***Gadvera, somewhere high up.***

“I am Goob, master of the wizard tower!” Goob said, one foot placed on the edge of the stone railing with triumph. The city of Mujenan lay sprawled out below him, an inch away from surrendering to his superior forces.

One day, Goob thought with a grin, looking down at his soon-to-be subjects.

“You are Goob, Master of avoiding chores,” an aged voice said, sending a chill down his spine.

Ohcrap!

Goob leapt off the edge of the academy’s weather tower and whirled in midair, kicking the broom up into his hands as though it had never been abandoned on the floor. At the staircase leading down was Evor. The black haired wizard was growing a white streak through his hair since he’d assumed command of the academy.

“Master Evor. Good to see you. I was just finishing up sweeping off the Fairweather.” Goob made a few brushing motions in the weather machine’s general direction.

Goob thought he saw an instant of amusement crushed under a wave of solemn disapproval.

“Goob. There aren’t a whole lot of wizards left in Gadvera these days. Only a handful of our faculty survived through luck or subterfuge.” He glanced down at the headmaster’s pin on his robe. “We aren’t the best and brightest. We’re the just ones who are still alive.”

Evor pointed at him. “Your generation is going to be responsible for rebuilding this academy as a place of learning. And that responsibility starts with sweeping the godforsaken – “

Master Evor’s brown eyes narrowed.

“Um, wha-eep!” The aged master wizard stormed toward Goob, and before the apprentice could react, the master’s rough hand pushed his face out of the way as he marched past.

The wizard stopped at the edge of the tower, staring out into the ocean.

“Damn.”

Goob hustled to stand next to the master wizard, peering out into the shimmering ocean.

There’s nothing there. Is it something only he can see, or…wait. Goob adjusted his gaze further up and out. On the very horizon.

Dots of white. Hundreds, thousands of them. And just a little ways ahead of those white dots, a single vessel the size of a grain of rice.

Are those all…ships? Goob thought, the hairs on his arms standing on end. There were more ships than there were citizens of Mujenan, by his count.

“Master, what’s going on?” Goob asked, looking up at the dark-haired wizard. His master was scowling, his weathered face looking like it had carved out of stone.

The bells of the city began ringing. Soldiers looking like ants began to assemble on the shorter towers around the city, gawking at the armada beyond belief coming their

“Get everyone up here. We’re going to activate the fairweather.”

“But don’t you need approval from-“

“Goob,” Master Evor said, glancing down at him, his eyes fiery with anger. “Now is not the time to question me. Get everyone up here if you want to live. Now.”

Goob started running.

***Jinnei***

“Landfall in an hour, princess!” Kip shouted from the crow’s nest.

“Incoming, princess!” one of the crewmembers shouted as another massive bolt descended from the sky, a giant spike of iron and wood the size of a lifeboat, covered with a writhing mass of black tubes. Karen leapt into the air and diverted the attack, knocking it aside in a shower of sparks.

The bolt spun off into the distance, splashing down into the salt water, causing the nasty things to squirm in pain before they sank beneath the water.

A few of the squirming black tubes landed on the vessel and in the rigging, and the pirates raced back and forth to stab them and toss them overboard before they could get under anyone’s skin.

Karen didn’t seem to notice them, though, brushing the strange worm off her shoulders with casual disregard as she walked back, scanning the horizon for any more attempts to kill them.

“All the crawlies have been dealt with, princess!”

Jinnei scanned the malkenrovian pirates grinning at her as she steered the ship. Most of them missing teeth. The last dregs of a dead country looked at her like she was made of pure unadulterated hope.

“The next man who calls me princess loses his balls! You call me captain!” Jinnei shouted, feeling her face heat up with anger and embarrassment.

“Aye aye, Captain Malkenrov!”

“That’s not my name!”

A huge hand clapped over her shoulder, and Jinnei glanced up to see Karen looking down at her with sad eyes.

“It would have been, had things gone differently.” She said with a shrug before moving on, taking a seat against the rear mast, watching their backs.

“You hear that fellas!?” A resounding cheer went up through the ship that nearly deafened her. She wanted to reach out and slap someone, but was unwilling to let go of the ship’s wheel.

By the gods. Turns out I’m a princess and my entire kingdom is a boat full of smelly men past the age of forty. Fucking Abyss.

“Does that make us dukes?” One toothless salty bastard asked, tapping his chin.

“I think it does, my good sir,” another said, bowing with a flourish.

“There ain’t anyone left to disagree!” The first one cackled.

“Oy!” Kip shouted from the crow’s nest. “Clean the fucking wax out of your ears shitheels! We’ve got some temperamental weather ahead!”

Jinnei raised her eyes. Above them, storm clouds were beginning to swirl, creating a tube of sunlight directly around the city of Mujenan, the only place that wasn’t covered in clouds.

“They’re summoning a hurricane!” Jinnei shouted turning the wheel counter to the wind, getting as much spare distance as she could, because in a matter of minutes, they would be fighting for every inch.

****

The wind hit them.

Then the rain.

And then the lightning.

“Whooo!” Kip shouted, one hand on his safety rope while the other flailed about above him, riding the smoking crow’s nest like a wild guar tamer.

The sound of wind and rain drowned out the noises that anyone made, but Jinnei was able to get her orders across by pointing and snarling. The severity of her facial expression indicated how urgent the task was.

Leadership has reached level 10!

+1 Will

Please choose a-

Why does this thing always level at the exact wrong time? Jinnei thought as a bolt of lightning crashed into the water beside them, boiling the ocean.

Fuck it, she thought as a massive swell of water nearly upended them. More Abilities can only be good.

Show me.

A River To My People: up to Correction/10 % of user’s Attributes are added to their subordinates. Efficiency Scales with loyalty.

The Men Come First: Leadership Correction is improved by (Sta)% as long as the User does not eat, sleep, or relax before every direct subordinate has had a chance to do the same.

Groupthink: Leadership gradually influences subordinates to share the same ideals as their commander.

Last time she’d chosen Press Gang to increase the odds of successfully integrating the ilethan sailors, but now…

She glanced over her shoulder. Of the dozen ships following them, only three remained.

She needed something with immediate impact.

I choose A River To My People. Jinnei thought.

Her mind tingled for a moment, then there was some kind of insistent tug that felt as though it were sapping some of her strength.

It was no worse than an arm falling momentarily falling asleep, but it seemed to have quite the effect on the pirates.

Suddenly the salty bastards were climbing the rigging like spiders, sure-footed and fast, untangling lines and setting the sails to take advantage of the extra wind.

“Whooo!” Kip shouted. “I’ve never felt this amazing in my life!” he shouted, lightning crashing down around him.

Well, she thought that’s what he said. Lightning was crashing down around him, so it was hard to tell.

Jinnei could tell that she could deactivate the ability if she wanted, or gate it so that only specific subordinates received its effect.

What she hadn’t counted on was the pirate’s suicidal loyalty. It wasn’t to her, not exactly. It was a lifetime of pain mixed with deep national pride, lit on fire by the tiny hope that they might see their home again one day, even if they had to rebuild the damn thing from scratch. That everything could go back to normal.

It was insane.

It was fanatical.

And it was exactly what the Skill needed to perform beyond its original design.

There was a massive crack as the rudder broke loose from the ship, nearly knocking everyone off their feet as the entire wooden construction shook beneath their feet.

Mujenan, only a few short miles ahead of them began to slide sideways as the wind pushed them toward the rocky shoreline surrounding it, threatening to dash them against the beach.

“Fuck that shit!” Kip shouted from the top of the crow’s nest, his voice oddly audible through the storm. He whipped a knot around his waist and jumped, springing forward like a grasshopper, the rope unwinding behind him as he flew out into the ocean.

Two sailors saw this and leapt up with inhuman strength, reaching the crows nest and seizing Kip’s rope before it ran out of line.

Like one being, they jumped back down, slamming into the wood with no visible damage and and looping the rope around the mast.

Kip, meanwhile, landed on the rudder that was rapidly floating away from them as they were driven by the wind. He looped the rope around the rudder and screamed for them to haul him in.

Jinnei felt her body grow weaker as the sailors pulled, as though she were the one expending all that effort.

They got the massive rudder up to the side of the ship in a matter of moments, and Karen seized the whole thing, the ship bucking in protest as she threw onto the deck.

“Get the biggest fucking nails you got!” Jinnei shouted against the rain. “We don’t need steering, we just need to make landfall.” She pointed to the starboard side with her most urgent scowl. Karen gave her a small frown.

“On it!” an ilethan sailor shouted, sprinting to the hold and back in a matter of seconds, returning with massive iron spikes the width of Jinnei’s wrists.

As if it had been rehearsed, the sailors, Pirates and islanders lifted the massive board and shoved it into the water against the current.

The entire ship bucked as its sideways momentum was presented with a massive amount of drag, forcing the ship to move forward rather than sideways.

“Gaah!” the men seemed to scream as one as they fought to keep their grip on the wood that desperately wanted to tear itself out of their hands, forcing large splinters through their flesh.

“Lower!” Jinnei shouted, her body barely able to hold itself up on the steering wheel as they inched closer to the sharp rocks. “You wanna see your fucking country again you saggy nutsacks!?”

They shouted as one and jumped overboard, catching themselves on the gun ports.

“Hold it!” Karen shouted, rappelling down, holding an iron spike between each finger.

She didn’t have a hammer, but she didn’t need one. The Legend slammed the huge nails through the disconnected rudder by hand, burying them deep into the wood. Almost too deep.

“There! You’ve got it!” Jinnei shouted, eyeing the rate they were gaining on the rocky cove around the city’s port.

They weren’t going to hit the city proper, but they’d be close to the city…when…they… Why is everything so dark?

Jinnei’s eyes rolled back in her head.

***

A blast of wind and water across her face brought Jinnei back to consciousness. She was swaying back and forth, looking straight up at a grey, cloud filled sky. Wind and water were slicing against her cheek.

Why can’t I move?

Jinnei glanced down and saw that she was wrapped up in a hammock like some kind of cocoon.

“What in the Abyss is going on?” She demanded.

“Oh, you’re awake,” Karen said, her face entering Jinnei’s field of vision, grinning with delight.

“You just missed the best crash. It has to rank somewhere in the top five ship crashes I’ve been part of, easily. All four ships hit roughly the same spot in an insane pileup, and The whole thing broke in half. Mmn. I’m actually kind of proud.”

“Is everyone okay?” Jinnei asked.

“As a matter of fact,” Karen said, her hand supporting Jinnei’s back and pushing her upward until she could see. The entire crew of the last four ships were spread out behind her, marching through the rain and wind with grim determination, following a narrow path above the rocky shoals.

Behind them, she could see a lighthouse with a trebuchet on top of it.

Which would mean…They were on the road to the city of Mujenan.

“Alright, let me out. I wanna help.”

“You are helping.” Karen said, looking ahead of them. “If you drop whatever buff you purchased aboard the ship, some of these men will drop from exhaustion. If you want them to live, keep it up…princess.”

Karen winked.

Ah, son of a bitch, Jinnei thought as she was carried into the city at the front of the line. I’m a goddamned figurehead.