Greil turned Captain Arrolg’s way. This put him in a very good position for Rusk to move in and throw another punch, but seeing as Rusk didn’t know the loyalties of everyone on board, he stood there and waited. Taut with readiness, but he did wait. He could feel Elena squirming uncomfortably behind him.

“Hey,” whispered Rusk over his shoulder. He didn’t take his eyes off Greil or Captain Arrolg, only jutted his chin back towards Elena. “You can see how he’s pulling his vanishing and reappearing acts, can’t you? I can tell. Tell me how he’s doing it.”

“It’s a portal,” hissed Elena. “It follows me everywhere. He’s not the only thing to come out of it.”

“What else comes out of it?”

“Is this really what you’re concerned with right now? That Greil guy could be at war with the captain any second now and no matter what they do the portal will still be here.”

“Really?”

“Really!”

Well, she didn’t seem to be lying, but she was also putting more distance between herself and Captain Arrolg than between her and the portal.

“I’m afraid there’s no way for me to get off your ship,” said Greil with his arms wide open toward Captain Arrolg. “One way trip, unfortunately.”

“You assume I care for the well-being of uninvited guests on my ship,” said Captain Arrolg, drawing his sword.

Elena gulped. “See.” She made herself scarce, leaving Rusk to face this mess and the invisible portal alone.

Rusk found this typical, and let her stay in hiding. But now that he’d acquainted himself with Elena, he found he could tell exactly where she was without looking at her. For example, at this very moment she was backtracking in zigzags through the gathered crowd, heading for the lower decks of the ship. He couldn’t tell if the portal was following her, but he could certainly tell where she was.

Because she felt like an embodiment of the Elva.

Not monstrous, but pure.

Even purer than Mandy.

Wondering about something, he discreetly reached out his hand behind his back and asked the Elva for an arrow. He directed his request towards Elena instead of the method he’d tried when he first boarded, casting the desire in a specific direction instead of a wide net.

And then in the blink of an eye Rusk was holding onto an Elva Arrow and Elena had resumed her perch behind him, though he hadn’t felt her move.

“How the hell did you do that?” asked Elena in an aggravated manner more than a fearful one.

“I reached out and asked.”

“One second I was over there and now I’m back here. I didn’t agree to this and I didn’t hear you ask for anything!”

The glint of Captain Arrolg’s sword signaled the start of the seaboard battle with Greil. Rusk backed up, shoving Elena to safety as the entire ship’s crew waged war with the newcomer ‘mancer. Greil held his own, and even moved more impressively than Rusk ever remembered, but there was a monstrous quality to his movements that set Rusk on edge even though he wasn’t yet part of the devolving, sword-clanging conflict. With a start Rusk saw that this was not in fact Greil. It was someone or something else. Something other. An imposter.

Rusk still had his Elva Arrow. His one piece of ammo and no bow. The Elva Bow had forsaken him the moment he stepped aboard the ship, and now that he thought of it that was more a suspicious move than a shy one.

Elena squeaked. He’d sandwiched her between his back and the boarded-off stairwell to the lower decks. The battle raged around them, pressing in. Captain Arrolg’s voice boomed over the noise of the skirmish, edging on his so-called scurvy dogs. Rusk briefly mused there was no way this guy was an official all his life. Not with swears like that on the tip of his every word. All very energetic and colorful.

It seemed Captain Arrolg was enjoying this to the fullest.

Like the adrenaline rush when Rusk had first met the sky serpent.

He wondered where that recollection had come from.

But Greil, or the monster or ‘mancer that pretended it was him, fought with efficiency and utter silence. Not even one vocal jab all throughout. And the portal had followed Rusk and Elena. Even if Rusk couldn’t see it, he could feel it loud and clear now, hovering near them.

“I can’t believe my luck!” said Elena in desperation.

“I can,” answered Rusk darkly. He wondered how much luck accounted for his experiences thus far and whether or not this counted as good luck or bad. Probably bad. Maybe that thing about heroic bad luck was true. Not that he wanted to ever entertain the idea. The buzzing allowed him to perceive where the portal was even if he couldn’t see it, sixth senses besides, and it was pressing in louder. A cacophony against his eardrums full of buzz buzz buzz and slippery whines that may or may not have counted as actual notes on the musical scale.

Elena whimpered. “It’s nearly on us. Stop squishing me. The captain’s gonna find out I’m aboard and then if the portal doesn’t get me he will.”

Stowaway theory confirmed. He still wondered about the relation to the captain though, because they looked so similar in appearance.

More pressing matters.

Rusk thrust the Elva Arrow into the portal with purpose, and was met with a draconic screech. He wouldn’t have recognized the sound if not for reminiscing about his meeting with the sky serpent, and got the sense that even now so far away the Elva was guiding him. Aiding him. Just not it its usual way.

The waves grew more turbulent, sending even the most experienced crewmembers scrambling for balance, and Rusk wound up on all fours trying to keep down his gag reflex. Elena had fallen along with him, but she quickly righted herself and ran in an arc around the portal, clearly more comfortable heading towards Greil than the thing which haunted her or Captain Arrolg.

Rusk wobbled to his feet and chased her. He was drawn to stop her from reaching Greil by a force he understood on a primal level to be the Elva. But his conscious thoughts were occupied on avoiding the continual brawl. Greil sent spells towards crew and captain alike, apparently not caring if the boat reached its destination.

Or perhaps trying to prevent it from getting there.

The sea swirled angrily around the vessel in response to Greil’s spells. A great beast waited far below.

They still had days before reaching the island and Greil or whoever the imposter was was throwing so many spells around, moving things this way and that, displacing weapons and people as they crowded him, he may as well have been ushering the ship to sink directly.

The sea returned Greil’s magic with its own, aiding Rusk as he crossed the distance with sloshes of perfectly timed waves and opportunistic seafoam cover. The sea and the sky darkened together, and they were on Rusk’s side.

Or against Greil’s.

Out of the sea burst a monster, and Rusk recognized its presence as similar to the sky serpent. Its opposite but also its relative. A beast of fluidity and fight, full of fury and patience all wrapped up in a body of serpentine brilliance.

Mist came out of its nostrils as it gazed down judgmentally, and all the fighting ceased.

The entire ship gawked up in awe.