--- ERANE, THE YEAR 775 ---

Erane sat in a tree for the millionth time, absently drawing out an idea for a kata as Taasen executed a legion of soldiers. Somehow it seemed like the more people the crown sent after him, the easier it was for him to wipe them out. That first assassin had been far more skilled than these guys.

She shook her head and sketched out a chain of movements that was prevalent in Taasen’s style, a sweeping blow that was not only majestic but also effective. It seemed to carry far more force than it should be able to, which was also prevalent in Taasen’s style. Erane had this same sequence drawn at least twelve dozen times by now though, which made this one completely useless.

Erane had thought about dedicating time toward this kind of artistry, simply drawing, but what her soul yearned for was a performance, not a project after project chain of works that she could never replicate.

She glanced back down to get another sequence of movements, but Taasen had killed them all while she hadn’t been looking.

Frostbite, why did that always happen?

She sighed and put away the drawing pad she’d scavenged from one of the assassins a month or so back, back when she used to get worried every time they showed up. “Taasen, one of these days they’ll send a whole army after you. Eventually it’ll work.”

He was cleaning his blade on the snow, “Erane, one of these days you’ll realize that trying to put my movements to paper is impossible.”

“Yes thank you for that.”

He sheathed his sword with a thoughtful look, “I’m almost sad to kill these men, they have been deceived by their superiors.”

The fact that it took the idiot a year to realize that was what annoyed Erane the most out of that sentence. She glared at him, and then glared past him at the field of red. Why doesn’t he just forget they have blood? That seems like it would be convenient, killing without blood, giving the snow mother easier carnage to cover… Her eyes tracked back toward Taasen, who was bowing to one of the corpses, but then again he probably thinks that would be dishonorable or something.

Erane shook her head and started walking in the direction they’d been heading for the past month, they were almost at the northern coast and she could swear that it was getting warmer already. The snow wasn’t as thick as she was used to and she’d heard that in the lands up here that sometimes it even melted completely. Which was wild.

Taasen examined one of the corpses, “I believe this is Melorian writing.”

Erane stepped closer to him and squinted at it, “Huh, that’s weirdly squiggly. What does it say?”

Taasen held it up with a raised eyebrow, “I cannot tell. But this is certainly enough proof at this point that Selneth is in Melor, we are headed in the right direction.”

By Kalteii’s snow we’d better be. “Great, any idea yet how we’re going to get a boat?”

“Frosts Erane, stop reminding me I’m unable to walk on water.”

“Maybe you could, but I can’t.”

“Are you not made of wood?”

“Don’t go there mister.”

Taasen sighed, “Very well. So we shall find a boat then.”

“It could be a rowboat or something, I’m sure you’d be able to convince the sun not to kill you and the waves not to drown you. I’ll just live either way, I don't need to breathe or anything.”

“You seem very confident in my abilities.”

More like I’m confident in your stupidity… Erane nodded slowly, masterfully preventing Taasen from realizing her true thoughts. It certainly didn’t count as a deception, Taasen was just…deceiving himself, the little deceiver.

--

They floated off into the icy ocean, sitting on a tiny rowboat and being chased by twelve battleships, the sheets of ice nearby were breaking with loud crashes as flaming cannonballs shot out past them.

Erane would have liked to have said that things went off without a hint of a problem. That, however, would have been lying, and Taasen seemed pretty good at convincing himself things would be fine without her input. He was rowing as if his life depended on it, all while muttering that he was faster than this, stronger than this. As he muttered, the boat simply…went faster.

Erane held on to the thick wood of the boat with a deathgrip, occasionally shouting encouragement at her companion. He probably couldn’t even hear her over the wind and explosions, but as all artists know, it’s the thought that counts.

Erane flinched to the side as a flaming cannonball whisked past her ear, crashing against the side of an iceberg several boat lengths ahead.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Frostbite, that was close. How in the name of the snow mother’s own backside had they not been hit yet?!

“Taasen!!” She shouted, “I know you can go faster than this! You’re so much more capable than this, it’s almost insulting that you would go so slow!”

Their speed somehow increased.

Erane suspected that the boat would be on fire by now from sheer kinetic force if it wasn’t Taasen who was rowing. She glanced back at the ships, glad they’d taken this one, the larger battleships had to go slower to avoid icebergs and sheets of frozen ocean, so they were easily overcoming their pursuers… who had things like sails and experience.

Erane heard Taasen continue muttering to himself as a flaming cannonball hit the sea behind them. The ocean surged forward at the impact, tossing their little boat upward. She heard Taasen shout, but it somehow sounded excited as they flew through the air.

“Yeah! Fly onward my majestic steed!”

It kept going.

And going

And… going.

By the time ten minutes had passed, Erane was pretty sure they weren’t going to land.

It occurred to her again that Taasen was easily the most powerful artist in the world if he could simply do this at a moment's notice. She’d heard tales of things like this, but they were always one off feats, masterpieces that sometimes lasted generations fueled simply by the belief and pride of a single individual, there weren’t people who could do things like this over and over.

But she’d seen Taasen do things like this at least a dozen times by now. Sometimes to destroy armies that were coming after him, sometimes in a moment of forgetfulness when he didn’t realize that humans couldn’t walk on air. It seemed as if Taasen’s default mode simply wasn’t the same reality as everyone else.

The secret, Erane suspected, was that Taasen was an idiot.

In this case, his idiocy was exactly what both of them needed to survive.

The boat flew through the air in a huge arc that eventually forgot it was meant to be an arc. They soared onward, somehow increasing in speed as Taasen continued to row the boat… through the air.

It… well it worked.

The twelve battleships inevitably fell behind, disappearing into the distance. They kept firing long after the floating boat was out of range, as if figuring that their superiors wouldn’t be as mad if they thought they’d at least tried.

Erane sighed and leaned back, looking down off the side of the boat as Taasen continued shouting his excitement like a little kid with a new toy. He was usually more… stoic than this, Erane embarrassingly had long since decided he didn’t feel emotions as strongly as normal people. Which was hypocritical of her now that she thought about it.

Constructs were usually the people who got that crap, and now she was the one giving it out…

She glanced at Taasen, who was still screaming, rowing at inhuman speeds that just kept getting faster. It was a miracle he hadn’t simply passed away. She looked backward again, only to find that there weren’t even any icebergs floating around anymore. She couldn’t see Divaria anymore, or the ships that had been firing on them. There was nothing but a vast, impossible ocean.

A sudden worry bubbled up into the front of her mind. How do we know we’re even going in the right direction?

Erane anxiously looked up at the sun, high in the sky. No use trying to navigate with that at the moment, but she felt like it was a bit farther down than before, which meant they were heading north as long as she hadn’t forgotten how the sun worked.

But well… with how fast they were going, they might even get there tomorrow —as long as they were in fact heading in the right direction. hich was a very strange thought indeed. She smiled at Taasen, he was an idiot, but he was a good idiot.

“Go Taasen, go! We both know that you can row faster than that!”

Their speed increased even more.

A bird smacked into the front of the boat, dying immediately and barely even slowing them down or changing their trajectory. Erane grinned out at the sky, wondering how long it would be before she saw snow again.

--- TAASEN ---

The boat soared onward, exactly as it was meant to do.

The land slowly appeared in the distance, and as it did their velocity finally started to waver, their huge arc of flight lowered and Taasen felt himself grinning stupidly as they hit the surface, bouncing high upward again like a stone being skipped across water. Sure enough they hit again a moment later, bouncing a bit lower this time. The process repeated several times before they were completely in the water again, leaving Taasen to continue rowing.

That. Was. Exhilarating.

Taasen slowed his rowing and grinned back at Erane, he remembered occasionally hearing her cheer him on and that was almost as good as his own convictions. “Frosts! We should attempt that again, I am absolutely certain I can do it faster.”

Erane’s face was completely blank. Which was odd for her, he was used to being the one who was completely unreadable. How strange that it was reversed at the moment. “Taasen?” She eventually asked, “What are we doing here again?”

He frowned at her, “Are you being deceived?”

“What?”

“Did Melor bewitch you?!” He pointed out at the steadily approaching land, they were slowing down, but he figured they would get to a port before they stopped entirely. And so they did. They kept going as the land drew closer.

Erane met his frown with a frown of her own, “No, how would a land bewitch me?”

Taasen tilted his head at her, figuring she had a point. “Well perhaps it was the spirit of the land then, Gium, the god of order.”

“Why would he bewitch me?”

Taasen sighed, “Erane, have you not heard tales of his bewitching! They are grand feats! Memory wiping entire nations and binding them to his will! Kalteii herself warned our people of his vile habits!”

Erane frowned again, “Kalteii? Who’s that?”

“Erane? Are you alright? I can turn the boat back home and heal you of this bewitching.”

“Taasen, I’m not going to do anything until you tell me why the sparks we’re here.”

He frowned at the word ‘sparks,’ wasn’t that a Melorian curse word? He put his paddle in the water and stopped the boat. “We are here to stop Selneth’s deceits. But now I’m thinking we might need to kill Gium himself for his deceit.”

“You can’t kill a god, Taasen.”

“Not with that attitude, and I’d kindly request that you don’t sour my conviction with logic.”

Erane sighed and leaned back, “Whatever, I must have finally just gone insane from whatever the sparks is wrong with you.”

Taasen shook his head slightly but after a moment of indecision, he rowed onward, he would save Erane from whatever was bewitching her and everything would be alright.