Adventure of Betram Steelstream 1

Lostwing gathers beneath the trees around the shattered hull of an ancient Fallen airship. Tilted towers of blackened metal rise above mossy roofs as the weary party enters town.

Caspian, Sleipnir, and Desiree begin seeking an inn, their horses picking carefully through the crowded woodland lane. For one brief moment, the journey promises an ordinary night’s rest.

Aetheric pressure clamps down over Lostwing. Leaves shiver without wind, horses rear against their reins, and a deep vibration rolls through the Fallen wreck beneath the town.

Far to the south, roughly seventy kilometers beyond the forest, a tornado vast as a mountain tears upward into the clouds. Explosions flare within its rotating walls, each thunderclap reaching Lostwing moments later.

A colossal silhouette, its gender and species indistinguishable at such distance moves amid the lightning and cloud, too distant for its nature to be known. The tornado remains far away, yet every shift in its winds seems capable of reaching Lostwing.

The question leaves Betram’s lips as the distant tempest twists. His attention divides between Garuda’s storm and the colossal presence within it, still a colossal, indistinct silhouette whose gender and species remain impossible to discern at this distance, while Lostwing’s trembling wreck groans beneath his feet.

Betram’s reasoning fixes the pattern: the light is not a reflection from the clouds, but a deliberate force moving against the wind. The certainty costs him time, as the party must abandon the inn search and climb toward higher ground.

Caspian moves toward the shattered tower, and Desiree follows with her spear ready. The storm continues to build, its hidden opponent still unreadable through the boiling cloud.

Betram launches upward in a dragoon’s vault, clearing broken platforms and jutting beams in swift succession. Desiree climbs beside him, while Caspian follows the safer stair through the trembling wreck.

Each landing shudders beneath the distant storm. Betram catches a higher spar, swings over a fractured wall, and lands above Desiree without breaking his pace.

Betram answers the last ascent with a tremendous leap. He grips the tower’s upper rim and hauls himself onto the highest surviving platform, with Desiree landing beside him moments later.

Caspian emerges onto the platform, breath controlled despite the climb. From this height, Garuda’s tornado fills the southern horizon, and the colossal presence’s indistinct form moves within its lightning-veined heart.

The ruined tower gives them a clear vantage at last. Wind screams around the blackened metal, but the platform holds, granting the companions a moment to judge the battle before choosing their response.

From the tower’s crown, the pattern sharpens. Beneath Garuda’s spiraling wind, a second force answers with concentrated radiance, cutting through the storm instead of reflecting its lightning.

The revelation changes the distant battle’s meaning. Garuda is not merely struggling against an unknown monster; she is locked against a rival source of holy power, vast enough to distort the clouds around it.

Within the tornado, the hidden figure raises an arm or wing, and a white arc cleaves the cloud wall. Garuda’s storm recoils southward, while the radiance remains fixed upon the world below.

Caspian turns from the storm to Betram, the distant radiance burning across his face. Below, Lostwing trembles as Garuda’s winds recoil around the colossal presence.

He steps close and clasps Betram’s forearm, making the decision before fear or politics can divide them. Desiree lowers her spear, accepting the necessity in his resolve.

Caspian faces the southern tempest. Dark power gathers around him as the spectral outline of Odin’s six-legged steed forms in the stormlight, while Betram prepares to answer with Bahamut.

Betram and Caspian vault over the tower’s edge together. They fall beyond the ruined platforms, opening distance between their allies and the transformation to come.

Darkness engulfs Caspian as Odin’s six-legged spectral steed forms beneath him. Light erupts around Betram, unfolding into Bahamut’s steel-colored wings and vast wyvern shape before they reach the storm.

The transformation succeeds without crushing the tower or Lostwing, but the casting hand burns white. Petrification crawls farther across Betram’s fingers as Bahamut banks toward Garuda’s raging battle.

That Bearer suffers petrification from the Curse.

That Dominant transforms into their titanic Eikon form.