Butcher of Gadobhra Chapter 257 (Patreon)

"Aaaahhhh!! Dammit." Woodrat yelled as the ship abruptly went into a steep dive and descended hundreds of feet as the hull lost heat and lift. Splinter had been ascending steadily through the highest levels of the Smoke and had just transitioned into Sky a few minutes ago when she clipped the edge of a fluffy, white cloud, cooled off, and began to drop quickly. There were smaller screams from the rest of the crew as the ship took a sudden nosedive. Everyone on the ship was wisely double-chained and holding on tight. This wasn't the first time the ship had dropped altitude without warning.

"Didn't I warn you about those things?" Joe was standing next to Woodrat, one of the three people on the ship not attached to a safety chain. Mariah, Joe, and Old Smoke walked around the ship as if its movements didn't affect them at all. Everyone else held on as if their lives depended on it, which it did. "Up here, those fluffy white things aren't hot smoke. They have a lot of wetness and will steal the heat from the hull. Even those little, wispy ones can be bad. Lose your heat, lose your altitude. Now, use heat from the sails to balance the lift from the sails and the hull, and quit that screaming. We could fall a long way before we hit the smoke and still have enough time to recover."

Woodrat concentrated on the mainsail. The new sails felt odd and very different from what he was used to. They were more complex than before, with the fire layered between thin sheets of smoke and air. They looked like glowing white cloth and were three inches thick. The two old Cyclones had woven the sails themselves, using power and smoke provided by Joe. He couldn't take all of his power back to the Conjunction. Some of it he would disperse into the smoke as a wild cyclone, and some would be bound into Splinter. The new sails allowed Splinter to gain and lose altitude, turning her into a proper Smokejammer. Joe had told Woodrat that once, there had been dozens of Smokejammers that sailed between the planes, but politics and accidents had thinned their number. Woodrat was finding out just how easy accidents could happen.

The ship leveled out. Woodrat concentrated on his navigation. "I'll get the knack of it. It's just a matter of balancing the heat, scanning the horizon for problems, and watching out for stray air currents that I can't see. I'm sure it will be smooth sailing from here on out." The statement was made with a large dose of sarcasm.

Joe nodded. "Yep, handle all of that, and you'll be fine. We can worry about teaching you how to sail in rain storms and snow when we get to the conjunction. They make staying up pretty tricky. Not nearly as long to fall in the junction."

Woodrat looked at the smoke golem from the corner of his eye with suspicion. "Snow? That's a myth that sailors use to scare new crew. Everyone knows it doesn't exist." He looked at Ozzy for confirmation.

The Butcher was busy with Old Smoke but paused to yell back at Woodrat. "I hope we get back in the middle of winter so I can introduce you to snowball fights. I'll get our Refrigerator Mage to make me some snow if not. You can judge if it's a myth when it hits you in the face."

Woodrat adjusted course to avoid another cloud while looking at Ozzy to see if he was joking. "It's a shame how vindictive and cruel you got when I promoted you to Captain. Threatening an old friend with a horrible myth? And I suppose you won't tell me about this Winter thing until we get there?"

Ozzy smiled. "I look forward to introducing you to all the joys of weather in the Conjunction." He turned back to Old Smoke. The Cyclone was fulfilling his promise to teach him some tricks.
"So these smoke abilities will be spells once we hit the Conjunction? Using mana and having to shout out the words like wizards do there?"

Old Smoke laughed. "Mana, yes, but not the shouting part. That's just a thing the academies teach new students. It helps them have some confidence and works as a memory tool. A good mage doesn't need to shout out a spell name any more than a warrior needs to scream before he takes a swing at you. Both are popular in an arena but not needed for real battles. You've gained a feel for using Smoke and Heat in an elemental plane; what I'm going to do now is give you the spell matrices that will let you do the same things in the Conjunction by casting spells. Same idea, just different rules there."

"Normally, I'd start a Butcher with Tier 1 abilities, then send him back to practice and earn the higher Tier versions on their own. But, seeing as I owe you a big favor and you've already half learned them on your own, I'm going to let you skip up to the Tier 3 versions. They'll be a lot more powerful. You'll need a lot of practice with them before you hit Tier 4 and can upgrade them again. Remember that these spells aren't something they teach in an academy, and you're going to appear as an oddity to any normal mage that can get a good look at you. While High Tier mages with an Aspect of Fire can progress to Heat and build a furnace in their belly, it's not something many of them can do. And you've already got that. You won't burn as hot as in the Smoke, but you'll have plenty of power to manifest your spells."

Ozzy was curious about that. "Does anyone that visits the Smoke gain a furnace?"

"No, when you visit a plane of existence with different rules, you might change a little so that you can live there. An un-adapted human in the smoke will look like a piece of jerky after a day and be nothing but charcoal a minute after entering Fyre. So, entering the plane changes you some, and heading home changes you back. You got something extra given to you when Jack stuck a chunk of the Burning Man inside you, and it grew stronger as you dealt with doomed souls and the eruption's heat. You were carrying a furnace bigger than any mortal was designed to take. Now that we've relieved you of his little present, what you earned and grew inside of you is yours to keep, even in the Conjunction. It won't be easy to keep it full. The Conjunction is cold and dreary compared to the Smoke. You'll get back a little each day if you eat right, more if you drink right as well. And with a good source of heat, you can pull some into you. But that will drain your stamina down quickly. Pulling Heat is a lot of work."

"Alright, I think I have a few things ready for you. Just sit back and let a little of my smoke trickle up into your brain." Old Smoke breathed out, and streamers of red, black, and white smoke flew toward Ozzy and up into his nose. It tickled for a second, and then a kaleidoscope of images hit his brain all at once. "Just sit still while those settle in, and you should be able to cast them after Captain Woodrat drops us into the Conjunction." Ozzy was staring into space, looking at all the pretty colors. The knowledge settled into his brain like he had spent years studying at an Arcane Academy.

Hours later, after the Splinter had traveled far enough into the Skye, Old Smoke showed Woodrat and Mariah the trick of navigating to the gateway to the Conjunction. "It's hard the first time, but once you've traveled through it, the ship will remember the course, and you'll get a feeling for where to go when you're at the helm. There aren't many ships that can make the trip anymore. But still, it's best to keep the knowledge to yourselves. You've earned the knowledge. Others have to do the same."

Joe addressed his brother. "How far are you headed? Ozzy has a nice little smokehouse I sit around and mind during the days. You could come and sit for a spell if you need a vacation after your boat ride."

Old Smoke looked tempted but shook his head and sighed. "It's a pleasant thought. But I have too much power for the gods to be happy with me running loose, and someone needs to keep the Undersmoke running smoothly. I'm thinking that instead of letting them bind me, I'll find my own spot to put some of it, as you did. But keep a spot by the smokehouse open for me. If I find a good replacement to run things, I might be tempted to take a vacation." Just before Splinter left for the Conjunction, he flew away, scattering clouds and pushing the winds around as he made his way down to the Smoke.

The transition to the Conjunction was abrupt. One second they were in Skye and heading for a small golden fissure, and the next, they were in the Conjunction and sailing through the air on a sunny day. Woodrat adjusted course to stay clear of clouds and set the ship on a course to descend. The world spread out beneath them, astounding the crew with strange colors and shapes. The ordinary sights of the Conjunction were strange to people who only knew of Islands floating in the seas of the Smoke. Butterbelly had experienced things like mountains and lakes before, but they were new and unknown to Woodrat, Derek, Mariah, and the rest of the crew. As they descended lower and past a mountain range, Ozzy pointed to the top. "That's snow. A cloud that got so cold it turned solid. We can stop and get some if you like?" Woodrat shuddered at the thought of anything that cold. But what interested him was the things growing on the mountain.

"By the Queens' knickers! Are those trees?! Just growing there? How much wood is there in the Conjunction?"

Ozzy laughed at him. "Enough that we can fill up your hold with a nice cargo for the return trip." The Butcher held out a small length of silver chain, and it pointed twenty degrees to starboard. "Take a bearing from the chain and head that way. We want to get to Sedgewick before the sun goes down."

The lookout atop Rowan keep scanned the sky, rubbed his eyes, and scanned again. He blew notes on his horn to alert the commander to a strange occurrence. The sight of a golden and black ship with glowing white sails was something he hadn't seen before. By the time the ship was sailing past the keep, every soldier was on the walls. The centurion scanned the boat with a spyglass, chuckled, and then called for the order to stand down and return to normal business. He didn't know what was happening, but he had recognized the large figure standing at the rail and waving to him.
He turned to a private. "Please tell Optio Gustavus that our Butcher is back, and he should take the wagons down for a load of meat and to see what sort of story he can get out of him." One problem was solved, and a new mystery was added. "Hold, on second thought, tell the Optio that I'll be heading with him. I want to hear this story first hand."