Captain Arrolg’s crew worked fluid as the thrashing sea around them, meeting the sea serpent’s strength with agility and wit while the captain himself, battle-scarred but grinning, made slashes at any weak point’s in the sea serpent’s face. They gave no ground to the monster. And Rusk was convinced that was what the sea serpent was now: a monster. With the way it was glowing that eerie green thanks to Captain Arrolg’s sword and the scent of the seafoam turning putrid around them as the waves jostled the ship every which way and the sea serpent’s body coiled and uncoiled trying to slither into a better grip on the vessel, the animosity with which it moved could only be monstrous. Perhaps it was something more, something greater, before, but now all it was was animalistic anger.

The waves churned, tipping and tilting the boat underneath Rusk’s feet. Elena began slipping out from under him, and he could feel the portal doing its own sort of magical thrashing, so he stowed away the Elva Bow and Arrows and ducked the swinging tail of the sea serpent in the process of bending protectively over Elena to secure his grip on her again. She was still unconscious, and was becoming a burden with the way the crew was manning the ship around her and Rusk. They needed to be out of the way. Captain Arrolg and his crew had done more damage to the sea serpent than Rusk could ever hope, and right now the most important thing was making sure no one died. So he focused his attention on support instead of combat. That meant he needed both hands free and Elena out of the way, somewhere safe.

He hauled her up like a sack of potatoes and tossed her over his shoulder carrying her in much the same way. Instinct or maybe the Elva told Rusk they’d be safe below deck, so he made a mad dash for the stairwell in that direction, hopping over and climbing through or ducking under the battle whenever it blockaded his path. The door to the lower deck was open and thankfully so. That meant Rusk didn’t have to waste an extra moment bashing it open in order to get safely under.

Elena groaned on his shoulder.

“I gotcha,” said Rusk, because that’s what you say in these situations. “Keep still.”

Elena did not keep still.

She squealed and thrashed and kicked and screamed, the panic overtaking her so completely that Rusk had no choice but to drop her right on her rear once they were down in the lower deck. He tried to feel for the portal but couldn’t locate its coordinates. There was only the sense it was above deck, looming along with the sea serpent itself.

The ship kept bobbing and jolting violently as the battle above raged on.

“You dropped me!” Elena found her feet pretty quickly for someone who had been out cold just seconds before.

Rusk nearly tripped over his. “You were thrashing! I told you to keep still!”

“And another thing! How do you keep moving me? How? It’s like the portal all over again! Who are you? Are you a ‘mancer? Working for the king?”

Rusk felt his face do that eyebrow twitch it makes when he can’t contain his confusion.

The boat rocked.

Elena tripped and fell against him. He caught her as gentlemanly as possible under the circumstances. Her voice was strained and she wasn’t breathing normally. This became apparent when she tried to move away from him and wound up falling back against his chest.

“Every time you do that it’s like you’re sucking out my soul,” whimpered Elena. Her hands clenched into fatigued fists against his arms.

“I’m sorry.” Rusk hadn’t meant to hurt anyone. He’d been trying to help. He berated himself internally for never considering where the magic of the Elva actually came from. But come to think of it, he still didn’t entirely know. “What’s all this talk about ‘mancers? And the king? You mean King Ehrryn?”

“Do you know of any other kings?”

Come to think of it, Rusk didn’t. Not in the immediate area of the kingdom anyway.

“’Mancers work for the king. They’re supposedly heroes he’s recruited.”

“That doesn’t match up with what I’ve heard. I heard the king hates anything heroic. Afraid that sort of thing will usurp his authority.”

Elena wobbled out of his arms. She found her footing with more effort than usual.

Rusk could feel the portal again, hovering above them, directly above them, on the upper decks of the ship. There was the barrier of the decks between them, but he didn’t know how long that would last. And anyway, he didn’t understand any of this portal stuff to begin with.

“I saw my old mentor. Greil, the one who walked out of the portal before up there. I saw him leaning out of the portal all rotted and decaying. But I can’t tell if it was really him or just some imposter.”

Elena scowled. She wouldn’t meet Rusk’s eyes, and covered herself with her arms as if she were about to shiver. “If you saw something pass through the dead portal then it’s dead, plain and simple. There’s no more of whoever you knew, not if something in the portal has assumed his form. It’s called the dead portal because it can only imitate or use what’s already passed on to the grave.”

“And ‘mancers are?”

“You really don’t know? It’s short for necromancer. Surely you’ve heard of those.”

“Oh.” That of course still didn’t explain why the portal was connected to the sea serpent, or why the… wait. It was connected to the sea serpent. Did that mean the sea serpent was dead? The idea made Rusk stumble backwards, though that probably also had to do with the ever present swaying of the ship, a swaying which had become less frenetic over the course of their conversation here. He wondered if that meant Captain Arrolg and the crew were still winning. Still fending off the, well, the dead sea serpent. How could the sea serpent be moving around if it were already dead? Did a necromancer in the service of the king really have that much power over the natural order?

The thought was terrifying. And the Elva echoed Rusk’s concern. It sent Elena glowing again, this time a deep red from her heart that illuminated her skin from underneath, showing through sinew and muscle. Her skin became a screen of horrors.

She yelped when she caught sight of herself, her eerie supernatural glow, and tripped backward.

Rusk caught her by the arm and yanked her out of the way of a crunch in the ship that sent the wooden boards of the deck above flying down towards them, turned to deadly shrapnel.

They both felt the portal descend.

It glowed that sickly green as it went.