Maria slouched against the brass railing that looped around the windows hemming in the lounge at the front of Vera’s Revenge’s gondola. One of Trubnikov’s crew had given her a tan Air Trader coat to replace the unmarked coat she’d worn last night.

  Outside, the mist from melting frost had dissipated and now as far as she could see lay dirt. Dirt, sparse ground cover, and only the occasional hint of life as a death hawk plummeted from the skies, or a tundra rat scuttled from hole to hole.

  “No sign of Matvei and Yeger?”

  Maria turned as Nika limped into the room, also wearing an Air Trader coat.

  “Not yet. How is your leg?”

  “All right,” Nika said, easing herself into a leather chair living by the large table the dominated the centre of the room. “Golubski said to leave the bandage on, but the worst of the damage should be healed by now.”

  “Excellent.”

  Maria returned her attention to the tundra, watching as the wind snatched at the ground, tearing dust and dirt into the sky in a twister.

  “I owe you an apology,” Nika said.

  “Huh?” Maria asked, looking back.

  Nika raked a hand through her hair, currently hanging loose around her shoulders instead of in its usual plait. “If you weren’t there last night, we’d probably all be dead.”

  “Oh. You’d have been fine,” Maria said, waving away Nika’s comment. “One of you would have worked it out.”

  “Take the compliment, Maria. It’s the truth.”

  Voices and footsteps sounded outside the lounge and a moment later, Yeger and Matvei entered.

  “Ah, we’re all here. Good,” Yeger said, shutting the door behind him.

  Maria leaned back against the railing, propping her elbows on it. “You wanted us here, what for?” she asked as Yeger and Matvei both pulled up chairs around the table.

  “That Voronina woman,” Yeger said. “She claims the Alchemists are going to attack the Sentinels. Probably try remove them from history like they did the Watchman Guild.”

  “Watchman Guild?” Maria asked.

  “Yeah,” Matvei said with his usual nasal whine, “old military group in Kosgrad, disappeared years ago, no one knows what happened to them. Some folk reckon the Alchemists dumped the lot of ‘em in the uzhas mine. More likely they were shot, though.”

  “Voronina must have been trying to rile up Klara,” Nika said. “No way they can just get rid of the Sentinels.”

  Yeger gave a sharp nod. “Agreed. But Klara believes her, she wants to take the fight to the Alchemists, doubtless dragging us into it. However, Trubnikov’s taking his crew to Machtvoll as soon as he’s dropped Klara at Ledavsk.”

  “He’s leaving?” Maria asked, cocking her head. “Trubnikov has family in the Sentinels. If this threat is real, why would he leave them?”

  “Koskov Keeper hardly counts,” Matvei said, his pinched features even more pinched than usual.

  “Yeah,” Nika said, “I heard Trubnikov blames him for his sister’s death.”

  Maria raised an eyebrow and looked at each of them. “What do you three do with your spare time? Eavesdrop private conversations?”

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  “Not all the time…” Matvei mumbled.

  Yeger cleared his throat. “That’s unimportant. What matters is what are we going to do?”

  “We voted Klara as squad leader,” Maria said. “We follow her. If she says we stay and fight, we fight.”

  Yeger and Matvei glanced at each other. “We did vote on that,” Yeger said slowly. “But that was before we realised she’s just going to lead us from one suicide mission to the next. We survived last night, but Matvei and I talked about it, something was off. They could have organised a far better counter assault, I mean, they only sent four soldiers against us initially.”

  “Simple,” Maria said with a shrug, “they were confident in the protection steel skin would give them.”

  Nika barked out a laugh. “They won’t make that mistake again.”

  Maria pushed off from the railing and marched to the table. “Nevertheless, this is what we trained our entire lives for. Being a Sentinel is about doing the impossible, Klara has led us true so far. Certainly last night didn’t go as planned, but we got valuable information. We know the Alchemists have hidden extracts, and we know the Sentinels are in grave danger.” She paused, studying Yeger. The immense man’s jaw was clenched, and she thought she saw a spark of something in his eyes. “I don’t think this is about Klara’s leadership,” Maria said slowly. “You’re nervous. If the Alchemists’ have one extract we don’t, they certainly have more. Their Guild is built around extracts and Alchemtek. We have no idea what lies within those dark walls—”

  “You know what? You’re right, I am nervous,” Yeger said, his heavy brow sinking. “If the Alchemists are planning to move against the Sentinels, Serovnya could fall. This country can’t survive the invasions from the gates and civil war.”

  Warmth flooded Maria’s cheeks. “So you want to run? Abandon your friends? Your family? Where’s your loyalty?”

  Yeger slammed his fists into the table and shot to his feet, his chair tipping back and crashing to the floor. “My parents are dead by Alchemist order,” he said, his upper lip curled into a snarl. “And my loyalty? To who? My brother is more family to the Sentinels than to me, now I’m out he won’t look at me. Not that he has in a decade. And the Sentinels? The minute that Eagle-Eye at Borovsk thought we’d sided with Klara, she wanted to dishonourably discharge us. My friends? The only friends I have are 24th Squad. Two are already dead by the Alchemists’ hands, and I’m thinking the rest are fools who want to die!”

  Silence followed the outburst, embarrassment thick in the warm air of the lounge.

  Breathing heavily, Yeger picked up his chair and slammed it at the table. “Follow Klara if you must, but I won’t be here to watch you die.” With that, he stomped from the room, flicking the door shut with a bang.

  Lips drawn in a tight line, Maria stared at the door. One mission and they’d already fallen apart like a rotted basket.

  “Well,” Matvei said, rising, “this was fun, but Yeger is right. It’s a death sentence to stay. Maybe I’ll see you all in Machtvoll one day.” He slunk to the door, exiting without a sound.

  Nika hesitated a moment longer, then, with a grimace, also rose. She shot Maria an apologetic look. “Sorry, Maria. There’s no future for us in Serovnya.” She hesitated. “We’re still family, come with us.”

  Maria’s stomach churned as she stared at the wall, refusing to make eye contact with Nika.

  “You’ve got a wide soul, Maria,” Nika said. “Don’t let that kill you.” She raised a fist to her collarbone in salute and limped away.

  Maria tried to swallow past the knot wedged in her throat. Wide soul? What the depths did that even mean? She wandered back to the brass railing and slumped against it, staring vacantly through the grimy glass.

  For a few brief hours, she’d thought she’d finally found the famed Sentinel family—a squad so close they would die for each other. She’d thought last night had gone well, considering what they’d faced. They’d proven their worth as fighters, and had gathered valuable information, information that could save countless lives.

  But at what cost? Yeger had been shot, Nika lost a lot of blood from her wound, and Klara had earned a broken arm. Add to which Maria couldn’t shake the feeling that perhaps Yeger was right, that the Alchemists hadn’t really been trying to kill them, just drive them off. But that made no sense. Why waste five soldiers' lives like that?

  Chewing her lip, Maria turned, eyeing the door her friends had retreated through. If the Alchemists had been toying with them last night, going up against them would be an impossible fight. They’d need the entire squad to have a chance in whatever Klara planned.

  Her sense of loyalty ached as it was stretched in opposite directions. She had committed to follow Klara, and yet… beyond that door lay the chance at a family within the Sentinels.

  They were finally treating her as one of their own, not an outsider. Could she throw that away?

  She took a hesitant step to the door, then paused as the airship shuddered beneath her and they slowly lifted into the sky.

  No. First she’d hear Klara’s plan. Then she’d decide where her loyalties truly lay.

  I'm writing a new series at the moment, it'll launch on RR on 2/2/26, but I'm doing a bit of a pre-launch over on Patreon. Right now I've got the first four chapters available to read, completely for free! A bit of a taste of what's to come. So go check it out! Sign up for the free tier if you want to be updated as soon as it goes live on Royal Road!

  You rock. Thanks for reading.

  ? Just Some Guy: MC to NPC ?

  by DanWerkhoven

  Darren’s dead now. Well, probably dead. He’s not been able to confirm that yet.

  Isle of Pirates, the newest AAA VRMMORPG (yeah, it sounds like a sneeze if you try say it), Darren finds a killer exploit. So good that the AI in charge of banning cheaters finds an all-too-effective way of stopping him.

  Dive in today to read the first four chapters for free on Patreon before the official Royal Road release on 2/2/26 to enjoy a boatload of action, bad jokes, and LitRPG goodness!