15th of Gnielm, 271 EA
The Aether, Athal
Under the tarpaulin wings of the skyship Raravis, all planes sailed under the banner of the Athalial Explorer’s League. Even here in the aether, that great inhospitable divider, there was a comfort to the League’s symbol, a hand reaching through the veil. It was not the flag itself which kept them safe here, there were wards carved intricately and precisely into the hull to make sure that the blurring fog kept off long enough to reach a portal, but in these moments at the last leg of a homebound journey that flag eased the weary feeling in Arcer’s joints and gave them leave to enjoy the act of helming a great vessel.
From their side, the quartermaster Zyllyn pointed and without the need for words Arcer knew that they had arrived. Wheeling the ship to starboard, the prow pointed as an arrowshot through to a wide, opalescent, and perfectly circular portal. Though there was certainly endless bounds more fog behind this aperture, as they pierced it they found that they had suddenly burst out from the Aether on the other side, now suspended in open air over rolling forested hills and grand structures of stone both ancient and modern. The moon hung as full as it had ever been above them, as below them now after many long months abroad lay the Citadel of the Athalial League.
For a moment Arcer held the air in his chest as the ship glided in a natural descent, before he engaged the broomstone engine and took a savored breath of familiar air once again. It smelled clean, of rich cedars and freshly melted snow.
“Ahhh.” Arcer sighed contentedly. The faintest trickling of music wafted up to the ship from the ground, and off in the distance every light was lit. Leaning over the siding, the crew began to hoot and holler in tandem with welcoming cries and waves from passersby below.
“Zyllyn, my good mate.” Arcer directed to their quartermaster, a fae of long body clad in robes and topped by an owl’s face, “What do you suppose could have the entirety of the citadel on their feet so late into the evening? Surely it is not solely for our fine return?”
“Nar, captain,” Zyllyn’s feathered cheeks pulled up in a rueful smile, “Were that it would be such a thing, but alas we are not so well known. This affair below be on account of the news, I’d reckon. A new cluster, discovered. Just past me faerieseas, thems I called home, if you could believe it. A land of jade wolves, and devilish druids. Harlobe, they’re calling it. Read it on the scriv just this morn.”
“Ah!” Arcer exclaimed, feeling their usual serenity morph into ecstatic fervor, “What joyous word! Who among the League can claim such a historical achievement? I’m only jealous that it was not we who might join the ranks of the Worldweavers Vanguard ourselves.”
“None, captain. T’was a denizen of their own demiplanes, burst out from the aether abreast of a dragon’s back, if the writers of the Athalial Nightly Moon are to be believed.”
“Will marvels never cease?” Arcer’s wandering gaze began to search the sky, as though they could expect some great primitive dragonrider to tear through at any moment.
“That, I cannot say, captain.” Zyllyn’s tone dropped a beat back into reality. “How far can these planes go, I sometimes wonder.”
“What’s this about, matey?” Arcer let their ceaseless hope ring out as light, “Chin up. We are lucky to live in a frontiered age such as this. That we might explore, and discover, and grow ever upwards. That we might sail the blasted skies, from aether to aether and back again!”
The crew had begun to gather around, at this point, but Arcer was focused solely on his old friend Zyllyn. “We are lucky, certainly, to have been granted the good fortune to get to explore, and after a respectable period of shore leave I for one intend to chart a course of contracts headlong for this new world Harlobe to see what grand moments of adventure it might avail to our plunder.”
“I find that most agreeable, captain.” Zyllyn could not help but shuffle excitedly, the energy of this place infectious, “Ever outward.”
“Ever outward!” The crew rang out as one, and as in the sky so too did the citadel below.
The Etra Anthology 