The Hanged Man
Suggested Music: Merry Go Round of Life by Joe Hisaishi
Resplendent Air 23, R.Y. 778
Ravenous Moon, Waning Heart slowly paced the deck of The Geronimo with her right hand tracing lightly along the polished wooden rail of the starboard side. She peered over the edge get the best possible view of the scene below. Her left hand traced the hilt of Tonbogiri, her prized power mace, as she gave a nervous look back towards Bearer of the Crimson Funeral Silk who was manning the steering column as The Geronimo cut through the sky at a leisurely cruising speed. Tonight Moon had the command with nearly a full crew at her disposal, only Koza Shige and Dirge of the Ivory Scarab were not on board of The Geronimo's regular crew. Though it could not really be said that Koza and Scarab were regular crew members, instead Ash referred to the pair as his two faced mask. They were the duo who took primary responsibility for running the day to day of Ash's extensive network on connections and business dealings.
Moon reached the bow of the ship where she met up with Tick-Tock who was operating the Light Implosion Bow on this evening. Tick-Tock was the longest tenured member of the crew besides Moon herself, but even she felt the tension in the air and fidgeted idly with a golden lever along the barrel of the cannon. Clicking it rhythmically, as if keeping time. Moon took note that Tick-Tock had a parachute strapped to her back with a fire dust rifle slung over one shoulder even as she stood ready to operate the cannon. At her feet was the all important rope ladder that was Tick-Tock's most important responsibility this evening.
Tick-Tock broke the silence, "How ya feeling captain?"
"I'll feel better when the real captain is back aboard."
"The ships in good hands captain, don't you worry about her."
"It's not her that I'm worried about." Moon paused for a moment peeking over the bow of the ship to get an idea of Tick-Tock's view. "You know the drill. No one up. No one down."
"Aye, aye, captain."
Moon continued her lap around the ship, heading aft down the port side, and again peering over the edge as she walked to get a feel for the best views of what went on below. The view on the port side was just as poor as it had been from the starboard, though she at least took comfort in the fact that the platform didn't appear to be swaying too much. When she reached the stern of the ship she found Siren in her place, who like Tick-Tock had donned her parachute and fire dust rifle for the evenings events. Siren at least seemed more relaxed, though the empty bottle of liquid courage at her feet didn't escape Moon's watchful gaze.
"All clear."
Siren did not pay Moon the respect of calling her captain, and spoke with an edgy and dismissive tone. Moon let it pass, the two had never gotten along famously and tonight was not the night to have another showdown about it. Instead Moon let the silence hang over the younger women and moved on without a word. Siren was mostly extra baggage tonight as her talents were not so useful on the deck of a ship, but Ash had laid out the plan and it did not hurt to have an extra set of eyes.
A swift flutter of her wings lifted her off the ground and up to the steering platform where Silk held tightly to the large wooden wheel that guided the ship through the air. Silk did not turn her head to acknowledge her captains presence, but unlike Siren, Silk and Moon had a close relationship and such formal greetings were unnecessary between them. Moon looked under the shoulder of the taller, more muscular woman at the piece of parchment that had been stuck to the wooden wheel by a thin throwing dagger with an ornamental handle. Moon recognized it as one of Ash's. The thin parchment was their guide, the neat and precise drawings of Tick-Tock with the apparently haphazard scribbles of Ash scattered about their page. Moon noted the taunt muscles in Silks arms and shoulders as she gripped the wooden pegs of the wheel with unyielding tension to keep the ship on course.
"How far off course are we?" Moon asked, but already knew the answer.
"Nay a' far as we ought. Th' wind be pickin' up."
"So it seems. Just keep it at our head, if a strong cross wind hits us we'll be in for a bit of a tumble..." Moon tried to say it with a playful cheer, but the thought of The Geronimo spiraling toward the sand made her tone more grave than she'd meant. "I'll be down below."
"Aye, aye."
Moon leapt gracefully from the platform, merely extending her wings upward to float into a practiced glide that executed a tight 180 degree turn, then fluttered once before folding neatly against her back. Moon's well guided fall bi-passed the deck and the stairs leading to the first lower level and landed her in stride down the narrow hall of crew's quarters. Without missing a beat she strode towards the second ladder at the back of the hall that lead to the cargo hold. Moon crouched to lift the heavy trap door that sealed off the cargo hold from the crew's quarters, letting it thunk open as it bumped the back wall of the hallway. She was greeted with the immediate smell of sweet burning tobacco rising up from the hold below, as she started her descent down the ladder the traditional way she noticed the air was thick with smoke despite the vastness of the room.
When she reached the floor she weaved her way aft through the tied down barrels and crates that filled the hold until she reached a table and two chairs with the last member of the crew occupying the chair on the left. On the table was an arsenal of weaponry; a polished fire dust rifle lay at each end of the table with four small grenades, two incendiary pots, and three fire dust pistols carefully arranged between them. The only open space on the table was just large enough to fit a fourth pistol in like a puzzle piece, that weapon was being cleaned with oil and cloth by the rugged yet nimble hands of Yusuf Kozlov.
"Come to enjoy the view, captain?" Yusuf spoke through one side of his mouth while the other clinched a thick black cigar that was pluming the dark smoke and sweet aroma of tobacco throughout the hold.
"That I did." She paused for a moment as she took a seat in the open chair, her wings shifting unconsciously to avoid being pinned against the back of the chair. "Seems you're the only one relaxed tonight, why is that?"
Yusuf chuckled in reply and used a momentarily free hand to pluck the cigar from his mouth and tap it lightly on the edge of an immense hollow tooth of some slain beast that served as his ash tray. The cigar was back between his lips and both hands back at his cleaning before he replied.
"Because the worst that could happen is we all die!" Yusuf, unlike Moon, was able to say those words like it would be no skin off his back if it came true.
"Exactly!" Moon shook her head at the care free attitude, or was it naivety? Moon had given up years ago trying to talk sense into any of them. Instead she turned her attention to the cargo door which was cracked open with a long, thin mirror mounted to the underside of the door which provided the best possible view of what went on beneath the airship tonight. "How's the party?"
"See for yourself."
Ash and his crew had been dispatched three weeks ago to the south to attend a small smuggling mission of the sort that The Grass Spiders were not in a habit of undertaking; however the cargo was supposedly of interest to The White Veil Society and the job paid well, extremely well. A group of renowned Jade-Smiths required transport for themselves and their valuable cargo and wished to secure the quickest and most luxurious way to travel from Gem to Chiaroscuro. As it happened The Geronimo was exactly that, as rentable air ships simply did not exist and sorcery was impractical for transporting cargo and trended away from being comfortable, let alone luxurious. Ash arrived and Gem and made contact with his clients early, allowing the artisans to set their day of departure. With some time to kill in the southern city, Ash allowed his crew some time off the ship to enjoy the local fair and explore the scenery. Meanwhile Ash decided to do a little checking into his clients before allowing them onboard The Geronimo. Ash broke to the Jade-Smiths warehouse during the night and picked the lock, peeking inside to sate his curiosity. To his surprise all he discovered was a series of overly elaborate ivory boxes tightly sealed that contained no more than raw jade. Ash smelled a trap.
Rather than sending word to The Range Homes, Ash took matters into his own hands and accessed The Grass Spiders informant network in Gem to spring a trap of his own. Ash quickly arranged an elaborate cruise, hosted aboard his own airship and made sure that only the right people found out about the event in time to attend. All in all two dozen merchants, artisans, and diplomats including the Jade-Smiths who were the original targets, purchased transport on possibly Creation's first luxury air cruise. Each and every passenger, except for those who were merely guests of a wealthy target, were proven or suspected to be linked to The White Veil Society's network in the south. Moon was vehemently against the entire thing for a list of reasons, the most obvious of which was that if The White Veil Society meant to trap him or take The Geronimo he'd just made it that much easier for them. Ash's mind was made up and though the two fought as they rarely did Ash had been the more stubborn and Moon cared too much to leave him on his own.
Ash was dressed as a member of the wealthy southern nobility with a combination of newly purchased colorful silk robes. A traditional flowing dishdasha of ruby red as a base layer with a black and gold embroidered vest overtop. A full length Jubba jacket of glossy gold was hemmed to the heels of his brown leather sandals and a red and black smagh covered his head and hair. At current he was dancing gracefully with an equally elegant young lady who had come as a guest of one the successful Guild merchants who was returning to The Guild's southern headquarters in Chiaroscuro. A live band commissioned from Gem was at the center of the room including a harpist, a riq, and two flutes who entertained the guests.
Ash and his partner circled around the musicians in the center of the room in precise dance steps, the circular dance conveniently gave Ash a clear view of the gathering as they moved. Ash led the dance steps purely out of practiced reflex, his attention moved deliberately from guest to guest studying each as they made conversation among themselves. Each of them conspirators in his eyes. Ash was in rare form amid the challenge he had put himself in, a strange clarity and focus brought on by the chaos.
Two dozen guests were gathered, mostly convening in small groups scattered across the platform, though a handful joined Ash on the dance floor. The entire banquet was being held on a single, large rectangular platform of polished oak planks connected together with grooves Tick-Tock had engineered. The platform itself was slightly larger than The Geronimo on all sides and was suspended by four large chains that attached to The Geronimo and each of the corners of the platform. The chains themselves appeared as anchor chains of a great sea vessel, but instead of rusted steel the chains were the distinct gunmetal gray of feathersteel. The chains and planked platform gave the whole construction enough strength and flexibility to host the entire banquet suspended underneath the vessel itself. To make the 'banquet hall' appropriate for guests they had mounted mirrors and oil lamps up under the bottom of the ship which reflected light down through thin decorative fabric so that the 'room' was illuminated during the night. To break the wind, and so that the guests has a sense of security greater than standing on a platform thousands of feet in the air, the crew had fashioned thick canvas walls that were draped from the ship above and attached to the platform below. The lowest sections of these canvas walls had been replaced with a thinner cloth that would break less wind, but allow the guests to enjoy the stunning view of traveling by airship. In truth it had worked out more marvelously than he'd thought possible when he hatched the plan, a twinge of sadness entered the back of his mind that the epic construction was for such a fleeting event.
The song came to an end and so to did Ash's dance. He bowed like a gentleman to his partner, perfect flattery as was to be expected from Ash, and led a polite, mild clap for the musicians. In a moment separated from his guests Ash glanced to the pocket watch stashed inside of his jacket, a gift from Tick-Tock, and swiped a fresh glass of champagne from a waiters tray. With hardly enough time to catch his breath he was back engaged in conversation, this time with two of the three Jade-Smiths who were the original targets of the mission.
Ash was facing the bow of the ship with a Smith on either side of him, their backs to the front, which let his gaze split them and the rest of the guests to see the rope ladder drop down from above. Right on time, as always. Ash took a small, poised sip of his drink, then simply let go of the champagne glass in his hand, drawing a fire dust pistol from the small of his back in each hand. The weapons were drawn before the glass hit the planks below, Ash stepped forward a half step between the two smiths who were too slow to react, he split his arms open and fired a shot in each direction. Another half step forward, further splitting the two guests as the glass shattered on the floor and Ash rotated his aim firing a shot in the opposite direction of the first volley. In a matter of moments the four fire pearls rocketed from the barrels of the pistols, traveled by the guests and struck the clasps of the chains at the four corners of the platform. The first two clicked open only a fraction of a second before the second pair let the entire platform drop into an uncontrolled freefall, with a slight diagonal rotation.
Moon and Yusuf were sitting at the table watching Ash and the rest of the party through the mirror attached to the slightly open cargo door. Even Moon had started to relax now that she could keep an eye on Ash and the night was coming to a close; Yusuf's arsenal was clean and polished on the table and his third cigar had nearly burned itself out.
The sound of the gunshots processed faster than what they were seeing, Moon leapt to her feet slamming her knee into the table and nearly turning it over while Yusuf literally fell from his chair.
"Shit! Shit! Shit!"
"What the fuck was that?"
"Holy sweet titty-fuck-balls!"
Yusuf was still gathering himself when Moon drew Tonbogiri from her hip in a slashing motion, the short blade taking on a faint white glow as her essence sprung to life through the blade. The essence infused blade lengthened, as if reaching for the tight spool that held the cargo door, and easily slashed through the hemp rope and quickly retracted to its original shape in her hand. The cargo door dropped open in a rush of wind as Moon stepped to the edge to look down. Yusuf had yet to find his feet, but crawled to the edge with his hands gripping the ledge and his head hanging out.
Down below, the platform had begun to corkscrew and was dropping rapidly, but had yet to overturn. Many of the guests had already started to slip and slide, others clung to anything they could, all of them screamed for their lives. Ash was at the center of the platform, now surrounded by all three Jade-Smiths who each had a thin stabbing blade in hand. The first lunged clumsily at Ash, downhill, and a skilled turn of the hips and twist of the wrist left the man unarmed and stumbling down the inclined platform in an uncontrolled skid. The man screamed and his nails dug into the wood as he tried to fight gravity, to no avail. Ash ducked the second lunge at his back and caught the first disarmed blade as it fell to the ground, in a single motion he caught the falling dagger and redirected it through the ankle of the third man. The sharpened jade pierced both flesh and wood to the depth of the pommel. Agony removed the third from the fight, while the second attempted a second attack, but he was no match for the skill of a Grass Spider. Without raising from his crouch Ash planted both hands upon the planks and kicked out both of his legs which struck the off balance feet of the only remaining Jade-Smith and sent him into a face plant and then slide down the nearly vertical platform. Ash acted quickly and gathered the second blade before it fell out of reach, spinning it reflexively in one hand as his other pinned the third smiths hand to the deck. As the platform went completely vertical and Moon lost sight of them, Ash plunged the second blade through the man's forearm, stapling him to the wooden deck with the two blades.
Moon and Yusuf watched from the edge of the cargo hold paralyzed as the scene disappeared from view, the overturned platform blocked out nearly the entire scene.
"What was that? Why didn't he go to the ladder first?" Yusuf was getting to his feet now, trying to decide if this was all according to plan or not. It was hard to tell sometimes.
"Shut up!" Moon screamed at Yusuf and squinted harder at the bottom of the platform, as if how hard she looked determined how well she could see the increasingly distant scene.
The platform completed its first roll, as it flipped they saw that Ash clung tightly to the man who has painfully attached to the tumbling platform. Blood trailed upwards from the two stab wounds as they fell and Ash gathered to his feet, standing over top of the man. Both of them were screaming, though it was too distant and windy to make anything out. By sight it looked as if Ash was yelling at the man, while the smith could only close his eyes and cry for mercy. By the time the platform had gone vertical again Ash was unleashing a flurry of punches at the helpless man.
"Wait for it..." Moon held up a hand to keep Yusuf quiet.
"Wait for it..." Even she thought it sounded more like a prayer than plan. The platform and the scattered bodies were growing distant, if there was any plan amid the madness it had to be now.
The platform rolled over again, this time Ash was on his knees overtop of the man with one hand tightly clutching to his shirt while the other unleashed blow after blow into the apparently unconscious man's disfigured face.
"Shit." Moon dove from the edge of the cargo hold with her limbs pressed tight against her body to minimize the wind resistance of her fall, hoping that the platform would catch enough wind to slow its descent.
Yusuf turned at the sound of frantic footsteps behind him, Siren emerged from behind the maze of kegs and crates leading to the cargo door. Siren gave Yusuf a look of panic and confusion, unable to find the words to demand an explanation. Yusuf could only shrug in bewilderment.
The platform had begun to break apart, it wasn't designed to withstand this sort of abuse, and her vision had started to fog from her eyes being unprotected in the pelting winds. Ash had not appeared clutching the Jade-Smith on the last rotation, he'd broken free from the platform intentionally or otherwise. The platform fell and spun faster and faster, which accelerated the rate that the planks began to break apart, forcing Moon to dodge in and out to weave through the debris. She first passed the body of the smith still attached to a large section of the platform, his face an unrecognizable bloodied pulp. At least he would not suffer through the fall. Or the landing.
Moon could faintly make out the individual scattered forms of bodies, helplessly falling towards the unforgiving sand below. Most had passed out during the fall, but several still struggled, trying to swim as if they were drowning rather than falling. The airy southern garb most of the guests wore only made it more difficult to tell them apart; however most of them had struggled upwards to attempt to escape their fate, leaving even the unconscious bodies facing the sky. Only one was turned towards the earth, arms and legs outstretched prepared to meet his fate.
Moon swept in, her outstretched hands first grasped the flapping silk cloth that whipped at her in the wind, pulling herself to his body. She was sure, even in the darkness that it was him, she rolled him over and positioned her arms under his body. He was unconscious, but his face had a peaceful tranquility washed over it and his body relaxed as if in a deep slumber. She looked down at him for a moment and felt a wave of sadness that welled up in her eyes, she bit her lip, held on tight, and spread her wings.
Resplendent Air 26, R.Y. 778
Moon did not make great haste in returning to The Geronimo, instead flying smoothly and casually as she held Ash in her arms. As The Geronimo came back into view, Silk had the good sense to bring the ship to a halt, Ash slowly opened his eyes and looked up to her, slowly blinking into recognition.
"Why are you crying?" His throat was dry and hoarse so he spoke the words uncharacteristically soft.
A smiled tugged at Moon's lips as she responded, shaking her head, "I'm not, it's just the wind from the fall."
"After all these years... You're still a terrible liar."