Fantasy Vampire Corps of Eldergaard

[Mikotsuhime]

For a second, the cargo bay was silent, but then a short whistle sounded through the air.

Lanea had folded himself into one of the tight corners, where nobody would think to look to find him. It was a habit from when he was a kid, hiding when he was upset, and it wasn't like he could hole up in his room here. He was furiously rubbing his eyes when Alyx approached, trying his best not to look like he had been crying, but it was kind of a moot point. He was an ugly crier, and he always looked terrible afterwards.

"What are you doing here?" He hissed, clenching his hands into his coat at his sides. He could see that she was not wearing the clothes she had been when she was brought in, and had disguised herself as one of Maksim's fledglings. Was that his idea? It must have been, she wouldn't have gotten out otherwise.

God, he felt pathetic. Everybody around him was only seeing him at his worst, and after three years, he was exhausted. He just wanted to go home already, see Rose and maybe see his mom, and the cats that hung out in their fortress because they knew they got free fish when he was around. But none of that was Alyx's fault. It wasn't Maksim's fault, and it wasn't his fledgling's fault, either. He was still a bit mad at him, angry that he would accuse him of something so terrible, but moreso he was angry with himself.

He hated the person this war had made him into.

"If you get caught, you and Maksim'll both be in trouble. Besides, you haven't eaten yet, and you look exhausted."

 

[jones573]

"People are rarely interested in understanding things that don't come easily to them," she agreed.

Gigi couldn't imagine dragons- The biggest animal she saw on the regular were horses, and those were always well domesticated.

She was going to ask more about them, except the helmeted fledgling reappeared, carrying a tray of food, and her eyes narrowed. Alyx might trust Maskim, but Gigi was going to enforce her 'wary' stance on all vampires until solidly proved otherwise.

He put it and a bag of blood down on a table outside the cells and unlocked hers before coming inside. Without saying anything, he loosened the bindings around her wrists and her ankles- She was still bound and they could presumably be retightened, but for now she could at least shuffle about the cell. He relocked the door when he left, and pushed the tray of food through the slot.

Presumably, that was her cue to eat, but she was distracted by the hurried presence of Maskim.

His fledgling nodded at the orders, and went to stand at the neck of the hall to the brig. She supposed that was point in his favor, when she saw him settle where he could keep an eye on her and anyone approaching- He was clearly willing to go along with his sire's madcap plans.

What in the world was that about?, she wondered.

"...Yes, sire," the bigger man said when Maskim asked him a question, though after a beat he clarified. "To the first one, sire."

He didn't seem to be holding himself to intimidate anymore- If anything he seemed upset, or maybe ashamed. He glanced down to the tray of food she hadn't moved towards, and back towards her face.

"It isn't poisoned," he said gruffly, and she snorted. She didn't think it was- She hadn't picked it up yet only because she'd been distracted.

She went to get the tray, noting the way the beans had slopped up along the side, and the minimal water in the cup.

"You spill the water?," she asked.

"...Yes," he replied.

"You'd never make it in food service," she told him.

"...No."

Well, he certainly wasn't the talkative sort, was he?

 

[Reynarda]

Maksim wanted to fuss at Fredrick because he could have gotten both prisoners killed if Lanea actually was a terrible person, but he could tell his fledgling was punishing himself enough. Besides, Georgiana was there, and he realized with no small alarm that he had dropped his act in front of her. Well, there was no going back now.

He sighed and flopped in one the chairs in the center of the brig. When Fredrick called him "sire" for the third time, he groaned. "Stop it. You're getting on my nerves."

Maksim glanced at Georgiana. "Oh, leave him alone, Princess. You're lucky you got what you got. That might be the only food you get. Speaking of."

He stood and picked up the blood for Alyx. Holding it to his chest, he paced. How long had she been gone? What if they got caught? What if Lanea used this as an opportunity to get back--no, no. He wouldn't do that.

Maksim sighed and shot Fredrick a look. "Is she gets caught, I'm blaming you. I'm not going to tell the admiral you did it, but know I will go to my grave blaming you."



Alyx followed the whistle and found a very upset interrogator. She dropped her eyes to the floor so she wouldn't embarrass him further and sat next to him with a groan. Pulling her hood off, she chuckled. "I'm not going to get caught. I only get caught when I let myself get caught. And stop your worrying. I'm the one who's supposed to be worried about you, not vice versa."

She was silent for a second before sighing. "Look, I don't know what happened and I don't need to, but I'm just going to sit here if you need me. And I know we don't really know each other very well, but..." She paused, thinking about how touch-starved Maksim had been. "If you need a hug or something, let me know. Or, if you need me to break Maksim's nose, I can do that. Maybe it'll get him to stop talking about how pretty he is."

Alyx flashed Lanea a grin and then leaned her head back against a crate and closed her eyes. "And don't worry. I won't tell anyone you're secretly a good person who cares about his friend."

 

[Mikotsuhime]

Lanea couldn't help but flush when she said that she was worried about him. He wasn't used to anybody worrying about him, and he wasn't quite sure how to handle it. It felt kind of nice, if embarrassing.

"It- No, it's fine. It's not him," he said quickly. The anger he had felt at the accusation had fizzled out, and he was left just feeling so, so tired.

He was quiet for a moment, just enjoying the company of somebody else. Slowly his fingers elaxed their hold on his coat, and he exhaled softlly.

"You know," he said after a moment, because the silence was getting overbearing. "I know we're not really friends or anything, but I really liked you as a kid. You were always pretty nice to me."

He didn't look at her face, because he wasn't very good at talking about his feelings. But maybe it would make him feel better, a bit, to get them out.

"I know why people think of me the way they do. I don't give them any reason not to, so I don't have the right to complain. But I just... I hate it," he said quietly.

He flushed again when Alyx referred to Rose as his friend. She wasn't even implying anything inappropriate, but still. They were friends. It was nice to hear it, and he couldn't help but smile a bit.

"Thanks for that. I don't know what I'd do if people thought I had friends."

 

[jones573]

Gigi had picked up the tray and begun to eat.

"Sorry," she said. "Didn't mean to seem ungrateful- Just wanted to see if he talked nearly as much as you," she admitted.

It would be interesting to learn more from fledglings that weren't under Alyx's command- Though maybe her command and Maskim's were more similar than she'd initially imagined.

It certainly wasn't the worst food she'd ever had- She guessed it had come from the crew's mess. Even a ship this big wouldn't have specific kitchens just for prisoners.

After a moment, she spoke again. "Can I... Talk freely?"

She assumed she could, seeing as Maskim had literally just let Alyx out of her cell, but it was always good to check. Maybe her cell was under higher surveillance somehow. Maybe Maskim trusted his fledgling to know that he was helping a fellow commander, but not a foreign noble.

"When we first met," she asked. "You told the Admiral that the Captain was unaware of my.... 'ruse', even though both she and Alyx suggested it to me. Why did you lie? Or is she more difficult to... Do whatever it is you do to?"

It occurred to her that she was not being very careful with her own thoughts, but- She had no idea how to go about shielding them. She was scared and tired and confused and a touch curious, and she supposed there wasn't much use in hiding any of that.

 

[Reynarda]

Maksim shrugged at Georgiana's apology. He hadn't really cared about what she said, but he did feel a little bad for Fredrick. It was probably hard talking to a sister who thought he was dead. At least, he assumed. None of his sisters had ever cared about him much and would probably all celebrate when died.

He waved vaguely at the room. "Alyx snapped the listening wards when she was last here, and no one has bothered to put them back up. We don't tend to keep prisoners long, anyway." He caught her glance at his fledgling and snorted. "He won't rat you out, Princess."

Maksim stopped pacing at her question. He could just lie. She had given him an out. He could pretend Astrid Leon had wards or something. "Damn, you had to deal with Sebastian Grivvin and no one told you how our magic worked?" He chuckled. "That was cruel of them--smart, but cruel."

Maksim resumed his pacing. "I assume you'll be wanting the truth, then. But information isn't free, Princess. I'll answer your question, but you have to answer mine. It's a common game--perhaps you heard Alyx and I playing it when she had me pinned to the floor. Or maybe my fledgling held your full attention." He shot her a grin. "I lied because I owed Alyx a favor and she asked me to." He had regretted it instantly because he had had no idea his crazy fiancée was planning on getting herself captured so she could reclaim the princess. They were supposed to just give up the princess, get a slap on the wrist, and then continue their patrol. "My turn. Why is Alyx so convinced she needs you? What makes you so special that she wouldn't just give you up? Surely another royal would do?"




Alyx chuckled. She hadn't thought Lanea would want her to break Maksim's nose or she would not have offered. She would never hit Maksim unless they were physically fighting for some reason other than they were angry at each other.

She sat quietly, allowing her mind to rest. She liked quiet, and there hadn't been much of it in the past three years. She just listened to his breathing to make sure he was okay.

When he spoke, Alyx blinked her eyes open. He was not looking at her, so she faced the same direction he was to give him privacy. She blinked, a little surprised. She didn't see herself as a friendly or nice person. She knew she was loyal to those she was close to, but she also knew she treated most people with polite indifference and tended to come off as aloof until she grew comfortable with people. And she figured most people didn't like her. But she did remember meeting Lanea quite a few times. He was a few years older, but she had always been fearless talking to the older kids. And... well. He had seemed lonely.

"You smiled at me," she said. "First time we met. So I figured you must be an alright kid."

She nodded as Lanea spoke. "It's okay to be upset about it. I don't like that people think I'm a heartless monster who enjoys destroying entire crews." She cleared her throat. That was only partly true. She didn't care that people thought she was heartless, and she did enjoy her plans working, but. "I do care, very deeply. I just can't show it or people will get hurt. And I have to be ruthless to protect my people." She lightly touched his arm. They weren't really friends, exactly, and she had no idea if he wanted to be touched. But he probably needed kindness--did Rose touch him? Rose didn't seem like a touchy-feely guy--not in the way that Astrid was always touching her, anyway--but maybe Rose had been able to offer him some comfort in the past. "We've had to act like these people to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe, but we're not those people, and it's frustrating when people look at us and only see the mask we've put up." She paused. "And Maksim and I should have known better, but we let fear dictate our actions, and I'm sorry for that."

Alyx nudged him lightly with her shoulder. "Don't go getting on my bad side, or I might start telling people you're secretly nice. And he's a good guy, your friend. We had a bit of a rocky start--he threatened to murder my fledgling and I was subsequently very nasty to him--but he's good." She paused, her cheeks darkening. It might amuse Lanea, and it was a bit funny now. "He also came running into the bathroom when I had nothing but a towel on because my stupid captain decided to dry my clothes with wind magic and it knocked a bunch of stuff over. My fledgling was laughing so hard, I was worried he was going to pass out." Alyx chuckled. "But, he thought we were being attacked, I think. He was looking out for us. And, his little brother is a treasure, but watch out. He's lethal with one of those... fire-torch things and a bit of silver. Just ask Maksim."




Henryk Salazar had been ordered by his mother to go atone for all the trouble he had caused. She fully blamed him for having to let Draya and her fledgling sit in on the opening presentation as well as all the bowing and scraping she had had to do. And now that Alyx had been taken, her fledgling was making demands. Lucia had actually accepted that Leo was Alyx's legitimate fledgling and had rights to make demands, but she was still going to yell at her son about it.

So Henryk was leading a group of the best magi out to the wreckage. It would not be a difficult task, but it would be a tedious one that would take them several hours. They carved easily enough through the landscape on their way there, but it would be more difficult getting a ship back.

To make matters worse, there was somebody already there.

The six vampires behind him readied for a fight, and Hendryk called, "You are messing with property of allies of Clan Salazar. Step away from it or suffer the consequences."

 

[Mikotsuhime]

Lanea felt all warm and fuzzy inside when she said he must have been alright. It wasn't something people said about him often, and he did have a bit of a goofy smile on his face, even though he tried to hide it.

"Thanks," he said, and he really meant it. It wasn't even so much that she apologized, but the fact that she knew that he wasn't the person that he pretended he was, and that she believed in him meant a lot. He did jump a little when she touched him, but then quickly relaxed. It was nice to be touched sometimes.

When the topic shifted to Rose, he could feel his cheeks heating up again, but in a good way. She thought he was a good guy, even though they were enemies, and even though she wasn't even talking about him, Lanea felt proud.

"Yeah. We didn't really have a smooth start either," he admitted, because Rose had been trying to kill him, and Lanea's fledgling had kind of ripped his arm off. "But he's just... He cares a lot, about so many things. And it's like... he looks at you, and he sees you, through whatever fronts you're trying to put on."

He laughed at the bathroom story, just a small chuckle, but it had clearly improved his mood.

"Yeah, that sounds like him," he said fondly, then stopped. Wait, was she saying what he thought she was saying? He did finally turn to look at her, if only because he was a bit flabberghasted. "Wait, Hyacinth did that to Maksim's face? Seriously?"

 

[jones573]

"Vampires have been surprisingly not very cooperative in explaining their perceptions of how any magic works," Gigi said wrly. "Shocking, but true."

She raised an eyebrow at his suggestion of a 'game'. "I don't trust you entirely, but it seems to be in my best interest to cooperate," she admitted. "I would just answer your questions, you know."

Everything with vampires was so.... Transactional. Even with presumed allies, it seemed.

She looked surprised at his question.

"I wasn't aware I was all that important to Alyx," she admitted, thinking. "Well... For one thing I suppose, I'm the only royal here, so. I don't think another would do."

The fledgling looked away suddenly, and Gigi was concerned he'd seen someone approaching down the hallway. But there was no further indication that might be the case, so after a moment she continued.

"I guess maybe she thinks my ideas to make the vampire corps less effective actually have a chance of working," Gigi mused, which she had mixed feelings about. On the one hand, it was quite a vote of confidence. On the other hand- Gigi was no longer in a position to do any work on those ideas. Alyx was just one more person to let down.

"When I told her that my father had already tried to surrender, I think- That was the tipping point," Gigi decided. "When she realized as much as she and all of you had to lose by doing something- You would lose even more by doing nothing."

She wasn't sure what she should ask in return.

"Alyx behaves because they have her brother," she said. "Do most of the Commanders have someone being held hostage to assure their obedience?"

Maybe her love of science was blinding her to simpler solutions- If they could free the hostages, the Commanders could act as they pleased.

She thought of Crane, and the mission he'd made his reputation with when he was young: Free three Allarians from a high-security Drasiac compound during the Eastern Sea Conflict, with no back up and little resources. Instead, he'd liberated all 37 Allarian prisoners-of-war, 13 from other countries, and only killed two guards in the process.

He'd never told her how he'd done it- Classified information, he'd remind her, plus he didn't want her getting any ideas. He'd insisted he hadn't used any magic. But Drasia didn't use magic much, so.... It would probably be much harder to free a hostage from Eldergaard, she imagined.




There was some mild cussing from within the ship, as though someone had sat up suddenly from beneath the dash and whacked his forehead on the lower part of the console.

"Well, seeing as it's my property- or nearabout anyways," the man inside called out. "I reckon that makes me an ally of Clan Salazar, eh?"

"If you are Clan Salazar then I think we shall be getting along just fine- If you are not, I must tell you I have a firearm and will shoot upon you as authorized by the Allarian crown," he warned.

This was a lie. He did not have a fire arm. Well, he did, but he'd used the bullets to catch his meal, and the Nighthawk had wisely been stripped of any extras. But he had some wrenches he was more than willing to throw, if these folks were here to cause him trouble.

 

[Reynarda]

Maksim chuckled. "That's vampires for you, sweetheart. We're not the most forthcoming species."

He did notice her use of the word "perception" which he felt was a bit pretentious of her. It didn't bother him in the slightest, but he was beginning to see why she rubbed Alyx the wrong way. They were both know-it-alls.

"I would be concerned about you if you did just trust me based on this one outlying event," he said with a grin. He got tired of holding the blood bag and stuffed it in his pocket. "But you can hardly expect me to trust your free answers, either."

"Eh, Alyx is a schemer." Maksim said, waving his hand while he continued to pace like a nervous cat. "I meant that she seems to think she needs you for her plans."

Maksim shrugged. "Yes, well, you have many siblings, do you not?" He paused, wondering if he should know that outside of Fredrick. "The admiral thinks you do at least," he decided. "Can't your family just send another one if you die? That's what I mean. Why you specifically?"

He considered, wondering what sorts of plans she had. Despite his incessent pacing, he was keeping an eye on her. He was getting a little tired--his magic didn't take a ton of energy, but it took focus, and he was starting to get a headache. But she seemed fairly honest about her intentions. And while he doubted that some human Allarian princess would actually be able to help them, he was curious.

Maksim stopped pacing when Georgiana mentioned what she thought must have changed Alyx's mind. He didn't look at her, just stared at the floor. After a few long seconds, he let out a sigh. Yeah, that would have done it. And to be told by the princess. No wonder she had been so messed up.

At the mention of Alyx's brother, he glanced over at Georgiana and frowned. Alyx had told her about Cyril? No, Salazar had probably brought it up to be mean. He couldn't help thinking of the little kid, and how cheerful he had been when Maksim had last influenced the admiral to let him check on Cyril.

He rubbed his head and decided to stop using his magic. "Alyx is... a special case as far as I'm aware. The rest of us were a little less... stubborn about turning fledglings." He thought about not fully answering the question, but garnering a little sympathy never hurt. Maksim folded his arms across his chest, but didn't look at Georgiana. "No, they don't exactly have hostages for all of us, but they threaten to attack our families once this war is over and they have... other means."

Maksim rolled his shoulders as his back tensed involuntarily. He stood like that for a few seconds, then the cocky smile returned and he flicked his eyes to Georgiana. "What sort of great plans are you going to use to ride in on your white horse and save us vampires, my dear Princess?"







Alyx smiled. She was still just sitting looking straight ahead, but she could tell by the tone of his voice that he was starting to feel better.

"I don't doubt it," Alyx sighed, wondering how Lanea and Rose had ever become allies, much less friends. She had become shaky allies with him out of necessity--and, well, the talk they'd had had helped as well. She liked Rose, but she'd take him down if he went after Astrid or Leo. But she was not about to start prying into Lanea's history with Rose. The goal was to make Lanea feel better, not worry him that she had ulterior motives.

“Yeah, he does,” she agreed on Lanea’s assessment of Rose's uncanny abilities. "It's very annoying."

And he had caught her being overprotective of Leo, so that had helped him, as well. But then a thought struck her, and she side-eyed Lanea. Had he tattled on her to Rose? She couldn't really imagine him giving Rose tips on how to take her down, but... what if he had been explaining the commanders and their squadrons and casually slipped her name in there or something? Now she wanted to know what he said. If she ever got Rose alone, she might demand to know if Lanea had ratted her out.

She smiled at his chuckle, glad her mortification continued to bring people great joy.

Alyx blinked and looked at him at his question. "Yes, of course, what did you..." she trailed off, and then her expression hardened into wry understanding. "He's been telling everyone different stories hasn't he."

She groaned, remembering the time when they were teenagers that a baby griffin bit Maksim's collar bone because he had been stupid enough to pick it up and he told everyone a different story except for Sebastian and Dominik, whom he told the mark was a hickie Alyx had left. She only found out because Dominik had nodded to her for once. "If any of his stories involve me, I will drop-kick him into a vat of silver," she groaned, not believing she had been considering seeing if she could heal it without it being obvious. "Yes, it was Cyn. He melted his silver wedding ring on Maskim's face when we were escaping. He shocked both of us, to be honest. He had seemed so sweet, I didn't think him capable of such a thing."




Henryk frowned. They were not supposed to find anyone here. But... had the man said he was authorized by the Allarian crown?

"Who are you?" Hendryk yelled back. "We are Clan Salazar and we are here to retrieve this ship in the name of rescuing Princess Georgiana of Allaria."

 

[Mikotsuhime]

Lanea smiled, because that did sound exactly like the sort of thing Maksim would do.

"Yeah, everybody I asked had a different story. I'm pretty sure the admiral thinks you set him on fire or something," he said with a playful little shrug. "But there's worse things people could think, and he seemed to be having fun with it, so."

He didn't really /know/ Cyn, because he'd never actually met him, but he had heard enough of him that he felt like he did.

"Yeah, he's the baby of their family. They all tried really hard to protect him from all the war bullshit. It... It really sucks that he got roped into this," he said. He felt for Cyn a lot, because he was way too soft to be involved with the military. He was a little surprised that he had attacked Maksim, but he figured he was just trying to help Alyx out. That was the sort of thing he seemed like he would do.

He was really pleased, but he froze when he heard a sound by the cargo bay door. He was worried for a second that they would be caught, but when he saw the woman who came around the corner, his shoulders relaxed a little bit.

Captain Mothgrove did not look like a military woman. She wore her hair short but perfectly styled, the brown so dark that it was nearly black. Her makeup and nails were immaculate, even though they were in the middle of a war. Rather than the pants that she should have been wearing, she had on a black pencil skirt and a pair of black tights, and her boots were swapped out with four inch heels. She was not particularly short to begin with, but the heels added on a fair amount of height. Her jacket pulled a bit around the shoulders, chest and arms, but she didn't look intimidating at all.

"Lanea," she called out, putting her hands on her hips. "I've been looking all over for you."

Lanea shifted a bit as Petra's eyes traveled to Alyx, but then they went right back to him, as though she wasn't interested in a mere fledgling.

"Captain Mothgrove," Lanea said, standing up. He prayed Alyx wouldn't make a big deal out of this. If she played it off, they could get away with it. If she made a scene, then the admiral and everyone else would be in here. "I thought you were waiting back on your own ship."

Petra sighed, rolling her eyes as though Lanea had said something stupid. She crooked her finger, and he quickly stood up to follow after her. His stride was longer than hers, but she hardly seemed to care.

"I was, but you've been gone for more than a day. I'm hungry. If the admiral is going to keep you here, then we'll use his kitchen," she said with a yawn before her eyes went back to Alyx. "You're Grivvin's fledgling, right? I'm stealing my commander for a bit, so go back to your bunk."

She stopped suddenly, looking down at the floor as though she had tripped on something. Lanea was already ahead of her, and she put a hand out to steady herself on Alyx's shoulder as she passed.

"If you make my commander cry again," she said, keeping her voice so low he wouldn't hear it. "I'll have you sent out to the front lines and slaughtered in a week. Ok?"

 

[jones573]

"Yes, I have a lot of siblings," she admitted with a smile. "But shockingly- We are not all interchangeable," she said dryly. "I mean, to some extent we could be, in certain situations. If all you were looking for was someone of royal blood to sign their name and stamp my father's seal on a piece of paper. But not all of my siblings are... Good at talking to people. Or listening to them."

Millicent was a multi-disciplined engineer and a brilliant inventor, and she stuttered over every word. Isadora had never asked for anything in her life- She simply announced what she wanted, and expected it to happen. Freddy could have passed dozens of smaller social changes through the Council over the years, but he was too damn stubborn to compromise. William on the other hand, was too polite for his own good, much less anyone else's.

"But you are right, my father has dozens- hundreds, really- of diplomats and people authorized to speak for him, especially in a situation like this," she told him. "Even my guard came with the King's seal hidden on the back side of one of his buttons, so he could negotiate on the crown's behalf if needed. I was chosen to come for a variety of reasons- My parents, yes. My background in... Clandestine foreign matters."

Technically speaking, she wasn't an agent of the Fifth Division- the name for the branch of the Allarian military that dealt in intelligence and classified operations- but she and Crane took missions at the behest of Isadora, so.

"But the biggest reason is because of my background of study- Magic and the body. How they influence each other. How science can influence them in turn," she explained. "At best, it was a roan mare," she corrected Maskim with a sigh. "These days its looking more like... A mud covered mule," she told him wryly.

"We believed that the Allarian fledglings were being controlled by some blood-related bond between themselves and their sire," she explained. "And that the sires were being controlled by Eldergaardian officers by magical means. So- We hoped we could use science to weaken or even sever those bonds. My old professor and I began experimenting back in Allaria, and found a number of... Interesting ideas about how we might use or science to restore vampire autonomy."

"The professor came to further our research, with the plan that I would join up with her once we had more tangible results we could offer the clans. I would be able to help refine her work- Take the compound she had developed to negate will-control magics, and turn it to a releasable gas. Figure out the exact dose of silver alloy colloid a vampire would need in their own blood to prevent their cells from infecting those of a human. But of course," she sighed. "The problem isn't so simple. So. A simple solution isn't going to be much help."

Which led nicely into her own question.

"So- What are these 'other means' they use to dictate your behavior?"





He was just going to have to trust that they were who they said they were, he supposed. He'd tried to peek out and get a sense of his 'visitors', and the speaker wasn't joking about the 'we'.

There were several pairs of feet out there, and Crane could maybe take one vampire, just because they'd be surprised by an old man attacking them with a wrench. Maybe two. (If he was five years younger, which he wasn't.) Not... However many feet to vampires that was.

"Albert Crane," he said, pulling himself out from beneath the console and straightening up in the door frame. "Royal guard and member of the- Wait," he said, his dark eyes narrowing. "What the fuck do you mean 'rescuing Princess Georgiana'? She was supposed to be meeting you! She never made it?"

If that damn Leon and her damned crew had hurt Gigi, there was going to be hell to pay.

 

[Reynarda]

Maksim could understand that to a certain extent--Sebastian did everything he could to keep Dominik inside his clan's home, after all. So he just nodded. Fair enough.

Maksim arched an eyebrow at the "clandestine foreign matters" bit. Well, that was interesting. And he couldn't really picture her being subtle enough to be clandestine--she had, after all, blown a hole in the side of his ship just two days ago.

He raised the second eyebrow to join the first at her explanation of her specialty. How magic influenced the body? He assumed she meant soul magic and not ward magic, or perhaps it was both? He did chuckle at her use of his metaphor.

He cocked his head to the side and then squinted at her. How did Allarians think the turning worked? He tried not to glance at Fredrick during her explanation, but in the end he figured she might not find it odd that his mind went to his own fledgling. He tried to roll his shoulders to hide the shiver that ran down his spine, but he wasn't sure he was successful.

"Please tell me that Alyx shot down both destroying the sire-fledgling bond idea and the silver-in-our-blood idea," he said dryly. "Destroying the bond for someone like Alyx and her vampires would feel like losing a loved one, and for someone like me and mine, you could end up with a bunch of very bite-y, very strong children on your hands." He nodded back to Fredrick. "This one might be okay because he's a stubborn ass, but not the rest. And," Maksim chuckled darkly, "I know you said it was an alloy, but I think you lot figured out what silver does to us a while ago. No commander is going to let you put silver in their veins, alloy or no. No, it isn't so simple."

Maksim tensed at her question. He didn't want to tell some princess because it made him feel weak and vulnerable and so incapable. It was like being home and at the mercy of his brothers and how they would come after him whenever they were angry about something entirely unrelated. He had to be so careful because otherwise he would be blamed and punished and it was exhausting but he couldn't run off to the clan next door and hide or have them comfort him and treat him like a person because he was on this ship by himself and he was trapped.

Maksim realized he hadn't taken a breath in a while and quickly did so. He flicked his eyes to Georgiana and hardened them. "Why?" he asked, any trace of the lazy smile hidden by a sadistic smirk. "You looking for ideas?"




Well as long as the story went that Alyx had set Maksim on literal fire and not figurative fire, that was fine. And he was right, there were so many worse things, and she had no doubt Maksim was enjoying himself way too much.

She sighed, agreeing in wishing that Cyn had not been dragged into the war. He was far too pure for something like this hell they were trapped in. "He should be at home with his cat with the funny name," she agreed.

She almost asked Lanea if Rose had told him what "pepperoni" was, but she tensed at the sound. Oh, they were so dead. Maybe they could pretend like she had been helping him get something from the hold?

Alyx immediately ducked her head, allowing her hair to fall over her face and adopting a vacant expression. Lanea was going to have to do all the talking as she was dressed like a fledgling.

But Lanea relaxed next to her, and Alyx instantly knew who it was based on the shoes alone. Though they had met on several occasions, Alyx couldn't really figure Captain Mothgrove out. She got away with a lot more than Astrid ever did, and Astrid found her annoying based on this fact. Astrid claimed she was Jorgenson's favorite captain because her dad had known him in the academy, Maksim thought she was sleeping with someone high up--Maksim always thought this whenever he couldn't read someone, so she doubted it--and Alyx just didn't know. In the few times they had been on the battlefield together, Alyx had kept herself and her fledglings far, far away from the fire mage, but she couldn't deny the woman's effectiveness. However, Astrid's dislike of her meant Alyx didn't much care for her either.

But Alyx scrambled to her feet and saluted her as she was a captain and Alyx was pretending to be Maksim's fledgling. She tried to surreptitiously adjust the uniform that was just a little bit too big. Luckily, Petra seemed entirely uninterested in her. And was more interested in... eating? Did Lanea cook for her?

When Petra addressed her, Alyx nodded and murmured, "Aye, Captain."

She was ready to scurry off to her "bunk", but then Petra looked like she tripped, and she steadied herself on Alyx's shoulder. And Alyx froze. What on earth did she think they were doing in the cargo bay that she--Maksim Grivvin's fledgling--had made Commander Grigori, professional torturer, cry? Unless Captain Mothgrove knew he wasn't what he pretended to be? Or... had she recognized Alyx for who she was? They had met before, but Petra had barely looked at her. And could she do that? Could she have a vampire who was not in her commander's squadron killed? Alyx wasn't sure, especially since Astrid had once spat that Petra could get away with murder. But if she tried and she described Alyx, Jorgenson would know instantly that Captain Mothgrove hadn't met one of Maksim's fledglings. All Maksim's fledglings were tall or big. None of them were short and none of them had black eyes.

But she wasn't about to blow her cover now.

Alyx nodded vigorously, figuring a scared fledgling might forget to say anything at first, then said, "Aye, Captain."




"Crane?" Henryk said, frowning at the man in the ship. He certainly looked like the professor. "They told us you'd died in the crash."

However, at Crane's question, Henryk fidgeted. How was he supposed to explain his clan's screw up? After several moments, he cleared his throat. "No, the princess made it to us," he began. "But I'm afraid she was... taken. By members of the Eldergaardian vampire corp. Just today. Her companions are going to rescue her using this ship which is why we're here to retrieve it. We're aiding the one called Barlowe and..." Henryk scowled. "Draya's fledgling."

He did not call Leo a bastard fledgling like he'd wanted, and he wished his mother was there to witness him being polite.

 

[Mikotsuhime]

Petra smiled brightly, seemingly satisfied with Alyx's answer. Lanea turned back to look at them, a suspicious frown on his face, but his captain was already straightening herself out.

"Yes, yes. Now shoo, shoo, we're busy," she said as a dismissal, waving her hand at Alyx to get her to scurry away, or whatever fledglings usually did. Lanea frowned at her and was /going/ to say that she was being rude, but she was pretty much always being rude, and she didn't ever really take his advice anyways. Sometimes it was like talking to a very well-dressed brick wall.

"You heard her," he growled, back to being grumpy and unsociable. "Get lost."

He at least figured she knew that he didn't /mean/ to be grumpy and unsociable, but. Petra might have been closer to him than anyone else in the military, but she was still military.

The second that they were alone, Petra turned and headed towards the kitchen, humming happily as she went. Lanea followed after her obediently, hoping Alyx made it back to the brig without being noticed by anyone. There weren't that many people down here, so it was likely enough. He would feel much better once she was safely back in her cell, though, as much of an oxymoron as that was.

Once they reached the kitchen, Petra adopted her serious face, strolling into the place like she was the admiral and this was her own ship. Lanea followed, looking as intimidating as he could behind her. At least his eyes weren't quite as red anymore.

"Alright, you're all on break!" Petra announced to the kitchen staff, clapping her hands twice. "Shoo, shoo, all of you. Come back in an hour or so, Admiral's orders."

They were most certainly /not/ the admiral's orders, but she didn't really care. Even if he got mad at her, it wasn't like he'd actually do anything to stop her, and she wasn't hurting anyone.

 

[jones573]

"Well, she wasn't exactly thrilled," Gigi admitted. "But maintaining the status quo hasn't been working for you either," she pointed out.

A 'bunch of very bite-y, very strong children' didn't sound fun exactly, but it did sound like the sort of chaos that would slow the Eldergaardian forces. Which was sort of the point.

"Yes, actually," Gigi told Maskim when he asked if she was looking for ideas. "I can't help you restore your autonomy if I don't understand how it was stripped in the first place," she said evenly, aware of his suspicions. "You may not believe this, but I didn't suggest working with vampires because there was no other strategy available. I want us to have a positive relationship going forward- After all," she observed. "We share citizens now."


-----


"Well, I certainly fell from a great height," Crane allowed. "But the ground came to meet me before I could meet the ground," he explained. The landing had still hurt- He'd twisted his ankle badly, and he had bruises in colors he'd forgotten existed.

His face went dark and stormy at Henryk's confession, and for a moment it looked like he might throw his wrench at the heir, or at least yell.

Instead, he muttered something angrily under his breath, and took a deep breath.

"Get to work then," he said tensely, limping out of the ship and collecting the various parts he'd spread out in front of it, dumping them inside the Nighthawk.

He wanted to rip Henryk a new one but- That would delay getting the ship back to the fortress, and delay the plan to save Gigi. Besides, the people he really wanted to yell at were his sister, and Elder Lucia.

And Gigi, a little bit. Though in this case, he suspected this wasn't actually her doing- Clan Salazar had been her final destination, he was pretty sure. But she still..... She could have been more careful, dammit.

 

[Reynarda]

Alyx let out a small breath of relief as the captain straightened. She hadn't really been sure what Petra would do--the woman was so unpredictable, and it made her nervous.

She most certainly did not like being told to "shoo", but Lanea's gruff admonishment reminded her that she was supposed to be locked in a cell and not flitting about dressed as one of Maksim's fledglings.

"Yes, Captain, Commander," she murmured, shooting Lanea a cheery wink before darting around him and jogging back towards the barracks. Once out of sight, she quickly pulled the hood of her scarf up and slowed. She was running on sheer determination, and she didn't want to use it all up by jogging. She had to jump to the side once as an officer walking directly down the middle of the passage had refused to share, but no one else passed her.

Alyx let out a sigh as she approached where Maksim's fledgling was guarding the brig.

"Just me," she said, pulling the hood far enough back so he could see her face.

Maksim was about to chuckle darkly at Georgiana's reminder that they shared citizens, but he turned at the sound of Alyx's voice, relief washing over his expression. "Is he okay? Are you okay?"

"Yes and yes," Alyx said, removing the hood. "His captain showed up and threatened to have me murdered, though."

"What?!" Maksim shrieked.

She snorted and patted his arm. "Don't upset Lanea again and it won't be a problem."

Removing the fledgling coat, Alyx eyed Maksim. He was fidgeting and clenching and unclenching his fists. Even more telling was the lack of suggestive comments."What?" she asked, her tone a warning.

"Nothing," Maksim sighed. When she scowled at him, he huffed and muttered, "She asked how they keep us in line, is all."

Alyx sighed, rubbing her forehead. "Did you get a look at her intentions?"

Maksim grumbled something intelligible.

"Then are you going to tell her or shall I?" Alyx asked.

"I know more about it than you do," Maksim grumbled.

Alyx quirked an eyebrow. "Normally, this is where I would remind you that you got yourself assigned to an admiral, but I think we're passed that."

"And yet you still managed to remind me," Maksim said, rolling his eyes. "Give me your scarf again."

"Excuse me, are you telling me what to do?" Alyx asked, adopting a stubborn pose.

"Get in your cell, Alyxi," Maksim huffed, pushing her into the cell. It wasn't hard. She was about to fall over. "You're still my prisoner." Producing the blood from his pocket, he said, "Here, trade you."

After sitting, Alyx handed him her scarf and took the blood. She bit hungrily into it and slurped very loudly. Maksim gestured pointedly to Georgiana, and the slurping stopped.

Maksim tied Alyx's scarf around his waist and leaned against the chair with his arms folded across his chest. After a few seconds, he sighed. "Well, they separate us, to begin with. There's one commander per ship. Having the three of us here is extremely unusual. Even when we're together, we're not often left alone to talk. So we're isolated. The entire ship is warded against us. Some ships are kinder than others, but some captains have their wards set so that if a vampire's heart rate gets too high, the vampire gets shocked. You can imagine how well that works during battles. Everyone aboard the ship is likewise warded. We can't attack them even if we wanted to. They can use their magic on us, but we can't use ours on them. Sometimes this involved will-controling magics, yes. But really they break our wills with other means. They treat us as less-than-humans, like animals rather than people, which is very demoralizing. So we have to become people we are not to survive. And you may think that at least we have our fledglings to comfort us, but fledglings are... sort of like family to us if we turn them properly. That means that Alyx is forced to send her family to die. I'm not strong enough for that, but that means there is no love between myself and my fledglings. No comfort, no solidarity. And you may think we could mobilize them against our captains, but, there's still the wards. And there's the Eldergaardian chain of command. We are responsible for everything our fledglings do. So... let's say our fledgling defies orders." Maksim did not look at Fredrick, but he wanted to. "We are the ones who are punished, not them. Punishments vary depending on the captain. Starving us is a favorite. But the more violent among them like pain and so have us flogged with silver-coated whips. And of course we can last longer than a human when whipped, so they push it." Maksim took a shuddering breath. "Really, Princess, most of us are just trying to survive so we can get back to our families. But Supreme General Leon obviously has other ideas. I'm sorry to be so cynical, but I don't see how you can help us."

Maksim finally flicked his eyes from the floor to Alyx. She was lying on the floor of her cell, looking up at the ceiling. "You still with us, Alyxi?"

Alyx hummed. "Just thinking. What if we could... rescue the commanders and their squadrons?"

"You and what army? That's stupid and you know it."

Alyx shrugged. "Not any stupider than doing nothing. Maybe if there was just a small group of us."

"All your ideas are crazy don't even pretend they aren't."





Henryk was not really sure what to do about this. He didn't much care how the man had survived because he obviously had. And, for a second, he and the rest of the vampires tensed, thinking the human might jump at them. But he straightened and began giving orders, which seemed typical of humans at this point.

Henryk gave the group a nod. The vampires spread out, working in concert to move the earth under the ship in a treadmill-like fashion. It was slow going, and Henryk was having to carve large trenches through the earth to allow the ship to fit, but they should be able to reach the fortress by nightfall.

 

[Mikotsuhime]

The cook was not particularly happy about Petra commandeering his kitchen like she owned the place, but she did outrank him, so he and the other staff left without too much fuss.

Once they were inside, she headed over to a table in the corner and flopped down, letting out a pleased sigh as she raised her feet up. Lanea frowned as he looked over his shoulder at her, his expression pinched, but he wasn't trying nearly as hard to be scary as he was before.

"You shouldn't wear those shoes, they're bad for your feet and your back," he said gruffly as he began examining the food stores and seeing what there was that he could make. The chef had already been working on something simple, but he knew that if he gave Petra something someone else had been making, she would turn her nose up at it, so he set it aside. He'd have to make enough to feed the whole crew since they had kicked out the kitchen staff, but he didn't mind. He cooked for the whole crew on the Gargoyle all the time, though the Griffin was a fair bit bigger.

"They're designer, and also they make me feel tall," Petra replied as she stretched. Her eyes trailed lazily over to the various counters, and she perked up almost immediately. "They have fruit here? The admiral never gives me enough for fruit, the bastard. I should bug him about increasing our food budget."

Lanea winced, because he /wished/ that she would watch her words where somebody else could potentially hear, but he was also used to it by now, so.

They had more than enough pasta, since it was cheap, easy, and quick to prepare in large amounts. He tossed a whole ton of spaghetti into a pot and filled it with water by snapping his fingers, then began cutting up vegetables and looking for a good protein source for the sauce. There was peanut butter, of all things. Hm, he could work with that. Petra watched him work with interest for a few minutes, then turned back around.

"What were you talking about with Grivvin's fledgling?" she asked, and Lanea's shoulders stiffened.

"It- It's none of your business," he said, because he was used to being grumpy and unagreeable. But Petra just stared at him, and he eventually grunted as he stirred the sauce that he was making, a slight flush coming to his face. "He was being a dick, ok? He sent her after me to pester me, I guess. I wanted to beat the shit out of him, but unlike you, I have respect for the admiral and his crew."

That was a bit of a lie, but it was true that he at least hadn't wanted to get her or anyone else in trouble.

Petra eyed him carefully, then hummed in agreement.

"How long are you staying here? It's so boring without you. I tried sparring with your fledgling and accidentally broke his neck. I think he's dead now, but if that much killed him then he wasn't worth much anyways," she said with a shrug, as if they were talking about the weather. Lanea grimaced.

"At least get rid of the body if you kill someone," he admonished, and she rolled her eyes.

"Yes, mom," she said dryly. He spun around to glare at her, red to the tips of his ears as he sputtered, but she looked completely nonchalant as she stood up and walked over to him, pressing up against his back as she tried to peek over his shoulder at what he was making.

"That smells good... I'm drooling," she said, wrapping her arms around his waist. Lanea grunted again, because he never understood /why/ she was so touchy feely like this, but it was kind of nice, honestly. Though he hoped at least that nobody would walk in, because the last thing he needed was for weird rumours to start flying.




Leo woke up to find himself with a headache from crying and an armfull of captain. He blinked, trying to extricate himself from her without actually waking her up, but he also had to sniffle because he was stuffed up now.

"Astrid?" he asked, only stopping himself from using her rank at the last second. He didn't want to say it even in the privacy of his own room, in case they got in trouble. "Do you know what time it is?"

 

[jones573]

Gigi tensed at the sound of footsteps coming down the hall, but the fledgling relaxed when he saw who it was, and let her pass.

Gigi relaxed a bit too- Not a lot, but maybe she had been a bit worried about Alyx.

She waited patiently as the pair bickered, but paid attention when Maskim began to explain the details.

"...It's not crazy," Gigi agreed with Alyx, after considering for a moment. "At least- Not any crazier than other things I've heard."

"This 'anti-vampire' warding that protects the ship and the crew," she asked. "It can't be tampered with by vampires," she assumed. Because that would be pretty ineffective warding, and because the Commanders would have tried that already. "Can it be tampered with by someone else? Is it a mass system or individualized," she pressed, trying to get a sense of the scale of it. "Like- Does the ward that protect one crew member protect the other, or do they each have their own?"

 

[Reynarda]

Maksim scowled when Georgiana agreed with Alyx that her plan wasn't crazy and pointedly did not look to the floor of Alyx's cell because he could feel her smirking at him. Besides, this was coming from someone who had blown a hole in a ship and then jumped out of it. He doubted Georgiana could be considered reliable source when deciding if something was crazy or not.

Maksim chuckled. "Oh, it can be tampered with by vampires. Depends on how good we are at ward magic. Some of us are quite good, though the humans tend to think we rely only on our soul magic--our innate magic. Only trouble is that the wards are checked and maintained... much like your engineers maintain the workings of your ships, I suppose."

"Speaking of engineers, if I hear any of your stories involved me, I'll melt silver on your other cheek," Alyx said with a yawn.

Maksim snickered before returning his attention to Georgiana. "Anyway, it takes time to tamper with wards unless you run around snapping them like some people do with their soul magic. And they are often corrected before anything can be done with them." He tilted his head, thinking. "It depends on the ship, honestly. They used to have individual wards, but those take time and effort to check and maintain. Most crews opt for individualized wards on their commanding officers but general wards for the crew."

"Max," Alyx said with another yawn. "You're going to get caught down here. I can answer the princess's questions."

Maksim hesitated. He was enjoying talking to someone other than Fredrick. But, yes, he and Fredrick could give the entire game away if they were caught down here, and he needed the admiral to think he was taking vindictive glee in the capture of both prisoners.

He pushed off the chair. "If I leave, you'll miss me terribly."

"Like a headache," Alyx shot back.

"He and I have things to do anyway," Maksim said, nodding to Fredrick. It was a lie, but oh well.

"Does 'he' have a name?" Alyx asked, glancing over at Maksim's fledgling.

Maksim shrugged. "I don't remember it."

Alyx eyed him, and he avoided her gaze. Despite his many failings, Maksim was good with names. He only had to hear a name once, which was how he knew the names of most of Alyx's fledglings. He was lying, and Alyx had no idea why. Perhaps his fledgling wished to remain anonymous? But why?

Maksim dipped his head politely. "Princess. Alyxi."

Alyx nodded in return. Once he and his fledgling were gone, she flicked her eyes to Georgiana.

"Well, today did not go as planned," she sighed. "Why are you asking about the wards? Do you have an idea?"

Maksim glanced over at Fredrick once they were out of earshot. "Your sister sure is a nosy one. Are they all like that?" He paused, then glanced at Fredrick again before fixing his eyes firmly on the corridor in front of them. "You alright? I'm sure it wasn't easy talking to her."





Astrid stirred at the sound of her name and groaned softly. Where were they? Where was--oh. Right.

She rolled over and clapped to activate the glowstones. She groaned at the sudden dim light and pulled out a timepiece. Blinking at it, she yawned. "Mm, after six. Oh! I bet you're hungry."

Astrid pushed herself out of bed and found that a plate of chicken and vegetables had been set on the table along with a bottle of blood. She claimed the tray and brought it back to the bed. Her mom used to tell her not to eat in bed, but Astrid decided she might as well start being rebellious now. Handing Leo the bottle, she sat on the edge of her bed with the plate. "How do you feel?"

 

[Mikotsuhime]

Cooking didn't take too long. Lanea had a lot of practice preparing meals for the human villagers back home, and cooking was one of the few hobbies that he had that he could indulge in while he was in Eldergaardian service. Everyone thought that Petra pestered him because she was a loose canon, but it was more because he had been stress cooking to try and relax and she had found out about it.

She was good to him. He felt bad about lying to her for so long, but it couldn't be helped. He knew that she would never, ever betray Eldergaard.

He put the food on a plate for her, adding a bit of chilli powder to her portion because she was crazy about spicy food. He could get the kitchen staff to come back soon so they could take what he'd made out and serve it, though he didn't really want to reveal that he had been the one who made it. He didn't want to humanize himself to these people. It was better if they thought he didn't have anything he enjoyed.

Petra grinned and clapped her hands as Lanea handed her the plate, though after a moment her face fell.

"There's peas in here," she whined, and he glared at her.

"Peas are good for you," he said in the voice that implied this was an argument they had had many times. She wrinkled her nose at him and tossed a noodle at him. The peanut sauce slopped against the side of his face and his hair, and he did not look impressed as he pulled the noodle off his face. She didn't look like she had done anything wrong, and instead turned around to head to the mess.

"Are you coming to eat with us?" she asked, and Lanea hesitated. It would be strange for him to eat dinner with the human soldiers. He did it on the Gargoyle often enough, but this was not his ship, and he was not comfortable here. A twinge in his side distracted him, though, and he looked down to his side with an idea.

"I got stabbed earlier. I should get it looked at," he said, even though the wound had all but closed over by now. Petra did not look convinced.

"You'll be fine. You can eat dinner with me and get it looked at afterwards," she suggested, but he shook his head.

"It's silver - look, I cooked for you, I want to get medical treatment. Go ahead and eat," he said, and her eyes narrowed. She looked like she wanted to argue further, but after a moment she huffed and spun around. For a moment Lanea wondered if he should have given in to her, because now she'd be in a bad mood for the rest of the night, but he really /did/ want to get his wound checked out, and maybe see if he could get some more blood. As she took her dinner to the mess hall, he went in the opposite direction towards infirm.

He froze for only half a second when he spotted Maksim and Frederick. It was embarrassing seeing them after his display earlier, and he had to try hard to smother the humiliation he felt. He would just walk past them and it would be fine. Soon he would never have to see them again. He just had to walk past them, and he would be fine. He could do this.


Leo groaned as he took the bottle, taking a big swig.

"Like shit," he grumbled, then wiped his mouth with his sleeve. He hadn't even taken off his coat before falling asleep. "But I'll be fine. Rose has probably been working on a plan all day, so we should meet up with him at some point..."

He wanted to be alone, really, but he knew that it wouldn't be good for him. It would be best to drown himself in other people, give himself something to focus on.

 

[jones573]

"No, I'm afraid it didn't," Gigi agreed with a sigh. "And while I suspect our plans were different from each other- I might actually have preferred things to go according to your preferred outcome than this mess."

This was a disaster, but Gigi tried not to dwell on it. Maybe something could still come of it.

"I have lots of ideas," Gigi admitted. "But very few that might actually make any sense."

She thought for a moment.

"Does a ward have to be... Tampered with and altered to be rendered ineffective, or can it just be destroyed?" She tried to think of a way to clarify. "Like- You were a bit secretive about what you were doing to ward the camp overnight, but there was that purple light after you drew the runes or symbols or whatever you call them. Would scuffing over them have made them useless?"

Obviously there would be some way to protect the important wards that kept a ship safe, but... There might be ways around that.




Fredrick snorted, a sound similar to Gigi's own short laugh.

"You're lucky- She's the easiest to deal with," he allowed. "And in terms of nosiness- She was holding herself back."

His sister had had dozens of questions, but had clearly been trying to prioritize.

"It's fine," he said bitterly. "It feels great, knowing the best safety I can offer her is indefinite confinement and the less-than-certain hope that your leadership respects international law enough to hold her hostage for the duration of the war instead of killing her off to prove a point, and I can't even tell her who I am without forcing her to mourn me twice," he ranted a bit. "So yeah, everything's fine."

 

[Reynarda]

Alyx chuckled darkly. "Really, Princess, 'my preferred outcome' was to make your plans better so that at least the not-alliance that would kill me would be effective."

Alyx closed her eyes for a few moments. It had been a very long few days. When Georgiana asked her next question, Alyx slid her eyes back open and turned her head to look at her. She wasn't sure how she felt about giving away information on ward magic, but she supposed Allaria was most likely not planning on going after the clans any time soon. "Well, scuffing over just one of them wouldn't have worked because we made sure to make it redundant, but yes. If you were to destroy all the important runes, it would render it powerless. Unfortunately, most long-term wards are carved or otherwise set into whatever they're warding. And, you have to be careful with what wards you're screwing with. If you accidentally destroy one of the flight wards, that could destabilize the ship. Eldergaardians learned to fly watching the birds, but with the larger ships like this one, the wards have to compensate some for the weight."

Alyx was silent for a few minutes. "Sometimes it's best to think out loud. What sorts of plans are you thinking of?"





Maksim arched an eyebrow, seriously doubting that Georgiana was the easiest of Fredrick's siblings to deal with. When his fledgling started to rant, Maksim let him. He had hoped that Fredrick would be honest with him about how he felt, and he had. Besides, it might get some of the tension out so that he didn't attack another dangerous opponent.

There weren't really any words he could offer Fredrick to make him feel any better, and offering sympathy would probably do little good. So Maksim just nodded and stated a fact. "This war sucks."

He thought maybe he should say more, but footsteps approached, and Maksim realized it was Lanea. He should really apologize. And surely Lanea knew he had let Alyx out to go find him. So, it wouldn't be out of the blue. Maksim as not really used to apologizing, though. Except to Alyx, and usually she was threatening him within an inch of his life--so really, he was more begging for forgiveness in those cases. He wasn't sure how to do this.

A quick glance confirmed that Lanea was planning on just walking past them. Maybe he should do that, too.

Except that Maksim caught something else.

Maksim stepped in front of Lanea, glaring up at him. "Wait just a second, Grigori."

The problem with his magic was that it was not an exact science. Sometimes, people were extremely obvious about what they intended to do or what they were thinking about--like when Lanea had smacked him upside the face with images Maksim would rather not have in his head. But the more nebulous wants, intentions, motivations were difficult to parse out. And so Maksim had gotten a flicker--just a flicker--of the idea that Lanea would never see them again.

It didn't scare him like the desire he had caught from Alyx to say goodbye to the two people in the room she cared about. There was fear, but also relief, in the way that Maksim thought it was a choice Lanea had made. Maksim needed to know why. It could mess up so much if Lanea suddenly went missing. Or, it could also be a blessing if he could convince Lanea to take Alyx with him.

"You're not planning on jumping ship, are you?"




"Understandable," Astrid said. Despite her apparent attention on her food, she was watching Leo closely. He was looking fairly rough. She decided she wasn't letting him out of her sight until after they rescued Alyx. Dang, had that really just been earlier that day? It felt like weeks had gone by.

Astrid nodded and swallowed a mouthful of vegetables so she could speak. "Yeah, maybe we can see if he and Cyn are moving about. If Rose got Salazar on getting the ship over here, it might be here by midnight or so. I expect the clan will be jumping to do as we say considering they lost a guest right out from under their noses. And Cyn was doing science in his head or something when I last saw him."

She chewed the chicken, a frown gathering between her eyebrows. A week. That was a long time. The princess might be alive then, but Astrid worried that the admiral might just decide to starve Alyx and then set her out on the front lines to die long before then. But she wasn't about to point that out to Leo. It was probably a stupid worry. Whoever was on their side over there would keep an eye on Alyx, surely. And Alyx could take care of herself--except that Alyx hadn't been well when they last saw her. No, no, Alyx was stubborn. She wasn't going to just give up. Surely.

"You know what? I hate sitting around," Astrid declared once she was finished eating. "Let's go find Rose and Cyn, shall we? And maybe that professor you mentioned? She probably wants the princess back, too."

 

[Mikotsuhime]

At first, Lanea planned to just push Maksim out of the way when he stepped in front of him. But then he spoke, and Lanea froze. He had given too much away. Shit. Goddamnit, he /hated/ spirit magic. It was so hard to hide things in front of Maksim and his stupid fledglings. He missed the days when he, at the very least, had his own thoughts to himself.

He tried to think of something, anything, to redirect his thoughts to, but he couldn't focus on one thing. Everything he had worked so hard for was going to fall apart. What could he do? He could move up the schedule. Leave tonight and hunker down in the city for a week until Rose got there. He didn't think its name, didn't dare to think anything about it. His very last, very last mission and everything around him was falling apart.

His eyes flicked between Maksim and Frederick. After a moment, he drew in a deep breath and then grabbed Maksim by the upper arm and Frederick by the other, dragging them to the nearby interrogation room. He broke the ward Maksim had placed on the door and then shoved them inside. Once they were in, he put his soundproofing ward on the door and just hoped they wouldn't attack him immediately.

He took several shaking breaths, thought of Rose to calm himself down, and then turned to face them.

"Alyx trusts you," he told Maksim, trying to keep his voice level. "Can I trust you?"

He could drug them, if he needed to, but it would be risky. He had to go back to get his kit from the brig, and they could easily break themselves out. Should he tie them up? If anybody came in here, they'd be found. He didn't know how long he would need to prep the lifeboat, and getting Alyx and Georgiana down to the docking bay while also keeping these two indisposed would be difficult.

Maybe he should play up that he was dangerous.

"I'm taking the princess," he said, using his big bad torturer voice. "And neither of you can stop me."



Leo's lip curled up in disgust.

"Hospitality, huh?" he asked bitterly. Salazar were just trying to cover their own asses, and he didn't like it. They should want to help because two people were kidnapped, not because two people being kidnapped made them /look bad/.

She had a point, though. sitting around here wasn't really going to do anything. He took another swig from his bottle, and felt that his muscles were working with him much more than they were before. Good. He could handle that.

He did kind of want to see Cyn.

Throwing his legs over the side of the bed, he nodded, closing his eyes for a second before he gathered his wits and stood up.

"Yeah, let's go find them," he said, opening the door to the room.

Cyn was just outside, pacing back and forth with a notebook and pen in his hands, writing down scribbled notes and then crossing them out quickly. He juped nearly a foot into the air when the door opened, and Leo stared at him for a second before one eyebrow rose.

"What are you doing?" he asked as Cyn immediately clutched the notebook tight to his chest to hide it. The little engineer looked like he had been caught stealing food or something, a bright red tinge coming up to his face.

"Nothing."

 

[jones573]

Gigi made a thinking noise.

"I don't know," she admitted. "If the wards were drawn in chalk or blood or any specific substance- We could introduce a chemical that would destroy them," she suggested. "But carved- Huh."

"Wards seem... Mathematical," she said. "I mean, not really- But like a set of computing values? If 'a', then 'x result'. If 'b and c', then 'y result', if that makes any sense," she explained, though she wasn't make a lot of sense even to herself. "Could you ward yourself to experience the opposite effect of other wards that apply to you?"

She groaned.

"I'm making this too complicated," she sighed. "If you could break the wards- without your current limitations of manpower, resources or abilities- what would be the best way?"

Maybe they just needed enough people as there were wards throughout the ship, and enough radios that they could coordinate their destruction without worrying someone might be fast enough to repair one.

Maybe they just needed to get the vampires and the fledglings away from the ships and the Eldergaardians and their wardings.

___


Shit, how long had Lanea been there? Had he heard what Fredrick had said, and drawn any conclusions-

He went into the room willingly, scrambling to come up with an excuse, but Lanea spoke first.

"Like hell you are," he snarled. "The princess is going to the capitol, and I'll kill anyone who tries to prevent that," he threatened.

 

[Reynarda]

Alyx tilted her head to the side. She could see Georgiana's thought processes, but unfortunately ward magic was slightly unpredictable. "Yes, there's formulae, but it depends where the mage learned their wards. If they learned it at the Academy, the wards might be a little complex than if they learned it at a regular school or from books. Vampire wards often look a bit different from human wards, for instance. You could ward generally against them, but the beauty of ward magic is the precision. So antiwards are really difficult to create."

Alyx considered the question. "If I could break the wards? Me, personally? I'd just feel them out and snap them. Like I did on the bridge. But, I assume you mean more large scale?" She frowned. "Depends on your purpose. If you could figure out a device of sort that could detect the..." Alyx searched for the word that would make sense to Georgiana. "My clan call can all manipulate energy, which is a very rare magic. But we call it the 'color' of the energy. If you could create a device that could detect wards that have the 'color' of anti-vampire wards and then overload them--inject them with energy, you can do that with science, I'm sure--then they would snap. You'd have to be careful to only overload the anti-vampire wards, though. Could a device be that precise?"




Maksim tried to focus on Lanea's intentions, but they flashed too quickly. The other commander was definitely planning on leaving, but he couldn't tell why or to where. He felt the panic and fear, though. Good grief, Maksim wasn't about to turn him in. If Lanea could figure out a way to escape, good for him. Maksim wouldn't stop him. He only would have betrayed another vampire if he could gain anything by it, and there wasn't much he could gain from this. Unless he could convince Lanea to take Alyx with him, of course. He might even be able to make up some story that pegged all the blame on Lanea and got him out of a flogging.

But then Lanea grabbed him, and Maksim let out a yelp of surprise. He had no idea what was happening, but he was too surprised to struggle. His eyes did widen when Lanea pushed them into the interrogation room. What was he planning on doing? Was he going to kill them so no one found out about his plans? Lanea was far bigger than him and would win in a physical fight. Maksim was going to have to influence him, and even the thought of it caused his headache to spike behind his eyes. Still, Maksim planted himself protectively in front of Fredrick and fixed his eyes on Lanea. He took a deep breath and then--Lanea said Alyx's name.

Maksim blinked several times. Alyx trusted him? It was probably more like she knew him and he was predictable at this point. But something else was more pressing. "Wait, she trusts you?" Maksim demanded.

This was negated, however, when Lanea went all intimidating. Maksim was torn between demanding why the hell he was taking the princess and being unimpressed with his posturing. Realizing that anger would continue to get them no where, Maksim took a deep breath and let it out.

"Hang on, Fred, let's talk this one out." Maskim flicked his eyes back to Lanea and huffed, folding his arms across his chest. "Oh stop with the act. You got upset and I let my betrothed out to check on you, so I think we can move past the pretenses." He slid his eyes from Lanea. "Sorry about that, by the way. I didn't--um, wasn't my intention." He cleared his throat. "Anyway, why the hell are you taking the princess? What is she to you? If you take anyone, take Alyx. The admiral isn't planning on killing the princess."



Astrid offered Leo a wry smile at his derision. She didn't much like it either, but as long as it got done, that was all they could hope for.

Astrid didn't want to hover, but she was pretty worried about Leo. He didn't look good, and she knew he had taken Alyx abandoning him really hard. While Astrid was hurt and confused as well, she knew that Alyx was Leo's sire, and the bond they had wasn't quite something she understood. She just worried that Alyx had broken something with her desperate actions.

She didn't reach for him in case his legs gave out, though she wanted to. She just pulled her boots on and stood with him. When he pulled open the door to reveal Cyn, Astrid chuckled. She couldn't tell what the engineer had been up to, but his face was bright red, so it must have been something personal.

"Found Cyn," Astrid said with a grin. "And he looks very suspicious indeed." She winked at Cyn. "Where's Rose? We thought we should have a war-room council." She blinked, realizing how that may sound. "Uh, a meeting to make a plan. Whatever you call them in Allaria, we should have one."

 

[Mikotsuhime]

Lanea straightened his back, looking like an angry cat ready to hiss back at Frederick, but then Maksim... was not intimidated. Or scared, or even fooled by his actions. He froze, because he wasn't used to this. He had no idea what to do when his posturing didn't work.

He didn't trust them at all. But... Maksim seemed to have realized that he was acting, and he actually /apologized/ to him. Nobody ever apologized to Lanea. He hesitated, clearly confused and with absolutely no idea what to do.

Except Maksim called his fledgling Fred.

Rose had told Lanea who the members of the royal family were, once. It was mostly so that if one of the ended up in his custody, he would be able to get them back to Allaria safely. Earlier, Maksim's fledgling had called the princess Georgie, hadn't he? Lanea had been too upset to really notice it then, but now, if he really looked at him, he could see the similarities in his face.

"Wait," he said, pinching the bridge of his nose, because this was suddenly way more complicated, and it was already a tangled mess to begin with.

"You're prince Frederick," he said, his voice ticking up because he wasn't quite sure exactly what was going on, or even if his hunch was right. But things were starting to fall into place. It could be a trap though. There was a very, very big chance that it could blow up in his face and he would die and Rose would be punished, and he didn't want that. But if he didn't explain himself, Frederick would probably try to kill him anyways, and then things would blow up in his face in a different way. He took a stuttered breath, then finally dropped his hands to his sides.

"I need to take her," he explained, sounding suddenly very tired. "I made arrangements with her escort - Rose, the big guy - to get her back over the border."

He took in another breath, and his hands were shaking as he clenched them into fists.

"Please don't stop me. If I don't get her back to him, he'll be punished, they could kill him! I can't let that happen."

He was too emotional, and he needed to get it under control. He took one deep breath, then two, as he tried to reign everything back in.



Cyn turned even redder at Astrid's teasing, and he had to fight the urge to shove his book behind his back. That would just make them more interested.

"I ain't suspicious! I ain't never done a suspicious thin in my life," he said, and Leo just stared at him before he covered his mouth to stifle a laugh. It didn't work, and within a few seconds he had to hold onto the doorframe to keep himself upright. Tears gathered in the corners of his eyes, and Cyn looked like a frightened rabbit because he had no idea what he had done that was that funny, but after a moment Leo listed his head up, a few last laughs wheezing out of his lungs.

"You are so suspicious," he teased, genuinely feeling better. "Were you writing love letters? I know Astrid is very beautiful, but I think she likes bigger guys," he teased. Cyn's eyes went super wide and he sputtered, then threw his pen at Leo.

"No! That ain't it! You ain't say shit like that, you!" he squawked, and Leo laughed even harder. God, he missed this sort of thing. Astrid was good and comforting, and her presence had helped a lot, but there was something about Cyn that nobody else could replicate.

It was good.

Forcing the blush down from his cheeks, Cyn bent down to pick his pen up off the floor, muttering for a second.

"Yeah, Rose 's been workin' stuff out all day. The ship should be back 'ere soon. Salazar sent some folks after it. Once it's 'ere I'll get a good idea of how we needa fix it."