The next day Tomasso verified the contract was authentic and the escrow funds intact. Then Leo, Enzo, and Gianna departed from the Pathfinder guildhouse, embarking on a grand journey to find Ilhen’s Seventh — or at least infiltrate the top-secret Aetheneum Library.

It was a sunny day, cloudless and windless, as they descended Petra’s Hill and entered the city’s main square. Passing through the Ink District, Leo and Gianna visited a pastry shop while Enzo made a brief stop at Sam’s Spells & Sundries to pick up a few spell scrolls.

A scroll was like a canned spell that could be deployed at will. It helped level the playing field between mages and non-mage, but scrolls were a volatile medium: too many scrolls confined in a tight space could prove highly combustible. The unbound magical energy could go supercritical, causing the hapless bearer to grow a new appendage, or their eyeballs to melt, or their heart to physically combust. Attunement spires were littered with the bodies of adventurers who threw caution to the winds and carried a dozen scrolls.

Enzo ended up purchasing just three: Illumination, Shield, and Lightning Bolt. A few staples that had served him well in the past. Using dragonscale gloves, the proprietor carefully rolled them up and slid them into an enchanted lambskin quiver.

When he exited the shop, he found an agent of the Black Cabal leaning against the opposite storefront. He seemed to be watching Enzo, his green eyes visible through his lacquered mask. Suppressing a shudder, Enzo averted his gaze and trotted off to rejoin Leo and Gianna.

Cosimo’s galleon The Floating Mint was berthed at Mercado’s, a private marina favored by nobles and wealthy industrialists. Its wharfs brimmed with pleasure barges and yachts, each more decadent than the last, and all surpassed in decadence by the Mint.

By rights, the Mint should not have been seaworthy. She was a gaudy vessel, laden with gilt and ornamentation, including a sculpted dolphin at her prow. It was a wonder she stayed afloat. When they arrived, Cosimo was sitting astride the bowsprit, like a king atop his royal mount. He waved at them in greeting, and gestured them to board the gangplank.

“Do you like my ship?” Cosimo asked, when they met at the ship’s railing.

“Honestly, no. It’s a bit garish,” Leo said. “How do you keep the pirates off her?”

“With guns. Delicate and dainty she may seem, but she's a feisty bitch when the need arises. I've enough iron and blackpowder to sink an armada of pirates if the need arises. Have no fear on that account.”

“What about the Leviathan? asked Gianna. “Could you fend off the Leviathan? They say one haunts —”

“I know,” said Cosimo with annoyance, holding up a silencing hand. “I've heard the ridiculous tales…”

It was said that an eldritch sea creature haunted the waters of eastern Genoa, creating massive maelstroms and swallowing ships whole. Whether fact or fiction, most commercial and passenger ships avoided the area like the plague. Enzo prayed Cosimo would do the same, if they needed to venture that way.

“What about her speed?” Leo asked. “Is she quick?”

“Deceptively. She flies like the wind. I have aeromancers among my crew, and my seamen are well trained.”

“Right,” Leo said, glancing around at the crew. “You pick a motley crew Cosimo. Seamen... seawomen, and seachildren too. That one on the mizzenmast looks like a sea-toddler.”

“Slaves?” Enzo asked bluntly.

“Indentured servants,” Cosimo said, bristling. “Qirin is a Free City, and as a law-abiding citizen I do not traffic in human flesh.”

“Indentured servitude is just slavery by another name.”

Sharp words to say to a wealthy client, but Enzo never had any inhibitions about speaking truth to power. It was his view, shared by a growing number of Enlightenment philosophers, that there was a fundamental equality between all men and women, regardless of wealth or status.

Cosimo narrowed his eyes. “They made mistakes, and their debts were sold to me. I cannot be blamed for their financial carelessness.”

“Yes,” said Leo dryly, “children can be so careless with money.”

***

Cosimo led them to their living quarters.

On other sea voyages, Leo and Enzo occasionally sheltered with the crew, usually in a stinking hold below deck where the blankets were soaked with brine and rats nibbled on their toes. Aboard the Mint, they were treated like almost like royalty, being granted their own private room. It consisted of a bunk bed, a desk, and a small armoire, with room to spare for accoutrements.

Within the hour, the Mint undocked from Mercado’s and slid out to sea. For several hours, the three adventurers labored in silence. Enzo had brought several books with information on the Aetheneum Library. Forewarned is forearmed, he thought. He wanted to know everything about the Library that there was to know about it.

Leo sat on the floor with his back to the wall, reading Kampo’s Annals and Archives of the Discovered World. A ponderous tome, it was a comprehensive survey of libraries and museums across the world. The prose was sterile and academic and conveyed authority, but Leo found its contents implausible.

Kampo claimed the Aetheneum was home to a vast collection grimoires, spellbooks, and magical artifacts. Such items were imbued with magic and emitted a faint stream of arcane energy which, in aggregate, occasionally produced Manifestations (in essence, spontaneous summonings). These Manifestations ranged from the inconspicuous (a mote of dust) to the benign (a floppy wizard’s hat) to the terrifying (a bloodthirsty manticore).

The phenomenon was not unknown to Leo. He had observed it once while visiting the estate of an Edmiri noble. While they were inside the noble’s vast private library, a porcelain vase suddenly appeared in midair and crashed on the floor. The Edmiri had explained it was a semi-frequent occurrence.

But that was merely a vase. And while Leo knew magic could be potent and volatile, could such a random and arbitrary force produce manticores and other complex beasts?

He was dubious…

Nonetheless, he took diligent notes about the library: its history, collections, and known perils. But Leo was always ill at ease when at sea, and the rock and sway the boat was making his head spin.

“I'm gonna take a break… need some fresh air.”

When neither Enzo nor Gianna replied, he took his leave.

Day had yielded to dusk, and dusk to dark.

Above deck, sailors worked the rigging, raising masts and jibs. Leo made his way past them, wandering to the taffrail, which was gilded like the bowsprit.

It was a cool, windswept night, and the sea was a dark and formless void, crashing ceaselessly against the ship's hull. The indigo moon Perses dappled its surfaced.

Genoa was a strange and enchanted land — an archipelago brimming with myriad perils and treasures. Centuries ago it had been colonized by the Paladis Empire, who still controlled it under the suzerainty of Duke Ferdinand II. The Empress had ordered the Diji natives to be ruthlessly put to sword, though many of them still lived on the fringes of Paladisian settlements, dwelling in their wicked tombs…

Leo gazed up at the southern sky, recognizing the constellations like old, familiar friends. As a young novitiate adventurer in the Pathfinders guild, Leo had been schooled in ranging. Tomasso had sent him west across the Jewel Sea to Saville Island, a lonely rock off the coast of the Paladis Empire’s mainland. There, his master Ariadne taught him how to hunt game, set traps, and find his way in the wilderness. At night, the mild-mannered Ariadne would brew mugs of hot cocoa and they would climb to the summit of her spire and study the stars. The skills he had learned under her tutelage had helped shaped him into the man he was today.

His reverie was interrupted when a hand crept up his elbow. Startled, he nearly leapt over the railing.

“Hi, Lee,” said Gianna. She had an incorrigible habit of sneaking up on him. In fact, she was the only one capable of doing so; Leo was normally very alert to his environment.

“You’re going to give me a heart attack someday. What are you doing here?”

“Looking for you. What are you doing here?”

Leo shrugged. “Just… I don’t know. Admiring the view I guess. You see that?” He pointed to a bright cluster of light in the southeast. It was tracking steadily north, moving faster than the clouds.

“Where? Oh, yes I see it. What is it? A shooting star?”

“No, it’s Skyborn University. Making its transit to… wherever the hell it goes.”

“Skyborn? Really!?” Gianna’s voice was shrill with delight.

“The one and only.” The magic academy, one of the Three Great Magic Academies, sat upon on a floating rock of limestone, borne by a pillowy cumulus cloud high up in the sky. It meandered the Discovered World aimlessly.

“I've decided I want to be a Diviner,” Gianna said.

“Oh fuck no… If you are hell-bent on being a mage, I’ll make peace with it. But Divination is quackery. It’s worse than useless.”

“How can knowing the future be useless?”

“They don't know the future, they only pretend to. It’s all just clumsy guesswork. Their predictions are seldom accurate, if not vague and meaningless. You’d be making a mistake and wasting your time.”

There was nothing to say to that. Leo may be opinionated and stubborn, but so was Gianna. They stayed there for a time, gazing out at the sea, saying nothing. A chill wind rent the air.

Finally, Gianna said, “We should get going. Cosimo asked us to dinner.”

“I must graciously decline. Cosimo is a Qirini. Have you seen Qirini food? They eat a lot of weird shit. Beetles… mollusks… cow penises…”

“Cow penises? Have you ever been to a farm Lee?”

“You know what I mean,” Leo said, smirking. “Anyway, we still have sweetdough pastries.”

“Err… not anymore…”

“You ate them? ALL of them?”

“If it's any consolation, they were delicious.”

Leo laughed. “It's not. You owe me one, lass.”

“Fine. I'll accompany you to dinner with Cosimo. I’ll even eat your serving of beetles and mollusks.”

“What about Enzo? Will he be joining us?”

Gianna shook her head. “Says he's too busy. He’s still working on forging the Letter of Invitation.”

With that, the two of them crossed the ship to the Captain’s Quarters, where Cosimo was waiting to introduce them to the other party members.

This might get ugly. Leo could only imagine how Cosimo would react to the news that Leo and Enzo intended to enter the Aetheneum Library alone. Crossing him or deceiving him was undoubtedly a perilous act.

Bracing himself, Leo stepped into the Captain’s Quarters.