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The
Straylight
also mounted twenty Battleshot batteries. Battleshot was a massive gun emplacement that fired short-range explosive shot. A single Battleshot battery could unleash half a million rounds of explosive ordinance every minute—a withering wall of fire that could sink any Xaphan vessel set against it at a close range.

The
Straylights
were also fast, strong, and maneuverable. They revolved sixteen Stellar Mach coils buried deep in the rear section of the ship. Winding just four of these coils pushed the
Straylight
at blistering, sub Mach speeds, winding ten was standard for a safe Stellar Mach. Winding all sixteen, the ship "blinked" out of existence and re-emerge elsewhere, navigation impossible. For planetary excursions, the
Straylight
s had ten gas-compression engines that were very reliable but known for being deafeningly loud. It could also float, submerge, and land like a transport vessel. Additionally, a wheel-helmed
Straylight
could out turn a much smaller Xaphan X-2 craft without much effort. Captain Davage, a former Master Helmsman, was nothing short of a magician with the helm wheel.

Given all that, the size, firepower, speed, and maneuverability, the
Straylight
was unchallenged—their principle enemies, the Xaphans, had nothing to match it. Xaphan ships, the X-2s, Ghomes, and Merci's, were small and poorly constructed. They were designed to be easy to produce in vast numbers and relied on sheer overwhelming hoards to swarm a League ship, their Xaphan crews expendable.

The
Straylight
s mounted virtually no science equipment, those things being kept in tight leash by the powerful Science Ministry and their old
VithVenera
ships. Science, as they say, was for the scientists; let the Fleet do the fighting.

The
Seeker
was the 172nd
Straylight
vessel commissioned. It was laid down in Provst, Kanan shipyards. It had three sister ships, the
Dart
,
Exody,
and
Redoubt
, whose spars were laid at the same time. As with all ships in the Fleet, its captain, engineer, and boatswain were appointed via the Fleet Admiralty through a long, complicated, and often-times confusing process. In theory, anybody could assume those various roles; all one needed to do was present oneself to the Admiralty and argue one's various merits in open debate. In reality, one needed money, great social acclaim, or highly placed contacts to be appointed. Once appointed, the captain, engineer, and boatswain had to "re-appoint" every four years.

Davage, Lord of Blanchefort, a well-thought of, highly placed individual with a belt-load of command experience, was appointed to the captain's chair of the
Seeker
, though he faced stiff resistance from powerful Lord Grenville—a man with an inherited familial dislike for Lord Blanchefort.

As a Main Fleet starship, the captain had a fair amount of autonomy as far as where the ship went and what it did when it got there—the Fleet Admiralty issuing only the vaguest and loosest of standing orders, all based on the ancient Elder Promise by which they were all bound:

Fight the Xaphans.

Defend life from the Xaphans.

Sink, or take as a prize, as many ships

and crew as possible.

Main Fleet actions were instigated by individual ship captains, who then issued a call to charge, which was answered, in turn, by other willing Fleet ships. Major battles were fought often without a single direct order from the Stellar Fleet Admiralty.

Captain Davage had lots of enemies within the Xaphan ranks, his most famous adversary being Princess Marilith of Xandarr, and they were eager to meet him in battle. Those were the heady days of the League-Xaphan conflict, when swirling, turning ship to ship fights were common. As a result, the
Seeker
was in near-constant conflict with them, and as a further result, his victory totals were extremely high. He sunk the Xaphans, confounded and enraged them, impounded their vessels and captured their crews, often times without his ship so much as being scratched.

* * * * *

Davage put a report down and looked around his office. Pictures everywhere, many of the
Seeker
and his crew, many of his family, his late father and mother—Sadric and Hermilane—his sister Countess Pardock of Vincent, and his other sister, Lady Poe—a sad, troubled woman whom he worried about constantly. The gossip around League Society was that Poe was crazy or possessed by spirits. Davage was always stung by the gossip, but he had to admit, Poe often times acted … crazy. Some said Poe will bring down House Blanchefort all by herself. Mental illness, so rare and unheard of, was a dark stigma.

There were other pictures—of Lady Hathaline of Durst.

Captain Hathaline of the Main Fleet vessel
Dart
, beautiful in her Fleet uniform and hat.

His lifelong friend.

Dead.

He'd known her all his life, she being approximately his age. Their respective castles within eye-shot in the cold north of Vithland, Blancheforts and Dursts had always been friends and allies. Hathaline was the seventh of seven Durst girls. No heirs. The Durst line was headed to extinction. It happened; Great Houses came and went.

She had always liked Dav, always went on and on about how smart a Blanchefort-Durst pairing could be, how they could light up League society together. Dav shrugged her aside; he never really wanted much to do with posh League circles and fancy to-dos, which Hath loved. Dav was coy and slow to respond to her suggestions, but she was relentless. She was certain their union was meant to be.

But then there was the Princess Marilith thing: The Wedding. The event that ruined everything.

Dav's late father, Sadric, society man and diplomat, hatched an outrageous plan to end the League-Xaphan conflict by marrying two Great Houses together. Surely he figured, such a spectacle might bring the two sides as one once and for all—as if centuries of bitter hatred could be so easily dismissed and forgotten. Princess Marilith of Xandarr, a powerful Xaphan House, was selected from their side, and she toured the League looking for a suitable pairing. She and her contingent were all the rage for a while in League Society. Sadric's plan apparently was working.

Hathaline was shocked, enraged, heartbroken when Princess Marilith selected Dav to be her husband. Of all the sons of the various League Great Houses available to her, she had to select Dav—her Dav. This woman—this half naked Xaphan—was stealing the man she intended to marry, and she wasn't going to take it quietly. She wasn't going to let him go without a fierce struggle.

Hath was very potent in the Gifts—the Dursts being of the line of Subra of the Mark always had exceptional Gifts. She could Waft, Cloak like a Sister, she had a minimal Sight, and she had the Stare. She had a powerful Stare—a very powerful Stare. It was a long-hidden Durst secret that Hath, as a young woman, nearly killed a servant with it in a fit of child-rage.

There is a rare aspect of the Stare—one that is virtually unknown outside of the Sisterhood. They call it the Cloud. The Cloud could muddy a person's psychic signature—could distort a Stare, could make some things appear more prominent, while diminishing others.

Hathaline had the Cloud to go along with her green-eyed Stare. She'd learned all about it from the old Vith books in her family's castle. She made it a point to know everything about the Stare, her specialty. It was always a powerful Gift, a contentious one. The Stare—to be able to look at a person and instantly know everything there was to know about that person. It never seemed right; the lack of privacy was shocking. To Stare Hard at someone … the pain that it created. The Sisterhood had once considered declaring it illegal because of all the bad things it could do, the pain it could inflict, and because of the deadly Gifts that could be derived from it. All of the illegal Black Hat Gifts had been based off of the Stare.

Biding her time, Hath knew that Countess Pardock of Vincent, Dav's older sister, was going to Stare Princess Marilith. Always fiercely protective of her younger brother, Pardock wanted to have a good hard look at Marilith, this Xaphan princess, to see what made her tick, to make sure Dav wasn't going to be put into a bad situation. Lord Sadric had warned her not to, but Pardock was going to do it anyway. Countess Pardock had always been a rowdy and fearless woman—a proud rebel with blue hair and a gown. Some said she was possessed by the spirit of her raider, brigand grandfather Maserfeld—that he had been reborn as a woman to plague Sadric of Blanchefort, a son Maserfeld always felt was too dandy for his own good. Some said she was the son that Maserfeld had never had. She was every bit as hottempered and unpredictable as her grandfather and ever as ready to raise swords, fight duels, and rough up League ladies and potential suitors as her pugilistic mother Hermilane had been. In any event, Pardock was devoted to her family and especially her baby brother, and the well-being of his soul was worth more to her than the fear of creating a huge scandal and public embarrassment for her father—a man who had gone mad with the idea of this wedding, obsessed with it. For her brother, Countess Pardock will have crossed into hell and fought the devil himself.

And Hathaline used the Cloud on Princess Marilith at the grand pre-wedding ball. She Clouded her, she Clouded her but good—the arrogant Xaphan princess had no clue what was being done to her, about how her life was about to change forever.

Marilith and Hath glared at each other across the ballroom floor as the dancers twirled and the music played, Marilith smug in the knowledge that she was stealing Hath's man—for she'd been told by her entourage that Lady Hathaline of Durst deeply loved Davage.

"Poor little Hathaline, that silly girl of Durst, her tiny heart in tatters. Do not admit her to the wedding ceremony, for she might try something … unseemly."

And Hath hit her with the Cloud.

Marilith was an ambitious, fairly unscrupulous, fairly unprincipled woman who was planning to take over League/Xaphan society and rule it with Dav at her side. It was a lofty and haughty ambition certainly—but nothing too unseemly, nothing unheard of to be sure. Xaphan princesses always thought big.

But Hath's Cloud amplified those desires and ambitions, turning Marilith's psychic image into a psychopathic, monstrous rant leaving half the League dead. And Countess Pardock, herself a master Starer, saw it. She saw the Clouded image and was horrified. Standing there on the ballroom floor, she dropped her drink, aghast that her brother was about to marry a monster.

Fearing for her brother's very soul, she refused for them to be married. She took that baton and threw it down as the rest of the chapel gasped in shock and pulled him out of there.

As a result, Marilith was left behind, Davage literally running from her, from the dark image Pardock had seen, and in her sadness, she eventually became every bit the psychopath Hath had Clouded her to be, determined to get his full attention one way or the other.

Victorious, with her Xaphan rival out of the picture, Hath waited for Dav, shaken and reeling from this incident, to come to her for comfort—and she being so loving and kind. But Davage never seemed to recover from the Marilith thing, his scarred heart slow in healing, slow to reach out and trust. Dav had loved her. They had Zen-La'ed, their minds had linked. Davage still loved Marilith.

He took to the stars, joining the Fleet, wanting to get as far away from home as possible. Unable to forget him, Hath eventually followed, becoming his navigator and then his first officer. Davage then helped her in becoming captain of the
Dart
. His arguments before the Admiralty convinced them that she was right for the appointment. They soared the heavens together, fighting the Xaphans, fighting Princess Marilith, her sorrow turned to infinite anger.

And just as Davage appeared to be recovering, as his heart healed, as he began seeking a wife at last, Hath, confident in her standing with him, told him what she had done to Marilith years ago at the ball. She wanted everything above board.

He was furious, incredulous.

He got Hath in a room at Fleet, and there he dressed her down, chewed her out, and laid her open like he had never done to anyone before ever.

"How could you be so cruel?" he had said.

"How am I to ever forgive you?" he shouted.

"You've blood on your hands!" he cried.

And Hathaline, Lady of Durst, captain of the Fleet, hat in hand, stood there, listened, and wept.

But being a tough-minded Durst, Hathaline didn't give up. She took to the stars in her ship, determined to redeem herself, to win back Dav's friendship and maybe more. Maybe he'd come around and the "smart match" she had always talked about, always dreamed of, might come to be.

Hopeful and determined, she soared away in the
Dart
, never to return.

Dead. Mirendra. Ship destroyed. Crew lost. Marilith had her revenge at last.

To lose a friend, a life-long friend, after harsh, angry, hasty words had been spoken was a terrible thing. The guilt Davage felt at knowing his friend died thinking he hated her was grinding … relentless.

He didn't hate her. He'd been angry certainly, outraged, of course. That Hath went to such lengths for him—perhaps he'd never given her the attention she was due … perhaps his inattention drove Hath to do what she did. Perhaps it was his fault after all.

The regrets …

Now, here he was, a Black Hat under guard in the rear section of his ship.

A Black Hat who was known for her power—for the multitudes of people she'd killed.

Sygillis of Metatron.

And she looked just like Hath. Just a tiny bit smaller, darker green eyes, and with a Black Hat's mark on her face but everything else was perfect.

Hath reborn as a Xaphan murderer.

How often does one get the opportunity for redemption? How often can one reach out into the cold, earthy depths of the grave and speak to the dead—to say, "I'm sorry," and "I didn't mean it."

Through Sygillis of Metatron he will redeem himself, even if it killed him.