Claire POV-

She ran.

Even doing something as simple and harmless as looking back to see if Tucker was following her could make her lose time, time that could mean the difference between life and death.

So she didn't, she let that calm rage take over, the one that helped her focus during the purges, the one that kept the panic away.

Luckily Tucker's steps were loud and clear behind her. He was screaming orders in the world communicator to the others but they were just background noise she couldn't and didn't want to make out.

Some of those orders were probably for her, but orders be damned, all she could think about was saving the pirates.

She may have just failed Ianite, she should have gone out and looked for the pirates more, should have been more persistent.

That day in the forest, she should have knocked them out while they were distracted, no, she wouldn't have done that, even knowing what she saw now.

But if she had, perhaps the remnants of sails and wood wouldn't be making their way out of sight.

Jordan felt the cold tingle of tears across her cheeks as she ran but didn't even bother to wipe them away. Soon, her tears blended with the water as she dove in to the sea jumping off a small cliff, swimming towards the sinking ship.

The water was cold as it brushed across her skin, so cold she would have been concerned under normal circumstances. She could barely make out small schools of fishes as she swam by, further into the very few flames far from the shores she had navigated with her friends multiple times.

She should have though it through, maybe asked for a potion or two to help her search the now fully submerged ship, yet she continued to swim down...down...down.

When she finally made out slabs of wood before her, Jordan pushed them away making her way to the center of the ship where the pirates would most likely be at.

The layout of the ship flashed in her head as her lungs began to burn, desperate for air but not life threatening levels as of yet. She could make it a little longer, just long enough to search the ship.

"Jordan! Stop!" Tucker screamed in her head as she made it inside, ignoring him, she swam faster.

Her sight was poor under the darkness of the ship underwater, but she stretched out her arms and grabbed on to the objects around her hoping she wouldn't come in contact with any body parts to signal a drowning pirate.

A plate.

A bottle.

Curtains.

No bodies...

"Jordan please! Gods why are you always trying to get yourself killed!" said Sonja as she continued her search, ignoring her friend's pleas.

As she searched, their pleas began to make the anger inside her rise.

They probably didn't care the ship had sunk, didn't care because it wasn't their duty to keep those pirates safe for their god. Didn't bother to try as hard because they were of little consequence, just lives that weren't theirs.

She didn't know why that made her so angry all of the sudden, perhaps it was her own guilt bouncing off to everyone. Yet those questions brought new ones to her thoughts as she continued her blind search.

If the ship had been where it was originally docked she wouldn't be too worried, but the area she had swam to was outside the reaches of the world communicator. If the pirates had drowned, that was it..

No. They were alive, had to be. The streams had them alive, to play an important role in the struggles to come.

But this wasn't the streams, this was life she reminded herself. In real life there was death, accidents, and things beyond her control.

Jordan searched and searched until water unwillingly escaped her mouth bit by bit, her lungs seemingly on fire, pleading her for air, her mind and body ignoring them both the way she too was ignoring her friends pleas.

All across what she assumed to be the ship's walls she noted multiple wholes, as if it was attacked...

"Jordan where are you?" Tom screamed in his un-humanly high pitched scream that would have made her laugh under normal circumstances.

"Take the potions and look for her on the surface of the ship, we'll go inside" said Champwan in the distance of her thoughts

They couldn't find her, if they did she wouldn't be able to save the pirates!

'Ianite, I'm sorry' Jordan repeated in her head over and over as she continued her search, the salty water now stinging her eyes so much she closed them and fear of the complete darkness crept in.

Fear she couldn't afford, so she tucked it in to the back of her mind, repeating her apologies to Ianite instead.

"It actually sunk" The priest said seconds later in her head, his shock getting her out of her anger induced state.

It HAD sunk she let herself realize for the first time since she saw the ship, it had been sinking for a while by what she could tell. If they were in, they were likely dead by then...

Jordan felt stinging in her eyes again as she opened them, not just the salt water but tears of realization as she made her way to the surface. The headache induced by her lack of oxygen made swimming an incredibly hard effort that took more concentration than ever, every bit of her should focused on swimming up...up...up...

The air caressed her skin as she broke to the surface, the cool Mianite air rushing into her lungs. Her intakes of air seemed too little, as if the air she breathed wasn't enough, would never be enough.

The calming of the flames in her lungs lessened as she treaded above the water, but the tears from her eyes flowed more violently that time.

Was that what it felt like to drown? What the pirates had felt?

Capsize looked like barely a young woman around her age, she would have died to soon and in such a despicable way.

She closed her eyes at the thought, and let the tears flow.

Finally, she felt an arm wrap itself under her arms and pulling her closer to a warm chest, flashes of green across her clouded vision.

Tom.

He didn't bother to scold her for her recklessness, a small mercy she admitted, instead he held her close surely checking for injuries as he always had.

"Did you find th...anything down there" Tom finally said

Her voice was hoarse, it took her a few tries to clear her throat successfully to answer.

"Not a damn thing, but I couldn't see very well. Do you have a night vision potion on you by any chance?" she said, still catching her breath as the words flowed

"Champwan is coming with some" He replied, keeping her close.

She finally looked up at him, expecting him to marvel at the destruction of the ship but all she found was concern, not for the pirates she realized, but for her.

He pulled a slab of wood closer for them to rest on, as she rested her arms across it she realized how far they truly were from the shore and the questions chased away the pain in her heart.

The pirates must have moved the ship, maybe they were leaving back to where they came from and were attacked in the process. But so far off the shore, arrows would have been difficult to hit their mark. Magic to ineffective to be used from the distance of the shore.

Someone must have been flying to successfully hit the ship so many times and sink it so efficiently.

"Well, the ship done sunk" Tom said, a small smile tugging at his cheeks in a poor attempt to make her laugh. His arm grazing hers from the spot next to her in the slab of wood.

No. She wouldn't be laughing for a while, specially not until she confronted Ianite about the deaths of his people. Instead, she gave him dismissive look she would most likely apologize to him about later and began swimming to shore.

She had places to be at after all.

Her bones ached and once again, the voice of her friend became a muffled cry her ears ignored.

Once sand was sticking to her palms at the shore she took off to her house.

The others were there, but thankfully none made an attempt to follow. Perhaps they thought she needed time alone to cry and process what had happened, they weren't wrong, but that could wait a little longer...

Still, she gave them a stern look filled with more anger than she intended, warning them to leave her be in a silent command.

Running felt great then, the Mianite air along with her wet clothes was miserably cold, but it did nothing to cool down the raging inside her.

Kicking open the door, she efficiently changed into her fighting clothes and strapped as many weapons as she could across her body. Not even bothering to fix her wet hair, she left it loose, hanging just above her shoulders and out of her way.

In another swift movement, she strapped her red cape across her shoulders and fastened her boots, not bothering to go upstairs to get her clean ones.

She then went over to her make-shift pantry in the kitchen and grabbed a few small vials of potions, not even bothering to double check to labels to see if she grabbed the right ones.

As she placed them in the small pockets of her belt, the anger induced state came back. the one that had gifted her so may purge wins, the one that had kept the fear of death away all those times, most importantly, the one that made her dangerous.

Jordan had hated it at first. Having to rely on such a dark place in her mind to stomach killing and fighting, to strand the cries of death and gruesome wounds she inflicted. She fought it before, guilt always brought her back then.

As the purges and training went on through, it became as easy to tap into it as flipping a light switch. She understood then why killing came so easy to her friends and why it became a joking matter. They had been going to similar places like hers for years, not fearing permanent death, making killing an easy choice, as easy as a video game kill.

It was the part of her Dianite had admitted to loving, the part she hated of herself. The part of her that wasn't normal, not for humans in her world anyway.

She had tried to not just tame it, but embrace it, for him...

Mianite had indeed changed her, it would have been odd if it hadn't of course. She had just been a quiet nerdy girl a few months ago, now she was letting a warriors instinct turn her into a killing machine as if it was nothing.

Perhaps it was a sign of weakness, she had been so easily changed in a matter of months. then again she had aged and was now in her twenties thanks to the trip to get to Mianite, perhaps her soul matured as well and those petty fears and insecurities faded along with it.

It had been to survive though, Tom had always told her that during training, but things were different on that day.

Jordan descended the stairs of her tree house as she strapped a sword across her waist and without a second thought stepped through her nether portal.

Perhaps she should put that anger to some good use.

Vengeance wasn't a crime in this world after all, and she was craving it more than ever. Whether it made her a monster or not, that concern faded as lights and plush carpets greeted her and she stormed off to do just that..finally use that strength for something other than purge bragging rights.

*****

Hello guys!

Love,

LadyClaire