Gin and his battalion waited outside the entrance to a ship, their legs covered in the murky waters. They looked at the very bottom of the ramp where Astral stood. He had his arms behind his back and a puffed-out chest, ready to say something but didn’t do so. He walked up the ramp to one of the crew members up top. There he conversed a bit before turning back to everyone else.

He gave a sigh and began, ‘It appears Gargarensis won’t be joining us today. He is like a dolphin on land at the moment so to speak. I’ll be taking command as a result, so listen up. Today will be the start of your practical training. You all will be tested on your knowledge of how things operate from the lessons you’ve had last week.’

The lessons we weren’t taught, Gin scoffed. Why am I not surprised Gargarensis is absent again anyway?

‘All day we’ll be going round the sea,’ Astral continued. ‘Aside from your mundane duties, we’ll also create some “problems” which you must solve. The easy part is knowing what to do. The hard part is knowing what to do in a state of emergency. That is all. May the tides be in your favour.’

At that, the fishman dived into the ocean where a few other aquatic bestials waited for him. They swam ahead and beckoned the battalion to start boarding.

One by one, the members went up the ramp and, one by one, a stone elemental checked the ankle engravings on the deck of the ship. Most of them looked fine. However, for those that appeared damaged or otherwise “wrong” in the invigilator’s eyes, some were sent to another ship altogether.

As Gin got his ankles checked, he analysed his surroundings. The mast had its sails down. The anchor hung from the sides. The vessel swayed from side to side as a tide crashed against it. So far so good, Gin thought to himself, wondering if the test started already or not. Nothing wrong yet. Better safe than sorry. But, without warning, he felt a slimy finger tap him on the back.

‘You got to stop doing that!’ Gin scowled at Astral. ‘How’d you get up here so quickly anyway?’

‘I jumped,’ the fishman grinned.

‘You j- whatever,’ Gin shook his head. He knew not to doubt what the mages could do. ‘What’s the problem?’

‘No problem. Just needed to tell you specifically that you’ll be treated as an ordinary battalion member. We’ll have one of our men be in charge; the Xernim host to be exact. He’ll be the captain. All you need to do is help out like normal. Remember, when it starts, treat everyone on board as your ally like a school of fish. Careful of anything else,’ Astral instructed before flopping overboard again as quickly as he arrived.

Gin shook his head again. He didn’t even get to respond. However, what Astral said didn’t change his plans. First is…

A loud horn bellowed from deep within the ship. Steam began to pour out from the sides and the sails rolled down. The wind blew into them while oars grabbed hold of the waters below. The ship moved in an instant and the test could be considered started.

…that. The water elementals of his squadron went down to the lowest levels, the fire elementals worked on the oil supplies and torches, juggernauts started work on the heavy lifting and messengers ran about. Everyone understood their role in the initial stages. And yet, Gin stood there doing nothing. It wasn’t that he couldn’t do anything but rather he shouldn’t. For good reason too. “Without emergency or lack of labour, an extra unspecialised hand is more likely than not hinder the specialised” or so said the manual. What a contrast to squadron W’s way of doing things, Gin mused. Technically, I am on guard duty though.

The monotonous start went on for a few more hours as the fleet went round the coast of Pakistan. Gin rotated here and there but otherwise enjoyed a peaceful examination so far. He couldn’t say the same for his men who hustled and bustled about.

Squadron O’s members also worked hard. With their experience, they directed the others while carrying out their own duties. Like the captain of the ship, the treant-like man, who guided the fire elementals on where to place torches or the lead messenger who collected all the intel.

Or what about the senile stone elemental (Gin presumed) who helped out with cleaning the deck? The man swept it on all fours as a sticky substance secreted out of his skin as a form of lubricant. He would then collapse and stayed there. What was he doing? Maybe he needed the substance to sink into the boards or maybe he needed to do that to clean it in a way only mages could come up with.

‘Or maybe…’ Gin furled his brows and walked closer. ‘Hello, sir, are you alright?’

He received no response. Gin called out again but again silence met him. A sense of dread rose from within as he edged closer. But he calmed himself down.

‘Are you alright? Can you hear me?’ he shouted and shook the man.

Still nothing.

‘Sam!’ he called out to his messenger who happened to walk by. ‘Call a medic from below. Urgently!’

‘Ok, leader,’ and the petite mage ran off.

Gin turned over the stone elemental and checked for a pulse. Though he didn’t recede his xernim, he could still feel the beating of the man’s heart and consistent breathing. He’s alive at least. However, while he didn’t need to perform CPR, Gin knew the next steps.

First, he loosened the vine clothing a little, then proceeded to raise the unconscious man’s legs until they reached above heart level. Gin didn’t bother cleaning the substance off the whole time as he didn’t know whether it was vital to the man’s life or not.

‘Over here!’ Sam’s voice shouted.

At last, a medic came to check on the man and take over from Gin. But, all of a sudden, the unconscious man sprang to life, nodded at the medic and made his way to his colleagues to discuss something.

‘What the,’ Gin muttered before realising, ‘Was that part of the test?’

Sam shrugged and carried on his duties.

Alright then, a rush of blood ran through Gin. So far, the quietness lulled him in a sense of security; that, when the “questions” of the exam came about, they would be obvious. But now a grain of doubt entered his head. Was that the first test? If not, did Gin miss out on several others? How well or badly was he doing? Only the crew of squadron O knew the answers and that put Gin on high alert for the rest of the journey.

And yet, despite his heightened awareness, nothing major happened for the next couple of hours. Or at least nothing Gin could do. He rotated from the upper deck to the middle then the lowest chambers, as per instruction, where nothing but one or two torches lit the area. The floor itself contained crates and jugs of various sizes. A few of the crew came down from time to time and Gin had to check their ankles for the squadron’s stone markings.

‘Why do we need to do that?’ Gin asked the squadron O member who overlooked him.

‘To make sure. Can’t be too careful,’ he got his reply.

Gin found the notion odd but didn’t think too much of it. After all, some mages could go invisible. Why couldn’t some shapeshift too? The shackles O put on everyone made all the more sense as he went around the place, inspecting each and every container with care. Food, water, more food, he kept a mental note.

However, as he got closer to one of the corners, he picked up on a strange, pungent smell. It reminded him of the time when Astral showed him the ship’s feeding chambers. Then it hit him.

‘Put out all the torches and call the captain!’ he yelled. ‘We got a leak over here!’

Gin rushed to help put out as many torches as he could and grabbed a piece of cloth to cover his nose. After that, he tried to locate the cause of the leak: a small rotten piece of floorboard that collapsed under itself. The stench of the gas from the aquatic corpses below stank so much that even the cloth couldn’t cover it.

‘Where is it?’ a pair of glowing, green eyes demanded from the darkness.

‘Here,’ Gin beckoned.

All of a sudden, the sides of the walls peeled away bit by bit. Dim light and a whole lot of mist rushed into the floor. The lighting itself revealed the captain, a walking tree of a person, who knelt beside the hole. Unlike Sokolov or Olive, this Xernim variant didn’t connect with the ship in its entirety as root tendrils grew out of his arms before he could merge with the ship. It took a few minutes but the cool air that ventilated it removed most of the smell.

‘It’ll take a bit of time to fix the walls and make sure it’s safe to light the torches again. You’re relieved of your shift until that’s done. Tell me if anything happens immediately,’ the captain ordered.

‘Yes, sir,’ Gin complied. I think that’s another test passed. I hope.

He went back to the deck where he realised the ship stopped moving. With nothing to do once again, he peered over the edge to see a few aquatic animals circling the boat like the four-eyed dolphin (two facing above and two facing ahead) and a miniature version of a whale. They swam in patterns, much like the Tinoos above. In fact, they matched them as if in unison.

Intrigued by them, Gin watched them a while longer. He noticed that, when the aquatic animals changed formation, so did the birds. And when the avian animals changed formation, soon their watery counterparts followed suit.

But that changed when Astral popped up. He broke the formation of the dolphins which caused chaos for the tinoos above too. Gin looked back to find his squadron’s familiar types in visible confusion. What is going on? He wondered whether he could do anything to help.

But before Gin could move, a hand grabbed hold of the ship’s railings. Astral clambered over with the cheesiest of grins on his face. Everyone on deck stood motionless as they looked even more perplexed while Astral looked for the nearest person.

‘What are you do-’

Without warning, Astral charged at his chosen target, Sam, who let out a girlish yelp as the fishman hurled him into the ocean.

‘Astral, what the hell are you doing?!’ Gin yelled.

‘Oh, Gin,’ his “friend” laughed back. ‘You are so close.’

‘I’m serious. You better explain yourself,’ Gin gritted his teeth, his Xernim itching to press the trigger to his blades.

‘So, so close!’ Astral laughed some more. ‘Your ally is thrown overboard and the first thing you do is talk to your enemy?’

‘Eh?’ Gin’s eyes widened. He looked over the edge and then back to his battalion. ‘We got a man overboard. Prepare for rescue!’

His men broke from their freeze in time. Some went down below while others prepared for the rescue operation. But Gin turned back to Astral.

‘Why?’ he calmed down a little.

‘Gin, I’m being lenient with you here. Sure, you gave orders now but you talk to me yet again? I thought you knew better,’ Astral continued to smile which ticked Gin off more than he would have liked.

‘I don’t understand.’

‘From what I’ve heard, you’ve been doing great. But here you fail. Listen,’ the smiling stopped there as it turned into a serious frown, ‘didn’t I say to treat everyone on board as your ally but be careful of anything else? Did the captain not say to tell him immediately if anything happens?’

‘He did,’ Gin mumbled.

‘Then why didn’t you? Why did you still treat me as an ally when that was not the case?’

‘I –’ Gin’s body felt like sinking to the floor as fog horns blared through the air, cutting the conversation short.

‘Looks like the test is over. I’ll report to Gargarensis now that you were close to passing and then we can see where to go from there. See ya on land,’ Astral placed a slimy hand on his shoulders before leaping back into the ocean.

I was so close to passing, Gin reiterated the words. He stood there shaking. His heart pounded. The time in the forest flashed back at him. If only he had been mindful of Rob. If only he didn’t start that spat with Jake. If only he realised the traitor told AAA about their plans. Then Michal would have lived. If only I never left my village then maybe I could have saved them all…

As the ships started docking in the port, Gin helped out his battalion members with their duties, out of distraction rather than goodwill. Even when seeing Sam on the shore, safe and all, the smile he put on felt forced. What appeared to be a day where his knowledge got tested became an afternoon of remorse.

In all honesty, he just wanted to go to his room that evening and slump on his bed. He wanted to bury his head in his hand. He wanted to weep the tears that he couldn’t show in front of everyone. He wanted to forget his regrets like he did so many times in his past. Yet, as he knew all too well, they always seem to resurface.