The Cast Die

From his position on top of the clocktower, he looked over his home, the island that floated far above the land, filled with simple colorful brick houses that were juxtaposed against the pitch black towers that rose up far past the clouds. Pitch black towers that released an even darker smog that choked the air and clouded the very clouds themselves. The only parts of the atmosphere that were completely clear were the wind tunnels used to travel all over the island, which created an interesting image of ink-black smoke swirling around unseen cylindrical tunnels.

He adjusted his gas mask as he waited for his target. Ugh, the filthy maledicti fures couldn't even bother to give the “lesser people” proper masks to deal with the toxic fumes they'd been forced to live in. If he could, he would get rid of the toxic gas, but unfortunately such a method didn't exist to his knowledge. As he wallowed in his misery, he noticed a large object approaching the island in the distance through his binoculars. ‘Finally’, he smirked as he dimly saw an airship float down in the distance, about to land in the aerodrome.

After placing his binoculars back into his bag, he stretched his body while balancing carefully on the narrow ledge of the clocktower. As he looked over the island, he took a deep breath and jumped straight into the wind tunnel in front of him. He felt an intense rush of wind as he was launched all the way across the sprawling city below, until he reached his destination, a building right near the aerodrome. He took a moment to look over the side. The aerodrome was located on the border of the island, and so he could see the magical boundary around the island that filtered the air passing through and provided some additional defense as the air constantly blew upwards there. He watched as the ink-black gas dissipated as it collided against the boundary. Jupiter’s blessings had been great, but not enough to protect them from the invaders.

With a heavy sigh, he quietly sat down and started pulling everything he needed out of his bag. He had to work quietly in order to avoid alerting the guards near the airship down on the ground, but soon enough he was done. He released the breath he hadn't realized he was holding, and moved up a little in order to admire his handiwork. He'd set up two catapults that were pointed in two different directions. Then he pulled out the harmless bombs he'd made. They should release the signature colors of Populares, a local gang, and hence would act as false signs towards them. They should also be loud in order to draw the attention of the guards. Hopefully they didn't explode prematurely.

He placed them in the catapults one after the other and released the catapults. The result was as glorious as he'd hoped, with the noise drawing in the guards as purple and black smoke rose up at the points of impact. From what he'd learnt of the system over various tests he'd done over the past three months, the guards would first call for backup and said backup would arrive within a minute. He quickly pulled out his foldable glider, and with a quick prayer to Jupiter, leapt off the roof. He wasn't blessed by Jupiter, but surely he wasn't hated either?

Luckily enough, the glider worked perfectly, and he landed on top of the airship before the reinforcements arrived. Unfortunately, he accidentally struck a metal part of the airship as he moved. ‘Shit’. He threw himself face down onto the airship without a sound, and held his breath while keeping himself as still as a statue. He kept at it until his breath ran out, and only then did he dare to look back down. The guard hadn't bothered to investigate, thank the gods.

He carefully started crawling until he reached his destination, a panel on top through which he could enter. It was locked, but he had his trusty skeleton keys. After trying them out one after the other, he found one that worked. He slowly pulled open the panel as he peeked in. There were no guards down below. ‘Excellent’. He clung to the panel as he went inside, and closed it shut as he weighed it down. Hopefully that noise didn't alert anyone. Then he carefully dropped down. He'd gone without his shoes, so there was no noise.

He carefully snuck around, though it probably wasn't necessary. The place would be mostly empty by this point. He found a beautiful metal vase that could be reforged, and threw it into his bag. He only had so much space though, so he had to be careful. As he moved through the airship while picking up anything he could sell, he heard a voice through an open door.

“Incredible. Unlike every other artifact in the world, this doesn't simply enhance one’s innate magical abilities. This is the key to the next step of our evolution!”

He looked inside, and saw a ratty and lanky middle-aged man hunched over a glowing die, looking at it through various tools while muttering to himself. ‘Interesting’. He didn't understand the weird technobabble Ratface was going on about, but it didn't really matter. The key part was that he'd found an artifact. Those were normally kept in extremely secure safes, so he'd just hit the jackpot.

He slowly snuck behind the man, and struck the back of the man’s neck with the metal vase he'd picked up. The man collapsed under the force of the blow. He inspected the vase for a moment. It'd crumpled a bit, but that didn't really matter. There was a bit of blood though. He stuffed the vase back into his pack anyways. Then he carefully picked up the die with a piece of cloth, along with some of the other tools, and ran out. He heard a groan behind him, but ignored it as he continued stuffing his bag and booked it back to the panel he'd entered through.

As he ran, he heard a series of bell rings echoing throughout the airship. The cacophony of alarm bells irritated his ears. ‘Shit’. The man must have been able to activate some sort of alarm system. He was able to make it through the panel and he started running to the back of the airship to the border, as that was where his escape route was. But the guards who'd been alerted by the alarms had spotted him and blocked off his path.

‘What now?’ With a quick glance at his surroundings, he realized that his only way out was to get through the guards in front of him. He pulled out a spare smoke bomb out of his pocket and threw it down amidst the guards in front before they could take aim with their guns. He attempted to sneak through with the distraction, but before he could get through fully, one of the guards drew their bastum and struck out at him. He rolled with the blow, but as he did the bag opened up and the die fell out. ‘No, No, No!’ He quickly thrust his hand out and grabbed onto it as tightly as possible.

Most artifacts had bad consequences when held by those who weren't “compatible”, so he winced as he clenched the die, but he felt an unexpected surge of power go through him. As the guard moved to strike at him again, he thrust his hand out on instinct, and ended up releasing a wild and powerful gust of wind that blew away all the guards.

‘What? Did I do that!?’ But he wasn't blessed. What was going on? He felt a wave of fatigue go through his body as the wind died down, but he couldn't risk the guards getting back up, and so quickly ran until he reached the edge of the island, and then jumped out with his glider pulled out.

The upward draft pulled him far above, and he turned his body in order to use the glider to go back down. With a push against the boundary, he was able to carefully glide back down while avoiding the guards down below.

His body ached even as he did so. It was strange for him to feel this tired. Was it the magic he'd used? Did the die somehow unlock a blessing from Jupiter? His mind was full of questions, but ultimately his theft had been successful, so it didn't really matter.