Verna stroked Jace’s forehead. He had been sleeping for hours now. Not that she blamed him for being worn out. It had been a brutal two days. She just wished he’d cry some of his pain out for a change. But here he was, dead to the world, sleeping in the lone open bunk on his boat sharing the same blanket, as they drifted aimlessly in the Great Dragon Sea.

Two days ago, she had been forced to give up the search for Sa’manatha’s body, as the northern volcano started to become active. She raced back to find Jace, only to find him in their room on the top of the tower. He was poking through Sa’manatha’s things as if looking for something important.

He ended up digging out a white ivory comb and golden chain. The chain she had given that poor child herself. Jace noticed her there in the doorway, and without saying a word, held it out to her. She took the chain back, though she knew she’d probably never be able to wear it easily again. Jace was hobbling around on some stone devices he called [crutches]. She had seen people use sticks to aid movement when a leg was injured, she never had seen a device so precisely made as these [crutches]. He seemed to know their use as he moved around the room fairly easily for a man with one leg.

He did have problems carrying anything though, and he had issues bending down to get things on the ground as well. Between the two of them they managed to pack up what made sense to grab, and Jace made a teleportation circle straight to the pier he had made. In this manor with three trips on the dugout rowboat, they had loaded his boat with previsions, goods and materials.

He put off leaving for most of that first night. He kept staring at the shore, as if waiting for Sam to suddenly show up. Or maybe he just was making sure no one was left behind. They were forced to use the boat in part due to the collapse of the caldera rim around the northern volcano just hours in to the start of its activity. It took the permanent portal with it. Though for some reason she suspected he probably would have wanted to take the boat no matter how he left this island.

It was early in the morning when Jace finally raised anchor, and began leaving the island. She never really sailed a boat before, though she had been on plenty. So when Jace started directing her to raise sails and pull lines she was able to figure out what he wanted with a little extra explanation and manage after a fashion. They probably would have had issues getting far from the island had they relied on the natural wind. This getaway however was aided by a very stiff wind raised by some magic. They quickly put a great deal of distance between themselves and the island.

Jace spoke just once all morning after getting underway. “Which direction is the main continent?”

She had to remember the maps she saw which included this island on them. “East I think. I’m pretty sure we’re a long way off the west coast. If we head north we’ll be able to see Erindalle in the Sky,”

He gave her a very sharp look at that comment which troubled her a bit. It was a look of distrust, deep seeded distrust. She very much worried that the good hearted young man might be gone. She remembered the words of the prophecy she received and had to suppress a shiver.

This was a harsh world, she raised her own son to be harder then it. She never questioned this approach, it was common among not just her own people but most. While humanity suffered the brunt of the curse, all the races suffered under its effects, the glorious, peaceful, safe and prosperous world under the grey king was dead. She wasn’t alive when the grey king was alive. The reality was the kindred didn’t exist prior to his death, as he forbid dragon and human intercourse. They were a new people in the grand scheme of things. Springing into being almost immediately after the king’s death, apparently a number of dragons liked humans, and out of respect for the king had been holding themselves back. 10,000 years was a long time for them to wait, so it’s not surprising the kindred rose almost immediately after the fall of that kingdom. There were a few elders who lived in Erindalle in the Sky children born of forbidden trysts. As a result, the Kindred were always welcome there. She suspected many of those elders were sired by the Dragon King, he did like human females a lot. Though she was not alive when the king was alive she had heard the tales. That world was gone, raising a child in this world to not expect the worst of everything, or to be meaner then the world was doing your child a disservice. However, she was fascinated by Jace. He did not think that way. Oh he was duplicitous, and capable of deception. But he also didn’t see others, either races or classes as lesser or greater than the others. This would cause trouble if he meets the wrong dragon or lord, but his outlook is UNIQUE.

This was a cruel fate. She hoped he didn't change too much because of this blow. Part of her really liked that uniqueness.

Late in the afternoon he started casting some pretty extensive wards on the boat, she was going to ask him what he was doing, when he instructed her to take down the sails and tie them tight. He pulled the rudder out himself, and once everything was tied down and firmly secured, they went below deck. He actually closed up the path whatever it was called, the ladder and door to the surface and close all the vents, securing them tight. Then secured his crutches, and sat down. He looked at her armor and suggested she might want to take it off. He directed Verna to sit next to him.

It was a long quiet half an hour or so as the air got stuffier and stuffier. She didn’t know what he was doing, but figured he wouldn’t be wasting her time so she kept quiet. She was barely dressed, normally she would have tried to arouse his attention, but with the mood, and the tragedy of the prior day she restrained herself from teasing him. She really wasn’t in the mood either.

Then a tremendous vibration crashed through the boat. She felt like her insides were liquidized by the shockwave. The boat itself was thrown pretty violently rolling onto its side causing them both to fall to the other side of the boat, crashing into each other against the port bulkhead. Slowly the boat righted itself. She was surprised by the lack of water leakage and instantly understood when he told her to remove her armor. If the boat had broken up from that crash, whatever it was, she would have sank into the depths like a stone.

They were tangled up together laying on the food packed tight on top of the other bed, but instead of going topside to check on damage, Jace just remained laying there. When she tried to rise up he held her in place, their faces inches apart and said “wait.” He clearly was waiting for something so she contented herself in his strong arms while waiting. Then a second and far louder BOOOOOMMMMM rumbled through the boat, the shaking not quite as hard as the last one, but this one went on, and on, and on… and a tremendous wind kicked up outside with it. Minutes, maybe an hour they waited like that, while the waves outside got stronger and stronger, some of them tipping the boat on its side and throwing them across the boat.

After what seemed to be an endless time, the noise and vibration died down. The waves and wind did not die down particularly quickly though. Eventually Jace untangled himself from her, to her disappointment. It WAS comfortable in his arms. He had her help him about as he checked on damage from one side of the boat to the other. It was sunset, and on the horizon a giant black cloud was rising into the sky.

Once he was satisfied with the condition of the boat, he had her help him deploy something he called a [sea anchor] from the bow, it looked like a giant bag on a rope, and went back below deck. He opened the vents and finally laid down and closed his eyes. There were several bunk spaces built in this boat, however she didn’t feel like sharing sleeping space with food. So she grabbed a blanket and tossed it over them both, cuddling up against him. He slept like the dead.

Waking up hurt. He felt like he had been beaten with stick. Every inch of his skin felt bruised, and his left knee ached, which he thought was strange as it had done pretty much nothing since the leg was lost. Verna was wrapped around him, he didn’t blame her, it was a fairly cold night. He had a feeling it would be cold for a while.

He remembered seeing a show on Discovery once, about Krakatoa exploding. He didn’t know if what was coming was going to be like that, but he prepared for it. Luckily it seemed like they might have got far enough away to avoid the worst of it. He had left wards around both volcanos well before they left. And had been using them to monitor the volcanos as they fled. He was surprised how far those worked for.

Disentangling himself from Verna, he made his way above deck. What greeted him was a morning like something from an apocalyptic movie. The sun was red, deep red. For a moment he thought he had been cursed, until he realized it was red due to the huge cloud of ash spewing into the atmosphere from that volcano. He had no idea if the island was still back there, though he suspected if it was it was completely leveled. There was a chill in the air. Not cold enough to make him put on something warm, but cool enough to convince him his fear was real.

Hobbling around with the help of one of the crutches, he started raising the sails and getting the boat ready to move. It took a depressing amount of time to do it. After thinking about it for a moment, he created a magic circle on the deck, which created a large bubble of clean air around the boat. He didn’t want to breath that ash when it started to fall. Finally, he reassembled the rudder and pulled in the sea anchor, and started channeling the glyph of air to maintain a stiff breeze to propel them forward. He could tell which direction was West, so he put the island behind him and started sailing East.

He still hadn’t eaten since Sam’s passing. The very idea of food was repugnant to him. Frankly, living here was repugnant to him. Nothing had really changed since he got here. Just a lot of people had been harmed. Which meant nothing really changed since he got here. He hadn’t had any ghost pains from the missing limb yet, which he was thankful for. Pulling in the main sheet, and working the spinnaker main, the yacht practically flew across the waves.

He wasn’t even sure what he was going to do from now on. A god wanted him dead apparently. He still wasn’t sure what the limitations of the gods here were, but he had a feeling the sun god wasn’t going to let him live any longer than possible. Which begged the question.

‘Do I fight or die?’ Jace asked himself the question, and only took a long second to decide to fight with his last breath. Giving up to Sam’s murderer? He couldn’t imagine doing it.

It was midmorning before Verna came above deck, meaning he had hours to think about the problem. She was basically dressed in flimsy underthings. It was an amazing sight under most situations. She really could look good doing basically anything. Jace barely noticed, his heart was far too heavy to think about that.

She sat down next to him and cuddled up against his side. “Do you know what you’re going to do next?” She asked quietly.

He thought about her question a long moment, then nodded. “Go home.”

“How?” came her immediate question.

“I need to find the research facility. It was under the major capital of Khavar.”

“Why do you need to go to Khavar and this research facility?”

“Because that’s where I was summoned. I expect the circle and perhaps notes about how they did it are still there. I hope they are. Furthermore, from what Sam…” He paused after saying her name, his voice got a bit strained, “from what I was told, that city was one of the 5 or 6 largest on the continent. Even if there is nothing in the research facility, I expect I might be able to learn more about summoning and the like when I’m there. Or learn a direction to search.”

“Well, at least Khavar is close to the coast, and it sounds like you thought it out.”

“You don’t have to follow me there”

“I will” Her answer was quick.

“Why?”

“Because I want to. And because I gave an oath.”

“Damn your oath. You barely hold to it. Besides I don’t WANT a slave. I never wanted a slave.”

“Then perhaps lovers?” Her coquettish voice probably could have gotten a raise out of a corpse.

Jace looked at her a long moment with a frown on his face. He didn’t think she was making fun of him, which only troubled him more. “No. Not even friends. Lovers? Where did you get the impression that was going to happen?”

“I don’t know; you are half naked right now. I thought you were trying to tempt me into something first thing in the morning. I know men often are excited early in the day.” Her flippant answer only stoked his irritation more.

“Leave it.” His own tone was hard and flat, and the impatient look on his face delivered the message as well.

“Very well, so what are you going to do next?”

“I said, I’m heading to Khavar.”

“I know you said you’re going to Khavar. I am going to make something to eat. Do you plan to join me?”

“In cooking?”

“Eating.”

He just sighed, then nodded. “Might as well choke something down.”

He didn’t know how far the east coast was, but he suspected it was probably a couple of weeks away. Judging by the size of the growing cloud, he had a feeling it was going to be a very cold trip.