NIMBUS AND THE KNIGHTS OF CENFERUM

Chapter 1

Years later...

The boy had finally left the slum where he lived and reached the avenue leading out of the city. After a few hundred meters, he passed through the gate under the towering walls that kept everyone safe. Walking along the cove for over a kilometer, the boy began to see the crowd gathering at the port. Forcing his way through the people, he moved towards the edge to get a better view of the arrival of the ships. Would he be able to make it?

The boy was anxious. It had been announced some time ago that the 52nd Expedition fleet would arrive that day. Ten ships had set sail about a year ago, under the orders of the Great Leader, to gather supplies from other continents. It was a special journey that had now concluded and, as usual, it was a cause for a grand celebration throughout the country of Cenferum, bringing together people from various locations in Aldair to welcome the caravan.

The arrival of the expedition was one of the few occasions when so many people dared to approach the "edge" in such a manner. On this day, the entire populace was gathered at the Port, all in a festive mood.

Squeezing through the crowd, he pressed on, occasionally shoving and receiving insults along the way. During his journey, he spotted many familiar faces, mostly schoolmates who, like him, dreamed of one day sailing across the ether sea and exploring the entire world. Alongside them were teachers and neighbors from the Juramento region, ironically named for a place where no one kept their promises.

He finally managed to get close enough, standing among the people in an uncomfortable position just to contemplate the vastness of the sea—an actual ocean of clouds that began where the continent's land ended, the edge. There, a mass of fog heavier than air, known as ether, gathered in the space between all the continents of the world. A virtually bottomless place that accommodated the corrosive mist and the dreaded monsters—creatures that occasionally managed to climb onto the continent's edge during the surges.

Suddenly, far from the edge, the boy could see a small dot approaching the port at high speed – a ship surfing through the ether. The arrival of an expedition was always like this: the flagship arrived first, and then, a bit further behind, the other ships emerged from the mist. Nimbus always got excited seeing them all together. This one, for example, was the fastest in Cenferum, named Brand, affectionately referred to by people as the "run-over toad" due to its resemblance to the amphibian when it gets run over by a cart.

The ship was essentially an ellipsoidal box, made of steel and aerodynamically designed wider at the bow and narrower at the stern, creating a drop-like shape over two hundred meters long. Rows of windows along the hull and the "toad's legs" housed powerful hydrogen-powered turbines, propelling it through the ether at high speeds.

As the ship loomed dangerously over the continent, it abruptly slowed down. Two balloons, each twice its size, filled with hot air, making it float as it navigated slowly under the gentle thrust of the turbines towards the port. This was the docking process, a low-speed maneuver to prevent sinking and corrosion by the ether.

But this time, something seemed wrong. Ten ships had departed from this same port months ago, and only one was returning. The closer the flagship approached the edge, the more restless the crowd at the port became. People were commenting and creating theories about what had happened. It was a unique event; never before had a ship been so far from the others when arriving at the port. They usually stayed within a few meters of each other, in formations with strange names that everyone talked about. Most importantly, ships never traveled alone. There was no captain irresponsible enough to lead a voyage under these conditions; it would be practically suicide. Unless something terrible had happened, forcing them to complete the mission alone, and even then, the chances of success were nil. At least that's what people were saying.