Nyye

‘’Excuse me sir..." a timid voice attracts my attention.

"Where did you get those walking staffs you gave to them people that left first?’’ one of the human children asks as we walk, the one with pink cheeks whose name I am yet to know. Curious, I didn’t expect this to be the one to approach me with questions first.

‘’I made them.’’

‘’You made all those staffs? Why?’’ He asks in both curiosity and bewilderment. His nervousness is clear but still he chose to talk to me, he is struggling to keep stride with me but keep stride he does. I can see the stubborn determination behind his eyes, probably why he is still alive when so many have died.

‘’How did you know I gave them all staffs?’’

‘’You did didn’t you?’’ he asks with nervous persistence, big eyes a dust covered cheeky face looking up at me as he struggles to keep stride. The second boy child close behind, body language suggests they know each other.

‘’What’s going on then?’’ one of the 2 girls brings herself to ask. Lysandra if I heard correctly, odd name for someone whose ancestry descended from the Cold Continent but then again the barbarian tribes are an offshoot of the original people of Culla.

"We were asking-‘’ the other boy explains the whole thing to the newcomers whilst the first one focus big curious eyes on me, pink cheeks and all.

‘’I made them because it pleased me to make them now answer my question. How did you know I gave them all staffs?’’ I ask keeping eye contact whilst watching him blink trying to come up with a reasonable lie, strange how humans behave. He realises now that he shouldn’t have been able to see that and thus gave himself away as having an ability.

‘’Since I saved you from slavery and may deign to someday teach you something worth while I would like to think the least I can expect back from you is honesty.’’ He looks everywhere but at me, his eyebrow twitches as he stares out into the distance. He looks around and back at me having decided something, ‘’I know because I saw you’’.

We look at each other, he says nothing else holding my stare an entire 2 seconds before looking away. Impressive, this is not a simple kid.

‘’Fair enough. I make staffs on my spare time, I enjoy curving them out, inlaying and oiling them. I gave them to the first group that left because I had nothing else to give them.’’ I answer the inquisitive boy that sees things he shouldn’t be able to.

‘’What’s your name?’’

‘’Ian.’’

‘’Who are your parents Ian?’’

‘’I don’t have parents, but I do have a great grandfather! His name is Apaios and he is strong, he’ll be back and kill all these people that killed Aunty Fefe and hurt me!’’ he says sniffling then wiping snort with his forearm.

Apaios, why does that name sound familiar? I’ll ponder on it.

‘’So where are you taking us?’’ the girl Lysandra asks ignoring whatever the other boy is saying to them.

‘’I’m taking you to my Morondo, my homeland."

Eventually we reach the boarder I’ve been worried about crossing. I stop, pulling my influence from supporting the children letting them slump on the ground in exhaustion. The quite girl, Kira, is the first to notice the distance they’ve managed to cover in so short a time. Open mouthed she looks back to where we left her parents far in the distance and sidles closer to her sister. The others are beyond exhausted, I half carried them with psi letting them feel the journey as much as I thought them able to endure.

‘’Here, share this amongst yourselves.’’ I pour an endurance supplement into a water skin and pass it to the chubby cheeked Ian then again focus on the barrier before me. The lights shimmer and coalesce from the ground all the way up into the sky. The border of the Alderman Foothills. I can vaguely see the other side and I’m not encouraged by the visual but cross I will.

Carefully I feel the barrier with my psi and its as insubstantial as air, the other side of the barrier feels strange but I can’t quite put my ‘finger’ on how. ‘’You all ready to go?’’

The dazed look has gone from their eyes as energy courses through them, the potion gave them a second wind but it won’t last. They nod looking at the barrier with curious awe, children are strange. Collecting them in my Influence I walk through the border into an ash filled wasteland with stale air and a blazing sun. Nothing is standing, no tree no shrub, no grass no boulder, all around me is blasted land burnt so thoroughly that with every step all that was crumbles and flakes under my feet.

I look behind me and the Foothills are gone, all I see are hills of ash. I look at the gawking children and the two girls seem to be seeing something I’m not. "’Can you still see the border boundery?’’ Lysandra nods confirming a theory I had. I let go of the protective Influence of Self I had up and am buffeted by aether the likes of which I have never before felt.

It fills me, it fills the children as we all collapse me clutching my head them clutching their stomachs, head, the quite boy screams bursting into flames. The quite girl Kira fades, disappears, appears again and disappears. I scream power flooding into me, burning into and through me like lava in my veins, it hurts. It hurts so bad, darkness consumes me.

*

Michael O'Hare

The water laps onto the white crystalline sands of the guarded beach at a leisurely pace, the sound made by the waves breaking against each other soothing me to drowsiness. The scent of this ocean is still difficult for me to get used to knowing how the sea smelt back home, maybe its a different chemical formulae for this planet's water. I look up at a scream but settle back down seeing that its the training going as it should. Looking at the beauty of this planet no one on Earth would ever guess how deadly it is.

It's gradually been getting more and more dangerous since I got on this planet but more especially rescently after getting stranded on the isle. I hope Saya and the baby are alright, by now she should have given birth I'm told. I am still getting used to the calenders used around here but a five month pregnancy to me seems long with a single day being 100 hours. As soothing as theswaves I can't fully relax when looking at the strange red tint of the water hiding so many dangers. First becoming more and more acidic and then the bloodthirsty fish-men that raid the isle from its depths. There is very little food on the isle now, we’re all hungry. I lift my chin, there is a lot to worry about but-

I clench my into the sand revelling in the tightness of my grip; I finally feel like i'm getting the hang of things. The distant storm clouds resonating pleasantly within me, throughout this whole ordeal I have never been as healthy and strong as I feel now. I'm going to need a sparing partner to test myself against but Max hasn't fully adopted to his upgrade yet and everyone else just seemed unreachable powerwise until now.

I watch as Andrew drills with some undine workers on break with makeshift spears, that kid is big and much faster than he looks. There is Kuyoki weaving her katana around absentmindedly looking longingly at the far stretching ocean. There is Zhen with miniature lightening figures dancing as he demonstrates for his pupils. These are very capable people but none stepped up with an idea of how to get us ooff thi isle. Apparently that’s all that was needed, an idea. So here I am finding myself the liaison between our group and the strange half marine people of the island.

With the raids from the humanoid fish-men it was easy to insinuate ourselves with the local inhabitants by helping to defend the isle. Most people here are or I should say ‘were’ civilians with only a handful of warriors trained in any form of combat and they new they know they need us if they want to survive. The attacking fish-men are sneaky and fast but relatively easy to drive back into the ocean when you know their mana trick, which John seems to have figured out.

With Damage leading the defensive effort and Shravanthi to speak for us we reconnected with the local inhabitants and together came up with a way to leave the isle. There are a number of smaller boats that have been made already by the younger teenagers and smaller children that started as busy work while the experienced adults worked on an actual boat to fit everyone. Since we started everything has been going relatively well I think.

We have repelled 3 raids by the fish people, we have our own food supplies though even those are running low. We have Mirabilis and Zhen training some of the locals in the basics of mana manipulation whilst Andrew and Sway teach them how to use the improvised spears and weapons looted from the attackers from the sea. Progress on those fronts has been very slow but its mostly busy work anyways whilst the boat is completed to get us out of here.

Anything that has to deal with water these undine people are actually pretty good at, I wonder how much more dangerous trained marines would be with gills and water magic. The boat is coming along nicely and packed into it we just might all fit, if a bit snugly. It’s as though the whole thing is constructed by magic with how quickly and solidly its coming together even getting enchanted for fast sea travel and fire resistance as add on.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Everyone is desperate so no trouble makers have made themselves know as its obvious that none of us can get out of this situation without each other. It’s been a tenday now and though the weather has mostly stabilized seeing the sun is no longer a guaranteed daily occurrence. Another big debate has been which way to sail, Sandaria being closer than Pangaea that is where we best go until this whole thing blows over but the undine want to head to their mainland which should be even closer. I hesitate to trust their hospitality though once we are surrounded by the Undine Guard and no longer in a desperate situation together but I may be over thinking things.

Some of the others wanted to go to Pangaea regardless of the dangers which I can empathise with; their youngest children are there after all, so is mine. I look up at the grey clouds above in the strange sky of Gaia. It’s so much deeper than the sky I’m used to from earth, another thing I never thought I’d be able to compare, the depth of different skies. I don’t think we’d make it to Pangaea on an improvised shit overburdened with people no matter how good the undine are at keeping said ship from falling apart. Not with the weather and what I know of the ocean.

‘’Here,’’ Nikita comes by holding a bowl of what passes for soup around here.

‘’Thank you,’’ I take the boiled water with leaves and things floating at the top. I drink it down slowly, at least its warm.

She sits at my side eating her own soup and we watch the ocean lap against the sand together in silence.

*

‘’We’re just about done, she isn’t a beauty by any means but she’s a sturdy wench,’’ the main shipbuilder says but I can’t help but see the nervousness in his movements.

We all look at each other and then at the nervous builder and the ‘sturdy’ boat squatting in the sand between large beams scaffolded around it. Almost 10m high, 30m wide and 48m long it looks a lot more like a barge than an actual sailing boat to my eyes but with magic any every other crazy thing here... We walk around the whole thing inspecting it, the nervous main builder nervously reminding everyone how rushed he has been every time Onimorē looks to long at something.

It doesn’t really eander confidence but the two undine leaders seem satisfied enough that I’m not worried about it failing to float, nor do I want to show my utter ignorance when it comes to magical sea fairing. Onimorē grunts as the nervous shipbuilder explains something magically complicated that goes over both our heads whilst wringing the plank in his hands like a wet elastic sponge. To be honest I’m not even that surprised anymore when I see the laws of nature twisted in this way, an affirmative grunt has me mechanically nodding and moving on with the rest of the group.

None of my travelling companions know much about boats or sea fairing either since apparently the oceans here are so deadly that only the specialised, the crazy or the extremely strong ever venture across an ocean to another continent. I’m still not sure which category we fall under but Max and I have discussed it and are leaning towards crazy, I give me giant companion a look.

Onimorē is intimidating even to me so I can only imagine how these slender framed strange eyed gilled people see the Barbarians and him in particular. He carries around polearm hammer made of their special steel around like a walking stick switching between holding the head or the heel for no apparent reason and a monster of a double edged sword on his back. Those two hold the most attention but various weapons and pouches are neatly arranged all over his large frame. I’ve seen a number of people in our party with more than one storage item yet not has seen fit to gift him one for some reason.

‘’Alright, that’s everything we’ve done. With proper tools, schematics and experienced hands we could have made her better and of course with another day of filing we could get the splinters out and give the enchanters a chance for improvements...’’

‘’But time is of the essence yes-‘’

BOOM!

An explosion has me diving and rolling coming up with a shield from a spacial ring I was gifted. I look around and see bright lights and mist of water shooting above the trees from the beach, the general alarm rings out in our minds as Divina openly shows her psionic powers. We run towards the beach and I’m happy realise Onimorē isn’t that much faster than me though he eats the distance quickly with long heavy strides.

Sounds of weapons clashing and explosions going off have me pumping my legs that much faster, I feel like I’m on a motorcycle as the wind buffets against me, I’m through the trees and on the beach and nearly stumble in surprise at the situation. I’m running again and shoulder charge into the nearest fishman fighting a struggling woman.

[BAM!]

I feel its ribs break as I take it down, breaking its neck before looking up and assessing the full battlefield. That’s what the beach is quickly turning into as more and more fishmen shoot out of the foaming water with javelins attacking all along the coast. Everyone is struggling in small groups of undine with a van Damage leading but they are all quickly getting drowned by the numbers.

All the invading fishmen carry the mana stones fucking with people’s mana abilities with casters interspersed between them shooting jets of water that get dispersed by Divina into a spraying cloud that shoots into the sky whilst Gaia digs his shield into the sand but still gets pushed backwards. A thick jet of water bowls through a group of defenders scattering them and leaving more than one body part twisted in an unnatural angle.

[BOOM!]

An explosion rips the air right above the offending caster throwing it and everything around it back into the waves. I see Nikita running along the beach towards the next caster with Mirabilis covering her with spear and chakra attacks.

‘’To me! To me!’’ Damage calls out swathing the pointed weapons assembled against him with his axe, keeping the fishmen back with skill and aura whilst moving backwards slowly. Ava raws shimmers as she moves and cuts through 2, 3, 4 fishmen opening a path for herself rescueing a bloody group of undine that must have been training on the beach. They are engulf again as the fishmen keep coming out of the water some going around the fighting and disappearing int the trees.

Shit, ‘’they are going for the boat!’’ I yell getting and running back whence I came. A shadow steps out a tree stabbing into a fishmen before disappearing again, was that Thandeka? I reach behind my back seeing I won’t catch the half dozen ahead of me even as another is downed by something. I clatch at empty air behind my head wrapping my hand around the shaft of the spear. I heft it getting a proper grip in the middle and chuck it, silently another foe falls the whole spear having gone right through it.

Another is suddenly wraped in chains and shrieks horrificly as its torn apart in a spray of blood and gore, Mira is suddenlty amongst the last 3 cutting and twisting to avoid being impaled until she’s all that’s left standing. I reach the spear picking it up even as she charges into another group that bypassed the fighting on the beach. John, I hope-

KA-TRA! Even as I start to doubt my friend lightening blinds me a split second before my vision clears.

Another fishman is torn apart by a sizzling gust of air, another gust injures a pair I plough into with Silencer. I pier through its body like its not even there, pulling the spear out I stab into the disoriented one to the left. I turn aside a stab turn to avoid another but there is no need. Saya’s mom Mira cuts through my assailants head like its not made of bone, blows another away, throws her left hand in a loop wrapping another in chains and pulling, spreading gore and blood all over the sand. Wtf?

All over the place abilities are unleashed as John’s brilliant mind comes to the rescue. Floating water balls, flashes of light, mana bolts, lightening , wind and other elements join in on the struggle. ‘’I can’t believe that actually worked,’’ Mirabilis sends from somewhere now that she can. The tide of the battle turns quickly with the attackers greatest advantage now neutralised. The undine gaining more and more confidence as they use their newly acquired abilities as much as they can, those that have anything useful to use.

I take a moment and look around as I hear that the beach has turned into a bloodbath for the fishmen through sending. Zhen’s lightning sparking somewhere on the beach visible even from here, Mira’s black wind joins and within no time at all the fishmen I driven back into the depths.

John comes jogging towards me with a big grin on his face, ‘’I did it did you see, I reversed the frequency on the stones. It wasn’t easy as they use a new one every time but-’’ he rambles on. I pat him on the shoulder impressed but already cataloguing the cleanup that we have to do.

‘’You did good my friend, come on. Let’s go see the damage,’’ ignoring the scattered dead bodies we head for the beach.

* *

Vumile

‘’We should not have given that man our children!’’

‘’Oh harsh! We have been through this Shea, it will take all of us to get the others back if they are even alive at all and Saya? Don’t get me even started about Saya, she is in no condition to be here with us but at least she’s ready to attack where we point.’’

"Shut up you two and focus! We didn’t follow you cause we were worried about your family drama but for our own reasons. So I suggest we all start talking about how to get, ahhh..., that is... ma'am.’’ I stutter as the angry crying one starts rushing towards towards me with intent. Vicious eyes and a glint in its hand portends my death, I decide to keep my arms far from the new dagger I’m sporting.

"Saya!’’ the pale one calls out and is ignore. Out of the corner of my eye I see movement and dodge.

I don’t make it but the angry redhead psycho does cutting into the spearmen’s shoulder whilst holding his shaft away from herself. I hit the deck and start crawling on the ground as the grass starts turning into people with spears coming from all over the place.

The pale gentleman is the only one with a sword and starts cutting things down, people, grass, I can’t tell which. Something hard steps on me pounding me into the dirt expelling all the air from my lungs. With watering eyes I turn clutching my chest to face my death painted on a big cats fearsome grin. It laps its tongue with a sparkle in its eye as its deadly game comes to an end, I see my death as sure as I see the sun in the sky.

Out of nowhere the psycho redhead bitch jumps onto the feline’s back in an impressive acrobatic feet, the cat does try to get out of the way but fails. I keep crawling foward breath or no breath I need to get out of here fast, a bloody hand falls right in front of me. I look up to see a wide bladed spear coming out of the little girl with the missing mother. I gulp, relieved to breath and terrified as the spear glints towards me.

Sarah, a quiet woman in our band of renegade slaves whistles stunning the area rustling the natives out of their camouflage . Shit, there are so many of them! A spear whooshes overhead straight through a natives back, it tumbles to its knee as I get up not sure which way to run. Another whistle rings out, a different tune that has everything wobbling. Myself included.

I again pick myself up from the floor and try to run only to stumble and trip on my own feet the whistled tune still ringing in my ears. Abruptly the whistle is cut off and I see stars before my head clears enough for me to get back on my feet.

EEEH!

A screech escapes my lips as I reflectively cast Flash-Bang at my assailant, he freezes, I take the chance to leg it but I’m tripped by the spear as the distraction expires. He is still groggy though so I grab at the spear, thug on my dagger cutting myself then shove the entire blade into the thigh I find before me. His leg moves-

[TSWEEEE]

I blink the ringing away, brought back to focus by the pain of my hair being pulled from my sculp. Blood stops flowing down my broken nose floating in the air instead, I’m dropped. Coughing I crawl on the ground trying to get away but then the screaming really starts.

Blood coalesces and starts moving all over the place being pulled from the dead and injured in a horrifying display of sorcery. I feel cold and clammy as blood keeps flowing from my face into the orifices of my assailant now trying to stem the tide holding his hands over his face twisting about in a perverted dance of death.

[SPLASH]

His head pops in a spray of more blood that continues to geyser from the neck even as the body tumbles on the ground. I see the pale man moving about like he’s carrying a great weight as he waves his arms around blood following his directing from victim to victim. Some impaled by solidified blood others invaded like the now empty husk by my feet, how did these people get captured? I pass out.