The Veritas

Some days when she felt close to losing her purpose she did well to remember. Remember where she came from. Remember what her family were capable of. Remember what her family wanted her to do and how back then, killing herself seemed like a far better option than marriage.

Ellory and her father argued about many things over the years, they all contributed to that final one. Even after all this time it seemed an insurmountable barrier, the darkest stain on her soul. On rare occasions she wished it was something she could fix, then she remembered who her father was.

There was a reason she chose to start her day like this when sailing above the clouds. The soft glow of the morning bought a certain type of peace. That delicate light, and freshness of a new day, somehow put a positive spin on things, an advantage when commanding a seeker vessel, as Ellory did. It was a job requiring a careful balance of exploration and bravado, mixed with the ability to ruthlessly defend oneself and one’s crew if the need arose.

The Veritas was a smallish vessel, considering the ones her family controlled, but that was fine with her. She was doing this for herself and perhaps a little to spite them. Sailing the skies was something she loved. Some might say it was in her blood. She’d tried to walk away once, albeit a little half-heartedly. It felt so wrong. Leaving family had been very different. Ellory Quinto was born to captain, despite her father’s very archaic opinions of a woman’s place.

Strong arms engulfed her, she sank back into the familiar touch and scent of her lover. A man her parents found suitable as an employee, but unworthy of their daughter. A man she walked away from her family fortune, to be with. More importantly though, he was a man who believed in her ability to command a ship and not just as an accessory on some other man’s arm. Jaxin allowed her to hope, encouraged her to dream and his crazy somehow worked with her own.

‘More than two dozen successful expeditions and you still find the time to doubt yourself,’ he whispered.

‘I’m not doubting myself,’ she protested, even to her own ears it sounded weak.

He gently turned her around. ‘I know you. Your moods, your expressions, your heart. Your body language is as familiar to me as my own, plus you are a creature of habit.’

Rolling her eyes, she smiled, wondering, as she often did, how she’d gotten so lucky. If any little thing in either of their paths had been different, they may never have met. He’d been training to be a navigator before his powers had manifested, and it was those her father had hired him for. For her though being a skilled navigator was incredibly useful, even if it meant he was effectively pulling double duty.

Jax’s magic tracked mana, the substance that powered everything, it was why her father hired him. The biggest problem the Sky Cities were facing, was the depletion of supply. People had been using mana for so long, all the familiar sources were not being left long enough to replenish properly. Everyone knew for each field to reach its potential it needed to be left for six years. Too many buyers were demanding supply, and enough crews didn’t care about the damage they were doing, and weren’t interested in properly exploring to find new sources. Exploration wasn’t always good on a bottom line.

Unlike her family, Ellory didn’t have a ton of credits in the bank. She had a little put aside, emergency funds if necessary, though she was really hoping to use it to invest in a home base for her and Jax. They’d worked hard and deserved a place to go when not dancing over the clouds.

‘Babe, you’ve spent enough time in your thoughts today, we have work to do. There will be plenty of time to plan what you are going to say when you go groveling back to your father when this fails.’

Ellory snorted, trust him to say the right thing to both lighten the mood and steel her resolve. ‘So wise one, where to today?’

‘Well, the last sails,’ started Jax.

‘Which we know were attached to the masts and rigging of the Sweet Marie belonging to my father,’ Ellory interjected.

Jax continued as if he hadn’t been interrupted, ‘Were seen on the horizon behind us late yesterday, so steady as we go, we’re on the right path, I’m certain of it.’

‘You know one of these days I might get around to wondering why I trust you so much,’ she said.

‘One of these days, you’re going to hire an actual navigator so I can concentrate on the seeking side of the business,’ he responded, walking to the helm.

Ellory bit back a reply, the navigator thing was a sore point for her. There wasn’t enough money as it was, once wages and expenses were taken out, almost no profit. Not a way to run a business, at least she’d learnt that from her father. To be fair she’d learnt other things too, but more along the lines of things not to do in business.

An acrid scent floated passed, snapping Ellory’s attention right into the present. A storm, her senses told her, an electrical one by the feel of it. If this one was below the clouds they would be fine, above and things were about to get shaky.

The Veritas banked hard to the left, their course changing by ninety degrees. They were now heading directly into the wall of clouds they had been traveling parallel to. Ellory kicked herself for allowing her mind to get swept up in other concerns. A quick look to Jax confirmed he’d known all along this was the way they were heading, and hadn’t so much as bothered to give her any sort of warning. There was a reason he hadn’t given her a heads up, for as much as she loved and trusted him she never would have agreed to head into The Untamed, a brutally uncharted cloud bank so named because none who ventured into had ever returned.

Crossing her fingers, Ellory joined Jax at the helm. She didn’t bother arguing with him. It was too late for that. Clouds were fine as long as they were under you. Everyone knew that. You never went into them. People had tried. It never ended well. The Untamed was different in as much as it was a wall, a border of what was known. These clouds also looked different, not as fluffy somehow, but like that was reason to challenge the rule of ‘don’t go in’. Jax was convinced these clouds were different in ways more than appearance. Ellory had never bothered arguing the point with him, because she didn’t think she’d ever need to.

Her mind chose this moment to remind Ellory that The Veritas was overdue for a service. There was nothing majorly wrong that she knew of, but a lot of things had been patched up more than would probably be recommended. Jax sent her anther cheeky look before planting a quick kiss on her lips, indicating she should take the helm.

‘Hold her steady,’ he said.

Shaking her head, Ellory did as she was asked whilst shouting the order to hold fast. She knew her man, this change of direction was calculated. They were heading right through the heart of a storm that no-one in known history had come back from. Not for the first time did she wonder at her love for the mana wizard with an affinity for weather.

Thunder boomed. Enough to shake their vessel. She counted One… Two… Three… Fo… There was a crack, the sky overhead lit up. She deliberately kept her eyes deckward. Hearing a laugh, she risked a glimpse at the man who had led them into this current predicament. His head was thrown back, eyes wild, features pulled into a look of pure glee, as a second bolt struck the metal strip running down the side of the mast. His body jolted when the power hit him and he laughed again.

She wouldn’t join in his laughter, but couldn’t stop the smile spreading across her face. Despite everything they’d been through, she loved him and felt comfortable knowing he still felt that way about her. The third crack hit the post and sizzled down into him. After this bolt he removed his hand from the mast and came back to the helm. She watched as he breathed in.

‘Brace,’ she shouted, as he looked heavenward and breathed out, a slow and steady breath. Tightening her grip, she focused on her bow. A silly instinct really when flying on clouds, because there was little you were likely to hit. The Veritas jumped forward, surging on the storm’s wind. Though the ride was bumpy because air currents could do that, the air on the deck was relatively calm. The fact they were flying so fast, clouds passing beneath and beside them at a rapid rate meant Jax was doing a bit to protect both the boat and the people on board her. Not for the first time she wondered at just how powerful her man might be.

Ellory could hear the whoops of her crew. Ragtag mob though they were. She wasn’t sure what held them together, but together they stayed, even through the dark moments, which ranged from lack of money to the time the pirates briefly took over their ship. Their loyalty amazed her. She believed she would have to add this moment to that list of memorable moments and wanted nothing more than to repay their faith in her.

Well that wasn’t totally true. She also wanted to prove she could do this. Prove to her father that she hadn’t been overreaching her abilities, when she told him she was going to be a captain.

Going through the perimeter clouds, as she now thought of them, had given no indication of what lay beyond. The clouds had been almost white when they hit them, it was much darker on the inside. She’d known it was early morning when they entered, but knew it was going to be incredibly easy to lose track of time in the grey.

The lightning lit things up spectacularly. The smell in the air was so intense, the same as the smell on the outside the cloud bank when a storm was about to hit, only inside it was magnified. Electricity seemed to dance along her skin, causing the hair on her arms to stand to attention. Apart from the clouds and torrential rain, there was nothing else to see.

The Veritas was being thrown around more than she had ever been before. Ellory simply hoped her boat held up under such punishment. They rode the wind for hours, all hands on deck, as in any storm. Besides no one could sleep through that. Ellory was beginning to think they were going to be stuck in the storm forever, when, without warning, the gales stopped and The Veritas jolted like she had been hiccoughed out of the tempest.

Ellory took stock. The sky was dark and clear, stars could be seen and the air, crisp and fresh, started circulating around the deck. More than one crew member lifted their faces skyward. The call was made, those from the early shift went below deck. She walked around her vessel, giving it a cursory inspection. Thankfully it looked as though it had held up alright. She finished her tour near the helm, her hand coming to a rest on Jax’s shoulder. The expression on his face when he turned to her could only be described as glee.

‘Well that was invigorating,’ he said.

‘If you say so,’ she smiled at him.