My number one priority was to safely get to the coast, preferably as soon it was visible. My second was to do it as stealthily as possible. I didn’t want to raise alarms with any coast guards the people of Leka An might have as that would bring us more problems later on. My third goal was to make sure that the ship continued burning once we were safely on land and that it would not be on a collision course with anything else.

Writing down the goals made it much easier to single out the spells that could potentially be of use, and also made Kai feel more involved in the process as of course he wouldn’t be able to cast any of them.

It was evident from the beginning that a flying spell would not work, as two people flying away from a burning vessel would definitely attract all sorts of attention. Even though this issue could be countered by casting invisibility on both of us, I thought that it would be risky trying to direct Kai and our chest without being able to see them so I turned down that option.

Another option that I had in mind was to use minor teleportation. That spell had a low casting time, required no material components and would allow me and Kai to be teleported anywhere, as long as I was able to see the place I wanted to teleport to, while I cast the spell.

Name : Minor Teleportation

School of Magic : Conjuration

Verbal Components : 64 words

Somatic Components : Simple

Material Component : None

HP Consumed : 0

MP Consumed : 0

Divine Mana Consumed : 6,600

Range : 700 inches

Casting Time : 60 seconds

Precondition : None.

Description : This spell instantly teleports the caster and all willing creatures in their party, as long as they are withing range, to a point in space they have visual of. All items that the caster and their party member are carrying will also be teleported with them.

This would definitely take care of my first goal and had good potential for fulfilling my second goal as well, but I needed to be able to have perfect sight of the place we were going to teleport to. When I mentioned this to Kai, wanting him to help me find a spell to enhance my normal eyesight, he raised his hand as if to tell me to wait and brought me a metal cylindrical object with glass on both ends.

He demonstrated its use to me and I marveled at the ingenuity of this tool’s engineering. The metal bar would slide and open into a larger tube and when you looked through it, the whole thing functioned exactly like an eyesight enhancer spell—and a powerful one at that—but without the use of any mana.

I practiced holding it up and looking through it with my left hand and performing the somatic components of the spell with my right. It worked just fine but I had to make sure that I had formed a party with Kai before the spell triggering in order for him to teleport with me.

He probably had the same thought as I got a notification to form a party with him instead.

Kai Light has invited you to a party.

Party Members : 1/9

Party Leader : Kai Light

Do you accept the invitation? Yes No

“What do you think of this plan, Kai?” I asked him, once it looked like we had considered all of its angles. “Should we go with it?”

“It’s safe and relatively stealthy,” Kai replied, in a very thoughtful manner that surprised me. “Though, we still need to check if you have a spell with a range that is big enough to push the ship back toward the open ocean.”

“You’re right,” I returned my eyes to my Carta Magica. “It’s good that you thought of it.”

It turned out that most of my wind-based spells were not powerful enough to reach over a distance as large as the one which the magnifying device could. I started looking at alternatives and ultimately decided on the persisting wind spell I was using so far. Since its position was relative to the sails, I didn’t even need to be close for it to continue working. This would be a great way to make sure that the boat remained away from any shallow waters or rocks until it burned completely.

Having figured out our plan to its entirety, we gathered up any maps that were laying in the captain’s cabinets and tried to figure out if any of them would be useful to us. Most of them were naval maps, some of the Endless Sea and some of places we had never even heard of. Exotic names of coastal cities, islands in the middle of vast waters and monstrous creatures decorated the parchments.

We decided to keep them just for their craftsmanship, since we didn’t have any plans to sail again just yet. On the bottom shelf of the cabinet, we found a couple of land maps. One was a detailed map of Leka An, with many roads but also routes in different colors that seemed to connect places which were marked with a symbol that looked like a little human skull.

The second one was a geological map of the whole southern continent, portraying mountains and valleys, lakes and rivers, with the Endless Sea along its northern edge and the white lands of Fjalhun on its southern one. We picked all of them up and placed them in our chest, which we carried over onto the deck.

Having prepared everything, all we had to do now was wait, regularly checking through the magnifying device until we saw land. We could, of course, have searched the rest of the ship but I was afraid of what facing the carnage that lingered down there would do to Kai and, to be honest, I was also afraid of how it would affect me and my resolutions.

Once again we didn’t talk much that day, but this time it was the kind of silence that came with anticipation.

***

It was afternoon when Kai saw the first sign of land in the form of giant trees that appeared to run along the coastline. He handed the device over to me and I saw the top of the trees too.

We waited for some minutes until I could see the ground that the trees were sitting upon, Kai being ready with the chest in hand. Once I found a good spot between the trees for us to teleport into, I handed the device back to Kai and told him to wait while I took care of lighting the ship on fire.

I walked over toward the hatch that led to the lower decks, my feet trembling, partly due to the excitement of what was to come, and partly because I would have to face the death below decks, even if only for a few seconds.

I opened the hatch and even though the bodies didn’t produce the odor of decomposition due to my spell, the scent of gore and death was enough to make me tear up from disgust. I quickly cast my 64-word incantation and pushed liquid fire out of my hands.

Name : River of Fire

School of Magic : Evocation

Verbal Components : 64 words

Somatic Components : Simple

Material Component : None

HP Consumed : 0

MP Consumed : 0

Divine Mana Consumed : 5,800

Range : 700 inches

Casting Time : 60 seconds

Precondition : None.

Description : A river of liquid fire is produced from the caster’s hands for 30 seconds. This stream is behaving like water in its movement, lighting everything on fire upon touch but not melting it as if it was magma.

The fires would travel through the bowels of the ship and burn everything in their path until they found a way out or incinerated everything. I swiftly closed the hatch, moved the direction of the winds spell, and moved back next to Kai once more.

“Are you ready?” I asked him, as I put his right hand on my belt.

“Yes, Myriam,” he replied, and pulled the chest handle toward him with his left.

I used the magnifier and spotted the place I wanted us to teleport to. I raised my right hand to the height of my chest, fist clenched. I chanted the incantation and opened my index and middle finger pointing upward.

Without a hint of the distance we were traveling, what I saw through the device changed to black. I removed the magnifier and opened my eyes to see that I was standing among the trees, my back toward the sea. I quickly moved my right hand to my waist and was relieved to feel Kai’s hand still there.

“You did it, Myriam!” he said and started looking around him.

“We did it,” I replied, “but it’s not over yet. Let’s check if we’re alone.”

I moved toward the shore and used the device to find the ship. I expected it to be brighter and more easily recognizable since it was on fire, but I only managed to spot a column of smoke which seemed to be coming from the middle of its deck. That was where the hatch was. It dawned on me that I had never checked if the ship had any enchantments.

It was late now of course, but I could have acted differently if I knew whether the body of the ship was immune or resistant to fire. Regardless, my aim was to burn the bodies of the dead and this would be achieved even if the ship remained intact.

Thinking of it made me consider that the ship might also be protected from collisions, but this was something that I wouldn’t be able to check. Feeling satisfied with how our plan had been executed, I returned to Kai who was waiting between the trees, at the spot in which we had appeared.

“It seems we’re alone,” he started saying, “at the edge of quite a large forest.”

“Did you climb a tree again?” I asked him, smiling and filled with relief that we were finally free from that awful place.

“Well, you told me to check,” he said, and smiled back at me.

“Let’s find a place to set up our chest.” I took its handle in one hand and Kai’s arm in the other. “Tomorrow will be the first day of our new lives.”