The Logs of the TDFS Tindome

Chapter 69

Soon thereafter, we welcome on board the Lady Ambassador, Rhanna Phila Tahn’aya.  She settles in.

Mandorak directs Chekhov to take us to Lanthil.  He balks.  “Should there not be someone at the helm?”  The captain slips into position, and we head out.  Eric dowses for the correct direction with one of his paper darts.  Once it points in the correct direction, he binds it to the dashboard.

We fly over the ocean.  We do not pass over any islands, although we do pass some on our starboard side.  A square-rigged, three-masted ship is moored on the far side of the largest of the three islands.  It could be a pirate vessel, but we see no real sign of that.

Eventually, we lose sight of the ocean, as we rise gently, and clouds pas below us.  We rise more, and the clouds become thicker and darker.  Although our instruments show that we are rising, the clouds seem to be rising faster.  We face a wall of almost black clouds.  We enter it, and head through a storm with thunder and lightning.  The captain keeps a close eye on conditions, and, suddenly, we break through the clouds into an area of calm.  The sea below us is highly reflective, showing us the black sky with its display of stars below as well as above.

Across from us is another wall of storm.  We are apparently in the eye of this storm.  Eric looks up and down at the stars, and goes off to fetch the map for the Sea of Stars.  He unrolls it.  It looks like a standard constellation chart, and then it wavers slightly and reforms.  Now it has a little scroll at the bottom, with the legend “Island of the Sky” and an arrow pointing down off the map.  Off on the right of the map is a cloud labeled “Dreamland.”  One of the many, unlabeled curving lines on the map passes right through the cloud.

He places the Map of Here, then the other maps, next to the Map of the Sea of Stars.  Nothing changes.  Eïr puts them down in front of Chekhov.  “Primitive navigational aids.  Must have been useful.”  He indicates the Map of Here.  “Person making this variable map can make interface.”

Eïr says, “This was given to us by the Lady Daëwen.”

“Ah, yes.  Is made by person who can make interface.  Alag.”

We sail into the wall of cloud, with the storm and lightning.  The distant flashes become almost continuous.  We maintain our course.  Soon the source of flashes is directly ahead of us, and we head for it.  Then, following the dowse, we start to descend, fairly steeply.  Suddenly, we break through the clouds, and find ourselves above an ordinary sort of ocean.  There, ahead of us, is the blue light of the Lightfall.  Eïr corrals our passengers and urges them up to the Upper Observation Deck to see our destination.  We head for the trading port, as Eïr describes our destination to our audience.

A sleek schooner is cutting through the water in our direction. It is flying a blue ensign.  Our captain suddenly realizes that we do not have an ensign, blue or otherwise.  The schooner comes around smartly, and paces us.  We can easily see that all the people on the ship are wearing the same shade of green.  The captain mutters something about “Some people appreciate the importance of uniforms.”  We slowly sink closer to sea level and approach a quay.  There, waiting on the docks are a group of Lanthili elves.  We pull into dock in parallel with our escort.

We hit the water with a spray of water, and reach the dock.  Our escort has dropped one sail after another, and reaches the dock just behind us.  They tie up smartly, and we tie up as well.  We have returned.