“Agreed. We will have to begin the preparations for both expeditions.” Audriul interjected.
One Elder began tapping her staff repeatedly on the wooden floor.
“Weilkeir, your words have not yet all been heard. We will return to your discussion shortly.” Audriul acknowledged. “Milfrin, you are acknowledged. What words do you have to put forward?”
The second mage stood. “I wish to state my objection to the proposed action. Not because it is not a reasonable course of action, to seek allies, but because we lack the power to perform our duties, prepare for the coming battles with Kathra and her forces, AND be building ships and tools to enable Master Thomas and his house to go gallivanting to hazardous environments to try to bring our wayward sisters back to their rightful places by our sides.”
She turned from Audriul to appeal to the elders. “We know that once we had the numbers to support such a broad array of efforts. We could maintain the entirety of our forest, enforce the laws of the Enlightened Host among our sister lineages, and still have forces to explore, spend time and leisure on the arts, be icons of fashion, and still have excess. Those days are gone. Kathra killed them. But Master Thomas asks us to drop all to allow him to explore our world and collect matrons from the disparate lineages of our sisters, and Audriul would see us neglect our DUTIES to fulfill his fantasies. If we had the strength, this would matter not at all. But we do not have the strength he demands, so I must object. Until the forest is once again in our control, and our preparations are complete, we cannot and should not continue to bend to his every whim. Powerful and dangerous he may be, but an elf, he is not. He does not know our ways. He does not know our methods. He does not know what we need. I move to vote to end our unlimited support before he drives us to our deaths.”
I was gobsmacked.
“A call for a vote has been made,” Audriul noted with frustration. “Place your votes. Those for the proposed action, vote for it. Those who wish to continue supporting our Summon, vote against.”
The vote took a few minutes. The total was eleven for cutting off my support, and twenty-four for continuing to support me. I don’t know what the rules were for a vote to pass, but Audriul declared that the tally was enough that support would remain with me.
“Milfrin, your words have been heard. The acknowledgment returns to Weilkeir.” Audriul declared.
Weilkeir stood and with a bit of an annoyed glance at Milfrin, she resumed her discussion. “As I was saying, there would indeed be effort needed to reach the clouds. The rings of supplemental air have long been held in storage, and so long as the enchantments remain strong, all that will remain is a vessel to carry you to the cloud. The shipwrights can begin construction as soon as they get word.”
“What kind of ship are we talking about here?” I wondered.
Weilkeir put her hands together, and formed signs by intermingling her fingers to form four signs in succession before incanting, “Ektha thomai.” As she finished her spell, she held one hand forward, palm up, with her fingers spread.
The air above my head shimmered, and the form of a boat, long and thin, reminding me somewhat of a Viking longship appeared.
“We will begin with the base of a Veurnhin. From there, we trade out the mast for a Heiurn.” She explained, and the sails were replaced with what looked like an enormous hang glider that would be suspended by the mast over the heads of the passengers. “Add in stabilizers, and bind a Wind Elemental to give you control and lift, and you have what my engineers call a ‘Viurn’.”
The stabilizers were smaller wings, and fins, dispersed along the body of the ship. The Wind Elemental seemed to be bound in a spring-like structure, mounted at the back of the ship, behind the helm. It appeared that it would be an aquatic landing vehicle, but I assumed it would work, landing it somehow in the cloud city.
“Looks like an airplane to me.” I chucked.
You turn the ship hull into a tube, change the stabilizers into landing pontoons, and the elemental ring into engines and it was pretty much an airplane.
“So, you have naval vessels?” I noted. “Will they be modified to reach the Sea Elves as well?”
Audriul made an “ahem”, then replied. “It has been nearly three hundred years since the last High Elven sea vessel was made, and it was destroyed only twenty years later. No, we will not be repurposing, or modifying existing vessels, but constructing them anew.”
“What destroyed your ships?” I chuckled nervously.
“A leviathan, a kraken, a megalodon… it is difficult to say. Perhaps a sea dragon?” Audriul mused. “Since we only learned of its destruction weeks later, the seers could gain little information. Perhaps it was another effort of Kathra?”
The last statement was directed at Amura, who seemed distracted. Laliera nudged her and whispered to her, bringing her up to speed.
“I apologize, I was not yet born and if it was an effort of Kathra, it was not one she celebrated in my memory…” Amura finally responded, flush turning her cheeks somewhat purple.
“Very well. It matters little now.” Audriul noted. “But luckily, the shipwrights live still and may yet lend us their knowledge and skill.”
Weilkeir closed her outstretched hand with a dismissive motion and the image above my head faded. She sat, and Audriul resumed her role.
“Weilkeir, your words have now been heard.” She looked around the group. “Are there any other questions at this time?”
Looking around, I could guess seven of the eleven who had voted against me, just by how grumpy they appeared. But no one raised a hand, staff, or bow, and after a minute, Audriul dismissed us, and the Floorkeeper led us out to the street.
Amura was still seriously distracted and remained so the entire walk home. Once we arrived home, she walked straight to the hall that led to her room and disappeared.
“Is she going to be alright?” I worried.
“She does not appear ill, and there is nothing in the house that should cause her harm,” Diamiutar noted.
“Okay, is mental health not a thing here?” I demanded. “Do elves just not get depression? Or anxiety? Do elves never commit suicide? Are those just not things you worry about?”
Lymarith, who had been sitting in the entryway, working on some enchanting project of some kind, interjected, “Do we feel depressed or anxious? Of course. But… to feel such emotions so seriously that it is worth… ending your life… no, that is rare. The priestesses are usually able to alleviate such suffering long before it reaches that point. The only time when such action is really to be feared is if a matron loses her master before her time of motherhood has ended, with no sign of relief in sight.”
Well, that was interesting and informative. I guess I wasn’t the only one who could get magical relief from PTSD, anxiety, depression, and the other mind fucking conditions. Still, every time any of them tried to rear their ugly heads, the refreshing calm washed over me, and the fucking shit got told to fuck off. Honestly, it might be one of the best parts of my new life. I mean, being the stud of an elven lifetime, with maids clamoring for my dick was great… but it would be nothing if anxiety made me believe they were all likely to explode at any moment, or if depression made me just not fucking care. I’d only dealt with what I considered minor bouts of PTSD, I knew men who had it far worse, but even that had sucked balls. Being free to just… be me… without the parts that dragged me down… was amazing.
I hoped Amura didn’t need help, but knowing help… Real help, not sitting on a couch to ‘talk about feelings’… was available, it was a relief.
I mean, from what I understood, a therapist’s couch was great for women, so it could help my elven companions if it were needed. Traditional therapy helped somewhat for some men, but too many men had admitted it didn’t do anything for them. I’d heard there was new research emerging that psychology had been treating men and women the same for years and was just now realizing that we might be different and need different things when it came to therapy.
Either way, the elves had to build a ship before we could head to the clouds.
“Hey,” I noted, “if Durithana was able to make my guns in a day… How long is it going to take to make the ship?”
The elves exchanged glances. “Well… does anyone have any ideas?” Diamiutar asked.
Turns out, when a thing hasn’t been done in most of their lifetimes, and the few that were alive had been children at the time, knowledge of what was considered an odd frivolity, even when it was in practice, was hard to come by.
“Well, we could go talk to the engineers?” suggested Nauveir.
“A select few could go…” Tavorwen noted. “But we’d want to be sure not to overly distract.”
I admit, I was curious. Durithana had talked about metal-shaping magic, but she clearly still used a hammer to shape the steel and other metals. I was intrigued to see the work from the beginning.
But I didn’t want to leave Amura. So while the others all debated who would come on the field trip to see the shipwrights, I went to check on Amura.
I don’t know why it scared me so much, standing outside her door. But I hesitated outside her room for a good few minutes before knocking.
“Come in…” the voice was quiet.
I gently opened the door and saw Amura sitting on her bed, leaning up against the headboard, her legs pulled into the fetal position as she stared forward with unfocused eyes.
“How are you doing?” I asked gently.
She didn’t respond and I came over and sat on the bed, not right next to her but within arms reach.
“They’re all going to die. Aren’t they?” Amura stated, her voice haunted. “I mean, if mother loses, she’ll die one way or another… but all of my people… they will all die… and I’ll be alone.”
I hated to think it would come to that, but I was a military man and I liked to think myself a realist.
“It’s possible,” I admitted. “I don’t want to kill civilians, but-”
“Civilians? What is a Civilian?” She asked curiosity the first sign of emotion from her.
“A civilian is… a person who isn’t part of the military. A noncombatant.” I explained.
“You truly think such individuals exist in El’Muth’Ran? Ha.” Her laugh held no mirth. “You learn to fight or you die. I only live because my mother accidentally protected me by revealing the shame I was to our house.”