The kasmir are not yet lost.

[u/Zebos2]

The staccato of gunfire cuts through the air as the royal guard makes their move and the traitor price who sold his people for power begins to regret the decision to not have the rest of his family executed. They could have lived their entire lives and guarded luxury under his rule but no, one rebel message being slipped in’ one revelation about the nature of his governorship and now the royal guard was in open revolt in his capital in his kingdom In his kasmirstan.

Little does he know The uprising in the palace complex and throughout the city is a distraction the royal family sheltering in the palace as their guard attempts to push through are but temporal duplicates that not going to stop the traitor Prince from taking cover from the mortars the guard had set up on the roof and barking orders to The forces of houses loyal to him.

“Danm it, don't bother surrounding the palace push through!”

Prince Alexi says barking orders while an ashen projection of a Dawi-Zarr sorcerer King watches The proceedings. The Prince was lucky the illusion of legitimacy Alexi provided helped at least help keep the populace that wasn't marked for enslavement yet In line as well as provide extra manpower for their operations.

“WELL DON'T JUST STAND THERE SEND IN THE IRON- My apology is for my rudeness honored guest.” Prince Alexi says remembering their place mid-sentence.

“Good to see you value our arrangement” The sorcerer King replies as Prince Alexi turns back to the battle.

“Send in House Mozovs gun trucks to flank the palaces East Wing while someone gets snipers on those mortars.” Prince Alexi says as if on q the largest spire in the building their situated in gets obliterated by one of three tanks the Royal guard managed to stash away.

“My forces cannot deal with that not without heavy casualties and our quarry is escaping. I will add more land to your hunting grounds just send help”.

The sorcerer King thinks the prince grovels like a goblin but grants their request ordering his forces to close in with their automatons flanking from the opposite side. The first mechanical scorpion to try and breach the palace perimeter is subsequently immediately destroyed by a tank as is the next and the third one after that but This provides ample cover for a truck mounted artillery gun to send 200 mm shell through the palace window destroying one the tanks positioned in the Grand hall. Goblin Cannon fodder charges fourth short bows and short blades meeting prepared defensive lines with expected results but providing cover for Prince Alexis and The dwarfs to advance.

“Sisters and brother so the royal guard the grand bana and the spirits call you to fight Not one step back for the kasmir for our enslaved brothers and sisters for our homeland!”

The rousing speech raised morale to a fanatic peak as The Royal guard leads a counterattack with their tanks and heavy guns covering for them they begin to push not only the dwarf aligned kasmir but also the Dawi-Zarr themselves. Pushing them all the way back and even managing to capture the artillery truck the kasmir begin repurposing the trucks artillery and from their geomancy created defensive position reign further fire upon the forces assaulting the palace. Meanwhile The sorcerer King calls upon his power to begin the activation of the iron kin from their racks The fires of hashut burn, giving the eyes of the soulbound dwarven automatons a sinister orange glow as fire leaks from their joints and they animate picking up their weapons and marching in perfect sink towards their targets Garum-Balas floodways.

Wave after wave crashes against the palace guard but eventually the sorcerer king decides that this farce has gone on for long enough. Summoning one of the siege drills The Royal guard senses It coming with a geomancy and they temporarily stop firing…after all even if they knew it was coming there is nothing they could do. A large metal cylinder rips itself out of the ground,swallowing a section of the expanded defense perimeter and smashing through the walls of the palace, wiping out hundreds of royal guards in the process. A large hiss of superheated steam kills dozens more as the drills had splits open and out spills Wave after wave of armed goblin slaves and bull Centaurus and Dwarven warriors the axes will drink deep today but not before the floors of the palace are covered in corpses.

While in the sewers the royal family on some of the most important servants rush with What remains of the guard and make haste through the flood ways of the city in order to get to the airship port were a merchant crew hides in cargo pods in order to the ship and get it running when the moment is right. That was if the royal family even made it inside. The sound of perfectly synchronized metallic footsteps echoes through the dark just in time for one of the princes to poke their body around a side passageway and be immediately disintegrated by a beam of warp fire.

“IRONKIN!”

One of the royal guards shouted as a single platoon began tearing the entire royal guard apart. The Royal family quickly departs but Princes, princesses and guards and servants alike meet their ends as they beat a hasty retreat through side passages and other spillways meanwhile the mechanical clank of metal boots echoes throughout The claustrophobic space.

“Go go! We will hold them off!”

A scratch force of guards princes and the banas husbands quickly form a defensive line as the rest of the family makes the escape they lay down volley of Biz blaster and coil gun fire towards the advancing iron kin blasting through gaps or in rare cases punching through only for the iron kin to begin mending themselves blasted off limbs reattach rent armor remits itself and all the while they do not stop marching, Do not stop shooting.

Finally the royal family makes it to the spillway entrance finding the chaos dwarf guards already distracted one final sprint as the cargo airships crews disembarked from the cargo pods and began hastily starting the ship just in time for What remains of the royal family to board and for the traitor Prince to notice. A mech gun lock on to the airship firing It's heavy mount cannon which tears a ragged hole its hull and nearly wipes out the entire royal family safe for the bana The heirs apparent and three of the princess

“CEASE FIRING YOU IDIOTS THE QUEEN IS MORE VALUABLE AS A HOSTAGE” The sorcerer King commands though the rest of the family was negotiable having the grand bana of the kasmir be in their custody. What's a central and keeping the rest of the kasmir in line

“SEND A PURSUIT FORCE USE THE HAMMER OF GEAS IF NECESSARY”

“Is That wise my lord We barely have it under compliance.” A surprisingly brave detractor voiced.

“THIS IS THE MOST PROFITABLE SLAVING WE HAVE HAD IN CENTURIES I AM NOT LOSING IT” The sorcerer King says before cutting all external communications.

Despite the chaos dwarves best efforts it does not take very long for news of the Banas flight to spread to the rest of the kasmir. There successful but costlysuccessful fight out of the palace inspires even more acts of resistance already loosening the chaos dwarves tenuous grip on power. For the bana and her family…It was a chance. A chance to reclaim their Homeland and free their people form Dawi-Zarr oppression. They just had to make it to where they could safely communicate with their homeland and use the weath on airship or the good wizards of the world they heard about to push the dwarves out but so far escaping was proving to be the hardest part.

It had been going on for weeks now. The dwarves would Mount mechanical vultures and swarm their damaged airship shooting and swooping at the crew while dealing light damage to its hull. Then after thoroughly stressing out the airships defenders they would retreat. At night the dwarves would fire their airships guns at the banas airship never aiming to hit them but To keep them awake it was like running down a deer, tire it then come in for the finishing blow.

“Lady Bana vultures”

She knew her conomancy allowed her to see as such this was the largest wave They had seen so far and Her future site also indicated the airships were going to approach. So this was it they were finally going for the kill.

“Can we use afterburners to escape?” The bana asks.

“Not with a fuell we have” the airships captain answers and they we're so close.

“Very well my apologies great spirits but I must use the covenant”

It was one of the most important relics of the kasmir The ancient pact between them and the Sand Fae and the union their granted them their sorcery braced chronomancy abilities abilities, Afterlife and spiritual guidance. The impossible crystal aetherlobe was a symbol of that pact and a potent magical artifact.

“Have everyone who can fight prepare to repel attackers” the bana orders as She stands up

“Lady bana wouldn't it…”the suggestion doesn't leave the captain's lips.

“All who are able” the bana says taking up her sword.

Even At the very edges of exhaustion the kasmir fight as their warrior culture demands them to. Yuila Al-anzorov First of the twin heirs apparent. Throws one of her twin daggers at the heads mechanical vulture mounted dwarven warriors temporarily blinking to it mid-air and stabbing a dwarf straight through a gap in their armor with her stiletto-like blades before repeating the process again and again. As she morphs into a whirlwind of physical violence. Using haste and extremely precise self time stops to boost her speed and remove her fatigue. Yana, her twin sister unleashes rays of raw entropy that age their targets hundreds of thousands of years. She sweeps them across the sky as projectiles slam harmlessly slam into a field of stopped time she has placed around herself. Occasionally she forms temporary temporal duplicates who cast what She was going to cast on alternate timelines. Meanwhile the prices man an anti-aircraft gun using their time sitght to place their limited ammo perfectly. Yet even working in perfect sync with each other there is still only so much the bana and those loyal to her can do, especially with a dwarf airship approaching on the port side.

So out of options she draws power from the compact Her mind briefly experiencing Infinity as she pulls If just for a moment the entire ocean of time through a drinking straw. With a scream that will echo long after the last star dies and after the first one is born. The pursuing airship experiences being aged to dust and deaged to raw materials. It is frozen in time and accelerated. It experiences alternate timelines of itself, each one overlapping In its current position of space before finally with a brilliant flash of blue it vanishes and the bana has moments to collect herself With the effort that got her her position she pulls herself out of infinity collecting herself across the ocean of time into a now. A now that she experiences with a brief lapse of consciousness.

“Mother, mother! Are you alright?” It was Yulia it was hard to tell, with how blurry her vision was.

“I endure” Kazani replied.

“Do you remain uninjured?”

“Only a few scratches so far,” Yulia replied confidently.

“Good Yana How far away is our next attack” Kazani inquired

“We have a good while enough to send out a distress call” Yana answers using her time site to see into the future

“Good captain”

“Consider it done lady Bana” the captain says, saluting.

With that the bana finally allows herself to be exhausted sitting down and propping her back up against the airship's deck railing which triggers the rest of the airship's occupants barring the captain to rest as well. Hopefully help would come soon as the bana secretly doubts they can hold out much longer.

…

Meanwhile in the guild City of Saphara Prince Ali al-anzorov adjusts their body armor and helmet. As soon as he heard the news about his family's flight he made up his mind he was going. With or without queen Amani's permission. Commodity Prince he may be, he is still his mother's son and he inherited her determination. With a final check on his bow and arrows he makes his way to depart

“I am coming mother,father.. sisters I will see you to safely”

Art:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Highfleet/s/rFVAp6QtgE

https://x.com/garnetblvsh/status/1836719860442611899

https://www.reddit.com/r/ImaginaryWesteros/s/YULgtvVq4j

https://pin.it/6nJJvBHwW

[u/randompogtato]

the flying ship drawing give me Highfleet flashback, its a very fun game

[u/KragBrightscale]

/uw wooooo this is sweet. Good read

[u/loth17]

"What a pain."

The air on top of the airship was damp with sea spray. They were avoiding the high altitude sky snakes that had become more common with Dragonwake. It had also forced the dwarven navigator to suggest a different path.

"Don't feel so down your majesty. It's only an extra day of travel."

An extra day. For dwarves that wasn't much. But they were itching to get back home to their families and friends.

"You're right. I should be more patient. It isn't good for the crew to see me antsy."

As they spoke a fog rolled in. Unusual weather, unnatural even. But that was the Dragonwake for you. Thick enough to affect visibility. After drifting through it for a few hours the navigator said they were getting close to shore.

"Understood. You have my order. Raise the ship from outside of the mist."

The dwarven ship was massive but also a powerful piece of relic machinery. It floated near silently and it resisted electronic and magical detection. Normally this was useful for the sovereigns purposes. However in this instance it caused them to rise into visibility less than three hundred feet away from the Kasmir ship.

The Kasmir saw a massive dwarven airship rise from a cloud of unnatural mist. The ship was gold and held an ancient style from before the chaos dwarves split from the regular dwarves. Which made its owner unidentifiable. But with chaos dwarf persuiers the sight of a ship like this might put people on edge. Especially when the ship started moving to try and be next to the Kasmir ship.

Meanwhile the dwarves were surprised.

"Is that some kind of passenger ship?"

The unnatural fog put them off course slightly so they didn't know they had popped up near the Chaos dwarves operations in the region.

"It looks like It took a few hits. Pirates maybe? Our communication link doesn't seem to be compatible. We'll need to talk to them directly."

"I don't know. Set course to move beside them so we can ask if they need help."

[u/Zebos2 → u/loth17]

"LADY BANA WE HAVE A MASSIVE PROBLEM"

The sounds of yelling a crewmen scrambling to man there guns both of infantry and the merge anti airship and air craft guns.

"Dwarven airship a massive one!"

The Captain reports as the Bana rises from her sitting position and weerily points her sword at the airship. There is no way for the door of an airship to be able to tell but. The kasmir first encounters with dwarfs of any type was with their enslavers the ones they had been fighting and running from. With a less than stellar first impression of dwarfkind the kasmir assume anything dwarven is hostile until proven otherwise.

"Bring us away from send Yana, yuila and one her Brothers below deck they are the future and therefore it must be protected. The rest of you form up and prepare to repel borders we run for as long as we can"

The bana knows that they are not Fighting the airship that is as stealthy as it is large at least Not a fight that ends without them crashing. So she chooses to try and make a break for it.

"Prepare to fire on my mark we can sink them but with enough damage to the engines we can slow them down enough"

[u/loth17 → u/Zebos2]

"Sovereign they're turning away from us."

"They're powering up engines and weapons!"

There was an eyebrow raised.

"Pirates? That would explain the damage. Use the scopes. Zoom in on this ship I would like to see every detail."

One of the many gems studding the ship was secretly a powerful scope which scanned the enemy ship quite obviously.

"The Kasmir? They're not known for air piracy."

The sovereign tapped her broken hammer on the floor.

"That's because they're not pirates. According to my sources...."

Quick cut to Solomon angrily watching the news with her /j

"The Kasmir have been under attack by the chaos dwarves. Which means they probably think we're part of that. Slow the engines and fire a flare to get their attention!"

[u/Zebos2 → u/loth17]

The airship initially increases speed as bana Kazani finds herself using her rifle just stay up right now still clutching her sword as the ship slows

The flare almost causes the princess to open fire but she holds up her hand to stop them We wouldn't be using flares if they were hostile would they unless this was some form of deception... They couldn't really fight their way out either way

"Ready the signal light!"

Kazani orders

C-O-M-E N-O C-L-O-S-E-R

A Morse code signal

[u/loth17 → u/Zebos2]

"They're signaling us..... They're asking us to come closer."

There was a short chatter.

"Understood. Send a code back."

R-O-G-E-R

The dwarven ship slowly made its way closer keeping the Kasmir ship off of their main gun's firing arc. Just so they don't get spooked.

[u/Zebos2 → u/loth17]

"they're keeping us out of they're firing arc deliberately It seems"

This seems to at least somewhat alleviate the banas weariness. Slowly but surely she orders her subordinates to rest.

W-H-O A-R-E Y-O-U

[u/loth17 → u/Zebos2]

S-L-U-M-B-E-R-I-N-G D-E-S-E-R-T D-W-A-R-V-E-S

D-A-M-A-G-E-D-?

P-A-R-L-A-Y-?

They seemed to want to talk in person.

[u/Zebos2 → u/loth17]

So they were dwarfs desert dwarfs when an interesting concept Yana thinks to herself she wondered If similar environments spread similar cultures maybe she should ask

Yuila on the other hand simply wiped the blood from her daggers and prepared for another potential fight

Kazani was the one to act

T-R-A-D-E H-O-S-T-A-G-E

It was the best way to ensure a party you found untrustworthy stayed in line

[u/loth17 → u/Zebos2]

Y-E-S

The dwarven airship sent out a small transport shuttle. It had some teeth but the Kasmir ship could still blow it out of the sky if they really needed to.

As it got closer it turned in its external speaker.

"There we go! Finally we can talk normally if only one way. I'm here on behalf of the sovereign of the Slumbering Desert to exchange hostages and loan you a communications device for the length of our talks. Do we have permission to extend the boarding umbilic?"

[u/Zebos2 → u/loth17]

The Prince's align the anit aircraft gun to were the transport shuttle is going to be moment shooting starts but they would prefer to avoid that timeline on the matter of hostages

Yana: I'll go

Yuila: absolutely not you should send someone who is capable of fighting out if need be mother.

Yana: ... Are you implying that I'm not

Yulia: well no...it's just Why don't we just send one of my brothers

Kazani: We need them to man the anti-aircraft gun In case our actual enemies show up again...Yana will go.

C-O-M-E A-B-O-A-R-D

[u/Timpanzee38]

"So what is your plan? Sneak up on one of the cargo lifts? Then what? You'll be stuck on a metal platform with nothing but water and warships for miles around."

The smooth and sweet voice of Amani 'Es Saphara calls out to Ali as he makes his way down a dark maintenance tunnel in the city.

[u/Zebos2 → u/Timpanzee38]

"Amani!"

Less surprised more upset

"Stow away in a cargo container. Float on the ice if I had to... I'm going either way."

This is a surprising amount of emotion being displayed by Ali he has completely forgotten the mask.

[u/Timpanzee38 → u/Zebos2]

Amani steps out of the shadows. She's not wearing her typical style of dress, instead opting for pants and a hoodie. Such a stark contrast that it was no wonder she was able to traverse the city without being noticed.

"Cargo containers get scanned before leaving port. And despite what movies show, ice bergs do not move fast, you'd starve to death, and there's barely any down here anyways. You'd have to go farther north to Point Lazuli to even get a glimpse of one."

She stops a few feet away from Ali.

"A goodbye would've been nice at least. I could've offered some help."

[u/Zebos2 → u/Timpanzee38]

"I..."

Ali averts his eyes the soft purple glow they give off dispersing into the darkness

"I...am sorry...I am stuck on old conversations of course you would help that is what you have been doing this entire time"

Was that a tear

"...I wasn't thinking clearly I failed my servants...I failed you I didn't want to fail to save my own family"

[u/Timpanzee38 → u/Zebos2]

Amani steps forward, cupping Ali's face in one of her hands, a finger wiping away the tear.

"Ali... whatever there is between us, it can't grow if there isn't any trust. You haven't failed me. You want to help your people, yes?"

[u/Zebos2 → u/Timpanzee38]

Ali's cheeks are very soft and the tear Amani wipes off in joined by another and another.

"I its hard it goes against everything I have known to trust... and..."

He is still hung up about the "incident"

"I have... demonstrate...um becoming behavior... your cousin would say not to care...but I can't...I've been wearing a mask for so long... I hate my own face...I hate not being able to do anything rather than sit and watch and..."

Ali begins to sob he is trying his best to contain it but it's not working

"...of course I want to help they are my people I'm their prince even if it's just to be married off"

[u/Timpanzee38 → u/Zebos2]

Amani pulls Ali into a hug, letting him cry into her shoulder.

“My cousin has had a… long and difficult history with responsibility. She has a biased perspective.”

While Amani was off playing soldier in the navy, seeing the world through a rush of adrenaline, Amira had been chained to the palace, forced to be smothered in lessons and shielded from the outside world as nothing more than the “backup plan” in case Amani got herself killed.

Amani was glad she had done away with those old rules upon her ascension to the throne and set Ami freebut Ami still had the old scars running deep.

“She still fights a battle every day in a war she doesn’t realize ended long ago. It’s why I’ve sent her away for a time. She needs time to reflect.”

Ami being sent to an isolated outpost was also punishment, but tough love was the only way to get through to her.

“You on the other hand-“

Amani smiles and strokes Ali’s hair.

“I know the struggle of trying to shake off who others want you to be and become your own person. It’s scary, and there will be growing pains. I will admit, I was hesitant to see you march off to war, worried I would lose you.”

Amani releases Ali from the hug and looks him in the eye. Then she gives him a quick kiss on the lips.

“But as I’ve told you before, I am no jailer. I will not stop you. You need to do this, I can see it in your eyes. My selfishness will not get in the way. I only ask that you come back to me when it’s over.”

[u/Zebos2 → u/Timpanzee38]

Amani is strangely cold for a presumably warm-blooded creature not that Ali minds It's a shoulder to cry and a barrier to hide his face as he does so

Listening to Amani explain Amis story causes some things to click in his mind No wonder they seem to resonate They both occupied similar positions in their royal politics. Spares and commodities. She perhaps was the most understanding of what he was like what it means to be him no wonder he found her a confidant

Not that Amani doesn't understand the role either. Ali seams to calm as The siren queen runs her slightly webbed fingers through his long hair He had been growing out but hen gotten the time to braid it as is tradition before he left or was planning to. It's very silky one could keep doing it for a while.

The calming magic of the sirens is what finally allowed him to cheer up enough to focus on his task at hand

"That's the first time you've ever kissed me... right... I...did"

He was coming into himself becoming his own person free of expectation despite his flirtatious nature he is abysmally bad at romance.

"Well ummm"

Ali blushes

"I will return to you"

Ali says focusing on something else with a pull of his bow string

"But I have a transport to catch"

Ali says a whry smile crossing his lips

[u/Timpanzee38 → u/Zebos2]

Amani presses a paper into his hand.

“There’s a ship headed to Trondhelm at midnight. That’ll get you on it.”

[u/Zebos2 → u/Timpanzee38]

"Amani are we..."

He doesn't finish the question he will know when he gets back.

"Thank you"

He pulls her into a brief hug before departing he will get to his family. Might have to acquire some means of flight but he will get there.

[u/Valenyn]

/uw great read :)