The winds had shifted.
Out on the open sea, aboard the Emberfang, the clouds didn't just roll in — they charged across the sky like an invading army. The sea churned with unease, and gulls screamed warnings into the wind before vanishing altogether.
Raizen stood at the prow, cloak flapping violently, his eyes trained not on the storm — but beyond it.
Zhara approached, soaked and scowling. "This isn't just weather. This storm is unnatural."
Silco adjusted the dial of a barometer, frowning. "It's circling us… not moving with the currents. Almost like it's alive."
Raizen's expression didn't change.
"Then we'll kill it."
Somewhere Above the Clouds – The Sky Broker's Ship
Far above the storm clouds, floating on a skyfaring ship lined with glass wings and thunder-charged sails, a cloaked figure stared down through a shimmering lens. This was Dacelyn Mael, known only in whispers as The Storm Broker, a rogue weather scientist who had once angered the World Government by making a typhoon disappear — just to prove he could.
Today, he was orchestrating another test.
"How will the Nightborne fare against nature when nature itself is bent against him?" he mused, sipping tea brewed with cloud-ice.
Back on the Emberfang – Inside the Eye
As the ship was dragged into the storm's spiral, the crew began to fracture.
Lightning arced between the masts. Rain slammed like bullets. One lookout was swept off the crow's nest and vanished into the mist without a scream.
Lasska clung to the rigging like a spider. Grinder strapped himself to the mast with chains. Calder Vale had strapped a lightning rod to his back — voluntarily.
"Madness!" Zhara roared over the thunder.
Calder grinned, sparks crackling over his goggles. "Madness is science with courage!"
Raizen, meanwhile, moved calmly through the ship, reaching the helm.
The wheel was gone. Torn off.
That's when he saw it — floating in the eye of the storm, a ship made of clouds and mirrors... and someone watching.
Raizen narrowed his eyes. "Someone's playing with gods."
The Challenge
The storm intensified.
Waves the size of mansions threatened to crack the Emberfang in two. Shadows of ghost ships drifted within the rain, flickering like mirages. One crewman swore he saw his dead mother's face in the water — before jumping overboard.
Zhara grabbed Raizen. "We can't survive this. Not without…"
Raizen raised a hand. "Don't say luck. I don't believe in it."
Instead, he removed his coat. Beneath it, his mark pulsed — the inky curse left on his skin the day Noctis fell.
He stepped to the bow. Lightning struck near him, but veered away at the last moment.
"Everyone hold tight," he commanded.
And then… he stepped off the ship.
The Duel Above the Storm
Raizen landed mid-air, platforms of shadow rising to meet his feet with each step. He climbed through the storm, against gravity, until he reached Dacelyn Mael's skyship.
The Storm Broker greeted him with a bow, lightning dancing around his shoulders. "Ah. The Nightborne visits. How charming."
Raizen didn't speak. He just summoned a blade made of condensed dusk and pointed it at the scientist.
"I'm done with games."
The two clashed in a spectacle of chaos: shadow blades versus lightning lances, sky currents shaped like fists, explosions lighting up the sky like a second sun.
But the storm was weakening.
Raizen's power wasn't just in his curse — it was in his conviction. And conviction burned hotter than thunder.
Aftermath
The storm broke.
Winds scattered like frightened wolves. The sky cleared. The Emberfang, though battered, still floated — and her crew stared in awe as Raizen descended like a meteor of night.
He landed, silent. His shirt scorched. His knuckles bleeding.
"Is the storm… gone?" Zhara asked.
"No," he said. "It bowed."
In the Shadows of the World
Somewhere deep within a fortress lined with gold, a man in a horned crown sipped wine and watched a crystal orb swirl with stormlight.
"So… the Nightborne walks not just among pirates, but among forces meant for kings."
He stood, voice echoing in the silent chamber.
"Then let's send him a welcome."
End of Chapter 11: Storms on the Horizon