Where to Begin

Kitty dropped down from the rafters and onto the floor; like a cat she landed daintily on her feet. Her eyes scanning around her, mind making mental notes on what was where. She had heard tales of what happened to those who dared break into Severin's shoppe, but she wanted to see for herself. Experience it firsthand. 

The sound of windchimes continued to play though there was no breeze in this stale shoppe. The smells of grease, metal, and oils were pungent as ever. Before she proceeded she crouched down to the floor and her hand lightly touched the area before her. She smiled then; it was going to be much trickier than she had thought.

Voyages

He clasped the wand around his wrist, checked that the straps were secure but not too tight. He could feel the soft buzz of the arcane energy humming inside the freshly charged device. The numbers of the Battery Mages were low this year; charges were being rationed until new recruits could be located. Stryker's weapons had priority status, though; the safety of the citizens of the fortress and the many travelers whose ships docked there depended on the Lieutenant and his team. 

The Council had decreed a series of exploratory journeys to worlds with arcane lore, in the hopes of bolstering the ranks of the Batteries. It was a well-rewarded but often exhausting role in the fortress. It took a great deal to run the massive station, much skill and craft, magic and wisdom. And strength. For when the enemies came. 

A good friend of Stryker was set to sail to today on one of the ships enlisted for the Council's mission. Sometimes he envied those who found their paths taking them across the vast sea of space to planets named and unnamed, known and forgotten. His role was here though, on Citadel.

For Want of a Better Term

"Mother?" 

"Yes?" 

"Were you a commander in the Big War?" the young child asked. "I heard that you had legions of people under your command and that you had sent many bad bad men to the other life!" 

"I did what I had to do," she replied. "Why don't you go out and play?" 

"I will after you tell me what you did," she said. "Some people call you an angel... Are you an angel?" 

"I am what I am," she replied. She smiled at her daughter and scrunched up her face a bit. Much like a mother cat to a kitten.

"You go and play now and I will tell you all about it later." 

"You promise?" 

"Promises are meant to be broken."  

On that note the young girl stuck out her tongue at her mother and scampered out the door.

Prologue

The tavernkeeper still got ears to bend and eyes to widen from the telling of the tale, though the night that spawned it was years past. Travelers from nearby Burrengard and even the Port of Sakkersly beyond still came to his ramshackle roadside inn to hear the story of the Flying Ship. The strange tale of the the Elfin Princess and her magic bracer, the steel Golem that had attacked her, and the band of adventurers - strangers in the tavern until the fighting started - who had saved her. And the strangest part of all, the massive ship that sailed not on waters but on the air, that gathered the Princess and her new allies up and flew them off to the stars.  

Sometimes a merchant or a sellsword would challenge the truth of tale, to which the innkeep could only shrug. Most, though, listened to his story with bent ear and wide eyes, as if it had really happened. For indeed it had.