A couple of days later, when they’re only a dozen hours off reaching the edge of the reported qi storm, Emily receives a message from Silvia on her Terminal, asking to meet outside her room. She sets down the tezerite pestle and mortar she was using to grind dawn moth abdomens into a thick paste, and disables the heating elements that were boiling a blended solution of various other beasts’ materials, before stepping out of her Dimensional Factory with a light flex of spatial mana. She takes her children with her but leaves Pod to his work.

When she opens the door and leaves her room, she comes face-to-face with Silvia, who sniffs the air once before tilting her head curiously.

“Did I interrupt your brewing?” the vampire questions, before turning down the corridor and setting off towards the bridge with a light gesture of her head to ask Emily to follow.

“Yes, but I wasn’t at a stage I couldn’t delay, so it’s no bother,” Emily responds, falling in step beside her without question.

“Good. What are you working on?”

“I’m making Rotwin an elixir to consume his low grade essences more efficiently. It’s a perfect opportunity for me to get used to creating brews that are effective for you martial artists, and to use a high-quality ingredient I’ve only had a little exposure to.”

“I take it you’ve informed him already, then?”

“Yes. He was more concerned about the threat Yorn might pose to me if he found out than the danger I would draw to the crew if others did. He’s firmly on our side. He both guessed your intentions and was highly receptive to them.”

“Perfect. That should make this coming meeting smoother if we already have his support.” Silvia lets out a breath of relief. “Did you manage to work out a method to prevent others from taking information about you by force?”

“Yes.” Emily nods with a small, proud smile curling her lips. “I helped boost my son here before he cast his usual Mental Lock spell, and he was able to put it in place successfully.”

“Oh?” Silvia blinks in surprise, looking between the mother and son. “How did you manage that? I thought you were incapable of casting mental spells yourself.”

“I am, for now, but I used a unique skill I’ve developed to boost my children’s cultivation in a slightly different manner from usual. In a similar process to Overdriving my non-sentient creations, I was able to bring his casting power up to my own level for a few seconds.”

“You really do keep surprising me,” Silvia says with a pleased grin. “You should be able to place protections on every member of the crew, bar me, with that. A bit of a shame, but if we come across a mental mage that can invade my mind, I think we’re doomed anyway. Now, are you ready to plan a coup?”

They pause before the doors to the bridge, Silvia’s hand hovering above the control panel on the wall, waiting to open them as she fixes Emily with an excited, expectant gaze.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Emily asks, stepping forward without waiting and opening the doors herself with a small injection of machina.

Silvia laughs and follows her in, drawing every eye in the room to them. Lethia is sitting in the main command seat, with a few pilots in smaller chairs at her flanks, and Rotwin is standing a few paces behind her. There are several screens projecting camera feeds from the other ships in the fleet’s bridges, with several crew members present in addition to the pilots controlling the spacecrafts. Emily recognises Rotlith on one of the screens, but none of the other faces are familiar.

“Lethia, would you please set our conversation to broadcast through all the ships of this fleet, not just their bridges,” Silvia requests as the door shuts behind her.

The head gunner nods and complies without question, sending out a few machina-charged commands.

“We’re live,” she says, her voice a low synthetic hiss.

“Thank you,” Silvia says, her hands tucked behind her back and a wide smile that shows her fangs on her face. “Hello everyone, I’m sure you’re all aware that this fleet was chosen to scout an unreliable tip about a qi storm, but I gathered all of you, specifically, with a different idea in mind.”

Emily leans back against the wall beside the door with her children on either side of her, clearly in view of the room’s cameras pointed at Silvia, waiting to be called upon and watching the transmission jammer’s activity closely.

“I have long been dissatisfied with our Captain’s conduct,” Silvia begins, letting her anger bleed noticeably into her voice. “He is a coward who’ll happily throw valued members of our crew to the wolves if it means he’ll continue to grow uninhibited. Take this mission if you have your doubts. The information we received was sparse and likely a trap, but instead of bringing the full force of our entire crew to fight a potential ambush or leading the scouting group himself as the single most powerful combatant available, he was happy to send us to our possible deaths alone, only to return himself if the situation proved safe and fruitful.”

Lethia and Rotwin both nod in agreement, as do most of the faces present across the video feeds covering the bridge’s windows. Emily receives a frozen outgoing message from one of the pilots who nodded. The message contains a warning of insubordination to the Captain, but she doesn’t say anything yet, pinpointing the offender and quickly pulling up the Terminal details of the other crewmates on the bridge with them.

“He also pushes us to deal in the worst of trades, selling any awakened who have the misfortune of meeting us to squeeze profit from each of our jobs,” Silvia continues without pause. “It benefits us, yes, but quite frankly, it’s unneeded. We’re strong enough to fight head-on for our progress without stooping to such lows, and I know most, if not all, of you agree with me. I’m tired of supplying, and being associated with, the most depraved scum of the universe who can’t even fight their own battles.”

Several more warning messages are flagged, and Emily quietly records their names and locations within their ships.

“I’ve voiced my dissatisfaction in the past, as did several of our valued allies and friends who were weaker than I, and they mysteriously went missing on jobs not long after that.”

Several crewmembers take on pained expressions, clearly knowing exactly who Silvia’s referring to, as Emily raises a brow at the new information.

“I say enough is enough. We may be pirates, but I, for one, only took that role because I thought it would allow me to live freely, uncontrolled by the universe's greater powers, no matter who they may be. Why should we have to follow a man who doesn’t respect us or that desire for freedom?”

A few people mutter their agreement across the call linking the ships’ bridges, and Emily hears a few shouts from deeper into The Blade.

“That’s fine and all, but do you actually believe we can win a fight if we challenge the captain?” says one of the pilots Emily doesn’t recognise by face, the same humanoid who sent the first distress message to Yorn. “I know you reached seventh phase recently, but he’s been there for years. We’ll all be dead the moment you challenge him.”

“It will be a tough fight, yes.” Silvia nods before glancing over to Rotwin in a silent request. “But who said I have to go into it alone?”

The chimaeric hound steps forward, taking up position beside his Vice-Captain in a show of support.

“Rotwin here has already agreed to join my revolt, and I’m certain Elwaine can be persuaded as well. Perinith may be a lost cause, but we can eliminate him first if needed to leave Yorn without any of our highest-level combat power as backup.”

“Even if you do manage to win,” says one of the few pilots who hasn’t yet voiced their support or attempted to send Yorn a warning, “aren’t we shooting ourselves in the foot getting rid of our longest standing seventh phase and at least one sixth circle?”

“We’ll feel the loss, but sometimes the rot has to be cut out for a healthy body to grow,” Silvia responds, not having to look back as Emily pushes off the wall and walks forward to stand at her other side. “Besides, it won’t be too long till others rise to take their place.”

Most of the crewmembers watching through the linked call look confused at the value their Vice-Captain is putting on their newest fifth stage recruit. Emily raises her left hand, letting sparks of machina dance across her skin and between her fingers. Then, she lifts her right, unleashing her concealed mana and drawing on several elements at once.

She starts with lightning, producing several small tongues of plasma that look almost identical to the machina in her left. Then comes metal and water, forming floating droplets of clear and glistening silver liquids that draw the arcs of charge in. Next is wind, stirring the metal and water into a swirling vortex. Fire and earth spring to life at the same time, joining the miniature building storm and creating flowing, red-hot magma. Ice forms in the remaining gaps, hissing in reaction to the heat and bridging the water and fire with a thin film of steam.

Particles of sand, the most recent addition to her elemental collection, break away from the burning magma, pulled into the churning winds and sparkling like small fragments of glass as the white glow of light shines down on the elemental storm. Finally, a gaping black nothingness spawns at the base of the conjuration, drawing in the light from above and warping any of the elements that touch it up into its complementary opposite, containing the display with a delicate touch of space.

Mutters of shock spread through the crew like wildfire, and Emily notices several of the traitors who’ve already betrayed them trying to send out signals to scramble their own warning messages.

“She’s dual awakened?” Lethia asks, her voice a crackling hiss of surprise that fills the bridge and silences the call as everyone waits with bated breath for clear confirmation of what they’re seeing.

“That she is,” Silvia beams. “A dual awakened our fool of a Captain alienated and nearly turned against us from the moment we met her by suggesting we enslave her and her children. A dual awakened who, at fifth circle and stage, has been able to give me more of a challenge in a spar than any other member of our crew bar Yorn. A dual awakened who’s only been walking her path to power for ten years.”

Emily cuts off her outward energy flow, letting her miniature storm dissipate as she lowers her arms.

“So, does that alleviate your fears for our future?”

“Yes,” the pilot who voiced their concerns nods enthusiastically, an excited grin splitting their face. “I’ll gladly follow your command from now on, Captain.”

Murmured agreement spreads throughout the call once again, this time louder, with more confidence behind it.

“Haha, I’m not the captain yet, but thank you. I promise I won’t let your faith down. For now, we complete our mission as if nothing has changed, before returning to the main fleet to work out who else will be our allies. Say nothing to anyone who isn’t in this splinter fleet, but if you know of any others you think will share our values, please do let any of us in command know so we can vet them and welcome them into the fold.” Silvia nods at Lethia, and the gunner ends the broadcast through the fleet, leaving them with only the other ships’ bridges able to see and hear them.

The vampire turns back to face Emily, her smile slipping from friendly to bloodthirsty in an instant as she runs her tongue across her fangs.

“Did you get them?” she asks, to the confusion of everyone else listening, except Lethia, whose eyes light up in understanding.

“Yes.” Emily nods. “What should we do about those who changed their minds after finding out about me?”

“They’ve shown where their loyalties lie, but we’ll give them the benefit of the doubt for now. Keep a record, and we’ll watch them closely, especially when you and your son put our protections in place, but I’d rather not lose more of the crew than I have to.”

“Understood.” Emily holds back those names and sends out the rest.

A few confused voices on the other bridges displayed on the screens in front of them question what’s happening, but several of them check their Terminals before nodding in understanding with solemn expressions. As one, those Emily has contacted draw their weapons or cast spells, turning on the traitors locked in with them and executing them on the spot.

“We can’t have anyone warning Yorn now, can we?” Silvia asks, turning back to the cameras at the front of the room, her smile sending shivers down the spines of those who were a change of heart away from dying and those who weren’t alike.