When I talk to Stillwater in the morning I will ask him what he thinks about it. Based on the last party the ship won't be moving until morning at the earliest so there is time. He might think that getting the elves more experience is worth risking some lives.

However, from what I know of Stillwater he is more likely to want to take the long way around. He feels that he has failed his people and lets hit guilt color his judgment. Aside from that he is a very good ruler, and it is refreshing to see a leader who cares about his people.

If he does decide to take the long way around I already have a thought about what to do during that time. While the ship is sailing around the island, I can fly inland and take a look at the mage kingdom. Once I am done, or if they get in trouble, I can just gate back to the ship.

This way I won't be bored and I might just find some useful resources or knowledge. Since it is a kingdom run by mages I would think their libraries would be the best on the continent. They also should have a ton of interesting materials based on their smuggling operations.

I feel fairly confident that a trip to the kingdom would be worth my time. To convince Stillwater, there are a number of cities along the way that I could check for elven slaves. If I find any I can easily free them and then gate them back to the ship.

The only problem is, I will need to come up with a reason for Brightfire not to go with me. This is exactly the type of adventure she would love and she has no fear of flying. Then I realize that her being an elf is the best excuse, unless she is willing to pretend to be a slave.

With everything sorted out in my mind I lay back down and go to sleep. It is almost morning when I sense Nala and Albion finally come in and lay down to sleep. When I get up a few hours later they don't even twitch, not even when I eat breakfast.

Just as I am finishing eating my breakfast, Stillwater comes in, but he is not alone. With him is a female elf that I vaguely recognize as one of the ones I freed yesterday. She is the first elf I have seen that actually has a few signs of advanced age.

Stillwater says "Ash, this is Elder Gentlewind."

"Hello."

Stillwater looks troubled, but this Gentlewind has a look of hostility in her eyes when she looks at me. Behind them I easily notice Brightfire, Silverstream, and Silverleaf just outside the door. The three of them look nervous about something, but they don't come in.

Gentlewind says "Ash, I wish to thank you for everything you have done for the elves. However, we no longer require your assistance, so please leave!"

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"Oh, is that so? That's fine. Since that is the case, get off my ship!"

Gentlewind says "Your ship? Impossible! This ship was made from the elves' sacred tree, it belongs to us!"

"You are correct in that it is made from the sacred tree that the elves abandoned and left to die. I retrieved it and raised it to a suitable size. Then, with the tree's permission, I made it into this ship. I built this ship, every inch of it contains my mana! If you want my ship, then you will have to take it over my dead body!"

Stillwater says "Ash, please calm down! Elder Gentlewind was the leading elder of the elves before she was captured!"

"Huh, no wonder you were almost wiped out before I arrived!"

Gentlewind yells "You! How dare you!!"

Her sudden yell wakes up the kids, Albion looks confused, but Nala immediately growls at Gentlewind. Stillwater looks like he wants to say something more, but Gentlewind's glare stops him. The three girls look angry, almost like they want to rush in and attack Gentlewind.

Gentlewind yells "We elves need no help from a beast! If it wasn't for the previous help you have provided I would have you thrown from this ship!"

"Out of respect for Stillwater, I will not kill you! Go, gather any elves stupid enough to follow you! I will send you back to your village where you can wait for death!"

Stillwater says "Ash! We don't have enough numbers to allow someone to split us up!"

"It's fine! You are better off without anyone dumb enough to follow this idiot! Besides, there should still be plenty of elves that we can rescue."

Gentlewind yells "There is going to be no split! Everyone will be leaving with me! Stillwater, gather everyone!"

Brightfire and the sisters have heard everything and they leave before Gentlewind turns around. As Gentlewind storms out, Stillwater follows her, but he looks very depressed. I feel bad for putting him in such a spot, but letting her lead the elves would do more damage long term.

Instead of worrying about the elves, I turn and calm down Nala and Albion. Once they have calmed down I feed them some breakfast and then they go back to sleep. Then I just try to relax and wait to see what the elves decide, I won't force them to go with me.

If they really all decide to follow that stupid elder, then I will leave them to their fate. No matter what, even if all the elves back her, the ship is mine and I won't give it up. However, I can't sail the ship on my own so I need to think of an alternative just in case.

The best way would be to shrink it so that I could fit it in my pouch, but that would be a massive enchantment. I would need to either add a lot more mana capacity to the ship or remove some of the existing enchantments. Either way, it would be a much more complex enchantment than what I used to shrink the forge.

The other two options that come to mind would be hiring a human crew or using undead. Hiring the humans would probably be the easiest way, but it is the one I want to use the least. With humans I would have to pretend to be a human the entire time and I couldn't really trust them.

After the situation with Bones, my knowledge has increased quite a bit. Thanks to that I think I could animate and control some undead, but I would need to experiment a bit. If I can't figure out how to shrink it, undead is probably the option I will do with.

For now I turn my mind to working on the problem of improving the shrink enchantment. The biggest problem is the sheer mass of the ship, that alone will make this enchant hard. If I leave the mass alone and just shrink it, it would be far too heavy for me to even pick it up.