The pre-dawn hours found the palace docks abuzz with frantic activity as Eleanor's crew made final preparations. Crates of supplies were lashed down, riggings inspected one last time as the morning mists rose from the harbor.
Eleanor stepped aboard her flagship, the Invincible, as the first rays of sun peeked over the horizon. Amethyst was already aboard, murmuring an enchantment over a shard of quartz that began pulsing with ethereal light.
"All is in readiness, Your Majesty," the sorceress intoned without preamble. "The protective wards are fortified against any trickery or attack during our voyage."
Eleanor nodded tightly, unable to shake her sense of trepidation. "Good. The swifter we reach our destination, the better."
No sooner were the words out than a voice rang out from the dock. "Going somewhere, dear?"
Eleanor's blood ran cold at the sound. Gregory strode down the gangplank, a sheepish-looking guard in tow. His expression was one of hurt bewilderment.
"Really now, is this any way to take your leave? Stealing off without so much as a proper farewell to family?"
He tutted as he reached the deck, ignoring the sailors tensing around him. "Amethyst has been a...stimulating guest, I'll grant. But I can't help but wonder what has you seeking more stimulation so soon on those savage islands?"
Eleanor forced herself to remain outwardly calm, though her heart pounded. How much did Gregory actually know or suspect? She would have to tread carefully.
"Peace, uncle. You know my work is never complete. Matters of state call me away once more."
Gregory's eyes narrowed fractionally. "Is that so? Because Rathmore seems to have gone missing from his cell. Imagine my surprise when the night guard found his door ajar, the man himself vanished utterly."
Cold realization washed over Eleanor then. The fool of a guard must have led Gregory here seeking her aid, suspecting her involvement.
Before she could formulate a response, Amethyst stepped forward, quartz shard shimmering in her grasp.
"Come now, Lord Gregory. You didn't truly imagine we wouldn't unearth every facet of your allegiances, did you?" Her tone was almost pitying. "Your spy's mind was an open book to me. I glimpsed the entirety of your role as Vincent's craven pawn."
Gregory sputtered, face reddening even as his hands flexed. "How dare you address me thus, wretched--"
With a contemptuous look, Amethyst flicked her free hand. An invisible force lashed out, hurling Gregory back against the rail so hard it knocked the wind from him. The lone guard scrambled back in abject terror.
"Enough dissembling," the sorceress declared flatly. "You will remove yourself from our path. Or be removed, permanently if need be."
In that moment, Gregory seemed to grasp the full gravity of his transgressions laid bare. His eyes smoldered with impotent rage and hate...but also the cruel pragmatism of self-preservation.
With an insolent sneer, he righted himself and stormed back along the gangplank. As his form dwindled into the dockside crowds, Eleanor felt the knot in her chest loosen slightly.
"We make sail on the next tide," she told the sailors, forcing an authoritative tone as her gaze tracked out toward the beckoning sea. Amethyst fell into step beside her as they withdrew to the quarterdeck.
Neither woman spoke of what had passed. There was no need. They both knew Vincent's reaping dark ambition had already taken root far too deeply. It was down to them to purge it with impending bloodshed.
Eleanor gripped the railing of the quarterdeck, staring out over the churning waves as the Insaziabile picked up speed. Her mind raced, thoughts alternating between the nightmarish revelations about Vincent's plans and more pragmatic concerns.
"We cannot reach the Quothan Isles quickly enough," she muttered, mostly to herself. Amethyst arched an inquisitive eyebrow but remained silent.
Eleanor's fingers tightened on the polished wood as her brow furrowed. "Think, there must be some way to gain advantage, something to prevent us being a sitting target on the open water..."
Visions of burning ships, cannon fire ripping through hulls, played out in her mind's eye. Too many vessels lost to such devastation over the years. But what if there was a technological solution?
"You there!" She beckoned over the ship's carpenter, a gruff old salt named Barro. "How feasible would it be to divide the Invincible's hull into separate watertight compartments? With reinforced bulkheads between them."
Barro scratched at his beard, considering. "Well now, that'd be no simple task, Your Majesty. We'd need to really go through her guts, remake much of the frame. Not somethin' that could be done shipside, that's for cert'n."
"But could it be done back at the dockyards?" Eleanor pressed. "If we had resources and skilled labor?"
The carpenter's calloused hands moved as if envisioning the modifications. "Aye, it could. Tricky work, mind, but gatherin' enough timber and brawnpoles, I reckon it's do-able with time."
Eleanor nodded, thoughts crystallizing. "Very well. Then on our return journey, that shall be our first priority. I want the Invincible refitted with a compartmentalized hull - and any other upgrades you deem prudent to increase resilience.
She straightened, projecting confidence and resolve despite the turmoil within. "Vincent has chosen to escalate this conflict to a sphere of depravity that cannot be allowed to stand. We must be prepared to match his perversions with the full extent of our resourcefulness."
Barro bobbed his head in deference. "Aye aye, Your Majesty. I'll see to makin' notes of ideas whilst we're away." With that, he turned and lumbered off to being preparations.
Amethyst regarded Eleanor with an inscrutable look. "You seek to bolster our material might then? An...intriguing tactic, to be sure."
"We cannot afford any disadvantages or vulnerabilities," Eleanor replied grimly. "Who knows what destructive sorceries or ungodly allies Vincent may try to bring against us. But with a sturdy, resilient fleet..."
She trailed off, gaze growing distant as her mind raced through possibilities. Compartmentalized hulls, reinforced construction, perhaps even some form of primitive steam propulsion... Anything to overcome the limitations of wind and wave.
"He aims to pervert the underpinnings of existence itself," she said at last. "We must be prepared to fight that depravity by any means - be they mystic or technological. Resilience and resolve will be our greatest weapons in the struggles to come."
With that, she turned and strode across the deck, steps fueled by grim determination. Amethyst watched her go, a faint smile playing across the sorceress's lips as if she had glimpsed some grand aperture into the future's wonders.
No matter what eldritch forces or despicable bargains Vincent had brokered, they would be met with the full brunt of human ingenuity and perseverance. The clash to come would redefine the grand tapestry of Eldoria's reality.
Neither realm could possibly be prepared for the maelstrom of change that lay ahead.
The Invincible cut through the heaving swells, driven forward by the relentless winds. Eleanor gripped the railing of the quarterdeck, her knuckles white, as she scanned the horizon. Every muscle in her body was taut with apprehension.
Below decks, the crew scrambled to make ready for potential attack. Cannons were loaded, grappling lines coiled, blades sharpened to a razor's edge. Though none dared voice it aloud, a dread pall had fallen over the ship - the unshakable sense that they sailed into the maw of unspeakable peril.
A shout from the crow's nest shattered the tension like a thunderclap. "Sails on the horizon! Too many to count, bearing down fast!"
Eleanor's heart stuttered in her chest. This was it. The trap Vincent had doubtlessly laid, sprung with vicious intent. She whirled to find Amethyst already at her side, face set in an inscrutable mask.
"He forces my hand sooner than anticipated," the sorceress murmured. "But perhaps that shall be his undoing."
Even as the words left her lips, an ominous bank of fog began rolling across the waves with unnatural swiftness. Within moments, the Invincible was enveloped in a dense shroud, the menacing ships lost from sight.
"What devilry--?" Eleanor growled. Amethyst's eyes were already half-lidded, hands weaving intricate gestures as she invoked her protective wards.
"Peace, Your Majesty. I have cloaked us in concealments most arcane. Let Vincent's lapdogs seek in vain."
As if in emphasis, indistinct shouts and jeers echoed through the fog. Footsteps pounded deck as the crew scrambled to quarters, Manning guns and handing out blades in grim anticipation.
A dull thud shuddered through the ship's hull, like a behemoth striking with its fist. Eleanor actually staggered at the force of the impact, while Amethyst merely arched an eyebrow.
"Opening salvo," the sorceress noted clinically. "Their frustration mounts, it seems."
Another shuddering impact rocked the Invincible, this one strong enough to splinter wood and set objects crashing to the deck. Eleanor caught a terrified glimpse of her sailors clinging to their posts for dear life.
"How much punishment can your spells withstand?" she shouted over the cacophony of battle-sounds outside. Surely not even Amethyst's mystic arts could repel true evil? The sorceress's lips parted in a feral grin utterly devoid of mirth. "Who said I intended to absorb their futile barrage?" Energy crackled around her upraised fist, forming an incandescent sphere that pulsed in time with her words. "Perhaps it is time I put these cretins in their place!"
With a cataclysmic roar, Amethyst unleashed a shockwave that lanced out in all directions. The detonation tore through the fog bank, ripping it apart in a maelstrom of energy.
When the haze cleared mere moments later, Eleanor could scarcely credit the sight before her. The sea was utterly untroubled, no sign of Vincent's armada - save for the burning, shattered hulks littering the waters. Cries of panic and anguish filled the air as smaller vessels listed and began taking on water at horrifying speed.
Amethyst watched the devastation with cold satisfaction. "A paltry display, but sufficient to convey the extent of my power. Let that serve as fair warnin--"
She broke off as a sound like tearing reality split the air. Reality itself seemed to groan in protest as a shimmering oval burned into existence - a rent, a portal of some kind. Tendrils of pure darkness seeped outward from it like ooze.
Then Eleanor's blood turned to ice in her veins as a massive shadow emerged. Sleek scales glistening, fanged maw agape to reveal row upon row of dagger-like teeth, it defied comprehension or sanity.
As the gargantuan, serpentine form continued to slither through the eldritch rift, Amethyst directed a look of pure venom at Eleanor.
"You wished to glimpse the face of Vincent's perversions?" Her voice dripped with acid contempt. "Then behold the extent of his bartered depravities..."
The huge worm turned its baleful stare upon the Invincible, unblinking eyes devoid of anything resembling mercy or reason. With a bone-chilling roar that shook the ship's timbers, the beast reared back - and unleashed a torrent of all-consuming flames directly at them.