Rhys spent the rest of the day packing his meagre belongings and giving his notice in at the shop. He lived in a room directly above the shop so he would need to move everything out in the morning.

It had been a good deal. He'd been able to stay rent-free and had instead been on call at the shop overnight. He'd lost more than a few nights of sleep, but he'd kept the rent money to one side, and now it was all going to pay off. Well, he really, really hoped it would, and he hadn't just spent all that money for nothing. Thankfully, he had some spares and a few raw materials from previous projects, so he had enough for an initial start-up.

Artificers were in high demand and often moved around when not working on projects, which meant that Rhys had no notice to work. Waking up the following day, he grabbed his things and packed as much as he was allowed before leaving.

It was an exhilarating experience, simply walking away from everything that had been his life so far, risking it all on a pact and a broken cloudship. That wasn't to say that he didn't feel like there were lead weights in his gut, but the anticipation was just ahead of the anxiety.

'Bluefreight, here it is,' Rhys muttered under his breath, spotting the blue cloudship logo that had been painted onto the entrance. Like all big shipping companies on Arn Creth, Bluefreight had its own docks.

All cloudship docks were built off the spire's side, but the Bluefreight area was huge. The docks stretched out into the sky and arced across with a colossal amount of support struts holding it all up. The whole thing could hold dozens of cloudships in a range of sizes.

Some of those ships were two or three times the size of the Endeavour, and Rhys knew that there were private docks which had been built specially for ships that were even bigger again. Bluefreight was an average shipping company, after all. They couldn't come close to the size of the fleets some of the others had.

Stepping onto the docks, Rhys spotted the Endeavour straight away. It looked like there were three smaller berths at the far end of the docks for non-company ships and he could see his ship in the furthest one.

With its standard grey colouring, the Endeavour stood out amongst the marked blue cloudships of the company. No doubt, the Endeavour would draw some attention from its prominent status as a non-company ship. Hopefully, it wouldn't be too much attention though, Rhys didn't want anyone asking questions on how he got the ship started up. Even the mere thought of someone looking into it sent a shiver down his spine.

Rhys noticed that a few of the bluefreight ships were preparing for launch along the way to the Endeavour. He could see their blue-uniformed crews loading cargo into hovering ships through the lower hatch as he walked by. Rhys watched the process with interest. He didn't have a crew so he would need to do all the loading himself for now.

Operating the winch would be fine, but there was no way he could hook it up, crank it into the ship and then unload it himself as well. That meant that for the time being, he'd be limited to the cargo he could carry himself, which was an exhausting thought in itself. There were bigger issues at hand right now, the biggest of which was getting his core into the Endeavour and seeing what additional work needed doing.

Reaching the berth for the Endeavour, which was essentially a large cradle with support struts that held up the ship, he climbed the ladder to the boarding slip. Approaching the outer hatch with a small smile, Rhys pulled out his new talisman and set it into the slot, feeling the click of the lock disengaging. Pushing it open and stepping inside what was now his home, Rhys took a moment to let it all sink in before sealing the door behind him.

Squaring his shoulders and quelling the roiling in his stomach, Rhy made his way down to the engine room. He'd known this moment was coming all along, but somehow it felt so much more threatening now that he was here on the precipice about to take the plunge. Rhys's plans, his research, his hours of work, it all hinged on this playing out exactly the way it was meant to.

Pushing his worries aside for the moment, Rhys set his belongings down to one side and examined the engine setup as a whole, looking for any damage or flaws that could complicate things.

Thankfully, it looked like the engine was in almost pristine condition. The only damage he could find was to the pedestal, and actually, it turned out to be mainly superficial in nature. The cloud quartz rod that linked the vat to the pedestal was undamaged, as was the linkages within the pedestal which connected the core to everything.

Grabbing his satchel, Rhys paused for a moment before gritting his teeth and reaching in to withdraw the core he'd been carrying around for so long. Typically, ship cores were cloudy spheres that sat at twice the size of a mans head, their interior flickering with blue energy from the intellect bound within.

Rhys's orb was the same size, but the lights flickering on the interior were purple rather than blue. This was no ordinary core and it held something more exotic than the intelligences that the Master Artificers could create. Rhys might not have made the orb, but even having it in his possession would be enough to condemn him to death if he was caught.

'Okay, let's see what happens,' Rhys muttered as he fit the core into the slot on the pedestal, making sure that it touched each of the connectors. With the new core settled in place, he returned to his things and pulled out a large jar and a fist-sized box. The jar was filled with morcal fluid and went into the vat directly, while the box held a fist-sized shard of akast crystal that went into the grinder.

There was an attached crank to the grinder for when power was already out, such as right now. Rhys gave the crank a few revolutions, starting the process by grinding a small amount of crystal.

As soon as crystal touched the fluid, the reaction began and the crystal dissolved, releasing energy that was sucked up into the cloud quartz rod and conducted straight into the core pedestal. A humming sound came from the grinder as it started operating without his intervention, grinding down the crystal to the easily usable flakes needed. The same humming could be felt through the deck of the ship as energy started to run through it.

'Yes, yes!' Rhys all but danced with joy, relieved beyond words that he'd managed it. Zaxx had told him it would work, but he was still taking his statement with a grain of salt.

Thinking of Zaxx, Rhys glanced over to the flickering core and pulled out his belt knife, now that there was power going through the ship's core, he had to seal the pact. There was a moment of hesitation on his part, a final flicker of uncertainty that ran through him before his features settled into a determined frown and he ran his knife across his palm. A wince of pain, and Rhys had done it, a cut deep enough to weep but not so deep that it would take time to heal. Walking over to the orb, he reached out and placed his hand on the smooth surface, flinching a little at the surprisingly cold temperature of the core.

He felt a sensation akin to sucking, like the warmth of his hand was being drawn out. The strange feeling caused Rhys to pull his hand back, revealing the smooth surface of the orb with no trace of his blood on its cloudy surface.

'Ahh, our pact is sealed, the bargain is struck,' a distant-sounding voice whispered in his mind. That was Zaxxrthryn, a creature, entity, whatever it was, from another realm of existence that had been summoned and experimented on by a rogue artificer.

Rhys had been part of the clean up crew that had stripped down the rogue artificer's lab after he'd been arrested and executed. They'd been left pretty much to themselves and while searching Rhys had found the core tucked away in a hidden storage compartment. He'd taken the core and run some energy through it to see if it worked, inadvertently allowing Zaxx to speak with him and offer him a deal.

It was a simple deal. Zaxx, as he liked to be known, would act as the core to his ship and assist where he could. In return, Rhys would keep Zaxx secret, explore new places and seek new things in his company. Rhys knew there was a big chance that this was some elaborate ploy and that he would be risking all sorts of danger working with Zaxx. He'd seen an opportunity to make his dreams a reality though, and despite a bit of hesitation, he'd ultimately decided to take the plunge and take the deal.

'Yes, I'm, err, glad to see that everything worked the way you thought it would,' Rhys said, shifting his weight a few times as he spoke to the orb, feeling a fool for talking to an inanimate object.

'Indeed, I'm already enjoying this experience. I've never been in a vessel like this before,' Zaxx whispered with a raspy laugh that sent a chill down Rhys's spine. 'I've yet to claim the ship completely, I will wait to do so until we are somewhere isolated and alone. The process will be somewhat evident from the exterior, so secrecy is required.'

'Will the Endeavour still look normal afterwards?' Rhys asked, somewhat alarmed by the laugh and the thought of evident changes to the ship.

'Yes, the only part that will be noticeably different is the engine room. I would advise that you keep this room locked and secured once I claim this vessel fully.' Zaxx's voice never rose above a whisper, and yet somehow Rhys could hear it as clearly as if he was speaking directly into his ear. It was unnerving and another example of how different this creature was.

'So what will happen once you claim it, you mentioned when we made the pact that you would be better than any normal ship core,' Rhys asked, his excitement building once more as he envisioned what Zaxx could do above and beyond a regular core.

'Yes, I will control the ship and manage its energy like one of your normal, autonomous cores, but I can also do so much more. My kind are watchers, we quantify and record reality, we can even alter and shape it, though only when acting out the will of others. Once this vessel is truly mine, I will show you and we will grow this ship into something truly great.' Zaxx's voice was eager and the core pulsed with bright flashes of purple light.

'I'm not sure I understand,' Rhys said with a frown, a little confused and concerned by Zaxx talking about altering reality, that was a bit more than he wanted to get involved with.

'You don't need to. Just get us somewhere isolated so I can claim the ship. Trust me. It's in both our best interests.'

'Okay, we can stop off at one of the uninhabited spires I suppose, at least I had enough akast to power the endeavour for a week or so, that will be plenty of time to get us to another alliance spire.' Rhys nodded to himself, mentally planning out some of the routes he could take.

'Sadly, that's not the case. While I might provide powerful advantages, powering my core is more energy-intensive and will cost more crystals. Only time will tell the extent of the additional cost,' Zaxx's whisper sounded almost apologetic this time.

'Okay, I'll add more akast crystal to my shopping list then. I don't want to run out and be stuck on some uninhabited spire somewhere,' Rhys said with a forlorn sigh. He could almost feel his sovereigns slipping away at the thought of running a high-maintenance ship. 'For now, let's get you fixed up.'

'No need, I will repair the pedestal when I claim the ship, though you should bring plenty of wood and metal for me to use.'

'Erm, okay, I can do that,' Rhys said, pausing partway back to his satchel. He'd covered everything he wanted to do in this visit, he may as well head back down to the market and start buying supplies for their journey. It sounded like it would be the sooner the better for Zaxx claiming the ship, not to mention how eager he was to get started.