Gula POV

Warm water dripped down my body from the wood flower in front of me. Standing still as the sweat, spit, and soreness from sex was washed down the drain in the stone floor below me, my mind still had a warm fog making it hard to concentrate. I had thought about having Eli in here, but we needed to get a move on if we wanted to head out as soon as the ship arrived and there was no way I could hurry if he had his grasping palms on me.

Taking some soap from the alcove on the right, a regular fixture for all of the showers in the housing area, I started rubbing the white block all over me. As my hands worked over my body, there were phantom sensations of strong fingers molding my green skin like it was a delicate dough. When I went down to scrub my womanhood, the weirdness of how… full it felt preoccupied me for a few seconds.

It took an act of great will to knock my mind off that feeling. Along with images of Eli's face. That face of pure, primal need as he…

"Come on, Gula." I scolded as pulled myself out of a staring contest with the grey stone wall. "You might as well have brought him in at this rate."

Shaking my head, I cleaned myself from head to toe. After washing myself down, I found a fresh pair of the typical white shirt and brown pants waiting just outside the door for me where my regular clothes had been. When I had left our pile of blankets, it occurred to me that I hadn't brought a change of clothes. Coming out of the shower on the first floor of the housing area, I walked over the stone floor as diamond crystal mana lamps dotting the walls lit up the rows of railing and iron doors on the floors above in a golden glow.

Getting to the end of the housing and taking a left, I ran my hands through my wet, black hair cut to its usual bowl cut as I opened the iron doors. When I pushed them to the sides, I noticed that the two wood blocks with noise-deadening enchantments were gone. Looking down the hallway, another mystery presented itself in the missing pile of blankets that had helped me lose my virginity. Going further down the hall, I saw Eli working the stone again as he used his magic to rip chunks of the grey rock out of the surrounding mountain.

Feeling a little miffed that he had gotten back to work so quickly, I walked forward to ask him where my stuff was. When he turned around with a wave of his short silver hair, the slight limp in his legs cooled my anger. I was certain I'd be sporting a few love bites after our session and it felt gratifying to leave my own mark on him.

"Ah," He said as I came up to him. A quick kiss and a deep hug that felt cozier than any other he had given me was all we said at first as I gazed into his purple eyes. "Salamede came by earlier. The ship hasn't come back, but she cleaned up after us."

"Hmm," I responded dumbly as I felt my brain shutting off. Taking in his muscular chest and handsome face, I found my hands running through his silver hair without having decided to do so. "Thanks, Eli."

He raised an eyebrow as I lost myself in the moment, letting my heart beat like a drum from his touch as he ran a hand down my backside.

"I should be thanking you." My husband whispered.

"Thank you. For making me a woman."

He bit his lips, which I quickly undid with another kiss. When a loud pop from us finishing sounded out, Eli responded.

"You were already a woman, Gula. I wouldn't have married you otherwise."

Being a woman. Responsibility, obligations, and duty.

I moaned as the demands of life started intruding on my bubble of happiness. Closing my eyes and sighing, I ran my hands over his chest one last time before pulling back.

"I'll head back to the workshop. We still need to see to some finishings for the armor. Once we're on the ship, I will expect a thorough explanation of the new the equipment you made for me."

My task finished, I headed out of the cave and towards the workshop. As I was coming through the meeting room, Salamede came through the door wearing her typical green dress.

"Ah," she said happily as she came up and took me in a hug. "Sister. How was it?"

"Wonderful. I'd say I gave as good as I got," I responded with a satisfied grin that I couldn't keep down. "Though, he did catch me off-guard with one really… adventurous move."

She raised a grey eyebrow as she picked off a stray hair from my white-sleeved shoulder.

"Well, well. I'll have to get the details later. We can't let Eli have total mastery of the bed, but skills of another kind are needed right now. I need your experience fighting in and around water for deciding on how to make the water-blade shooters."

With that, I spent an hour or two going over how leather wristbands could chafe against skin and where best to put them. Over the course of working with the Keltons to practice the crafts, I saw Lokan and the fire-ape in the forge area. Not surprising, considering how well the heat of those black cauldrons filled with molten metal agreed with them.

After a few blocks of stone got chipped into rubble with flying water blades shot with varying accuracy, the newest addition to our fleet finally came back in the late afternoon. The ship was thinner than the one we came to these cold, salty lands in. More like a long wooden blade compared to the hulking house with a balloon that was our first airship. Still, my only other experience with vessels was rickety rowboats, and even if it was smaller it was still bigger than my home back in the swamps thrice over. Directing the troops and the two remaining Frojan, an older brown fellow and a midsized green frogman, we got our people up the ladder on the side and into the hold.

A dozen-plus fighting Keltons combined with a smaller hold meant we had to spread out on the main deck. Gretton and mother came with us, but Lokan stayed behind with the children and elderly. After helping the last of our troops into their armor, I left them all to practice their forms while I met my husband above deck. We were just lifting off when Eli called to me from the right. Salamede was with him on his left, wearing and holding wooden armor that had a smooth flow to it that left the impression that the tree had formed the shape naturally rather than by a human hand. That same look expertise carried over to the breastplate as well as the wrist and shin guards on top of the large piece.

"We're ready for the fitting," He called.

Coming over, the swirling mist behind him made it look like nothing was moving even as my legs had to fight to keep me upright. Aside from that, I knew all too well what the heat blasting from the central heating pipe and into the balloon above meant. Taking the shin guards from Salamede, I fitted the straps around me as Eli began using some plant magic on Salamede's helmet. When he finished with hers, he handed me my headgear as Salamede helped fasten the breastplate on. As she fit it around me, a question came to mind when I didn't see any straps on it.

"How do you intend to-"

She opened the side of it with two small hinges on the left. When the piece was fitted on, my sister-wife lifted two small hidden compartments on each side and pressed inside each. Looking down, I saw the open sides grow together into a solid piece. I then noticed Eli holding a wood helmet out to me.

"I suppose I don't need to elaborate on my lack of experience with wooden crafting," I said as I donned the piece. "How tough are these?"

"As strong or even slightly stronger than steel." Eli declared.

My hand immediately went to my right side to test that statement with my sword. It occurred to me, that after living so many years in the swamps, this was probably the first time I had spent so long without having a weapon on hand. Over the next hour, Eli flitted between perfecting a handle for a water sword to go with me and one of those gun things for Salamede as she apparently favored ranged combat. When I had a good midsized sword of shimmering liquid that could cut through woodblocks easily enough, Eli went to work on getting rid of any imperfections in the breastplates and helmets.

"Honestly," Salamede chided as our husband moved some of the wood around her horns. "This is good enough. You should get to making your own armor."

The quad mage's huff made us both raise eyebrows.

"Enough for my wives isn't enough." He refuted as he began working the shoulder guard of Salamede's weapon. Those purple eyes were hard and allowed for no argument even as Salamede bit her lower lip.

"Eli," The Kelton woman's serious tone stopped him. "You do know that you're more important than us. Our entire movement is ultimately depending on you and what's in those chips. If it came down to it-"

"No," Eli put up a hand, silencing her. He took a moment to look between us both before he continued. "When we were just friends, that was one thing. But we're married now… and… It's a cruel thing, to ask a man to let his family get hit for him. No matter the justification. Just let me finish this and let's leave the future out of the present."

I looked at Salamede, whose lower jaw was quivering as she gripped the long piece of wood in her arms. Years of warfare and training meant I had a better handle on my emotions, but I felt much the same. There was a small, irritated voice that objected to all of my combat experience being shoved to the side by his male need to protect. Whatever irritation I was feeling, the warmth in my cheeks and ache in my heart blotted out all other emotions. I had known my mother's love, sure. But this was different, more passionate and intoxicating than that simple warmth in the soul. Was marriage supposed to be like this? Always having someone around who could play your heart like an instrument with a few words?

"Pff, men" Salamede scoffed as she turned to me with some mirth in her white eyes, "They're so emotional."

I nodded in agreement, trying to not wrap Eli in a hug.

"As long as you understand. Not that I ever intend for that to happen to any of us, mind you." Eli announced as he started working her breastplate. After another half hour, he got the wood down to where it felt like a second skin. Swinging my liquid sword around, I finally nodded when I did a full swans twirl, a move designed to push the limits of the warrior's flexibility with long, wide slashes carried out in two spins. Finding no point in the exercise where the armor hindered my movements, I nodded in satisfaction.

"All right," The quad mage announced in satisfaction. "I'll start on my pieces and your mothers. If we have time, I'll start making more items but we have the basic protections now."

With that, he kissed us both before heading to the hatch behind the pilot, a young Kelton man who was slightly moving the wheel now and then. Watching Eli go, we both took a moment to stare at our husband's backside while he made his way below deck. It was only when he made it below deck that the irritated voice came out.

"Damn him."

Salamede raised an eyebrow at me, but the small smile on her goat-like face didn't leave the impression she was upset.

"Lovingly, of course." I offered in defense as I shrugged my shoulders.

"Aye," Salamede agreed. "But we still have some work to do. Let's start getting those water shields up and going."

The Kelton woman and Eli must have agreed on her making the healing enchantments and water shields because for what felt like an hour I watched her waving her hands over the wood and looking quite tired from her efforts. Bored as I was, I kept practicing my forms until Eli came up in his own brown, wood armor. As he was walking across the deck, the young Pilot finally gave out the announcement that was both overdue and too soon.

"We're here."

Moving over to him, Eli put up a hand.

"From his viewpoint, you'll only see bits and pieces. I'll make a hole in the mist so we can see enough to make plans."

When he was near the railing on my left, he stuck out a hand. I couldn't see anything at first but the hole in the whirling mist beyond our ship showed the town below. It was after a few seconds of looking down over the docks at the river's edge that I found the line of ships, one of whom held so many of my kind. Forcing my stomach to stop twisting, I looked down at the rest of the town.

Surrounded by a tall wall, the place was nearer to a city than a town. Multistory buildings of stone were along the river bank and flanked by either wooden houses that had a 'Where ever it will fit' look to them or long rows of warehouses, the latter of which took up most of what was the right side of the settlement from our position. As the late-day sun splashed the place in an orange glow, I felt that typical surge in my veins that accompanied approaching battle.

"The brothers said that one of the warehouses held magical resources," Eli idly threw out.

"Which one?" Salamede asked to my left.

He looked down with squinting eyes.

"Does it matter?" I asked as I perused the patch of uniform grey tiled roofs. "We don't need any magical resources."

"Yeah, but we may need to burn it down for a distraction at some point."

"Oh?" I asked, turning to him. His purple eyes stuck out between the nose guard as he bit his lip in concentration.

"We need metal." The quad mage finally declared, "If we have a choice about it, I'd like to filch some from these storehouses, and using some burning dragonhide as a distraction is too good of a trap not to use. Even if we can't get anything, one fire to draw the enemy into firing lines is a good trick to have up our sleeves. As unlikely as it is that we'll have time for some money-free shopping."

We spent a few more minutes going over the various routes such bait would funnel attackers into.

"That central walkway along the docks would be too far away to-" Eli was interrupted when a black mass flew out of the mist on the right and slammed into his chest. "Hey, buddy."

The crystal oval rubbed against his neck before hopping between me and Salamedes's shoulder. A spirit connection filled with joy and greeting made me smile as he went back and forth on our shoulders. I got a few images of him eating fish and the boys sitting at tables with the sailors and Orc women.

Happy to have Cell back, we took a few minutes to talk with him, get a general idea of the situation, and other idle matters while we continued planning. It was after a few hours that we felt we worked out everything that we could. Salamede with her water and wind magic, would accompany Eli as he crushed any ships while I would use my expertise to lead the ground troops if it came to a slugging match. The hows, whens, and wheres would have to be decided when the situation finally reached its conclusion.

It didn't that day, even as I tucked into a blanket on the floor of the lower deck with my muscular mother on my left. It didn't the next day or the day after. The Keltons didn't idle well and I had to break up two fights that they at least had the good sense not to slug out around our heating furnace. Aside from that, Eli spent his time enchanting and instructing. On the fourth day, as the dying sun cast a red and orange glow over the sky, the show finally started. When we were on another patrol in the sky, as was our regular duty considering our larger sister ship had all of the most valuable troops and was considerably slower, the sleek shapes of a small pirate fleet came up near the mouth of the river.

Surprisingly, four of them waited around the outflow of the waterway while one sailed on further ahead. My breath caught as I took in the ship now that we had a proper view of it. It had a copper look to it with long, bulbous sides. What was the oddest thing about it was the odd spikes on both sides. Some had balls of water, fire, or blocks of wood on their tips. I couldn't see any reason for the protruding spikes of metal holding these odd bits of material, but the ship's sails, ballistae's on the front and sides, and a full deck of pirates had obvious enough uses. Looking down through a hole in the mist, I had Eli on my right along with every other Kelton on the ship behind us trying to get a peek at the coming carnage. Along the back of the ship the water churned and from the way it went headlong against the current, it was obvious that enchantments on the bottom were propelling it forward.

When they pulled into port, they immediately got to work. I couldn't make out all the details of what was happening from the height, but the occasional bolt into a building and the fighting on the docks was clear enough. A few specks fell, a few gathered in masses of bodies from fighting and dying, others were too far away to make out at this distance.

"We need to get down there before they kill the Waveborn." My mother shouted as she came from the back end of the crowd to my right, her long twin braids of brown hair twirling. Her thick green lips curled in anger around her tusks as her bone nose piercing twitched with her irritation.

"Not before we've tested the men," Eli refuted with a raised hand, keeping his eyes on the town. A nod from me made mother huff in irritation. After a few seconds, the black mass of Cell came up through the mist. He only communicated with Eli, who promptly spun around after a few seconds of staring into the shifting slit of light in his familiar's crystal head.

"The captain is moving his crew into an underground hideaway. They are currently going into a special cave beneath the pier. Jeff and Andrew will be with them, but Gula and Durka are the only ones who they'll trust once the brothers use their magic." He turned to me; his eyes filled with worry even as his face had the hardness of stone. "Once you've gotten situated, wait for the last possible moment to reveal yourselves. Keep calm and if it comes down to it, we may have to leave them to their fate."

Nodding and keeping my nerves calm, I went to the side of the rail with mother. Days of idling away hour after hour and all the sluggishness that induced disappeared as I felt that familiar tingle of excitement run up my spine. Cell was keeping tabs on the battle and coming back with semi-regular reports.

There were no protectors for the citizenry. Mobs of shopkeepers with clubs and small swords were putting up a fight in the streets, but the proper guard was nowhere to be seen. Even with their immense advantage, the pirates were taking their time clearing the place out. They were going door to door, slaughtering any living thing they could find and taking whatever valuables were to be found. Out of all of us, Salamede was dealing with our inaction the worst. Gripping her weapons and strumming her fingers on the railing, her grey fur moving with the faint wind beneath her wooden armor and nose guard was getting rubbed constantly while Eli and I focused on the tactical situation.

While no real fight was being given, the pirates weren't going after the ships at the docks. Instead, they were being visited by their other ships, and, oddly enough, the Waveborn ship was left untouched. Whatever the reason for that, it was giving Beaton time to move his people into a hidden passageway below the docks while being unseen as the pirate ship was content to wait near the opposite end of the pier with the larger escape ships squatting between the two.

Local guards betraying their station, which the reports made abundantly clear is what happened, wasn't something I was familiar enough with to make any real judgments on. Maybe they were just trying to be spared a heroic death? Our green skin meant treason to our cause was never an option and the subject wasn't something I had really chewed on before.

Still, the fact the guards felt better going rogue rather than sticking it out meant the situation in our corner of the world was probably a lot worse than I had feared.

As the sun faded and shadows playing across the buildings became proper night, the pirates started placing large barrels around various street corners, their purpose or reason for doing so not readily apparent. Cell came back up with another report, only this time it was to tell us the captain had finally snuck his people into the hideaway, the entrance of which was under the pier they weighed anchor at. Looking towards Eli, those purple eyes looked worried even as the time for action had come. I looked down to the docks, trying to memorize where things were with one last bird's eye view if I got caught above ground. Feeling a hand on my shoulder, Eli's face took up my world as he pulled me into a kiss.

I savored the moment, taking in everything he had to offer before pulling away to the side of the deck.

"Don't let him do anything stupid," I called to Salamede, who was hanging back on his right. She pushed him aside before taking me in a hug.

"Only if you promise to do the same if we get separated." She agreed.

Eli huffed.

"I can look after myself," He grumbled. That made the men chuckle as he puckered his lips.

Salamede turned around and patted his cheek.

"Sure, you can, dear. When we're around, you can look after yourself all you want but don't think we'll let you do anything too dangerous under our supervision."

I couldn't keep the smile off my face even as Cell jumped from the railing and onto my chest. With one final wave goodbye, I worked my feet over the edge of oblivion. The moment of trepidation was lessened when I felt air push against me as I lowered my feet. Taking a moment to collect myself, I didn't so much as jump as I did just let go of the railing. Mist whirled around me as the familiar on my chest used air spells to make it feel like I was falling through something between mud and water even as all of my exposed skin only felt the rush of air.

Eventually, the cool rush of liquid over my feet told me we were at ground level. Much like traveling with the Frojan, my world was quickly changed from fog to churning water. It wasn't as cold as the water at our base, but not a lot in this world was. Heat still sapped from my limbs and I had to fight the urge to curl up. After a few more seconds, a stone wall suddenly ran up to me. Just before I smacked into it, I was jerked upward and onto a ledge. As the black mass below my breasts used more water spells to pull the icy death off my skin, I looked around as I leaned against the stone wall.

Having better night vision than humans, the surrounding woodwork of the pier was still distinguishable from the night and I could make out the waves just below my feet. By the time I realized that I was in the support beams of the docks pier and the wood wall on my right was the hull of a ship, Cell took off again. Left to my idleness once again, I tried to hear what was going on in the town. Aside from the occasional crack of breaking wood and odd curse as the pirates sacked the meager buildings, the only sound was the patter of the river water smacking against the stone below me. It was downright peaceful until I looked to the right and saw a trickle of blood trickling between the rough stone.

When Cell brought mother back, I was worried about her taking deep, loud breaths but she was as professional as I had hoped. Plopping down on my right, she made no audible noise even as she rubbed her lips with the back of her right hand.

'Damn, I can't believe you did that crap every day.' She growled in a spirit connection as the water around her began pushing off her skin with the source coming below her chest. Cell finished after a few seconds then zipped over my legs and onto the stone on my left. He moved around the various blocks, that shifting slit of colors that served as an eye in his crystal head clearly looking for something.

'You ready, mom? Or will you need a moment to warm back up?' I asked in the spirit connection as I looked over the muscular woman.

Her nose flared as she took out two handles from her belt, two items I knew to be a water shield and ax.

'The only time you'll be slowing down for me is when I'm dead, girl. Your mother still has a few more years in her.' She scolded before she pointed her chin towards Cell.

Following her gaze, I saw him slowly lifting what had been a false wall. Going inside, it was only after mother stepped into the cave that Cell let down the false wall and took his position inside my breastplate near my collar bone. Looking around, I had to say I was less than impressed.

The walls were crudely hacked brown dirt mixed with wood supports and it was only a faint light near the end of the long tunnel ahead that provided any guidance on where to go. Creeping forward on the uneven mud floor as quietly as I could, I heard some faint voices further ahead as I neared the corner.

'Cell, scout it out for us.'

His orders received, he zipped out from my breastplate and over the ceiling. It was a few more minutes before he came back. When he did, I felt some joy coming through the connection that accompanied the images. He gave me a vision of a wide cavern with an open center, the entrance to which had a downward slope, and two tunnels, one on the right and a left side one nearly opposite of the brothers. Around it was sailors and Orcs strewn about clutching various swords, clubs, and sack of goods or seeing to a crying babe. Torches dotting the walls or gripped by a sweaty hand showed panicked and worried faces. Jeff and Andrew were leaning against the right-side wall. Wearing white shirts and black pants, no one seemed to notice they were more tired than panicked as a big, grey-bearded man matching the description of the captain directed some meager catches of supplies and maneuvered people onto one spot or another. Cell also gave me the impression of a spirit connection along a cut by the wall.

Not seeing what he had to be so happy about, I looked up to see the cut on the upper side of the wall as it went into the main room. Pushing a spirit connection near it, I suddenly found my extension of electrical feeling bumping into another hanging in the air.

'I assume this is Gula?' Jeff's voice bounced through my mind.

'Yeah. What has Cell so happy? Unless he gets by on the ambient energy of suffering and misery, the image he showed me wasn't a joyous one.'

A small smack of black liquid against my chest let me know the familiar was listening to our conversation.

'Everyone here has almost certainly passed the spy test' He said.

I raised an eyebrow at the dirt wall. While he couldn't see my face, my silence was telling enough.

'Nate. He was ordered to take some men and scout ahead to watch for traps. What he didn't know was that Cell followed behind him and the scouts he assembled. They were shaking hands with some of the pirates near the entrance and talking about finally getting away from the green menace. Between that and the resurgence of mana here, I'd say they're ready to finish things.' A sense of agreement from Cell confirmed Jeff's explanation.

I bit my lower lip. The potential fate of my entire species was riding on what I did in the next few minutes, not to mention the lives of my newly formed family. There was a flash of irritation, a fleeting thought about how much less stressful wading into certain death was. Back in the good old days when if I screwed up, I would just starve or take an arrow through the eye.

'That's not good enough,' I finally responded. 'Until the troops get in here, we won't know if there are some spies he left behind in case the Orcs escaped. We wait until it looks dire enough.'

A long sigh was all I heard for a few seconds.

'Unless you want us to verify the innocence of burnt corpses, I don't think we can afford to wait if there are any mages here. All it will take is one or two of the right fire spells and everyone here is ash or dies choking on smoke.' He countered with a slight raise in his pitch near the end, the irritation clear in his voice. I suppose being in a death trap would be rather unnerving. Moments of juggling the needs of the situation became seconds. Far too long, it turns out.

'Crap,' Jeff said through the spirit connection, 'Footsteps are coming from the tunnel. A lot of them.'

My mind raced with the energy surging in my veins as the few seconds I had to figure out what to do ticked down. We couldn't let our two main means of forming contacts in human settlements die along with the others. To say nothing of losing the other people here. Letting my training take over as I always did in approaching combat, I looked back towards mother with a head bob towards the cave. Sounds of panic were already starting to come through. Getting up, I went into the main cave and onto a scene of pandemonium as sailors and Orc milled about seeing to their goods or trying to get a previously dropped weapon as the sounds of footsteps became louder.

No one had any time to notice us as we moved through the panicked crowd towards the two brothers leaning against the back of the wall. Jeff nodded towards us with a swish of his black hair while the brown eyes he and his brother now shared looked on. Before I could even consider leaving, Beaton started dishing out orders

"Form up!" Beaton called from somewhere in the sweaty mass of panicked flesh. Even as well-armed and quick as they were, it was hard to move as a surge of the Orcs carrying their young towards the only escape. While the first thing that we saw was torches flickering across the walls, the Misty pirates quickly revealed themselves.

Aside from tan skin, good leather armor, and being well-fed, I couldn't pick out any consistency among them as they came out of the tunnel. For shirts, some had gold and purple striped cloth, others plain red or yellow. Pants of every color and make were present, each having a belt on which was an assortment of daggers.

In addition to the regular swords and maces favored by all fighters, I couldn't find any one of the men coming down the tunnel who didn't have at least three daggers tucked away on a hip, boot, or shoulder. The garb wasn't the sort you'd find in any proper army, but it advertised what they wanted.

They were good at their job. Good enough to bring a sense of fashion to the battlefield and good enough at killing that they felt the need to compete with their fellows on clothing if only to distinguish themselves. All the men and fighting Orcs on our side of the room looked like cornered animals as they tried to cover the retreating non-combatants, but it was too late. The newcomers quickly moved to the right and boxed in those attempting to flee. With rusty swords and wooden clubs, the defenders didn't stand any more chance than the people they were trying to protect. Still, they gamely put themselves between the pirates and their families.

"All right." One of the fellows sporting a wide, red-furred hat with a white feather in it shouted over the den. He came forward in a purple shirt with gold shoulder guards. His black pants had the usual assortment of daggers, but the sword he twirled in his right hand had some gold leaves and finery in its hilt that put it just above the rest.

"Looks like we got some like throwing practice today lads. Make sure you keep track of where you hit, cause I'm not tolerating any fussing over who owns what." His wide face of leathery skin broke out in a grin as his green eyes lit up in glee. At that, the men started taking out daggers with cruel smiles.

In the corner of my right vision, I saw a flash of steel in the air followed by a shout from a sailor. While the wounded man went down with a yell of pain, the enemy leader got an annoyed face as he turned to his left.

"Oi!" The pirate commander yelled, making his way through the crowd and stopping at one younger lad who looked about seventeen. "I said we could kill these ones. Did I say to do it now?"

The black-haired teen looked down and puckered his lips.

"No, sir."

A smack on the back of the head accompanied the last word.

"No, I didn't. Ten gold for insubordination and no nights with the whores for a week."

His correction finished, he started walking back to his spot near the mouth of the tunnel. When he got to where he wanted to be, he took a deep breath before he straightened out his purple shirt.

Damn, he was the type to talk his enemies to death. Content to let him play his bit of theater, I took the opportunity to start a spirit connection with my three companions.

'I'd say they've passed the test, so if there are no objections, I'd like to get onto the how of saving these people.'

Jeff spoke up in a panicked tone.

'How will we explain this? The sailors and Orcs would never-'

'How will we get away now?' Mother rebuffed 'This ends with either us or the pirates dead and life is still a sweet thing for me.'

When a pall of silence followed, I took that as agreement while my breathing quickened and my palms sweated.

'We'll need a distraction to let Cell get behind them. He'll subdue the spies and block their exit. Mother and I will cover you guys while you batter them.'

'Sure,' Jeff agreed as he clenched sweaty fists 'Shield us from the daggers and we'll finish it in a few seconds.'

'Just don't slow me down, pup.' Mother responded in her typically friendly tone.

'I have the mana absorbed and ready to go.' Andrew put in, his voice having a high, almost panicked note.

Nodding to myself, I walked forward through the crowd with my gang in tow. The people were too scared to bother us as we pushed through the mass and no one objected to us getting closer to the frontlines. When the commander finally finished wiping down his black shirt, he pushed the back of his sword's handle. Flames sprang up and played around the steel, shining a flickering light on the holder's cruel smile

"A mage," One terrified man on my left moaned with a somber misery. Not that everyone was standing still. I looked around the room and found the captain, Beaton. The taller gentleman with a long grey beard was still quietly handing out any last-minute weapons he could to his people in the back. Smart and capable of keeping his head even as death approached, I thought as I turned ahead.

"A mage?" The pirate commander mocked, to the low laughs of his men. "No. A mighty existence like that of a caster wouldn't soil their hands with the blood of scum like you. But I have earned a gift from such a-"

A laugh from my right stopped his speech. Turning towards the source, I saw Andrew clutching his stomach and whooping like the commander had just delivered the finest line of comedy the fire scion had ever heard. His thrown-back head of brown hair whirled about him in the torchlight as chuckles started coming out of our throats as the tension in our group finally broke.

'Cell. Move around the back and block their escape before you get the spies.' I instructed in a spirit connection to the black mass on my chest as I took out my wooden sword and shield handles in between my derisive snorts. He quickly shot down my shirt and moved down through the crowd of feet that was gradually pulling away from us. Everyone looked at us like we were crazy. After noticing the wooden armor on me and my mother, of course.

But none of us cared. These past few weeks had made us complacent about the true power of Eli's abilities. Having him sit by us at lunch or slog through a grueling workday with the rest of the workers had humanized him. Perhaps too much. The notion that a caster would be too high and exalted to even be in the same room as an Orc was too absurd after our time with someone whose titles read like a list.

It was only after one pirate on the commander's right drew back his arm for a dagger throw that we finally made ourselves properly known. By the time the dagger was flying through the air, mother had her shield of water ready and blocked the fatal blade with a clang against the shimmering surface. The surrounding crowd was pulling back a bit faster as she lowered her shield.

Educated on magical matters, the pirates knew what they were seeing and instead of fear, they looked angry. Their commander more than any other. His lips pursed in sour disgust as he stuck out his flaming sword like an accusing finger.

"Where did filth like you get that?" He demanded with some spittle flying from between his clenched teeth.

A huff from Jeff on my left was all I heard before a blast of wind swept through the room. Shirts, pants, and head wraps blew about in the breeze and when it hit the flaming sword, its enchantment sputtered for a moment before dying. The pirates pulled back towards the wall like death itself was hovering around the now barren blade. Their commanders' green eyes stared dumbly at his sword, not comprehending what had happened to it.

The lightning caster stepped forward and in a flash three bars of yellow lightning appeared above his head. Andrew also gamely pushed ahead with a cloud of flickering flames swirling through his hands. Not to be outdone, mother moved in front of Jeff with a water ax in her right hand and the wide shield of liquid in her left playing the surrounding torchlight off itself.

"Pff. Couldn't wait?" I asked my group as I activated my sword and shield.

Jeff shrugged while I walked in front of his brother.

"Their escape is blocked. Might as well finish this quickly before more show up."

All eyes turned behind the pirates towards their entrance. It took a moment before the realization that the smooth wall was once a tunnel finally hit home. For most, that was the last thought they ever had as fire and lightning slammed into them. Their daggers could still kill, so I was pinned down as a small shower of sharp metal from the more quick-witted among them banged against my shield while Andrew launched his own volley of death. What looked like a swarm of crackling fireflies burst from the air around me as they rushed towards the enemy.

While the embers didn't seem like anything special, the heat they gave off matched any bonfire. Heat that quickly scorched the skin of the doomed men as their fine garments burned like dry straw where the small holes seared through their armor, quickly followed by their flesh. The only consolation for some was that an ember directly flew into their head, burning through the bone beneath and killing them instantly. Jeff, however, seemed to have to be a bit more deliberate with the magic he was throwing out from behind my mother's shield. His bolts of lightning slammed into the fine livery, bursting brains and charring limbs. As horrifying as the carnage was, the lightning caster couldn't immediately kill everything in a wide area and Andrew was too busy finishing off the right side of the room to help him. This gap in magical ability allowed a group of five pirates and their commander to do a desperate last charge.

A large boulder from my mother's shoulder earth enchantment and a loud crunch of three of their number was the first reward the group got. One pirate on the commander's right got the privilege of being the first kill of my blade. The commander was one of the last two remaining pirates, the other being a lad around fifteen years of age wearing an ill-fitted black shirt and gold embroidered black pants. The important member now within arm's reach, I used a spirit connection to activate my boulder launching enchantment. With a whistle followed by a loud crunch, the pirate commander's legs were shattered. Leaving the last shaking combatant with tears streaking down his cheeks as he threw down his sword.

"P-Please! I've sired no children and am the last of my famil-"

The shimmering edge of mother's water ax took him between the eyes. Now that I wasn't in any immediate danger of dying, the rush of battle was wearing off. I had a brief hint of moral anguish in this moment of calm as his body slid off the blade and fell to the floor, but the naked bloodlust and glee he and his crewmates showed when they thought they had the upper hand on us had deadened any inner conflict I may have had. With nothing of the battle left but the screams of the commander reverberating over his slain crew, I turned back towards the false wall.

Seeing it was now a tunnel again, I found Cell dragging two men over the piles of burned corpses. When the blonde man and the other sailor were dropped in front of us with stone cuffs on their legs and arms, Cell jumped back onto my shoulder. Smoke was now rising from the piles of burned flesh, which was quickly put out with a stream of water from the familiar.

When his task was finished, he sent me images of his attack in the back of the cave. While he was subduing the spies, he was forced to kill one of them to keep him silent but otherwise there was no indication that our presence had been compromised to those on the surface. Nodding, I instructed him to return to his scion and inform him of the situation.

The situation.

Looking over all of the charred bodies, it hit me then that there wasn't any way to explain this to the other pirates.

The sailors would never have massacred them and there would have to be some Orc corpses in any wreckage we left behind. My rising panic must have come clear through the spirit connection because a feeling of calming empathy poured from the familiar. My only response was to push him to return to the airship.

He agreed and shot down the tunnel that we had arrived through on my left. A clacking sound rang out and it surprised me to find my right foot tapping on the ground. The realization that I had properly screwed things up, that years of training on how to kill the enemy and not on whether I should kill them had potentially damned the only shot my entire species had at a good life along with my new family washed over me. The flips my stomach was doing made me want to vomit, but it got sidelined when I heard a shuffle of feet on my right.

Looking towards the crowd, I noticed a split in the reactions. The men looked properly terrified. While the emotion was present in the women, it was competing with awe and curiosity. Coughing into my hand, I had a moment to collect myself before I moved forward to talk with the captain of the formerly doomed crew. He was at the forefront wielding a crude sword in his right hand that he was now idly holding up as his left hand was on the hip of his brown pants and beneath his blue coat.

As I walked up to him, I saw a look of sharp mistrust in his brown eyes when he looked towards the boys, who were now gagging and tying up our prisoners as mother used a patch of leather with a healing enchantment, previously stored in her pants pocket, to stop the pirate leader from bleeding out. That mistrust almost disappeared when I came up to him. Putting aside the weird notion that he would trust an unfamiliar Orc more than any member of his kind, I put on my most diplomatic face.

"Beaton, correct?" I offered with a friendly hand outstretched before looking up to him with a face that hopefully didn't convey my frayed nerves. His brown eyes were still darting between me and the other members of my group as his sharp cheekbones above the grey beard pulled with his pursed lips.

After some hesitation, he stepped forward and took my hand.

"Indeed," He said with a numb voice before he looked down the tunnel where the newest slaughter took place. "Am… Did my eyes lie or are the two boys mages?"

I smiled as I shook his palm. His eyes were now guarded and even though his hand was near twice the size of mine, the sweaty, nervous shake was unmistakable. I politely offered the only possible answer.

"Aye. A lightning mage and a fire scion."

His grey eyebrows shot up so high at the last word you would have mistaken them for hair that found its way into his otherwise bald head. An errant hand seemed to move behind his small left ear of its own free will as he idly scratched it.

"Scion. What's that?" One Orc with a left-side scar on her sharp chin and short brown hair asked with curious red eyes.

"Princess Palta and her squad. He's that kind of mage." He then got a serious look before turning towards the back. "Is everyone all right?"

There were a few looks around but the only one among them who got hurt was the sailor who took a dagger, a man who now rested with blood-soaked rags on the wall to my right. Noticing some of them had a death grip on their weapons, I coughed to draw everyone's eyes back to me.

"Whoever that is, Andrew and Jeff are on our side. But-"

"A mage," One of the buff orcs in a leather vest and shaking, ragged black hair scoffed on Beaton's right. "On our side? I've heard of some using us for guaranteed magical talent. But they ain't on our side."

Deciding to put on a more benevolent magical display, I turned towards the sailor who had been struck earlier. Moving through the crowd, I took out my own special patch of leather from a side pocket. A healing craft designed to be used on others, rather than just the one carrying it. It took a bit of doing, what with the sharp dagger still stuck in his shoulder. Getting the dagger out was the hardest part of helping the man whose green eyes were wide in fear and sweat poured from his skin, but once it was free of his flesh and I applied the leather patch, the bleeding stopped and those wide eyes went calmed down as his previously torn skin took on the smooth, pristine texture of a newborn.

Pulling back up, I returned to my spot in front of the captain.

"If they meant you any harm, they would have burned your ship down out on the sea and they certainly wouldn't have stayed here. More than that, we need to figure out where to go from here. Would I be wrong in assuming you had an escape route down there?" I asked with a nod towards the empty tunnel behind him.

Beaton gulped, not even shifting his eyes while he looked me up and down. When he stopped, he seemed to resign him to whatever fate had handed him this day.

"Yeah, this is an old underground base used for the Orcs who used to live here."

He tried to hide the pain in those last few words, but his eyes couldn't lie. Still, he pushed on.

"The tunnel leads to a small cove on another riverfront. We were going to head there before-"

He waved his right hand towards the now silent left side tunnel and piles of burned corpses.

"This."

"So where did the pirates come from?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

"My old office is a few feet above. It had a hatch that led down here for when going past the walls was too great a risk or would take too long."

Nodding, I was about to formally introduce myself when a whoosh of air from the riverside tunnel drew everyone's attention. The quad mage's familiar was back and landed on my shoulder, prompting the swords and clubs of the onlookers to come back up. As the crew took in what I had to admit was one of the oddest sights in the world, he sent me Eli's response.

An image of Andrew using a massive fire spell to reduce this part of town to molten slag wasn't the tool of secrecy I was expecting, but I wasn't going to waste time questioning it. I then supplied him with the information about an escape tunnel. Turning towards Beaton, the man got some sweat as the slit of shifting colors in Cell's slightly oblong crystal head now fixed him with its

"What, by the seas, is that thing?" One sailor on my left asked in a whisper that carried over the otherwise silent room. The black mass of shifting shapes flew off my shoulder and bounced between the various onlookers. Every shoulder he landed on jerked from the contact even when they saw him coming, though none dared object to being his stool.

I took a deep breath, mentally preparing for whatever happened next.

"My husband is a scion and this is his familiar. Though, he's currently waiting elsewhere."

Eyebrows shot up all around. Beaton even went so far as to slacken his jaw while hiccups from several women filled the shocked silence. Most noticeably of all, every pair of golden and red irises in black eyes immediately went to my stomach.

Well, we did always get to the point.

"We're on a time limit," I reminded everyone as I turned toward the captain. "Familiars communicate with images so try to show him where the exit of the cave is if that's any faster."

Some looked towards their leader who shrugged before putting his sword in its holster.

"If they wanted us dead, they could have just left. Show the…thing where the tunnel leads outside."

It took a bit as they got the hang of communicating with the bobbing black mass jumping between the three or four bystanders who had a good idea of where this tunnel met the proper sea. When all the needed information was gathered, Cell zipped back into the dockside tunnel and towards the airship with our destination.

Having a few seconds to arrange things, we dragged the two spies and pirate commander towards our escape tunnel. More than a few looked like they wanted to stab them but said nothing. At some point during my conversation with the captain, my companions must have decided that the prisoners would be easier to move if they were knocked out. Laying limp against the stone wall, the three stood over our prizes while I moved about offering the use of the healing patch to any who needed them.

Most were too reluctant to outright ask me for anything, but a few children only saw a woman in 'weird barrel armor' and gladly accepted the healing service. As I was kneeling to see to a few scratches on a child's arm, a great wind blew through the cavern again. Cell landed on my arm and gave me the all-clear to leave.

Getting everyone into the tunnel, I went over to Andrew and explained what we were going to do. His brown eyes rolled and a light groan escaped his lips, but the words 'I can't' never came from them. The goods all accounted for, the men and Orcs went down the tunnel while the fire scion waited near the back. When he judged us all to be far enough away, clouds of hot embers once again flowed through the air. Instead of laying into pirates, they buried into the surrounding walls this time. Mud baked, then cracked while supports burned into black ruin as more embers flew into the sides of the cavern.

When an orange glow was all we could see of the room, Jeff used an air spell to keep the heat out as we moved down the tunnel. As I turned the corner with the two brothers coming up beside me, there was a sudden groan in the land as the buildings above collapsed into what was now a furnace. One loud crunch of wood and a field of now burning pillars and walls was all I could see of the cave. Leaving the smoking ruin behind, we all walked down the path dug into the soil.

As I made my way through the crowd illuminated in the torchlight, I noticed a few pull back with deferential looks while others, mostly Orcs, looked me up and down like I was a mystery. The floor wasn't remotely smooth but it had a slight decline so the smoke all went outside as opposed to filling up our air.

It took a while to maneuver through the crowd as mothers moved with babes on their hips and sacks on their back along with their husbands carrying whatever they could, but it still felt like we were going a bit slower than we should be. After a minute of moving through the crowd, I finally found the reason. Along the left side of the wall was another cavern entrance but people went from double file to single when they came near it. I couldn't see anything wrong with it until I came up to the entrance. The walls had alcoves where beds had lain and, more importantly, skeletons with the blood long faded littered the stone beds and floor.

Scraps of ragged dresses left no doubt as to their gender and judging from the size of most of them, there were more children than adults. Looking to my right, I saw a look of pain in a few of the older men walking by. My curiosity satisfied, in that way that left one feeling like ignorance was a blessing, I moved on. With that obstruction cleared, the pace sped up and I was able to start properly moving even as there was a shift from a slight decline to an incline in the floor. When I had gotten near the front, Beaton pulled back from his position at the lead of the pack to walk beside me on my left.

"I appreciate the rescue," He said as the flickering light from the torch in his left hand played across his face and big grey beard. Even as dire as the situation was, he still had a faint smile on his lips. "But perhaps you could inform me about what you're doing here? Better yet, who you are?"

I took in a deep breath and decided on what bits to cut out before giving the pitch. A pitch that several heads were now leaning closer to hear.

"Do you know about the big battle that happened near the south of the Coalition? The one the Rodring kingdom sent all of its ships on?"

"Odd whispers from taverns these past few days. No one knows why."

"It was over a mage. My husband, more specifically."

His brown eyes went wide and I could feel some of the eavesdroppers get closer. One of them in a brown dress, an older Orc woman with short red hair and a cut along her sharp chin, even made herself known.

"What kind of mage would be worth all of that effort? I don't know if they'd do that even for a member of the royal family."

I turned to her with a shrug.

"He is very powerful. Being a scion also gives him more power than the caster who gave that fool back there a gift."

She gave a nod and the rest looked on with pursed lips, clearly not getting the significance of what I was saying. Fair enough. I spent the past few weeks learning about magic and I couldn't say I fully understood how important those abilities were to the wider world. Still, I didn't want to give away too much before I went over what to say with Salamede.

"He has great gifts, both magical and otherwise. He's also on our-"

I stopped as we all walked forward in total silence. 'Our side' wasn't really the right description. Sure, he wanted to help my kind. But simply being for or against us didn't capture his vision for the future and I had to make sure that the women didn't think a good stuffing from my husband was going to be a part of that future.

"Events have not gone as favorably for the nations of humanity when it comes to him. For all the powers of magic at his fingertips, my husband has decided to upend the current system. Our desire is to see a world where humans and Orcs can live together in peace."

Disbelief was their first reaction, but none voiced it. Some no doubt dismissed it, had their own objections, or couldn't process such a bold statement. Beaton searched my face for something, perhaps a hint of deception or a small smirk that indicated this was all an elaborate joke. Whatever concerns they all had, the end of the tunnel silenced them. Beaton walked forward and looked towards the smooth wall before pulling on a stalagmite near the floor.

Seeing that it was a hatch, I ran forward and put a finger to my lips as I prepared a spirit connection.

'Let Cell check the outside first. I don't want any more surprises.'

He raised a grey eyebrow as he pursed his lips in between his thick grey beard. Looking back towards Jeff, Andrew, and mother for a moment as they all helped carry the prisoners, he turned back towards me.

'Yes. We certainly wouldn't want events to steer too far off course.'

Keeping a smile down, I rolled my eyes before sending Cell out to scout the area. It took a few minutes and more than enough for my stomach to start churning. Far longer than if there was nothing out there to worry about. When the children started getting restless, the black mass finally came back up the hatch and landed on the floor between me and Beaton.

The riverbank had a bunch of guards waiting for us to come out. Former guards if the ripped patches where their insignias used to be was anything to go by. After looking over them all, Cell went to the ships hovering above to speak with Eli. He gave a mental image of Cell killing the guards and us moving onto the beach afterward. When Cell shared this information with Beaton, his eyes got a cold look. As the oval shape of Cell's head turned towards the hatch, it suddenly jerked back towards Beaton. The captain was clearly having a spirit conversation with him.

Whatever the request was, Cell readily accepted. Shooting down the hole and onto the dirt below, the sounds of slaughter soon filled the air. Men screaming, metal banging, and wails of the damned were all too familiar. As was the slow death of the chorus until silence reasserted itself.

Preparing to go down, I was a bit too slow as Beaton threw himself down the hole with an almost rabid look in the flickering torchlight that pushed back the surrounding night. Following after him, I plunged a good five or so feet before coming out onto a rather typical riverside before Cell landed on my left shoulder. Bark scars plastered the land where the bushes couldn't hold sway. Though some were twice my height making giant balls of green leaves obscure almost everything like their now-dormant neighbors. Ahead was a large river and the land would look downright peaceful if not for all of the bodies.

Looking past the blood, guts, and torches scattered about, I found Beaton running further ahead on the left near the river. He wasn't in the best shape and I caught up to him easily enough, though he still ran forward with a look of a predator chasing its next victim. His brown eyes were dead as he came onto the muddy embankment and up to one of the men laying on his back in the mud. Still breathing, oddly enough. Any concerns about his escape I had were dismissed by the boulder crushing his left leg.

He had leather armor and a full head of grey hair that had clearly been seen to with care. Like the fine leather top and black pants he wore, his finer features were disheveled to ruin as could only be expected when waist-deep in the muck and sporting a freshly mangled leg. Even with his poor position, the torchlight reflected nothing but contempt in his blue eyes.

"I knew it," He spat towards us.

Beaton chuckled. He walked forward for a single step before stopping again with a feral smile on his lips.

"What was it you said at their executions?" The captain idly pondered like this was just another talk between bar buddies. "'Endangering us all by undermining our means of survival' is what I remember. You were quite indignant when that tunnel under our wall was discovered. How many hours was the whole town forced to sit and listen as you raved about how compromised our security was due to the green scourge and their sexless losers? Well, I suppose we did have a stroke of luck when you couldn't prove any of us were connected. Those of us who didn't join our lost families after the ceremony, anyway."

"Filth. The lot of you." The man spat back with bared teeth. Then his eyes turned to me as I walked a bit further ahead to get between the two men. "How dare you look at me. I have been graced with mana sight, yet you stand before me like you're fit to breathe my air. Cursed spawn of a madman and a blight on all good things."

Contempt of this kind had always been present in the humans, but there was always a certain layer of added malice when it came from the mages. Back in the swamps such looks typically accompanied volleys of death and mayhem. Here and now, though, all he could do was squat miserably in the mud with a sullen snarl.

Beaton only smiled as he took another step forward.

"I had it checked a while ago, of course. Not that I believed the story you put out about our old home. Filling in that tunnel couldn't be done in a month, and I suppose you understood what a good smuggling route it was. To think it was holding onto our old Orc hold that got you killed. Maybe fate has entwined us? Perhaps to show the common humanity between Orc fuckers and mages."

Despite his position or lack thereof, the injured man got a cruel smile as his blue eyes gleamed with a cold joy.

"Oh, there's one big difference between us. My children are still alive. And human. They cried for you, you know. Too busy filling out paperwork to keep your putrid spawn alive. I suppose being such a good harbor master ate up just a bit too much of your time."

My blood chilled as the hairs on my arms and neck stood straight up. A dull wind blew over the now silent riverbank, taking with it any heat I had on my skin and the captain's smile. He stood still with a face of blank stone and brown eyes that seemed to be looking somewhere hundreds of miles away. Taking one deep breath, he dropped the torch into the muck. It landed bottom first and the flame still gave enough light to bask Beaton's face in a golden glow.

"I know," Beaton droned on with a dead voice. "When you came into my office and shoved their heads in my face asking if I had ever seen them before, I knew that's how they died. They had that same vulnerable look they always had when they wanted dad to sleep with them after getting a nightmare or when a bad storm above was raging."

The two men stared at each other for a long moment, neither moving until Beaton finally ran forward. Dex only got the chance to widen his eyes before the sailor was on top of him and had his hands around his throat.

"WAS IT WORTH IT DEX?!" Beaton screamed in pain even as it was his hands pushing Dex's head into the mud. "DID YOU HAVE FUN EXECUTING OUR WIVES AND CHILDREN RIGHT IN FRONT OF US KNOWING THERE WASN'T A FUCKING THING WE COULD DO ABOUT IT?! WHEN YOU CAME AROUND DROPPING SNIDE LITTLE COMMENTS ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF FAMILY FOR DAYS AFTERWARDS, WAS IT WORTH ALL OF THIS?!"

No answer came, of course. Dex feebly put up his arms to hit and pull on his attackers' hands, but between his injury and bad standing, the outcome was already decided. Looking away to get a better idea of what we were going to do next, the only sound I could hear was the soft wind blowing and the occasional sputter from the man being murdered. Leaving Beaton to sort out debts long unpaid, I walked back towards the sailors and their families.

Across the field of carnage, I saw the rest of our group coming out of the cave's ceiling with a few already looking around in the light of their torches. Before I could start coordinating them, a ball of mist came down from the sky. Only we Orcs could see it with our better night vision, even so, it caught a lot of them off guard when the mist suddenly disappeared to reveal our hulking mass of a ship.

It was still hard to see out into the night but when a three-story vessel with a huge balloon on top suddenly appears, even the humans noticed. As its flat bottom touched down into the surrounding muck, people pulled away in fear. When mother, Andrew, and Jeff pushed through the crowd with the prisoners in tow, the surrounding crowd became a little less afraid.

When I saw Salamede coming down the ladder on my side, I walked up to her. Meeting up halfway, we took each other in a hug that was made slightly difficult by our wooden armor.

'Are you ok?' She asked in a spirit connection while she wiped my shoulders with a flap of her white shirt. After I went over the events in the cave, she had a relieved sigh before giving me another quick hug. Her concern was touching, but the mission had to come first.

'What about the pirates back at Mole Hill? How are we going to explain what happened?'

Salamede pulled back and looked me up and down with concern that even her white eyes couldn't hide.

'Those barrels hold some kind of hot burning oil. Burning the underground like that will hide the fact that all the corpses are human and make them think one of the barrels tipped or leaked. Though, they all turned around right quick when the fire started. I'm surprised they didn't even bother saving their recruits.'

Turning to my right, I saw a pillar of smoke flecked with embers rising in the sky that had escaped my notice.

'Eli brought us here earlier when we saw one of the ships pull away towards one of the rivers further away. They dropped off some rowboats filled with the ex-guards then turned around towards the main fleet.'

Nodding, I worked through the situation in my head.

'They probably put the new crew on killing off any runaways then have them come back towards the town through the tunnel. I have to say, this seems like a lot of effort to put down the Waveborn. Especially when you're on a time limit to loot the place before any actual predators come sniffing around or the Rodring navy shows up.'

Salamede could only shrug as some armored Kelton's came down the ladder. I was a bit miffed when the onlookers at the mouth of the cave looked a bit more impressed at their appearances than they were with my own or mother's. They had the same water shields and axes or swords, but I suppose full plate armor was easier to appreciate than magically enhanced wood.

'Speaking of, predators is how we're going to cover things on this end,' Salamede told me in the spirit connection as we took 'We're going to burn the corpses and make it look like a pack of fire boars roamed through here. We don't know how hot the boars will burn the place, but there are enough unknown factors to cover our tracks.' Salamede finished as the bravest among the Sailors made their way up the side of the ship. When one of the Keltons came down the ladder and moved to our left with a long wooden pole and set it against the bodies, a spout of flames engulfed the corpses before he moved on to the surrounding grass and bushes. When the long blades of grass singed, the green carpet recoiled like a single mass.

He was looking at the grass pulling back in fascination, and the lack of training was clear despite my best efforts these past few days. As fascinating as the moving blades of vegetation were, the limbs of the bush on his right moving forward in a grasping motion were far more pertinent. We both dashed towards him as we pulled out our weapons.

"Get back!" I yelled.

By the time he understood he was in danger, the bush struck like a dozen snakes to wrap around his arms and legs.

"AAHH!" His rough voice called out as branches started pulling around the black fur of his neck. Salamede sliced through the vines with a sword of her own while I used my boulder enchantment to crush the surrounding foliage with some flaming bolts from Cell. Which was when the dandelion weeds started shooting seeds at us. It would be comical if not for the fact that one got between my shoulder plates and embedded itself in what felt like an inch of my flesh.

Ignoring the piercing pain, the next few seconds were a blur as my mind moved ahead of my thoughts. I felt the seed moving in my body and whatever it was going to do, it wasn't going to be benevolent. Ordering Cell to suck the life out of it, I felt that small bit of matter growing as the speck became a pea. It was starting to tear at the skin before Cell got his plant spell on it as we all pulled away from the irritated shrubbery. We collapsed in a disheveled mess while Cell pulled the now dried husk of a weed out of my flesh and healed the wound. Naturally, the others who had those burning poles stuck to the corpses.

"Forget burning the woods," Salamede's rough voice sounded out over three sets of heavy breathing. Which is when Kantor, the black and gray haired, goat-headed man with twirling brown horns, came over as he helped lift Salamede.

"Stupid boy!" He spat at the soldier sitting on the ground rubbing his throat. "The lady nearly died saving you from your own stupidity. Next time throw yourself into the bush and save us all the hassle."

"I'm sorry, I've never been this far south and…" the lad's feeble voice faded as he took in a gulp of air.

"Enough!" I commanded with a raised voice as the older man pulled me up by my hand. "Focus on getting everyone on board. We'll just do a pass or two over the area with the ship raining molten stone. It won't leave anything behind, right?"

Salamede took one more deep breath across from me before she stood straight up.

"No, the stone will disappear after a few seconds."

Nodding to her, we turned towards the main group trickling out of the hatch in the small cave I the hillside. Putting away the long poles with flame enchantments, the rest of the Keltons got to work helping the men and women through the choke point while I had to stand back to help get people settled in. While moving through the first half of the tunnel had been slow, getting so many people through a single hatch and up the ladders was pure agony. I had thought to expand the hatch, but getting tired, panicked men, women, and children up an almost three-story high ladder was so time-consuming that it would mean expending spells for nothing. The time delay also meant each of the forty or so people we were bringing on had time to voice their concerns to us and the soldiers.

"No, the furnace isn't going to catch the ship alight."

"Don't stand near the railing. Just trust me."

"Yes, we're not going to charge you for this trip or the food."

And many, many variants on those words were constantly heard over the field as people made their way towards and up the weird ship. As I was standing near what had been our wooden home with Salamede shouting orders, Beaton finally came back. He had some mud on his knees, but more than anything he seemed drained with a dull look in his eyes and an idle rub across his pants being the most noticeable change in his figure. Not elated or enraged. It was like the animating energy behind him had been siphoned off, which only lasted until he saw the people moving about. Whatever he was going through mentally, his look upward seemed to blow life back into him. Looking at the rising smokestack in the night's sky with fear, he pulled out of his stupor and ran to help his people get to safety.

I thought to ask him what the problem was, but one of the children decided to fall off the ladder at that point and I had to apply my healing patch. After several frustratingly long minutes of wrangling and pushing, a low rumbling broke through the ground. When it stopped after several seconds, Cell dropped the chest he was pulling up the side of the ship and flew into the air. Frustrated at my lack of options, I moved towards the back of the crowd gathering on the sides of the ship.

"Devourer!" An older man shouted from somewhere n the crowd

"Move!" I shouted over the panicked mob.

That made people run up a bit faster, but not by much. Getting their throats sliced open by the Misty pirates had been a good motivator and people were already going up the ladders as quickly as they could. After a few minutes, Cell came back down from the clouds and landed on my hand to deliver his report to me and Salamede.

Images of the pirates heading out over the waves into obscurity were the first thing he sent through the spirit connection. A smile broke out over my face before he showed me why. In the middle of the town was, for a lack of a more fitting description, a giant worm. Nearly five stories tall, its hide had the color of deep mud with small limbs around its sides that resembled tree branches. From its head to the tip of its tail, it stretched from the dock, up towards the more impoverished north, and clear through to the other side of the river.

Magically summoned boulders were being spewed everywhere, ripping through the homes and shops of the poor and previously rich alike while to its right a giant whirlpool of mud sloshed through the as of yet untouched parts of town. Sucking in the river's water and the ground beneath the ruined buildings, rooftops swirled in the moving slurry of dirt before falling towards the center and who knows how far below the surface. All of which was covered in a layer of smoke as the now lit barrels spewed flames out of their tops and onto everywhere the stirring mud hadn't consumed them.

"Beaton!" I called towards my left as the captain was pulling some luggage along. The older man got up rather quickly even as sweat ran down his bald head and flecked into his grey beard. "What is that thing?"

Shoving the black mass forward with the surrounding torchlight flickering over us both, the look of terror on Beaton's face as Cell showed him the images did not fill me with confidence.

"It's here." He whispered with a nervous shake of his hefty frame.

"Beaton. What is it?" I repeated with less patience.

His brown eyes looked like a dead man who just had the noose affixed around his neck, but he pushed onward.

"The Devourer. This is its territory, and it doesn't like fires. One building wouldn't do it but with the town being all ablaze like the image... We need to move."

He then turned towards the crowd and started directing the crowd, but we still had a dozen or so people near the bottom of the ship to say nothing of those still on the ladders. Cell, rather impatient at the speed of progress, started tossing the sturdier souls up the ship with wind magic. Sadly, as the last few were making it up the wooden steps, the rumbling started back up.

It was a single shake at first, distant and far. But another came, stronger and closer. Another, stronger still. The third rocked the ship and shook the bushes as a far-off crunching of wood came over the den of panicked screams. When a lower rumbling accompanied the stronger shakes, Cell shot off the side of the ship and into the night sky. Everyone was on board but it still took a minute or two for the balloon to heat up as the civilians all hustled below deck. Only a few had made it below deck when a clap of tortured air split the night.

Over the leafy balls and rolling hills, I couldn't see what was happening. But the occasional great bolt of yellow lightning and a small mountain of rock falling through the stars told of a great battle. One we were fortunate enough to leave as the deck swayed from the ship lifting off the ground to the sounds of crushing landscapes and breaking worlds. As we pulled into the sky, I finally saw the source of the ruckus with my own eyes.

The flickering flames of the burning town splashed a soft glow across the moving mountains' left side. Vast blocks of interlocking stone encased it like armor as the hollow gaping maw of its mouth turned more inland away from us. The sheer size of the thing meant the air around its body pushed away trees and debris like a storm every time it wiggled further ahead.

"It's injured." One Orc woman with long black hair and puffy cheeks said on my left.

Looking it over, I saw a long gash along the left side of the thing, bleeding into the soil. Across its surface were other spots of char and cracks in its natural armor, but the gash was the most noticeable wound. All the others looked stunned, the Keltons because of the sheer size of the thing, the Orcs and sailors, however, had some awe mixed in with the horror. Down the line of people leaning over the deck, none seemed to comment on the fact that we were in the sky. The show continued until a veil of mist surrounded the ship.

Beaton was a few feet to my left, his brown eyes still staring at the spot in the mist where the monster was.

"It was hurt. The Devourer ran away." He said, breaking the silence over the rest of the ship.

Taking in the crowd that didn't make it down into the lower decks, they looked pretty relaxed for this being the first time in an airship. I put it down to the shock and feeling how solid the ship was built. When I opened my mouth to start giving orders, the distinctive black mass of my husband's familiar shot through the mist a few feet above me to land on my right shoulder.

"What happened?" Beaton demanded before Cell could start the spirit connection to give me the images. It hit me then that I might not want to throw out all of Eli's abilities on a whim or at all. Focusing too much on Eli's abilities could undermine our whole science spiel. Getting on my toes, I saw Salamede helping a woman with three children move her belongings below deck through the staircase off to my left.

"Salamede," I called, "A word, please."

Her grey-furred face turned towards me before she turned towards one of the soldiers in the gunner positions. When she was relieved of her sack of clothes, she walked over to me with swings of her ivory horns accentuating each step. The fact we were wearing similar armor was not lost on the newest members of our little colony, but they all remained silent. When she was right up on my side, I felt her spirit connection touch my left shoulder.

'What's the problem?' She asked with a raised eyebrow. I turned around so that our faces would remain hidden.

'How much of Eli's abilities should we reveal? Telling them he took on the Devourer would set their hearts at ease as far as safety goes, but this wasn't a 'let's get more worshippers for Eli' trip. If we talk him up too much, it would undermine our whole pitch.'

She looked behind us for a second before speaking again.

'Humility is a virtue, but I think that ship has sunk. Besides, any spies will want to see what all the fuss is about and we want the Orcs to understand the need to keep their husbands in the base. They may not be as compliant if they think all we're hiding is some fuelless heaters.'

My eyebrows furrowed as I looked her up and down.

'Nate, the other spy, and the pirate commander are tied up and guarded. We won't need to worry about them getting away or-'

'What makes you think they're the only spies?' The Kelton woman asked.

'Nate took all the spies with him when he met up with the pirates.'

She shook her head as my heart raced at the anticipation of whatever was coming.

'He took all the ones he knew about. What if the City, the Bodring, or some other smaller country had spies among the Waveborn? Spies who didn't have any connections or contacts with his network.'

Bastards beard.

The question hit me like a hammer to the gut. I was glad we were turned around because I felt like throwing up as bile filled my throat. Which is when comforting hands squeezed my shoulders accompanied by Salamede's motherly voice filling my head.

'I talked about it with Eli through Cell. Even after emphasizing that we might have to leave them to their fate, we both knew asking that of you was going to be a lot, and leaving the brothers to die wasn't an option. He's going to work on getting things ready for the situation when we get back home. It's more of that 'need to know' principle he talked about, and he was going to do it anyway, only it's going to be a bit sooner than expected.

The big thing is we have more Orcs and people who can tell us what we need to do to get in touch with more. I'll ask some of the women about our concerns about spies and see what they have to say. You did a great job, especially considering how little time you had to think things over.'

Nodding, I took the compliment without objection in spite of my now sweaty palms. Turning around, we looked out over the crowd. Men and women looked on with curious faces. Even the Keltons stationed at the half circles of wood that served as the gun turrets seemed intrigued.

"Our husband saw to the Devourer." I put my hand forward as Cell used his spirit connection to show them the battle. Soaring through the air, he had a thread of spirit connection on his scion through the clouds. I had no notion of what allowed him to find him so quickly but my mind was too busy going over the rushing clouds. Taking a brief look down, there was nothing but the verdant landscape of dark trees and the flowing river.

Overtaking all natural features in its wake, the giant worm was moving towards what had been our position. With most of the town swirled into the mud, only the ramshackle section could now be seen as the rest of this beachhead of civilization was pulled below the dirt. A long spear of stone fell through the night's sky tip first into the side of the beast as Eli started the fight before falling below onto the riverbank. The stone spear cracked the side of the beast's armor but the armor reformed and it's head pulled up towards the sky. Which is when a thin line of white-hot flame took it in the jaw from along the shore. Turning down, it looked around before stopping near the riverbank.

A hail of smaller spears materialized around it before shooting off towards its attacker like a swarm of angry bees. When Cell diverted them off course, a flash of lightning and two house-sized balls of fire flew up from a far-off figure in the ramshackle section. A wide burning scar tore through the crack in the armor and along the exposed skin towards the mouth while the balls of flame blew away whatever remained of humanity's footprint here. Surprisingly, the ramshackle houses didn't burn. Whatever resin or plaster they were soaked in, though, wasn't applied on the trees that had been sucked into the town.

A moment of hesitation came, the monster laying still in the dirt while it worked through the run or fight response in every living thing. It was a few more seconds before it decided that tangling with this unknown thing that now stood on the riverbank while being baked to death wasn't appealing. Turning away from the ocean, it pushed forward in the wriggling motion of its smaller cousins before pulling fully into the dirt and leaving behind the patch of ruined land formerly called Mole Hill.

I had seen Eli do something similar to the underground base back in that more innocent time before the world was turned on its head, so I only smiled while Salamede got a look of pride. The onlookers, however, were both less and more animated. Some stood like statues even as the ship beneath them swayed with a gust of wind. Most of those were human men. The Orcs, on the other hand, moved closer with eager glee in their gold or red eyes. Before the cascade of questions sounded out, Salamede put up a hand to stop them.

"I'm sure you have a lot you want to ask. But this day has not been a kind one. There are several beds prepared and plenty of blankets so let's get things in order before we start."

The women looked a bit put out at that, but they quickly joined the sailors. Being surrounded by mist, I only had my exhaustion and inner sense of time to guess how long it took to get every family settled in a bed or blanket. A few of the older ones needed help moving a big chest of items or keeping a squabbling babe preoccupied and as I worked amongst my kind for the first time in what seemed like an eternity, I felt like I was both with peers and a stranger among what should be familiar faces.