Beyond?

Too tired to proofread another time. Read it tomorrow if you don't want some horrible mistakes.

Still posting it to get my head free.

Also don't complain about chapter size you leechers, read all chapters on weekends if you want to read longer.

Just rambling because I am so tired.

“This page belongs to the log book of the great Pirate Captain Saltfoot.     Page 204/500

Date IR-23-100-5432, Crew: 127, Location: Eastern Sea 332S/132N

Found a cargo vessel from Quinn and captured it. We threw the ten captured seamen overboard. I decided to head back south to replenish our resources.

Loot: 10 sacks of salt, 50 barrels with wine, 100 bars of raw iron, 100 trusses of wool, 100 barrels with oil

Date IR-24-100-5432, Crew: 127, Location: Eastern Sea 322S/112N -Nothing

Date IR-25-100-5432, Crew: 127, Location: Eastern Sea 302S/102N -Nothing

Date IR-26-100-5432, Crew: 127, Location: Eastern Sea 285S/100N -Nothing

Date IR-27-100-5432, Crew: 83(-44), Location: Eastern Sea 247S/99N

We came across a frigate from Quinn. They gave us a good fight, but underestimated what it means to go against Saltfoot! Harharhar. Have to find a pirate bay though... running low on pirates.

Loot: 20 cannons, 10 barrels of gunpowder, 63 guns, 53 swords, 100m² canvas

Date IR-28-100-5432, Crew: 83, Location: Eastern Sea 272S/101N -Nothing

Date IR-29-100-5432, Crew: 83, Location: Southern Sea 265S/100N -Nothing

Date IR-30-100-5432, Crew: 82(-1), Location: Southern Sea 258S/98N

-The old Freddy vanished. He had night watch and the sea was rough. Probably he fell overboard. I don't care, won't turn the whole ship around to search for him.

Date IR-01-101-5432, Crew: 140(+58), Location: Southern Sea 255S/105N

-Replenished resources and pirates in One Eye Bay. Decided to take a look at Nict.

Date IR-02-102-5432, Crew: 140, Location: Southern Sea 244S/96N -Nothing

Date IR-03-102-5432, Crew: 140, Location: Southern Sea 231S/96N -Nothing

Date IR-04-102-5432, Crew: 140, Location: Southern Sea ?/? -Came into a big storm. Don't know where we are. Too many clouds.

Date IR-05-102-5432, Crew: 139(-1), Location: Southern Sea ?/? -One of the new ones complained, threw him overboard.

Date IR-06-102-5432, Crew: 139, Location: ?/? -Found a black ship, decided to follow them and ask nicely where the fuck I am... with a gun of course.

Date IR-07-102-5432, Crew: 139, Location: ?/? -They are sailing faster than I thought.

Date IR-08-102-5432, Crew: 139, Location: ?/? -Still following them.

Date IR-09-102-5432, Crew: 139, Location: ?/? -Still following them.

Date IR-10-102-5432, Crew: 139, Location: ?/? -Lost them.

...

Date IR-23-102-5432, Crew: 139, Location: ?/? -Land ahead!

Date IR-24-102-5432, Crew: 138(-1), Location: ?/? -Wrong coast, wrong animals, wrong fruits. Have never been here before. Something ate my errand-boy. Hard to find a new one out here in the middle of nowhere.

Date IR-25-102-5432, Crew: 138, Location: ?/? -Found a city at the coast. The people are strange here. All of them care only for their work. They don't even complain when we take their stuff.

Date IR-26-102-5432, Crew: 99(-39), Location: ?/? -Bitches went mad and attacked us without warning! Three black ships are hunting us too.

Date IR-27-102-5432, Crew: 1 (-98) Pirate Captain Saltfoot, Location: -121S/-145N -The black ships caught up to us and we got boarded. They killed most of my men and took the rest away. I hid in a barrel of rum. Had to remove Freddy first though... old, drunken bastard must've fallen into it and drowned. And we thought that he died a good pirate's death in the sea. Instead he drowned heels over head in a barrel of rum... if only the others knew.

The ship is now drifting and too damaged for one person to handle it. I'll put my log in a bottle and throw it into the water, maybe someone finds it. I'll try to swim to the coast and make a living there. Won't be easy with one foot though... I think salt dissolves in water? Haven't bathed in years, I think now I remember why I stopped bathing.”

-Message in a Bottle.

***Eastern Plains***

***Azir***

We enter a big room inside Helen's new, luxurious mansion. The Gejene didn't spare any expenses to make the centre of this fortress look like it belongs to someone who can throw away his money. The conference room is on the top floor of the mansion and grants a good view of the surrounding plains in all directions. The walls are made from glass and are almost invisible. Even the ceiling is made out of a dark coloured, glassy material. A big, golden candelabrum is hanging from it. There is a big, three sided table with many chairs in the middle of the room.

The walls of the room are lined with guards. To the left are soldiers from Nict in light armour with shields and swords. The right side is occupied by a few guards from Dwem, they are wearing their standard grey uniforms made out of cloth. They have rifles hanging on their backs and guns on their belts.

Helen and Lucas are sitting at table's side, which is to the left of the entrance to the room. They are wearing the same black and white clothings as me. On the adjacent side of the table is Chuck! I wave my hand at my good old friend to greet him and the four sour looking advisers of his. He answers me with a smile and a wave of his totem. It's lucky that he found the time to join this event. He is our secret card. The guys from Quinn surely weren't expecting to negotiate with two countries.

Stella grabs my hand and pulls me to the free seats at Lucas's side. She takes the seat next to Lucas, so I have to sit at the corner of the triangle. Sola and Xander take the seats at Helen's side.

That leaves the third side of the table for Leon and Giana, who take place on the empty seats there.

Helen opens the conversation. “Greetings. I suppose you already know my children? My name is Helen Gejene and this is my husband, Lucas. We are the rulers of the Free City States of Nict. Our friends from Dwem decided to join us.” She flicks her hand at Chuck.

Chuck waves his totem while he tries to get a better look over the edge of his table, but to no avail. He is simply too small to make an impression and the chair isn't adjusted to his size. In the end he decides to stand onto the chair. After he corrected his mask, he chose one with blue feathers this time, he starts speaking. “Ahem. Greetings! I am the Great Shaman of Dwem and these are my aides.” He stabs his finger at the four people to his left and right. “Nobody cares about their opinion since they aren't as smart as me. They got less than a full score during the national exam, so their names are irrelevant. You can ignore them.” The expressions of his advisers turn even unhappier and they bow to greet us.

Leon and Giana look surprised, but they regain their composure immediately. It's Giana who speaks first. “I am the First Princess of Quinn, Giana Zerces. This is my brother Leon Zerces, First Prince of Quinn. We are on a diplomatic mission to determine the state of affairs outside of Quinn.”

The Great Shaman waves his totem at them. “Diplomatic mission! Good joke! I took a look out of the window.”

Leon looks in disdain at the Shaman and straightens himself. “Maybe we should explain the history of our presence here first.” He takes a deep breath to gather his thoughts. “Quinn existed in peace and flourished since Nict's downfall.” His expression turns into a smug grin and he looks at our side of the table.

Then he continues with a sour tone. “That is until the attacks began about three years ago. Tribes from the north started raiding our villages, nomads from the plains disturbed our trading routes. Black ships with maniacs on board wreaked havoc in our ports and pirates took down our merchant shipping. On top of everything the southern nations attacked us in open warfare. It's like back in the days when we had to repel the Empire!”

I tilt my head in thought. Three years ago? Isn't that the about the same time as when Dwem got attacked? But Quinn is on the other side of the continent. It's strange though I don't care much about their issues with their neighbours.

Giana continues the explanation. “Our country was in a desperate situation since we got attacked from all sides. The southern nations even somehow got access to modern weapon technology.” Her eyes wander to the guards of the Great Shaman. Especially the guns draw her attention. “Then the black ships landed a huge army on the shores of the southern nations. They advanced together against Quinn's borders and we were about to forsake all hope. There were hundreds of thousands of soldiers with modern weapons and magic in their arsenal!” She stops for a moment and stares at the table. “When their army moved it was like watching a hill of ants.”

After a few seconds of silence Lucas inclines them to go on. “And?”

“They vanished!” Leon answers like he still can't fully belief it himself. “We were gathering our troops to force them into a final fight at a natural bottleneck between Quinn and the southern nations. There is a big and dangerous river between Quinn and the south. Just one big ford allows safe passage without bridges and we had destroyed all of those. Our long range artillery prevented them from building new ones. The enemies were gathering their forces in their main camp to push through when it happened. A bright light lit the horizon and an unbelievable shockwave almost blew our army's camp away. We were lucky to gather our troops so far away from the enemy, but we were counting on our mobility and range in case of them trying to cross the river.”

I do my best to ignore Chuck's and Helen's eyes on me and force my attention somewhere else. The golden chandelier at the ceiling is very interesting right now.

Hopefully they don't get the idea that I had anything to do with this event. I never told anybody that I detonated a nuke on this world and I don't have the intention to do so. Especially since they would probably require me to explain how a nuke works. There is no reason to share such dangerous knowledge with a world in war. I am quite happy that the idea of using atom energy to build a weapon didn't come up on this world... yet.

The possible reasons for big flashes of light and vanishing armies are multifarious. Maybe I can make something up if they ask me about it. Luckily I have no moral qualms about my action. Not telling my family saves them the trouble to bother with such a dilemma.

The only thing that bugs me right now is that it seems like I helped Quinn! So I am indirectly the reason why they are here right now.

Giana nods. “The devastation at our southern border is unbelievable! We don't know what happened. Our scientists believe that the enemy lost control over a horrible new weapon of theirs. The area is a wasteland and everyone who goes there gets sick.

At least the utter destruction of the enemy army gave us the time to consolidate our borders and to hunt down the rogue enemies which survived the explosion since they were too far away.

The king and the queen decided to send the forces which were freed up by the mishap of our opponents to the west. We are hoping to get a clearer picture of what's going on and why our neighbours suddenly went nuts.”

Leon nods his head with fervour. “There is also the point of why you threw one of your satellites onto our capital. The wreckage landed right on the queen's most beloved winter garden. The place is a mess.”

I point at Leon. “You guys took it down somehow! It wasn't our fault!”

He slams his fist onto the table. “I knew it! That voice! Giana, that's the so called scientist who laughed at me!”

“I can laugh as much as I want! Luckily there are no laws against laughing in Nict!” I shoot back.

Giana smiles at her brother. “Why don't we try to calm down. It was just a small winter garden and nobody got hurt. We already told our own airspace-control that deactivating the satellite at exactly that moment wasn't so smart of them. It was a series of unfortunate events. The guy who was in charge simply had a bad day.”

I can't stop myself and add my own interpretation. “Or he didn't particularly like the royal family and hoped that the thing would fall onto the head of someone important. Just be happy that our satellites are essentially just big chunks of metal once they are disabled. I can't imagine that someone who is in charge of disposing of orbital objects would forget to calculate where the thing comes down.”

Leon's and Giana's faces tell me that I hit right on the mark once again. Don't tell me that sending the satellite into their territory helped them to uncover an assassination attempt on the royal family? “I am right! Aren't I? I am bad with people, but your stupid expressions speak volumes!” For people whom I don't like at all I helped them far too much. And they don't even know it. Hopefully they'll never find out.

.