Never been much of one for the bible. Knew too many 'devout Christians' who'd been part of my old man's fighting ring for that.

I'd paged through it once though, which, with my enhanced memory, meant I could recall parts of it well enough.

The scene before me felt like it could've come straight out of revelations. Multi-eyed angel, hellfire and damnation all rolled together. Course, it wasn't an actual multi-eyed angel. It was far worse, one of the winged hounds folded in on itself, melted together with several of the bridge crew, eyes and limbs protruding in an unholy mess.

The fire might not have been from the depths of hell, but with the way it illuminated that monstrosity, it may as well have been.

At first I thought my mission had failed before it'd even started. There was no way anyone had survived such a disaster.

Except a soft cough told me otherwise.

Pulling myself through the now too-small hatch entry, I crawled into the room, annoyed that I didn't have access to my grimoire. A simple Water Breathing spell to deal with the smoke would've been great.

I found the sole survivor wedged behind the captain's chair. Captain Sidhe wasn't looking her best. Wasn't surprised the captain had been the only one to survive. Not only was she ensouled, she'd struck me as a tougher type of folk.

She was barely conscious. No sign of external bleeding though that collapsed ribcage didn't look great.

I fumbled out my rod and Restore Form poured through her. The coughing got a lot worse as her lung suddenly had room to expand.

The next minute was rough for her but eventually Captain Sidhe's breathing smoothed out.

While I waited I started carving another of the rods. I was going to ensure we had these in the hands of every group of guards once I got back. No matter how long this trial took, it was going to be worth it for my people for the simple realization of how easily we could have emergency healing available.

It would be a little wasteful, but a properly enchanted rod would use way less material and would be less likely to deteriorate after - I checked the first rod's integrity - roughly twenty uses.

Damn.

Just before I had the next rod ready, Captain Sidhe stirred, looking about the room with half-focused eyes. Then they locked on me as she struggled to focus.

"Sevil? Is that you? What are… oh, enchantineer… Percival, was it?"

"That's right, Captain," I said, moving closer. "Might want to brace yourself. Seems I messed up the pain-relief section of the enchantment."

A blatant lie. I'd simply skipped including it to get the enchantment done faster.

Captain Sidhe put a strip of her torn jacket in her mouth then nodded. Again, her ribs made audible popping noises as things moved back into position.

A muffled scream tore its way from her throat. As soon as she recovered from the first, I hit her with my second rod.

Second time around, she just let out a slight grunt, though there were tears beading in the corners of her eyes.

Smoke had my eyes doing the same, so it was possible it wasn't just from the pain.

Blinking a couple times, she shook her head and then mana started getting sucked towards her. "Must've hit my head harder than I thought."

"Captain, there's… well, it's bad out there," I said, purposely not looking at the melted pile of bodies and the hounds. "What happened?"

"Void hounds," the Captain said, pushing to her feet. "Damn soul eaters got onto the ship."

"Void?" I asked, glancing at the oversized hound despite myself. Other than the twisted form, I didn't see any of the signs that had been on the monsters hunted near Spellford. Even so, I shuddered and turned away immediately.

"Void," she repeated, as if that was explanation enough. And, I supposed, it was. For the moment.

"Pretty sure you're the only one from command who survived," I said, securing both the crude rods within my enchantineer's satchel.

Sidhe looked towards the mess of fallen officers, bowing her head and making a quick sign. Then she grunted, striding towards the stair. "There'll be others on the battle bridge. Should've been there, but didn't see them coming. Weren't part of the monster wave. Someone sent them at us. Wanted us out of the sky."

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"Ah, Captain," I said, getting her to halt in place as I pointed at the hatch where I'd had to cut my way in. "Stairs are out."

She looked towards the hole in the floor I was gesturing at and immediately adjusted course with barely a break in her stride, grabbing the lip and throwing herself through without a moment's hesitation.

I resisted the urge to look around the bridge again and followed her.

She started outpacing me, since I hadn't yet had a chance to heal my leg. When she noticed, she turned and cast a spell on me that felt like it reached directly into my soul.

"The Front?" I shouted in surprise as my injury was practically pushed out of me, my entire being vibrating in the afterglow.

"Call the Soul. Fourth Order Restoration spell. Technically illegal in Terra Vista," Captain Sidhe said, turning away. "Wasteful to use on a Mage-soul but I owe you at least that much."

"Would've been fine waiting for my rods to recharge," I grumbled, though I was grateful I didn't have to keep limping.

She gave me a raised eyebrow. "You know, you really do remind me of my brother."

I winced at that.

"Oh? You know my brother?" Sidhe asked, not stopping. "Where'd you hear of Sevil?"

"Is that his name? I only ever knew him as Aranor," I replied. "He was an Evearl in this place I spent a month or so. Powerful nature mage, saw him do healing that was kinda similar, now that I think about it."

"He'd be happy, I think, to know that it was father's name that spread in place of his own," Sidhe said, gaze distant as she adjusted course around a collapsed walkway.

"Aranor was his father's name?" I asked. Somehow, I didn't see Aranor as the sort to care about his family. Which, I guess, wasn't entirely fair. He'd cared about his other kids, just not Perth. And even then, it's not like Perth had been kicked out into the cold.

"It was, yes," Sidhe said, pausing next to a fallen elf I didn't recognize, checking for life.

The sight reminded me this was hardly the time or place for such questions. Still… this was all a scenario, not something that was actually happening.

Or rather, it was something that had already happened and I was already escorting her. Figured I might as well go for broke. "So, if you know Aranor, did you know Balthum too?"

She looked up sharply at my question, which was answer enough. "Where did you hear that man's name?"

"Heard you came out east with him. That you were close."

"We were, once," Sidhe said, eying me for a moment before pushing to her feet and continuing on her way. "You know an awful lot about things I'd thought hidden. Makes me wonder who actually sent you to us, enchantineer Percival."

"A man can't be curious about his captain?" I asked, realizing that just because the scenario might be fake, the woman in front of me remembered our encounters.

"A man can. But finding answers outside the official story… that is unusual. Especially for a man of your calling and rank," Sidhe replied, her eyes narrowed as she looked me over, as if searching for something that would explain how I'd known. "Had you not saved my life, I would have you imprisoned. Balthum is a name I buried for a reason."

"Won't mention him again," I said, holding my hand up.

"That would be best. I've done my best to leave my mistakes in my past, and he was the largest I ever made," Sidhe explained, shaking her head as she picked up the pace.

"A bad boyfriend is your worst mistake?" I asked, looking around at the wrecked ship. "What's this? Somebody else's?"

Sidhe stopped narrowing her eyes at me once more. For a second, I thought she was going to let loose on me, which would've been fair. For some reason, I found myself pressing her buttons.

Maybe because she reminded me of Nexxa?

Instead, she let out a long rattling sigh. "That… isn't unfair. We wouldn't even be here if not for my hubris. And even excepting that, I should've seen the attack coming. It seems I haven't finished making apocalyptic mistakes."

"Are you implying that the man who shall not be named was apocalyptic?" I knew he was awful, but that seemed extreme.

"He was on track to be," Sidhe said, resuming her trek towards the battle bridge. "No matter how I tried to convince him otherwise. Sometimes even your oldest friends don't listen."

We fell into silence for the next few minutes, stopping occasionally to help the few survivors we found. Eventually we reached the battle bridge, which had weathered the attacks much better than the rest of the ship. To the point it seemed like part of a whole different ship.

"You know, I never did understand why you spent so much time on the other bridge when this one is so much better equipped for battle," I said as every one of the assembled crew helped her pry open the sealed door while I fiddled with the enchantment that had sealed it closed.

"Hubris," Sidhe said when the door finally hissed, sliding free. "I thought that anything that would've threatened the bridge would have taken the ship with it. I was actually against building the battle bridge in the first place."

"Glad we've got it now, though, right Cap?" one of the crew asked.

She only gave him a raised eyebrow, his shoulders slinking down in response. Then she chuckled softly. "Indeed, quite glad, soldier."

Inside, there were three people who seemed to be trying to override the enchantments on one of the consoles. The first sighed in relief when she saw Captain Sidhe stride into the battle bridge, with all three quickly snapping to attention after they realized who she was.

In short order, the Captain had started the process of taking back her ship.

I figured that was my signal to get back out there, helping people.

"Where do you think you're going, senior enchantineer?" Captain Sidhe asked before I'd even taken my second step.

"To help. There's a lot of injured out there," I said, barely slowing.

"I'm afraid you're stuck here with me until I'm certain it's safe," she said, pressing a control that caused the door I'd just opened to slide shut. Even as I raised my hand to object, turning back around to point a finger at her, she continued, "There are two people this ship can't afford to lose, enchantineer Percival. The first is the woman who's going to keep her people together. The second…" Her eyes narrowed as she brought up a display, waving towards it. A map that showed the Dauntless's location.

I'd assumed, with the ambient mana, that we were in the mana stream that encircled the front.

It was so much worse than that. We were inside the barrier. We'd gone beyond the Front to the heart of the continent where the monsters weren't just real, they were legion.

Only after she knew I understood what was at stake did she continue. "And the second, is the man who's going to keep the world from falling out beneath our feet."

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