The Night Rose - Chapter 3

“We cannot let this happen. We must save our captain.” The middle-aged man whispered to a few of his crewmates on night roses deck despite the attack their ship continuously received.

“But how do we do it? Especially when he sees us as a family and that we are a big family here?

So he would instead go down with us than let us save him.” One of them replied to the middle-aged man.

“I have a plan! I will knock our captain out even when it sounds terrible, then I will pretend to be the captain and will surrender.

I will plead that you won’t, especially the captain, won’t be executed or marked as a slave but to be sent to the Shadowcoast.” The middle-aged man said and looked serious as he watched the other ship preparing their next attack.

“To the Shadowcoast! That place is even more horrible than a death sentence!” One of them suddenly gasped.

“What kind of place is Shadowcoast?” One of the new crew members asked while loading up the cannon.

“It’s a frontier that doesn’t have magic available.

They only use steam and old-world technology there. It is a godforsaken place that is used as a prison.

When you go there, you cannot get out. It’s closed off from other worlds.

That place is surrounded by mountains and a vast sea that only magical airship can fly there.

If you try to cross it with a steam airship, you won’t have enough power or protection available against the storm winds that are surrounding it.

Then If you try sea, the sea monsters or the storm will destroy your ship. So it’s a closed-off continent that is marked as a dangerous region in all of the maps.

Mostly as I said, it is used as a prison, but some also decided to go and live there.” The middle-aged man said to the newbies casually.

“There is a place that still relies on steam?” The newbie asked, feeling curious and worried at the same time.

“Yes. Even when we are now advanced from the steam age and our magic research is way advanced and better than the thing they call science.

But for Shadowcoast, they don’t want to send mages there as they are valuable.

On the other hand, they also don’t want the mages to create magical devices there suddenly. Despite that, there is also the fact that if you use magic at that place, you may end up blowing yourself up. There is also the fact that you won’t be able to use magic there as the continent restricts it somehow; those that had tried as I said blew themselves up.

Or they saw that they could not use magic at all.” The middle-aged man said while he lighted up the canon.

“So, are you with me or not?” He asked, and everyone around him nodded.

Arwin looked at the situation around her and realized that her airship wouldn’t last that long anymore.

She smiled and was relieved that she could die on her airship surrounded by her family and started to recall all of her precious memories since she got the ship.

But then, suddenly someone interrupted her.

“Capitan, do you hear me?” The middle-aged man asked.

“Yes, Talfen. How could I not hear you?

I will always recognize your voice as you were the first man who joined my crew, and I’m glad that I can die you with on my side.” Arwin answered to him and flashed a rare smile that did not match to their current situation.

“I’m sorry for doing this, Capitan that, we are sorry for doing this, Capitan,” Talfen answered and quickly hit a wooden club at his captain’s head.

He wanted to be careful, but he knew that it wouldn’t make the captain faint if he does that.

Talfen looked sorrowful when he saw his captain fall while there was blood gushing out from her head, but the last look that she gave to him.

Her eyes showed the surprise and asked him why and Talfen got even more pitiful and said. “Capitan, I hope you understand. This is best for all of us, and we just wanted to save your life.

This is our way to pay you back for giving us the chance to live again.”

Talfen took the captain’s hat from her head and started to carefully undress the long coat away from her just leaving a slightly better undershirt, pants and boots.

He didn’t even realize that Adam’s apple was missing from his captain’s throat as he only focused on making the captain look like the average person amongst them while dressing himself as a captain.

“Everyone! I hope you understand my situation and that this is the best for you all. I will try to save as many as possible and go to the Shadowcoast. But in return, I ask you to keep the real captain’s identity as a secret.” Talfen announced it to the crew, and everyone just silently agreed on it as they owned too much to Arwen.

They all said their farewells to each other. Some confidently said, ‘let’s meet in the next life’ or ‘see you at Shadowcoast’ while hugging or giving last prayers to anything they believed before Talfen announced with magic.

“This is the captain of the Night Rose; we will only surrender if you accept one condition from us.

Otherwise, we will fight to the bitter end and will take as many of you as possible with us to the unknown!”

The leader of Crego’s army looked around him and saw how almost the third of his wyvern army was destroyed, and from the original fifty airships he had brought, only thirty-five was still in the air, but still, night rose was there and shooting at them.

He didn’t want to get any more casualties among him and answered.

“We will hear your condition, but I cannot promise that we will fulfill all of it.” He signaled to everyone that they should stop their attacks and regroup.

Some on the army were protesting against the leader’s order sure that if they continued to attack night, rose would be destroyed soon.

“We will only have one condition, and it is that some of our people would be taken to the Shadowcoast.

We still have newbies here who haven’t lived long enough, and I don’t want them to suffer in slavery or get a death sentence for their little time they have served in my ship.” Talfen shouted back.

The leader of Crego’s army gave this idea a few minutes to sink in before replying.

“I will promise in the name of Crego, that I will personally send them to Shadowcoast if you and most of the seniors surrender yourselves.

We will personally select amongst you who we will send there.” The leader answered to Talfen.

“We got a deal! We will now stop shooting, and we will allow only you, and twenty of your closest men to board us while the rest can get close to confirm that we won’t do anything fishy to you,” Talfen answered, and this simple deal made in the air was the ending of Night Rose era.

The pirate ship that was terrorizing the air was finally captured by the brave leader of Crego.

The captain of the Night Rose and most of the people were sentenced to death while the army leader was hailed as a hero amongst the common folk.

But some of the lucky ones were sent to the Shadowcoast. Among them was still the unconscious Arwen, completely clueless of what happened around her.