As he stood watching, a woman noticed him standing there and motioned to her partner. The two of them rushed Edwin with cutlasses held high above their heads ready to cleave him in two. He snapped out of his trance and reached for his weapon. He used the barrel of the gun to parry one of his attackers' blows and rolled away in time to dodge the blade of the woman. He lifted up the gun and prepared to take aim but they came at him too quickly. He held the gun up to block the woman's sword and then kicked her knee causing her leg to buckle. He turned the gun and prepared to strike her on the head when her partner lunged at him. He managed to avoid getting hit by the full blow, but the blade made contact with his right shoulder. He winced but regained composure quickly. Ed parried another blow and spun around the man striking him in the back of the head and sending him falling to the ground. He prepared to fire, but some one stopped him right before he pulled the trigger. He turned around to see a a pair of glowing orange eyes looking him over like a fine piece of jewelry.
"Well done! Those two are no push overs, taking them out like you did was impressive. Kudos my friend, you have certainly proved your mettle." Harris the man who organized the entire attack stood before him applauding his actions. He looked at the two henchmen yelled,"You two, back on the ship, NOW!"
"Harris." Edwin began.
"Ah! How wonderful, so you do remember me!" He laughed a most cynical and bone chilling laugh.
"You're not an easy face to forget." Ed said spitefully.
"Does that mean you remember my offer? Or were you too distracted by my astonishingly good looks?" He chuckled at his own joke. "So, have you made up your mind? We don't have all day Edwin, in case you haven't noticed the city is currently being remodeled, we're having the walls, ceiling and floors removed!" He laughed his chilling laugh once more.
Edwin stood quietly for a moment as Harris laughed. "I have." he began, Harris stopped laughing and stared at him with a smirk. "I will not stand still any longer, I will join you."
"Fantastic. Now get on the fucking ship, this whole place is about to go down below the clouds, I don't intend on being here when that happens." Edwin and Harris hurried towards the ship. Before Edwin stepped on board he heard a cry coming from behind him. He turned quickly to see the face of the Halfblood stowaway. Angel had tear's in her eyes the noise drowned out her pleas but he could see it clearly on her face. She wanted him to stop, to go with her and return to the Daedalus. Behind her the rest of the crew showed up to take her away. Their faces were full of scorn and disbelief, they would never see him again. He turned and walked aboard the ship as it took off he never looked back.
Chapter 3: The Isles of The ancients
The streets outside were full of people. It was hard to tell apart the protesters from the people gathering to see the Daedalus. It seemed like a bother to have to go through all those people to reach the ship. The docks were clearly visible from the noble district. He was claiming the reward from his last bounty. A mercenary job had him fly out to the Bragadian sky to negotiate a hostage situation. One of the Eiregard nobles had the misfortune of "misplacing" their son, and a band of pirates had happened to find him and were willing to return him for a small "finder's fee". Rhev managed to negotiate with the pirates and got the son back for his own "finder's fee" which was considerably less that the pirates. It had taken a week to claim his rewards, signing paperwork and waiting for it to be processed was the least exciting part of his job. While he was waiting to be paid he heard new's of the Daedalus and enlisted to join the mission. The faster he got out of Eiragard the better. There were certain people he would really like to avoid seeing.
He was now walking down the long and weaving staircase down from the Noble District to the docks. They were more crowded than usual and the closer he got to the docks the more people showed up. He reached the bottom of the steps and was greeted by the loud cheers of the people gathered there. It was almost like a festival, people carried banners wishing good luck to the vessel, streamers and confetti were flying in the air. A small rift in the crowd let the sailors of the ship carry supplies on board. All of the sailors were being praised for their efforts to help save the sky. Already they have helped with various new technologies and performed great acts of heroism. The ship and it's crew sailed into the gulf of storms and returned alive. They brought power to the city of Belna before it fell due to failing engines. Fought against a small army of pirates that seized control of a Watershell (The large frigate ships that carry the technology to gather clean water from clouds and then deliver it to the sky-cities) and brought water to the East Wind. They had also managed to help save many citizens when Tirdwell was attacked.
Now that he thought about it they did deserve a little praise. He sat at a small cafe by the docks looking out the window at the crowd. It was a nice place, the smells of coffee and freshly baked bread. It reminded him of when he was sick, Nowah brought him breakfast from here. He shook the thoughts out of his head and took a bite from his doughnut, these were the kinds of foods he missed when he was out sailing. He always ate like this before he set sail he never knew when he would get the chance to eat this way again. He scanned the area outside the window looking to see if he could spot anyone else who would be joining him on the ship. Apparently they needed mercenaries because of their intimate knowledge of the Cloudsea, or street smarts of the sky. He was sure he wouldn't be the only mercenary boarding today.
Edwin strode through the halls of the black ship the crimson cloth of his new uniform comfortably wrapped around his waist and neck. It had been several weeks since the incident at Tirdwell. At the beginning the training was difficult, he had never been pushed so hard before in his life. He finished his training a few days ago his body had finally grown accustomed to the physical toll of the daily drills. The uniform was new, but it fit nicely. He was on his way to the holding cells. One of the prisoners was to be released into his custody. Simply put they would become his servant. At first he was against it it seemed hypocritical to have a slave when he was fighting to free the elves. He then found out it was a machine, and though it may be controversial he was more accepting that a machine would serve him not a human or elf.
He finally arrived at the holding cell door. He looked down at the name of the prisoner, Victoria Elizabeth Bellamy. He knocked on the door and opened it, a robot girl was sitting on her bed, "Hello?" he said.