Chapter 294 – The Dust Settles

After finishing their drinks, Silvia stands to go change her robes while Emily sends out a fleet-wide message.

“Silvia is awake. All hands gather at your ships’ airlocks and prepare to disembark for a crew-wide address.”

She receives two messages to her Terminal the moment she’s done speaking through the fleet’s speakers. Hipaepha’s is enraged, scolding her for using her machina on such a large scale while healing. She talks him down, reassuring him that Silvia had a natural treasure that healed the worst of her magic network’s damage, and agrees to another checkup after the address for him to confirm her claims. Elwaine’s contains a question after her health and an offer to prepare an artificial atmosphere in her stead. She thanks them for their concern and the offer, but dismisses the need for their assistance.

“I’m ready, darling,” Silvia says, draping herself over Emily’s shoulders from behind and reading the open messages on her Terminal. “Are you sure you don’t want to change?”

“This will do,” Emily responds, shrugging her off and standing. “My armour was ruined by Yorn, so I’ll need some time to rebuild before I can wear anything better than this.”

“Oh, but that’s simply untrue. You’d look wonderful in one of my robes.”

Emily turns to face her. She’s wearing a set of crimson robes that match her eyes, embroidered with swirling silver patterns that trace her form.

“Mmm,” she hums, flooding her repaired magic network with spatial mana and preparing a Blink. “Not enough metal for my taste.”

“But surely your current outfit is lacking enough that it shouldn’t make a difference?” Silvia muses, looping her arm through Emily’s and receiving nothing more than a raised brow in response. “Fine. One day I’ll get you to dress up with me.”

“Maybe for a special occasion.”

They teleport out into the vacuum of space a short distance from the fleet.

“Is this not a special occasion?” the vampire gasps in mock offence, not moving to release her arm.

“Overthrowing figures of authority is a casual activity, is it not?”

Emily floods the vacuum with wind, metal, and lightning mana, following a familiar process to form a magnetically-charged platform wrapped in safe-to-breathe air.

“Ha. Somehow, I don’t think you meant that purely in jest. You must have caused chaos on your home planet, didn’t you?”

“I ended a civil war that had been brewing longer than I’ve been alive before cleansing my home country of a little under half its noble population,” Emily responds dryly, sending out a wave of machina to activate the fleet’s airlocks.

Silvia breaks out into melodious laughter as the crew files out onto the platform below them.

“Oh, you are elaborating later,” she says as her laughter fades. “You cannot just drop that and move on.”

Elwaine and Rotwin take their places at the head of the gathered crew, with the remaining fifth level awakened at their heels. Though the overall numbers of the crew are diminished by only a little over twenty per cent thanks to Emily’s removal of those loyal to Yorn, the high-level awakened are noticeably fewer. The three fifth stage mechanics remain, but among the mages and martial artists, only Rotlith and Shale, the stone-skinned gargolian, remain.

“I’ll keep this brief,” Silvia calls out the moment the last crewmembers step out of their ships, lacing her voice with qi to reach them all, “since Emily here has already explained our reasoning during her screenings, and even if she hadn’t, it should come as no surprise after our little display. As of now, I’m taking over this crew as your new captain!”

A thunderous roar of approval shakes the artificial atmosphere, not a single voice absent. Silvia gives them a few moments before raising her free arm and immediately plunging them back into attentive silence.

“There will be a few minor changes in our operating policy going forward, but those boring details can be worked out with and disseminated by your branch heads, so I won’t go into them now. I request all branch heads, regardless of your cultivation level, board The Mothership after this and attend that meeting. Now, I shall be naming Emily as my Vice, and I take it that none of you will take issue with that.”

Silvia lapses into silence for a few moments, and not a single voice speaks out in complaint.

“Good. I’m sure she’ll become a cornerstone to our development in due time, and if I’m ever unavailable, her word should be taken as my own. Now, for what I believe you’re all waiting for, our new name.”

Excited murmurs break out through the crowd as Silvia grins down at them.

“It wouldn’t be fitting to continue using a dead man’s style to describe us, but I feel it’s only right to honour our roots. So, henceforth we shall be known as The Crimson-Blade Pirates!”

The crew cheer in approval once more as Silvia flashes them a victorious smile before turning her head to meet Emily’s raised, unimpressed brow.

“What?” the vampire questions without boosting her voice with qi so only the two of them can hear it, a light flush colouring her cheeks. “I’m not a fan of naming things, so I chose the simplest option.”

“No no, it’s your choice, Captain,” Emily responds with a teasing grin. “I’m just surprised such a… simple name wasn’t already in use by another crew.”

“Oh, it is.” Silvia rolls her eyes before looking back out over their gathered crew. “But we’re larger than most, so it will soon become synonymous with us.”

***

Back aboard The Mothership, Emily and Silvia sit in a training room transformed to fit the coming meeting, with a large table before them surrounded by chairs. Their own seats are side by side and formed from a mixture of mana and qi: a structure of Emily’s metal supporting soft cushions of blood.

Elwaine and Rotwin are the first to enter after them and, while the chimaeric hound takes a seat on Emily’s free side without hesitation, the elf raises a brow at them.

“What’s with the… unique seating?” they ask, their tone neutral.

“We had a spare minute, so why not?” Silvia responds, turning her gaze to her partner in a silent question.

“It was my idea,” Emily explains. “I’ve seen many thrones with time and money poured into them, but the ones that have caught my eye are those carved from the magic of the one seated in them. I find it an… entertaining use of creativity. I was curious as to whether qi constructs could be used to the same end, and, well, you can see the result.”

“I see.” Elwaine nods, staring at her as if trying to unravel a puzzle. “What an interesting form of expression.”

They dismiss the seat at Silvia’s open side, letting it fold back into the panelling of the training room’s floor, before releasing a burst of their own unattributed mana and weaving it into a dense lattice to sit upon. Rotwin watches but doesn’t move to join in.

The rest of the fifth level awakened and branch heads arrive after little delay and, though several of their gazes linger on the three in odd seats, none spare them more than a raised brow, and none move to copy them. Hipaepha glares at Emily, but he takes his seat without demanding a checkup just yet.

“Thank you all for joining us,” Silvia says, signalling for Emily to shut the training room door as she gets the meeting underway. “I will be expecting all of you to be present for future meetings to decide on the crew’s direction: I believe it's important we have voices to represent all of our crew’s members, regardless of your cultivation levels. You’ll notice that the brawler, caster, and mentalist branches have lost their heads, so I’m naming Rotwin as head brawler, and Chert as head caster. Though their existing members were all removed during the purge of Yorn’s faithful, I will be naming Emily’s son, Mensacus, as head mentalist. He’s not present now since he’s leading the excursion into the dungeon that sparked this conflict, but from what I hear he’s doing admirably and is suited to leadership.”

“There have been no losses to our crew so far,” Emily confirms with a nod, earning a few curious gazes.

“You’ve maintained comms with him?” Eidecht questions. “How?”

“I used two halves of a split space crystal to establish a hard-to-break connection. It still requires Overdriving at one end to stabilise the connection, but I get a clear video feed with it.”

“Interesting…”

“Does anyone take issue with these appointments?” Silvia continues, looking around the table and meeting only shaking heads until Shale.

“Why do we still need mentalists?” the gargolian questions. “Wasn’t their job handling our slaves and maintaining their collars?”

“You forget to mention vetting new members, though that’s understandable given that Yorn was less vocal about that. Besides, we now have at least one secret worth protecting with extreme caution,” Silvia explains, gesturing towards Emily. “Emily will be acting presenting herself to the universe as a pure mage, but we are all aware of her real nature, and anyone who joins us in the future will need to be inducted safely. There’s also the question of forcefully extracting information from our enemies, which, so long as no one voices any objections, is still a practice we will be continuing. Does that satisfy you?”

“Yes.” Shale nods, crossing his arms and falling silent.

“Good. Emily, send word to Chert of her appointment and request her presence here, please. Now, while we await her arrival, Elwaine, I believe we have unfinished business?”

“Somewhat.” The elf nods, leaning forwards in their chair and turning their gaze to Emily. “I followed our agreement thanks to your word and hearing rumours spread of Perinith’s demise to an unknown spatial mage aided by a mechanical army, but I would still like to see the evidence you mentioned.”

“Of course.” Emily pulls the enchanted mental crystal with the battle’s recording from her belt and tosses it to them.

They probe the crystal with their mana before holding it to their forehead and releasing a pulse of power. Their eyes go hazy for a few moments before clearing and lighting up with approval.

“You created a temporary pocket dimension and bound him to it before collapsing the entire space. Ingenious! So long as those trapped within don’t have the strength to break out with one blow, their demise is guaranteed, and any chance of communicating with the outside world is completely severed.” They pass the crystal back to her under the curious gazes of everyone else in the training room and refocus on Silvia. “You need not do anything else: your Vice has already assured my intent to follow you. She’s far too interesting a mage to break away from, and I would be honoured to watch the development of a dual awakened with intersecting enhancements to their mind. I do, however, request that she allow me to analyse some of her spellwork, but the details of our exchange can be worked out privately at a later date.”

“You’re interested in my spells?” Emily asks.

“Yes. From what I’ve seen, you’re a hybrid between an elementalist and an arcanist, correct?”

She nods in agreement.

“Then aspects of your work could aid in mine, and though I’ve met others following a similar path, I’m not in immediate contact with any of them. It’s rare to find one so unspecialised above the mortal limit.”

“Interesting. Well, I’ll gladly talk spells with you when I have a free moment.”

“Well, with that cleared up, it seems we still have a head enchanter,” Silvia beams, turning to Emily with an amused glint in her eyes. “Have you any other personal business to clear up while we wait?”

“As a matter of fact, I do,” Emily responds flatly, drawing a laugh from the vampire that earns several raised brows around the table. “Rotwin, I’ve finished the elixir I offered you.”

She pulls a large vial of glistening, multicoloured liquid from her belt and floats it over to the hound on a gust of wind. Everyone’s eyes follow the vial, the dense energy filling it obvious at a glance.

“Thank you. This… it’s so energy-dense! Were all ten essences used? Were there no losses in the brewing process?” the hound barks in confusion, popping the cork off the glass and sniffing the contents before letting out a pleased purr and stowing his prize.

“None at all. I used a few… personal tricks to ensure maximum efficiency,” Emily beams with pride. “It was a wonderful chance to deepen my understanding of essences.”

“You’re an alchemist?!” Vrathorn, the ship’s head alchemist, a man with long, unkempt black hair and dark bags under his eyes, cries in shock. “No wonder that boy you sent to me is so well versed in our craft.”

“Oh, most of his achievements are his own. He may be my apprentice, but I only aid him in small parts. He walks his own path, and has technically been a practitioner for longer than me.”

“Well, regardless, you should visit the labs at some point. I’d love to exchange techniques.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Emily replies, sensing someone at the door and sending out a pulse of machina to let them in.

Another gargolian strides in, emanating the presence of a fourth circle mage. She’s slightly larger than Shale, with the furled wings bursting from her back nearly twice the size of his.

“Welcome, please take a seat,” Silvia greets her, gesturing to an empty seat. “Now that Chert has joined us, let’s get back on track. Rotwin, it’s my understanding that you recovered Yorn’s remains?”

“I did.” The hound nods. “I had Vrathorn take a look but…”

“He’s unusable,” the alchemist declares, disappointment clear in his tone. “He completely ruined himself. His corpse holds no value beyond that of his damaged spatial storage, which I’ve handed off to Elwaine already, and his head, not that we could claim that bounty.”

“Actually, we can,” Silvia corrects. “Emily and her son have already registered as a mercenary group. She used her machina signature, so it shouldn’t be traced back to us, but it gives us the opportunity to expand our business ventures.”

“Smart. I take it you’ll want us to increase our number of unmarked ships if we’re planning more jobs under a different name?” Eidecht questions.

“Yes, though it’s not a priority. For now, she can take a few of our smaller vessels when she leaves us to claim our rewards, and you can deal with stripping back the markings of the fleet on a case-by-case basis during repairs while we uphold our current contract. We can stop to rebrand the fleet when our job is done. Now, the only major changes I’m enacting are our cessation of slavery and our under-the-table expansion into mercenary contracts, but I have a few small policy changes in mind, and I’m open to other suggestions…”