The spirit ship flaked and cracked at the seams. Men loosened their grips on the crates as the deck fractured under them.
Sky fairing men slacked the ropes loose on the parcels, then let the wind take them wherever it wanted.
"Fay! This is just the start!" Radeon shouted in her ear.
Her face tightened and she gave a small shake of her head.
She did not believe him. Her heart clung to the hope that all the shaking had passed.
Then the alarm bell tolled again, the sound harsher than before.
"All astern, full!" the captain roared. "Swing her wide!"
The ship orbited the anchor below. The chain groaned as it swept in a wide circle, faster and faster.
Sky sailors and passengers clutched at anything still whole amid the splintered wood, fingers white on rail. On rope. On each other.
Radeon took the chaos for cover and went hunting through the wreckage.
"Stay put. I'll be quick," he said.
"S-Senior, please... don't leave me alone here."
Radeon shot away before the last word left her lips.
He barreled stealthily for the cargo hold, slipping past passengers and crew with their heads already bowed.
The hold was worse.
Splintered beams speared up from the floor and down from the deck above. Crates and chests lay torn open by the very ship meant to keep them safe.
As Radeon probed each plank with his toe, testing what might have been giving underfoot, his gaze was taking in the bloodied bodies sprawled all around.
They were still alive, but they were surely sore all over.
With needle and silk in hand, he flicked the small steel through like a thrown blade, snapping their pouches free.
'Not bad. Not what I came for though.'
Radeon went hunting for the scent he'd picked up earlier. He sniffed the air, following the faint spice as it was riding the wind.
Yet when he was getting close, a heavy slab of wood was pinning the treasure down in a narrow pocket, wedged so deep that his arms could not reach it.
'Looks like ginseng. Or ginger. Either way the qi feels right. I need it to cultivate. No point in waiting.'
Radeon sent small needles toward it. The first five needles flew, slicing the precious root into rough portions.
Then he fired another batch. The needles snapped out and pinned each piece where it lay, neat as a butcher's hooks.
He scooped them up and shoved the spiritual roots into his mouth, each one big as half a fist.
Earthy bitterness flooded his mouth, chased by a thin, clean coolness, but Radeon did not waste time savoring it.
He crammed them in and gnawed fast, jaw grinding, because he was not wasting a drop of power.
With renewed energy, he sent qi through his legs and jumped out of the hold onto the deck.
As he stepped out, his eyes darted over the wreck and the bodies, ravaged as the ship descended faster.
The needles didn't stay idle in his pocket.
They were snapping free in quick bursts, punching through pouches that were lying loose on the planks, and through pouches that were still hanging from their owners.
He even got back the twenty stones he'd paid for the dagger, and more. The blacksmith, a cheat, lay there among the rest.
"Told you I'd take it back," he murmured.
Radeon was only gone long enough for a teapot to boil. He grabbed Fay's hand. His fingers gave a small, steady tap, a tell meant for her closed eyes.
"Shutting down the array!" the captain bellowed.
The hum of the windstones was dying. The ship lost what little lift it had left and slipped into a long fall, sliding downward with the anchor still wedged beneath.
"Qi shields up! Brace for impact!" the captain boomed.
The ship hit uneven ground hard. Soil and rocks blasted up on impact.
Low hills and sudden ditches were making the galleon buck and jump, and her belly was slamming against the earth again and again.
"Fay, grab my robe," Radeon commanded.
He was not waiting for her answer. Radeon whipped the cloak up before them, qi surging through the leather until it thickened into a crude shield.
The first chunks of century-old timber were slamming into it, driving him back and setting his ears ringing.
Fay's grip held Radeon up, both hands locked around his back.
"S-Senior, are you all right?" she asked, worry tight across her face.
"I'm fine," he replied.
Dizziness washed through him as his qi drew too deep with a single breath.
Radeon fumbled two spirit stones from his belt and drank the heat from them until it was spreading through his chest.
The ship was already slowing, slewing sideways, then finally coming to rest on its flank.
Retching was echoing along the tilted deck.
"Get below. Check the hold. I want to know what we've still got," the captain rasped.
Crew and passengers started moving their arms and legs, still not believing they'd lived through such an ordeal.
"I'd sooner wear out my boots than set foot on a sky-ship again."
"Sky fairing will be the death of us, you'll see. Man belongs on stone, not in the clouds."
Fay's stomach twisted and her eyes were rolling white.
She convulsed, spraying greens and meat, half-chewed and sour across the deck, then she fainted.
Radeon ruffled her hair, slow and careful, searching along her face and throat.
He was feeling for anywhere that was coming away nicked or bloodied on his fingertips.
"For a first-timer, you did fine," he murmured.
Radeon worked the knots until the rope seat gave way. He pulled a spare rug close and wiped the snot and tears from her face.
He took out the little box of powders and laid color back onto her skin, stroke by careful stroke, until the beauty underneath was being hidden once more.
Once done, Radeon's hands worked fast, shifting pouch after pouch from his cloak to Fay's.
When the last bit of loot had been stashed, a pressure was settling over everyone aboard.
Radeon's knees suddenly buckled under it, and his head was throbbing as if the air itself had been pressing in.
"Who stole the lumen ginger?" the gilded core spearman roared. "Speak up, or I crack skulls till I find the thief!"
Radeon lowered his posture the way a mortal spine would have bent.
He stalled his circulation on purpose, letting it run too fast and too deep.
His skin was taking on a paler shade as he was selling a lie.
In his arms, Fay was rousing. His hand covered her lips, soft but firm.
He would rather let her bite him than letting a question leave her mouth right now.