The First World Sphere

Chapter 137: Halfling Village

Chapter 137: Halfling Village

I went and checked on the cats before I returned to the Sky Wraith. They definitely did not like being locked in the cabin during the fighting, and I think they were smart enough to know what was happening. They were happy to see me and latched on with their appendages. I allowed the cats to follow me back to my temporary ship.

I walked the ship, and the black hull color was some type of epoxy added over the hull, not a black wood like the Night Jewel. I first spent some time in the core control room trying to figure out the aether tech. It was my first time seeing the integration of magic and technology. After looking at it for a while, I believed it was some type of aether scanning system. An advanced detection system and maybe an imaging system. The one we had on the Maelstrom was extremely simple. This system appeared not to be working, and I did not have time to figure out the issues. Aether tech was more common the closer you got to the massive passageways through the shell of the Sphere that led to the outer surface.

The next thing I went through on the new ship was all the runic work. The artificing work was excellent, just as good as I could do—if not better. I repaired and checked all the runes and the two aether cannons. The cats followed me as I worked. The Sky Wraith was an excellent ship, even by Skyholme standards. Due to its extra mass, about four times that of the Maelstrom, it would need mithril and adamantine runes to power a massive aether crystal to match our speed.

After confirming the runes were in good working order, I explored the ship. The bottom deck was mostly cargo with a single common area for cooking and feeding the crew. The second level had the aether core room, a captain’s cabin, and three large crew cabins with six double bunks each. This would give the ship a potential crew of thirty-seven. There was a forward cargo hold and gunnery deck where I had arrived. The open deck of the ship had a bridge near the bow, and in the stern was a crane and access to the bottom cargo deck.

While the three ships were grappled together, we were making extremely slow speeds. Leda asked to break the grapples and proceed in a wing formation. This was in a diagonal line and spaced about one hundred yards apart. It would allow the Night Jewel a longer run time on its crystal and utilize the natural wind more effectively. Keeping the Maelstrom and Sky Wraith together was easy, as you just had to tease controls to the correct speed. On the Night Jewel, Leda constantly adjusted her sails and assisted aetheric propulsion to stay as close in formation as she could.

After we had traveled for fourteen hours, Leda’s voice came over the communication stone, “I need to land soon to charge my aether crystal. The charts on this ship have a marked halfling village down in the valley a hundred miles ahead. The charts on this ship do not give any other details, but I never heard of a threatening village of halflings.”

“Cilia, are you good with this?” I asked. I was looking forward to getting the ships safely on the ground. Bleiz had been questioning Maggie, the pirate on the Night Jewel, and I wanted to know his progress. Talia, Namira, and Zinnia had been tasked with identifying artificed items among the dead pirates and counting the coin. I already had the cargo manifests for both captured ships. At least what they claimed to be on board. Sammie and Lana had each been working on a ship to confirm the manifests we found in both captains cabin.

The valley was filled with green and yellow leaf trees as we approached. The ships were in a straight line, the Maelstrom landing first a quarter mile outside the village. I was surprised to see the halflings scatter into the surrounding brush and trees. We had scared them, and if they were not friendly, there was not much we could do. We needed time to recharge.

The Night Jewel and Sky Wraith settled into the water of the glass-like lake and dropped anchor. I lowered myself into thigh-deep water and started walking into town. I cast of the cleanliness spell, and I was dry. Bleiz had joined me, and we walked together into the abandoned village.

As we made our way to the square, I asked, “What did Maggie tell you?”

“A lot. Her pirate superiors can not track the Sky Wraith. Whatever the coating is on that ship prevents magical tracking. The Night Jewel can be tracked with normal magical means. Maggie had an artificial device that acted like a compass.” He handed me a mithril oval. I opened it to find a compass inside.

Bleiz explained, “You set a marker by touching it to an object and channeling a little aether into it. It does not work on people.”

I clicked it shut and tossed it in my hands for a minute before handing it back to Bleiz, “Make good use of it. You are the better tracker and scout than me.” Bleiz pocketed the device appreciatively.

We were in the center of the village looking around. Bleiz said, “The pirate attack is pulling together maybe twenty ships from across the region. They are part of a much larger organization that operates from one of the twenty-three moons. She did not know which moon.”

“Hand of the Crimson Moonriders?” I asked. That was the organization the Aeyln’s mother belonged to.

“No, the Black Marauders. Pirates, mercenaries, thieves—Maggie made it sound like they were a big deal and operated throughout the Sphere. Her ship was low in the hierarchy. The Sky Wraith and the Captain you killed were higher in the chain of command. That was why she contacted him.” Bleiz moved and checked inside a house with smoke from the chimney.

“Do you want me to track down some halflings?” This village looks abandoned. The structures were barely six feet tall, and only a few chickens pecked at the ground. “There were maybe a hundred inhabitants based on the number of structures. Shouldn’t be too hard to find one in the woods.”

“Do it. But try not to scare them,” I said, and Bleiz went invisible. It was weird that a village this small was on the pirate maps. I wandered around the village for twenty minutes before Bleiz returned with a halfling female carrying a child in her arms. She looked afraid but stoic.

Halflings looked like humans, just half the size. This woman had dirty blonde hair and a round face. It was my understanding that halflings lived mostly in cities. I smiled and tried to appear non-threatening, “Well met. I am Storme Hardlight from Skyholme. I was hoping to take advantage of your hospitality while our aether crystals recharge.”

The woman looked skeptical, “We know you are pirates. She pointed with her free hand at the Night Jewel, “That ship has been here before and took our people!” She was trying to hold in her anger. At least this explained why the halfling village was on the map.

“Bleiz, you have a lot of gruesome questions today. If possible, then yes. Her bounty is one thousand gold.” I took the cats off the ship and learned that neither of them liked getting wet. I had to carry them to shore like a princess. The halfling children started to play with them before their frantic parents pulled them away.

A few crew were in town visiting the locals, being amicable. I found Wintershod, the halfling leader, and offered to offload some of my less valuable cargo from the dungeons. My reasoning was not altruistic as I wanted to try and lighten the skyships. He accepted, and we dumped twenty crates of hides and steel weapons from dungeons. About two tons worth. I did not ask for any compensation.

Wintershod was in disbelief, “You are generous, Storme Hardlight. I feel ashamed to ask this of you.” He paused to look over the massive crates. Many were damaged from when I rolled the Sky Wraith, but the items were usable. “We had nineteen of our people taken by the pirates. Before we stoned her, she told us they were sold in the goblin city of Iron Splinter. If you have it in your capacity to find them and rescue them...” He was reaching out and trying to get sympathy from me.

I felt for his people but knew it was not feasible, “The best I can do for you is give you the maps on the pirate ships where the city is located. The pirates are organizing an attack on my home islands, and I need to return there and help defend them.”

“Maybe after...” he started, but I shook my head sadly.

He sighed and handed me a piece of paper, “I understand. But if you have the opportunity, here is a list of their names and descriptions.” The halfling was doing a good job of trying to guilt me. I took the list and sent it to my dimensional closet.

I hesitated before offering, “I am an excellent healer. If you have anyone in your village in need of healing, I would be happy to heal them for free. I can even regenerate missing teeth.” My offer was not entirely altruistic, as I was still trying to increase the level of my lesser restoration spell.

“That is most generous. I will put the word in the town to see you if they wish to take advantage. We only have a lesser healing among our number,” Wintershod bowed but could not mask his disappointment in me not rescuing his village members.

I helped move the crates into the village, and slowly, the halflings came forward to seek healing for minor injuries. I paused in the work to heal, and word spread as each halfling was healed and ran to find a friend or family member. Maybe I healed half the village of some ailment, restored teeth, or cured limps and aches.

With the healing done, and crates unloaded, I pulled my crew back to the ships. Bleiz gave me a nod, indicating he had collected the head of Maggie. A few hours later, all three ships were back in the sky and making our way to the Principality of Marstrom.

The next three days, we landed in small towns to recharge. We dumped the stones and everything not considered valuable off the ships to make them lighter and use less aether. The first stop had most of the pirate’s prisoners leave us as we had reached a large enough settlement that they could find their way home. This freed up the Wolfsguard from guard duty, and they had learned a little about managing the Night Jewel rigging. Losing the experienced sailors added another day to our trip, but we finally reached the border of the Principality on our map.

Two medium skyships with sails and flying the flag of the Principality, a green field with a white owl, intercepted our fleet of three ships. They approached cautiously as we were flying flags of captured ships. They sent over a small skiff with six soldiers on board. The lead soldier stepped onto the deck of the Sky Wraith.

“Captain Volantis of the Prince’s Royal Navy,” the middle-aged human introduced himself.

“Captain Storme Hardlight of the Adventurer’s Guild.” I shook his hand and produced the bounty. He took it and read it carefully.

“The ship was taken seven years ago. The bounty should still be valid, Captain. Thank you for returning her. Most privateers just sell the ships in the nearest port for more coin than the bounty. I suggest we escort you to the capital of the Principality to process the bounty through the Adventurer’s Guild Hall there. Anywhere else, and it will take a few days to receive your coin.” The stern Captain said.

“How long does it take to process the claim in the capital?” I asked.

“No more than a day or two. They will inspect the ship and transfer the funds from the treasury to the Guild Hall. The Principality does impose a 10% on the Adventurer’s Guild, but they may wave it in this circumstance as it was in service to the Prince. I can not guarantee it, though.” He said with a small, hard smile.

“Let us go to the capital then,” I acknowledged. It would be just another day to reach it rather than landing in the nearest city a few hours away. Once we had our prize coin, the Sky Wraith and Maelstrom could make a good time back to Skyholme no longer burdened with the slow Night Jewel.

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