The Black Star pushed away from port(Well, the underside of the island, so not exactly "port"), it's sail suddenly billowing. It was a scrappy little ship - a sail, a balloon, a pair of muskets, and a wooden box - but it was enough. Especially for their task.

Days passed as the vessel slowly crawled across the sky. They didn't bump into any problems - Pirates seemed to ignore them, and most of the marauders had been scared off by the sudden armadas that had left to kill the cultists. So they were lucky.

Really, really lucky.

"Why do we have to be here, again?" Serpentine asked. "I don't think you actually told us."

Moon sighed. "For the actually third time, we're looking for an old Cultist airship. It has a map to their city."

"And why do we think it's a good idea to go directly towards the literal home of literally all the worst dragons in the world right now?"

They were exploring the northern tip of the continent, nothing but glorious mountains all the way to the horizon. If you were careful, you could probably step off the ship and right onto one of the peaks. In fact, some of of the taller peaks actually did have harvesting rigs and outposts planted on them, one of which was kind enough to give them some more food, which was scarce in the sky.

Moon looked at Serpentine with a tired look. "Take a guess," were the only words out of her mouth.

"To fight a fleet of heavy and imperial cannons with a wooden box with muskets?" he countered. "Yeah, that's the best way to fight a war."

"I can read your mind," Moon informed him(again), "so please think to me why you think it's a bad idea but still a good idea."

"I've told you, stay out of my head!"

"Well, at least let me know why you won't admit you don't know how to captain a ship!"

"I know plenty well how to captain a ship! You Terrans don't even know what a captain is!"

"The captain is the leader and pilot of a vessel." Smoke was pouring out both their nostrils by now. "Moonsky taught me that, so I think that maybe he should take over as captain!"

"Whoa, whoa, stop, both of you!" Qibli finally interjected. Moon and Moonsky had bonded over the past two days while he taught her the culture and ranking of Skykerians, and he'd learned that it was very hard to tick off Moon. Yet somehow, Serpentine managed to do exactly that nearly every day. "Moon, let's just walk away and not keep this going."

Moonsky held back Serpentine, who's tail was raised menacingly. "I agree with that, so let's go depart, shall we? I think we've got as much food as we can carry."

They marched into the harvester, which was precariously suspended on thin frames and pipes for transporting wood, food, and ore from the ground up. The compact structure was dusty and filled with the smell of fresh meat, manned(manned? Dragonned? I have no idea.) by a group of charming dragons who seemed as happy as a clam in isolation, besides a seven-year-old SeaWing named Spiral who'd apparently gone insane within the first week.

"Ah, you two!" the MudWing in charge said as they entered. The sound of spiral crashing around in his room created a painfully loud and sad background ambiance. "Ready to head off, eh? Well, we did some scouting and there's a Cultist wreckage you might want to check out a few hours west of here."

"Oh," Moonsky said, "Thanks."

A few hours later, they were exploring the wreckage. It was definitely a Cultist ship - a simple corvette.

"Have you found anything?" Serpentine asked from behind Moonsky, making him jump.

"Yes, actually," Moonsky said after a moment to calm down. "This box. It's lock is very weird, and it's part gold, so it must have something of value."

The wooden box was small and long, like it held a rolled up piece of paper. Golden ferns and leaves coated the outside, and it had a dense, two-part lock, molded to look like a worm eye. The words "To Glory and Riches" was carved into the top, filled with more gold. It was, however, very poorly built. It was a surprise it didn't shatter when the ship went down.

"I think I can open it," Serpentine said, taking the box. He observed it for a moment, then went outside and broke the lock on a cannon barrel.

Well. At least it's open.

And inside? The map to the Cultist's city.