After a brief exchange of information the adventurers decided that there was simply nothing they could do about Zed the Diamond King and his lung cancer. What was more pressing was the issue of getting back to Neul and analyzing the sample of the secret fuel.
Mad took one good look at it.
"It's water," he said. "It's just regular water. We need to go there again."
They had not yet left the beach, but Ted didn't think it was a good idea to make Eknie go again. She would just do something useless and waste everyone's time.
Ted couldn't believe she was unable to distinguish water from other liquids. Apparently he had to do everything by himself.
He crawled in the dirt with the vipers and the weasels, and finally, when he found a spot that gave him some cover, he spied the events of the wastelands from behind the fence. He couldn't actually tell where Eknie had slipped into the restricted area. To him, it looked like all fence and no gates.
That was until he found the tunnel.
It had obviously been unnoticed by the guards, and it looked like something like a badger might have done the digging. Ted didn't even know if badgers could dig, but what he knew was that he was skinny enough to fit in there.
He dived in without a second thought and managed to crawl to the other side with relative ease.
He was surrounded by discarded, brass-colored airship parts.
He looked around to see if there was anything resembling a tank. Even half of it would have sufficed, anything with a drop of that good stuff in the bottom, but he found nothing and was starting to get anxious.
He climbed in the hull of the ship that had probably yielded most of the valuable parts, and in that broken cylinder shape he got what he wanted.
A purple liquid was still simmering in a pot that was nearly toppling over itself.
Ted put the remaining liquid in a tightly sealed bottle. He wasn't sure, but he thought someone might be coming. He had to be sneaky and quick.
He darted towards his exit and stopped only once he thought he was absolutely and completely safe.
The other two adventurers were waiting on the beach.
They departed to spend one more night in the city in order to avoid raising any suspicions.
In the morning, though, nothing seemed to go right. Ted couldn't find his car, and they had to buy another one to get to the airship station just east of Eroch.
No ship wanted to take them aboard.
"There's something wrong here," Ted said. "We should get out of this city while we still can. Cross the border on foot, find someone unaffiliated with the common airlines to take us to Neul…I have a feeling that this will be difficult."
It wasn't. There were no difficulties getting to Sennas, and they were able to catch a ride from a rugged little airship just outside Eroch.
What a pity it was that the easy part ended right there.
Ted saw the captain hide something up his ruffled sleeve. He heard that the adventurers should not see the cargo or ask about it.
They had hopped aboard a pirate airship.
This wasn't a big deal to Ted, but the others were not as understanding of alternate lifestyles. Eknie said she would not sleep during the entire trip. Madorn had a different way of dealing with fear. He tried to befriend the captain.
Ted did not sleep much, pirates or no pirates. He understood them. They were after fame and fortune, like anyone reasonable.
Ted told them of the promising payment they would get if the trio would end up near Neul in one piece. This, of course, thrilled them so that they tried to get Ted drunk to get the payment sooner. He did not partake in the random festivities. He didn't want to know if keelhauling was a tradition on flying ships as well.
The pirates were otherwise rather fun to be around. Fond of displays of wealth and decadent earthly pleasures, the men tempted by the fast life on the high skies were hard and soft at the same time, with the hardness being in their muscles and the softness – in those successful enough to be able to eat more than needed – being around their waists like flabby jewelry. Judging by the latter, these were successful pirates. Some men looked quite old to have lived such violent lives.
Ted tried to get on the captain's good side as soon as he realized there might be something to be gained from such connections.
"I have some dry southern red wine," Ted said to the captain on the very first night and winked. "I don't drink much, but Cap'n looks like he could use a glass or two."
"I can hear your silver tongue work its magic, cor. What is it that you want?"
The captain was a man with a large frame, a large voice, and a strangely mellow presence. Ted saw the scars on his right hand. The fellow had tangled, Raelian, coal black hair and he looked intimidating from all angles.
"I want to establish a connection," Ted said, and he was being completely truthful. "It might be good to know a flying man with a hardened crew."
"And what makes me different from all the rest?"
"You dare to land in front of everyone like honest workers." Ted smirked. "That takes guts."
"Nice selling point. I agree, we are bold. My name is…none of your concern, high cor."
"Well, I won't ask again," Ted said and began to turn away, but the captain stopped him.
"Please. I just need to be careful. I do want to work with you, cor, it's just hard trusting anyone on these winds. Come to me, I have more than enough for both of us."
"Mad, are you coming?" Ted asked the scientist.
"I have something to analyze. I'm busy."