To Fly the Soaring Tides

"To be fair," Jimbo tipped up that ridiculous flask Cira made him, "You should have warned us."

"I did warn you. Your mission was to destroy a palace. Obviously, there would be people of high status there. Are you an idiot?" It would be wrong to say Cira was an excellent student, but she caught on quickly almost every time. It was whether her mind subsequently prioritized the subject as important which truly presented an issue. Jimbo, however, was just a drunken fool.

"Yeah, basically." Holding open the cap on his flask, he dipped it in the river, "But it's not my job to not be an idiot, otherwise I'd probably do it. You have to know that much, I'm sure. This 'Earl Zephyr' fellow had it coming whether or not I knew his name. Get over it and take the win, boss."

"Ezekiel Blackwood, you ingrate. And your orders were to spare everyone. Do you think I just said that for fun?" I could feel Tawny smoldering and leveled an exasperated gaze her way. "That said… I understand the situation may have become worse had you not stepped in. Any worthwhile strategy is flexible, otherwise I would never have lived to see my fifteen-hundredth birthday."

"Too old, if you ask me," Jimbo only shrugged, "I feel like we need at least twelve grandmasters between you and Cira—"

"Gahhh!!!!" Everyone's attention was pointed toward the shrill cry originating from the freshly appeared Captain Shores. "Oh good… I'm all here. Phew."

"Captain, how many times have you done this now?" The paladins appeared in rapid succession as Shores held his stomach like he was going to be sick.

The man himself must have felt my eyes boring through, and quickly straightened up, "Ahh, Io! Naturally, our mission ended in… bitter victory."

"Is that right?" I asked with an incredibly doubtful tone. Regardless, he didn't pick up on it at all as he nodded along. "And does this 'bitter victory' have something to do with why you are down two heads and brought a trespasser along without prior communication?"

"Oh shit!" Jimbo shouted, "She's a witch!"

The rest of the Mortal Council's eyes turned aghast to the subject of Jimbo's shock.

"Hey, what the hell, Shores?" Dutchy was understandably upset, and the table had erupted into a panic. Some even mounted an offense like Paradise was getting invaded.

He babbled about some bible verse nobody but his crew cared about or understood and was moments from inciting pandemonium when the witch spoke up.

"Please there is no need to be alarmed! I am not here to cause trouble." While everyone stopped to listen, it didn't quite seem like they believed her. It didn't take long before a chorus of unintelligible questions rose from the Council.

The witch shrunk back as her words went unheard. It was admirable that she would try to take the floor in such an unfamiliar place, but she was out of her depth. I let this go on for a brief time because it irritated even I that she would have the nerve to appear in Paradise so flippantly. Even Cira had to fight a large snake and fly for a few hours.

So, I waited until the witch was well and truly out of steam, instinctually glancing from side to side in search of an escape route. Of course, all she found was the audience of Elysian citizens who came to cheer on each victory of our first official military operation. Then the very moment before I started to feel bad for her, I decided to step in.

"Silence." My voice echoed around the Agora until everyone shut up and looked my way. "The person standing before you is known as the Quartz Witch. Why Captain Shores thought it was a good idea to bring her straight here, however, is baffling to me. Most notably, this woman sits among the High Coven of Earth Vein and has served one-hundred and eighty-six years in direct service to the Silver Witch."

""Boooooo!!!"" Council and Spectators alike cried.

"It's… it's you!" The witch put her hands up defenselessly as she recognized me from Little Laz's birthday. The young woman turned pale before my eyes. "W-wait, I can explain!"

"No need. Everyone," I called them back in, "More recently, the Quartz Witch had a run in with the Hidden Witch." A collective gasp from the masses carried all the way over through Elysia proper. "That's right. And it appears my niece, the Hidden Witch, had quite the impact on Quartz here. Why don't we hear what she has to say?"

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

"You see," Shores stood up beside her, "We have come to a most fruitful agreement—"

"I was not asking you." Quartz briefly crumbled as I leveled my gaze her way. "Tell me, Witch. I understand you are disgruntled about your current employment, and perhaps a little inspired… But you must have known this was not the type of place to arrive with half-hearted resolve. Why are you here?"

"I… I cannot ignore it any longer. Like a poison, Earth Vein has injected itself into any land it touches. The very land on which we—"

"Hold on." I stopped her, "I did not ask for an impassioned speech. Quite frankly I don't care—"

""Boooooo!!!"" The audience immediately turned on me, even overpowering the acoustic qualities of the amphitheater in their disdain for my comment. And as one who didn't even sit on the Council, I had no choice but to relent. Their chant unified to some degree, "Speech! Speech! Speech!"

I let out a sigh, "Fine then… Miss Quartz, let your impassioned speech continue."

The woman was stock still, completely baffled at the turn of events, or perhaps the sequence in general. And if I didn't know any better, a little scared. One thing was certain, and it was that her spontaneous speech was lost to time. She scrambled to come up with another.

"I, uh… we, live upon this earth. And soon… maybe there won't be any left. I've seen islands crumble and entire cities turned into a workforce to strip their homeland of all value. The very ground their ancestors walked on was mined for profit not their own… I am not proud to admit I committed many of these sins myself, but it should not fall to the victims to break the cycle. I am here today to take the first step."

""Yeahhhh!!!"" The crowd was surprisingly receptive, but they did not know all the operations Quartz was in command of—some of which sat as far down as the Silver Witch's third drawer.

Jimbo fired a pistol into the air and silenced the crowd, "Yeah, yeah, you're some bigshot, woefully fallen for our bosses' charm. We've heard the story before. But from what I heard, the Silver Witch would turn you to dust and mix it up in her oatmeal for something like this. Why should I care that you wanna turn over a new leaf? Not my damn problem. Not any o' these folks' damn problem. Screw your speech. Why are you here?"

The witch was understandably stunned. She had only just gotten the wind back in her sails and her speech was directly shut down. I suppose this trial was good enough as she seemed in some manner of despair.

"I—I uh, I mean... The Silver Witch must be dethroned. Only then can these skies rebuild."

"So, you gonna go fight her, or what?" Jimbo drank his ale, nonplussed while the Witch withered. "Come on, I'll take you there myself."

"Er, no. A direct fight would never work." I could tell she was getting somewhere, but these people weren't nobles or pretentious casters. They required concision, and the girl was floundering.

"Then you're useless. We don't need you. The Council remains unconvinced." I watched the round table nod their heads in tacit agreement.

"Captain Sticks has a point, Quartz. What can you offer us beyond an extra set of hands in battle?" The Witch's heart appeared to drop as I backed up the town drunk. "As I see it, we have no reason to risk letting a mole into our midst."

"A battle… is not what we need." Her fists shook at her side, but her eyes didn't waver. "The Hidden Witch said something to me once… 'Before the vitality of healthy roots… the rotten shall naturally decay. From the ground up, I believe the only way forward is to change Earth Vein from within, until it no longer requires Madam—I mean, the Silver Witch."

"And just how do you reckon we do that?" Tawny crossed her arms and stared judgmentally, "You gonna go tell them how nice Paradise was?"

"N-no… not at all." She waved her hands in denial, "It's not that simple."

I only laughed, turning my attention to Quartz, "I see… They need a new banner to rally behind, don't they?"

"Y-yes… I think they do." It seemed we were finally on the same page. "At the Silver Witch's order, it has been subtly implied to the public that the Hidden Witch is an agent of Earth Vein. No one but the High Coven and some of the Regulatory Council are privy to the fact that she is actually a high-priority adversary. All we need to do is get the common-folk of Earth Vein to turn sides."

"I kinda like where you're going now," Jimbo tuned in, "but those witches will just kill you and anyone else. It'll take too long. It's not like any of us can go round up witches either. This still doesn't explain why you're here."

"It will take a matter of days for the Silver Witch to catch wind of this. So… I need the support of your faction if there's any hope to succeed." She looked sincere as ever, but Jimbo just scoffed.

"Pshh… You're all talk—"

"No. Hang on, Jimbo." Dutchy stood up, leaning in toward the witch, "I think I'm starting to see it… Who needs that old silver lady? This could be the rise of the Hidden Witch Faction, Earth Vein's hottest new group of open-minded individuals. It would look oh so terrible for infighting to occur among their ranks, so if we act fast and true there's a chance we can pull this off. Oh, Shores, I always wondered why she said you were so reliable. You really have good intuition after all. We just need a spectacle for all the sky to see, and the tides will turn themselves."

The witch turned my way now as if looking for approval, shaking like a leaf.

"Don't look at me. The Council rules this place." I shrugged, looking over the Council as they tossed Dutchy's words around in their head. "But I see no harm in discussing this while we wait for Ember's team to return."