The world dissolved into noise and shuddering violence.
The Gale Shrikes struck the Horizon's Dawn's shields in a frenzied, shrieking wave. Each impact flashed the amber barrier like a struck gong, filling the corridor with a discordant, deafening symphony. Through the porthole, Kael saw them, sleek, feathered shapes the size of large dogs, their wings crackling with jagged blue energy that hissed against the defensive field.
"Mana disruptors," Seris shouted over the din as her pistol was already in hand, its internal runes glowing a soft blue. "They'll bleed the shields dry, then pick the hull apart!"
The ship lurched violently as the Alpha Shrike, a creature twice the size of the others, its feathers gleaming like forged iron slammed into the shield directly above their cabin. The light flared crimson, and a web of cracks, visible only as dark lines in the energy field, spiderwebbed out from the point of impact.
An alarm began blaring a sharp, pulsed wail. The captain's voice fought through the chaos, strained but firm. "Shield integrity at sixty-five percent! All non-essential passengers, remain in your cabins! Defense teams, focus fire on the larger hostiles!" the captain ordered
Kael felt the panic in the ship like a living thing, a sharp, sour tang in the mana around him. He also felt the Shrikes' hunger, a mindless, resonant echo of corrupted dragon magic, twisting the natural world into a weapon.
"They are not evil", Vaelthryx's voice cut through the turmoil in his mind, cold and clear. "They are broken. The wild magic here has warped their essence into endless hunger. To stop them, you must overwhelm the distortion".
"How?" Kael gritted out, bracing himself against the wall as another shudder rocked the ship.
"You do not fight the beast. You calm the storm within it".
A deafening CRACK echoed through the hull, and the amber light in their cabin flickered, dimmed, then surged back weakly. A breach somewhere. The shrieking outside grew triumphant.
"They're through!" Seris yelled, wrenching the cabin door open. The corridor outside was bathed in pulsing red emergency light. People were screaming, scrambling. A crew member in a singed uniform ran past, yelling into a communication crystal.
Kael followed Seris into the chaos. They fought their way toward a secondary observation deck, a smaller platform with spell cannon emplacements. One cannon was operational, manned by two wild eyed crew members who fired pulses of concussive force into the swirling mass of beasts. Each shot tore a Shrikes apart in a burst of feathers and sparks, but for every one that fell, three more took its place.
And then the Alpha descended.
It landed on the shield directly over the observation deck with a sound like tearing metal. Up close, it was monstrously beautiful and utterly alien. Its iron like beak opened, and instead of a cry, it released a pulse of silent, visible distortion, a sphere of warping energy that hit the shield and caused it to gutter like a dying flame. The shield's hum dropped to a sickening whine.
"It's targeting the cannon! It knows!" one of the gunners screamed.
The Alpha drew back, gathering itself for another, final strike.
Kael didn't think. He acted.
He stepped to the railing, ignoring Seris's sharp call to get back. He looked up, directly into the creature's faceted, glowing eyes. He didn't see a monster. He saw the pain Vaelthryx had spoken of a frantic, trapped consciousness drowning in corrupted energy.
He reached out. Not with his hands. With the part of him that listened to dragons.
He didn't push. He didn't command. He opened.
He let the presence of Vaelthryx, ancient, vast, and fundamentally ordered rise within him, not as a weapon, but as a truth. A beacon of what power was meant to be: will, not chaos.
He didn't send it at the Shrike. He simply let it be felt.
The effect was instantaneous.
The Alpha Shrike froze, its disruptive pulse sputtering out. Its wings, mid-beat, faltered. The frantic, hungry light in its eyes flickered, replaced by a moment of shocking, profound confusion. The endless shrieking around them stuttered, then died.
For three heartbeats, there was near-silence on the deck, broken only by the ship's groans and the distant pops of the other spell cannons. The swarm of lesser Shrikes milled in the air, disoriented, their link to the Alpha broken.
The Alpha Shrike tilted its head, looking at Kael. Not with hunger. With something like… recognition. A faint, glimmering echo of the ancient connection between dragons and the natural world.
Then, with a ragged cry that sounded almost pained, it beat its powerful wings and shot upward, away from the ship. The swarm scattered after it, melting into the turbulent clouds within seconds.
The silence that followed was deafening.
Kael slumped against the railing, a cold sweat drenching his back. His head throbbed, and his vision swam. Using his power like that as a broadcast, not a tool had taken something out of him.
"Shield integrity stabilizing at forty percent," the captain's voice announced, thick with disbelief. "Swarm… dispersing. All crews, status report."
On the observation deck, the two gunners stared at Kael, their faces pale. One opened his mouth, but no sound came out.
Seris was at his side in an instant, her hand gripping his arm, steadying him. Her grey eyes were wide, not with fear, but with a stark, professional alarm. "What did you do?" she whispered harshly.
"I… showed it the calm," Kael managed to speak, his voice hoarse.
"You showed it?" She looked from him to the empty sky where the swarm had vanished. "Kael, you didn't just drive it off. You spoke to it. In front of witnesses."
The crew members were still staring. Other passengers, emboldened by the sudden quiet, were peering out from doorways and corridors, their fearful gazes landing on the young man at the center of the suddenly peaceful deck.
Officer Ren emerged from a stairwell, his uniform immaculate, his expression unreadable. His slate grey eyes swept the scene: the damaged shield emitter smoke gently, the stunned crew, Seris supporting Kael, and the unnaturally calm sky. His gaze lingered on Kael.
"Report," he said, his voice cutting through the post battle murmur.
"The swarm broke off, sir," one gunner stammered. "Just… flew away. Right after he—" He gestured weakly at Kael.
Ren's eyes narrowed. "After he what?"
"He… stood there," the other gunner finished, sounding utterly confused. "The big one was right there, and he just… looked at it. And it left."
Ren walked over to Kael. He examined him with the detached focus of a scientist studying a rare insect. "Are you injured, Mr. Osborn?"
"No," Kael said, forcing himself to stand straight, to meet the officer's gaze. His eyes felt dry and hot.
"You have an interesting effect on wildlife." Ren's tone was neutral. "Spatial-attribution adepts can sometimes create disorienting fields. Is that what that was?"
It was an offering a plausible, bureaucratic explanation to file in a report.
Kael seized it. "I don't know. It just… happened. Instinct."
Ren held his gaze for a long moment, then nodded slowly. "Instinct. A powerful, if undisciplined, tool. You may have saved this vessel significant damage." He turned to the gunners. "Return to your stations. The corridor is not yet clear." He looked back at Kael. "You should return to your cabin. The danger may not be over."
It was a dismissal, and an order.
As Kael and Seris turned to leave, a new sound cut through the heavy air, a deep, grinding, mechanical roar, growing rapidly closer. It was the sound of poorly tuned engines and shearing metal.
From the starboard side of the ship, emerging from a thick bank of magic-fog, the jagged silhouette of the pirate vessel loomed. It was uglier up close a patchwork of scavenged plating, stolen thrusters burning unevenly, and a hull studded with crude, spike-like boarding grapples. On its side, in flaking red paint, was scrawled the name: THE IRON MAW.
A voice, amplified by a crackling, crude vox horn, bellowed across the gap between the ships.
"HORIZON'S DAWN! CUT YOUR ENGINES AND DROP YOUR SHIELDS! PREPARE TO BE BOARDED! RESIST, AND WE VENT YOU INTO THE CLOUDS!"
The momentary respite was over. A different kind of predator had arrived.
On the deck of the pirate ship, Kael could see figures moving ragged, armed, and hungry in a way the magic beasts could never be. They were looking at the damaged, listing Everglade vessel with the avarice of carrion birds.
Seris's hand tightened on her pistol. "Sky rats," she spat. "They smell blood in the water."
Officer Ren's face hardened, all professional curiosity gone, replaced by cold protocol. "All passengers to secure shelters! Defense teams, repel boarders! This is an Everglade vessel. We do not surrender."
He looked at Kael one last time, his message clear: The test is over. Now comes the fight.
The first grappling hook, a monstrous claw of rusted iron, shot across the void and slammed into the Horizon's Dawn's hull with a deafening crash.
The boarding had begun.