Gatling Rain on a Steam Filled Morn

Waltz didn't care to walk. He soared to the passenger ship and made it there in record time. Eldritch was there. Ready to see him off. The old faded purple stallion puffed on his pipe, leaning over the railing of the passenger ship as if he owned the damn thing. As if he'd done it countless times before. The sight suited him greatly. He even had the sailor outfit and beard and hat to boot.

"Eldritch.", Waltz backwinged onto the gangway.

"Ah, there ya are lad.", the old stallion perked up. He lifted his eye patch to get a good look at Waltz with both his unscarred eye, and his magical replacement, flipping it back down. "Ye're geared up fer a fight?", he asked.

"Gearing up or many fights."

"So ye decided to take up that idea o' yours and go ta Gaochang?"

"Yes."

"Well, power to ya lad. An' remember. Find that brothel, tell Annabelle her old friend Eldritch said Arrrrrrrr!"

"I'm not gonna do that."

"If'n ye knew her, and why I asked ye to do that fer me, ye'd do it in a heart beat."

"I'm not going to a brothel. Forget it."

"Believe me, lad, if it be adventure yer lookin' fer, goin' ta that brothel could lead ya in the right direction. Thar be more'n jus' sex at a brothel. If'n ye know the owner of said brothel by her name. Which she ne'er told anyone but a stranger she once fell in love with.", he winked.

Waltz searched the ground with a parted smile, "Alright, you have my attention. If I just so happen to stumble upon the Jade Saddle, I might check it out. Keep in mind, you're trying to get me to go to a brothel. I'm not one for carnal pleasure."

"Neither was I. I was an adventure like you. That's how I met 'er in the first place, lad! Hah! Get aboard this vessel, lad. She be departin' soon."

The very ship they were standing aboard sounded a loud steam whistle.

"And that would be me cue. Lad.", Eldritch held his hand out. Waltz took it, and they shared a hearty handshake. And then they locked eyes as Waltz noticed the weight of an object pressed to his palm. Eldritch gave him a serious look, then parted without a word. Waltz looked at the object in his hand. A circular, heavy, metallic object. Many lines and indentations, very decorative, made of red and gold. He flipped it over, and it had a small piece of paper attached to it.

Good luck!

Waltz chuckled once. Eldritch has done this a couple of times, but it's a rarity on it's own. This object most definitely will come in handy in the near future. Waltz pocketed it and headed aboard the ship. He had a trip ahead of him.

It also wasn't until he had passed the threshold of the first doorway that he realized...Eldritch spoke to him as if he'd never been a mute before. Waltz checked his neck, he still had the collar on, and removing it from his neck further confirmed his suspicions.

Waltz threw his bag onto the floor as he entered the door to his room, and immediately threw himself onto the single bed, opening his journal of lines to thumb through for a moment before sighing and taking the collar off. He then clamped it around the book, and set them on the nightstand.

From there, he got up to grab his bag and plopped back down onto the bed, pulling free a book. A really old, dusty book. The cover still had a few stray layers of dust, even after having shoved it in his bag. Cracking it open, some unknown magic assaulted him immediately, shining a deep purple through the small crack. Opening it wide, the light dimmed, lit still only by the words on the page. The symbols shifted and changed.

Ye who reads this book shall inherit the magic of a mage

The book flipped three pages forward, lines of text still glowing. And then he read it. These foreign, unknown, ancient symbols were easily read like the equestrian language to him, and it taught him the very basics of fire magic. It took an incredibly long time. He could feel the minutes passing by as he made through just the first parse of text. First paragraph, second paragraph, he paused at the end of the page, and looked at the time. Three hours had passed. Shocked by the sudden passage of time, he closed the book, grabbed his collar, and hurried to the door. He could feel it as he got up, his stomach was empty.

Fire danced between his fingers on a whim, easy like breathing, but not quite as involuntary. He paused with a ball of flame in his hand, now made so easy by simply reading a book. Granted, an ancient book, but still so easy! Time passed unevenly for him. It passed so quickly, either a perception made by reading the book, or because he had something entertaining to make himself to forget time itself, which was his newfound magic, and he found himself in a massive dining hall. Linen covered tables, all of which had to be hand sewn by master seamstresses, decorative in the very art each of them had, none of them the same, highly detailed. And that's just the table cloths! The carpet was one massive mural of artistic lines, from one corner of the room to the opposite, gold and red, the tables were red, the candles yellow, the pillars that were there, four only, and purely decorative, as Waltz would assume, were smooth, not a single hint of wear or mistakes int he wood. Beyond the carpet of the dining hall, was the marble of the kitchen itself, or the remainder of the food court. Waltz found himself there, then to a table, seated alone, grabbing what had to be a mouthful of food, he shoveled it in, then cracked the book open immediately. One word. More food. He repeated the process till his meal were gone, racked up about twenty minutes total having spent reading and eating, then he pushed his plate away. Four more words in, someone tapped his shoulder. A waiter. In fact, a gryphon waiter. Female and very curvy, the very sense of a voluptuous avian, if there ever were. She were clad in a red and gold themed geisha, same as the remainder of the ship's dining hall, and her feathers expertly done up into a bun.

"Excuse me. Someone bought this entire bottle of our oldest and most expensive wine.", she set down a bottle that were covered in a thick layer of dust, just in front of Waltz, past his book. It read, "Dragon's Blood Brew Wine", dated back three hundred and eighty seven years. She set down a vial just beside it, of which the liquid inside barely stirred. It measured a quarter the size of the wine bottle. "Exercise caution in using the bottle of complimentary shock. This batch is dated back above three hundred years by a long shot, the bottle of shock is magically enhance to be eight times as powerful, as the original recipe demands."

Waltz turned his attention to the decorative bottle, and wiped more of the dust off. "This must be, bare minimum, thirty seven hundred bits."

"I'm surprised you know how much this bottle is worth."

"I've had this before. But not one over three centuries old, no. Best drink I ever had was a Dragon's Blood Brew Wine, dated back two and a half centuries. This...it dates back over another century with room to spare. I also gave it a blind guess. Was it really thirty seven hundred?"

"Oh, I apologize, I misheard you. No, this bottle is worth thirty seven thousand bits."

Waltz's jaw dropped. "Who bought this?"

"That mare over there in the big hat.", she point across the dining hall towards a rather buxom mare, more generous than the avian herself, and she were dressed up entirely, head to toe, like a namesake witch. Pointy hat to boot. The Silvery mare twiddled her fingers at Waltz in equal greeting, then crossed her legs underneath the table. She then ran her thumb over her top lip, marking herself with a solid midnight blue, pursed them, then smacked her lips at Waltz, giggling.

"Well, thank you for bringing this to me, and you let that mare know that I thank her for this expensive drink. I have business to attend to, you have a good day.", he stood up, grabbed the two bottles, and left the dining hall, heading back to his own room. Just as he had stowed the mage's tome in the nightstand drawer, a knock came from his door. He was most definitely expecting just this response.

As he opened the door, it flung open by the silver mare's magical might, and standing less than a foot in front of Waltz was a pissed off magic user, practically wafting magic off of her form. She cleared her throat. "I'm not ok with being blown off like that!"

"Well, before you decide to be generous to someone, size them up. Armored, armed with an enchanted sword, the air of an adventurer about him. I know you saw every one of those features. Everyone does. I'd be shocked if you didn't."

"Alright, let's just cut to the chase then. Give me the book, and you walk off of this ship alive."

"You would kill me over a book?"

"A book of the most ancient arcane magics? Yes!! Oh, I wouldn't hesitate! If it means limitless potential and magic, then so be it, one life is something I don't mind paying!", she clenched her fists, both hands bursting into solid purple flames. Waltz pulled his own fist back, coating in simple orange flames, and right before he slammed that strike on home, she brought her fists up, and blocked his punch. Didn't exactly stop the magic he put into it from taking effect, though, and the resulting explosion threw her through the railing of the open hallway and off the ship completely, even skipping in the hot sands far below when she hit the ground. She only came to a stop when she hit a sand dune tall enough to stop her, and that weren't until a good distance away from the ship itself.

Waltz spread his wings on the edge of the now-open hallway, and took flight.

The silvery mare stood up, digging herself out of the sand as she did so, and took a breath, exuding a rush of magic from her own form. She cleared every grain of sand from every thread and hair on her body, then clapped her hands together, conjuring a set of ethereal wings and a solid weapon made of black metal. A scythe. Waltz were on top of her immediately, coming down hard, and with his first strike, cleaved her weapon in two, kicking up sand as his blade hit the ground. Before the mare could get back up off of the ground, Waltz straddled her there, pinning her hands as far away from one another as he could.

Crossing his arms over his chest, Waltz swung his hands out, then tapped a total of eight key points throughout her shoulders and chest. Her wings shivered behind her, then dissipated into swirls of dark magic. Finally getting off of the mare, Waltz stood up to take a few steps back and watch.

The silvery mare stood up angrily, then assumed the same stance as before, attempting to clean herself of the sand, same as before, but nothing happened. She threw her hands out, nothing. Taking a few ragged breaths, she took a deep one, then with a succession of multiple hand signs and archaic movements, threw both hands out one more time. Nothing. She grew pale as a ghost, or rather, paler than she already was. The fear was evident in her eyes, the way she stood practically screamed fear.

"Wh-what did you do to me?"

"I took your magic away."

"No...No, please, no! Not my magic! I will give you anything! My fortune, my body, but please, don't take my magic!", she visibly shook.

"No, I'm sure you wouldn't like to be stranded in the middle of the desert, and I'm not a bad person, so I will offer to help you get back on the ship we just left."

"No!! I want my magic back!! Give it back!", she grabbed the bladed half of her weapon, charging forward.

Waltz didn't even have to try too hard. She went for that first strike, and he basically parried her attack with his own gauntlet, grabbing and shattering the blade in his grip. Her expression turned to one even graver than before. Defeated, she fell to her knees, clutching what remained of her weapon tightly.

"If you don't want back on the ship, then I won't force you to go back to the ship.", Waltz turned to leave.

"Wait, no! Please, I don't want to be stranded out here!"

Waltz spread his wings and opened his arms to her. "Then come on, lets go."

Her expression turned to anger. "Not until you help me pick up my scythe, you asshole! It's not made of magic, it's real, and you broke it!"

"You really should not have threatened me. Or raised a weapon to me, for that matter.", he folded his wings.

The silvery mare began swiftly recovering what was left of her weapon, finding every shard of metal, even retrieving the bottom half of the handle. "Take me back.", she hung her head. Waltz nodded, wrapped his arms around her tightly, and then took off, carrying them both back to the ship. He landed her in the open hallway, same spot they'd departed from, and found quite a crowd having accumulated at his open door.

"What happened to my ship?", one rather well-dressed stallion stepped through everyone. He did not look happy.

"I apologize for the damage done to your ship, it is the results of me defending myself from this defeated mare. She can no longer use her magic, and her weapon is shattered. The only damage done to your ship would be this railing, and I can fix that by my own hand. I work with metals and airships."

"For your sake, you better have that railing fixed by tomorrow!"

"I can have it fixed within the hour."

"Good!! Now fix it!"

"Let me first retrieve the missing segment of railing.", Waltz leapt off the open edge, back tracking to retrieve the missing chunk of artfully crafted metal.

Fixing the railing proved as easy as Waltz thought, it took him practically no time at all. The only problem he had to address was bending it back into place. Having fixed the damage so quickly, he brought the subject back up with the ship's owner (mayhaps captain?) not but half an hour later, and he offered him a job. Waltz kindly refused, then returned to his cabin. The rest of the day was simply him reading through the arcane magics of Lightning, secondhand fire.