Chapter Text
“Are you comfortable?” her executioner asked.
She could have been. Orianna had been given a soft bed in a cozy room where she could faintly hear the hums and clanks of the engine beyond the wall. The espeon had been provided a moderate shelf full of books from her room back home ranging from unopened mysteries to tattered favorites. Incense burned beneath a small shrine of antlers made of painted clay. A barred window showed the cloudless dusk of a land she had prayed to see ever since she was a kit.
It was through that glass that she kept her attention, her self separated from her body. The last lights of Pearlbay would vanish any minute now— even as high as they were now. Only weeks before she had dreamed of that city on the Hollow Sea, dreamed of its streets and its people and the smell and the wind and all the ships that would cloud the sky. Orianna clung to that dream. She burrowed herself into it.
“Lady Orianna?”
He moved into her peripheries, a sleek shadow of greens and tans infesting her dreams. When even still she did not answer, he let out the faintest of sighs and made his way to a table. A kettle rested upon a smoothed sunstone, and he plucked it and poured himself a steaming cup.
“Pecha-lavender,” Peregrine said. “Your favorite. We can brew it for you fresh upon request.”
“Pour it over your head,” she answered absently.
He dipped his beak and drank, then tsked at the heat. The cup was set gently on the table to cool, and Orianna could barely hear the near-silent taps of his talons on the wooden floor. He was being kind enough to let her know of his approach back into her peripheries, where he lurked for a long, quiet moment.
She could feel herself being dragged back into the room with him. Her ears fell flat against her head, and she curled herself tighter as she rested there just as when she was an eevee. The facade of the cozy room peeled away to surround her in gifts given to appease her. And scrupulous Peregrine loomed not more than a pace away.
Orianna suppressed a shiver. Fear chilled her. Fury bubbled. She couldn’t bring herself to move.
“We still have eight nights together until we arrive,” Peregrine informed. “And when we do, I believe you will regret these hours you have spent choosing to mope. It is unlike you.”
Orianna set her jaw. She felt her hackles raise.
“Sleep,” he ordered. “You will have a better outlook in the morning.” Orianna could feel his eyes on the back of her head, pointed and sharp as his arrows, before he turned and stalked towards the door. He knocked on it three times. “We’re through.”
Metal clunked. A key turned in the latch. Orianna turned to glimpse who was outside, but all she saw was a gray muscled arm and the back of a decidueye. Peregrine glanced back at her. Don’t try it , his eyes said, and then he left. The door closed and locked behind him.
Her fury exploded. Orianna screamed as she shot to her feet, projecting her psychic touch to the nearest object and hurling it at the door. A tome of children’s stories crashed into it and laid with its pages smooshed against the floor. She stood there, panting, wishing she had the nerve to do it when he was still there. Now all she got in response was a chuckle from her guard.
‘Sleep.’ She paced around the cell masquerading as her cabin. She paced and she paced and she paced. Did he honestly expect her to sleep? So few hours left and she was to burn them away? Of course they expected her to, the bed was a nice one. Soft, velvety fabric stuffed with downfeathers. It was a luxury. It was probably the most expensive thing in this room, though that wasn’t saying much.
It would wear her down. They knew that. She could not protest forever.
“I’ll show them,” she muttered. “I’m not going quietly.”
A part of her was invigorated for the same reason the rest of her was crushed. Orianna was finally on a skyship. After dreaming about them for all her life, hearing all of Grandfather’s stories of adventures on the Hollow Sea, it was her turn. She had wished for this more times than she could count. And now that she was finally aboard one, it was ferrying her to her death.
In this moment she felt defiant. In another much longer moment she would feel hopeless again, but Orianna clung to this feeling of strength and looked for an outlet.
She was no fighter. Even just one of these people would be too much for her. But she had a kettle by the door and a flattened sunstone. She could use those, but they weren’t hot enough to be their own solution. She’d need something else. Depending on what they brought her for breakfast—
Orianna .
Her ears perked. Her head snapped towards the wall, but nothing was different. She looked up and down and all around. Nobody was there. She didn’t even know where the voice had come from.
Steeling herself, Orianna held her breath and took quiet steps across the room. Beyond the window she could see the reef they were passing over. Starlight only gave loose suggestions of the wide array of soft colors, but she could see clearly the shapes of the megacoral and the great plateaus they stood upon. Wonder was tertiary as she shifted her head around to make the most of her view. It was dark. On a moonless night it was hard to see much of anything, save for the lights of Pearlbay dimming as she was dragged further and further away.
Eight days. They likely gathered whatever supplies they needed, so they wouldn’t be making any stops. Chances would—
Movement. A spot in the dark that caught a glimmer of starlight. Orianna perked and pressed her face up to the barred glass and tried to get a better look, and there she saw it again. A shape. A winged shape gliding closer. It beat its wings only every so often, and when it did it was in time with one of the great clunks from the machines not far from her. And she knew this shape. As it grew closer she recognized the black and dark-blue of the feathers, the shape of the beak, a small red glimmer of the eyes.
“Cass,” she whispered, and her heart skipped. In the faint shadow of the ship the corvisquire flew just a bit closer, and the two shared a look. The glare of the light already made it hard to see the subtleties of his expression, and the tears in her eyes made it impossible. She brought her paw up to her eyes and tried to wipe away the tears. “I— I didn’t think,” she sniffled, “I would see you again.”
He couldn’t hear her. He didn’t say anything back. They locked eyes, and Cassius tilted his wings and pulled up and away and out of sight. A part of her didn’t want him gone for even a moment, but she kept herself calm for she knew she would see him again soon.
Her fur stood on end as her breath hitched, and she turned sharply towards the door. “Oh,” she eventually said to herself. “Merciful stars. Now? Right now?”
What was he doing? They couldn’t just fly away, could they? Too much distance. And that was even assuming they could get off the ship.
Orianna.
She turned again, sweeping the room and finding nothing. Her ears fell flat. “H-hello?” she asked, quiet. “Is this… Is someone here?”
The gears of the machine turned. Her heart quivered in her chest. All else was silent. Waiting. She stood there for some time, turning and pacing and waiting for whatever it was to reveal itself.
When something came again she heard it clear this time. Glass fracturing, a startled gasp, a heavy figure slumping against a wall. Orianna held her breath. The light steps of a figure with a familiar gait approached the door, and a moment later she heard the key slide into the lock. The door opened, and a dim red eye scanned the room until it settled on her.
Cassius let out a sigh he must have held for weeks now. A warm glint smiled in his eyes. Small glass fragments were dissolving away into wispy light that rolled along the floor like smoke, into which he lowered and dropped the key he held in his beak.
She almost ran to him. The urge was too strong and it nearly bested her common sense, but by the time she halved the distance she saw the sentry and stopped herself. The machamp was collapsed against the wall, fighting to remain conscious. Slashed ropes lay about him in tatters, and that same wispy light drifted out from his nose and his mouth and his ears. With each exhale his glare grew more focused. Two great hooks sat abandoned to either side of him.
“We have to go,” Cassius whispered. “Come with me.”
“Right.” She followed closely behind as he sped down the hall, casting a glance over her shoulder as she did. “What about your companion? The one calling to me?”
“Companion?” he asked. “No. It’s just me.”
“Don’t joke,” she said, forcing a slight smile. “You can’t pull this off by yourself.”
“I came prepared,” he shot back. He patted a wing on a small bandolier laid sleek against his underside. Suspended by twine were two glass orbs with interiors bright with inscribed magics. He covered them again and swallowed the glow within his plumage. “They weren’t cheap. Not one bit. But these should be enough.”
Orianna felt a scream in her throat, but she caught it and chewed it down to a harsh whisper. “I know you didn’t come here alone. Nobody can be that foolish. And besides, I heard someone back in my room. A Ghost, I think.”
“What? No. I’m serious,” he said. “I have a plan. Trust… Wait, you heard what?”
“A voice.”
“No. It looked like you were alone. What did it sound like?”
She opened her mouth to answer and found nothing. No description, no feeling, just… something calling to her. Her pace had slowed, and she snapped out of it just in time to catch up—
A sound like thunder. Something rattled in the throat of the machines beyond the wall, and then it coughed and ruptured. The skyship rattled and listed to the left, and the two stumbled.
“Cass!” she yelled.
A look of dread sparked in his eyes. Cassius looked to a door not far ahead of them on their right. Wisps of black smoke slithered out through gaps in the seem. “Too soon,” he muttered. “I was supposed to have another half-minute. Come on, we need to go. Now.”
“Oh no you don’t!” a small voice declared. Orianna felt the changes in the air before another sentry arrived. A ribombee, small and nimble and flying in erratic circles, rounded the corner. Cassius crouched down and began evaluating, and Orianna heard the growl of the machamp as he roused himself. A tense palm smacked the floor as he pushed himself to his feet, wielding a great wicked hook in his top hands.
“Merciful stars,” Orianna whispered. Her heart pounded and pounded. She could barely think. Sure, they wouldn’t hurt her too badly, but Cassius? If they captured him?
“My thoughts exactly,” Cassius whispered back. “Follow my—”
Her psychic touch shot towards the doors to the engine room and dragged them open, and a torrent of thick smoke whirled into the hall as the ribombee passed. She gasped and then coughed and smacked gently into a wall. The glow of orange flame hid in the core of the smoke.
Cassius stood a little straighter. “Oh. That… works too.”
“Come on!” Orianna shouted, then held her breath as she charged into the smoke. Cassius did the same. Wood splintered behind them as the machamp barreled in afterwards. One of his hooks soared through the air between them and stabbed into the wall.
“Run, little bird,” he growled. “Though I doubt you’re even good for that much.”
Cassius clucked. “Yeah? Is that what you—”
Orianna flicked him on the beak with her psychic touch. “Not now!”
The hall ended in a set of stairs that brought them onto the deck. Tendrils of smoke were seeping up from the cracks between the boards, and something in the balloon above them choked and coughed and sputtered. Cassius ran up behind her and slammed the door, and Orianna dropped the wooden brace.
When she turned she could see the dim outline of the great reefs of the Hollow Sea. Glass parted them no longer. She let out a whimpering sigh. Oh, what she would have given to just sit there and look. If she just had but a sliver of moonlight…
Orianna.
Her head snapped up this time, ear twitching. A furious bark died in her throat as she caught a silvery streak in the air. Cassius had turned as well, kicking her to the side and just out of grasp of sharp, unshakable talons. A skarmory skidded to a stop on the deck, grooves carved into the wood from her passing. An ambered eye shone down on her with pity.
Behind them the door splintered. It bulged out of its frame, smoke and light pouring through the gaps. A fist punched through the gap and floundered for the brace.
“We need to jump,” Cassius muttered to her. “Now.”
“ Jump?! ” she screamed. “Jump where?!”
“Trust me. Go anywhere.”
The skarmory’s razored feathers sang as her wings unfurled. She brought her head low and shook it. “You waste yourself, knight,” she lamented.
Cassius clicked as he spread his own wings. “How about I waste you instead? Orianna, go!”
The two birds flew into the air and arced around each other, their movements rapid and foreign to Orianna. She winced and jumped away, nervously watching over her shoulder. Cassius beat his wings and stirred torrents of wind to his aid, extensions of his talons and his beak that assailed the skarmory, who slashed and deflected and endured the brunt of the assault. Orianna couldn’t keep up with it. They were matched in a dance, but the skarmory wasn’t alone.
The door flew off its hinges and out over the side, and a machamp covered in soot and fury emerged backlit by the glow of flames. He roared. Alongside him came the worried, blackened shape of the ribombee. The brute ran for Cassius, and the sprite came for her.
Cassius uttered a curse. He rolled in the air and kicked another orb off his bandolier, and a flap of his wing sent it tumbling towards them. The machamp hurled one of his hooks and knocked it away, fracturing it midair. It exploded with misty light, but alas, their skirmish was on the edge of it. Orianna felt it as much as the others. A stiffness seized her muscles, fading but annoying, and she trudged away as if neck-deep in sludge.
Orianna.
“ What?! ” she snapped. It had no voice, no origin, and no sense of timing! Couldn’t it leave her alone?! Whatever it was, she didn’t have time for this!
Cassius fought unhindered. The orb had been his, after all. It knew to leave his core alone. He clawed at the skarmory’s legs and wings in the brief opening he had.
A tinkling buzz, clearer now, reached her ears. The ribombee hovered not far behind, shaking off the effects of the orb, and she met Orianna’s gaze, desperate but determined. “Stand down, Lady Orianna. You may have some bargaining power if you do,” she pleaded. “Don’t throw that away.”
It preyed on a fear that she didn’t want to think about. She’d been so happy to see him, and yet any minute now he very well might die. To bargain for that was tempting, but a deep anger found her when she remembered the truth. Steeling herself Orianna answered, “Peregrine does as he pleases. There is no bargain.”
She began to retort, but an instinct made her turn around and evade. A gust of wind littered with slashes grazed her, and the ribombee whined and dove away.
“ Jump! ” Cassius screamed. He ducked as a hook soared by overhead, but a fist caught him square in the chest and toppled him over. His eyes clouded, and he coughed and sputtered as he scrambled back into the air with the skarmory in pursuit.
He would be fine. He was in danger because he had to cover for her. If she ran already, he could be okay. They would be okay. She sucked in a breath and ran for the banister, her muscles free and energized, and she jumped.
Wind rushed past her. The sounds of fighting grew quickly distant, and all she could see was a great gorge in the surface of the earth beneath her. She thought she saw a river farther off, the colored strata in the rock all around, suggestions of the strange plants that flourished nowhere but here. She was approaching it rapidly. Her legs flailed, the wind grew louder until it howled in her ears, and her body began to twist and tumble end over end.
Orianna wondered what would happen if Cassius couldn’t catch her. By the time she hit the ground, would she make peace with it?
Was this all some dream? Surely it had to be. Nothing like this was supposed to happen to a useless girl like her.
A shape caught her out of the air. Teeth pinched the scruff of her neck as something that did not beat its wings slowed their descent. Her heart grew tight. The ground was out of reach. Breath as cold as the grave and smelling foul in a way she was thankful she could not compare to anything else wafted across her nose, and she knew who held her.
The gem on her forehead gleamed as Orianna contorted her body in his grasp. She tapped from her core and evoked its power, but another set of teeth clamped on the side of her head and held it at bay. A flash of glittering light blasted into empty air.
“If you wanted to get some air, Princess,” crooned the maw of Ravager, “you need have only told me. No need to be so dramatic.”
Orianna thrashed. She kicked and she screamed and she fought to turn her neck that little bit more which she needed, but flash after flash met nothing but empty air. Ravager’s teeth bit harder. She cried from the pain and gagged from the smell. “L-Let me go!” she screamed, then flashed again. Each one was dimmer than the last and exhausted her more. Hot tears rolled down her face. The ground, so tantalizing, grew more distant.
Dread flooded into her. She knew what she was about to see, and she knew she shouldn’t look. They hadn’t even come close to actually escaping, had they? Ravager had been ready. Cassius…
The skyship was still tilted when the hydreigon set her down on the deck, one maw still on the scruff of her neck. She thought she heard some of the workers shouting at each other below deck, putting out whatever had gone awry. It was only when she heard Cassius’s despair that she forced herself to look up.
The tip of his wing outstretched was barely a feather’s length from the railing as he laid out flat on the deck. Save for a few scuffs he was unharmed, but that didn’t matter, for Peregrine stood behind him. An arrow had been shot into the banister, and tied by simple twine was a cracked luminescent crystal that radiated its stored light. A second arrow, the hunter’s shot, was half-submerged into Cassius’s shadow, right on his foot.
“Thank you, Ravager,” Peregrine said. He twirled one of his strange feathers in his digits as he looked over Orianna from a distance. “But you will be more gentle in the future.”
“Of course,” Ravager lied.
Cassius lifted his trembling gaze to Orianna, and she could see his shame and his fury and his guilt and his fear all magnify before her. She lurched forward towards him only to be pulled back sharply.
“Let me go,” she growled. “Let me see to him. I— I need to see to him.”
She wasn’t released. She struggled in vain in front of them all. The machamp covered in soot and smoke, the skarmory standing at attention, the ribombee who could not meet her eyes; all of them watched in silence.
“Your valiant knight,” Peregrine said, stalking closer. “A loyal one, he is, though it is a shame he had to resort to a pirate’s trick to pull this off. But not everyone can be so bright.”
Cassius snapped his head around as his feathers puffed. “Yeah? Tough talk when you let your cronies do—”
An arrow pinned his wing to the deck. The fletching twanged back and forth in the silence that followed, and Cassius bit back a hiss of pain. He moved slightly and nearly screamed, and Orianna felt her heart jump in her chest.
“S-Stop!” She ceased her struggling and turned to Peregrine, who kept his gaze fixed on her knight. “Stop, please! You’ve won!”
Orianna.
Anger flared, but she was already livid. It didn’t matter. Whatever it was it didn’t matter.
“We recovered,” he agreed. “But this was still an embarrassment. Am I wrong?” Peregrine’s head pivoted, and he stared at each of his company one at a time. The machamp glowered and looked away, the skarmory flinched not one bit, and the ribombee pursed her lips. “Need I remind you that we have a guest?”
One by one each of Peregrine’s company looked to the second ship coasting along a small ways away, just close enough for Orianna to make out a slender silhouette on the balcony. The Coordinator, or so she had overheard.
“R-Right,” Orianna said. “And— and he wouldn’t want to see you being this c-cruel, would he? A knight like yourself?”
He turned sharply to look at her. Another arrow twirled in his digits as he watched her, studying her. She felt herself shrink, her body trembling.
Orianna.
She only looked to Cassius, who was looking pleadingly up to her. And she knew that he wanted not help but forgiveness, and she felt herself shatter.
“Ravager,” Peregrine called, his voice cold and colorless. “Take her back to her quarters.”
“That I can do.”
“What? No! No, please, no!” She thrashed as she was dragged along the deck. Cassius winced and reached out his other wing for her, and she reached for him. They were too far. “Let him go! Please! I’m sorry! I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I’ll cooperate! I’ll do whatever you want me to! I beg you!” She blinked away tears.
Peregrine’s string grew taut as he knocked in the arrow. He put a foot on Cassius’s back.
“L-Lady Orianna,” Cassius croaked, “I’m… I’m sorry.”
Orianna.
“He— He can help you!” she screamed, though she knew not how. “Hold me hostage! He’ll obey! Cass, you’ll obey! Say you’ll obey!”
Cassius faltered, and Peregrine just shook his head. “Be quick, Ravager,” he said. “I don’t want her to see this.”
Ravager hummed harmoniously in acknowledgement and drifted back through the broken doorway and into the thick smell of smoke. Her torrent of emotions became a maelstrom as she kicked and thrashed and tapped into her core. Her psychic touch tried to push against her to slow her down, to hurl scraps of wood and whatever else she could find, but none of it did any good. None of it ever did any good.
Orianna.
“ WHAT?! ” she roared. It still didn’t answer. It couldn’t answer because it had no voice. It used no words. It called to her, a messenger of death itself. And in her pitiful fury she reached into her core and drew on her power.
“Easy,” Ravager whispered to her. “You’ll just wear yourself out, Princess. And I really shouldn’t rough you up anymore.”
Orianna.
“Why is this…!” Her voice cracked, and she sobbed and took a shaky breath. “This shouldn’t be happening,” she whimpered. “What did we ever do? He was just… He was my friend!”
Orianna…
And this time it was waiting. Or maybe it had always been waiting for this moment. She didn’t know, for her mind was only on one futile thing:
“I just… I just want to be free!”
Novas of light blossomed from her eyes as Ravager let go. And as the ground below thundered and quaked and burst asunder, and rocks and coral blasted skyward in a torrent of smoke, she would remember none of it. Nothing until far into the next day.