The Homecoming 90.

Fire In The Sky...

Mira Reinholt the mage steps to one side, and a pair of crewmen pass by him, barely missing him. The invisible spellcaster continues along the passageway until he gets to an opening.
Finally! Mira Reinholt the mage thinks to himself as he looks into the hold at the very bottom of the Druvician aircorp's battlecruiser he's onboard.
The once powerful mage makes sure to sense before he enters the cargo hold. And he finds no spells have been set down here by the wizard and sorcerer who are officers onboard the triple masted airship.
Which isn't all that surprising, as they're not flying in combat. And no shield spells have been set around the vessel that's part of the royal fleet.
Infact it's part of the lord high constable's personal fleet. Usually going about the kingdom to help him and his staff investigate crimes that the local nobility and their own constables are unable to solve.
The lord high constable who along with the lord high councillor, is the most powerful and influential noble in the kingdom of Druvic outside of members of the royal family.
The exiled Vexilian mage enters the cargo hold, and briefly pauses as he hears movement on the deck above him. Directly above is one of the two magetube decks. And it sounds like some of the crew are moving one of the heavy weapons about.
Which isn't all that surprising, because by late tomorrow afternoon or early evening, the battlecruiser, along with it's sister ship, will of reached the Lé Dic fief.
That's if the mage Reinholt doesn't do what he's about to do. Which of course is destroy it, or at least incapacitate it. Which he definitely intends to do.
The spellcaster who is also a highly skilled swordmaster, works his way towards the stern end of the cargo hold. Trying not to bump into too many things as it's quite dark down here. And he doesn't want to waste power on casting a spell to see in the dark. Since he needs as much power he can muster with what he's about to do.
"Fucking hell" mutters the Vexilian mage in exile as he right knee knocks a crate, he moves around it. Then sighs as he squints at what's infront of him. The spellcaster who was once the most powerful mage of his generation to be found anywhere in the Southlands, sourly smiles as he starts climbing over some spare sails.
Why the fuck are these down here, and not in the ship's rope lockers is beyond me, the swordmaster Reinholt thinks to himself in disgust, as he basically rolls over a pile of sails.
The spellcaster from the city-state of Vexil can definitely see that the shorthanded crew were in a rush to get out of the airdocks of Leeabra, and head east across their kingdom to the Lé Dic and Harkonin fiefs.
Lax fucking bastards, the mage Reinholt thinks to himself, who then snorts in derision at himself for being critical of a vessel's crew, and their standards.
Come on Mira, you've got a shitload of other things to worry about instead of criticising the standards of this ship's crew, the once powerful mage thinks to himself, who then takes a deep breath, and wipes his forehead when he finally rolls off the last of the sails.
The Vexilian mage in exile finds himself near the very stern of the cargo hold, there's a bunch of boxes and crates haphazardly stacked to aft, in the way of him reaching the very end of the hold.
Mira Reinholt slightly shrugs his shoulders, and figures here will do. After all, its fairly clear to either side of him, to both the port and starboard side of the hull.
The highly skilled swordmaster looks down at the top of the keel of the battlecruiser, that runs along the very bottom, or spine of the vessel.
Like all airships, it's the magical keel that gives it the ability to fly, and stay in the air. And the mage Reinholt intends to damage it enough, that it knocks the warship out of the night sky.
The once powerful mage knows that he'd better hurry, as he's supposed to be the first one to act. For what he'll do here on this battlecruiser, will be the signal for what will happen next on it's sister ship. Which is flying to the north, and further ahead to the east, of this particular airship.
Mira Reinholt creates a mageglobe in his right gloved hand, he's about to fling it away, and cast a spell. When he suddenly senses one of the spellcasters onboard, the wizard to be exact, appear in the passageway at the bow end of of the hold.
"Fuck now what?" mutters the exiled Vexilian mage who keeps a hold of his mageglobe, which is impatient to be off, though it remains still and motionless in the hand of it's creator.
With the living piece of magic unable to be sensed by another spellcaster because the mage Reinholt is still holding it.
He casts a spell to enhance his hearing, as he's pretty certain he can hear talking from out in the passageway, the same one he went through to reach the cargo hold.
"I'm sure i heard something when we were here a little bit earlier sir" says one voice once the exiled Vexilian mage casts his enhanced hearing spell.
"Same here sir" adds a second voice, then a third tells them "Well there's nothing magical in there, i can't sense anything".
That's the wizard, the once powerful mage thinks to himself, who then hears the ship's spellcaster, well one of two of them, say "Ah good, the rest of you lot are here" followed by "Light those lamps and search the hold, someone might of stowed away".
The spellcaster who is also a highly skilled swordmaster, then hears the ship's wizard mutter "Which wouldn't surprise me considering the rush we left in".
"Shit" mutters Mira Reinholt when he spots light towards the far end of the cargo hold. He drops the enhanced hearing spell, then he throws his mageglobe, which takes off in a hurry as it's eager to do the task it was created to do.
Then the once powerful mage turns to his right, and starts running, as he does he casts a blast spell at the starboard side of the battlecruiser.
A four foot wide, by four foot tall hole is created in the side of the airship when planks of wood goes flying from the spell created by the Vexilian mage in exile.
The once powerful mage dives through the breach in the starboard side of the hull, and falls through the night sky.
While in the passageway at the bow end of the cargo hold, the ship's wizard who is ushering some of the crew into the hold, yelps "Fuck!" when he suddenly senses what's coming towards him.
He slams up a barrier spell as he hears a thud somewhere further back in the hold, towards the stern. The wizard, who has been assigned to this battlecruiser for just a few months, winces as he senses what's coming this way.
It suddenly stops about a dozen yards away, then it drops. There's a bright flash from within the cargo hold, followed by the sound of an explosion which shakes the entire airship, and which knocks the air sailors entering the hold off their feet.
The wizard keeps standing, though grimacing as he instantly senses that the keel was hit by what he was sensing, a mageglobe of all things.
Meanwhile, over five hundred yards away to the northeast in the night sky, onboard the sister ship of the battlecruiser that Mira Reinholt just attacked.
Lord Farque rolls his eyes as he senses what the once powerful mage has just done. The undead warlord who now senses the mage Reinholt falling towards the ground, shakes his full helmed head "Took you fucking long enough" mutters lord Farque as he looks out of the opening to his right, and sees the other warship in the distance in the night sky.
It's tilting forward in the bow, and along the underside of the hull, fire can be seen. The lord and ruler of the lands Farque, who is also known by the name of Draugadrottin by the people he rules, looks down, and quickly spots Mira Reinholt falling towards the ground.
The heavily armoured deathlord senses the Vexilian mage in exile has enough power to levitate. So he looks away and turns.
He steps forward, and looks up at the decking above him, as he can hear shouting and yelling up on the top deck of the battlecruiser he's onboard. As some of the crew topside, have seen what's happened to their sister ship that's following them to the south and west.
Des'tier as elven kind of an older generation who might know him, call him. Hefts the magetube he's taken out of the cradle, that faces the opening the lord of the death realm was just looking out of.
Lord Farque lifts the nine foot long, thousand pound magical weapon up slightly at an angle. Then he pulls up on the lever that fires the magetube.
The deck he's on, or firing gallery as it's sometimes called. Is empty of air sailors, and the thud from the magical weapon firing reverberates throughout the firing gallery.
There's an instant silence from topside as the crew on duty up there, immediately recognise what's just happened somewhere down below them.
Then the nine foot wide ball of energy shot from the magetube hits the decking, which explodes up everywhere. Then the wide ball of magical energy slams into the base of the aft mast of the triple masted airship.
The undead warlord turns, and points the nine foot long steel barrel, downwards at an angle, and fires the magetube again. The heavily armoured deathlord doesn't even move as the heavy magical weapon spews forth another nine foot wide ball of energy.
Which quickly tears up the decking, and goes into the hold below this shooting gallery. Where it slams into the keel along the base of the battlecruiser, near the stern.
There's a more pronounced explosion this time, that violently rocks the warship that's part of the fleet within the kingdom's aircorp, under the command of the lord high constable.
Then as the aft mast falls and slams into the top deck, crashing through part of it. And the battlecruiser starts to drop out the night sky, stern first.
Lord Farque tosses away the thousand pound magetube he was firing, and heads off. The lord of the death realm goes in search of one of the two wizards onboard the severely damaged warship.
He wants some answers to some questions. And either one of them will be best qualified to answer them.
As he falls quickly towards the ground below, Mira Reinholt hears the unmistakable thud of a magetube firing in the distance somewhere to the north, followed by an explosion.
A couple of moments later he hears the thud of the magetube firing again, followed by another explosion.
"I wonder who that could be" murmurs the once powerful mage with a grin upon his face as he falls at the speed of terminal velocity towards the ground.
The spellcaster who is also a highly skilled swordmaster, who has fallen nearly two thousand feet through the night sky. Quickly casts a levitation spell, less than fifty feet from the ground.
The mage Reinholt instantly slows, and the last fifty feet towards the ground is a more leisurely drop compared to the first two thousand feet.
The Vexilian mage in exile looks up, and spots the battlecruiser he attacked, burning along the underside of it's hull, and dropping bow first down through the night sky.
The highly skilled swordmaster then looks to the north and east, and clearly sees the fire in the sky that marks the other warship that was bound for the Lé Dic and Harkonin fiefs, which lord Farque has attacked.
That battlecruiser is dropping out of the night sky a bit quicker, and from the stern. As there's flames coming from the aft of the vessel. Or what's left of the aft.
Mira Reinholt the mage lands upon the ground, in the middle of a field in a farm. He drains what remaining power there is the spell gem he's been using lately.
"Another one empty" murmurs the once powerful mage who then sets off in the direction of where the other badly damaged warship looks like it will crash.
The swordmaster Reinholt glances up into the night sky above him, and sees the burning warship he attacked, drifting down more to the east. Then he looks towards where it's badly damaged sister ship is dropping down out of the night sky.
"Well at least that's two of them" Mira Reinholt murmurs to himself, who knows that even though he and lord Farque have taken care of these two airships under the command of the lord high constable of the kingdom of Druvic.
There's a third that left the capital Leeabra way earlier this morning, that's still on it's way to the Lé Dic fief, and will be there sometime tomorrow . . . . . .