“We’ve been cleared to leave as soon as the morn,” Captain Lorlux began. “There’s a few things we should discuss. I reported the druid missing, and tendered our report that he vanished in tandem with performing a skill. We’ve been cleared in the matter.”

  He croaked.

  “Tomorrow, Brufo can you secure us provisions for a long journey?”

  Brufo cleared his throat. “We’re pretty broke. How much is in that bag?”

  “We’ve been paid a handsome advance. I have secured our next mission, and be warned it’s a long one. We’re headed to Moxicant, a town low on the Maw of Gaia.”

  I recalled Tamiro talking about that place in my dream. Maybe he had gotten through to Lorlux. Or maybe it was a coincidence.

  “Where’s that?” I blurted.

  “We’ll need to cross the Great Abalone Sky. We can provision up after that at one of the border towns in Melpompne if we need to, though of course I prefer not to. Two weeks if we’re lucky. Months if not.”

  “Isn’t there another route?” Val asked. “One that’s safer?”

  “Safer, but a lot further. We’d have to go all the way around the Great Abalone Sky. This is the sensible route.”

  Lorlux croaked, then look at me.

  “Daniel, have you considered whether or not you will join us?”

  The question I’d been avoiding. I looked around at everyone at the table. Valietta, Brufo, Lorlux and Sleipnir. Suddenly I knew. I had no doubt. I wanted to be here. I wanted to go see this Moxicant place.

  I opened my menu and accepted. “Yes!”

  Everyone cheered briefly. “Welcome aboard, Daniel!”

  “Excellent. In that case, Daniel and Val please perform a complete external inspection of the ship and report back. Based on my survey, it has been pretty much fixed up, but I’d like to know for sure. If all goes well we could prepare to leave as soon as the day after tomorrow. Dismissed.”

  Lorlux hopped over the table with a great leap and exited at once.

  Val and I checked out the airship’s exterior after she’d geared up in her flight suit.

  “About before--”

  “Daniel, you don’t really know me,” Val cut in robotically through the intercom. “My place in this world is complicated. I’ll never have a normal life.”

  “I had a normal life. It was okay. This life is a lot more exciting.”

  I could hear her chuckle inside the suit. “I feel the same, but it’s not just that, although I do love the sky scavenger life. I’m afraid I’m not welcome anywhere really. I’m being hunted. If my sister’s assassins catch up with me…it hasn’t happened yet but they’re out there.”

  “Val…I didn’t know,” I said.

  She smiled sadly through the visor. “Now you do.”

  We flew to the other side of the ship and continued inspecting. It was all very well done. All the new wood was carved with intricate murals depicting what I assumed was mostly the crew of this airship, as I’d seen in the cabins, but not all of these people I recognized.

  “How long has the Fool’s Errand been flying anyway?”

  “A lot longer than I’ve been on it. Not sure.”

  “So five years ago your sister’s assassins came after you?”

  “Fortunately I was a step ahead and they never caught my scent. They’re still after me. I just know it. I have to go into town tomorrow for my Trial.”

  “I’ll come with you.”

  “Thanks. But you can’t help with the Trial! You can’t even go in the Church unless you have one pending.”

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  “I’ll keep guard or something?”

  Deep in the night the stars came up over the calm wilds beyond the harbor. I couldn’t sleep. I settled in the crow’s nest, giving Kola Junior an affectionate pat as I landed. He hooted softly. I couldn’t help but notice his mangled, crooked wing. He handed me the telescope and pointed to something twinkling in the west, above the long strand of the Western Current still outgoing.

  “Hooh.”

  I pressed the lens to my eye and tried to train in on the spot he had indicated. Whorls of star-swept color flashed before me like rain. Kola grabbed the telescope and softly hooted and then moved it.

  I beheld a massive sweep of twinkling material that moved like a great ocean. But it was more than that. It seemed to be a beast, something like a dragon, I thought, with wings and tail.

  “Is this usually out there?”

  A sad hoot from Kola. I watched the star beast as it arced, soaring, then plunged into the gloom below the horizon.

  In the predawn hours the winds picked up and clouds rolled in. I had fallen asleep in the crow’s nest and woke being pattered with raindrops.

  Over a breakfast of biscuits and gravy I told the crew my plan. “We need to get Kola Junior checked out. His wing’s messed up.”

  “On the other hand I would rather not worry about him flying off and getting stuck in an engine or something,” Brufo said.

  “Well Brufo Junior or whatever your helper’s name is has wings and he’s fared all right,” I countered.

  Brufo rubbed his beard. “Suppose you have a point.”

  “What is his name anyway Brufo? If we take him to the doctor they will ask,” Val said.

  “I haven’t decided. If he works out as a chef he deserves a spectacular name, but I’m not convinced he has a class at all. I believe some monsters just have whatever abilities they have.”

  “They can’t improve?” I asked. “That doesn’t seem right.”

  “That’s just the way it is.”

  “There are stories of monsters gaining classes,” said Lorlux. “A few, anyway. Take Lancie there. She seems like she can learn things. Who’s not to say she can't advance in her [Aether Weapon] class over time?”

  “You calling me a monster!?”

  I reverted her to a lance, for now.

  “Regarding the matter of Kola Junior,” Lorlux continued, “I am planning to take Sleipnir into town for repair and tune up. I’ll see about a doctor for the monkey as well. Though he will likely need different care than Sleip.”

  Brufo, Val and I went into town. Lorlux took Sleipnir and Kola Junior to look for care for their various issues. Brufo brought a sword today, though he wore his Black Chef uniform still.

  “Weird aether happens sometimes at Trials.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like angels attacking you out of nowhere. Or a swarm of fish trying to eat people outside the church. And if the character taking the Trial fails, they’re just gone. Yeah. No respawn here Daniel.”

  “My world, too,” I said absently, thinking about myself.

  I had respawned. I had. In the Dream Fish’s gaze I had seen my parents, missing me, in the other world. But I had not seen my brother. I missed them. I figured I’d never see them again here, but they were there in the place Tamiro had called Dreamwyrd.

  The Church of Fate was located at a hill directly across from where we had encountered the druid Reed. I felt a twinge of guilt. He probably hoped someone would tend the strawberry groves. I suspected they would go to brambles without him.

  “Let’s go,” Val said, marching up the other hill toward the church.

  I followed dutifully. The cobbles thinned out, and it became apparent most of the neighborhood on this hill had been largely abandoned. Not just abandoned. It looked like a war zone. Chunks of buildings gone. We walked past a cafe with no roof at all, a field of rubble over the cobbled road. We stepped over it gingerly.

  “So have either of you done a Trial before?”

  “This is my first,” Val said.

  Brufo nodded. “I have done it. You know that weird aether I mentioned? It happened to me too. Do you think I expected to be a [Black Chef] before I began my Trial? That is often not how it works. I had thought I would continue as an [Honor Knight], but Fate had other plans for me.”

  He did not explain further. We arrived at the church, ominous against the purpling sky as the rain clouds had begun to crawl back. We walked up what seemed like hundreds of marble steps to reach the apex of the hill where the temple sat. It was surrounded by tall hedges except the one entrance.

  Statues of angels flanked the walkway inside the complex. The steps ended at a deck of gray stone and the church made of the same. It had stained glass windows with depictions of storms and angels and airships. Val stepped up to the gray doors, which flared into color as she approached.

  “Good luck!” I called as she stepped in.

  The doors flared shut behind her. I walked up and tried them, but they would not budge.

  “Once you have a Trial ready, the doors of Fate will open for you,” Brufo said. “That is written in the Instructional Scriptures.”

  “I’m going to have a quick look around.”

  I went around the corner, intent to check this place out. I wasn’t sure why. Perhaps it is because that’s the last error I saw before I got dropped into this place. Fate Overflow, the message has said. The way they spoke about Fate here also made it seem like it was something other than destiny. From this level I could see some of the hills of Aeven over the hedge walls, and the larger domes with buildings inside them too.

  There were pigeons and other birds flying around on the rooftops. It was not just death birds like I’d seen with the Grovers. That was very reassuring to me. One of the pigeons was purple. No, that’s not right, is it?