Chapter Thirteen.

I now understand the threat behind, "you're walking back to Delmoth" a little bit better. For someone unprepared— like say someone being forcibly removed from the ship— travelling any distance out here would be a death sentence. Also, I should really learn to stop tempting fate like that.

The word "absolutely" barely got out of my mouth before the mud around the ship's legs started boiling beneath us. The ship actually sank down a little bit and swayed unsteadily before correcting with a shuddering groan. I didn’t have time to worry about the ship’s condition before a series of wet *pops* and squelches came from below, and I looked down to see a nightmare in the mud.

Thousands of enormous leeches writhed in a frenzy, squirming atop hills made of their own bodies to climb up our hull.

I’d like to say that I bravely leapt into action and started the fight against the approaching horde, but instead I froze stiff at the sight. The wriggling mass of leeches became tendrils of a greater horror, the faceless hulk of my enemy dragging itself towards me from the earth with a thousand hungry mouths. Dezzahn’s voice scraped across my sanity, rising from the dark corners of my memory like shards of glass to rake my mind. His taunting refrain resounded until it was all I could hear.

Is this all you are?

Despair gripped me with an iron fist. It was too soon, I wasn’t ready for this fight. I was going to lose everything again and—

A flash of light seared my retinas and I snapped my eyes shut.

“Haha! Fry you miserable parasites!”

Blinking spots from my vision, I looked up to see Shani dangling over the railing again with a gleeful smile on her laughing face. One arm held the rail while the other was stretched out towards the leeches, pointing with her first two fingers and unleashing a steady torrent of magical napalm on the writhing mass. My conjured vision of Dezzahn vanished as quickly as it had come under the burning onslaught of Shani’s magic, the sense of wrongness I still felt from it buried under the oddly reassuring image of leeches exploding violently in the overwhelming heat.

The swarm recoiled under the assault, scattering away from the ship and starting to burrow back into the mud.

“Oh no you don’t.” Shani’s eyes narrowed, making a few arcane gestures with her outstretched hand. “[Otem’s Retribution].”

The fire she’d sprayed on the ground suddenly came alive at her direction, transforming into hundreds of fiery snakes that rose into the air and shot hungrily after the fleeing swarm. The snakes swam through the air like ribbons of burning light, their behavior eerily lifelike as they viciously devoured the leeches until they’d all disappeared from view.

It was probably one of the most cathartic scenes I’d ever witnessed. A field of burnt worms were all that remained of the attacking swarm, and I couldn’t help smiling at the sight as I imagined a different creature in a similar state.

I need that. I don’t care what the ‘wrongness’ I’m feeling is. With this… I can kill him.

Letting out a satisfied huff, Shani hopped nimbly back over the rail (giving me even more suspicions about how she’d ‘tripped’ earlier).

“Sorry, I got a little excited. Bloodswarmers, hate those wriggly little vermin— they were probably spawning in the pools there.” Shani said nonchalantly.

“Are you kidding? That was awesome.” I replied, not having to force the smile that came to me despite my twisting mood.

She grinned back, but was cut off by another alarm and a tinny squawk from the speakers.

“Brace.”

Shouts came from the deck in front of us before several cannons fired off into the mist ahead. Shani darted excitedly over to the railing, shading her eyes and peering off into the mist to see what they were shooting at. I looked at her for a minute from behind as I tried to figure out how I could get her to teach me about her magic, my fists clenching as I couldn’t help imagining Dezzahn being deep-fried at my hands. For now, I would stick close and watch her spells as closely as I could— maybe I’d learn something.

Totally not just hanging out with a pretty girl. Riiiight…

This was a terrible idea. For the last three grueling hours I have been frantically fighting to keep this wild pyromaniac alive while she did her level best to introduce Haven to the concept of global warming. The sheer amount of fire she put out was staggering, and watching her manipulate fire with her magic gave me flashbacks of how I’d felt fighting against Hakkon in his magic iron-man suit— utterly outclassed. There was an obvious gap of experience and training between us, with Shani displaying a wide variety of spells tailored to suit whatever our current situation was.

A casual wave of her hands would send an arc of flame that immolated dozens of monsters in our path effortlessly. Her fingers would twist and the fire would come alive under her command and defend against the seemingly endless onslaught of the swamp’s creatures. It honestly reminded me of Murgui, the ancient Nomad, and how he could just bend the world around him with pure mastery of natural law. I could almost feel something in the way the fire moved, leaping eagerly to her will in a graceful display that overrode the wrongness I still felt from it. It was humbling, inspiring, and slightly irritating— because I needed that kind of power, I just didn’t have the years of training to get it. My mood probably wasn’t helped by my whole body feeling like it was on fire at this point either.

You see, it turns out a surprising variety of monsters have access to some kind of magic. What’s worse than a giant alligator? A giant alligator that can launch balls of acid like a living mortar. Just a big ball of fun, those.

I’d been forced to use my shields almost constantly, and while the practice definitely helped smooth out my control, the pain of using magic had built up continuously with each one I’d summoned. It was getting to the point where I could barely keep myself upright and I honestly had trouble remembering why exactly I was doing this— at least until I looked over at Shani, who was clearly having the time of her life.

The last straw came when I saw a swarm of mosquitos the size of footballs coming at us from the fog.

I… loathe… mosquitos.

Caution and common sense went out the window, overriding pain as I switched my shields over to my newly-discovered destruction variant. With a snarl, I summoned dozens of black hexagons and tilted them in the air before hurling them forward like angry frisbees of death.

The first pass decimated the swarm, destruction crackling and hissing with black smoke as the vile little monsters were violently reduced to their component atoms. I spun the dark hexes around furiously again and again until the swarm was eradicated, and then I collapsed against the bulkhead of the ship behind me, totally spent.

Well, that was therapeutic, but I got nothing left.

A muffled thump came from beside me as Shani also plunked against the bulkhead, giving me a concerned look.

“You alright, Ray? I’m sorry, I forget not everyone has a core to draw on like I do.” She said, apologetically. “We never get people like you aboard, so usually I have to stay below for my safety. It drives me crazy, watching everyone else get to fight. Guess I got a little carried away…”

I waved her apology off exhaustedly, but froze as the first thing she said clicked in my mind.

“You ‘draw’ on the core?” I asked with some strain.

“Of course! I’m the tender. The core generates far more than the ship needs, and since I’m linked to it I can draw on the excess to cast my spells. Makes me much more powerful so long as I’m close to the ship. My own magic isn’t nearly as strong compared to that, see?” As she finished speaking, a spark of fire lit above her palm. It was unremarkable, just a little candle-flame really, except for one thing.

No wrongness. I’m not sensing anything off from this, it’s just fire. Magical fire, yeah, but no sinister vibes. That means whatever I’m picking up has to be from the core.

It was actually a relief to know that Shani wasn’t the source of my… evil-sense? General unease? Whatever, it might not be a complete exoneration, but I didn’t think she was evil. Maybe a little overenthusiastic about burning things, but not evil.

I nodded my understanding at her, pain making the motion visibly stiff as I mentally digested her words. The barest hints of an idea came to me while I was thinking, but I would need more information to act on it. For now though, I was exhausted and needed a time-out.

“Well then Miss endless-power, I need a break or I’m gonna get eaten out here. I’d really like to learn more about the ship though, maybe we can meet up again later?” I asked, cautiously.

The brunette had been sinking a little with disappointment when I started, but perked up quickly at the end.

“Sure!” She said with a beaming smile, though a worrying flash of calculation crossed her face for just an instant. “I should probably go check back on the core anyway. If you want, you can swing by my cabin at the dinner bell. I’ll have Bharty send us up some food so we can eat while we talk.”

Shani nonchalantly tucked some stray hair behind her ear while I gave her a brief considering look. She obviously wanted something, and that made me nervous about meeting somewhere private like that. On the other hand, I’d asked to meet up, so it’d be weird to refuse now.

“Sounds good to me.”

We parted ways after that, Shani darting off to the core while I stumbled my way back to my quarters. After briefly getting lost (the ship is huge!) and having to flag down some of the crew to point me in the right direction, I finally got back to my bed and collapsed into it— not even bothering to close the door. Which unfortunately meant I didn’t even close my eyes before a knock on the doorframe revealed the smirking form of Leigh.

“Fun morning?” He asked.

My only reply was an unintelligible groan and a vague shooing motion that he ignored to waltz in and plop himself down at my tiny desk.

“I hear you made a good showing. Crews’ impressed, at any rate. The marines aboard are saying this is the most relaxing first day they’ve had in years.”

“That’s great. I’m trying to die now, can you go away?” I grumbled back.

Leigh laughed and shook his head.

“Just saying you’re doing a good job, kid. Keep it up and we’ll be in Thunderfell before you know it.” He stood to leave, and after a moment of hesitation I called out to stop him.

“Wait. Can I ask you something?”

He arched an eyebrow and gestured for me to go ahead, leaning back on the wardrobe.

“I’m… sensing something, about the ship. At first I thought I was just being paranoid, but there’s definitely something going on with the core. Do you know anything?” I asked nervously.

Leigh looked at me thoughtfully before nodding.

“I’m surprised you picked up on it, but yes. It isn’t my secret to tell though, if you want to know the full truth then you’ll have to ask Miss Zaraiah. What I can say is that we’re in no danger from it right now.”

I glared at him tiredly, but he didn’t back down in the slightest so all I could do was grumble more. I had one more question to ask him though.

“Speaking of Zaraiah, I’m gonna be meeting her around dinner at her cabin. I’ve been getting a weird feeling from her all day like she wants something, but I don’t know what. Can you keep an eye out for me?”

Leigh gave me a flat stare.

“Ray, you’re tired. And you’ve had a rough few days, so I’ll cut you some slack. If you reeeally want me to help preserve your chastity, then I will happily sacrifice myself on that altar.”

I looked at him blankly while my brain refused to compute his words.

“What?” I blurted.

“Oh by all the gods kid, she basically threw herself at you. Yeah she wants something— she’s interested. You’re probably the first mage around her age she’s met since she was a toddler, and while you may not have my own dashing good looks—” He preened dramatically for a moment. “—and really, who does? You aren’t exactly ugly either. Mages are rare, Ray, rare and expensive to train. The ones who get that training? They have money and connections, they don’t travel by caravan. You have no idea how much you lucked out to meet Lord Haethram. Anyway, from her perspective you’re probably the most exciting thing to happen in years.”

Pushing off the wall, Leigh walked out of my room, tossing a remark over his shoulder as he left.

“Want my advice? Go with it. There’s worse ways to spend a few weeks on a ship than with a lovely young lady like that.” And with those words, he was gone.

Ah. Well now I’m nervous for a different reason. Wait, does that mean I just asked her out? Ohmygod I did.

I looked down at my all-black clothing, which had gotten stained by soot and several kinds of monster body fluids during the morning’s fighting as well as a generous coating of my own sweat.

Uh… shit. Clothes, need clothes.

“Leigh!”