The somewhat lackadaisical sailors he’d come to know were replaced by faces of cold steel and hearts of iron as they moved about the ship with a practiced efficiency that could only come from hours upon hours of working together. Wilhelm stood in awe as he stared at the whirlwind of marines around him, running from place to place without getting in each other’s way. It reminded him of videos he’d seen back home of thick traffic in places like India and Vietnam, where it seemed impossibly dangerous to cross at any moment, but each party paid close attention to their surroundings and adjusted as needed to avoid collisions. A similar story played out before his very eyes, and he had to stop himself from gaping.

“Jieming, Calypso!” Absalom called with a voice that cut through the commotion like it wasn’t there. In moments both stood before their captain with serious looks on their faces, flashing crisp salutes and awaiting instruction.

Absalom squinted at the ship in the distance, still making fairly rapid progress in their direction, but still too far away to make out much. He pulled a small telescope from an inner pocket and looked through it, grunting at what he saw.

Wilhelm was busy studying the telescope he produced. It was unlike any telescope he had ever seen; it was made of what looked like the dried bone, or perhaps tusk, of some creature. It was a washed out yellow in color and slightly porous like pumice stone. What struck him the most, however, was the glass used in its construction. Instead of thin layers of warped glass, instead there were hockey-puck-esque cylinders every couple inches, all made of the reflective glass one would find in a mirror. He had no idea how it was supposed to work other than the answer he’d already turned to an inordinate amount of times since he’d been unceremoniously tossed into this world like day old trash: Magic.

The Captain grunted once and put the telescope away, turning back to his highest ranked subordinates.

“Jieming, you take this one. Calypso, make sure Wilhelm doesn’t get himself killed.”

“What?” Wilhelm said with a little offense, “Why me? Aren’t I a part of the crew now?” He wasn’t exactly relishing the prospect at fighting to the death, but he knew it was inevitable. He was worried the later he confronted it, the worse his already rapidly growing fears of it would become until they were too great. He didn’t want to finally face it and end up paralyzed with fear or worse. Better get the initial shock out of the way early, or at least that’s how he saw it from his privileged, non-confrontational lifestyle he’d lived so far.

Calypso snorted as she walked over, roughly grabbing his arm and dragging him along like a child throwing a tantrum. Which he was not!

“Come along little sailor, we’ll find some spare rope for you to practice on while the big strong marines go off to war.” She leaned in and ruffled his hair, only making his scowl – definitely not a pout, and he would dispute anyone who claimed it was one - grow larger.

“If you’re good, I’ll even find some broken barrels for you to fix, how’s that sound?” She said with sarcastic sweetness while nearby marines laughed as they worked, a rarity in the solemn atmosphere of the deck.

“Barrels are an important aspect to keeping a ship running smoothly and you know it.” He grumbled, but let it drop. He would be more of a hindrance than anything, he guessed. His martial skills hadn’t improved as quickly as he’d hoped they would, though Jieming and Absalom both said his progress was adequate and that skill would come with time. The only way he would be capable of having any real impact on the fight was through his aspect, which was a…risky prospect at best.

Eventually, Calypso plopped him on a section of the deck away from the commotion next to a set of stairs to go below deck and crossed her arms looking out towards the other ship. It was still slowly making its way in their direction, circling them like sharks instead of making a beeline. He guessed it was to keep their cannons capable of firing on them at any moment, but he was hardly an expert in naval combat. Or regular combat. Or anything naval. He was hardly an expert.

Still, he was a little confused by Calypso’s actions.

“Are we not going below deck?” He asked.

Calypso shook her head, “What, so we won’t be able to see the cannonball coming? We have a better chance staying alive if we stay on the deck, and most all of both crews will be too occupied with each other to bother with one coward and one handsome woman.”

Wilhelm rolled his eyes but stood next to her and watched the ship as well, though for what he didn’t know.

“Why is it better if we see the cannonball coming?”

“If we see it coming, I can stand in front of it and absorb it.”

“Probably.” She added after a moment.

“Probably?” He asked with more than a little alarm.

She shrugged. “Yes, probably. I don’t make a habit of getting hit by cannonballs, so there aren’t ample opportunities to test the theory, but I feel like I can.”

“You feel like you can? We’re potentially hinging our lives on your gut feeling?”

“It’s more of a navel feeling,” Wilhelm narrowed his eyes at the potential dreadful pun, “But yes. If it turns out I’m wrong, it’s not like we’ll be around to care about it.”

“You know, I thought you were much more reasonable and sane from our past interactions.”

Calypso let out a rare laugh and turned to Wilhelm before gesturing to the marines rapidly assembling for battle.

“Have you met the rest of our crew? This is my family, and like it or not, some traits rub off on each other. The only reason I’m stern with you is because-“

“Because I’m only here to kill Absalom and eat his liver before internally combusting and taking the rest of the crew down with me in a suicide attack for a distant noble family.” Wilhelm rolled his eyes, but Calypso’s narrowed, and he felt like he was about to be stabbed.

He raised his hands, “Joke! It was a joke. What would eating his liver even do? Not that I’m interested!”

Calypso slowly turned around with a disapproving “Hm,” just as the tension between the two crews was beginning to approach its climax.

Finally, the ship was close enough that Wilhelm could make out vague figures aboard the ship. It was a much sleeker vessel than the one he stood upon, presumably for catching up to ships and raiding or robbing them without much need for the benefits a larger ship could provide. At first, he thought it was odd that a ship built for speed would have so many cannons, but Calypso explained otherwise.

“It would be odd if these were the most common type of cannon. Those would weigh down the ship quite a bit and eat into the speed, you’re not wrong. However, I’m betting this is a successful group of pirates, and they’ve gotten their hands on some wrought from the expensive sky-iron. Sky-iron is an alloy that is much lighter than the sum of its parts, while being even stronger than normal iron. I’d bet those cannons each weigh about a fourth of what a normal cannon made of iron would. As for the cannonballs, sky-iron would be extravagant, so they’re probably using ones hollowed out, either with or without something else inside.” Calypso said, back in teaching mode after not having lessons with Wilhelm for a few days.

Despite what Calypso always said, he felt like she was warming up to him, if slowly. Then again, back home he was always told he was a terrible judge of character, so maybe her hatred was only growing deeper. Time would only tell, and his lack or gain of a dagger in his chest in the middle of the night.

The wood of the ship was darker than their own, and paired with the sleeker and more angular design, it felt much more sinister than the one they sailed upon. It gave the impression of a dexterous predator, like a jaguar turned ship.

The denizens of the ship were indistinct gender-wise at this distance, as Wilhelm could only make out their vague figures. Still, there seemed to be much less of them than the marines, but Calypso’s assessment made him worry. She seemed to think that these pirates were highly successful, and if they truly had less numbers, that meant they must be individually more dangerous than your average pirate. They probably even had an aspected on board, though Wilhelm was largely confident that any of the aspected on board except for himself could mop the floor with any random upstart aspected pirate.

“Do you have rifles in your world? Guns?” Wilhelm asked. He’d been thinking about it over the past few days, but never had a chance to ask. Since his…situation…had been explained to Jieming and Calypso by Absalom, he decided she would be a prime source of information.

“We do,” Calypso began, “But they aren’t very common. Their creation is entirely monopolized by a single small island nation that fiercely guards the secrets of its construction, to the point that taking apart one almost always has secret traps to destroy the contents and/or harm the one deconstructing it.”

“They’re expensive, impossible to repair without physically bringing it back to the one who made it, hard to buy ammunition for, and they have had issues blowing up in people’s faces before. For those reasons and more I can’t be bothered to remember, they aren’t very widespread.” She finished. “Why do you ask?”

“In my world, guns are by far the most common weapon in warfare. I was just thinking about how unfortunate it would be to get shot while standing out in the open like this by someone on the other ship, though I hadn’t heard anyone talk about rifles before I just asked, so I thought we were probably fine.”

Calypso studied him intently as he spoke of his world, and got the impression that she didn’t fully believe his story and was just waiting for him to slip up.

“Guns are never used on the ocean. They’re too unwieldy especially with the waves, the range on them is far worse than you seem to think, and the saltwater sprays would make them rust or ruin gunpowder.”

Wilhelm cocked his head. “How come you know so much about guns if they’re so rare?”

“I grew up near that island nation, so there were more in circulation near me than most places in the world. There was a retired guardsmen that lived nearby who’d been gifted one by the nearby Lord after he saved his daughter from bandits, causing an earlier retirement than most. He liked to show it off to people, and even would show off how it worked at town fairs and such.” She explained, though her eyes grew sad the more she spoke of the guardsmen.

He was about to ask what happened to him, but was interrupted.

A shout rang out from the other ship, now close enough that Wilhelm could make out the mismatched clothing of the pirates, as well as the distinct lack of women on board.

The word was clear across the distance and waves, and signaled the battles beginning:

“FIRE!”

* * *

Every cannon on the opposite exploded simultaneously, and Wilhelm immediately wished his was below deck. Yes, they wouldn’t see the cannonball coming, but that was kind of the point in his mind. A half dozen balls of death hurtled towards them at breakneck speeds, and Wilhelm felt a level of terror he never had before, one that reached deep into his bones and gripped him until he couldn’t move a muscle. Any one of those cannon balls could obliterate him, but more they could blast a sizeable hole in the ship.

However, he quickly saw that cannons were not precision instruments, as every single one from the volley missed. They all splashed into the no-mans-land ocean in-between the two vessels, sending up massive geysers of water into the air. Another volley rang out, and then another, all going wide before he leaned over to to Calypso,

“Why aren’t we firing back, exactly?” he asked with great concern.

She jerked her head towards the front of the vessel, where he saw Jieming with his eyes closed and arms raised. Sweat poured down his face and not a single sailors dared to interrupt him. Absalom stood next to him with a hand wrapped around his sword, though his stance was loose and lazy rather than taut and prepared.

The cannonballs continued firing, and continued missing. Jieming barked something terse to Absalom, who finally gave a nod, drawing his sword and pointing it towards the pirate vessel.

Dozens of whirlpools suddenly formed in the ocean between the two ships, and the lost cannonballs were reborn once more. As if their momentum never ended, each and every missed cannonball the pirates shot were sent back at their own vessel, and Jieming’s accuracy was far better.

A smattering of holes dotted the hull after his barrage, and one even skated across the deck, sending pirates overboard to frantically swim in the direction of their ship. Ropes were sent out for the closest, but Wilhelm watched at least four men get left behind, treading water, and shouting for them to turn back.

He tore his eyes from the grim sight and instead focused on the incredible display Jieming had just shown. It obviously took a lot out of him as he was largely slumped over being kept up by his podao, but the attack was massive in scale, and had innumerable moving parts.

Wilhelm thought about his own inability to move a simple shape in the air, and resolved himself to push himself even harder than he already was. If passing these thresholds of control that Jieming spoke of would allow him to perform similar feats, he wanted to do so as soon as possible.

Calypso tsked beside him as she watched the other ship, pulling Wilhelm from his thoughts. He looked across the water, now clearer than ever as it grew closer and closer, and understood immediately. The holes he previously thought would prove fatal were rapidly being sealed. It looked like the wood itself was growing across the gaps and closing the holes, or at least being stretched to do so.

“Aspected bound to wood or something similar.” She squinted, and swore under her breath. “Bound to the aspect of nature, it looks like. If you look closely, vines are growing across the gaps and solidifying into the wood, blending in completely. No wonder they can afford those sky-iron cannons.” She said, clearly displeased. Wilhelm had no idea how she could see so clearly, but decided not to press.

“Is nature a powerful aspect?”

She nodded. “It is. Not in terms of raw strength necessarily, but it’s one of the most diverse. There’s nature in all things after all, so no matter where you are or what you’re doing, you will find a use for your aspect. It makes it frustrating to fight since it’s above average at offense and defense, as you can clearly see.”

Wilhelm whistled. The aspect of nature seemed powerful indeed, the more Calypso explained. It was like having hundreds of aspects crammed into one, though your control over each individual part would be weaker than that of a specialist. Still, it was an extreme advantage to be capable of manipulating water like Jieming, repair their ship, send gusts of wind, and more.

“It must be expensive, then. I can’t imagine the pirates are so successful that they could have purchased one. Do you think they found it?” Wilhelm asked.

“Robbed it, more likely. I bet they found a common-looking merchant vessel that was paid to covertly move such a high-quality shard, robbed it, and struck gold. No doubt after that they became terrors of the sea.”

“Their reign ends today, though. We’ll make sure of it.” She added, her voice flinty.

Absalom’s crew finally sprang into action, firing the large ballista they had on board. Each flew with a large bag tied to the front, and each with the precision of expert sailors. They aimed at the still open cannons, the bags exploding into some sort of expanding foam that quickly covered each window. In an instant, the foam hardened until it resembled stone, and the spiderweb of cracks that spread across one window’s covering proved their strength.

The sleek ship groaned from stress as it turned, and within moments it began speeding directly in their direction. The game of circling each other was over; the pirates had sprung on the offensive.