I can feel the cold deep inside my bones, but it's my teeth chattering that wakes me - not the rain. At some point I had slid down to the bottom of the boat between the seats and had fallen asleep there. I sit up and channel mana into my fur lined jacket. It warms quickly and steam begins to rise off of it even in this heavy rain. A rolling thunder tumbles along in the distance as the boat glides through the waters between the trees. A hand on my shoulder causes me to flinch and I look behind me to see Sam there, steadily pushing me back down to the bottom of the boat. Her eyes don't leave the trees but she mouths the word Elves.

Just fantastic. Out of the pan and into the fire. Okay, what can I do? Think! I can see enchantments. That requires line of sight. Don't mages in stories have a way of just sensing mana nearby? Could I do that somehow? Well, I have my dagger and it's enchanted. Just close your eyes and feel...that's right....just like that....nope. Okay, need a new plan. I go through a few different plans before tossing out each one.

Wait, maybe I can use the rain? The elves are sure to have enchanted items on them, right? They've had thousands of years to collect them after all! Or however long they live, I don't remember right now. What if the rain could interact with the enchanted item? I learned Thavim's identify spell on a whim. I could never replicate the gravel-speak to cast it, but I know the fundamentals of it. Hmm...I can't enchant water, let alone thousands of currently falling raindrops. What about enchanting a receiver? Just something to indicate a direction of sound... I'm trying to do too much at once. I need to break up the tasks into achievable goals.

No, this would be a tall order even if I had all of my concentration. I doubt I would be able to accomplish it now in a moving boat while being chased by murder elves. Okay, so what can I do? Let's take stock. I have a maid that I guess is actually an assassin? But I don't think she can fully protect me forever from the elves. I have clothes that are enchanted to ensure I'm warmer, shoes that can give momentary flight, a dagger that can part atoms(not split atoms, just separate them from one another), and a pendant to multi-cast all of them. If I knew a direction, even if I did use the shoes to fly over to them and attempt to split them in half, I honestly doubt if I could get a single hit in. There's still an underlying skill issue with being nine years old. They're elves. They've probably had lots of time to hone combat skills.

So if fighting is out then we should run. Boats can outrun people so my best bet is to remain in the boat but just make it faster. I can't enchant the boat since it already has an enchantment that's not only powering it but also navigating. Where? No idea. But I'd have no idea where to go either way and it's keeping us from bumping into things so let's leave that alone. So then how do I increase our speed without tampering with existing enchantments? Could I alter the amount of friction the bottom of the boat has? Not sure how to do that without enchanting the boat itself. Wait! My dagger!

I pull out my dagger and crawl to the front of the boat before sticking it in the water vertically and activating it. The blade parts the water leaving a cavity that the boat falls into - I unfortunately used too much power. It feels like the boat has hit a very large wave and tosses me a few feet into the air before I slam hard back into the bottom as the boat rights itself. I'm barely able to keep a hold on my dagger. A quick glance back shows Sam still sitting and watching the treeline, but now bracing herself with both arms. I gotta be more careful. I don't have the money to replace this dagger. Actually, I don't have any money, do I? Focus. I crawl back to the front and stick the dagger back in the water. This time I activate it with as little power as possible and then slowly increase it until I find a good balance.

The water parts in front of the boat and the wood groans in protest as the water falls back in on the rear of the boat. Our speed increases by a very large margin, almost exponentially as we rocket forward. Honestly, this seems like a really good method for upgrading boats, but I'm not sure I should be offering enchantments that can split anything even if they're attached to the front of a boat. Pirates could just full power drive into and split another boat completely in two. Drive? Sail? Bah.

Both of us stay positioned as we were, her sitting back and watching the treeline/shoreline and I dangling from the front of the boat with my knife in the water, for what feels like way too long. I'm unsure of whether Sam is unmoving out of habit or out of fear, but mine is definitely fear.

The treeline seems to end all at once as the forest gives way to a vast sea of grasses on rolling hills resembling placid waves. A glance back at the quickly retreating treeline reveals a couple of figures stepping out from behind the trees. They were able to keep up at this speed? A thunk at the back of the boat causes me to flinch. Sam turns around and wrenches an arrow out of the back of the boat with a note attached. I pull my arm up from the water noting the pins and needles in it from dangling it over the edge for so long and shuffle my way over to Sam to read the note with her.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Inside are only five words written in the flowing calligraphic script of elvish:

Surrender the child of apocalypse

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My mind whirs with the intensity of a blender as I try to process the information of the past day and a half. There's some dwarven cult after me that killed Thavim and now the elves want some of me too? There are no other children in the boat, so it can only be talking about me. How am I a child of apocalypse? What even is that? Why didn't they attack if they could keep up with our speed? Sam said the name of the cult earlier, what was it? And they were dressed just like Brokdruc, was he part of that cult too? Who even are they and why have they been attempting to kill me?

I look back at Sam and she's seems unmoved by everything, not a hint of emotion on her face. Just leaning against the back of the boat and staring at the shoreline. I want to ask her all of these questions...but I also don't want to talk. I don't really want to do anything. I lay flat on the wooden bench of the boat and stare at the sky, the clouds from the earlier rain receding into the distance behind us. I briefly think of Thavim's couch as I reposition on the hard bench and silent tears come unbidden. Fuck, get a hold of yourself! I intended to lay there and do nothing but stare at the clouds but after a few hours a growl from my stomach reminds me that I haven't eaten since breakfast.

I sit up with a sigh and start digging through my pack for all of those meats I remember Thavim packing. Not an ounce of bread. Just meat. I wonder if I'm starting to have vitamin deficiencies after all this time with only meat. I idly chew on some jerky as I listlessly stare off into the distance.

"What was the name of that cult?" I finally muster the energy to ask.

"The Hand of Living Steel," Sam replies in her monotone.

I turn to look at her but say nothing more thinking she would grow uncomfortable and elaborate. I was wrong. Finally, after a several minute pause I speak up again.

"And who is The Hand of Living Steel?" I ask in a monotone of my own. Maybe I can match her dispassionate facade and we can have an actual conversation.

"Power chasers, adrenaline junkies, enchantment zealots, demon worshipers, and the like. If it has power they're sticking their fingers in it," she replies. "Dwarves consider enchantments to be near sacred while The Hand of Living Steel considers them and anything of power to actually be sacred."

"Was Brokdruc-"

"Yes," she cuts me off before I can finish the question.

"How long have you known? And why wasn't I told any of this?"

"You remember the enchanting tutor that attempted to kidnap you? We've known since then. As for why you weren't told, you'd seen seven winters. A kingdom would never hand over state secrets to a child, especially not one as volatile as the existence of The Hand in their city."

"Volatile?" I ask perking up, "What do you mean?"

"Due to their willingness to cavort with and even to summon demons, there's been a decree that The Hand of Living Steel is to be destroyed, root and branch. The existence of a kingdom in the midst of The Hand is often considered a small price to pay for their eradication."

Damn. "How come you're telling me now?"

"The Sorcerer Consociation libraries are not lacking. Any small amount of research there could point you towards The Hand. At worst, a stray comment from you about their existence could inadvertently destroy the entire kingdom once a subjugation squad is put together. One will be sent anyway now that they've killed Thavim, but with your silence perhaps Thrumgar will have the extra few weeks necessary to cut off The Hand before the squad arrives."

Ah fuck. Did she just guilt me into not blabbing about The Hand? What would happen if I did anyway? Better not. I already have multiple groups after me without destroying kingdoms. Speaking of...

"Were those elves in league with The Hand, then? They were on top of us pretty soon after we fled the mountain."

"Doubtful. Dwarves and elves don't play nice together. Their territories rarely overlap so they don't often bother going to war against one another."

If they're entirely different groups, then I have a feeling that my dear enchanting tutor wasn't as exiled as she led me to believe. Who else among the knife-ears knew that a human child was being harbored in a dwarven mountain? I guess The Hand could have easily sold that information, but if I'm as important to them as Sam says that would go against their own interests. Either they're working together or I've been betrayed.

"What is a child of apocalypse?"

"You, I presume," Sam replies nonchalantly. "I don't have any elven friends to ask what that means. They tend to attack humans on sight."