param?" his eyes narrowed the more, and the bags beneath them seemed to turn as dark as storm clouds. His voice, almost rumbled like thunder.

"Y-yes Mister Cromherr, Ser, it was I, I just,"

"Waisted my time?"

"No ser, I mean, Suppose'n I did, Ser, but not by any means purposeful,"

"Then by what means, Skyman Param?"

"Just in those means that one means to appreaciate the beauty of the means of sky-shippin, Ser,"

Cromherr sighed and shook his head. "That won't help you understand how to spot a blockage in the flow of the rune-stacks, will it?"

Param frowned the more, and looked up at the intricately engraved stoves of steel. "No Ser, suppsose'n is won't,"

"Mind the lesson then, son, so that you might learn a thing or two, and who knows," the old Shroud Master pat the younger skyman upon the shoulder. "Might make something out of yourself just yet," A smile there. "Now come along then, we'll do a full inspection of the stacks before we go to the mess for supper,"

 

[Lilith]

With no matches coming up, Lilith suddenly found herself with a lot of time to kill. There wasn’t much to do in Crorefell—nothing that she enjoyed nearly as much as fighting, anyway—so after mulling over it for a bit, she decided to leave the city altogether. Not for good, no—it was practically her home now, so she couldn’t stay away from it forever. But the sights and sounds had become so familiar to her that she’d grown almost bored of them, and that boredom bred restlessness.​

Maybe it was the Deva in her blood. She had heard that they were a nomadic people, like her parents, who’d lived their entire lives on the road, never stopping and settling in one place for too long. And although she wasn’t a merchant, she felt drawn to the wider world like a moth to a flame; the mysteries of it were too great to ignore.​

After promising Isra that she would at least try not to get into any trouble, she set out for the airship docks. Since it was her first time riding one, she figured that she’d pick whichever looked the coolest—that wound up being the Narcisca, which was bound for Crown’s Hold. Once she’d paid for her entry, she hopped aboard, waving goodbye to the people who remained at the docks as the ship began to move. Then they were rising into the air and soaring through the clouds, everything beneath them seeming to shrink.​

The novelty of it all had started to wear off after the second day. Still, Lilith was enjoying herself. As long as she kept busy, she could stave off the boredom; to that end, she was currently trying to climb over one of the bows, having dared herself to get the very end of the wooden thing that jutted from it without falling off and dying.

@Param ​

 

[Param]

"So you see, as the shroud intersperses through the air, the runes-" Mister Cromherr went on.

Param's eyes went wide. "Starboard bow!" he shout, a finger jabbed out to point at someone, climbing over the gunwales, near the prow of the ship.

Mister Cromherr turned his attention there, thusly. "What in the blazes, you there!" he called out to the youthful face who seemed halfway over the gunwale. "Stop this instant!"

Param ran quick, and made to grab the young woman by the wrist. Successful or not, he would warn. "That's no place to be goin, miss!"