Chapter 14 – Leaving Captivity

Chapter 14 – Leaving Captivity

Emily wakes up just before 7, and sleepily wraps herself in her robes before the maids arrive. They once again come and leave in silence, taking her dirty clothes and delivering a hearty meal. Emily eats while deciding her order of activities for the day.

I need just under seven hours for each cycle of Spellweave and meditation, so I can only get two full cycles a day. That leaves me with around two hours for food, exercise, and showering. Let’s do some light exercise after meals to maximise the use of my meditation. Maybe I can improve my body’s stats faster that way.

Polishing off the bowl of soup, she enthusiastically gets up and throws on fresh clothes, identical to the ones she was given the day before yesterday. She spends twenty minutes doing a reduced form of her workout, only using up 43 stamina, then sits down on the floor to delve back into the Spellweave.

She falls into a routine and two days pass quickly.

At 8 pm on the third day of her confinement, Emily is once again pulled out of meditation by the maids knocking at the door. She calls them in, then thanks them as they leave as usual, but this time she is sat with a self-satisfied smile throughout.

Hovering in the forefront of her vision is her updated status page.

̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄

[Status]

[Name:] Emily Coldstone

[Race:] Human

[Age:] 15

[Magic Circle:] First Circle

[Machina Cortex:] First Stage

[Attributes:] Strength 7, Dexterity 15, Agility 12, Vitality 8, Intelligence 22 > 23

[Health:] 115/115

[Stamina:] 175/175

[Mana:] 180/330 > 180/345

[Machina:] 330/330 > 338/345

_____

It took about twenty hours of meditation to increase my intelligence by one, and none of the other stats have gone up, so for now I’ll assume meditation just affects intelligence. It looks like each intelligence gives me fifteen mana and machina too.

Emily eats her food and moves to do her exercises. Over the past two days, she’s noticed the ability to regenerate stamina through meditation reduces the more she uses it. However, it resets when she sleeps.

As she’s getting into position for her final meditation of the day, someone impatiently knocks on the door.

“Come in,” she calls, watching the door cautiously.

The maids don’t normally break schedule, I wonder who it is.

The door swings open to reveal Jose standing with a light scowl, staring at Emily.

“Tomorrow be up and ready to leave at 8 am, I will come collect you to take you to the airship docks,” he says without taking a single step into the room.

“Okay.”

Immediately upon hearing a response, he shuts the door and walks away.

“Wow, I can tell he really likes having to deal with me. I wonder where they’re sending me,” Emily mutters before pushing her questions away as she falls into her meditation.

***

The next morning Emily wakes up and prepares to leave. She says goodbye to the taciturn maids, eats the breakfast they’ve delivered, and then takes a long shower.

After the shower, she dresses in her robes and finally puts on the shoes she received on her first day in captivity. Checking The Clock, she sees it’s only 7:38 and settles down to meditate until Jose arrives. After seeing her intelligence increase, Emily has decided to meditate whenever she can, to increase her stats as fast as possible.

Twenty minutes later, at 8 am on the dot, Jose knocks. This time Emily gets up and moves to the door, opening it instead of inviting him in.

“Take this and follow me,” he commands, handing her a sizeable suitcase, before swiftly turning on his heels and walking back down the hallway.

Emily follows him in silence, making an effort to keep up with his brisk walking pace while carrying her luggage.

If I didn’t know better, I’d think he was trying to lose me. Is he in a hurry? We weren’t walking this fast the other day...

The cause of Jose’s urgency soon becomes clear as they leave the servant's wing. Standing in front of them with his arms crossed, impatiently tapping his fingers, is Diego.

“Took you long enough,” he says with a clear look of irritation on his face.

We haven’t spoken before, but I’m Herber Coldstone’s daughter, Emily Coldstone. I can’t currently speak to you, but please could you deliver the enclosed letter to my sister, Anna. She should be at Herber’s shop.

Hand this note to her as well, and she’ll pay you three silvers. (Tell her to use my savings - she’ll know where they’re kept.)

Please nod at me if you agree,

Thanks, Emily

Satisfied, she folds the second note around the first with the writing on the outside before tucking it under her pillow and ripping up the discarded notes, making sure not to leave any evidence. Satisfied with her preparation, she returns to repeating her actions exactly as before, waiting for the night to come.

***

The next day flows the same as the first, and after listening to Diego’s instructions once again, Emily soon finds herself walking through the docks as before. They approach the stall where she noticed Gregory, and Emily slowly drifts sideways, creating a little distance from herself and Jose while carefully watching him to make sure he doesn’t notice.

He doesn’t even spare a sideways glance as Emily slips her hand into her robes, pulling out her message and tossing it into Gregory’s lap as she passes. He flinches when the folded paper lands on him, looking at Emily questioningly as she walks past, but he doesn’t say a word as she pointedly looks at the note. Understanding her meaning quickly, he picks up the paper and skims the message as Emily moves back to join Jose, repeatedly glancing back at the merchant.

Before they’re swallowed by the crowd, Gregory looks up, makes solid eye contact with her, and nods his head. Emily lets out an inaudible sigh of relief and turns her attention back to her guide who is none the wiser.

He leads her through the main hall, eventually leaving the large crowd behind as they turn into an empty passageway with the Mandrago crest hanging above it. The passage walls are lined with steam pipes, hissing away, and the din of the entrance slowly fades, replaced by the hum of machines and the rhythmic tapping of their feet on metal.

After a few turns, the passage opens into a large hangar housing a sleek bronze airship. The ship spans a hundred metres of carefully folded and polished bronze plating, with several reinforced glass windows dotted along the side. Several pipes jut out of the sides and bottom, carefully angled towards the rear, along with two small fins on each side, each carrying three propellers.

The large balloon above sags against the gondola, partially deflated and only given shape by the ballonet inside. Emily stares in awe at the ship, excited, despite herself, to finally see one up close. They hurry forward and are greeted by a few members of the ground crew, who bow to them before continuing preparations to leave.

A hatch drops open midway along the body of the gondola. A short, skinny man with long brown hair tied in a messy bun and wearing greasy overalls, walks down the steps that fall with the hatch.

“Jose! Is this the cargo you mentioned?” he calls out with a businesslike smile while walking over to greet them.

“Yes, this is Emily. She’s being sent for education in the capital.”

“I see, and no soldiers this time?”

“No, she’s one of ours, no need.”

With that, Jose turns and walks back towards the passage.

“Always a man of few words that one,” the man shrugs while turning to Emily, “the name’s Anton, captain of this fine vessel. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Emily!”

He gives a light bow while keeping solid eye contact, a cautious glint in his eyes.

“Nice to meet you, Anton. What’s her name?” Emily asks with a smile, gesturing to the ship with her head.

Anton’s gaze relaxes as he responds:

“I call her Calypso. No meaning behind it, just thought a pretty name suited her.”

“She’s beautiful. How fast can she go?”

“On a good day, she can push a hundred kilometres per hour, but for this trip, we’ll probably maintain around eighty. Should get to Chroni by morning the day after tomorrow. Come aboard, I’ll show you around before we leave!”

He heads towards the ship’s hatch; clearly please Emily showed an interest. They enter the hatch into a small corridor leading off to either side, with a sign hanging from the ceiling giving directions.

“Let’s start with the crew quarters, so you can drop off your luggage, then head around the facilities and end at the bridge for launch.”

“Sure, how do you launch from in here, by the way? I thought ships weren’t allowed to fly above the city?”

“Haha, that’s one of the best bits. I won’t spoil it now.” Anton guides her to the right, away from the front of the ship.

The narrow hallway walls are lined with pipes, a sight Emily is quickly growing used to, with smooth riveted plates making up the floor. After a few turns taking them deeper into the hull, they walk up a steep flight of stairs and come to a corridor lined with six doors on either side and a sign overhead labelled ‘Crew Quarters’.

“We run with a light crew of only ten people, five for the day and five for the night, so we have a couple of spare rooms here. The day crew are on the left and the night crew on the right. Since I assume you won’t be nocturnal, you can use this room here.”

Anton opens the door at the far end of the corridor on the left, revealing a small room with a single bed and a small oil lamp attached to the wall above it.

“I know it’s not much, but you’ll have to make do for a few days, I'm afraid.” He awkwardly scratches the back of his head as Emily walks into the room past him.

“It’s fine, I’ve lived with less,” she responds while dropping her suitcase onto her bed.

Anton raises an eyebrow at her words, but quickly shrugs it off before motioning her to follow him again.

“Why don’t we start with the engines!”

Emily finds his enthusiasm infectious as she follows him deeper into the belly of the beast.