Rhys kept a protective hand on his satchel as he walked through the dockyard, this was not the nice part where the latest cloudships were moored ready for sale to wealthy buyers. No, this was the home of the forgotten, filled with damaged cloudships that the dockyards bought back when the owners couldn't afford the repairs.

A small sign was out next to each ship, detailing their problems and when they were due to be broken down for parts. A small section at the base of the sign quoted the cost of fixing the ships and making them serviceable once more. Of course, such repairs would then be carried out by the owners of the docks, so they made a profit whatever happened.

Unsurprisingly, the majority of these were smaller ships that had had a run-in with something nasty. Cloudship repairs were expensive, and their owners couldn't afford the cost to make the vessel seaworthy. Surprisingly though, there were a few larger luxury models towards the entrance of the area. He'd expect the owners of such ships to be able to pay for repairs, but who knew what the circumstances were.

Rhys had no interest in the luxury cloudships though, he was looking for something that could haul cargo and had the potential to be expanded on further in the future. He'd seen a few prospects so far, but nothing that had jumped out at him. Rhys didn't have enough money to risk it all on anything less than the perfect fit for what was needed. After waiting this long, he wouldn't settle for anything less.

Continuing down the dockyard, he winced as he walked past a few ships that looked to have been all but hulled by an impact with something. These were the most expensive repairs now, the kind that had bills running up into dozens of sovereigns. Rhys was an artificer, one with some, unusual, skills to be sure, but an artificer nonetheless. His plan had been to find something workable and do the repairs himself, saving on cost and letting him get the most out of his limited funds. He was firmly in the area where even an unofficial repair would cost every bit he had.

Sighing, he started to turn around when he caught sight of a blockier model right down at the end. It was next in line for being broken down from its placement, yet the lines of its hull were clean and unbroken from what he could see. Intrigued, Rhys turned back and headed for it, his eyes widening as he read the notice outside it.

Endeavour - Loggerhead Class

Known Issues - Lack of ship core and damaged core pedestal.

For Sale - 25 Sv

For repair - 1 Sv for pedestal repair, no core is available.

Ship cores were essential to any cloudship. They took the magical energy produced by the akast engine and used it to power the runes that kept the ship aloft and any other artificed devices on the vessel. They were also as rare as they were useful, requiring a master artificer to spend a significant amount of time creating each one. In truth, the majority of the cost in each cloudship was the core, which was why this otherwise ideal ship was going for only twenty five sovereigns.

Rhys had fifty sovereigns saved up, so this was within budget, in fact it was inside his budget enough that he could potentially do everything now and not need to keep working in the repair shop anymore. It was tempting, very tempting. Drumming his fingers on his satchel, he decided it was worth a further look and headed back to the office at the entrance to this part of the docks.

The man on duty was more than happy to grab the chain with the captain talismans and come down to let him onto the ship in question. Like all cloudships, the vessel had a bulky aft where the core, engine and vapour thrusters were located.

The boarding slip was attached to the central module on the ship, which was a decent-sized cargo hold. Heading up the slip to the ship, Rhys found himself outside a large circular door with a recess for the talisman. The docksman produced a ring of talismans, fiddling with it for a few moments before finding the right one and opening the door.

Each talisman was a few inches across, engraved with the hull serial of the ship it belonged to and contained a slight artifce within it that interacted with the door to open it. Rhys had helped someone open up their ship when they'd lost their talisman in the past, and it hadn't been easy at all.

'We've got maybe one or two more uses of this before it needs charging, normally the core would do it while it's on the ship, but obviously, that's not possible here,' the man explained as he pushed the door open to reveal an inner second door. 'Are you looking at breaking this down for parts then, or do you have a core to put in it?'

'I might have access to an old core, just looking at my options currently,' Rhys hedged, not wanting to admit that he had access to something that was worth over a hundred sovereigns by itself.

'Fair enough, well, have a poke around, and I'll wait here.' The man leaned against the door and waved Rhys onward, clearly uninterested in the whole situation.

'Thanks, I will do.' Rhys stepped inside and pushed open the interior door.

The door opened into a small corridor that led to an intersection with a path heading both left and right and some stairs going downstairs.

Taking the path on the left first, Rhys came across three doors, the first two of which were crew quarters. The third led to a forty-foot long triangular room with storage racks and two hammocks on either side of the door. Mentally noting how much extra storage he could put in if he removed the hammocks, Rhys went back the way he'd come and down the other path. There were two doors along the corridor, with a third at the end again. The two closer ones lead to a galley and a decent sized storage room, respectively.

The last door led to a passage with a room on either side, one at the end and stairs halfway down it. Taking a look inside each room revealed two standard cabins with furnishings and one larger cabin, likely for the captain, that had been all but stripped clear of everything but basic furniture. It looked like the previous captain had taken as much with him as he could, understandable if he was having to surrender his ship to the wreckers.

Taking the stairs down, Rhys found the engine room of the ship. The total size of the engine room was far less than the floor above due to the amount of armour lining the walls of the room. There was a large vat-like set up in the centre with a pipe in from a tank and a chute at the top connected to a large squat piece of artifice. The fluid tank and crystal grinder of the engine, respectively.

On the far side of the vat was a large pedestal which was connected to everything by channels carved into the metal floor. Each channel was made of cloud quartz to conduct the magical energy produced by the engine, the top of the channel sealed in with ironwood sap that had then been sanded down to be level with the floor. An additional channel ran to the aft of the ship and vanished into the wall, likely heading for the vapour thrusters that moved the cloudship.

The machinery in this room needed direct connections, but everything else on the ship could be powered through contact with the hull of the vessel, the core controlling what did and didn't receive the energy that passed through it. It was all fascinating, especially to an artificer like Rhys who rarely got to see the finished layout of it all. Taking a closer look at the pedestal, he could see burnt areas and scorch marks all around the top, classic signs of a core exploding, likely due to age or poor quality.

Cores deteriorated over time, which was why he'd told the dock worker that he might have access to an old one. Only the desperate would fly on a ship with a core that was deteriorating. The signs were easy enough to spot, at which point the core was swapped out and replaced with a brand new one.

Humming in thought, Rhys checked the storage bins for the akast crystal and morcal fluid. Unsurprisingly, they were both empty. Consumables like the crystal and fluid were yet another expense for him to plan for. It was hard to be upset about that, however, given that the rest of the ship was in such good shape.

Heading back up to the middle deck, he went back to the cargo hold and took the stairs down, finding a sixty-foot by forty-foot cargo hold. There were no doors out, but there was a cargo hatch on the floor with a manual winch for loading larger pieces of cargo. Straightforward enough for him to work, considering he had no experience in cargo handling. Still, there was enough room here for good cargo runs to be done, which would hopefully mean a good-sized profit margin as well. Satisfied with the cargo space, he took the stairs back up, carrying on up to the ship's deck.

The whole ship was around a hundred and fifty feet long, square and blocky at the rear and slowly narrowing to a point at the front. There was a quarterdeck at the rear where the helm sat, along with an aft swivel gun behind that. The ship's fore held a similar swivel gun on each side, right at the junction between the cargo module and the prow. Three guns were average for a ship this size. The larger cargo module demanded extra protection against pirates, though the swivel guns were the lightest calibre of ship weapon available. Thankfully, the guns fired concentrated and shaped energy, so he didn't need to worry about consumables for them.

Topping it all off was the mast for the sail, used only in emergencies or when it was critical to conserve the ship's energy. Thinking about it, Rhys couldn't remember the last time he saw a cloudship with its sail unfurled. Hopefully, he'd never need it, but it was good to know it was there.

After a final check around the top deck, Rhys returned to the docks official and waited while the man closed the outer hatch and resealed the ship.

'So, what did you think?' The official asked as he slipped the ring of talismans back into his pocket.

'I'll take it as is, no need for repair, I just need it transferring to an active dock,' Rhys said, his stomach doing flips as he agreed to spending the money he'd spent years accumulating.

'Excellent, we can do that for you no problem,' the man gave him a gap-toothed grin, pulling the notice free from where it sat next to the ship. 'Let's get to the office and get some paperwork signed then, shall we.'

The sign with the sales details was picked up on the way back to the office. Taking a seat, Rhys waited while the man pulled out all the relevant documents and stamped them with a wax seal. Rhys wasn't surprised that they couldn't afford a pen here. The salvage of these ships was necessary but wasn't very profitable.

The documentation for the ship was passed over, Rhys giving the man the sovereigns and receiving the deed to the Endeavour in turn. There was no pomp or ceremony to it all, the docks official simply stamping everything with his seal and securing the sovereigns from Rhys.

'There, all done, congratulations, Captain Hunt of the Endeavour, here is your captain's talisman.' The man passed Rhys back the talisman for the ship after fishing the whole group out once more. 'Your new ship will be moved to berth three of the Bluefreight section of the docks this evening. You will have one week from tomorrow before needing to arrange new berthing, or the Bluefreight company will impound the ship. Any questions?' The man rattled off the requirements, arranging the documents carefully, he filed his copies away.

'No, thank you for the help.' Rhys gave him a nod as he rose to his feet and headed for the door, acknowledging the half-hearted farewell from the docksman as he went.

Looking down at the metal disc in his hand, Rhys grinned and held it by the chain that it was attached to, slipping the whole thing over his head before tucking the talisman inside his shirt. At first, the metal disc was cool and cold to the touch, but it settled against his chest with a pleasant weight.

It was official. Rhys was the captain of a ship. Now he just had to fix the thing and start fulfilling his end of the pact.