[center][img]https://fontmeme.com/permalink/250324/b71cf5ab5cebec9b4e857200f7c42a8b.png[/img] [img]https://fontmeme.com/permalink/250324/dc185f5e06aa08f3af9fbb79b4040da5.png[/img] [color=EBA536][b]Location:[/b][/color] [color=E579FF]Cargo Hold[/color] [color=E579FF][b]Race:[/b][/color] [color=EBA536]Dark Elf[/color] & [color=E579FF]Human[/color] [color=E579FF][b]Class:[/b][/color] [color=EBA536]Artificer[/color] & [color=E579FF]Rogue[/color] [color=EBA536][b]Interactions:[/b][/color] [@Helo] Ezekiel; [@Princess] Callandra [color=E579FF][b]Mentions:[/b][/color] [color=EBA536][b]Equipment:[/b][/color] [hider] [color=EBA536][b]Scratch[/b][/color] Medical bag Tinkerer's kit Arcane spindlelock (shortened) musket Spindlelock pistols x2 Hand axes x2 [color=E579FF][b]Val[/b][/color] First-aid bag Tinkerer's kit Spindlelock pistols x2 Steel daggers x2[/hider][color=E579FF][b]Attire:[/b][/color] [hider] [color=EBA536][b]Scratch[/b][/color] Dark brown, knee-length coat Black waistbelt Grey button-up shirt Dark brown trousers Heavy leather boots [color=E579FF][b]Val[/b][/color] Off-white shirt Red ribbon tied around left arm Brown hooded coat Brown trousers Leather boots Goggles on her head[/hider][color=EBA536][b]Gold:[/b][/color] 101 [color=E579FF][b]Injuries:[/b][/color] [hider] [color=EBA536][b]Scratch[/b][/color] NA [color=E579FF][b]Val[/b][/color] Shallow cut on her right side, just below the ribs[/hider] [/center] A satisfied smirk curled [color=EBA536][b]Scaerthrynne[/b][/color]’s lips as he took a quick peek around the stacked crates he’d been using as cover and spotted Furnace’s smouldering corpse lying where they’d been shot. So broken was its form, so blackened its flesh, and so deformed its dark armour, that it was almost indistinguishable from the debris it laid amidst. Were it not for tattered strips of crimson fabric still clinging to it, it would’ve seemed as if Furnace had simply vanished into thin air. [color=EBA536]“Good riddance,”[/color] the dark elf muttered beneath his breath. He relaxed, but only barely. Slaying that damnable spellcaster was a victory, to be sure, it not one he could fully enjoy. And soon, his attention was taken by the cacophony of harsh, mechanical grumbling laced with piercing, metallic squeals. The noise told him that Vallena and Ezekiel had managed to open the door, and also reminded him that all this—the explosion, the escape from the griffon, the confrontation with Sparkler and Furnace—had merely been the prologue to his troubles. He drew in a deep breath. One problem at a time. One step at a time. [color=EBA536]“Eyepatch,”[/color] he called out and holstered his pistol. [color=EBA536]“You’ll go through first. Make sure the other side’s clear, and that there aren’t any more of these–”[/color] he gestured vaguely to the two bodies draped in red [color=EBA536]“–waiting to surprise us. Leave Venn, I’ll get her on my way out! And Val, follow him after he makes sure it’s safe. I’ll be right behind you.”[/color] [color=E579FF]“What do you mean, Scratch?”[/color] Vallena shouted back, her voice worried. [color=E579FF]“What’re you going to do?”[/color] [color=EBA536]“I’ll be right behind you,”[/color] he repeated. Then, to mollify her, he quickly added, [color=EBA536]“I won’t take long.”[/color] Without waiting for her response, or another word, he jogged over to the turret. The thing was still chirping and whirring happily as it swept its muzzle left-to-right, right-to-left, eagerly searching for targets that didn’t exist anymore. Scaerthrynne knelt beside it and pressed a finger on its arcane battery. Once again, it lit up in a faint, pulsing blue, as did the web of circuits etched into its body. [color=EBA536]“You did good.”[/color] The dark elf’s words were tinted with fondness. [color=EBA536]“I’ll have to remember your design. I might bring you out some other time.”[/color] A warble came from the turret, sounding almost like a cheer. The meter on the battery began to fill. Scaerthrynne clicked his tongue. [color=EBA536]“Don’t get smug,”[/color] he chided in a tone not entirely dissimilar from the type he would’ve used to say the same words to Vallena. The turret squeaked and beep a few times, making a sound that could only be described as a childish, playful laugh. Its circuits flickered once before darkening, and its noises slowed and deepened until they all merged into a singular, constant, low hum. Then, without warning, it simply fell apart into the debris Scaerthrynne had earlier infused to create it. He snatched the arcane battery—now almost full—before it hit the ground, stashing it safely into one of his pouches. To let a perfectly good battery go to waste would’ve been a shame, especially during a situation such as this, where a burst of arcane power could very well mean the difference between life and death. As he hurried towards the cargo hold’s exit, the airship shuddered several times, and light flashed beneath the floor plates—certainly a worrying sight when said plates were each a solid slab of steel roughly an inch thick. It was like the vessel itself was reminding him of the need for urgency. Scaerthrynne didn’t need any such reminders, however; the extensive damage done to this one compartment—and he couldn’t assume that this was the only damaged part of the ship—was more than enough to push him to do something, and to do it quickly. He couldn’t even imagine just how many elemental-arcane energy lines were ruptured, cut, or otherwise damaged. A particularly strong shiver rippled through the floor. Scaerthrynne grimaced. An elemental could only take so much abuse before it went berserk, and if that happened… He shook his head as he carefully scooped Callandra into his arms, and slipped through the ajar door, and into the relative safety of the corridor. One problem at a time. Thinking of such an extreme possibility now, when he’d yet to even examine the state of the airship’s subsystems, was pointless. Only after he reached the engine room, and had a chance to gain his bearings, would he be able to come to a proper decision as to whether or not panic was necessary. [color=EBA536]“Easy,”[/color] he murmured, more to himself than to anyone else, as he set Callandra on the floor. He rested her back against a wall, setting her in a sitting position. [color=EBA536]“Don’t you dare die, now,”[/color] he said quietly and placed a hand on her shoulder for a moment. He patted it twice, then stood up. [color=EBA536]“Not after all the trouble we just took to get you out of there. You’d better live.”[/color] [color=E579FF]“You’ll be alright, Venny,”[/color] Vallena said and held the woman’s hand. [color=E579FF]“We’ll make sure, right, Scratch?”[/color] [color=EBA536]“We’ll surely try,”[/color] he replied. The crackling of fires he couldn’t see, and the various torn arcane wiring lining the ceiling and walls, all leaking wispy, colourful trails, didn’t inspire much confidence in him. Just fixing the airship would be enough of a challenge, it seemed, let alone trying to heal Callandra while he was at it. He tried to tell himself that it would be fine, that they had a healer here with them, and that he’d been in worse situations before. Even so, his grimace darkened, and pulled harder on his already dour features. Vallena, however, wasn’t as glum. As soon as Scaerthrynne had pulled the door shut, and made it secure, the girl charged into him. [color=E579FF]“We’re alive!”[/color] she cheered, her words bouncing off the walls. Wrapping her arms tightly around his waist, she pulled herself in close, burying her face into his jacket. [color=E579FF]“We’re alive! We made it! We’re alive! We…”[/color] She repeated those words over and over again, until they became muffled gibberish spoken directly into his clothes. [color=EBA536]“For now,”[/color] was what Scaerthrynne wanted to say, but the words wouldn’t leave his mind, not in the face of such relief and happiness. He exhaled slowly through his nose, and looked down at the girl with a smile on his face. Vallena deserved to celebrate their small victory, he supposed, even if he didn’t. She was still just a child, after all. She could be afforded these small comforts and joys. But that didn’t mean Scaerthrynne didn’t have to be realistic. [color=EBA536]“We still have work to do,”[/color] he said firmly, placing his hands on her shoulders and, with as much gentleness as he could muster, tried to peel her off of him. The more he pushed, however, the more she tightened her hold on him, and the closer she pulled herself to him. [color=EBA536]“Alright, Val, that’s enough.”[/color] More than a few shades of his growing impatience showed in his tone, but Vallena either didn’t notice, or if she did, she didn’t seem to care. [color=EBA536]“Come on, Val, we still have an airship to rescue. Let’s celebrate after we do that, hm?”[/color] Vallena looked up at him, her cheeks flushed, and smile sheepish. [color=E579FF]“Sorry, Scratch,”[/color] she said, but didn’t let go. [color=E579FF]“I-I was just really scared, and I didn’t know if–”[/color] She stopped abruptly, her eyes turning curious as they focused on something on the ceiling. [color=E579FF]“Hey, what’s that?”[/color] [color=EBA536]“What’s what?”[/color] Scaerthrynne asked. He looked up. And saw a flash of energy surge towards him. He didn’t even notice what colour it was; it was all he could to bring up an arm to shield his face. The flash struck his sleeve, and pierced it. With his eyes squeezed shut, he never saw it, but he surely felt it—there was a strange sensation radiating from where it impacted his skin. There wasn’t any pain, but he certainly felt…Something. Something hot, yet cold at the same time. Something energising, yet sucking the breath from him, and sapping the strength from his muscles. It was something alien, something that didn’t belong, something that his body instinctively knew it wanted to be rid of. And yet, it was something that felt…Right. As if this was where it belonged. Then, the sensation stopped. Scaerthrynne sucked in a deep breath, his eyes wide, and staggered backwards a few steps. He blinked a few times, his head swimming. What just happened? [color=E579FF]“Scratch!”[/color] Vallena’s panicked voice snapped him out of his stupor, and he rushed over to the girl, dropping to a knee beside her. She was shivering, her eyes glued to the rolled-up sleeve of her arm, the very same one which he’d bandaged earlier. The linens, torn to shreds, fell like snow onto the floor. [color=E579FF]“Scratch, w-what’s that? I-It wasn’t there before!”[/color] There, set into her completely healed arm, was a jagged blue shard. It looked like a piece of broken glass, long and thin, and spanned from her wrist to halfway down her forearm. [color=EBA536]“Calm down, Val,”[/color] Scaerthrynne said. He ran a hand over the shard. He felt only smooth skin. [color=EBA536]“Do you feel any pain? Any discomfort?”[/color] Vallena shook her head. [color=EBA536]“Okay, then that’s–”[/color] He stopped abruptly, and rolled up his own sleeves, as far as he could. And sure enough, where he’d felt the sensation radiate from earlier, he saw a similar object buried under his skin. Only instead of a shard of glass, his looked more like an elongated disc, set just beneath his left wrist. Despite feeling nothing from it, he couldn’t help but feel a momentary burst of panic and worry. Just what was this thing? It’d clearly come from that burst of energy, but what was that, in the first place? In all of his four-and-a-half centuries of life, he’d never seen such a thing. That, in and of itself, was a very, very worrying thing. He gulped. [color=E579FF]“S-Scratch?”[/color] Vallena called to him. She sounded on the verge of tears. [color=E579FF]“Y-You have one too? What is it? Is it a curse? A-Are we cursed? D-Did the elemental do something to us? Is it angry?”[/color] [color=EBA536]“No, the elemental didn’t do anything,”[/color] he replied. Then, he drew in a deep breath. One problem at a time. One. Problem. At. A time. What did he know? Well, it was clearly arcane in nature, that much was certain. Whatever this thing was, it wasn’t immediately lethal, otherwise Vallena and he should be dead by now. Neither did it cause any discomfort or pain. Could it be a curse? Maybe, but then who would curse them? Or rather, who would curse Vallena? Scaerthrynne could think of many people who would wish ill upon him, but the girl? That wasn’t likely. Then maybe it was an artifact of some kind, looking for a host? But then why them? Why a girl so young— He shook his head. He was asking the wrong questions. Or rather, the wrong question. What did it matter? He could figure out a unified theory of arcanology, or the meaning of life right now, and none of it would mean a thing unless he also figured out how to stop the Stormrider from crashing. If it was indeed a curse, then resolving it now would be meaningless, unless he simply wanted to have the choice of dying by falling from the sky instead of by malicious arcane nonsense. No, as far as he was concerned, this shard, this magic thing, didn’t exist. Not until the airship was safe. [color=EBA536]“Val,”[/color] he said, placing a hand on the girl’s shoulder. [color=EBA536]“Val, listen to me, alright?”[/color] She nodded and looked at him, her eyes teary and her breaths shuddering. [color=EBA536]“The truth is, I don’t know what’s going on,”[/color] Scaerthrynne admitted. [color=EBA536]“But what I do know, is that unless we get this airship safe, we’re not going to have to worry about what’s going on. Isn’t that right?”[/color] Vallena nodded hesitantly. [color=E579FF]“Y-Yes.”[/color] [color=EBA536]“Good, and what do we do when we’ve more than one problem to take care of?”[/color] [color=E579FF]“T-Take them one at a time?”[/color] Scaerthrynne forced a smile. He didn’t feel like smiling, not with the situation at hand, but he also knew he had to, if only for Vallena’s sake. The last thing the girl needed was to see him unsure. [color=EBA536]“Good girl. So what do we need to do now? The most important thing?”[/color] Vallena gulped. [color=E579FF]“S-Save the ship?”[/color] Scaerthrynne ruffled her hair. [color=EBA536]“That’s the clever Val I know,”[/color] he said. [color=EBA536]“I promise, once the ship’s safe, we’ll figure out what just happened to us, alright?”[/color] Of that much, he was certain. It would’ve been one thing had it just been him who got afflicted by…Whatever this was. But this involved Vallena, too. That changed a lot of things. Not figuring this out wasn’t an option. By hook or by crook, he had to solve this problem. Vallena nodded. She still looked frightened, but she had every right to be. That she wasn’t bawling was an achievement in and of itself. She drew in several breaths to steady herself. [color=E579FF]“Okay,”[/color] she said quietly. [color=E579FF]“Okay, Scratch. I-I’ll focus. On saving the ship. A-And try not to think about–”[/color] She shook her head. [color=E579FF]“N-No, no! I’m not thinking about it! I’m not!”[/color] Scaerthrynne couldn’t help but chuckle. [color=EBA536]“Keep trying. You’ll get it eventually.”[/color] He stood up and, at long last, turned to Ezekiel. [color=EBA536]“Thanks for the help,”[/color] he said, then cleared his throat. [color=EBA536]“Do you have one of…”[/color] The dark elf raised his arm, showing the man the strange object. [color=EBA536]“One of these, too? If you know what this is, I’d pay good money to find out. But if you don’t–”[/color] he nodded to Callandra. [color=EBA536]“She’s all yours again. I need to get to the engine room to save this ship before worrying about anything else. You’re welcome to follow us, or you can bring her above deck, or the infirmary. You know where it is, don’t you?”[/color] Scaerthrynne started walking down the corridor. [color=EBA536]“Either way, anywhere’s better than here.”[/color] As much as he tried not to show it, there was a sense of urgency, of anxiety in his steps. There was only so much altitude the airship could lose before it was beyond saving, only so much of its airframe that could be ruined before it simply fell apart. Only so much elemental energy it could bleed, before the elemental either simply died, or lost itself to a catastrophic rage. One problem at a time. And for now, the problem was a simple one. He just had to get to the engine room. Nothing else mattered.