The Sixth was, in lack of better terms, the negotiator, the one to bring everyone to terms and forge alliances of peace were they had never been taught possible. A native from the Ice Fields, he was raised in a hard and unforgiving environment where strength was the decider for what power you held. Despite all that, he became the most peaceful of them all.

Excerpt from Rise and Fall of the Seven by Maïz the Wise.

“Forget what you know about the dangers of the Archipelago,” Morley advised them as they sailed through a small passage in between two peninsulas, huge dark trees and thousands of plants Samos had never seen before taking up every last bit of space on them. A hundred different sounds emerged from them, the cry of an unknown bird, a screeching cat that sounded just off enough that he doubted it was a cat, the snapping of branches…

“The pirates, the outlaws, the brigands…” the captain continued, “They’re what people know, something they can understand and fear. But these forests are where the real danger lies, none who go there ever return.”

“The animals?” Yara asked and Samos saw the glow of Enhancement surrounding her eyes. “Surely a group of Enhancers and Sealers could survive in there.”

Morley gave a chuckle. “Ay, the animals, Yara. They’re dangerous there’s no doubt about that. But there are people living in there as well. They won’t bother ships passing by their coasts, but set one foot on land here and I can assure you they will not take to it kindly.”

“What kind of people are they? Hasn’t anyone communicated with them?”

“People tried. And died. There’s something strange about the tribes living among these trees. They think Mount Raeyner is some kind of deity that is here to punish them, so they hide on these islands. Close enough to worship it while still a good distance away.”

“What do you mean there’s something strange about them?” Samos inquired, now intrigued.

“I’ve only seen them myself two or three times so I can’t tell you that much about it, but according to the stories of men who encountered them more closely they have a strange affiliation with the Four Talents. They go around mostly naked, but carry sometimes up to a hundred piercings on their bodies. And what’s even more strange, some of these piercings so it said are made out of taen.”

“Taen piercings?” Yara blurted out and Samos could swear he saw her eyes make a hundred calculations at once.

The captain nodded. “Sevens be damned if I know where they got it from. Taen piercings or not, as long as we stay aboard the Hullbreaker and keep on sailing steady they shouldn’t bother with us.”

As if to mock his words, the sound of a single drum sounded from inside the forest to their south. Two seconds later, Morley’s eyes and those of his crew wide with shock, another thump resounded. Then a third and a fourth until they kept going at a solid rhythm.

“To the northern side!” Morley yelled suddenly and as one, the crew began to move around the deck. The ship began to diverge towards the northern island, away from the source of the drums.

Thump.

To their north, another drum responded, following the rhythm of the first drum.

“What’s going on?” Yara cried out as the crew once again halted and stared at the northern island. “What are those drums?”

“Bad news is what they are,” Morley responded hastily. “The only time we ever hear those drums is when they get pissed off about people entering their territory.” He drew his sword and turned to face the main deck. “We keep on sailing, we might just outrun them. Ready your weapons!”

The tension on deck grew as every men on board drew their swords and cutlasses, their eyes fixed on the shoreline on both sides. Samos guessed it was about three hundred feet to each side, the Hullbreaker now sailing neatly in the middle between the two islands. The drums sounded without a pause now, drowning out every other sound that had come from the forest before.

Cursing under his breath Morley paced the deck from one railing to the other, surveying the shoreline only briefly before turning back to the other side.

“Ahead!” Asmund’s voice came suddenly and Samos turned around to see where it had come from. He spotted him standing on the bowsprit looking to what lay ahead of the ship. “They’re rowing up the passage!”

With another curse, Morley sprinted to the front of the ship followed quickly by Samos and Yara. Samos enhanced his eyes and in the distance he could indeed see long thin boats being rowed to the middle of the passage. He had thought of how these people would look from Morley’s words, but he was still surprised by how true to his description they actually were. They had tanned skins and hair going well beyond their shoulders, their bodies covered by piercings on all places imaginable.

As the boats stopped in the midst of the passageway, so did the drums and an eerie silence followed. No birds were singing their tunes, no cat-like screeches resounded and even the wind seemed to have died down. The men and women in the boats stood up suddenly and as one they held up spears and yelled… something. Samos could not quite understand what it was they were crying, but he couldn’t shake the feeling it was some kind of war cry.

The yell was suddenly answered by others on the coast and on both sides, several hundreds of the tribespeople emerged spread out all the way to where the boats were waiting. All carried spears and all repeated the war cry in unison, the sound of it chilling Samos to his core.

“They’re enhanced, all of them!” Asmund yelled as he jumped back from the bowsprit onto the deck. Without warning, the spears they had been holding suddenly flew through the air towards the deck of the Hullbreaker.

“Seals!” Yara yelled and she ran to the southern railing. Instinctively, Samos responded by running to the other side and held up both his hands towards the incoming spears, the crewmen around him scurrying away looking for cover.

He closed his eyes and reached out. At first there was only a trickle, a tiny line of power drawn from the sea below him. Then came more lines. From the wooden railing of the ship, from the seabed underneath the waves, from the trees towering over the tribesmen on the shoreline. Hundreds of lines came to him, thousands. The power filled him, nearly knocked him unconscious before he was able to control it. Never before had he held this much and never before had he felt so in tune with it. This power was his. It was him. Somewhere beyond he remembered the spears’ deadly approach and he bundled the power together.

Restriction

The seal burst out of both his hands and in less than a second enveloped the entire side of the ship. Spears stopped mid-air and hung floating for only a brief moment before falling down harmlessly into the water. The seal tremored under the pressure and Samos felt his control slipping away. With a rip, the power left him and the seal exploded outwards leaving ripples in the water as it strode forward. By the time it reached the shoreline it had nearly died out, the trees rustling as if a gust of wind passed through them. The tribesmen however seemed unaffected as they stood steady on their feet.

The last thing Samos saw before losing conscious was the sheer look of terror in their eyes. He thought he heard Yara scream.

Never before had Morley frozen on the battlefield and he prided himself on it. He thought he had seen it all, knew it all. Nothing could surprise him anymore.

Now though he found himself unable to move, unable to act. He had been convinced all three of his strange passengers were nothing more than Enhancers. He had maybe even recognized a bit of his younger self in them, eager to explore the world and learn about their abilities.

But as over a hundred Enhancer-thrown spears on both sides of the ship stopped mid-air and dropped into the water, he realized he knew nothing of what was possible. How could one person form a seal of such power and size and in so little time at that? With a start, he noticed both Samos and Yara had fallen onto the deck once the seals were released.

“Get them to safety!” he yelled as he shook himself back into focus. The fight wasn’t over yet. Two of his men carried the two to the lower deck and he ran up to the front of the ship where Asmund had once again assumed his position on the bowsprit. His arms were stretched outwards towards the waiting boats and Morley could swear he felt a tingle crawling up his spine. The hairs on his arms stood up as a seal exploded from Asmund’s hands and raced forward towards the boats. With a start, Morley realized he had never seen a seal before.

The boats and the seemingly terrified tribesmen on them were flung into the air as the seal reached them, sending them up higher than the Hullbreaker’s main mast. Screams and painful sounding splashed reached his ears and before he could help it he was grinning at the sight. On the shorelines, he noticed the rest of the tribes fleeing back into the trees, neither drums nor war cries were sounding now.

“Serves you lot right,” he laughed satisfied before noticing Asmund losing his balance on the bowsprit. Quickly enhancing his legs, he jumped forward and grabbed Asmund’s arm just in time. One second later and he would have fallen into the water and be crushed by the ship.

Sometime later the shorelines finally gave way again for open sea and the tension that had lingered on the ship finally dissipated. Asmund was the first to awaken and wander back on deck. The crew grew silent as he passed, Morley noticed, all of them regarding him with either admiring or fearful looks. They knew what Sealers could do, he had taught them everything he knew, so they were well aware of the strength these three held.

“How are you feeling?” he asked carefully as Asmund joined him at the wheel.

“I’ve been better,” the answer came, his voice soft and tired. “Where are we?”

“Final stretch towards Nokoroy. Give it a few more hours, we have exceptionally favourable winds.”

“He’s there…” Asmund whispered more to himself than anything.

Morley cocked his eyebrow. “He? You mean Mettias?”

“I’m not sure… It could be him.” His look was pensive, as if he was seeing something he didn’t like. “What about the tribes? Did we lose anyone?”

“Lose anyone? Lad, if it weren’t for you three we would have all been dead. I have to admit I’ve never seen anything like it. How long were you planning on hiding your abilities?”

“We weren’t hiding anything, captain,” Asmund said with a soft smile. “You just never asked.”

“There’s something else going on here,” Morley spoke, “and even though I am intrigued I won’t inquire more of you. Unless you are willing to indulge me of course.” He gave Asmund a look he thought was somewhere in between begging and pleading.

“I wish I could give you a straight answer,” Asmund chuckled as he saw his expression, “but I’m afraid I have just as many question as you do. This Mettias you talk of, we think he is like us. And we’re hoping he has the answers we’re looking for.”

“Like… you?”

Asmund sighed. “It’s bound to come out at some point anyway. Samos, Yara, me and at least three others among which this Mettias…” he hesitated for a second. “We all have each of the Four Talents manifested. We’re being pulled to one another for reasons we cannot explain. Right now, we’re following the pull westwards, the one that led us to Arrowpoint and now to Nokoroy. To Mettias.”

“Four Talents…” Morley whispered. “Sevens be damned it’s finally happening again.” His mind wandered to the book stashed in his shelves in his quarters. Could it be?