Petor had his feet on the railing, his hand on the rigging.

“Just jump,” Desari said, floating on a pillar of steam.

“Just jump, she says,” Petor grumbled and jumped forward. The water burst up wards, he got his footing as he stumbled forward. It was like walking on pudding.

“There we are,” Desari swept around on her pillar and headed towards the ship, Petor’s pillar pushed him after her.

“I think I prefer my plants!”

“Ah, you’re fine!” Desari yelled back.

Petor grumbled as they crossed to the broken ship. Most of the damage to the ship’s hull had been repaired, but the masts were almost comically small, their tops had been sawn into stumps.

Petor jumped off of the pillar, grabbing some remaining rigging, doing almost a dance as he dropped down to the deck.

“Petor, Desari,” Worbeck greeted them.

“Come to see if we can’t fix your mast problem,” Petor said.

That drew one of Worbeck’s eyebrows upwards.

“We’ll test it out on your second forward most mast.”

“What do you need?”

Petor looked at the mast in question. “Lets get that rigging off of it. Where its secured to the ship, we can release that. I should be able to push it out with the new mast.”

“We can take care of that.”

“Alright, then I’ll get below decks, let me know when that’s done and I’ll start on your new mast.” Petor moved through the decks, the ports were open to allow in light and the breeze, people were playing cards or in their hammocks.

They rose up as Petor and Desari passed. Petor nodded in greeting and kept going down through the ships.

Feet moved on the decking as he reached the bottom of the mast. Glowing motes of light spread from Desari’s hand to light the space at the bottom of the ship.

“Thanks,” Petor looked at the thick mast lashed into place.

The bolts had been painted over so many times it had become a glue.

Petor patted them with a grimace. “I’ll need to release these then I can open this up a bit,” the tapped on the bracing. “Well I could just cut a hole through the bracing and get to the mast, then put a seed into the wood there.”

He took out his old spear, the sound of hammering coming from above as Petor stabbed the spear into the wood, then four more times, creating a square cut-out.

He leeched just the square of wood, it crumbled into dust as he moved to the side, a glowing light showing the wood of the mast in the middle of the bracing.

“Okay, perfect,” He stabbed his dagger into the wood and worked it back and forth to make a divot.

“What are you doing?” Desari asked, peering around him.

“I’m making an opening to plant a storm vine seed. I was thinking of planting at the base of the mast and push out the top, though on second thought that would waste the mast here.” Petor rapped his knuckles on the bracing. “Lots of energy caught up in it that I can drain out and put into the stormvine. I’ll get it started in there and then if you can keep it supported with water and earth elements I can grow it up pretty quick.” Petor traced the mase down to the keel it rested on, then over to the other masts.

Could I was to weave the roots into the ship? “Feeding it is going to be a problem. Though if I could get the roots to come up and into the hull, cover the bottom in dirt and water?” He clicked his tongue and grimaced. “Biggest problem is the damn salt water. If I could get around that, then I could turn some of the planks under the ship into roots and they’d survive off of that. The mast would remain strong, could even repair over time.” He tilted his head to the side. “Would also allow it to discharge that lightning into the water.”

“Is there a way that they could capture it?” Desari asked. “Stormvines grow rapidly after they’ve been struck with lightning and gain some of those attributes.”

“Lightning is really destructive,” Petor looked at Desari.

She looked at the ground. “A converter isn’t too hard to make. In the water plane there should be cores that are aligned with the lightning attribute, after a strike, all those cores get charged up to be used later, or shoved into cannons that shoot lightning.”

“Lightning cannons?” Petor asked.

“Would have to be specially made, but its possible.”

“They’d have to chase storms to stay charged though,” Petor said.

Desari grinned. “If the stormvine’s growing it produces lightning mana. You can use the converter to draw out the lightning mana continuously.”

“That could be seriously cool,” Petor nodded. “With time you could replace all the masts with Stormvine, and then the ship as well.” He rapped his knuckles on the bracing. “Though we don’t have a plant that can grow in the seawater.”

“Well,” Desari took out a seed. “This is a mangrove seed, it can survive in brackish water, salty and not water.”

Petor received it. “If I grow this down and then I graft in the stormvine to the roots. Okay yeah that could work! Its going to be a lot of altering to get them to line up.”

“Well its going to take Valter and Mya sometime to get all of those ships enchanted,” Desari said.

“How is she going to power her ritual without souls?”

“Mesurial draws in souls and I’m pretty sure Mya has gear that does the same.”

“Fair.” Petor turned his attention to the mangrove seed, he called for it to grow, the seed cracked open, roots tickling against his hand as leaves spread out of the other end.

Petor guided the roots, keeping them pointing down as he reached into the opening in the mast, taking out the storm-vine seed. The mangrove seed was strong and vibrant, he grew the stormvine in his other hand, he just needed to get it started.

As he grew the mangrove seed, he came to understand it more, its roots thickening, reaching out to try and secure itself. It was hardy.

“I kind of forgot that you don’t always need the best things, the highest level, sometimes the simplest thing can be just what you need.” Petor said.

“It’s a common problem. Someone is scrambling for their dagger at their back when on the ground fighting someone, instead of the rock that’s right beside them,” Desari said.

“Hmm.”

“That killed the mood a bit didn’t it?” Desari asked.

“Yup, just a little, but you’re our little murder magician,” Petor patted her arm with three fingers of his right hand, his thumb and remaining finger protecting the stormvine sapling he’d stopped growing.

She gave him an unimpressed look. “Spell caster.”

“Mhmm yup,” Petor kept patting her.

“Ass.”

Petor chuckled. As he grew the mangrove he focused on the structure of the stormvine, altering and changing the mangrove slightly, then repairing the damage or walking back his changes if they didn’t take or started harming it.

“What are you doing?” Desari asked a bit later.

“The two plants are vastly different from one another. I’m altering the structure of the mangrove so its more aligned with the stormvine. This way the grafting will be easier to perform.” Petor took out his dagger, cutting the top off of the mangrove.

“The stormvine, it has channels specially for the lighting that runs through it. I had to add those into the mangrove.” He cut off the bottom of the stormvine, returning his dagger before pressing the two plants together.

The plant’s fibers reached out to one another, interlacing and pulling together. It was like healing a limb, all of the different layers fusing together. The plants were together but the graft was having issues.

“Just need to meld it a bit more.” With the two touching one another, he was able to use the two plants to alter one another.

The green bean look of the Mangrove sapling browned and turned to bark, veins of flashing blue running from the stormvine into the mangrove.

“Bit of water and earth element,” Petor turned to Desari.

She touched the plant in his hand, it strengthened as Petor could take a heavier handed approach to fusing the two.

Mana flowed through the plant, the blockages clearing away. Chemical energy spread between them, the only thing telling them apart the thin line in the bark.

A little essence flowed into his core as he checked it. “That’s good.”

Desari removed her hands as Petor held up the plant, the roots were like mini-vines, he’d altered the storm vine, thicker and stronger.

“I got the idea from the ever-burning brambles that ran through the pirate cove. They were some thick boyos. Took some reinforcing which the mangrove actually gave and now it should be really damn strong and not too heavy.”

He looked at the square he’d cut out and the mast inside.

Someone ran down the stairs. Petor looked over to Worbeck holding the deck above, standing on the stairs. “Rigging is clear and the bracing is loosened.”

“Thank you. I’ll test with this one, but if it goes well I can see about doing the same to the other masts,” Petor said.

“I wish you all the luck, had to use a drag sail once or twice, its neither fun nor fast,” Worbeck patted the deck his hand rested on. “Let us know if you need anything.” He went up the stairs again.

Petor moved towards the square and grimaced, it was too small.

“Let me,” Desari moved around him and touched the bracing.

The opening elongated and widened. Petor watched it all with his mage sight.

“Oh, okay then,” Petor muttered.

“Hmm?” Desari stood to the side.

“Its interesting, I basically resonate with the plants or living things and then I kind of work with them, using my mana as a medium to alter them. Its like the body or plant is part of the spell. Watching you, it looks like your spells command the wood to move. Its like a kind of communication, you ask it for something and it works with you.”

“My earth spells are move effective on things I understand, so take alchemical ingredients. The better I understand them, the greater the effect of my spells. It means I can boost the potency of the ingredients I’m using. Saves on the cost,” She smiled.

“So many ways to do the same thing, its pretty cool.” Petor reached into the opening she’d made and pushed his hybrid into place.

He rested his left palm on the bracing, his forefinger on the outer edge of the mast. He put his right hand into the opening, touching the hybrid.

He drained the tree, funnelling the power through his channels and into the hybrid, guing is roots down deep through the mast.

The wood started to creak as it spread down. He had the roots draw nutrition from the mast, it was dried out and hard the energy minimal.

Going to need a way for Desari to supply it with power. “Can you open up another part of the bracing on the left side and touch the roots?” He had to raise his voice over the creaking and cracking of wood.

“Sure,”

She reached forward, the wood moving around her hand as she touched the plant. Petor started cycling mana to her through the plant. The biggest thing was setting up the circulation of power, letting it build. He started draining the wood of the mast below more, weakening it for the roots to go through. They reached the bottom of the bracing, down to the keel.

“Go through the keel or around it?” Petor kept the hybrid growing, extending it up through the mast now, using it as a sheathe.

“Can you bring up the bottom of the bracing say a handwidth?”

The wood drew apart, melding into keel and bracing.

Petor guided the roots down and out off the mast, they curled around the keel. He released the mast and dropped to a knee.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

He touched a piece of wood, concentrating the drain in his finger, the wood decayed infront of him as he grabbed a nearby root. Water spewed up, hitting the ceiling as he guided the root through the hole, it weaved into the deck, plugging the hole.

“Alright now if I guide it into the boards, give it similar properties the root can replace the decking and spread out along the ship’s underside.”

“Make the roots the bottom of the ship? Won’t that make drag?”

“I can tell a plant how to grow, so a vine that grows squad will make them square continuously.”

“That’s an interesting skill.”

“Yeah, there were a bunch of kids that were curious. They’d heard rumors of square and triangular plants. Made me curious and I tested it out.” Petor smiled. “They ran off to the village with square squashes, their mothers admonishing them for wasting my time.” He shook his head. “More for show than anything.” He moved around the roots, cutting into the wood, though not all the way now and having the roots go into the wood.

He leeched the mast, the roots pulling the hybrid and the mast it was in lower till the roots were spilling out the bottom of the bracing and into the deck. The flat bottom of the tree resting on the keel.

He grew it out as he leeched the mast, replacing its volume with his hybrid.

“Alright well that’s our base.” Petor stood, stretching it looked like a tree was growing from the deck into the bracing.

He put his hands back into the opening. “Nice work with the energies, that’ll make it much faster.”

“No problem, I’m just following what you’re doing,” Desari said.

He’d focused his leeching on the exterior of the mast and bottom, now he reached out to the top of the mast, it was so much easier when touching it, and started to draw power from there and through the mast’s core.

It grew upwards, Dust fell out of the gaps in the bracing. Desari reached out, water from the holes jumped up the tree and around the hold, capturing the dust and running up and down the tree.

Petor closed his eyes focusing on the tree and keeping him from the dust.

The mast creaked and groaned.

The new hybrid cracked through the top of the mast, sections cracked away and fell to the deck. The trunk kept growing.

Petor grew out the hybrid to nearly fill the bracing before stepping away.

“You done?” Desari asked.

“Well, umm I forgot to ask how tall they wanted it,” Petor scratched his head.

Desari let out a bark of a laugh. “Yeah that’s probably a good idea.”

Petor walked for the stairs a young girl at the top of the stairs. “Could you get Worbeck? Ask him how big he wants the mast,” Petor said.

“Sir!” The girl ran off, a boy replacing her.

Petor walked back to his tree-mast. All that bracing through the ship to hold the mast in place. What if I was to have the tree create roots through the other decks? The mangrove had roots that came out higher, it would be easy to do.

He reached the hybrid, roots spread from it into the decking above, the roots worked their way through creaking wood till they were visible, pushing out the nails as they wove themselves into the other timbers, effectively becoming the ship.

“I wonder if you could make an entire ship this way. A living ship made of trees intertwined.”

“I think you’re showing you can,” Desari said.

“Might even be able to make an entire ship out of one tree.”

“I’d go with different trees, adds variability, and one tree will take longer to heal than a bunch of different trees,” Desari said.

“That’s a good point. Well we can try to use a seed or clipping from this one to create another hybrid for the other masts, or recreate it again. It won’t take me long to make another one.”

“What you think is best?” Desari asked.

He was still working on melding the attributes of other plants together. This was a chance to try and push his understanding and ability.

“I’ll get it to create a seed and grow it, see what it does.” He turned his head with the sound of footsteps.

Worbeck’s feet came down the steep stairs.

“Another three meters should do us nicely! Can’t say I’ve seen anything like that before, got all the crew talking!”

“Sounds good, I made some changes as well and wanted to check with you,” Petor said as Worbeck approached.

“Its an actual tree, so it has roots.”

“We’ll have to change it out in the port, green wood isn’t great. Can warp in unwanted ways.”

“Well this one comes with a few features,” Petor said. “It’ll passively give you lightning mana, it can regrow, if your hit with lightning it’ll take the hit and charge the ship and discharge the extra without harm to your ship.”

“I ain’t heard of that before.” Worbeck said, his face illuminated in the motes of light.

“See these here,” Petor tapped the roots. “They replace the decking, allowing the tree to drink up the sea water. Also binds them into the ship. I have them through the decking above, you want me to do it up the tree? That way its not just braced, but it becomes part of the ship’s structure.”

“That—” Worbeck studied the ceiling and the rounded roots that smoothed into coarse planks with the blue crystalline veining running through them, flaring occasionally with power. “I never heard of a ship doing that. Will it be heavier than the other mast?”

“Should be a bit lighter and stronger.”

“Will it have some give? Need that else the thing just snap,” Worbeck said.

“Well its basically a tree, it should have some sway on it above decks.”

“Without you here, what we have to worry about?”

Petor scratched his beard. “Don’t drain the tree of mana. You do that then it’ll die, everything should stay in place, and you’ll get passive effects but it won’t repair on its own.”

“Having a ship able to fix itself up, that’s one heck of a thing. After seeing the effect of that lightning on those Pirate ships I’m eager to have something that’ll stop our from exploding. The roots, will they have lightning go through them?”

“If you decrease the amount being pulled from the mast, yeah,” Petor shrugged.

Worbeck gave a wide grin. “Well damn, that should mean that we don’t have to scrub Reckoning’s belly near as much! Them Pirates never worked on her, her boards are rough while stout. If you could replace the entire hull with that tree it’d zap off any of the crap that tries to stick to our hull.” Worbeck laughed.

Petor looked at the ship.

“Could you?” Worbeck asked, his voice dropping low.

“Well all the mast’s need to be replaced. I could turn the bottom of the ship into the roots of the masts, branches making up the decks. Well I think it should be within my abilities, then I’d just have to impress their new form upon them and they’d be good.”

Worbeck held his eyes, weighing his words and him. “I’ll talk to Captain Thalios, though I know he’ll want all those mast’s replaced if you can.”

“Fair enough, three more meters right?”

“Sure thing, and we’ll need spars,” Worbeck said.

“I can do that when I get up top, if you can mark off where you want them?” Petor said.

“Sure, and I’ll get the lads working on the rigging at the same time. Thank yah both.” Worbeck looked to Desari, giving her a nod before he headed back for the stairs.

Petor reached out to the hybrid in its bracing and pushed it up another three meters, rounding out the top.

He ran a scan through everything and drew his hand back from the opening.

“Good to close up?” Desari asked.

“One second.” Petor altered the hybrid and drew his hand out, a branch sticking out, a seed grew rapidly on it, he caught it as it started to fall.

He raised it, opening his hand, the long slender bean had the tougher bark exterior and blue channels of the hybrid.

“Well that looks promising,” Desari looked at it.

“I had to do a lot of blending between the two to use characteristics from both,” Petor turned it around before pocketing it.

“You can close it now.”

The branch was drawn back into the tree before the bracing congealed back together overtop.

Petor ducked as he moved through the hold, the thick beams and ribbing running throughout. “Just a few more masts to go. Where the hell do they get trees like this from?”

“If you can control water you can speed up the rate plants grow,” Desari said following behind him.

“Can you make some damn noise moving through the ship? Like creaked a bit of wood or something?” Petor said. “Bout near jumped through the decking.”

She put a foot on the wood and it gave out a groan.

“How did you know it would make a noise.” Petor’s eyes narrowed to find her secrets.

“Stick around me and you’ll learn eventually,” She winked and moved past him. “Mya’s the quietest out of your lot, when she’s not talking. Valter,” She shook her head. “Now that man’s a little scary. Can make a ton of noise or none at all. When he’s going all out he makes the most noise. Though he could creep across a stone cave covered in glass without a noise, in full armor.”

“So I’m the second quietest.” Petor grinned as they reached the next mast.

“You’re the fastest with your feet, Mya is with a ship under her, but other environments she slows down or plants herself. You can move through nearly any damn place with the same ease.”

“Fought in towns, villages, fields and forests. Always have to know where to put your feet to use your spear. The stronger your base and footing the stronger the strike,” Petor said. “Could you open this one up.”

The bracing opened up and then the wooden mast. Petor channelled mana in to the seed in his hand, checking it as its roots started to spread out.

He started laughing, growing in volume. “There we go! That’s what I needed!” He grinned to Desari and put the hybrid into the opening she’d made. “The changes took, the seeds out of this will create more of the trees. Guess call them Storm groves.”

Now he’d done it once it was easy to repeat the process of leeching from the old mast and putting it into the hybrid, guiding its roots through the lower decks and branches on the higher decks. “That should get the sunlight.” The roots connected with the first mast, intertwining as wooden decking and ribbing. He passed his commands to it as well.

“So if they were to collect the seeds they could plant them and make more wood like this?” Desari asked.

“Yeah,” Petor half-frowned. “With that in mind. Well. Huh that seems like something we should ask Mya about. If this works out then I’m sure there are others that would like to have masts that are as strong as other woods and are resistant to lightning and one can drain of mana. How are you going to do that anyway?”

Desari took out a book from storage and flipped through pages. “So it’s a mana tap, basically it draws the mana of something out. Then using a channeling enchantment you can put it into gems that hold mana, or cores.” Desari held open a page covered in diagrams with writing up and down the sides.

“Its similar to what we used with Ilus. Collectors passively charged cores and gems throughout the city which was used when the city teleported to Dragon Falls.”

“Teleportation, mana intensive as hell,” Petor grimaced.

“You got it. Though the books that I got from Limos should help us reduce the cost greatly. Though it is still going to need a lot of mana. The Planar Gem is really damn efficient, but because it is so small it isn’t as efficient as something that you can build in massive scale.”

“Pretty damn cool though,” Petor peered up at the mast, the dust was coming out of the bracing but it was being sucked up through the opening around the mast’s hole. Desari’s working.

She put away her book. “I heard of a legend once.” She squinted, bringing up the half-remembered memory.

Petor turned his attention to her. She didn’t need to touch the tree to support it with water or earth mana. Petor didn’t either but it gave him greater control.

“About these mages, they weren’t of earth or water, some called them life mages. Said that they could trade the life of one with another. Master healers and growers. A group that lived among the wilds, tended to the trees and beasts.” Desari smiled, a sad displaced thing. “My grandfather read me books about them. I wanted to head out to the forests and meet these sages of the woods. To see the waterfalls and tree homes they lived in.”

She returned to reality, looking at Petor and then away. “A fancy of a child that did not know the world.”

Petor took his time, picking his words carefully. “The more I have seen of these worlds and these planes. Yes there is bad out there, there is terrible. Things come in more shades of grey than black and white that we’d hope for. Though there are incredible things to see. There are good people.”

Desari gave him a thankful smile.

“Look I might not be a full sage and my beard isn’t fully grown with pieces of leaves and twigs init.”

Desari laughed, shaking her head.

“Though well,” Petor made an over the top bow that Mya would have done, full of arm circling and weird foot placement. “You have found a tree sage miss Desari.” He intoned in a deep gravelly voice.

“They were called the Verdant Warlocks.”

“Ahem-“ Petor repeated the whole thing awkwardly. “You have met a Verdant Warlock.”

“You are never going to make it as a bard that’s for sure,” Her grin spread into a wide smile.

“I think I have the dashing good looks,” Petor ran a hand through his hair.

“Can lie as well as a stone can float.”

“The Coral Bastion Islands!”

“They’re not floating, they’re growing out of coral,” Desari chided.

“Its stone!”

“No its calcified plants.”

“Using all your big words,” Petor rolled his eyes.

She thumped him on the shoulder. “Damn, keep to using your words!”

Desari laughed. “Come on you ancient font of treeness, got more masts to build!”

“I bet you gave everyone work to do on the weekend.”

“Of course! Try to keep them out of trouble as much as possible. I left you and Mya alone for ten minutes and you set a pirate cove on fire!” She walked for the next mast as Petor finished up with the second one and had several seeds drop from the root-decking above.

“Hey!” Petor’s indignant shout turned conversational. “I’m pretty proud of that one. We fucked em up good.”

Desari let out a sigh. “And you weren’t even drinking.”

“Imagine if we were!” Petor’s eyes widened his brain firing.

Desari looked at him. “Weren’t you trying to be a paladin?”

Petor shrugged, taking the seeds from the roof, and coaxing them to grow as he needed. “This devil problem solver contractor gig is pretty fun. Get to see a lot of places, excitement and the pay is pretty damn good. And did you see my spear! Like you got a bow, but fuck that spear. It’s the prettiest.” He drew it out putting his cheek to it and patting it.

“You’re insane.” Desari stared at him blankly.

“No no no Desari, we’re insane.” He stored his spear and gave her a wide smile as he walked past her to the next mast as she opened the bracing for him.

“I’m worried for our future.”

“Future Petor problems,” Petor waved it away.

Desari opened her mouth, breathed in and let her words go. “I’m going to work on making the lightning collectors. I’ll keep in contact with the trees but I’ll check with Thalios, he just got back onboard.”

“Alright, just growing me a ship. Hah! Fucking Tuesdays.”

“How do you know the day?”

Petor shrugged. “Feels like a Tuesday?”

Desari’s face froze, Petor could see the backfiring thoughts. “Yeah going to go see Thalios.”

“Enjoy!” Petor hummed as he worked, studying the Stormgrove and its growth, hoping to take the lessons to his other hybrids and grafts.

He grew his masts, the branches and roots taking hold throughout the ship. The longer he worked on it the easier it became as he understood the stormgoves more.

He didn’t know how much time passed as he headed up the stairs to the deck’s above. The veins of the storm grove weaved through the ship gave off light to allow one to see in the dark belly of the ship.

Petor smiled as he cracked his back. Damn short decks. He healed his body as he went up the stairs. When did I start doing that over just flushing myself with mana? It took a lot less mana and well he knew his body better than he knew any other plant, or anyone else’s body.

People cut off their chatter as he passed, looking at him and then the new ship around them. Most were working with rope weaving it together into longer lengths and nets.

Petor saw carvings in and around the mast bracing, Desari’s handiwork. Up on the top deck, the crew were moving up the masts, setting in new ratlines.

“Ah, Petor,” Thalios spotted him and walked over, the others casting glances.

“Captain Thalios, where do you need your spars and you want those platforms too?” He could wrap branches together to create it, then another underneath to create the spars. He’d been thinking about it while working on the mast lengths.

He took his time to admire them. He’d sensed them through the seeds, but looking at them they had a faint silvery shine. He’d smoothed out the bark, the veining running through it. It looked like a slightly rusted metal pole with blue glowing crystal running through it.

The whole ship was a deeper brown than the masts, though the veining ran through it too. It just looked damn deadly.

“Give me your back lad,” Thalios tapped a man on the shoulder, he moved over and leaned forward. Thalios took out a rolled parchment. “Can you hold the top lad?” The table-guy pinched the papers. “Thank yah.”

Thalios held it down, rough sketches showing the ship and various details.

“So this is what we’re thinking for the masts, we’ve marked out where the platforms and spars should go in white chalk,” he pointed at the markings.

Petor nodded and then looked back at the parchment. “You were wondering if I could make some modifications?”

“Well though we’d voice them at least, you’ve done much but I don’t know of another who could do something like this.” Thalios stepped closer. “Sure you don’t want a hammock, I could even get you a bed.” He grinned, joking but there was an opening there.

“And miss out on Valter’s snoring? How would I get to sleep.” Petor grinned.

Thalios chuckled and clapped him on the shoulder.

Petor checked the diagrams, adjustments to the decks. Small things but he could see the utility of them increasing the ships stability, speed and room. Also quality of life things to make it easier for the crew.

He reached through the ship, as it moved to the new shapes. Branches spread out from the mast, the table-guy looking up as some curled into a platform, thicker ones spreading out to spars.

“Tell me how wide you want them,” Petor said.

Thalios guided him on each of them, as they finished crew moved to get the new sail and rigging into place, with Thalios sending table-guy to go help them.

It took a couple more hours to put in the last touches.

“Well I think Crixim is going to be a bit jealous,” Thalios said as they finished, the crew eagerly putting the ship back together.

“Well I could see about imprinting a form upon a couple of the stormgroves and putting them into their masts? With time they can grow through and change the Noose to look like this.”

“Certainly going to be eye catching.” Thalios had the grin of a man eager to show off his new ship.

“That she will.” Petor smirked, thinking of the ship coming into port.

“If you can do that I think it would be for the best, by what Desari told me it’ll keep our hull clean, give us extra mana to use and even power up lightning cannons. None of those are small things.” Thalios looked Petor in the eye and held out his hand. “Thank you, I know words are cheap. You need anything and we’ll be there.”

Petor reached out and grasped his hand. “Thank you Captain.”

“For you, you can call me Thalios.” He grinned.

“Thalios, call me Petor.”

He grinned.