Nimbus gray skies rocked the aging spirit ship like a toy in a giant's fist. Wind and altitude made the timbers groan.
The sky fairing crew swarmed the moss slick ropes, boots skidding, bodies swinging in hard arcs as they fought to furl the sails against the ship's bucking roll.
On the main deck, the ones who had flown before clenched their jaws and braced their knees against the whirl.
They still stumbled when the deck lurched, but pride kept their faces hard.
They barked at the juniors for weak wills, for not reading the manuals, for not preparing their minds.
Then the planks kicked again and they tripped like everyone else, pretending the slip was part of the lesson.
Radeon kept to the edge and watched Fay take the ship's battering trials.
Unlike the others, she stayed low under the table nailed tight at the deck's center.
Her hand bled where it had crushed against the bench edge. Knuckles white. Breath coming in sharp bursts that fogged the air in front of her mouth.
'Not her most graceful, but looks steady enough. Time for me to move.'
With a veteran's ease, fast and sure, Radeon kept his body small as he slipped from rope to rope in tight, quiet swings.
When the hull swiveled hard, he used it, timing the sway to slide into the ship's blind side.
He caught the narrow ledge that ran around the hull and flattened himself to it, just another strip of shadow clinging to wet wood.
"Disappear," he murmured.
As he vanished, he hugged the railing along the outer hull and edged toward the cargo stairs, one careful step at a time.
Cooks and their apprentices hunched over crates of dried meat and oats, cursing under their breath as they fought the ship's careen.
Radeon slipped past them in the churn, using their bodies and the swinging ropes as cover.
He ducked into the shadow of the cargo stairs and went down into the hold. Men stood in heavy silence below, braced wide as if rivets held their boots to the planks, hands locked around swords and shields.
No one spoke. They only listened, waiting for whatever would come through.
Whether it meant trouble, or a thief come to skim the best from the crates.
'Not Breath Tempering. Second cultivation stage. Mid to peak Cornerstone Setting. Five. Six. Seven of them.'
Radeon's feet did not shuffle. They placed, heel then toe, slow enough to cheat the ear.
He edged past the guards so close his sleeve nearly kissed their armor, sliding by them one after another with his breath locked tight in his chest.
As he passed one more, his hand caught on a crate, precious herbs, their scent leaking through the seams and tempting him to start his heist right there on the ship.
'Looks good, but not now. I'll come back for it.'
He shoved the greed down and fixed on what he needed to know.
What fed the ship's flight, and whether it was worth the risk.
'One guard at the end, bored enough to lean on his spear. Too strong. Third stage, gilded core. I can't read him. Cloak might not fool his senses.'
Radeon kept to the crates, never crossing the man's direct line of sight. He timed each step to the ship's heave, slipping forward when the hull groaned loudest.
The guard straightened, frowning at the flicker. Radeon was already at the end of the cargo maze.
There, the array that made the ship stay afloat lay ahead.
Twenty-four middle-grade spirit stones sat in a careful ring, each the size of a thumb and holding a soft inner glow.
He tried to pry one loose, but it would not budge.
Forcing it would make a click, loud as a shout to a gilded core's ear, so he let it go and followed the heat along the boards instead.
'Shame. Spirit stones like that don't come easy. Got what I came for, at least.'
Radeon left the hold and followed the tug of energy. The ship's hum pressed against his palms as he ran his hands along the boards.
Heat threaded the grain, packed deep in the planks and buried under grime near the stairs up to the deck.
Radeon's touch found where warmth pooled.
One plank lay a shade cleaner, the brown of it subtly wrong among the dark boards, edges faintly stained as if something beneath had been cooking it for years.
He put his fingers under the board's lip and pried it up.
Silver, old and smoke dark, stared back at him, palm sized like a heavy coin with an eye pressed into its face.
'Propeller or stabilizer node. Won't drop the ship. Wired to windstones and hoverstones. It'll just stagger. Should be enough… maybe. No time to check. I'll just find out.'
He shaped an invisible blade of qi and cut into the silver, holding his breath to keep it quiet.
The array node gave one last hard ring, then shattered.
"What was that sound?"
"Who's creeping in my hold? Show yourself, now!"
The ship yawed hard. Barrels and bundles crashed to the deck in a thunder of loose cargo.
"Emergency descent! All hands, brace!" a voice bellowed from the quarterdeck.
By the time he burst back up the cargo stairs, the deck was already heaving, men and women pinwheeling as crates and bodies slammed together.
Radeon threw himself into the chaos, stumbling with men who had more pride than experience.
"Somebody! Help me! It hurts, it hurts," Radeon cried, his acting blending with the others.
With each lurch, he twisted from side to side until the last sway flung him within reach of the center table, where he could make a clumsy scramble up beside Fay.
"S-Senior... why are you shouting? W-what happened? Did you do something?" Fay asked, her voice thin with fear.
"Later. For now, move."
The gale howled around the hull and drove sheets of rain past the rails. The old first mate's bell tolled, sharp as a slap.
"Prepare to anchor! Hands to the lines!" he bellowed, his voice cutting through the storm.
The deck shuddered under their boots as the ship dipped. The fields below jumped into view, swelling larger with every breath.
He dragged Fay toward the bow. He had knocked on every plank of this cursed deck and knew this patch by sound.
Different wood. Denser. Enough to buy time, but not enough to lean their lives on.
The rope he had told her to pack bulged at the side of her bag.
Radeon yanked it free, fingers working fast as he pushed a thread of qi along the cord to stiffen it.
He looped one end through the free rails near the bow and hauled it tight, then ran the other around her waist and under her thighs, cinching a rough seat against the rail.
"S-Senior, w-wait! What are you doing?" Fay barely managed to get the words out, mind lagging behind his hands.
Radeon said nothing. Still not satisfied, he pulled off the leather that held their pass and buckled it tight across her chest.
Rope wove under her arms and shoulders, leaving only her arms and legs loose.
"Don't talk. Grit your teeth."
As if to mock him with an omen, the captain rang the alarm bell himself, face gone cold.
Their lives were now on the line.
"Drop anchor! Strike the sails!"
"Aye, Captain!"
The anchor tore free and the sudden drag made the hull buck upward before it sagged again.
Even the most seasoned crewmen went pale. Radeon knew this was the start of pandemonium.
Iron claws on the anchor chain below hit the trees with a crack and tore through them, dragging a screaming wake of splinters and leaves.
The ship jerked as if a giant hand had grabbed its tail.
Men and women who lacked the grit of the sky were ripped off their feet and hurled toward the rail.
"Merciful gods, I'm just a cook!"
"Senior Brother, help me!"
The galleon's anchor plowed true, then caught fast between two black rocks.
Ropes snapped out as the crew loosed their lines.
Hooks bit through wet cotton and wool, snagging belts and sleeves and bare wrists, catching those who would have fallen.
Silk and cotton tore. Knots slipped loose.
The unlucky ones dropped screaming into the deathly heights below.