Aftermath 5.

The Kaldel Plains.

Wreckers. Crews that are mainly made up of labourers. Often carpenters. Who are hired to clear away wrecked boats and ships.
Mainly in harbours, and along coastlines. Often in rivers and lakes.
But those wreckers who are paid the most, usually by the owners or the local authorities. Are those who dismantle and clear away downed airships.
For the simple reason a lot of trade across the Southlands is done by airships. But more importantly, the magical keels of a flying vessel. If it's still intact. Can be used again. And in doing so, is worth an awful lot of coin.
But like any legitimate business or operation. There are those from the fringes of society. Who don't do their work in a legitimate fashion.
There are those who are nefarious in their dealings. And go about doing their kind of work in an illegal manner.
Like those wreckers, who don't just clear away any beached, or crash landed ship. But who actually cause ships to crash.
Like here in the Kaldel Plains. Where over the last year or so. There's been a crew of wreckers who have been bringing down airships.
So that they can sell any of the salvageable goods onboard. As well any of the actual ship that can still be used. In particular the extremely valuable keel of an airship. That's if it's still intact.
The argument begins straight away once they've gone back through the rift.
"You idiot!" shouts Gorlic, who continues with "Even i could see you hit the keel!".
"It was a damn warship, with casters onboard protecting it" shouts back Samiel, who continues with "How the hell else was i to bring it down".
Gorlic the one time arena fighter from the city-state of Brattonbury glares at the mage Samiel, who has a smug look upon his face, as if daring the former arena fighter to try something.
Sasha turns back and says "Quiet the both of you, he's coming over". The former mercenary, who would normally be considered an attractive woman. If it wasn't for her only having one eye. And a gnarly looking scar that runs down that side of the face.
Is at the window in the front room of the house they've just returned to. Where she's looking out, towards the center of the village. Where she sees Arvelle walking this way. Along with the dwarf Mac, who is carrying a lamp. As Arvelle, their leader. Hates going about at night, without any light.
Arvelle and Mac enter the house that Gorlic, Samiel, Sasha and five others in their crew returned to via the rift that the mage had cast.
"Well?" asks Arvelle, a thin man, with a shaved head. In his thirties, who leads the crew of illegal wreckers.
"Was their a fleet going by there as witnessed by the locals?" adds the leader of the wreckers.
"There was" says Sasha, who tends to command the others when they take down an airship, as Arvelle keeps himself away from when they do that.
"Warships and transporters" adds the one eyed woman, who continues with "We took down the rear sentry".
"Warship?" sasha Arvelle who looks at the mage Samiel, and asks "Were you able to keep the keel intact?".
The crew leader already knows the answer from the look on the face of the hothead Gorlic. Who stands there with a look of disgust upon his face as he ignores the spellcaster who is originally from the city-state of Tuledare.
"No" says Samiel, who follows that with "Too many casters onboard protecting it, my globe just got through their wards as it is. It did well to actually bring it down" the mage continues with "Though for all that, it's a destroyer, three masts, with a lot onboard".
Arvelle who unlike the former arena fighter Gorlic, isn't upset at the loss of the keel of the airship they took down tonight.
Knows exactly what Samiel is referring to. Magetubes, which are extremely valuable themselves. And if there's a lot of them. They can be worth more than a magical keel itself.
"How many do you think?" asks the shaven headed Arvelle "Must rate at least forty, could be forty two or forty four onboard" is the reply from the mage, who when he was younger, worked for the dock authority in the city of Tuledare. So he definitely knows his way around airships.
"That is a hell of a payday if most of them are intact" quietly says the crew leader, who unlike most of the others, is actually a plainsman.
Arvelle looks at the spellcaster from the city-state of Tuledare, and asks him "Think most of them are intact"?".
With a smile upon his face, Samiel says "I know most of them are" he continues with "I saw a lot of them hit the ground, and even a fall from five hundred feet won't really damage them".
The mage, who like all mages, is a powerful spellcaster in comparison to other practitioners of magic, continues to smile as he says "But more importantly i had my globe explode at the stern. Warships tend not put too many tubes right back there. Upsets the balance of a vessel if you do".
Arvelle nods, as does Mac the dwarf, who is a former shipwright from the Cascades. The hills and low mountains near the coast of the Southlands. Not far from the crescent port of Gilsom.
The ex shipwright knows more about ships and boats, whether they're sailing or air, than anyone else in the crew of illegal wreckers.
"Aye the mage has got the right of it" says Mac, who along with one other, and Arvelle himself. Are the one's in the crew no one wants to upset.
For the dwarven shipwright is quick with his axes when he wants to be, and when anyone upsets him.
"There should be most of the tubes still intact" adds the dwarf, who like all of his kind. Is muscular and stout, not to mention he has a thick beard.
His being coal black, without any gray even though he's nearly a hundred and eighty years old.
"That's if they don't come back and try to salvage their own wreck when they pick up any survivors" quietly says Arvelle, who then looks at the one eyed Sasha and asks her "Think they will?".
The good looking woman with the dark hair just shrugs her shoulders. The crew leader nods as he knows anything could happen.
Though if there's other airships with the one they've brought down. They tend to just pick up the survivors or anything valuable that was onboard. Larger and heavier things are usually left behind.
Arvelle hopes so in this case with the magetubes from the warship that was brought down by Samiel just a little while ago, over three hundred miles away from where they are right now.
"Any problems?" asks the crew leader "Nothing" says Sasha "Well, there was a mage onboard the ship we took down" says the mage from the city-state of Tuledare, who continues with "Sent a globe after me, we got back through the rift before it could get to us".  Arvelle nods, then says "Like i said, any problems?".
"I couldn't sense him" admits Samiel, Arvelle's eyebrows shoot up, an impressive sight considering how bald he is.
The crew leader knows a little bit about spellcasters. And he knows that mages like Samiel aren't exactly shy in flaunting their power. Infact they revel in showing it off.
Arvelle spent a long time with Samiel, getting him to hold his power within himself so that can go undetected from other practitioners of magic for as long as possible.
"Think you got him?" asks the leader of the crew of illegal wreckers who are based in a number of villages in the northeast of the Kaldel Plains. Where you're more likely to find permanent settlements like villages and towns.
While most plainsmen and others who traverse the vast plains, live a nomadic life. With many of them living in caravan troupes.
"I doubt it" dryly says mage Samiel who is only in his mid twenties. In a crew who are aged from teenagers, to Mac the dwarf who is nearly a hundred and eighty.
Arvelle nods then he's quiet for a few moments, then he says to those in the front room of the house, which happens to be the one Samiel is living in at the moment "We'll wait the usual amount".
The plainsman who leads the crew of illegal wreckers continues with "Morning after tomorrow" he looks at Sasha and tells her "You'll lead the first group if it's all clear" Arvelle briefly pauses, then he quietly says "Take him with you".
There's a few frowns from the others as they all know who their leader is referring to. Even the hotheaded Gorlic has pensive look on his face, as he chews a lip as he looks over at Sasha. Who just nods her head yes in reply to plainsman who leads them.
Then after a few moments of silence, the good looking one eyed woman says "Is that it for the night?".
"It is" says Arvelle, who then offers a little bit of praise to all of them as he adds "Well done tonight" followed by "Let's hope we get something out of this".
The crew leader then gestures for Mac to go, and the two of them exit the house. Followed a few moments later by the others, who leave one at a time. Until the mage Samiel is left in his house by himself.
Outside, Gorlic is about to ask Sasha if she can leave him out of the first group to go with her when they return to the wreckage.
As he knows she tends to take him along to keep some of the others inline. But in this instance he doesn't want to be around the one Arvelle told Sasha to take with him. He suspects none of the others what to either. He can't blame them.
The former arena fighter from the city-state of Brattonbury. Decides not to as he sees Sasha head to the house she shares with that particular individual.
Instead he turns, and makes his way through the village. Heading to the house he's living in with a few others in the crew of illegal wreckers.
As he does, Gorlic murmurs to himself "Beats me how she can live with him, or for that matter sleep with him".
Sasha enters through the front door. There's a small fire going in the fireplace. For even though summer is waning and coming to an end. It gets chilly at night out here on the Kaldel Plains.
She looks to the open door to the other room, and knows that he's in bed, waiting for her to return.
The one eyed woman takes off her cloak, and puts it on one of the pegs next to the door. She crosses the room, and puts another piece of wood onto the fire.
Then taking off her sword belt, and her belt, she makes her way into the other room in the small house she shares with another of the crew, here on the outskirts of the village.
He's sitting up in bed, reading a book, with light provided by the lit lamp on the nightstand next to the bed.
As Sasha takes off her leather armour, he asks her "How did i go?".
"As well as suspected i guess" is the reply from the good looking woman who has just one eye, and has a scar down the side of her face that's without an eye.
Sasha then goes into detail about what happened tonight as they brought down an airship, over three hundred and fifty miles away to the south.
As she does, she washes up using the warm water in the basin on the drawer on the otherside of the bed from the nightstand with the lamp on it.
Then once she's taken off her clothes, and dons a shift. She gets into bed, and under the covers beside her lover. The blademaster Pallen.
"Arvelle wants you to go with me and the first group the morning after next" quietly says Sasha "He expecting trouble?" asks Pallen the blademaster.
"You never know" says the good looking one eyed woman who is a former mercenary from the kingdom of Girdane.
Pallen, a tall, lean man with short blond hair, who is five years younger than his lover Sasha, who like her is also from Girdane. Though he's from a family of plainsmen, and sees himself as one. Nods his head then quietly says "I guess i better come along".
The blademaster in his early twenties puts his book on the nightstand, then before he puts out the lamp. He looks at the face of his lover, who has closed her one good eye as she lies close to him.
He refrains from running a finger down the scar along the side of her face. A scar from one of his blades, when he sliced her face and took her eye. Before they were lovers. And on opposite sides of a battle between two warring nobles in their homeland of Girdane.
He's not sorry for what he did, after all she was trying to kill him at the time, and he likewise to her. Though he does regret the outcome, with her having a permanent scar, and losing her left eye.
Instead he just looks at her face for a few moments, then turns and blows out the lamp on the nightstand.
Pallen the blademaster turns back, and in the darkness as he lies close to Sasha, he cups the otherside of her face with a hand and gently kisses her.
"Night" quietly says the blademaster "Night" murmurs the former mercenary in reply as they hold one another.
As they do, Pallen thinks about the morning after next. And him going with Sasha and the others to the site of the airship they brought down this night.
He can't wait to do so. As it'll give him a chance to kill someone. He doesn't matter who. Even it's one of their fellow wreckers. He just wants to kill again. After all it's been a few days since he's done so. And that's an awful long time as he sees it . . . . . .