The Fall of Ziegler

What the hell had just happened?

Darian had no idea. Only that one moment she'd been fighting for her life against a soldier trying to shove her overboard, the next a strange voice filled the air. A voice she'd never heard before, yet felt so familiar it made her heart ache.

With the voice had come a surge of Levia, a flood of dawn light, and then Blue's tentacles had come to life. They'd snatched away the soldier fighting Darian, along with the others scattered across the Himmelsfestung's deck, hauling them twisting and writhing into the air like hooked fish.

But just as Darian had begun to assemble some sense out of the situation, the Levia had died like a snuffed candle. Everything ended as quickly as it had begun. If it weren't for the soldiers sprawled across the deck, Darian almost would've thought she'd dreamed the whole thing.

No time to get her bearings. Not before an unfortunately familiar voice howled, "What are you waiting for? Get me down from here!"

Darian's stomach sank when she saw Ulrich clinging to one of his medusid's scarlet tentacles on the other side of the deck. He must've managed to grab onto it after Blue had dropped him.

Her heart hammering, Darian gripped her rapier and forced strength into her aching muscles. Blood dripped from the needle wounds peppering her body, but it was easy enough to ignore.

Kicking his feet, Ulrich swung back and forth. "Hurry up, will you? Ah, Rain. Come, let me down!"

Rain, who had landed in front of Ulrich, slowly rose to her feet. Darian squeezed the hilt of her rapier until her knuckles turned white. If Ulrich cast an elemental spell, Darian knew she was good as doomed.

But she wouldn't give up. Even though she knew there was little she could do, she forced herself to step closer to Ulrich as well.

As Rain closed the distance between her and Ulrich, her steps echoed through the night with the flat finality of a countdown. Every breath shuddered through Darian's chest.

Finally, Rain stopped at the edge of the railing and looked up at the wizard swinging above her. Ulrich kicked forward again, apparently trying to get his feet on the railing.

"That's it. Now get me down!"

Rain didn't move, just stared at Ulrich as if waiting for something. In the aching silence, Darian could almost hear the sweat trickling down the back of her neck.

"What are you waiting for?" Ulrich roared. "Don't just stand there, stupid bitch!"

A flash of motion. Darian lurched forward, but too late. Rain had already leaped into the air, sword swinging.

In a single neat stroke, she severed the tentacle. It plummeted out of sight, leaving behind only the echoes of Ulrich's outraged bellow. And even that faded away.

Rain landed atop the railing, a stark silhouette against the night sky. For a moment, silence reigned across the Himmelsfestung.

Then Levia rippled through the air like a dying gasp. Rain leaped down from the railing, turning to face Darian. Darian's heart flipped when she saw the bare skin of her collarbone, no sign of the steel-gray symbol that had marked it less than a minute earlier.

So that was it. Ulrich Ziegler had finally met his end.

A violent shudder ran through Darian's body, almost bringing her to her knees. Gritting her teeth, she forced herself to stay upright. One step, then another, closing the distance between her and the still-silent, still-impassive Rain.

"What…." Her voice came out hoarse, shaking. "What did you…."

Rain gazed back at Darian with cold blue eyes. "I chose to serve Heinrich Ziegler because he could give me the strength that I wished for. But his son could no longer do the same."

"I see." Darian breathed out. "That was clever, cutting the medusid's tentacle. Since your contract forbids you from directly harming him…."

Rain nodded, looking satisfied.

The air felt electric, charged with possibilities. So many Darian didn't want to face. Some part of her longed to fall onto the deck and sleep for the next thousand years, but she shoved the cowardly urge as far away as it could go. Ulrich might be dead, but that didn't mean this ordeal was anywhere close to over.

"So...now what? What will you do?" Darian could barely hear her own voice beneath her madly thumping heartbeat. Her nerves prickled as more soldiers got to their feet and began to approach the scene.

"We will leave," Rain said. "Return to us any of our casualties from your craft, and we will release your imprisoned crew members."

Relief crashed through Darian like a tidal wave, turning her muscles to jelly. But she dug her heels into the deck, refusing to give into it.

"That's it? You'll just let us go like that?"

Rain shrugged, then glanced around the other soldiers. "We never had a quarrel with you. Ulrich Ziegler did."

"What are you going to do after you leave? Where will you go?" Darian found herself asking.

"I don't know," Rain said, "but we don't need to decide immediately. We have a skycraft now."

Foreboding prickled down Darian's spine. Nearly all of Ulrich's troops were demons; who was to say that with their newfound freedom, they wouldn't immediately seek out the Infernal Legion?

Guntar and Zenith would both remind her of this, urging not to let them go so easily. But Darian felt too exhausted to continue fighting any longer, and the fact remained Rain had finished off Ulrich.

At the very least, Darian owed that much to her.

She sighed, letting the tension drain from her muscles. "All right, then. We won't stop you. As long as you return all of our crew members."

"Of course." Rain nodded, then turned to face her fellow soldiers.

But before she could walk away, Darian called, "Wait."

Rain didn't turn around, though she cast Darian a glance over her shoulder. "What is it?"

Darian breathed in deeply and raked a hand through her hair. "Just...thank you. And safe journeys."

Rain blinked, for the first time looking caught off guard. She turned fully around, and Darian's heart skipped when she saw the slight smile lifting the demon's lips.

"No need for your thanks. You gave us this opportunity, after all. Safe journeys to your crew as well."

Darian nodded solemnly, one leader to another. They held gazes for a few moments longer before Rain headed back to her crew.

Now time for Darian to do the same.

~*~

Less than an hour later, all the Blue Sky crew were safely back on their own craft. Kress and Nevy reunited with a bear hug followed by an impromptu dance across the deck, while Fia immediately tried to dive-bomb tackle Darian, only to get intercepted by an indignant Guntar. True to form, Ryan wouldn't stop complaining about the Himmelsfestung's squalid dungeons.

With the tentacles severed, the only connection between the two craft remained the Himmelsfestung's ramp. The grinding and screech of metal as the ramp lifted sounded like music to Darian's ears, though there was no ignoring the massive gouge it had carved into the Blue Sky's deck. Along with the other holes littered about, signs of the battle that now felt like an entire lifetime ago.

They'd have to get it repaired, but for now, Darian was just grateful her crew had made it out alive.

Finally the ramp slammed shut, settling flush into the hull of the Himmelsfestung. The propellers whirred, and the enormous craft slowly turned about in the sky, heading towards the faint streak of dawn at the base of the horizon.

As the Himmelsfestung shrank from sight, Darian finally let herself relax. Sighing, she leaned her elbows on the railing.

When quiet footsteps came from behind, she turned around. Cay was stumbling her way, seemingly heedless of the blood staining the front of his robes.

"Cay!" Darian burst out, lurching toward him. "Don't strain yourself. You ought to rest."

Cay waved aside the hand she offered, then shook his head. "I will, my liege. But I just...I wanted...no, needed to tell you something."

"Yes?" Darian blinked. "I'm listening."

Cay opened his mouth – but before he could speak, the Blue Sky lurched beneath them. If she hadn't grabbed the railing in time, Darian would've fallen on her face.

The Blue Sky lurched again, this time tilting downward bow-first. Darian's feet slid down the deck, forcing her to grip the railing tighter.

As she struggled to stay upright, her gaze landed on Eulyn.

Normally, the symbiont and medusid glowed a soft blue, so faint it was almost imperceptible. But now, there was not a hint of light.

Darian's heart rocketed into her throat. Whatever Eulyn had done earlier must have drained all her Levia. She no longer had any to spare for Blue.

Which meant the skycraft could no longer stay airborne.