“Gooood morning beach goers! This is your captain speaking. It’s a beautiful bright sunny day with a light northward wind pushing us straight to Crystal Point, perfect for a day at the beach. We’re coming out of the central docks now and entering open ocean. The average time to the entry beacon is 44 minutes, plus docking, but I think I might be able to get that down to 40 if these winds hold. We will be going over deep waters briefly, so 10 of those minutes will be spent in the air at an altitude of 200 feet. The waves are mild today, so you may wander out onto the deck, keeping out of restricted areas, but be sure to listen for the lift off announcement and head back inside until we touch back down. Restrooms and refreshment vendors can be found on below deck 1 where you got on. The deck below that is off limits to passengers. Oh, it looks like we have a bit of an escort, would you look at that. A MDC corvette is running parallel to us about a half mile out portside. How nice. Well, let’s hope we don’t need them, but it’s always nice to see our defenders in yellow.”

  Most of the passengers on the viewing decks start chanting lensing spells to zoom in on the noted vessel. It’s a sleek, angry looking bright greenish yellow thing with orange stripes painted to be easily visible by the human eye. It’s a little longer than the ferry, no more than 200 feet, but much narrower and not as tall making the overall impression of it being smaller. It has two visible ship scale weapons. The first is a turreted continuous beam shield shredder cannon protruding from the tip of the prow, capable of swivelling in nearly any direction including down. The second is an airburst force cannon near the aft.

  Beyond that it has a few manually operated rapid fire heavy bullet wands mounted on various rails and six spherical self-deploying depth charges about as tall as a person. However, most of the deck space is taken up by 4 hover skiffs of similar make to the troop transport they rode briefly last night. The name on the ship is the TDS.C salvation a la mode.

  “It’s a bit lightly armed, no?” Jakes?n asks.

  “That’s because it’s not an army ship.” Sarrah explains. “It’s a hybrid loadout, supposed to be able to function for either coastal patrol or search and rescue.”

  “I suppose it’s normal here for rescues to involve cannons?” Jakes?n asks.

  “Is it not in Chthonia?” Sarrah asks.”

  Jakes?n shrugs. “Sometimes, but we do a better job at maintaining a safe perimeter, I think. Usually search and rescue is just for lost hikers or occasionally landslides. Wands are still carried, but any monster that needs weapons that big are kept far away from civilized places.”

  “Well, it’s bit harder to keep out the big threats when they can sneak up a mile underwater.” Sarrah counters. “The Thalassian Federation has over 2,000 inhabited islands spanning nearly a million square miles of water for which the MDC has less than 500 combat ships to patrol. Considering that most submerged monsters need to be within a thousand feet horizontally to detect, you should find it understandable that a few cannon worthy threats might slip past the net.”

  “Yet does not your military have another 500 ships wasted forming your ‘seawall’ to supposedly protect you from a surprise invasion from the mainland that will never come? It seems like they would be better served protecting you from the real threats.”

  Sarrah shrugs. “Sounds like you should vote purple then. The MDC has been saying the military should be dissolved and its assets given to them for the past hundred years. The military has of course been saying the same thing in reverse. I take it Chthonia doesn’t divide their military into monster and people related duties?”

  He shakes his head. “Our only division is between land and sea forces, which I hear you don’t do. Most of our forces are land based with the navy focusing more on capital ships to protect ourselves from your big scary armada.”

  “Hm… then do you not have ships with specialized anti-monster loadouts?” Sarrah asks.

  “Um… we have some smaller ships we use for trade protection,” Jakes?n says, surprised at the direction she chose to go, “are you not going to deny the possibility that Thalassia might try to invade us?”

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  Sarrah shrugs, amused. “Why would I? It’s not beyond possibility. It’s not like I’m part of the council and have any authority to say what they are or aren’t planning or willing to do. What about you? You’re saying that your… you still have a king, right? You know your king well enough to say he won’t suddenly decide he wants a few islands for a vacation home?”

  Jakes?n shakes his head exasperated. “I would not say ‘still’ have a king. You make it sound like it’s something we’ve had since medieval times. A monarch was deemed necessary to handle the separation crisis. As the crisis is still ongoing, so is the need.”

  Sarrah laughs, once, “It’s not much of a crisis if it’s been going on for a hundred years, now is it? Besides, how necessary can a monarch be for a crisis if it could be solved any time just by him abdicating?”

  Jakes?n blushes at the slight slight against his homeland’s sovereign. “There is no reason for us to debase ourselves by submitting to their false authority! We are the true…!”

  “So, Carly!” Allia says suddenly, standing up and knocking her chair back several inches. “Are there any places you think we should go to? What’s the best gelato place on the island? How busy was it on the main beach?” The three turn questioning at her sudden outburst. Allia in turn glances at her friend with a ‘what’s wrong with you?’ expression, causing Sarrah to smirk in a mixture of amusement and playful guilt.

  Carly, who has been staring out the window feigning interest in the corvette with an expression going from amusement to irritation as the conversation escalated, looks at Allia bewildered then chuckles. “Um, yeah, there’s a few gelato places. The place we went to was pretty good but I’m sure the others are fine. The beach wasn’t too busy. No more than a hundred people I think and it’s big enough that nobody was closer than say 20 feet? Way better than any beach in Newflor.”

  “Oh, good. From how nice everyone says it is, I was afraid that half of the city’s mages might be there on any given day.”

  Carly chuckles. “I hear more like 1%, or 5% on holidays.”

  “Any good shops? Besides the gelato of course? The ticket lady mentioned wand rentals? Anything else of note?”

  “Um, yeah. You can even rent shield piercers, though only for deep hiking and you can’t bring them on the beach. There was a shop selling some basic beach ware with its own style . Another selling basic enchanted stuff at a discount and another that sells and rents more advanced stuff. They rent emergency shield bracelets pretty cheaply, though buying is more expensive than in the city. Same with boats or other stuff. A couple of good food places overlooking the water. We went to Moray’s last time. It’s run by a Sphenodite, so it can be spicy if you aren’t careful, but I’ve always found their food interesting. They do also have a human cook if you want more regular fare.”

  “Sounds great,” Allia says, “I never had Sphenodite food before coming to Newflor since I’m from the south, but I tend to like it.”

  “Why don’t we meet up there for dinner then?” Jakes?n says, smiling and evidently having forgotten the heat the conversation had previously reached, though his gaze does linger on Sarrah with an amused expression. “The last ferry back isn’t until nightfall, so we’d have plenty of time to eat.”

  Allia looks to Sarrah, smiling at the notion. “What do you think?”

  Sarrah glances at Jakes?n with a smirk before nodding. “Sure, why not?”

  Jakes?n grins broadly. “Then it’s decided. Let’s say 6?”

  The agreement is interrupted by the announcement for imminent lift off and a light commotion from the fellow passengers as the corvette, which has been running parallel, suddenly breaks off to port with a bust of speed.

  As the escort wasn’t usual for the trip anyways, the tone of the passengers is of excited speculation than worry. ‘There must be some monster sighting where it’s going, but that it can’t be serious if such a light vessel is pursuing the threat by itself. Though there must still be some level of danger that requires ship scaled weapons, otherwise it would send its skiffs out ahead,’ one of which is a heavily armed gunboat.

  Of course, even if there was something serious, it’s not likely to be a concern. After all, ‘the MDC knows what they’re doing. They seldom lose a ship, despite their frequent engagement. Besides, with so many mages on board, the ferry is probably better protected than the corvette. If not, the threat is surely distant, so the ferry should make it to the island without incident,’ or so the voiced consensus merges.

  Allia’s group agrees with the sensible consensus, and focuses more on the sparkling waters suddenly falling away below them as the ferry shudders then lifts offs with a faint hum. An announcement comes a minute later stating that they’ve reached cruising altitude, but to remain seated unless necessary until touchdown on the other side of the trench.

  Someone gasps and points. The group turns and sees that their lensing spell is much more magnified than the others, and are pointing the direction of the corvette, but much farther out to the horizon were a black speck sits.

  Everyone chants augmentations to their spells and several more people gasp, including Sarrah, as they make out a sleek vessel several times the corvete’s size and covered domes with thick, spikey artillery wands protruding out at random angles – marking it as a capital class warship not of Thalassian make.