Steelforged Legacy 4 - Chapter 8

Chapter 8

It only took two days for the ships to be ready, but they didn’t leave for four days. Runa had wanted to give Casey time to get used to living in the Roaring Mountain, since he hadn’t bothered to sleep in his quarters before meeting with her yet, but they had to get moving to reach the meeting point at a reasonable rate of travel rather than the ‘full-speed’ urgent that they’d used getting to the Roaring Mountain after the skirmish on the border.

So four days after returning, Casey, Einar, and Vibeke found themselves and their spirit beasts once more boarding one of the flying longships. Einar and Vibeke had been included since they were part of Casey’s group, and they would have time to train during travel, and because Vibeke had been one of those affected by the unprovoked assault that started the whole confrontation with the Bronze Fist.

The longship that they loaded up on was one of six that were going on this trip. Dozens of drengr, ranging from the upper levels of the Mortal Journey to the early ranks of the Immortal Journey got themselves and their spirit beasts settled into the specialized hulls of the ships for the trip while servants got them loaded down with supplies.

Casey had expected to be assigned to one of the escort ships, but Ragna—the personal guard to Queen Runa—had shown up and pointed his group to a trio of bunks near the front of the most elaborate ship of the group, the one that Runa would be riding in.

“She wants you close at hand so she can bring you up to speed on what to expect,” Ragna had explained in her gruff tone as she urged the three of them to get settled in. “Don’t let the other drengr bully you. You are here at the behest of Queen Runa and anyone who complains will have me or her to deal with. My lady has her reasons for doing things, and does not need to explain them to others.”

Casey was just glad that both Aiden and Blair were well behaved during the loading process. The two spirit beasts stuck close to their humans, watching with wide eyes the variety of spirit beasts loading up onto the ship.

Steel Eagles with their glinting metallic feathers settled onto perches protruding from the mast. Full size Gale Cats and Tinderfoxes settled in under the bunks, more than a few coming over to give Magnus and them a sniff but not causing problems. Shatterhoof Elk shed a misty fog from their gray-white fur, chilling the air around them as they grouped together opposite the Tinderfoxes, while a pair of massive Earth Drakes curled up on the rear deck, their thickly-scaled tails hanging down into the hold and forcing drengr to step over and around them.

The only reason the ship they were on could accommodate so many of the spirit beasts was its immense size. Three times longer than the large patrol transport that they’d ridden in to get from the border to the Roaring Mountain, it was a marvel of engineering.

Built along the same designs as the other longships, it was of relatively shallow draft compared to its length. This still translated to a much larger space that allowed Casey to actually walk upright along the inner hold flooring to the hammock-bed in his section, rather than hunched over like he had before. Multiple masts rose up to catch the wind, their secondary purpose besides providing roosting spots for the aerial escorts of the ship.

Everything about the ship was both sturdy and beautiful in its work. Despite being clearly the flagship and personal ship of Queen Runa, the massive flying boat was not overly embellished with pointless displays of wealth. Instead, it bore elaborate carvings of animals, drengr, and scenes of majesty on any surface larger than Casey’s finger. Those carvings were then treated with stains or paints as needed to preserve them, leaving the entire ship as a monument of beauty and wonder.

“Still don’t know why you dragged me along,” Einar grumbled from Casey’s right, behind the dividing cloth curtain. “Finally got used to the bed and now I’m back in one of these blasted bunks…”

“Now Einar,” Vibeke chastised in a playful tone from Casey’s other side. “You can’t tell me that you didn’t want to see these Bronze Fist pricks get their just dues, can you? Especially after what they tried to do to both Casey and I.”

“Now I didn’t say that,” Einar replied quickly, before a foxy cackle from Aiden cut him off. “Oh, laugh it up fuzz-ball.”

Aiden, apparently taking that statement as an order rather than a warning, proceeded to do just that. The amused, yipping laughter of the tiny Tinderfox actually started half a dozen of the other Tinderfoxes already in their various berths laughing as well.

“That backfired on you,” Vibeke laughed in response to the grumbling from Einar.

Vibeke’s laughter cut off a moment later with a yelp of surprise and a yowl from Blair.

“Gods above, Blair! I told you to stay on the bed while I was unpacking. Are you okay, love?” Vibeke sighed in exasperation.

Casey didn’t comment. His two friends were still getting used to the vagaries of having a spirit beast with you at basically all times, but things were going well so far.

We’ll see how long that continues, hopefully for quite a while, Casey thought as he sat down on the edge of his hammock-bed to wait for launch.

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Liftoff on Runa’s flagship was far smoother than on the smaller patrol ships, with the enchantments woven over the massive construct helping to blunt the force used to get it up into the air and moving.

It also turned out that there were several other arrays woven into the ship to prevent the wind kicked up by their passage from blowing things and people away, which Casey was glad of. He’d taken to studying the slim book of guidelines and expectations of the Roaring Mountain whenever he had the chance, reading it over and over to memorize the information contained within.

It was expected for every member of the Roaring Mountain to contribute to the whole while also maintaining the territory that the Roaring Mountain called its own. On top of that, every one of them was expected to train and be ready for battle should the Fomori threaten their borders or another clan attack.

The land that they called their own was absolutely ridiculous in size. It was hard to tell based on the crude maps that didn’t have measurements of scale on them, but Casey was almost positive that the land claimed by the Roaring Mountain might be larger than the entire state of Texas by maybe half.

The fact that so much land was held by only a few thousand people was astonishing, but Casey supposed that it was necessary for the numbers of spirit beasts that a single clan could or would cultivate. It made sense to Casey why the Roaring Mountain maintained the fleets of qi-ships—the official designation that Casey finally discovered for the flying longships—that it did while also having mounted and flying patrols crossing their lands.

Not all of their time on the qi-ship was spent in study, or even a large part of it really.

While Einar and Vibeke had a secondary volume on care and raising of their chosen spirit beasts, he spent his time talking with the elder drengr who had similar animals to him. The Shatterhoof elk specifically were interesting, and gave him some insight into what sort of foods he should be looking for to give to Magnus and help his friend grow further.

Since the space on the ship was limited, even one the size of Runa’s flagship, all of the drengr on board had a rotating shift of when they could use the larger forward section of the decking for their training. 

Some would meditate or cultivate from cores, while others would go through weapon forms. The majority, however, sparred with each other, and when it wasn’t their turn, they’d also use the central space between the bunks in the lower hull to spar as well.

Casey, Vibeke, and Einar would usually join in on those spars, giving as well as they usually got and being sure to keep to those in their relative strength range by three Steps or so.

More than a few of the elder drengr were surprised that Casey was a new addition to the clan, given the amount of skill that he showed from his constant drilling with Maude and their teamwork.

The weapon-woman would continually whisper advice or instructions to Casey while they fought, and he kept her in the shorter seax form for most of those fights, enjoying the fact that many would underestimate his shorter weapon because of its simple styling.

Runa watched him like a hawk, and it made Casey a little nervous to constantly be observed by the stern woman. Runa was relentless, and Casey could feel the weight of her eyes on him whenever he emerged from the bunk space he was given.

If Runa wasn’t watching him, Ragna was. The stern drengr woman only thawed when Casey broached the subject of her weapon and asking her for any insight in fighting with an axe. Ragna gave him several short lectures on axe fighting that actually illuminated a weakness in his own developing fighting style: the shield.

While he hadn’t used the shield much in practical fighting, now that Casey had gotten his hands on several of the simple wooden shields favored by regular warriors and young drengr alike, he had started working on that. Something that hadn’t come up with his sparring was the fact that the shield itself was not a guarantee of protection. Ragna educated him on how some weapons, like her single-handed axe, could swing with a great deal more force than expected and how certain techniques were designed specifically for breaking shields.

So Casey worked with Maude to figure out ways to mimic the effect of a technique that Ragna described as an example called Thunder God’s Smite.

The technique was intended specifically to sunder a shield and the arm beneath it, meant to be launched early in a fight to knock an opponent out with a broken or cloven arm. It was mean, unexpected, and—as Maude confirmed—something that Thor himself would have approved of.

In a true fight for your life—which any battle should be treated as such—you do what you need to in order to survive. There are sometimes rules, like not leaving the ring in a holmgang or fighting to first blood. But every time you draw steel, you fight like your life is on the line. Uncle would wholeheartedly exploit such a technique, and say that a broken arm was better than a stove-in skull if his opponent complained, Maude advised him after that particular lesson with Ragna.

Not saying it’s a bad idea, Casey replied as he leaned back against Magnus and watched the battle in front of him. Einar was facing off against another hammer-wielder, this one at Casey’s level and almost twice Einar’s Step. His big friend was holding his own, fending off attacks with nimble flicks of his hammer, but unable to get the opportunity to attack.

Aiden gave a little yip from his spot on Casey’s lap and he resumed petting the small Tinderfox. He’d had to hold onto Aiden to keep the little spirit beast from racing off to help his human at first. Aiden had calmed down now, but was still clearly anxious from the trembles and wiggles that wracked his body.

It also seems like a technique that would be good for penetrating armor or defensive techniques, Casey continued in his mental conversation with Maude. Though I worry about it being more fatal since powering through a physical shield would cut a good chunk of the strength from a hit, but if that same ‘shield’ is instead a technique to reinforce the skin…

That would be the point, love, Maude reminded him gently. If you have to power through a physical defensive technique like that, you need every ounce of power you can get. Half-measures could get you killed.

Casey couldn’t argue with that sentiment either. In a life-or-death situation, he wasn’t going to hesitate in the slightest.

So yeah, definitely something we need to start working on. There has to be a way to adapt the properties of steel from our Legacy to get something like that to work. I’ve only got the two techniques and I’m seeing folk in my power range have an average of four or five, Casey sent back as Einar parried another attack, this one sending sparks flying from his hammer.

Now is the time to start working on that, Maude agreed. Having a technique to pierce armor is a good choice, and that it would be able to break shields is also good. We also can take into account how my alternate forms will assist too. 

Still don’t want to share that around more than I have to, Casey replied as Einar finally missed a parry and was sent sprawling by his opponent.

The slight woman he’d been fighting laughed and slung the larger two-handed hammer over one shoulder and bent to haul Einar to his feet.

“You did well, Riggsson! Practice more in finding your rhythm and then adjusting it to disrupt my strikes. Against a larger weapon like mine, the key is the wind up. Even with my greater strength letting me muscle it about easier.”

“Appreciate the tip, Drengr,” Einar huffed, accepting the hand up and landing lightly on his feet before swiping at the sweat on his forehead. “I need to work hard to keep up with my friends.”

“Keep it up and you’ll make your little Aiden proud!” the woman answered, clapping Einar on the shoulder.

Clearly seeing the fight was over, Aiden wiggled free of Casey’s lap and raced across the deck to start sniffing about Einar’s feet and paw at his leg, clearly wanting to check on his human.

Einar chuckled and squatted down to scoop the frantic Tinderfox up, putting him within range of that rampant tongue to start licking his face frantically.

“I’m fine, Aiden! Calm down,” Einar sputtered, still laughing despite being assaulted by the fuzzy creature in his arms.

Aiden ignored his human’s attempts to placate him, instead flailing the air with his tail while wriggling in Einar’s grip to get closer.

“Go sit down and rest,” the chuckling woman said before glancing over to see Casey watching them. “Want a round?”

“Sure, why not,” Casey replied with only a moment of hesitation.

Be careful, you are going to have an even harder time deflecting her blows with me than Einar was with his hammer, Maude reminded Casey as he rose and dusted himself off.

It’s not a risk of damaging you, is it? Casey asked mentally as he drew Maude from her sheath.

Psh, no! Maude replied with a rude sound. Even in my lowest form, her weapon would not harm me. After consuming the meteorite, I’ll have to be careful to not take the head off her weapon.

Catching Runa watching from the upper deck, Casey nodded to her while replying to Maude in his mind.

Please don’t, I don’t want to have to replace the weapon for her…

Fine, but only because you asked, Maude replied airily as the two drengr began to circle each other for the sparring match.

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That night, Casey slept hard in the wake of his training.

None of the drengr with them aboard the flagship pushed further than was polite, which Casey was grateful for. It meant that all three of them could learn without risking their qi reserves.

That training, combined with the work that he and Maude had been doing to try and build a new technique helped stave off the nightmares of the Fomori horde for once.

Instead, Casey dreamed of his time up on the mountainside beside the lake. Of the strange stone formation within the deep water, the cherry-tree spirit, and his promise to spread her seeds further across the land.

As he relived his time up on the mountainside, Casey was struck with just how peaceful and wonderful it was. At that time, he hadn’t been racing against a clock or fleeing opponents. He was still experiencing this world for the first time and really coming to appreciate all the strange things and wondrous moments he was gifted with.

Thinking about the taste of those cherries and his promise to the elemental, Casey was reminded of the plum dryad that he’d met on his trip into the Roaring Mountain again, and of the singular pit from the qi-rich plum that he still had within his bag.

I wonder what would happen when I plant that? Casey wondered as the dreams faded and the light of day returned to him.

There were still plenty of mysteries and wonder for him to discover yet, and that thought made him smile.