The first three days aboard the Mist Hauler were in contention for the worst experience Ellianora had had the displeasure of enduring in recent memory. During the day there was little space for practice or anything else she might have wanted to do, and worse her conversion partner had hit it off with the crew and was mostly busy with scaffolding work. He was surprisingly light on his feet and well-balanced as he moved confidently up, down, and across the masts, impressing both the general passengers and the grateful sailors, who were saved from the duty of attempting to do so themselves. Though to be fair, he didn’t seem to talk much anyway, he struck her as, not really having much to share and thus didn’t say anything until that former circumstance changed. Nights aboard the ship weren’t much better, clearly not designed to carry this many people (to say nothing of the food, water, supplies, and whatever else for them,) the hull was a crowded sleeping quarter. Sleeping bags were laid wall to wall of the room, sometimes over the top of each other, going to bed a little later than average meant stepping over, around, or (far more often because it was dark) on, already sleeping passengers. A reality she was very aware of, and reminded of multiple times every night, mainly due to her uncharacteristically bad decision-making the day of boarding. She had stopped to purchase a textbook she had seen in a shop window only to then spend several hours perusing the shelves. Getting distracted like that had nearly cost her her passage to the God-Touched Lands, and was the reason she was nearly last in the pecking order for sleeping spots. Admittedly though, reading, and rereading these books was likely going to be her only salvation from the chronic boredom that this journey now threatened her with, so she didn’t feel too bad about the decision.
On her third night, she’d felt restless, and as such now found herself sitting up on the prow with a lantern, reading said window-shopped textbook. It was exactly what she’d taken it for and had been hoping it was, if she could decipher the notes and clues left by the previous owner, maybe she could gain a new rune to work with, or better yet an advancement for her circle count, even if it didn’t contain any new knowledge, it might hold some inspiration.
----------------------------------------
Markus had always possessed fairly good night vision, even at night in the dark undersection of the ship, he could still see clearly, the dark outlines of the sleeping passengers as he weaved and lightly stepped around them, quietly slipping up the stairs to the deck. When he got there he was a little surprised, so far he’d been the only person to stay up so late, but sitting across the ship deck way near the bowsprit was the girl who’d approached him on the first day, Ellianora. She had a lantern next to her and was reading a fairly sized book. He lightly strided over as she produced a small notepad and pen from one of her pockets, looking intensely at whatever was written on it as she gently scribbled, with a furrowed brow. Once Markus got close enough that he’d knee the book should he try to bend his legs, Markus tilted his head till he could peer over the top of the pages at the text. Huh interesting, though that’s definitely out of my depth, He thought as he read the open page on her lap.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“That’s some pretty heavy magic theory.” He remarked, prompting her to nearly shriek when she finally became aware of his presence.
----------------------------------------
Ellianora was engrossed in the work, she was so totally zoned into what she was doing she didn’t notice the person approaching her from across the empty expanse of the deck until he nearly made her soul leave her body from surprise.
“That’s some pretty heavy magic theory.”
The fact that she didn’t actually scream was a victory, though an embarrassing one, as she looked up at the person, finally realizing who she was talking to.
“You shouldn’t sneak up on people like that.” She managed to squeeze out through the shock. When did he get here, how long has he been there? She frantically thought as she started to relax a bit.
“I didn’t really sneak up so much as walk right up to you and stand square in front of you.” He clarified matter-of-factly.
Finally, she’d processed enough to respond to his statement, as she re-seated the book back on her lap. “It’s actually intermediate theory, did you ever study any?”
He shook his head slightly “A bit but I don’t have the gift, so there wasn’t much point past the most basics.” He moved a bit around her to the side so he could have a better view of the text.
“So you’re a sigil caster?” he asked.
“Yep.” She confirmed now back to working on deciphering the page's hidden secrets again. “I’m a third circle class caster.”
“So you're not an apprentice, how long have you had your third ring?” he asked.
“About a year and a half now.” She answered while copying a section of a page so that she could compare it to an earlier piece.
----------------------------------------
Markus thought to himself, taking advantage of her attention being on her work to gather what she'd said together into a cohesive piece of knowledge. She was a sigil caster, but had only been free of her apprenticeship a year and a half since that had made her an intermediate-rank caster.
“How many sigils do you have?” he asked her.
“Fifteen.” She answered not really paying attention to him at this point.
“Huh.” He responded, for only having three, circles fifteen was an impressive number of sigils.
He shrugged, clearly not getting any more conversation out of her, and moved over to the wide-open center of the deck to get back to his original goal for coming above. He drew the long single-edged blade of his sword and, just like every night before settled in for a few practice swings.