Aftermath 42.

Above The Kaldel Plains...

It's late in the morning, and above the Kaldel Plains and a few thousand feet up in the sky a myriad of coloured lights appear.
Then the next moment a ship rift appears, and out of it shoots the krean scoutship the El Mariq.
The fairly small, streamlined, mastless airship comes to an almost instant stop after flying out of the ship rift at more than two hundred knots.
The vessel drops down in altitude at a steady thirty knots as the ship rift disappears, and from the low wheelhouse located aft, walks the chief navigator Golthindil.
The krean spellcaster makes his way forward along the flat deck, making his way to where a lone figure stands in the bow.
"This is the area my lord" says Golthindil the navigator as he comes to a stop beside lord Farque, the powerful practitioner of magic continues with "This is the location given to us by the crew of the Fídiablo from what those at rear of the fleet told them".
Lord Farque nods his full helmed head, then says "Over there" as he points away to starboard "There's something there about four miles away" adds the undead warlord.
The chief navigator gives a signal to the captain and the crew in the wheelhouse, and the El Mariq turns to starboard, picking up speed as it does.
A curious frown appears on the dragon like features of the chief navigator as he and the heavily armoured deathlord look eastwards, then Golthindil says "Looks like a ship" followed by "Or what's left of it".
The lord and ruler of the lands Farque nods, then says "It's ours" the undead warlord Farque continues with "Looks like someone's been busy tearing it apart".
The scoutship's chief navigator nods his head in agreement, as all that remains of the Farqian warship is part of the magical keel, and the ribs of the hull structure attached to it.
The El Mariq sets down a couple hundred feet from the wreck. The scoutship, which is smaller and faster than a larger strikeship, though it can't fly as far by way of a ship rift.
Left the Krean Protectorate in the north of the lands Farque last night. It's traveled the nearly four thousand miles from there to here in this part of the Kaldel Plains in just over half a day. Going through a few ships rifts to accomplish it.
Once the dark, sleek looking mastless vessel is on the ground, lord Farque yells out something in the ancient language of command.
A moment later and the undead wardog Axe pops his head up out of one of the open hatches in the deck.
And when he sees his master jump overboard, the massive canine comes up on deck, then leaps overboard too.
As the lord and ruler of the lands Farque and his wardog walk towards the wreck of one of his destroyers.
Golthindil and the two other navigators onboard, along with the air marine captain assigned to the El Mariq with his squad. Wing their way to what remains of the Farqian warship.
After the lord of the death realm gives a hand signal, and a command to Axe. And the massive undead wardog wanders off sniffing at the ground.
The chief navigator lands beside the undead warlord, who asks him "How far can you go back?".
"Not too far my lord" says Golthindil, who continues with "Just over a week is about my limit" the chief navigator, who like all krean navigators, is an extremely powerful spellcaster, then adds "It's a little easier if there's been some casting around".
"It was brought down just over a week ago" says lord Farque who is also known as Draugadrottin by the people of his lands, he continues in a slightly dry tone with "Those idiots took off the following morning in one of the ship's boats according to the survivors".
Golthindil just nods his head, as he and everyone else in the lands Farque pretty much knows who those idiots are.
Des'tier as his elven name is, points away to his right, where a eighty yards or so further to the north of the remains of the warship, Axe is sniffing at the ground.
"He's found something" says the lord and ruler of the lands Farque, who along with Golthindil walk to where the undead wardog has sat down, and barked a few times.
While the two other navigators and the air marine captain, remain aloft, studying the ground.
As they walk to where the massive dog is sitting, scratching behind an ear, the chief navigator of the El Mariq says "Wagon tracks".
The heavily armoured deathlord who has noticed them too, nods and says "Probably whoever it was that stripped the ship".
The lord of the death realm comes to a stop next to his wardog, who stands up, and with his nose, points at a spot on the ground.
Draugadrottin looks at it closely, silently communicating with his sword strapped to his back as he does so.
"A rift was here" says lord Farque to the chief navigator of the El Mariq, Golthindil nods, and crouches down to study the ground.
As he does, the air marine captain wings his way down to them, and after he lands and says "My lord" to the undead warlord, he points a bit further away to the left, the direction the wagon tracks continue onto, and he says "Those tracks disappear about another fifty yards away".
"No doubt through a rift" says the navigator Golthindil, who points at the ground infront of him as he adds "Larger than this one most likely, so the wagons can go through it".
As Axe wanders off again, lord Farque asks the krean spellcaster "Is this good enough?". "I think so" says the chief navigator, who looks up, and by way of mindspeech calls down his fellow navigators.
The two glide down to the ground, tucking in their wings once they land.
And as the trio of navigators stand together and communicate with one another via mindspeech.
Lord Farque and the air marine captain, a large krean named Armathil step back, and out of their way.
The heavily armoured deathlord and the air marine watch the spellcasters, and after a while of silent communication with his fellow navigators, the chief navigator turns and says to the lord of the death realm "We should be able to do it my lord" followed by "Unfortunately there will be no sound".
"I understand" says Draugadrottin who with a nod of his full helmed head, gives the chief navigator permission to proceed.
"Observe" quietly says the lord and ruler of the lands Farque to the air marine "Yes my lord" is the quiet reply of Armathil.
They watch as the El Mariq's navigators cast a spell in unison. A unique ability that the krean spellcasters have. Something they do with ease, where other spellcasters who try to work together to cast the same spell, struggle, and more often than not, fail.
Though the spell cast by the three navigators is extremely difficult, and could fail. But by the skill of the three of them, and frankly raw power of them, especially from the chief navigator himself. They're able to cast their spell.
It's a viewing spell. No ordinary viewing spell. As this one goes back in time to this very spot. More than a week ago. And where lord Farque looks, it's overlayed with a moving image, slightly green in colour of what was happening here a little over a week ago.
Des'tier as he's called by an older generation of elven kind who might know who he is. Slightly nods his full helmed head as he watches the viewing spell that shows him a rift forming, and once it's complete a number of people walking out of it.
The deathlord of Farque takes a mental image of them. Taking particular attention to a number of them.
A good looking woman with one eye, a tall plainsman who follows closely behind her. A stocky looking fellow, who walks near them as they chat about something. And finally, the spellcaster who makes his way out of the rift last. From the way he walks, and his arrogant looking demeanor, lord Farque immediately recognises him as a mage.
Which isn't too surprising, as the survivors of the warship in his fleet that was brought down. Spoke of a mageglobe that struck the destroyer, badly damaging the keel, which ultimately brought it down the night it was attacked.
Lord Farque and the air marine captain Armathil watch as those who have come out of the rift walk towards them, and then go through them.
The large heavily armoured deathlord and the large krean turn and watch the images of those who came out of the rift walk towards the wreck of the Farqian warship.
The viewing spell gets bigger, and they see the downed warship in a more put together state than it is now. Though in the image, there's wagons lined up near it. And people all over it, taking the remains of the airship apart, basically stripping it down.
"Wreckers" mutters Armathil the air marine making his thoughts clear on what he thinks of that profession. Infact all krean have a loathing for that kind of work, and those who partake in it.
The krean who are the finest airship builders in the world. Will rebuild a downed or damaged airship. Even one they haven't originally built themselves. Rather than take one apart, and sell the parts for profit.
The lord and ruler of the lands Farque and the air marine captain continue to watch the viewing spell, until they're interrupted when Axe wanders over and nudges at his master.
"What?" dryly says the undead warlord in the ancient language of command to the massive animal, that's basically the same height at the shoulder as his master.
Lord Farque who stands over six and half foot tall, lifts an eyebrow behind the faceplate of his full helm as Axe barks and growls to explain something to him.
"Show me" says the lord of the death realm in the ancient language of command.
As the undead wardog, with tail wagging, bounds away, the heavily armoured deathlord says in the krean language to Armathil "Continue to watch the viewing spell".
"Yes my lord" replies the air marine commander, and the undead being who rules the nation that's named after his family, follows after the wardog he's brought along with him.
Axe has stopped just fifty yards away, and is looking at the ground, and pawing at it.
"You sure?" asks Des'tier, a name which translated from the royal elven language means The Destroyer.
"You can smell her from over a week ago?" adds the lord and ruler of the lands Farque.
The massive, black dog, that has a blocky head, and a short, stubby tail, who is even taller than his master, and weighs in excess of fifteen hundred pounds, barks yes.
Axe bites at the ground a few times, then throws dirt and grass up into the air, which he snaps at in pleasure, barking and growling as he vigorously shakes his head from side to side as if he's mauling something.
"Idiot" mutters lord Farque after rolling his eyes at the antics of his wardog, who has made it no secret in the past that he would like to give Narladene the ground pixie a bite or two as he finds her annoying most of the time. As she tends to natter on all the time at him. And Axe just ignores her.
"And what were you doing here gnat?" murmurs Draugadrottin who turns and crouches down, looking back to where the krean are standing, at the spot of a rift.
Then he looks to the remains of one of his warships, which at the moment is overlaid with the viewing spell that the krean navigators are casting.
Watching them, that's what you were doing here, the lord of the death realm thinks to himself, who then silently adds, so that means that boat full of idiots know where these wreckers are.
Lord Farque stands back up, and snaps his fingers for Axe to follow him, Des'tier makes his way back to where the four krean are standing.
There the image cast by the navigators speeds up, and they watch those in it move in fast motion. Seeing them take apart the downed Farqian warship piece by piece, and loading their wagons with what they've stripped from it.
The undead warlord watches the wagons heading off, to where another rift is, just fifty yards away to the left.
The viewing spell returns back to normal speed, and the lord of the death realm watches as those wreckers he took notice of early go through the rift on some of the wagons.
Once the last wagon goes through, the mage who has cast the rift, is the last one through, a moment later his spell vanishes, as does the viewing spell cast by the krean navigators.
"That's all we could do my lord" says Golthindil the chief navigator "That was plenty enough" says lord Farque, who continues with "I guess since they came out of that first rift facing south, that they came from the north?".
"That would be the logical assumption my lord" says Golthindil, Draugadrottin nods his full helmed head then turns to Armathil and tells him "Inform the captain we'll be leaving and heading north".
"Yes my lord" says the air marine captain, who spreads open his wings, launches into the air, and heads back to the El Mariq.
"How far do you think that mage could cast a rift to?" asks the lord and ruler of the lands Farque, a nation that has the Krean Protectorate in it's northern mountains.
After briefly conferring with his fellow navigators, the chief navigator says "Well over five hundred miles my lord" Golthindil then adds "And by the size of that rift he made for the wagons to pass through, I'd say up to seven hundred miles".
"Seven hundred" quietly says the heavily armoured deathlord who continues with "So they could be anywhere between here and seven hundred miles away to the north".
The chief navigator nods his dragon like head, then says "Seems likely they'll be at the far end of that range my lord" he then adds "For all their brazen attitude, and the amount of time it took that first rift to form, a mage won't waste power unnecessarily when it comes to a spell like a rift" Golthindil follows that with "They are direct and to the point, and i believe he cast it to somewhere at least five hundred miles north of here".
The two other navigators nod in agreement with the El Mariq's chief navigator, then lord Farque says "Very well" he then adds "Back to the ship".
The two other navigators lift off and fly back to the scoutship, while Golthindil walks with the deathlord of Farque, who calls Axe to him.
The massive undead wardog who had wandered off away to the north, runs back and follows behind his master and the powerful krean spellcaster.
"Should i inform the captain that we will go by rift, or we'll fly straight?" asks the chief navigator "We'll go by rift at least a couple hundred miles to somewhere north of here that you know of" says Des'tier, who continues with "After that, we'll fly straight as we search for the idiots, and these wreckers i assume they're after" he briefly pauses for a moment before adding "And the four who are missing".
"Yes my lord" says Golthindil, who when they get to the El Mariq, wings his way to the wheelhouse to aft, while both lord Farque and Axe leap up onto the deck.
As the krean scoutship lifts up off the ground, Draugadrottin who stands at the bow end of the flat, mastless deck with his wardog sitting behind him.
Wonders about the four of Tamric Drubine, Lisell Maera, Tovis the war engineer, and the newest member of the group, the cleric from the kingdom of Nastell, named Beldane.
For though the cleric in the church of Glaine was sensed by the survivors, getting off the warship as it was going down. By way of a gateway spell, which was assumed the other three with him went through, a gateway that was believed to of taken them north.
There was no sign of them from the survivors of the downed destroyer. Nor did the undead warlord or Axe find any sign of them at the crash site.
Now where are the four of you? the lord and ruler of the lands Farque thinks to himself, as the krean scoutship El Mariq gains speed, as the navigators prepare to cast a ship rift that will take the airship further north above the Kaldel Plains . . . . . .