Izia blasts a ball of wind towards her enemy, only for him to effortlessly bat it away with his sword. The two have been engaged in a twisted game of cat and mouse; Izia assaults him with long range wind magic, and he makes his way all the way to her, only to move back to his starting position and start the game over again. After the 3rd time, Izia had surmised that he was simply toying with her, trying to tire her out so that he could take her without any resistance. It was an infuriatingly simple plan, but it was working. Even just using her incantins, Izia started to feel the ather in her body diminish with each blast of wind. “So, you’re not even going to tell me your name?”
“No reason to,” he replies, “the boss is gonna kill your friend over there and then collect on your bounty.” Izia spares a glance at the battle being fought behind her. Even at this distance she can tell that it was a battle to the death. She has to help, maybe she could...wait? Bounty? “There’s a bounty on me?”
“500,000 lim,” the man says as he retreats to his starting position, “ and if you stop fighting back, I can make the trip there a lot more enjoyable for you.”
Izia extends her hands in front of her, aiming at the man, and repeats the wind incantin several times in succession. A volley of wind erupts from her hands, not allowing for the man to dodge. Sensing this, the man uses his sword to deflect each blast away from him. If Izia had any doubts about him being a Gladius, they died along with her attack. What’s more, she surmises that his mask must have an engraving on it that allows him to see traces of ather; it’s the only thing that would allow for a non Evoker to see magic.
“Alright then, guess we’ll have to be rough,” The man points his blade at Izia, “I forgot to mention that it's 500,000 for you alive, but we still get half if we bring you in dead.” He stalks towards her, batting away each of her attacks. “Long as I keep you alive, I can...I can..” The man starts to slow down, straining against an incredibly pulling sensation. He drives his sword into the deck of the ship as a small vortex of wind forms in the air and pulls at him from the side of the ship. “You little shit, what did you do?”
“Why would I tell you? You’re about to go overboard and then I’m going to do the same to your boss.” Izia stalks towards the man, “O’ benevolent wind, encase me in your power.” The strength of the vortex increases. “Let those that would laugh at your power, repent at their folly.” Water starts to flow into the vortex from the sea, causing it to expand in a swirling mass. Izia finishes the incantation quickly before the entire ship is pulled into her attack, “Steal their wind, and take it as your own. Violent Tempest!” Izia’s words boom like thunder as the man is ripped away from his sword and flies into the center of the vortex. The mass of water muffles the man’s screams as he’s crushed by the combined weight and power of the attack. A geyser of water shoots from the vortex as it closes in on itself, dispersing the wind violently in every direction. Izia places her hands on her knees, drawing in long deep breaths. “I should have used my grimoire, stupid Izia.”
“Hey, Evoker!”
Izia lifts her head up to see Marn. Other than a few cuts and what assumes is the blood of her attackers, she looked none the worse for wear. “It’s not Evoker...it’s Izia.” She looks behind Marn, “Where’s everyone else? Are they fine?”
Marn, Zav and his crew were all ambushed by Verdant Claw. They had somehow stolen away in the cargo bay and were able to mask their presence. A few of Zav’s crew were injured, but Zav returned the favor by killing three of the Claws. After Marn and he had finished up, Zav had asked her why she was heading up. When she told him it was to see Adelie he shrugged and said “Why bother? You heard what they said, they should just let them kill each other and then collect the 200,000 lim.” Marn of course relays none of this to Izia, opting to give her a disinterested stare.
“Whatever. We need to go help Adelie, the guy he’s fighting is the leader. I can-” Marn brushes past Izia and heads towards the front of the ship. “Look,” Izia says trailing behind Marn, “I understand that you might not like me, but your friend is in trouble. Why are you just casually walking over there? Use your Gladius skills and cut that guy apart.”
“Just shut up and watch,” Marn says as the two stand in the mast’s shadow, “ and then you’ll see why.” Izia glares at Marn, but the Gladius’s eyes are fixated on the battle in front of her. Izia sighs and reluctantly joins Marn in spectating.
Adelie and Yala dance through the air in a flurry of attacks and counterattacks. A right punch by Adelie. A left kick by Yala. When they land back on the deck, both fighters immediately close the distance and re-engage in combat. By all logic and reason, Yala should have killed Adelie ages ago. Every move of his spoke of his experience in these types of battles; a straight thrust at Adelie’s heart, a knee to the sternum, an elbow to his lower spine. All of them, delivered with the augmented speed and power his engravings blessed him with, each strike a killing blow, yet for some reason Adelie would not fall. Hell, if Yala didn’t know any better he’d think that Adelie purposely took some of those hits.
Thrill? Anxiety? No, whatever was rushing inside of Adelie was something different, something deeper than just emotion. Each attack he threw, each blow that landed on him, woke something inside of him. The moves that were too fast for him to keep up with initially, were so slow now that when he did get hit, it was due to his shock. Could this man really be the leader of a group of killers when he could barely keep pace with himself? Well that shouldn’t be too surprising really, not after what the ith had told Adelie. Augers have the ability, to a certain degree, manipulate ather within their surroundings. They can use it to either augment themselves, similar to what Yala was doing with the markings, or diminish others. The Ith had explained it in great detail, but Adelie understood the gist of it; within a certain zone, he can control ather. What the ith hadn’t explained was that Augers see things differently, at least that was the case for Adelie.
Yala strikes the floor where Adelie stood a second ago, easily punching a hole through the steel deck of the ship. Adelie lands a few feet in front of Marn and Izia, but pays them no attention. He can’t, he can tell that Yala is about to launch another attack. A bright green vapor pours out of Yala’s body as his markings glow. During the fight, Adelie had begun to notice the vapor would appear right before Yala would try to fatally strike him and disappear quickly. Now the vapor permeated from every pore of Yala’s skin like a raging fire.
“I must admit,” Yala says calmly, “ I didn’t expect for you to last this long.”
“Over the last few years I’ve increased my stamina,” Adelie proudly responds.
“You should feel honored right now, I’m going to send you to Kishr using something I reserve for my most worthy of targets.” The markings on his body glows so bright that Adelie raises a hand to partially block the light. A green flame wraps around all of the fingers of Yala’s right hand and he bends them as if they were claws. The vapor clinging to Yala’s body changes in intensity and Adelie knows that he truly means to kill him in this next attack. “ When you arrive in the home of Kishr, tell him that you were sent there by way of the Verdant Claw.”
Yala erupts towards Adelie with more speed than he had demonstrated in the entire fight. Even with Adelie’s senses being as sharp as they are, he only had moments to defend himself. But how can he? Everything in his body told him that if he let that hand touch him, even if he could launch a counterattack, he’d die. No, he’d have to think of a way of putting him down without touching him.
The green hand cuts through the air, zeroing in on Adelie’s heart.
A hundred thought’s surge through Adelie’s head, none of them the least bit useful at the moment. Suddenly, the sensation he felt earlier returned with a vengeance. Ather begins to flow into him when suddenly the ather erupts around him in a blue vapor and the flame from Yala’s hand goes out. Not one to pass on the opportunity, Adelie throws both fists forward with all the energy available at his disposal.
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Izia stands next to Marn in silent disbelief. Just a moment ago it appeared that Yala was going to kill Adelie. She was so sure of that fact that she summoned her grimoire; a risk given her current state, but she was not about to let others come to harm for her again. Yet before her grimoire could appear, Adelie had struck Yala with such amazing force that he propelled him through the steel railings and across the sea. At least, that’s what Marn had begrudgingly told her after she’d asked her in various ways what had happened.
Adelie retracts his fists and stares at them with unfamiliarity. How had he done this? Is this really just from ather manipulation? And what was that voice? Once again the questions race through his head, but come to a stop when Marn kicks him in the back, knocking him to the ground.
“So,” Marn says, “ if you could do all that, then why didn’t you earlier? Could have saved me the experience of fighting with Zav.” Marn looks at the deck of the ship, examining the line of destruction starting from Adelie and ending at the railing.
“Well maybe if you would have come up here with me, you wouldn’t have had to,” Adelie says while still on the ground. “Did I do this?” The words barely register as a whisper, “I did, but how?” He apprehensively looks at his hands as if he expects them to respond somehow. Adelie shakes his head and pushes himself off the ground, that would be a question for the ith. “So,” he says to Marn, “we’ve been attacked twice now since taking this mission.”
“Yep.”
“Should we ask why?”
“Yep.”
They stop their conservation and look back to Izia, who stares sheepishly back at them. “I know, I owe you an explanation, all of you. Let’s get below deck.”
“Speak woman!” Zav eyes Izia with a murderous glare, squeezing and relaxing his grip on his hatchets. Thanks to the uninvited guest, he had lost two members of his crew and his Engraver suffered a heavy wound. Izia thought she had steeled herself from this, scenes of carnage were nothing new to her, but they were always at a distance and not down by her hand. But this? The way the bodies of the assassins were cut apart, ripped into by blades that never showed mercy, put a crack in her resolve.
“I owe you all an explanation,” Izia says, pushing down the guilt. “ I lied to you all and it cost the lives of two men. When I told you guys about the waystone, I held some information back. The stone doesn’t belong to me, I stole it from Night’s End.”
“You expect us to believe that you were able to get one over on Night’s End?” Zav moves his hand from his weapon, “ I’ve done business with them and-”
“What? You’ve worked with them?” Adelie walks over to Zav, blocking his line of sight. “ Why would you work with a banned guild? Those guys are criminals.”
“Lym from a criminal is worth as much as lim from a guild,” Zav says, “and do you think now is the time to bring that up?” Zav brushes Adelie aside and takes a few steps towards Izia. “Point is, I know how they operate and there’s no way anyone is stealing anything from them. Their leader got some kinda radar or something, it’s impossible to do something around him without him knowing.”
All eyes in the room fall once again onto Izia. It’s obvious from Zav’s statement what the question on everyone’s mind is, a question that Izia had been preparing herself to answer. “ I was given the waystone by Night’s End as part of the mission I was undertaking. I was supposed to discover the location of the Forge and report back to them.”
“But you didn’t,” Adelie says, “ and they sent assassins after you to get the stone back.” Adelie didn’t need her to confirm, it was the only thing that made sense. Izia works for Night’s End, that’s why she knew so much about Hodin. Still, there was something that was bothering him. “ If you were supposed to report back and didn’t, then how do they know you didn’t die or have the waystone taken from you?”
“I don’t know,” Izia says, “ I’m the only one who knows where the Forge is, they probably didn’t want that information to leak out and sent people out to either confirm my death or bring me back.” Izia scans the room and can tell that everyone’s trust in her was diminishing, though she was certain that Marn, who was in the back against the wall, never had any to begin with. The way she was watching Izia made her feel as if a blade were at her neck. Izia takes in a breath to steel herself before continuing. “ I know I should have been upfront with you all, but I couldn’t risk that chance. Had I’d known that they would place a bounty on my head, I would have never made the request in the first place.”
“What does Night’s End want with the Forge anyways?” Adelie asks, “ If they can afford to put out half a million lim bounties, I don’t think they’re after riches.”
“I don’t know, they only told me to return when I found it.”
“That’s not important,” Zav interrupts, “ what is important is our pay. If you want me and the rest of my crew to stay on this mission of yours, we’re gonna need triple the amount you promised. Think of it as payment for costing me two men, plus having to go up against Night’s End.”
“Your crewmates died, and all you think about is money?” Adelie balls his hand into a fist, “You’re the leader,right? You should give them a proper burial instead of trying to negotiate wages.”
Zav pulls his hatchet out and aims it at Adelie. “Who are you to tell me what and what I shouldn’t be doing? Lyzian ain’t here to protect you boy, you best not forget that.”
“If you think I need protecting, then why don’t you swing that little axe of yours and find out,” Adelie replies scowling. The rest of Zav’s crew moves into position at the same time Marn draws her weapon.
“There’s no need for this,” Izia pleads, “I’ll pay triple, it’s the least I can do as repayment for my actions.” Adelie and Zav continue to lock eyes, neither of them responding to Izia’s plea. “ If you guys fight each other, none of you will get a single lim.”
“I’ll just collect the bounty on you then,” Zav says, still staring at Adelie.
“Then I’ll transport you to the bottom of the Eversea,” Izia replies as she summons her grimoire to her hand.
Zav smirks, “You’re lucky my love of lim is greater than my love of battle, or you’d be joining those fine gentlemen on the floor over there.” Zav jerks his head to the far side of the room before he and his crew leave to go rest.
“Thank you for-”
“Stop,” Adelie interrupts Izia, “ I don’t like people who treat their members like they’re nothing, but I also don’t like being lied to.” He keeps his back to her and continues, “You’re working with a banned guild, and now I’m working with one too.” Adelie leaves before Izia can respond and heads to the upper deck, leaving only her and Marn.
“Marn, I-”
Marn gives Izia a dismissive glance and follows Adelie upstairs. Izia sighs as she slumps to the ground. She looks at the dead bodies and pulls out the waystone. It glows with unnatural light for a moment before dimming until the light vanishes. “This has to work,” Izia says to herself, “you said it would.”
The remaining two days of the trip were remarkably uneventful. On the 2nd day, Izia stayed in her quarters, Adelie spent most of the time on the deck with Marn, and Zav kept a healthy distance away from the rest of the crew, aside from a brief conversation with Marn about her reconsidering her current employment. On the 3rd day, Adelie attempted to reach his Ith but was unsuccessful. Marn trained with her blade until a new technique revealed itself to her, as is the norm for a Gladius. Izia continued to stay in her room, though did come down to the cargo bay to figure out how Verdant Claw snuck onboard.
It was morning when the ship landed in the Caisin Archipelago, on the southernmost island. The party disembarks onto the red sands of the beach. Towering, decayed structures loom in the background wrapped in centuries of life. Purple trees reach towards blue skies, swaying in the wind. Blue lizards with red spines shift around the sand as Adelie steps into the waist high violet grass. “This place is wild, I didn’t know grass could be so tall.”
“Focus,” Marn says as she bumps him on the back, “ we’re not here to sightsee.”
“I know that,” an annoyed Adelie says, “ we need to find the Forge and Zorya.”
Zav grunts and pushes his way through Adelie and Marn, “Let’s get on with it, I rather not have to deal with more of Lavius’s men.”
Adelie’s blood freezes and the color from his skin drains. “What did you say?”
Zav gives him a wicked smile, “You bout to piss your pants? Lavius Heldrader, guildmaster of Night’s End. I thought you of all people would have known that.” He laughs and walks further down the path before stopping and calling for Izia.
“I’ll remind you that I’m the one leading the expedition, you’re just here for protection,” Izia says. She pulls out the waystone and it glows once again, this time with an unreadable script floating above it. “It’s this way.” She trudges through the grass, followed by Zav and his crew. Marn takes a few steps away from Adelie but sees him not moving.
“What’s wrong?”
“Zav...he said that Lavius is the head of Night’s End but that’s not possible.”
“Why?”
“Because he died 3 years ago during the Naka Hunt.”