The village was bustling with activity today, the fishermen having a day off. Enough had been recruited to refill the crew of the boat, which was now being reloaded and restocked. Stathis hefted a crate onto her shoulders, following the line of people onto the boat and down into the hold, hoping she was stowing it in the right place.

After coming back outside, she headed over to Hakara’s area of the deck, where the chalk circles were now even more complicated, some of the lines moving by themselves. Kivata was stood in the centre, her skin-tone much improved by the fresh air, now with some colour to her skin, and eating well enough that she was less scrawny-looking now.

Hakara was on her back, her robes loosened enough to accommodate the heat – without approaching, Stathis couldn’t tell if she was meditating upon arcane mysteries, or just dozing in the sunshine.

Kivata had shed her baggy robes for tunic and trousers, the lower half of the tunic tied into a knot to reveal her belly, holding a metal rod in her hand. As she traced it through the air, it left a glowing blue after-trail, motes of light slowly settling to the ground. Her hair was a mess, tied into a messy bun, although Hakara’s was scarcely better, splayed around her on the deck.

She turned towards Stathis, although kept her face slightly averted, not wanting to make full eye-contact, then bent at the knees in an awkward attempt at a curtsey, keeping herself turned towards Stathis without saying anything.

‘Everything OK here? We should be setting out again soon.’

She kept waving the wand through the air, a rune forming and hovering for a moment before vanishing. Her eyes kept darting about, never looking directly at Stathis, as though expecting some trick or attack, her body tense and stuff. ‘The spell is stable and will ward us from detection.’

‘That’s good. How are you doing? You’re looking a bit healthier. Hakara not running you too ragged?’

She glanced up, her eyes meeting Stathis’ just for a moment and giving the faintest of smiles before looking away again. ‘Yes, Lady Stathis. Magus Trevant has been tutoring me. She has pushed herself hard though.’

‘Ah, she’s resting? Wasn’t sure if that was a magical thing.’ Hakara’s body was sprawled across the deck inside of a magical circle, limbs sprawled in a way that could be forming a magical nexus, or just a sign that she was used to being able to sprawl over a bed.

‘She spent most of the night attempting to reinforce the Eiwaz conjunction. It was draining work.’

‘Well, best let her rest then. Looks like you’ve got a nice camp here. Let me know if she’s pushing you too hard.’

The smile that came across Kivata’s face was almost embarrassing in its fulsomeness. ‘Oh no, she’s an excellent tutor. And allows me to rest!’

That was apparently a rarity, to judge by her expression. ‘Well, that’s good. It should be a few weeks more until we hit land, so you can keep helping her, if that’s OK with you?’

Kivata nodded enthusiastically.

‘Thanks. Do you know much about demons?’

Sudden fear blossomed on her face. ‘I am untutored in such things. I know a little of warding and binding, if there is anything you need? I will do all that I can to help!’

‘It was more just of a general question – do you know how much demons can shapeshift? Can they go from giant-sized to, say, child-sized, as an example?’

Kivata scrunched her eyes shut and bit her lip, deep in concentration before answering, slowly and uncertainly. ‘Many demons are nothing more than beasts, capable of fighting and rudimentary speech but little else. But those that are more potent have more diverse powers and abilities – there are demons capable of living amongst the mortal races, disguising themselves, and the nobility of Setha-in-the-Ash claim descent from such beings. Marcus Obscurus, the third fragment.’ She paused, then a look of fear crossed her face. ‘No, the fourth. Please don’t hurt me!’ She had her palms up, as though expecting to be struck.

‘That’s fine, thanks. I don’t need to know where the information comes from. And I’m not going to punish you for telling me things, especially when I’ve asked you.’

Some of the tension left Kivata’s body, although she still looked nervous. ‘My thanks, Lady Stathis.’

‘Do you have any idea what’s going on with Janaxia?’

As soon as Janaxia’s name was mentioned, Kivata reacted, hunching her shoulders in and shrinking in on herself.

‘She’s been getting weird again. Well, weird still; not like that ever went away. There’s this girl she says we rescued, but I’m pretty sure that never happened, so I’m worried she might be a demon.’ Stathis looked down from the deck – Janaxia was on a recliner, wearing a bikini and distracting the sailors as she sunned herself. Skotadi was mirroring her position, with limited success due to her scrawnier body, and that she was in the deep shadow of a parasol, the darkness far blacker than it should have been.

Kivata slowly turned to look down at them, clearly having to force herself to do so. As she saw them, she shuddered, a wordless groan escaping her lips. She tried to speak, her lips shaping around words, but no sound emerged. Below them, Skotadi twisted and opened her eyes, white teeth suddenly glinting and Kivata whimpering again, an actual sound coming out as she shivered.

‘Shadows and blood… shadows and blood…’ She was almost gibbering now, tremors shaking her body. She was still on the other side of the barrier, so Stathis couldn’t reach through and try and comfort her, and Hakara was still stretched out and napping.

‘Uh, you OK?’

Kivata gave another whimper before slumping down, the wand tracing a wobbly line downwards. One of her eyes had changed colour, the orb now bloodshot, a bloody tear trickling down her face. Her voice was strangely flat and muted, devoid of emotion.

‘I… I… I have tasks I must tend to.’ Her eyes were now vacant, her head slumped on her shoulders.

‘Sure. Don’t let me distract you. Just let me know if you need anything, and don’t let Hakara work you too hard! And get that eye checked out, I don’t want you getting any weird infections.’

Kivata turned away, before moving through a surprisingly graceful series of movements, silver light etching itself into the air, hovering for a moment before fading away. Stathis looked down just in time to see Janaxia looking at her, seeing her looking and then looking away. The sniff she heard might have been one of Janaxia’s telepathic broadcasts, or might have been her imagination, it was impossible to tell, but even from here, the body language was obvious. Stathis sighed to herself – Janaxia had been avoiding her so thoroughly it hadn’t been possible to apologise or even talk to her, she kept blinking away whenever she saw Stathis approach. And having Skotadi around didn’t help matters – even if she wasn’t a demon in disguise, having those sharp eyes staring was disconcerting, and the way she mimicked Janaxia’s stances was unnerving, making her live up to Semari’s nickname of ‘mini-naxia’.

Still, soon they would be on the boat together, which might make things easier? At the least, hopefully Janaxia wouldn’t spend her entire time in her cabin.

Footsteps tapped onto the deck behind her and she turned, expecting to see Semari dropping from the rigging. Instead, it was Parth, magical energy fading around her as she blinked back into the physical world. She lifted one of her swords, angling it to catch the sun, a trace of blood visible on the metal.

‘False-sworn of the light slain.’

‘Oh, is that what you’ve been doing? I thought you were collecting herbs or meditating or something. Or stealing more treasure from other elves.’

‘Reclaiming.’ Parth gave a graceful nod as she spun her sword and sheathed it. ‘A loan of ancient times, a debt repaid.’

‘I just hope they see it the same way! Although turning their palace into a floating inn or whatever is hopefully keeping them busy. So, you managed to hunt down the stragglers? Get any useful information from them?’

Parth reached into her pouch and pulled out a coil of golden wire, not entirely clean of blood. ‘To be purified.’

‘Any idea what’s with those tattoos? They seem to give them power or something?’

Parth nodded, then pressed a finger against her chest, where her heart was, before moving it over her chest in a looping spiral. ‘Stolen power, a gift never returned, the light stolen.’

‘Are you saying this is an ancient thing? Like the place I went to?’ Parth looked at her, amber eyes unblinking. ‘Is the “light” they think they worship related to the light from there, are they some sort of legacy from them?’

‘A human thing, uncertainty of the ages, promises unfulfilled and twisted.’

Stathis tried to translate that into something useful. ‘So you’re saying that they believe something that you don’t think is true? Mind telling me what that is?’

Parth jumped onto a barrel and crossed her legs. ‘The light shall reign, eternal and radiant.’

‘OK. Is that a good thing? A bad thing? The “light” sounds like a somewhat distant and uncaring deity, from what Agon said, although he did revere her. And certainly seemed a bit strange, what with sending everyone through a portal and then hanging back herself.’

‘Light. Perfect, unchanging, unblinking, all-illuminating.’

‘Is this one of those things where you’ve got a single word that means a load of different stuff in other languages?’ Parth smirked and nodded, apparently smug in the dense complexity of the elven tongue. ‘So that would be, uh, something like, it wants to enforce stasis? Or wants to force a certain way of living or something? That place looked vast and very regular. Are elves from there as well, or just humans?’

‘A mingling, the stream diverged and re-joined.’

‘That’s a relief, be a bit shit if we’d kicked you off your own world! So I guess the light hates demons, but isn’t all that friendly and nice?’

Parth nodded. ‘Above, warm but harsh, crystal-sharp. Immortal and cold.’

‘Right. But at least it hates the darkness where all the demons come from, so gives some protection against them. That’s something, I guess?’

‘The light commands. To order and rule – an eternal protector.’

‘OK. “My way or the highway” kind of thing?’

Parth smiled at her and gave an emphatic nod.

‘Well, let’s hope it stays nice and distant. Although we should try and bring Agon back, it sucks for him to be stuck all alone in a dead world for probably millennia, even if time does pass strangely there. Are you going to be trying to sneak us into anywhere else to steal stuff?’

‘Reclaim.’ Parth held a hand in the air and tilted it from side to side as she smiled, probably joking. ‘Unsure, undecided.’

‘Please try not to get us killed for some obscure ancient trinket? Although if you have anything that can help deal with Janaxia, that would be appreciated. Either something to stop her being creepy, or something that she might like as a gift.’

Parth drummed her fingers against the barrel as she considered. ‘Horncaps?’

‘She’s already got those. Or summons them up, I’m never sure how much of her clothing is real, other than the choker.’

‘Collar.’

‘It’s a choker! Anyway, I’ve laid on some nice booze for her, and some preserved fruits and things, to hopefully keep her nice and quiet over the journey. She’s probably going to be bringing Skotadi as well.’

Parth hissed. ‘Unseemly child. Close to darkness.’

‘Do you know where she came from?’

‘Rescued.’ She looked at Stathis strangely. ‘By you.’

‘So you remember that as well? Fine. OK. Thanks for dealing with those cultists, anyway. You mind keeping an eye on Skotadi and Janaxia as we travel? Just in case they do something odd?’

Parth shivered as though suddenly cold but nodded again. ‘The darkness shall be observed.’

‘Good, thanks. Now I need to go round up the others.’ She looked at the beach again, Janaxia seeing her looking and vanishing, a patch of shadow appearing in the town. A moment later, Skotadi vanished from the beach as well. Stathis sighed. ‘I might need to get someone else to tell Janaxia we’re leaving, as she’s still not talking to me. And Semari’s probably on a roof somewhere.’

Parth jumped up into the rigging and starting to climb away, apparently done with the conversation.