Hoplite watched as the tall oni woman, Miyu was her name, easily took apart her attackers; just as she did on the ship below. He hadn’t needed to intervene yet, but he found that her reckless aggression may rob them of a crew large enough to operate this airship. He’d learned a few things about these contraptions by watching the crew on Terg’s ship work on it, and if Miyu killed all the crew on this vessel,it would be nigh impossible to manage it.

  Ships, be they sailing the air or the depths of deep space, needed men to maintain and work them. Granted, this ship was significantly smaller than Terg’s, maybe only needing half the crew required to operate it… but he wasn’t sure she could fly it herself. He considered climbing back down the rope, but thought better of it. He’d gathered all the intel he could from the captain and his men, and they weren’t going anywhere that seemed important. Seeing this new vessel coming to raid Terg had caught his interest, indeed it had been his intent to take command of it himself.

  He had planned on making a few examples of the crew to both keep them in line, and to force them to work fast. Fear was a great motivator, after all. It seemed that Miyu was already planning on that though, hopefully. If not, then he may have to intervene on behalf of the crew, he needed them to work the ship, otherwise Hoplite would need to try and do it himself.

  Three men died, bisected by Miyu’s sword with ease before the rest of them surrendered, cowering before her as she swung the blood off her blade. The captain of this ship’s eyes went wide with terror as he stared down at her, hands still gripping the wheel tightly. This could be a good outcome for him, assuming Miyu’s leadership would lead him to a more populated island. He hoped that one of the large cities these people talked about would host someone able to send him back to his dimension.

  As absurd as it seemed, magic existed here in Yulon, it had brought him here, and if he was lucky it would be able to send him back.

  “I’d rather die than fail Captain Kain!” The man at the wheel shouted, “Death would be a mercy!”

  Hoplite rushed for the man immediately, unfurling his mono-wire to sever his hands- but it was too late. The man completely raised the wheel, sending the ship flying skyward. The bow quickly raised itself up, facing the sky and sending everyone onboard falling into the endless expanse below. At least, all of the crewmembers. Hoplite himself clung onto the wood of the ship with ease, thanks to the Adium spikes installed in his gauntlets. The captain hung from the wheel, the device turning as he hung from its pegs, legs scrambling wildly as his crew fell away into the void.

  Well there went piloting this boat with ease, now he’d need to do it himself. He spotted Miyu clinging desperately from the railing near to him, one arm still clutching her blade. She didn’t seem too distressed despite the danger of her situation. No, that wasn’t right, her face looked strained, eyes were wide, breath erratic… she was terrified. Hoplite shocked himself as he crawled across the deck toward her, preparing himself to fling her toward the bottom of the quarterdeck, just below the captain's wheel. There she’d have a surface to stand on at least. Retracting the Adium spikes, he gripped her wrist, receiving a gasp of surprise from the oni.

  Hoplite tossed her toward the quarterdeck with ease, her weight not an issue for his enhanced strength. She rolled down the deck until she hit the door to the captains quarters, still clutching her sword. He quickly rationalized his decision to save her as he approached the captains wheel, he couldn’t pilot this thing by himself, there would need to be a minimum of two people here to manage the ship, but thankfully since the captain was still holding onto the wheel-

  The man screamed as he finally lost his grip, falling down into the void along with his other screaming crewmates.

  -There would have been three people… Oh well. He climbed toward the wheel before reaching up to it with his hand, levelling out the ship. He stood over the wheel finally, gripping the pegs with a strange sense of… wonder. Before he could ponder why he felt this way, he saw Miyu approaching from up the stairs on quivering legs. Her sword was sheathed now, that look of shocked horror not leaving her face as she drew closer to the wheel.

  Hoplite backed away silently as she reached it, taking the wheel herself with shaky hands.

  “I’m alive.” She said to herself. “I am alive.”

  He seemed to be at an impasse here, he couldn’t remain hidden like this if he intended to work with her to pilot this boat. Yet he found it surprisingly difficult to willingly reveal himself. Usually command would tell him what to do, but without them here, he was his own commanding officer. There wasn’t a choice here, he needed her cooperation, at least for now. He didn’t want to startle her though, especially not as she was at the wheel. He’d wait for her to let go first, then he’d uncloak.

  It took her an hour of sailing before she mustered up the bravery to release the pegs. She stared at them like a viper, hands wide open. It looked like she was anticipating the ship to flip once again, thankfully that didn’t come to pass. She then turned in his direction before slowly walking toward him.

  Impossible, she couldn’t see him, surely. It was just a coincidence she was heading this way. This assumption proved to be correct as he moved out of her path, allowing her to lean against the railing with a sigh. She stared down at her wrist for a long while, the same one Hoplite had grabbed earlier.

  He took a few steps back before uncloaking, internally practicing what he would say to her before finally he said, “Hello.”

  “Eeek!” She cried in a surprisingly high-pitched tone, drawing her blade as she turned around.

  Hoplite locked onto the blade, he would disarm her by snapping her dominant arm at the elbow- No, that wasn’t necessary. This reaction from her was perfectly reasonable, Hoplite would have done the same himself. He held up his hands, palms outward to show that he intended no harm.

  “Demon! Hellspawn be gone, I will not suffer you to live!” She screamed, leveling her blade at him.

  Ah yes, his helmet had been designed to be frightening, with sharp needle like teeth engraved into the jaw plate. Decorative, but still useful regardless.

  “I’m no such thing.” Hoplite said, shaking his head.

  “Whatever you are- Wait a moment, is that just armor? In that case, you must be one of my kind.” She reasoned, narrowing her eyes, “I don’t know who you are, or how you got here so fast, but I’m not going back to Onica!” She screamed at him, readying her blade to swing, “Just leave me alone!”

  Oni? Why did she think that- Hoplite then realized she was only a few inches shorter than himself… of course she would assume that he was one of her race.

  “I’m not an Oni.” Hoplite replied, “I’m human.”

  “A strange lie, you expect me to believe that?” Miyu asked, eyes narrowing, “Look at you.”

  “I have gigantism.” He lied, “And besides, look around you. There are no Oni ships anywhere in sight.”

  Her lips drew to a fine line, but she didn’t follow his instruction, eyes still firmly on him, “Gigantism.” She said flatly. “Are you part giant then? What does that even mean, and where did you even come from?”

  “I was on Terg’s ship.” He told her honestly, he saw no reason to lie about that.

  “I’m sure I would have noticed someone like you being there.” She replied, incredulous.

  “...I have magic that makes me invisible.” He lied, not wanting her to know that it was his armor itself that did so.

  “Really?” She asked, her brows knitting together.

  Hoplite bumped his chin, cloaking himself once again. Miyu blinked in shock before she nodded to herself.

  “It was you raiding the larder wasn’t it?” She asked accusingly, her stance easing slightly, “You’re a stowaway.”

  He uncloaked himself again, “Affirmative.”

  “No shame?” She asked.

  “Not the slightest.”

  “Alright well… well why did you follow me up here?” She asked, further relaxing her stance.

  “Terg wasn’t going anywhere I wanted to go. I intend to find a way to return home, I need a mage with the proper spell in order to do that, so I want to dock at one of Yulon’s larger cities.” He told her with a firm nod.

  Miyu blinked, “Why not just ask me to take you to your island? Why get a mage to do it?”

  Hoplite hesitated, “It is far away.”

  “Are you a Shardwalker?” She asked, tone suddenly becoming excited.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  “...Yes.” He told her.

  He didn’t know what a Shardwalker was, but he could under no circumstances tell her the truth about what he was. It seemed his kind, Outworlders, were highly sought after for sacrifice.

  “What was it called? What was it like? Are all humans from your Shard as large as you?” She asked, barraging him with questions before he could formulate a single answer for any of them.

  “Please stop.” He asked her, raising a hand, “The information you are requesting is top secret.”

  “Oh…” She said, sounding disappointed, “Well I won’t pry if you don’t want to share. Still, you should already know that returning to your Shard is basically impossible.”

  “I don’t want to believe that.” He answered without hesitation, “There has got to be a way.”

  The term ‘Shard’ had been thrown around by Terg’s crew before. From what Hoplite could gather, they were pieces of this world, sectioned off from one another by Fog-Gates. Frustratingly, they had not gone into detail about how they functioned, apparently it was common knowledge to them. If he could find a library on one of the larger islands, he could read up on how this world worked. May as well, as they not only spoke in Jynesian, these Faenorans also used the same exact script.

  Miyu sheathed her sword, “I respect your will. I am Miyu Malash of Onica.”

  “I know.” He replied.

  “...Right, forgot you were stowing away.” She said with a nod, “What is your name?”

  “Hoplite Twenty-Two.” He told her, “You may refer to me as Hoplite.”

  “Well met, Hoplite.” Miyu smiled, reaching her hand out.

  Hoplite blinked as he stared down at the proffered hand. He hadn’t shaken many hands in his life, he shouldn’t engage in this. Yet, he did need to at least appear cooperative, refusing the gesture might appear rude. He’d need to be careful though, the first time he’d shaken hands with someone after his augmentations, he’d shattered every bone in their hand. Carefully he took her hand in his, shaking very softly.

  Miyu frowned, “Why do you shake like a corpse?” She asked, “A man your size?”

  “I don’t want to hurt you.” He told her honestly.

  Miyu blinked a few times, as if what he said had made no sense whatsoever, “...I assure you that you can’t hurt me. I’m much stronger than you are.”

  For some reason, Hoplite felt… he felt indignant at that comment. He applied slightly more pressure to the handshake.

  “There you go!” She laughed happily, shaking his hand.

  “I am very strong.” He told her flatly.

  “Sure you are, but not as strong as me.” She told him in a casual tone.

  He drew his lips to a line as that awful feeling of frustration built within him. Why did this little comment rile him up so much? This emotion was pointless, it needed to be ignored lest he do something unprofessional; like challenging her to a wrestling match. He had been out of cryo too long, he was beginning to Thaw… he’d need to keep his emotions in check. They broke the shake, Miyu sighing as she stared at the wheel.

  “I suppose this means you want to sail with me right?” Miyu asked, “Why didn’t you reveal yourself to Terg and ask him?”

  He had considered torturing the crew to get his way, but during his time eavesdropping on them, he’d learned just how human they all really were. For some reason he just couldn’t raise his hand to them after hearing them talk about the kind of people they were. A sickening feeling in his gut had prevented him from carrying out what needed to be done. With this new ship coming here, it was a new crew that he didn’t know, one that he wouldn’t get to know. It would have been easier to torture these new people, rather than do it to those he’d come to know second-hand… Again, he wasn’t sure why he couldn’t do it to Terg’s crew after listening to them talk about things such as their families or dreams and the like… so frustrating.

  “I don’t like Terg.” He lied, “He would not have cooperated with me anyhow.”

  “I understand that, but what makes you think that I’ll be any better as your captain?” She asked, lavender eyes narrowing.

  “Don’t misunderstand, you will not be my commanding officer.” He told her in his monotone, “I’m proposing a temporary partnership to reach my goals, I don’t intend on being under your leadership.”

  He expected her to grow angry at him for that, but instead, Miyu looked disappointed, “Ah… alright, I understand.”

  “I’m glad that we are clear.” Hoplite said, “Now, our first order of business is learning to pilot this ship.”

  “I know the essentials.” Miyu said, “Piloting it by myself won’t be easy though, I only learned so much about airships back home.”

  “How is it that they fly?” Hoplite asked, genuinely curious.

  He had searched all over Terg’s ship for whatever might be keeping the ships aloft, but he’d not found anything, not inside or outside that made these boats float in the air.

  “Right, you’re a Shardwalker, but the wood these boats are made from, well, to put it simply, they float.” She told him, “At least, the wood on the exterior does. The deck here is just good old fashioned groundwood, that’s what we call it here. The trees what stay rooted in the earth.”

  “Are there other kinds?” He asked, interested.

  “Only the one, it goes by a simple name, Floatwood. They drift around the Endless Sky, though I don’t know how they get their water.” She told him, “They’re huge balls of bark and gnarled roots- hey, look behind you there!” She smiled, that excited look coming over her again, “There’s one way over there!”

  Hoplite awkwardly half-turned, keeping Miyu in his sight as he sighted a large orb in the distance. He zoomed in on the object, showing a ball of a light brown wood. Leaves extended from tendril-like branches in every direction, the Floatwood tree looking more akin to a sea urchin than anything else. Fascinating, it must be completely weightless to drift through all this nothing… right? No, there still had to be mass, it needed water to live, just like any other plant, and water was not weightless. Something like this couldn’t be truly weightless even considering water-weight, so that begged the question, how?

  He asked that very thing to Miyu, who simply shrugged before answering with, “Not sure exactly, I’ve heard a couple things but nothing I’d say is definitive.” She put a finger on her chin as she thought, “One story I heard says they float up from the twin moons down below, Rhetyna and Oculus.”

  “Is there anything down by them? What happens if someone flies down there, do they lose oxygen when they leave the atmosphere?”

  Miyu hesitated, “...I don’t know. No one who tries to reach the moons ever returns, but anyway, you said that you wanted to reach a city right?” She asked.

  Hoplite nodded, “Affirmative.”

  “I have no idea where to go.” She said in a tone bordering on meek.

  “Aren’t you a local?” Hoplite asked, “It doesn’t matter, there is likely a map in the captain's chambers, I will search it, you keep the ship stable, affirmative?”

  “Affirmative?” She asked.

  Hoplite simply nodded before turning from her, descending the stairs before entering the captain's cabin, ducking his head low to pass through the doorway. It was surprisingly spacious, with a large desk sitting before a wide latticed window. The desk faced toward the door, along with the chair. How could the captain have it facing this way? With the window behind him someone could get a clear shot at his head.

  That was, if anyone in this dimension had been in possession of firearms. Perhaps it wasn’t such an Achilles Heel as he’d thought. At least not most of the time, Hoplite himself could easily have assassinated him through that window, but most people wouldn’t be inclined to hang off the side of a floating boat.

  Besides the desk, there was a massive bed set in the left corner of the chamber. He’d remembered hearing about the sizes when he was a child… let’s see, from what he could recall, that would be a king size, if not a bit larger. Simple white sheets covered it, with drawers set into the wooden frame.

  Wait just one second. How in the world had the desk not been overturned by the ship flying upward? It was still set in place perfectly, as were the decorations set atop it. The furniture in the room all seemed to have stayed completely in place. A chair sat undisturbed beside a small round table, a chest in the opposite corner of that was similarly unmoved-

  Then he realized, everything in here must have been bolted down in case of the ship flipping. That was good foresight, Hoplite admitted to himself as he rounded the desk. He pulled open various drawers, skimming through their contents before he finally produced a map. It was exactly as he wanted, a map of this new world, there was still a problem, however.

  Hoplite had no way of knowing where on this map they were currently located, he needed landmarks. The map showed several points of interest, several islands filled the Endless Sky, but there were four large ones that stuck out: Mariga: the Island of Gold, Bulus: Island of Beasts, Kena: Island of Plenty, and finally, Golga: Island of Man. Each of these massive landmasses took up their own corner of the map. He noted their positions before taking note of other landma-

  He paused.

  Note of other airmarks. Eventually they’d find something from this map, then they could navigate from there. They had to be relatively close to Onica at the least, out by a few days of travel… they had to be somewhere between Golga, in the lower left hand side of the map, and Bulus, on the upper left hand side. Inwardly he berated himself for not doing this sooner, surely Terg had a map on his person or among his other affects he could have taken before now. He’d been too easily distracted with the eavesdropping apparently. Hopefully this lack of foresight wasn’t an effect of the Thawing.

  He rolled up the map gently, moving out of the cabin and back up the stairs. Miyu busied herself at the wheel, holding the pegs steady.

  “I found the map.” He told her, “But we need airmarks to find out where we are.”

  She furrowed her brow, “Airmarks? You mean landmarks, yes?”

  “...I assumed you would have a different name for them.” He told her, for some reason feeling irritated, “Based on the circumstances.” He finished gesturing to the vast nothing surrounding them.

  She giggled, a strangely light noise, coming from a woman her size, “That’s just silly.”

  His brow furrowed, “It is not silly.” He told her flatly.

  “Well, silliness aside, the only thing we can do right now is sail until we find something on the map, right?” She asked, drawing closer to him.

  He instinctively tensed as she drew close, but she clearly had no ill intent. Her eyes were locked on the map in his hand, seeing this, he unfurled it, holding it out for her to see. Her hands brushed his as she seized it from him gently, her eyes curious as she stared down at the paper.

  “I’ve seen this map before but I don’t recognize all those smaller islands scattered across the middle of the Endless Sky… our cartographers really need to update what we have. On Onica I mean.” She explained, “...So, we’re going to be sailing a while.” She noted, curling the map shut, “Want to pass the time?”

  “We can stand here silently until we find a landmark.” Hoplite told her, “I don’t engage in pastimes.”

  “Don’t be such a rock.” She complained with a frown, “You have to do something for fun.”

  “I don’t have fun.” He told her honestly.

  “Sad life, but I can introduce you to it while we sail.” She said with a smile.

  “I’m not interested.” He insisted in a monotone.

  She drew her lips to a line as she stared hard at him… it wasn’t a glare but something else, something immature. What was the word for it… ah yes, she was pouting. She wouldn’t stare at him like that the entire way would she? He had no idea, for all he knew Oni didn’t need to sleep. Did he really want to be under the scrutiny of those pouting eyes up until the operation was concluded? If it would aid in cooperation then he saw no harm in engaging for now. He was in command of himself right now, so he determined that rapport needed to be formed with Miyu.

  “Very well.” He told her, “But are you sure the ship will remain stable?”

  Miyu shrugged, “From what I know it’ll stay floating in the same direction as long as no one touches the wheel. I’m sure another ship crashing into us would shift course too, “She continued, placing a finger on her chin, “But I don’t think Terg has the stones to come after us after that fright I gave him, I assume you saw that.”

  “What if we hit bad weather?” Hoplite asked.

  “That too, but look around; clear skies all around, so no trouble.” She finished with a wide gesture at the Endless Sky.

  “Very well.” He replied.

  A pleasing silence then fell over both of them then, but frustratingly it only lasted half-a-minute.

  “You play dice? I’m sure there are some below deck.” Miyu asked, her eyes lighting up.

  “I don’t.”

  “How about this, one of us goes below deck to check for dice and whatever else, while the other stays up here to keep an eye on the deck.” She offered.

  “Affirmative.” He replied, cloaking himself before walking away.