"Corkscrew spin, wasn't that?" Mathias asked her, as he watched Gerald's ship fire another cannon shot at the Dragon. The normally impassive shadow grinned a little as the Midnight Songbird lashed out one more time before catching the wind and vanishing behind the glare of the Spire's light.

"Yes," Tabitha replied, still smiling. His ship moved through the winds of the Spire with whimsical ease that obfuscated the challenge of the feat.

Nearly half a year, of both their lives, had been devoured in speculative study of the Spire's winds. They had both risked arrest to send balloons and smoke to test those theories. She had insisted, fiercely, that he learn how to pilot the ship in those winds despite the constant peril to any ship making the attempt.

But Tabitha had never told him why. She regretted that, now.

"He has to survive, Mathias," Tabitha said, more to herself than to her shadow.

"That's in his hands," Mathias reflected. He glanced back to her and added, "But you prepared him well for this. I'm not entirely happy about that."

"I know. I swear I didn't make the decision lightly," Tabitha insisted, grimacing as she recalled a battle she fought years ago.

"No. But you still made that decision alone. What would you have done if he learned, but didn't have the willpower to endure it effectively?" Mathias asked.

"I would have killed him," Tabitha answered. She nearly did anyway. The lessons that taught techniques like the heat haze and rapid explosions required the student to risk their life. More than a few students had died learning how to wage war with the Craft.

"That is some comfort," Mathias replied. He glanced back up, and grimaced. "We're close."

The Dragon flew ahead of them, flying lazily in a small circle, matching the altitude of her apprentice's ship as it waited for the spiralling winds of the Bore to bring the Airship back to it.

They were still, despite having poured herself into the reservoirs and pushing the sails to their limits, too far away to help. Her anxious trepidation was shared by every soldier on the deck below her, as they waited by loaded Valkyries or stood watch on the bow with Salamanders in their hands.

The ship began to rumble, gently, as the winds of the Spire began to pull the ship towards it. She gently forced the sails in slightly, and shifted the angle of the ship to compensate.

And felt the fury of the Spire for the first time in her life.

She had lost long hours of her life, in the last few years, watching this immense spike of brilliant red hellfire. Her mind was slipping into the madness of scourging, her will intertwined with the flame's need to consume and burn. It drew her to the distribution pipes, that moved a small part of the Bore's fires to the fringes of the City and warded off the Gloam. It made every exercise of her will a struggle, to remember who she was even as she gave it up to the fire.

But feeling the Spire up close tore at her mind and threatened to break her into pieces. The allure of the flame was a current that she had to swim against just to think, let alone conjure up enough of herself to resist the temptation of taking hold of that immense power.

Of becoming that immense power.

"Take this," Mathias said, offering her a knife towards her, hilt first. His voice was harsh and ragged, and as she reached out her hand, she could sense his other hand wrapped around the long knife with the obsidian pommel-stone.

Which was odd, since there was a piece of obsidian on the pommel of the knife he was offering her.

"Is that-" she began, unable to finish. She knew that knife, from a dark and terrifying night six years ago.

"The very same. Take it. Having a dagger actually makes you less dangerous." He explained, still holding the knife out to her.

She took hold of it and rested her fingers on the flat of the blade. She sighed in immediate relief, and said, "Thank you. I didn't expect to see that knife again."

The calm that settled over her as she held the knife in her hand was as strong as if she had just fallen into a pool of water. She smiled, as she tucked the knife away in one of her coat pockets, and let its searing cold distract the fires of her will.

And with her focus restored, Tabitha could feel the Dragon's will as it began to pour flames into the air, building a cloud of fire around itself. A mass of flame that was neatly placed in the path of the other airship.

"Are we in range?" Tabitha called out, and Lieutenant Keates took up the question with one of his sergeants for a moment, before turning back and holding his hand up, thumb pointed towards the deck.

Adrian made another couple of gestures, and she turned to Mathias questioningly. "Forty seconds more, at full speed. Thirty if we rise two-hundred yards."

Both options were too long to help Gerald, as his ship was only moments from colliding with the cloud of fire in its path.

But as she looked closer, she noticed his ship was already pointed sideways.

Two Valkyries flashed, launching thin streaks of grey directly into the mass of flame, and through. One struck the Dragon in its chest while the other passed just beneath its left wing. The Dragon reeled in the air but held its place.

As the ship reached the cloud, it shot away from the Bore, skimming along the edge of the cloud of fire. The fire rippled as the ship passed through, turning as it flew with starling speed until it passed the cloud, and turned back into the Bore.

Right behind the Dragon. Clever boy.

Two more shots flashed along the deck as the Dragon began to turn towards the ship, crashing into the Dragon from behind and causing it to fall through the air, spiralling for a few seconds before it rightened itself and turned to pursue the other ship.

By then, Gerald had already pointed his ship back into the wind and had a hundred yard lead.

And they were almost in range.

"Guns?" Mathias called out to Adrian, although Tabitha already knowing the answer.

Lieutenant Keates looked quite a bit older than he had just a few hours ago when he first stepped on her ship. His hair was unkempt and burned in a few places, and the pain he couldn't keep from his face left him a dark, dangerous expression that even Mathias might have been proud of. "Loaded and primed! Ready to engage!" he called back, with a wave of his unbroken arm.

"Flight crew?" Mathias called out again.

Caitlin still looked like a teenager. Of course, that might be her own head refusing to see otherwise. It was easier to make fun of Mathias that way. 

"Propellers are fine! Reservoirs full, minimal strain on the hull, and the tethers are undamaged. Crew is ready!" Caitlin replied. Her voice had a calm, confident note to it that Tabitha appreciated hearing, especially since it concerned the state of her ship.

Caitlin will have her own ship once they build more, Tabitha thought to herself. So long as the City survives the night.

"Excellent," Mathias replied. He then turned to her, and still at a shout, asked, "Your orders, ma'am?"

"Prep for a port-side volley. We engage at close range and will attempt to drive the Dragon into the water. If it falls, we follow, and keep hitting it until it drowns," Tabitha said, fiercely, as the pointed the bow of the ship at the Dragon, and put the propellers into a speed they weren't designed for.

"Aye, ma'am," Mathias replied, and to her surprise, turned away and marched down the stairs to the lower deck, shouting orders. "Port-side, check the guns and mark a convergence point at zero degrees, two-hundred yards out. Sails in, and keep off the rails unless you have a very good reason. Check the hammer locks, adjust your sights, and keep the charges in the middle of the deck until you need them."

He would have made a terrible officer, Tabitha noted to herself. He doesn't swear enough.

"Are we in range?" Tabitha called out to Mathias, who took up the question with some of the gunnery specialists. They glanced at the Dragon a few times, and eventually nodded,

She waited only long enough for Mathias to signal in the affirmative, before she swung the ship hard to the right. The sudden ferocity of the motion surprised even her, and she had to clutch at the wheel to keep on her feet. It took only a few short seconds to point the guns at the beast.

"Anyone with a clear shot, fire at will!" Mathias called out, glancing up at Tabitha as she nodded in approval.

Two shots rang out, passing through her heat haze and outside of her awareness as they streaked toward the Dragon.

The beast turned away from the shots, awkwardly as it turned into the winds to do it, and managed to escape one of the cannon shots. The other crashed into its extended wing and caused it to reel in the air.

The other four cannons howled, striking the beast and sending it careening in a spiral towards the ground.

A cheer erupted from the gunners, and one of the engineering crew clapped Adrian on his good shoulder. Tabitha smiled, impressed at what they managed.

Tabitha began to turn the ship to point it back towards the Dragon and set the clamps to cool the Lift-bag to match the beast's descent. She met Mathias' gaze for a moment and gestured at the starboard guns.

"Starboard guns, prep to engage!" Mathias called out. He had to shout hard into the winds and hold his hand over his hat. "Port-side, load incendiary! Everyone else, keep to the middle of the deck!"

Tabitha extended her will and forced her heat haze out. She extended it past the edges of the deck and felt it tingle as the lift-bag began to devour the heat.

Tabitha extended her heat-haze to envelop the deck. The shift in the air was subtle, but Mathias noticed it almost instantly, and glanced up to her, tiling his hat in salute. He then shouted "Prepare to engage at close range!

Tabitha swung the ship hard, pointing the guns at the Beast as it pounded the air with fire and smoke, trying to stop its fall. The gun crew didn't wait, and a half dozen cannons sounded a thunderous staccato that knocked the Dragon about as it fell.

As the guns fired, she set the ship in a tight spin around the Dragon, glanced over at the other ship, grinned, and muttered to herself, "Time to show you the difference between master and apprentice."

She swung the ship to point the bow into the Bore, and put the propellers into overrun. At the same time, she set the swivel propellers to set the ship in a tight spin.

"Starboard guns, load Incendiary shot!" Mathias called out, as soon as he understood what she was doing. There was a slight tremor in his voice, and his eyes were as wide as she had ever seen them.

He was frightened.

Abyss below, about damn time he joined the rest of us.

Tabitha found herself laughing, as the ship began to spin in defiance of the spiral she now kept it in. She clamped the cooling pads onto the lift-bag, matching the Dragon's descent, as she orbited the beast and spun the ship to point the guns at it.

But even as the beast struggled to stop its descent, as fire bloomed in the air around it as it beat frantically with its wings, it turned its head and shot a blast of fire that rushed at her ship like an oncoming train.

Still laughing, Tabitha raised her hand and set her will, only slightly surprised by how fiercely the fire raged in her grasp. She created a small bloom of fire between the ship and the Dragon and detonated it in a massive explosion that scattered the Dragon's assault.

The explosion shook the ship and swept a wave of searing hot air across the deck. The blast was strong enough that it knocked over three gunners. Several soldiers stopped what they were doing, staring up at her with wide eyes.

"Harden your hearts, grip the rails, and tighten your sphincters!" Tabitha called out to those who watched her. "Hammer that abyss-spawned ash-stain with fire and steel! And once it falls in the water, hold its head under until it's nothing but soot staining the river!" she cried out, as the ship kept falling.

Mathias glanced up at her, as Adrian pointed the soldiers back to the guns. He tilted his hat back a little, and Tabitha could see the pained mixture of grief and fear in his eyes.

"I'll keep your sailor's mouth out of the history books!" Mathias called out, before turning back and shouting orders.

Mathias had taken the port side guns, opposite where Lieutenant Keates was standing. Both sides were a flurry of activity, as over two dozen soldiers kept a dozen guns loaded and primed while the ship spun through the air. As they spun around the beast, three to six guns would roar, spitting bright-blue flame into the air and knocking the beast about.

Despite the heat-haze she maintained around the ship, the winds swept through the deck, whipping her hair around and throwing her heavy coat to clap about behind her.

"Oh how I burn, in this my last hour," she muttered to herself, remembering one of the plays she had all but forgotten. Each verse came back to her as she beat back the Dragon's fire striking at her ship, or with each rumble of the guns as they pounded back at the beast.

"No whimpering wick, snatched by the wind," she said, as the crew delivered another volley of incendiary shot that, for a moment, she couldn't see or sense the Dragon behind.

"No sheltered stove, huddled beneath stone," Tabitha whispered as her will crashed against the Dragon's counterattack.

"My candle rages and devours, consumes dark and cold," her voice rose as she pushed the Dragon's assault aside, and flung it into the empty air. She was nearly giddy with the rush of power, as she wielded more of the flame than she had ever commanded in her life.

"I burn without tomorrow, without yesterday," Tabitha struck at the Dragon even as the cannons flared again, pounding into it again and again. The air around the Dragon was a mass of swirling flame, so bright even she couldn't watch it.

"And I will live forever, as my light wanders the void," she finished, as the Dragon abandoned attempting to halt its descent and threw itself lower, faster than the ship could descend.

Even as it fell, she harried the Dragon with blooms of fire and concussive force; power enough to wreck buildings and decimate even the walls. But even as she fought at the very edge of her self control, the Dragon took every blow she struck, and beat away her flames.

A few seconds later, it turned sharply in the air, and escaped their assault, darting with the wind just outside of their turning radius. It turned, and drew its head back, as the ship drew close.

"All hands! Brace!" she barely heard Mathias as he bellowed a warning to the crew.

Tabitha hissed under her breath as she reached with her will for the fires of the lift-bag. With a crushing wrench, she took hold of the flames and crushed it, wincing in pain. Above her, the Bag deflated instantly, and its light disappeared.

The ship dropped swiftly, passing below the Dragon, so its assault collided with the lift-bag, hurling it sideways even as they fell.

The ship swung violently, tilting aggressively enough that the water below was visible past the lip of the deck. Tabitha abandoned her grip on the wheel and clutched the post it was anchored to, dropping to the ground.

Nearly half a dozen soldiers tumbled off the side, four of them carried with one of the Valkyries that was ripped from its weld and careened off the side of the ship.

Desperately, Tabitha reignited the bag, slowing their descent. She managed to claw her way to the swivel propellers, and set them to spin as hard as possible, to counter the sway of the ship.

It took another three swings to slow the ship enough that the crew could do anything other than hold on for their lives. Tabitha glanced about, and was relieved to see Mathias helping someone climb back up from the side of the ship.

"It didn't cut the tethers," Tabitha heard Dremora pant, beside her. "How?"

"It was all I could manage," Tabitha replied, breathing deeply in relief. Keeping the Dragon's fires from breaking those chains had taken a lot out of her, especially right after killing the fires of the lift-bag.

Tabitha stopped for a moment, feeling a now familiar presence begin to descend from above them. "Check the chains. Quickly!" she ordered, urgently.

Dremora heard the panic in her voice and didn't argue, dashing away to the tether at the back of the ship.

"Two cannons are out of commission, besides the one that fell off the side," Mathias said, somehow right beside her without her noticing. "We lost eight people in that exchange, all off the side when the ship swung,"

"How close to the water are we?"

"Less than a hundred yards."

"Blighted hellfire!" Tabitha exclaimed and added fire to the lift-bag. With a small push against her feet, the ship's descent stopped.

Tabitha looked up and turned off the propellers. "Tell everyone to get the ship ready for a fight. I don't know how much time I can give you."

Even as she spoke, the Dragon's fire struck the top of the lift-bag, red fire swirling around the sides in a halo that extended all around them. Despite her own power, and the cold-stone of the lift-bag above them, the heat was a shock to her lungs as she breathed.

Tabitha set the clamps, connecting the cold-stone bricks to the lift-bag. The ship descended again, painfully slowly, even as the Dragon continued its assault.

"It's keeping its distance from the lift-bag," Mathias said, after a moment. "Why? It could probably tear through that canvas if it wanted to."

"It's a creature of fire," Tabitha replied. "I can't image it wants to get anywhere near the lift-bag."

"Huh," Mathias said, staring up at the canvas for a moment longer before he turned and dashed away.

Tabitha shook her head, brushing off her confusion to return her attention to the fire still blooming around the lift-bag. The air was still dangerously hot, and the metal of the rails would likely sting if anyone else on the ship tried to grab it.

And the heat was forcing the ship up, enhancing the fires within by straining the Cold-stone. Even with the cooling lines attached, its fires would soon overwhelm the lift-bag.

"So let's see how much you hate cold-stone," Tabitha muttered as she pulled a lever, disconnecting the clamps that connected the extra heat sink. All at once, the ship rose up, pushing at her feet as it ascended through the fire.

The fire vanished, and she saw the Dragon as it wheeled away from the ship, circling slowly.

That confirms it. Their enemy hates cold-stone.

She set the clamps again and started descending towards the water. The Dragon gained a little height, careful to stay directly above them, where the guns couldn't reach.

She let the ship fall until it skimmed the water, as low as the ship could manage, and released the clamps. The ship stopped falling just a few feet above the water, the twirling propellers dipping into the churning water.

The Dragon's fire struck the lift-bag just as the ship stopped, blazing red tendrils trickling over the sides and swirling around the side of the ship. The rapidly heating bag was the only thing keeping the ship from being shoved into the water, and Tabitha was forced to use her own power to keep the fires away from the crew.

But she smiled in relief, just before the Dragon's fire made it impossible to see beyond the rails.