Chapter 56 - Clarity

The wind whipped her black hair around her face, her blue eyes staring blankly into the distance. In mere moments it would be two days since the events that separated her from her brother and sister. The sun was starting its ascent, having just broken its contact with the horizon. In the moments before dawn, the crew had prepared the Fiddle. The drop of the tide through the inlet to the cove produced a strong current as the high water inside flowed out. Without sails, the Fiddle was able to make a quick exit. As soon as the masts cleared the cave’s overhang, the crew got to task, dropping and lashing the sails, Selera immediately filling the sails until they were far enough from the cliffs. The open sea stretching to the horizon on the port side and the cliffs of the Talkenerran coast towering to their starboard. The wind was favourable, but they were slowed by their lack of main mast, limping with the reduction of sails.

Darius manned the helm, his large, heavily calloused hands steady on the till. His lack of words marking the mood of the crew. The hours leading to re-entering port would be tedious. She looked to him, a simple nod sufficed as she took to the steps down to the main deck. Despite her younger sister’s constant unpredictability and tantrums, she in her own way had worked her way into hearts of the crew alongside her brother. With the twins missing, the crew was in a strange sense of mourning. Everyone worked with purpose and determination, going about their tasks efficiently. Their only goal was to dock and repair.

The evening before, the Captain had addressed the crew, laying out the plans as all stood on deck. Afterwards, many heated discussions had broken out, though none escalating to arguments. Since they had entered the open water and were underway, the Captain had been meeting with the different factions of the crew.

Darius had given her the summary as he had been part of the quiet discussions that had taken place below deck the night before. Upon returning home, the engineers would assist full time with the refitting of the Lychen’s Fiddle, and the rest of the crew had decided to use their down-time to search for possible answers. Selera walked slowly along the main deck, her blue eyes blazing.

“Hoy, Selera! The Captain wants a word.” came the female voice from behind her.

She turned, her internal musings broken by the same dwarven woman who hailed both her and Sialin before battle, “Selera, we found something.”

Selera glanced at her, “What did you find, Kiala?” she asked in honest curiosity.

Kiala looked up at her, her wild sooty brown hair tied back, a sharp smile on her face and a twinkle in her eye, “That you were in over your head. You should’ve asked us, ‘Lera. Soon as you saw those diagrams and pages of plans. Should’ve asked us engineers to have a peek.”

Selera looked at her in momentary confusion. Kiala stared back at her, slowly raising an eyebrow.

“The diagrams, the dragons, ‘round an eclipse. A mechanical device used to encapsulate magic, or some type of energy and store it. I mean it’s out of our reach, the design is incredible, unbelievable even. But the one who designed it, genius, to even think like that, genius.” Kiala said in exasperated excitement.

“Kiala, slow down.” Selera asked the excited dwarf.

“The thing that took the young ones.” Kiala said excitedly.

Selera looked at Kiala, “The Captain showed you the plans?”

Kiala nodded, “It is not sci or tech, the things the Enclave had you hunting. It is, just come, we can show you.”

Selera followed as they entered the Captain’s cabin. Two elves and four dwarves, including Kiala were huddled around the desk, discussing the plans heatedly. Quickly searching the room, she saw the Captain leaning against a wall, he had a serious look in his eyes as he glanced at her. She quickly went to the desk.

“Selera, where did you find this?” asked one of the elves.

“My parents were researching it. Why, what is the matter?” Selera answered.

“Aye, but I want to know why the Enclave are after it. Something ain’t right.” said a dwarf.

“I told you, it stores energy, incredible amounts of energy. That is why they want it.” added Kiala.

“The wrong type of energy, they want tricity. You know from lightning.” said another dwarf.

“Electricity.” corrected an elf.

“Same thing.” he shot back.

“I have already told you, this device, it is not made for storing energy to be used by something else. The mechanism, it is the device itself that uses the energy stored within.” explained the same elf.

Selera shared another look with the Captain. He nodded and stepped forward, pounding his hand on the desk, silencing them.

He looked at each of them in turn from under his eyebrows, “Now, I need one of you at a time to tell Selera what you have found.” he growled.

The group of engineers looked at each other.

“I will tell her.” said an elf, drawing nods from the others.

They moved back from the desk, giving Selera room to see the designs.

She looked at the elf, “Tell me what exactly, Elia?”

He looked at her, a concerned expression on his face, “These designs, they are a mixture of engineering similar to clockwork, imbued magic and enchantments.” he grabbed a sheet, pointing at the mechanism.

“Every single part of the mechanism is enchanted in a different way with a particular purpose, at a different time of the forging process. And the mechanism is clockwork, but miniaturised.”

Selera looked at the designs, “You are telling me that even the smallest lever has been enchanted while it was being made. Not the device as a whole?”

Elia nodded, “Yes, even every screw, I do not know who could even think of designing on such a small level, it is unheard of. Though before the fall of the world, such intricacies were possible, but none enchanted. And even in even more ancient times, enchantments like these, no.”

He looked to the Captain, “It also stores power, but not electricity. A little like a soul crystal, or a.” Elia looked at Selera, “Or the siphoned magical power of someone or something.”

“But these calculations?” said Kiala.

Elia nodded, “The calculations, they are suggesting something we all agree is an impossible figure.”

“What are they suggesting?” asked Selera.

“Immense power on an unheard of level.” explained Elia.

“It’s impossible.” said one of the dwarves.

“It is clearly not impossible, Crentzen. The young ones used it.” Elia said heatedly, “We are not dealing with proof of the concept. It has already been proven. It works.”

“How much power?” asked Selera again.

“With our limited understanding of sorcery. We can’t be exactly sure. Selera?”

Selera stood over the designs, quickly shuffling through them, a fire in her head. It had been in front of her the whole time.

“Can you read these scripts? What are they?” Selera asked, pointing out a section of scrawled handwriting.

Elia came around the desk, bending over the diagrams. “It is engineering terms, we can only understand some of it. It is not the language, it is the complexity.”

Selera nodded slowly, “You mentioned calculations, and power?”

Elia quickly flipped back a few pages, “Here, Crentzen was able to decipher some of the enchantments for the metallurgy. And the source of power…”

“It doesn’t make sense, leave it be. It is impossible.” grumbled Crentzen.

Selera looked at the page carefully, “Its dwarven. Dialect? Yes?”

“Yes, ancient. It only speaks of the enchantments. The power for the design, I understand the calculation, but not the source… It doesn’t make sense.” said Crentzen.

Selera carefully read the elven script interspersing the dwarven, her eyes narrowing as she tried her best to decipher it. “The elven is speaking of sorcery, yes, something akin to a soul gem or crystal. But…the amount of power.”

“I told you, Sel, impossible.” said Crentzen.

Selera looked to the Captain and the hard look in his eyes, “How is this possible?” she asked of him before looking back to the designs, “It is mage craft, the calculations are for the measurement of energy, but how could so much be stored in such a small item?”

“How much power?” asked Kiala with some excitement.

Selera’s eyes unfocused for a moment while she thought, she then looked at the dwarf, “Enough to sink the entire Talkanerran coast-line, maybe even the whole tip of the continent.” her eyes widened, “The same way I crushed our enemy two days ago.”

“Enough to tear a hole in reality, enough to tear a doorway to another place, maybe even enough to manipulate the flow of time around us.” she continued.

“That means that the clockwork is there to control it very specifically, so that anyone could use the harnessed power to do as the device is intended.” Eila said.

Selera nodded, glancing up, noticing the dark expression on the Captain’s face, she gave him a puzzled look.

Without looking away from her gaze he spoke, “Everyone out, wait on deck. I need to speak to my wife.” his voice a step from controlled rage.

With startled glances, the crew members quickly filed out. As soon as the door closed, Selera watched her husband come to the desk, standing opposite her. He flipped back two pages and pointed out a detail.

“This. Just before you came in they told me that the quantity of materials did not match. The notes, get them out. Second last page.”

Selera quickly pulled the notes out of the drawer and placed them on the desk, opening to the page he indicated. She quickly looked back to the designs at the scrawled weights and quantities listed.

“Maybe the one who made this, made a mistake and…”

“I read these last night, put the notes beside the sheets of the design. I do the same when mapping the coast with the charts and navigation log. Whoever did this was doing something similar. Line them up.”

Selera did as she was told. There were two lists side by side, her eyes widening as she realised.

“The quantities,” she exclaimed.

“We were set up, ‘Lera. There was a plan, the children were not part of it.” he said harshly.

“The quantities, there is…”

“Those bastards set us up.”

“The quantities, Alletair!”

He nodded, “Yes, ‘Lera. The quantities, they have another, or they know where they could get another. A device that shouldn’t exist with so much power contained within it. A frigate loaded with ancient weapons powerful enough to vaporize a ship. Powerful enough to potentially destabilise the containment of such energy.” he said, anger in his eyes.

Selera stood looking at the page, quickly calculating, “There was enough for six.”

Alletair nodded, “Now, divide that power calculation by six. It is more realistic?”

Selera nodded.

“Your parents’ partial report, their findings. Are there any pages missing, torn out?” he asked.

Selera looked at him, realisation cutting into her as she slipped the partially finished report out of the satchel, flipping it open and hurriedly checking along the binding.

“By the gods. Four pages, they…they cut the pages out.” she said, her eyes frantic as she made sense of the situation.

Alletair nodded slowly, “Tiffaniel’s panic saved us.”

Selera seemed to look through him, “There was a man in the rigging, standing on the crossbeam of the foresail, a red hooded cloak, I head him laughing as I…”

She focused on Alletair, “He was not one of us. When I turned, he was gone. He laughed like he expected the outcome, as I destroyed the enemy.”

The Captain shushed her, “There was no debt, Selera. They used us. They saw a temporary replacement of similar calibre to your parents delivered right to them. They knew they couldn’t hold us for any longer. Almost every time we left port recently we have been attacked.”

She looked at him, “But what if they have more? They probably think we are…”

“No, when we come into port tomorrow morning under the cover of night, they will not be prepared. You meet with the Chancellor as soon as we are docked and use the evidence to prove there are more. The undeniable proof that their plan failed will be right in front of them, whoever set it in motion will be on the back foot. They will fear us. In their panic they may hand over or present knowledge of another. If they don’t, we leave, even if we have to destroy the docks in doing so.” he looked her in the eye, “You unleash your gilded fist on anything that even looks like it is approaching us.”

“They manipulated me, they used us, then wanted to destroy the evidence.” she stayed quiet, looking at Alletair, “They don’t know who we are, if they did…”

Alletair shook his head, “It does not matter what they thought. Our goal has changed. If they have another of these devices, we recover it, take it by force if necessary.”

Shadow of the Eclipse: Chapter Timeline

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