A two-winged angel flies through the sky and lands atop the ShadeHaven, directly in front of Quasi, who still beats a rhythm. Quasi smiles at the angel holding a spiked whip. “Is it done?” he asks.

The [Minor Scourge Angel] nods.

“Finally! My arms are fucking sore,” he says as he halts drumming.

When he stops, the undead stop playing their instruments, and the music goes silent.

Just like the music, the mana manipulating gravity around Shadehaven also disappears.

With the music gone, all the [Sailors] awaken from their infatuation.

With the magic gone, all the [Sailors] scream in terror as their ships fall from the sky and crash into the sea bellow. Most of the weaker ships break upon impact with the water, but the well enchanted ones survive the fall and the crews break upon their decks.

The only ship that does not fall is the Shadehaven itself, which gently glides down and settles on the water.

Then the ship accelerates forward using the fins at its stern.

ShadeHaven sails swiftly through the wrecked armadas and pulls alongside the Iron Rain. Chains reach out from the Shadehaven and hold the Iron Rain fast, then the Shadehaven’s gangplank drops onto the captured ship’s deck.

Quasi descends the gangplank with aplomb, his muscles wet and glistening muscles. He removes his mask and gives everyone a proud smile. Jessica, Fiona, and the [Maids] stand behind two men tied up by rope.

“Looks like everything went well,” he says.

All the [Maids] quickly line up and turn to face Quasi. They all bow together.

“Master,” they say in unison.

Quasi raises an eyebrow. The normally endearing obeisance is far less charming when performed by [Maids] covered in the blood of their enemies. Hell, some of their staves are still dripping blood. Quasi briefly contemplates a skimpier dress-code and decides that would only be creepier.

Naunet steps forward, “The mission was a success. The enemies are defeated, their leaders are captured, and the child is in our possession.”

I nod to Naunet and then look at the giggling little boy in Fiona’s arms.

I walk up to him and crouch down to the kids eye level.

“So you’re the little rascal that caused this mess.”

“Mess, mess, mess,” the baby repeats with an excited giggle.

“Yup, you made quite a mess, didn't you? Thousands of [Sailors] dead and hundreds of war crimes were committed by your mom just to keep you alive.”

The child waves its arms excitedly, still giggling.

“Yes they were. Yes they were. Who's the cute wittle war criminal? Thas you! Thas you.” the child continues giggling at the strange man, ignorant of his words but happy for the attention.

While Quasi entertains the baby boy, the Queen's Gambit comes along the other side of the Iron Rain. A slender woman with blazing red hair hops from the deck of the ship and lands on the Iron Rain with the weight of an anchor. An actual anchor, mind you, that she carries on her shoulder.

With a grunt, she slams the anchor into the Iron Rains deck, anchoring her ship to it while her [Pirates] continue to lay comatose from their recent and rather violent landing.

After securing her ship, the [Pirate Archqueen] assesses the situation, pausing to raise an eyebrow at the several dozen armed and bloody [Maids] before searching farther to find her giggling son.

“Augustus,” she screams and rushes to him.

Hearing his name and the voice of her mother, Augustus stops giggling and turns his head away from the goofy man.

“Mama,” the boy cries.

Fiona turns her body to the woman and extends the baby in her arms. Teuta snatches the child in a loving hug filled with tears, squeals, and lots and lots of motherly love.

Only for the tears to quickly cease as said mom feels the child's soaked clothes. She frowns and looks at Fiona with a glare that would make hardened [Pirates] shit on the spot, “Why is my child wet?”

“The [Caretakers] were not doing their jobs when I found him, so I had their limbs broken.” Fiona says cooly, not at all bothered by a glare so similar to her own mothers.

Teuta pauses, surprised at the very…[Pirate] like decision - and then perks up when she analyzes the woman's class.

“Ahh, a [Bandit Queen], a woman after my own heart,” Teuta says happily, “in a minute, you’re going to learn how to change a diaper.”

Her mood quickly sours again when her baby giggles at a certain man making faces. A man she’d completely forgotten about when she saw her baby boy.

“Bone!” she yells. Switching to a one-handed baby carry, Teuta quickly unsheathes her cutlass and points it at Quasi. “Have you any fucking idea how humiliating it is to be stuck floating in the fucking sky?” she steps forward, “I’m going to hang you by your balls!”

The [Maids] point their staves at Tueta, but the woman ignores them as she walks toward Quasi, who backtracks at the same pace while still making stupid faces that keep her child giggling.

But Tueta halts her steps as a glowing translucent [Barrier] spell sprouts up between Quasi and her. The [Pirate Archqueen] turns to the person impeding her vengeance.

Jessica stands straight with an arm outstretched and glowing. She frowns at the [Archqueen], or at the very least, tries to frown at the woman holding an adorable, giggling little boy in her arms.

“Bone was responsible for distracting everyone while we rescued your baby,” Jessica explains with a smiling frown.

Tueta raises an eyebrow. She looks back at Quasi, and sees the man with his face smashed weirdly on the [Barrier], which has her little boy laughing hysterically.

Tueta shakes her head. “Bhumi,” she calls. From her side, a woman with glasses and a book fades into existence as though she had been there the entire time.

Even Quasi is caught off guard, his smushed expression on the glowing barrier betrays his surprise.

With a thought, the woman's class pops up in his vision.

The hell is a voidwright?

His mental question goes unanswered as Bhumi opens her book with pen ready, “Do you wish to remove Quasi from your kill list?”

Teuta frowns, “Who's Quasi?”

Bhumi points her pen’s feather at the man now licking the barrier, which the child in Teuta’s arms can't stop giggling about.

“Bone is an alias. His real name is Quasi Eludo.”

Quasi pauses mid lick when he hears his full name.

“And who is Quasi Eludo?” Teuta asks.

Bhumi repositions her glasses. When she does, the lenses dim into a black vortex before becoming clear again.

“He is an [Emperor], level unknown, but recent events indicate him in the third tier. He is currently allied with Cleopatra. His empire is supposedly located in the deep south of the continent- the data is inconclusive at this moment.”

Teuta stares at the idiot frozen in surprise, and then she chuckles and shakes her head when her baby boy burps and then giggles cutely.

“Yes, remove him from the list.”

Bhumi, a usually stoic woman who refuses to reveal even the smallest bit of emotion, frowns slightly. Only for a microsecond, too fast for eyes to see, but there was a frown if you have superhuman eyesight and know where to look.

She grabs thirty pages of paper and rips them from the book. Thirty pages of intricately detailed, oddly specific, step by step instructions for the torture of Quasi Eludo, all written while the Queen’s Gambit was floating in the sky. It was the most Bhumi had ever written for one individual and her finest work.

With a flick of her hand, the papers disappear into the void, never to be seen again… in this reality.

In another reality, where space and time intersect, a floating, ghostly ship hovers, the connecting point of Bhumi’s power where she can enter at will and exit onto any other ship under her [Queen’s] command. She has at her beck and call nearly every [Pirate] ship on the high seas; a truly formidable spy network.

But, if Bhumi ever left her ship’s cabin for the crow’s nest, she’d find company in the void, a skeletal knight of immense power, anchored back to reality by a bracelet on a certain woman’s wrist…

Meanwhile, in the real world, two more ships arrive, parking themselves in front and behind the Iron Rain. From the ship, which is actually a castle on top of a turtle, a drawbridge lowers onto the deck of the Iron Rain. A smiling man holding two mugs of steaming coffee walks across the bridge. He makes a beeline towards Quasi, ignoring everyone else, and then hands one of the mugs to him. The two men, with complete silence, and no words having been said, sip from their mugs. They nod to each other in complete understanding, as though they’d just shared a several hour long conversation in a mere moment.

While everyone stares at the two men, unsure if they should interrupt, a single cannon fires from behind the Iron Rain, where the Dwarven Anvil hovers. From above, a dwarf with a metal chain connecting him back to his ship flies through the air and lands on the Iron Rain’s deck, superhero style.

When the dwarf gets up, his eyes assess the situation quickly. He points at Quasi’s ship, “That’s the Haven, ain’t it?” he asks, and then ducks as a cutlass flies over his head and embeds itself into the wood.

“You fucking midget!” Teuta growls, “I’ll fucking gut you for working with that shitface.” She unsheathes another cutlass and points it at Aegir, who tries to speak, but can only mumble due to a rope in his mouth.

“They were orders from the [King]. I can't go against them.” he explains, and then dodges as another cutlass soars past.

“Goddammit, woman.” he curses, “I’ve got fifty barrels of dwarven beer on my ship. It’s all yours if you’ll forgive me.”

“One week,” Tueta throws another cutlass that gets dodged, “I’ll forgive you for one week.” she says.

“Deal,” Molucca says quickly, which gets an annoyed, “Humph!” from Tueta, but the [Pirate Archqueen] sheathes her cutlass, returning it back to her ship’s armory.

Teuta glares. She doesn’t like to forgive. It puts a bad taste in her mouth. But a temporary forgiveness? She can do that… while the beer will cover the taste… then she will hunt him down like a dog for daring to stand alongside her baby's captor.

Her child sneezes, which reminds her that he’s still wet.

“Bhumi, wake my crew up and have them prepare a party. Make sure they grab those fifty casks of beer as well.”

She then looks at everyone present, “You’re all invited to the party,” then focuses on Aegir, “ you are invited to my dungeon, and you,” she stares down Fiona, “will follow me to my cabin.”

Aegir tries to say something, but only mumbles. His eyes plead to Molucca, but the dwarf is fully engrossed with the Haven, or in its current form, the ShadeHaven.

With her proclamation made, she starts walking back to her ship.

Quasi, who’d been silent for the most part, just shrugs. “Welp, I guess we’ve got a party to go to.” he says and starts following her.

_____________________________________________

“Zeek, I know how it feels to lose, and I know you’ve lost, but drowning your sorrow in drink isn't the way to go about it.” Hawk says to the elderly human holding his fortieth bottle. A new record, if the elven [Bartender] is to be believed.

“Bah,” Zeek snarls, “You don't understand. You’ve not truly lost family. Friends, sure, but you’d never lost someone directly related to you. You’ve never lost a baby you’d followed since birth. Cared for and helped raise into strong woman in her own right. You’ve never lost a daughter, Hawk, and I hope you never do.”

Hawk goes silent. He’d had friends, human friends, that died in battle and from age. It had hurt… but the thought of having his own daughter killed, he can't ever imagine what he would do.

Actually, he can. He’d want vengeance, even though, deep down, he knows that it won't solve anything. It wouldn’t even make him feel better.

Even so, he’d still go for it, just to make sure nobody else has to ever feel his pain.

“Your student, that Artyum fellow. He wants vengeance, I’m surprised you’re not helping him.”

Zeek downs another bottle, and then grimaces at it, “I want vengeance too,” he says, “But that slippery shit isn’t someone I can ever catch.”

Hawk raises an eyebrow, “I don't see how an [Emperor] would be able to elude you.”

Zeek the Untouchable frowns in confusion. “What emperor?” he asks.

“[Emperor] Flavion,” Hawk explains, “the guy that hired an [Assassin] to kill your granddaughter. Your protege is planning to kill him and avenge her.”

“But Flavion didn't kill my… shit.” Zeek quickly stands up, wobily, “That idiot.” he growls and turns around. Zeeks' domain extends from his body for a moment before he disappears and leaves an afterimage where he stood.

As the afterimage disappears, the [Bartender] stops in front of Hawk and places a piece of paper with a large number written on it.