Chương 340: 340

Mark floated behind the back of the ship, watching a serpentine sky kaiju curl and float forward, about 120 kilometers below. It was a thin thing, glowing brightly in neon yellows and pinks with long, bright orange wings, as a warning to all others. Mostly, it was a noodle, or maybe a tapeworm. Quark wasn't sure. Mark wasn't sure either. It was eerily beautiful, curling in and out of clouds as it flowed forward, bright red eyes open along every segment of its body.

Quark had spotted the kaiju 20 minutes ago, about 200 kilometers forward of the ship. Now, the kaiju was behind the ship, and far, far below. It seemed to be basking in the sun, reflecting and absorbing light, and not doing much more than that. Quark had identified its main powers as light-based. It might have been a Light Shaper. Not of the illusionist-variety, but of the giant-fuck-off-laser-beam variety. Another 10 minutes passed and the kaiju vanished into the sky far behind the ship.

Eliot came over the coms, "We're ready for you, Mark. Come on down to the Hub. It'll take 30 minutes to get this part up and running."" Coming," Mark replied, as he pulled himself back onto the ship, completely. Mark had crawled all over the ship in the last few hours, putting himself between the ship and any possible kaiju nearby.

It was really kinda fun, grabbing onto the wood, sticking nails into planks here and there, and then swinging down and around the hull, and then all the way up to the top of the ship, crawling on stone or wood to get there. Whatever that adamant engine was doing, it was doing A Lot. The stone castle in the center of the ship was the strongest part of the ship, of course, but the stone shield made of granite and other hard rocks in the back of the ship was also pretty solid.

It was like an entire wall of rock back here, at least 30 meters deep in some places. If the ship had to tank a blast from anything, then it would be best to tank the blast from the back, against all this rock, as opposed to all of the wood up front. 2-meter-thick wood was nothing compared to 30 meters of rock. Mark set down behind the rock shield, onto 'cathedral grounds'. It was beautiful back here.

The entire place was enclosed by strong rock walls while cleaner plants grew in abundance, their tubular stalks gently filling the air with the smell of flowers and purity. Jasmine and other flowering plants made the scent in the air even better. It was the most peaceful place on the ship, nestled behind the big rock wall and the castle itself. And then there was the cathedral in the center.

The spire of stone was a good 50 meters of ornate white stone, with a bunch of curling ornamentation flowing up every ridge of the spire, like flames. Those flames were edged with gold. A golden crown floated on the very top, while the space below, at the bottom of the spire, was a 6-arched open gazebo with 6 altars set around a perfectly round and floating white stone. Eliot had called it the 'Pantheonic Spire', and it represented the New Pantheon. Freyala, Goddess of Union. Drakarok, God of Retribution.

Hearthswell, Goddess of Castellan. Verdago, God of Farmer. Pluta, Goddess of Prosperity. And Malaqua, God of Stone. The Pantheonic Spire was a holy space, and though Mark couldn't directly feel the presence of the gods, they were here, in the glint of gold light on the edges of the flame motifs, and in the golden light when it glittered upon the white stone. Mark moved very carefully through the center of the space, passing beside the spire.

He touched it, said a small prayer to the gods for their guidance, and then moved on. He wasn't a paladin, but the gods were real, palpable forces in the Two Worlds, mostly present in the Chosen Powers granted to most everyone here, aside from Mark and Tartu. There was an argument to be had that Mark was still a 'chosen' of Freyala, but it was not an argument Mark wanted to have with anyone. He certainly considered the goddess an ally.

Leaving the garden felt like leaving safety, and maybe it was, a little, but they were on a ship in Endless Daihoon and nowhere was safe out here. The castle loomed, with a big archway that led to the very middle of the Hub. Mark flowed down a slope into a grand open space, with stairwells to the left and right going up and down. Mark went down to the side, down a big open hallway to a big open space on the right side of the ship. Eliot, Tartu, Andria, and Sally were here, along with several Dereks.

To the side, a big, temporary hole opened up into the guts of the ship, to the command center and the electronic bowels of the Dreadnought. Here, in this space, is where they were going to make several scanning devices, so Eliot had brought a bunch of electronics and metal up to prepare for that creation. A cubic-thing, about a meter across and with a dense geodesic wireframe-thing in the middle, sat on a workbench between the guys.

It had some roller wheels set into the interior edges of the cubic-thing, to maybe support the geodesic sphere, which looked like it could maybe rotate freely… if it had some more metal to it. Right now it looked like it would catch on the wheels, and not turn at all." What are we looking at?" Mark asked, as he sat down next to them.

"A wealth hider, or whatever it's called? It looks like a hider-thing." It had a 'shield' vibe to it, with every triangle, when taken in whole with any 5 of its neighbors, and every one of those triangles able to do the same, looking like a protective hexagon. Mark added, "Or a new shield system?"" We should redo the shield system later," Tartu said, though it was to the others. Andria was nervous. She asked the others, "The current shielder works well, but I suppose… Since we have an abundance of adamantium?""

I'd like to make a full-adamantium shielder," Tartu said, "Just to see if we can." Mark wanted to know more—" The shields are good for now," Eliot said, ending that tangent, though it seemed like he would be revisiting that later. Eliot told Mark, "The obfuscator is already active and currently working at 80% efficiency, and yes, it looks exactly like this. We made that without you.

And yes, the geodesic dome is a pretty universal actor in a lot of different ways, from Binding work to shields, scanners, and obfuscators, and more. Navigational compasses, too, and that's what this thing is going to be; a very specific compass. We need a purpose, Mark." They all looked at him. Mark asked, "I assume you mean something specific? Not a general purpose? Because we're all here for a general purpose already?" Tartu answered, "We need crystallized purpose turned toward a direction and a goal.

Should be pretty easy for you."" Ahhh," Mark said, kinda understanding. Tartu continued, "Usually scanners are made with fake crystallized purpose, in the shape of adamantium, or the barest sliver of the stuff which is then affixed to the top of a needle that spins around in one of these things. Real crystallized purpose is a lot better for this sort of thing, and the larger the fragment of adamantium the longer the range. It doesn't have to be needle-shaped.

It needs to be shaped properly for the purpose which you will be giving it, since that's your whole thing."" Huh! Neat," Mark said, grinning.

"What kinda purpose, exactly? Finding powerups? Any specific language to use?" Eliot frowned, unable to answer. He had ideas, but nothing that he knew would work. Tartu shook his head. They had officially reached the end of his knowledge.

"Andria?" Andria was at the end of her knowledge, too, but she was able to answer, "If this was a normal scanner, I could make it, no problem. We could aim it in a specific direction and it would be able to tell us the distance and degree of that thing, be we searching for gold, any sort of metal, any of a hundred thousand different monsters, mana, or alchemical parts… But we're searching for prismatic mana with flavors inside kaiju, and that's a whole mess of issues.

The big issue is that the prismatic mana is inside of the kaiju, and we can't scan inside of kaiju very well at all, without being very close." And we can't get close to them, since we're scanning through layers and also distance. It's hard to find stuff out here… At least that's what I was told." Tartu said, "That's what I know to be true, as well." Andria said, "The one thing that makes me think this will work at all is that Second Princess Walaria told me how to make it."

What you want is to make a shard of adamantium, however it ends up being shaped, that will point toward sources of prismatic mana." From there, we will build the scanner around that shard, to focus the shard and to interpret the shard. Language can help you make the shard… maybe? Do a ritual, if you want. It might help? If the first scanner doesn't work then we can try to do a… a union of mithril and adamantium construction, since the majority of the scanner is going to be mithril, anyway."

With a bit of a red face, Andria finished with, "I can work around whatever you make, and we don't have to try for a true cooperative working of metals yet." Mark nodded. He wasn't ready to do a union of metals with Andria, either, since that seemed weird. But maybe later, after he got to know her." Sounds good." Mark held up a hand and condensed a shard of adamantium, flashing bits of black into purpose; to find good sources of… He paused. He asked, "How does your part work? The rest of the system?"

Andria and Tartu and Eliot all shared a look. Eliot said, "We don't know."" There is a normal way," Tartu said.

"But not for this sort of thing. This thing is all prismatic mana and kaiju, and the problem with searching for prismatic mana is that you always end up pointing at the moon."" Ahhh," Mark said, "Because of the Tutorial ritual… But wait? That's always far away? Why do scanners always point at the moon? Shouldn't they point at the nearest source of prismatic mana? Like magnets fuck up compasses?""

The Tutorial is not far away because the System is always right here," Tartu said, "And 'right here' leads to the Moon."" The main problem is overcoming that natural direction," Eliot said, "Which is something I will be doing most of the work for."" Ah," Mark said, wondering how to solve for such a thing. Andria spoke up, "There is hope! We're not searching for any old prismatic mana.

Everyone will need to make a drop of mana to put into the scanner, and then we solve for prismatic mana that is flavored like their mana." As though she realized she had just spoken openly around Mark, she suddenly retreated conversationally, adding, "Uh… It should work. Second Princess Walaria said it would?" Eliot hummed, unsure. Tartu shrugged. He was resigned to being surprised if it worked at all." That brings up another problem." Mark asked, " Can everyone here condense mana into a shard?

You can, right, Tartu? I saw your father do it, once."" Yes I can," Tartu said, completely sure of himself. Eliot said, "I'm working on it. Isoko can do it already." Sally, who had yet to speak up, said, "I'm working on it, too."" I can!" a Derek said, smiling. Another Derek shushed that one. Another Derek shook his head and tsk'd. Andria continued, "All of those are personal problems to overcome. Regarding the scanner…

A bit of Prosperity usually bridges most technical gaps, and Tartu and I can ensure the magical side is as easy to interpret for Eliot as can be. And then it's just a matter of… of firing it up, and scanning all of Endless Daihoon." Eliot said, "Individual scans might take a while to work out." Tartu countered, "Might be instant, though. We're scanning kaiju Calls, mostly, and those propagate forever. Chances are that what we want is already alive and well out there, somewhere." It was like a lightbulb went off."

Ohhhh!" Mark said, and then he chuckled.

"Awesome. Okay! Quark. Bring up the diagram for prismatic mana, from Manawork." Quark flickered a sight in front of Mark. The magical signature of prismatic mana was a perfect platinum-mirror cube. Mark held up his hand again and liquefied a good handful of adamantium, forming a sphere. With directed purpose, and outside of his direct control, Mark imbued the center of the sphere with prismatic purpose, as he Called to it, " Like Calls to like."

The liquid sphere flash-crystallized, like precipitate crashing out of a solution, becoming a solid cube of solid black adamantium. It was a bit spikey on the edges, and especially on the points, but it was definitely a cube. The points kinda seemed like compass points, actually, so that was probably a good thing. Mark handed the cube over to… to someone, holding it out there, floating it, saying, "Anyone?" Eliot stared at it like one would stare at a particularly surprising, yet small bit of art. He said, "Neat.

Didn't know you could do that with Aethercalling?"" It felt like the right thing to do," Mark said, still holding the metal. Andria wanted it, but she wasn't sure how to take it. Tartu said, "Andria take it, and only with mithril. Do the joining now." Andria went, "Ah… yeah. May I?" Mark held it out to her. Andria flicked a swish of mithril out of nowhere, out of her astral body, and swept up the spiky cube into a flow of molten-like silver that was so much shinier than silver could ever hope to be.

Mark began to hand off the cube, little by little, and the weight of the cube did not surprise her. She compensated and was fully focused on the work, her vectors flowing with concentration and subtle, tiny movements. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

As silver condensed around the cube like swirling vortices, Mark let go of the adamantium completely— The mithril solidified completely, becoming miniature hurricanes and water flowing atop a mostly spherical surface, frozen in time. Eight tiny black spikes, from the eight corners of the cube, stuck out from the centers of eight little whirlpools… Actually, looking deeply at it, Mark saw a whole hell of a lot of work done in a flashing instant.

The arrangement of mithril storms on the tiny thing was perfectly symmetrical all the way around, with eight storms around the points, eight larger storms around the faces, and eight smaller storms around every central-face storm. Mark said, "Huh! I'm impressed. That's a lot of work very fast, Andria." Tartu was speechless, staring at the object. Andria blushed heavily, stammering, "I have to work that fast or else there are problems with focus… and I can't claim credit that much.

The whole adamantium core made focusing on utilization of the core a whole lot easier. All I did was piggyback on your own work." Mark said, "Still impressive. Is it going to work?"" Probably," Eliot said, eyeing the core with a few glasses that had appeared over his eyes when Mark wasn't looking. And then the glasses pulled up and Eliot told Mark, "Back on patrol, please." Mark snorted.

"Okay okay." He started floating away, saying, "Hope it works!"" I think it will!" Andria said, her vector deeply interested in whatever she had made. Tartu held out a hand, his vector full of intellectual need, but his voice was a simple, "Can I see that?" Andria was loath to give it up as she played with it in her hands.

"Just a minute!"" Here, Tartu," Eliot said, as he brought up electronics from the hole in the space, crafting holographic displays in the air and connecting those displays to the computers running through the centerline of the ship.

Scanner images flickered into the air, highlighting the depths of the adamantium/mithril 'storm prism', as Eliot was tentatively calling it, as Eliot said, "I can already tell it's rather balanced, but there is a polar weight to it around this axis here that makes me think it would be good in this sort of arrangement, in the scanner..."

Mark floated back on deck, leaving the crafters behind and feeling the wind on his body, wondering what they were going to do with with the 'storm prism', but also just loving the sight of all the myriad lands out— A murky yellow/grey cloud loomed ahead, passing between a band of sky, and a band of ocean, like a weird sort of stormy downdraft. It was moving weird and flickering in the sun and it had to be 300 kilometers across. Maybe more. The ocean below was a lot more than 300 kilometers away.

Space was weird up here, and the ship moved at about 30 kilometers an hour, but it covered a lot more space than that. That cloud had not been there when Mark had gone into the ship to help with the scanners." Quark. Analysis on that cloud."" Cloud of slipper fish. Non-aggressive. Migratory. Sharks prey on them. The sharks are worrisome. There are thousands of sharks, and we cannot see them yet, but I can pick out spaces where they might be. The cloud looks to intersect this entire layer of sky.

There is no going around it." Quark enhanced Mark's vision, and Mark saw into the depths of the cloud of slipper fish. Open spaces appeared in the cloud, like holes in cheese. There were dots in those openings." How large and dangerous are these fish?" Quark answered, "The slipper fish are between 5 to 10 meters long, and they will try to get into the ship to hide. The sharks will follow—"" Tell Eliot," Mark said.

A shipwide alarm triggered almost instantly, pinging the air as spinning yellow lights popped up around the edges of most of the structures of the castle. Quark's voice came over the air, as every vector in the place got suddenly concerned." Analyzing the threat. Estimated yellow level. Hold on," Eliot said. Moments passed. Lola and David perked up. And then David flickered. He came back, and he was a lot more relaxed. He must have said something to Lola down there because she relaxed, too.

Derek seemed permanently relaxed already. Isoko was hanging out at the pilot's room, but now she rushed to her seat.

"Can I reverse the ship? Should I… slow it down, at least… right?" Eliot was nervous as he said, "Uhhh… Maybe— Yes." Eliot definitively said, "Engines reverse to halt forward movement. Slow deceleration. Moving to the main command center. Go ahead Isoko." Tartu and Andria focused on their work, while Eliot went with Sally to the main command center— The ship began to decelerate. Gravity felt weird. Mark's body swayed forward as the ship slowed down. Everything kinda flexed.

A few stones broke and fell from the castle— CRACK Panic spread instantly and Mark caught the tail-end sight of several planks of wood launching into the air, on the left side of the ship. The railing on the left suddenly splintered and fractured in every direction, wood curling hard and then flying off into the distance, and then the air crackled again, like the breaking of a bunch of sticks, but so much larger than that. Mark hovered high, looking down, as a gap opened up in the ship. Not a wide one.

Not a full break. Not yet. Eliot began to panic and work fast while Isoko suddenly felt very foolish. Fear leaked in from outside, and Andria went internal, all thoughts fleeing as she probably sat down or something, down there, with Tartu sitting down beside her.

Dereks multiplied and the Fear went away some— A crack appeared in the geodesic sphere of Castellan fire and invisibility that surrounded the ship, right near where the ship had broken on the left side— The crack in the shields yawned wider and then suddenly the entire sphere broke, shattering like campfire embers doused with a bucket of water. The air felt hot, and then the heat vanished as a strong wind blew across the entire deck of the Dreadnought.

The wind broke against Mark, but one of the greenhouses on the castle shattered and wind whistled inside." Not great," Mark said, as he looked down at the break in the Dreadnought. The break didn't seem to be widening, but breaking-wood-sounds crackled all across the inside of the ship. A soft whirring filled the air, and then died. Silence, save for the wind whistling across the deck.

Moments passed in terrible wait as Eliot focused deeply and Sally felt impotent and Isoko was probably yelling at herself, calling herself 'stupid stupid stupid' up there, but the only one who could actually see that was Derek, up there with her. Lola and Derek were okay. Tartu was with Andria, and they were okay. Everyone was okay… sort of.

"… Are we crashing?" Mark asked, through the coms." We are not crashing!" Eliot said, like he could make it happen by just saying it.

"I'm fixing it!" The crack widened a little and another loud CRACK filled the air, echoing on the wind, followed by a series of cracks.

"Don't worry about it! We're exposed, and we're not going anywhere. The hovercars are functioning at 100%… fucking… 200% in some cases. Dammit… ughhh." He removed the tone from his voice, maybe with a filter, as he said, "Repairs will take an hour."

"… Well okay then," Mark said, looking out across the damage. Mark was already doing a Good and Bad Union with everyone. But he could do more?

"Would some more 'I'm helping' buttons help combat the wash of non-human influences in the air?" Mark didn't hear a response, but he felt it as Derek after Derek got a new, powerful purpose, and Eliot spread his influence into the castle. Everywhere Eliot touched, a Derek rushed toward, and then Derek's vector felt truly accomplished, for a moment. He started feeling like he was really helping.

Mark felt out hundreds of Dereks inside the castle, but he only saw a few, in the open archway, and those guys were tapping on the walls, pressing palm-sized green buttons on yellow bases that Quark helpfully identified as 'I'm Helping' buttons. Mark moved back to the crack in the ship, to look down at the damage. The crack itself had propagated through several layers of the ship, ripping from the hull to the central stairwell in the middle-front of the ship.

It was like the ship was made of cake, and not 2-meter-thick wood, and that cake had separated when the front half had kept going while the back half had tried to back up, exposing a weakness in the construction right here—" Slap the break with some adamantium, Mark," Eliot said. … Mark got to slapping wood with broad dollops of adamantium. With every slap, the wood stretched out, broken planks zipping back together, and soon Eliot had another idea.

Mark did not hear that idea, but he did see it, as Dereks began to multiply, filling the ship once again, each of them punching a wall or the floor, and that seemed to do a lot more than the buttons, but Derek was still pressing buttons, too. Far ahead the slipper fish and the sharks continued their migration through the sky of Endless Daihoon, uncaring about the stalled-out ship. Isoko's embarrassed voice came over the air, "Sorry."" Not your fault. My fault," Eliot said, mostly not present. He was working.

Mark slapped wood with heavy metal as he asked, "Want some Glory, Eliot?" Eliot said, "Hit it, Mark!" Mark breathed in Glory, connecting to himself and everyone else in the ship, into every Derek, into every person, and he exhaled Fear from everyone. A dark miasma burst from the ship, into the whipping skies of Endless Daihoon, and every single person seemed to glow a little bit.

It was not the best sort of Union, since the Glory-side was heavily weighted and the Fear side was just the world, and 'the world' was always the least effective Union sink. But it worked well enough. Everyone seemed to relax a bit, to work easier. Better. Derek was doing a lot, too, with his own Union of Good/Bad. And then one Derek sounded off, "Let's do some working songs!"

Other Dereks denounced that one— But then 20 Dereks started up a working song, chorusing with themselves, "No more wood in the forest; they turned it all to planks! Ground ain't got no metal; it's all been turned to tanks! We work a day for gold; they work a day for more! We're on the line for life; we're in the line for war!" Mark grinned at the words, almost laughing at the absurdity of it all, and then he joined in when Derek started repeating the verse." No more wood in the forest; they turned it all to planks!

…" Glory glowed subtly upon every person, and especially upon Derek but only because there were, like, 2000 of him. He had a decent singing voice. Mark said in a lull, "You sing well!" Several Dereks laughed. One piped up, "It's only practice!" Another one said, "Lots and lots of practice." Another Derek said, "And here's another one!"

There once was a ship that sailed the gloam, liddle-dee-dee, liddle-dee-doh~" There once was a crew I called my own, liddle-dee-dee, liddle-dee-doh~" Seen all the sights; we loved to roam! liddle-dee-dee, liddle-dee-doh~" They're all still there, but now this is my home, liddle-dee-dee, liddle-dee-doh~" And the ship came together. The break in the hull was only the first major issue. Now that they were stopped, work proceeded quickly.

Mark hauled himself over the edge of the ship and began strategically pounding the cars into the side of the ship, to solve the problem that had just happened, that had almost wrecked the ship. The hover cars were not fully integrated yet.

That discrepancy between the myriad hover engines strapped to the outsides, a minor glitch in the computer systems due to non-humanity influences, and some faulty wiring, had caused the forward engines to go forward even faster when Isoko pulled on the throttle, when she was trying to reverse the Dreadnought." I was only trying to slow it down," Isoko said, over the coms, heavily embarrassed.

"I pulled it back to neutral! Gods."" It's my fault, Isoko," Eliot said, sounding defeated." It's growing pains, children," Lola said, speaking up.

"We're fine. What can we do to be more fine?" Eliot handed out tasks. Mark already had one. With careful application of adamantium rods, wielded like they were giant wiffle bats, and with caltrops holding Mark out over empty sky, Mark waited for Eliot's vector to gather underneath the hovercar they were working on. When Eliot swirled strongly, Mark smacked the hovercar's frame, and Eliot 'melted' it into the side of the Dreadnought, one meter of metal at a time.

6 or 7 smacks was usually enough to speed up the integration process, all of the parts flowing into the ship, out of the elements, and fully into Eliot's control. Mark smiled as he sang, "76 ships on the Dreadnought's hull, 76 ships on the hull. Smack one in, parts go around, 75 ships on the Dreadnought's hull~…" The major repairs were complete in 1 hour and 37 minutes, and the ship looked so much better than it did on takeoff. It even had a coat of paint! Or stain, really.

Eliot had cordoned off several spaces inside the ship with plastics that he had been making this whole time. They were his 'clean rooms'. The very air of Endless Daihoon was filled with an unexpected amount of interference that had degraded much of his control over the ship, without his knowledge. The new spaces allowed him to operate at semi-normal levels of action. From those spaces poured forth plastics, resins, shampoo, foam mattresses, bedding and cloth, and so very many electronics.

Eliot gave the Dreadnought a plastic bath, with Derek's help, soaking dark resin into the pale, new wood, and then layering that color with polyurethane and other stuff. Mark wasn't too sure on the technical parts, but Quark helped explain what Eliot was doing, according to what Mark was seeing, as a deep brown color seeped into all of the wood and then a sheen baked into the wood grain. The ship was dark brown now, and it was kinda shiny. It looked good!

It even got an official name, written on the front and on the back.' DREADNOUGHT' Big doors went onto every opening in the ship, and soon, they were flight-ready, prepared to journey once again. Maybe they could even sustain an accidental trip into a water layer, now. Fire layers were still absolute no-goes. Mark wasn't quite sure about the never-ending cloud of slipper fish and sharks, though." Can we make it through?" Mark asked, as he stood on the deck, before the castle. Eliot, Sally, and Derek stood with him."

The ship was only just repaired," Sally said.

"Sure, the slipper fish horde is huge, but we can absolutely go around it if we need to go around it."" Not really," Isoko said, "It occludes the whole layer." Sally countered, "There are other air layers over that way? Can we hit one without slipping into the wrong one?"" We go through the fish," Eliot decided, "The adamant engine is working and the fish will absolutely break the invisibility and shields as they crash into it, but the ship itself will be fine. The wood is PL 75 now…

so—" Eliot shook his head, cutting to the chase, "The main thing is this: Kaiju have ecology. We need to test the ship against that ecology." Mark solidly said, "We go through. I'll Fear the fish away if we have to."" You probably will," Lola said. Eliot backed up into the castle, his voice sounding over the speakers, "Everyone inside but Mark! Hatches are closing now."

Eliot, Sally, and Derek all went into the ship, and soon a giant rolling metal door, like a set of gears, rolled into the opening, closing the ingress. Mark stood alone on the deck, feeling good, as he rushed forward on dollops of adamantium, spreading Glory into the people of the ship, as he waited for the fish to get closer. The wall was still 30 kilometers away, but it undulated heavily. The entire thing could flash this direction without warning.

The wall of fish and scattered sharks loomed, like a grey/silver cast to half of the world. Soon, they would be among the fishes— The world crackled. The sky to the left of the ship suddenly peeled open, revealing a great swath of yellow scales lined in yellow lightning, and the great maw of a dragon, opening wide, yellow violence churning in its giant, fang-filled mouth. The world drained of color in that churning. Lightning burned forth, right at Mark.