The docks area of the district was filled with everything a cloudship crew would need, the Captain’s Guild, a few stores, a brothel or two and more taverns than you could shake a stick at.

Of all the things here, Rhys was most excited about the Captain’s Guild and made it his first destination. The Guild had a presence on every spire in the Alliance, and quite a few not in the Alliance as well. Their role was to act as a place to do business and broker deals, with membership only available to certified ship captains and local service providers.

Heading straight for the guild, which was easily spotted by its conspicuous sign bearing a cloudship ascending into the sky, Rhys approached one of the guards on duty.

‘Membership token?’ The guard grunted the question, his eyes narrowing as Rhys shook his head. ‘No entry then.’

‘Ah, of course. I was actually looking to join,’ Rhys said, smiling anxiously as he flashed him the captain’s medallion that he wore around his neck.

The man considered him for a moment before pointing at a smaller door further down the building and motioning Rhys that way with a jerk of his head. Message delivered, he folded his arms once more and ignored Rhys’s existence.

Sweating from the encounter, Rhys knocked on the door and pushed it open to find a records room of sorts. A mousy looking man with a silverpoint pen in one hand sat at a desk while a mountain of glowering muscle lingered in the corner.

Somewhat intimidated by the guild’s amount of protection, Rhys cleared his throat to get the scribe’s attention.

‘Ah, hello, sorry, didn’t see you there,’ the man said as he looked up, smiling at Rhys as he placed the pen down.

A silverpoint pen was one of the few things Rhys had always wanted. In particular, he wanted one like the scribe had, where the silver tip was fastened into a cloud quartz handle so it could be exchanged out when needed.

‘Yes, I was looking to register for the guild, please,’ Rhys said, showing his medallion again as he dragged his eyes away from the pen.

‘Oh, of course,’ the scribe set his work to one side and pulled up a ledger of sorts. ‘The signing price is fifty bits, and we need to know your details and that of your ship for our records.’

‘Not a problem,’ Rhys said with a smile, pulling out a half-sovereign and placing it on the table. ‘My name is Rhys Hunt, Captain of the Endeavour.’

‘Excellent, excellent, and what is your purpose for enrolling in the guild?’ The scribe paused as he wrote down Rhys’s answers, looking up at him expectantly.

‘Well, I wanted to see what work was being posted, as well as hire some porters to unload the ship once I’ve made the relevant sales.’

‘Ah, quite a bit of cargo on this voyage?’ The man wrote down a few more things as he nodded sagely.

‘No, not really, I just don’t have any crew at the moment,’ Rhys said, grimacing a little at the admission. He had considered not mentioning it, but it wasn’t worth potentially upsetting the guild over lying about.

‘No crew?’ The scribe paused to give Rhys a searching look before continuing. ‘Interesting, interesting, well, that concludes that. If you open an account with us, you will be charged fifty bits yearly. Here is your token. Thank you for your time.’ The man finished writing in the ledger at the same time as he finished talking, reaching down under the desk to produce a simple square token that could be threaded onto the string that held his captain’s medallion.

‘Thank you, very efficient,’ Rhys took the token and slipped it onto the string, putting it below his shirt once more as he smiled at both men and retraced his steps to the front door. Fifty bits lighter already, and he hadn’t even sold anything yet. Hopefully, this wasn’t a sign of things to come.

Rhys presented the token as soon as he reached the man on the door, the burly guard grunting and waving for Rhys to carry on inside.

The interior of the Captain’s Guild was a mix between a tavern and an administration office. A bar took up most of the back wall, while along each side of the walls were a few closed doors and various desks. Like before, each desk was staffed by an official, ready to help with any requests he had.

Each desk was clearly labelled, from labour to supplies, to open jobs. A quick glance at a few prices on display told Rhys that he’d definitely be paying for the privilege of buying through the guild. That being said, the guild would back him up if anything was faulty or broken, which was worth a lot.

Heading to the job desk, first of all, which already had a small gathering next to it, Rhys eyed the open jobs. The job board was as tall as Rhys and the same across, featuring a few dozen slips of paper that detailed what was required.

Rhys watched as one of the captains already there finished reading a job and went to the desk. A few moments later, the guild official had taken down his details, and the job was removed from the board.

It was all very efficient and exciting to boot. Coming round to the edge of the group, Rhys started reading through what was available.

Pirate hunting, convoy guarding, express deliveries of both cargo and people, it was all there. One particular one caught Rhys’s eye, though.

Delivery and Return Run

- Deliver four pallets of supplies to Arn Bolear and pick up the return consignment of food to be brought back to Arn Gol. Return consignment should be six pallets of food

- Time frame is as soon as possible

- 2sv payment for the successful delivery of the supplies and the return of the food.

Two sovereigns was quite the payout. Rhys knew that Arn Bolear was about two days flight further north-east, so the trip there and back would cost around half a sovereign in crystal.

Six pallets would be taking up a good portion of his cargo hold, but there was little else in the Endeavour right now, so that wasn’t a problem. It was ideal for him, really.

‘Excuse me?’ Rhys said, approaching the official at the desk.

‘Yes, Captain, how can I help?’

‘I would like to undertake the delivery run to Arn Bolear, please,’ Rhys said, tripping over his tongue a little as he spoke.

‘Of course, can I take your name, ship name and token reference, please?’ The official pulled up a ledger and a silverpoint pen, ready to take the information.

‘Rhys Hunt, the Endeavour and I am unsure of the reference. Should I have gotten it when I registered?’ Rhys said, flushing as he admitted to not knowing his token number.

‘Ah, it should be on the back of your token,’ the official said with a small smile, recognising how recent Rhys’s registration actually was.

‘Yes, I see it here. The reference is “HP” followed by a dash five.’

‘Excellent, I will take down the job and give you a receipt. Please be aware that unfinished jobs, abandoned jobs, and partial completions will count against you. If enough accrue, your membership may be revoked. Do you understand?’ The official waited until Rhys nodded before rising and moving to take the quest down.

‘Here we go, this is your receipt of the job. The shipment will be delivered to your ship in the morning. Good luck.’ The official copied out the quest and passed him the original.

‘Thank you,’ Rhys said with a grin, his heart pounding as he took on his first job since buying the Endeavour.

Tucking the paper away, Rhys went to look over the rest of the stations in the room. The majority of the captains present were seated in the centre of the room, quietly talking over tankards of beer, the remainder of the rest mainly around the job board.

Not wanting to commit to too much, Rhys was happy to go for just the one job at the moment, which just left him with the cargo he’d brought with him.

A list of prices at the resource desk covered everything from cloud quartz to Navi rifles. Ironwood lumber was down as sixty bits per unit, and the sap was at fifty-five bits per flask. Rhys had bought three shipments of lumber for eight sovereigns, so with each shipment being ten units, he could get six per shipment back, for a total of eighteen. He’d paid thirty bits per flask for the sap, so he’d make a profit there as well.

He knew it was luck that the prices were so high at the moment, but it still felt good to be able to make a good sale on his first trip.

After Rhys confirmed the sale with the official at the desk, he was given a receipt. Twenty-one sovereigns and thirty bits. It was easily the most he’d ever made in one day, which was a little daunting, really.

Satisfied with the sale, he headed back to the Endeavour and dropped off all but half a dozen sovereigns and a pouch of bits. It was time to go further into the district and see what sort of things were for sale.

-**-

Rhys spent the rest of the afternoon wandering through the district, staying in the more populated areas as best he could. As someone who was clearly not a local, he didn’t want to attract the wrong kind of attention, especially down here in the poorest area.

He was able to get a mint tea and some skraa soup for a reasonable five bits, the somewhat plain but filling meal reinvigorating him for a second jaunt around the area.

Rhys spoke to a few traders to try and get the lay of the land and find out the local gossip. According to them, there was a lot of building going on in the higher districts, so ironwood was climbing in price right now, but they were expecting a few large shipments in soon, so it wasn’t a permanent thing.

He did find someone stocking akast crystal and ordered a delivery of thirty days of fuel’s worth for a sovereign and a half. Of course, that was only fifteen days for the Endeavour, but Rhys intended to feed some to Zaxx to see what they could do.

Sadly, the seller didn’t have any more stock than that, but it did mean that he was willing to deliver it immediately for payment on arrival.

Rhys did notice a few signs offering higher values for ironwood than what the guild had offered, but they also wanted delivery, which he just couldn’t do on his own. Maybe if he had a crew standing idle, they could hire a cart and do the deliveries, but hiring both workers and a cart meant it was far easier to simply sell to the guild.

-**-

Rhys shook the crystal seller’s hand and wished him well. They’d finished unloading the crate of crystal into the Endeavour.

‘How was your journey into the spire?’ Zaxx said, his voice echoing in Rhys’s mind as the artificer was struck by the horrific comparison between the eldritch entity and a loved one welcoming someone home after a day of work.

‘It went well enough. I made a profit on the cargo we have, got a job to run some cargo and bought some more akast crystal,’ Rhys said after a moment spent recovering from the disturbing thought.

‘Excellent, I look forward to seeing this new place.’

‘Yes, I’m looking forward to it as well,’ Rhys looked at the heavy box of crystals and cocked his head to one side, remembering something Zaxx had said. ‘Are you able to move this down to the engine room?’

‘At a minor energy cost, yes, would you like me to do so?’

‘Please, that would be great, oh and I was going to give you two-thirds of the crystal to start saving up energy units.’

‘Very well, I will transfer and absorb now. Would you like to keep the crate? There is enough storage in the engine room already for the remaining crystals.’ There was an element of eagerness to Zaxx’s voice at the prospect of absorbing some of the crystals.

‘Could you absorb it towards the material units?’ Rhys asked, not sure what else he’d do with an empty crate.

‘Of course, though, the value will be marginal at best. I shall proceed now.’

There was a ripple of something akin to pressure that ran through the ship, originating from the direction of the engine room. As it passed through the crate, the wooden exterior began to melt from the top down, flowing down over itself to be absorbed into the floor.

The top two-thirds of the crystal melted simultaneously with the wood, though the two never mixed. Liquid crystal flowing down over the slumping wooden crate to be absorbed by the floor as well. The academic part of Rhys’s mind noted that the two melts didn’t interact with each other, the crystal flowing over the liquid wood without mixing in any way.

It took maybe two minutes for the melted objects to disappear, at which point the remaining crystals simply sank into the floor of the ship and vanished without a trace.

The whole experience was unsettling for Rhys. There was something deeply wrong about watching a solid and durable piece of material like ironwood just melt like that.

Walking around the area where the crystal had disappeared, Rhys headed back to his cabin, after that, he just wanted to get some rest.