Yvette sat on her hands and knees, her body soaked all the way through, dripping water in a small pool around her form. Every muscle hurt and her lungs were burning. Small bits of frost hung to her robes and she was too exhausted to deal with them.

Her training with Lunia was turning out to be far rougher than she’d initially expected. Her expertise with water was primarily in manipulating a few gallons or so. The other mage was many, many leagues beyond that. Having dragged Yvette onto the deck, Lunia had pulled the smaller girl off to the back of the ship, where a small, flat section of the vessel was left clear. At first she hadn’t been sure what to expect, but the aquamancer had drawn the water out of the sea, forming a massive square of water that towered over the pair. From there, the training had begun.

While the area was small, Lunia had forcefully demonstrated quite a few techniques and simple spells designed to accelerate her speed and movement while underwater. It was surprising how actually simple they were at first.

Unfortunately, while that part hadn’t taken very long and had been relatively easy, what followed next was not. Casting a spell of any kind while actually underwater was incredibly difficult. Even more so when Lunia insisted that Yvette do it while transformed.

Again and again she was tossed into the large square of water and forced to try and use her magic. Transforming into a shark, her favored underwater form, she found herself unable to cast any of her magic, despite the demands of her teacher. In the end, she felt like she was dying, unable to even stand after the torment she had been subjected to. She spit up a bit more water and whimpered when she felt Lunia put a hand on her shoulder.

“Hey. Yvette? Are you okay?” she asked gently. “Can you breathe?”

Yvette nodded, though she coughed up a bit more water and shook her head. “I-I think. I… s-swallowed s-some water on that last attempt,” she muttered.

“Okay. Once you catch your breath, you’re going back in.”

Yvette gave a soft whimper and nodded, before glancing around. She was getting a few looks from the crew, though most seemed busy with their own work. Any thoughts of escaping had long since left her. She was outnumbered far, far more than she’d initially believed. Two other vessels sailed just behind this one, only slightly smaller. All three appeared to be fully crewed, though she couldn’t imagine how many people that meant made up the full crew. Worse, Lunia didn’t appear to be the only mage they had. She’d seen a few mages on both the other vessels and this one, working some spell to manipulate the weather and waves, ensuring the sails were always full of wind.

They were making incredible time accordingly. At least, she suspected they were. She just wished she knew how long she had until they’d arrive. She glanced back to Lunia. “I don’t think I can do this,” she muttered. “My skills are transformation. I can’t do other magic during it. I--”

“It’s possible. I’ve seen mages who’ve done it before,” Lunia cut her off. “You want to succeed, don’t you?”

Yvette felt annoyance blossoming inside her. “Of course I want to! But I--”

“Then you can’t just give up because it’s hard,” Lunia snapped. “You’re going to find that a lot of things are hard. You can’t just surrender because of that. You need to--”

“It’s not just that it’s hard,” Yvette said quickly, clenching her fists. “I don’t know how! I’m not that strong yet!”

“Well then you--”

“And I’m not just going to become that strong by forcing it!” she said, cutting her off. “That’s not the way this kind of magic works. I’m turning into something without a way to speak or use my focus,” she said quickly, raising her voice to talk over the other girl’s objections. “I’m not even at the point I can partially change my form while already transformed into something. Doing magic, other magic, on top of it? It’s not possible.”

“You’re going to be fighting this thing in the water. I fought it once, it has aquamancy of its own. If you can’t do anything to even control the water around yourself, you’re going to die.”

“I’m probably going to die anyway!” Yvette snapped, feeling the anger bubble inside her already. “It’s-- wait. You told me that before. You’ve gone up against it. How? When? What happened?”

Lunia sighed and then waved her staff towards the cube of water. It quickly began to crumble, spilling the water out and into the sea. “Fine. We’ll let you rest for a little while, but then we go back. I suppose I can tell you all about my experience against the creature,” she said, her voice tinted with annoyance. “Let’s just say I would have died if I wasn’t lucky. I tried attacking it or driving it off from a dozen different angles and spells, but there just wasn’t any...” She closed her eyes and gave another sigh. “There’s not been a… it’s...”

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“Yes?”

“It’s powerful. Incredibly powerful. Massive. Larger than this ship, possibly two or three times as large. With massive claws. Just like the legends, it’s full of magic. To the point of near bursting and--”

“How can any of you expect me to go up against that? How can anyone go up against that? How did you go up against it?” Yvette asked, her body starting to shake for reasons other than being cold and wet. She could already envision the massive monster. Being grabbed in its powerful claws, being crushed or torn to pieces. She felt a little nauseous just imagining it. Worse, what if she failed and it then destroyed the ship? A new thought occurred to her and she looked at the other woman. Slowly, her eyes narrowed. “Wait. You attacked it a dozen different times? Why didn’t it destroy the ship?”

Lunia paused, her eyes averting. “I managed to escape, of course. I went out by myself, not with them. I--”

“You’re lying,” Yvette said firmly before walking towards her. “You tried to drive it off that many times? Did you even fight it once?”

“It’s not that, I--”

“Then how are you still alive? If it’s that powerful and deadly, how did you survive? How did this ship survive?”

Lunia sighed and then lifted her right hand. “Yvette? I’m sorry.”

“Wha--” She felt something cold around her ankle and then, a moment later, she was pulled off her feet entirely. She let out a shriek when she felt herself flying through the air, a moment later being dragged into the sea. She flailed wildly, the water filling her nose and mouth, making breathing impossible.

After a few moments, she was tossed out of the water, landing hard on the deck of the ship. She hacked and coughed, trying to spit out all the sea water she had swallowed. She tried to get up, but when her head rose she could see Lunia, kneeling down in front of her with her hands on her knees.

“Let’s make one thing crystal clear her, Yvette,” Lunia said with a soft sigh. “I’m offering you help. I’m more than willing to give it.”

“But--”

“Uh uh. Shush,” Lunia said firmly, shaking her head. “I am offering you help. That’s all you get. The help I offer. You don’t get to keep questioning me. You don’t get to make demands. You don’t get to boss me around or argue.”

Yvette felt her cheeks going redder. “B-but--”

“I don’t want to hurt you, kid,” Lunia said, cutting her off. “But, in the end? Your life, your comfort, means a lot less to me than the people on this ship. Your success means we all succeed. And if we can do that without you dying? All the better. But if you want to keep throwing a fit and arguing with me, I can take you right back into that cell of yours and you can wait until we get there. Or you can take the offer I am giving you and try to increase your chances of success as much as possible.”

The young mage opened her mouth to object, but slowly she lowered her eyes. As frustrated as she felt, she knew the other woman didn’t have to help her. Worse, it would be easy to just let her die, eaten by the leviathan. But the best chance she had of success was with the help of this woman. She had so many questions, but as much as she wanted to demand answers, all it would do was result in her possibly being flung underwater again. Slowly, she nodded. “Okay. I want your help, please,” Yvette said softly.

“Very good! See? When someone is offering you help like this, it’s far more polite to accept it, rather than questioning them like that. Now then. These spells.”

“W-wait,” Yvette said, drawing another glance from the woman. “I wasn’t lying before. I’m not able to cast them while already in another form.”

Lunia gave a soft sigh and crossed her arms. “You don’t have a lot of choice. You won’t be able to keep turning back and forth once you’re underwater. You’ll be torn apart.”

“Then I need to focus on developing what I can do,” Yvette said softly. “You’ve fought this thing, haven’t you? What can you tell me about it?”

“It’s deadly, huge, powerful,” Lunia said. “I’d say just focus on drawing it away and distracted. Don’t try to fight it, that’s just going to get you killed. But if you can keep it distracted long enough, then you’ll be okay. Your forms will be smaller, so use that to your advantage. Go down, closer to the sea floor. It’ll have a harder time maneuvering. It’s pretty cluttered as well, at times.”

Yvette nodded. “Okay. So something fast and small,” she muttered, closing her eyes for a moment. The shark form was her strongest swimming form, but she wasn’t sure it was a good idea to use it down there. It wasn’t power that she required, she needed speed and agility. She needed something durable as well. Her eyes widened and she grinned. “You know, I think I’m going to need to try and make something new. Small, but new.”

Lunia cocked her head to the right. “New? What do you mean, new?”

Yvette felt a new, giddy excitement bubbling inside her. She then glanced to the bracer on her arm, before lightly reaching out with her left hand and tapping it, causing little dots, as well as the scale and flower to appear on it. “I have new tools and some new ideas. I don’t know if I can do it, but I want to try. Besides, if there’s anything that can face down a leviathan, what better than another leviathan? I do have the scale too. That should help.”

Lunia’s eyes widened. “You don’t mean what I think you mean, do you? Is that even possible?”

Yvette nodded, unable to keep an excited smile off her face. While she’d never done it herself, the idea of trying, of developing a magic like this filled her with giddy excitement. “If I can take the form of a dragon turtle, well… even a smaller, weaker one, that’ll have to give me a pretty good chance of survival, right?” she asked, her stomach doing little flips and her excitement building. She’d never imagined herself being capable of such magic, but the more she thought about it, the more it seemed possible.

She could do this. She would do this. It wouldn’t be easy and she didn’t know how long it would last. But there was no better time to try than now.