The ship rocked gently in open ocean. A few days had passed since they set sail. Qinran wasn’t familiar with the build of the ship, but it was decent size. It had enough room to support fifteen sailors and hold a sizable amount of cargo. Captain Heber, as he liked to be called, ran a tight ship. He had the crew set with a rotating schedule. Qinran hadn’t been opposed to this and it was easy to adapt. The ship wasn’t as fast as any of the elvish design from the floating island, but it had been created with a different purpose in mind. Elves needed fast and sleek ships to both capture slaves and then to leave with them unnoticed. This vessel had no restrictions. It was just a slow cargo moving ship. The open ocean was wonderful.

When the captain had retrieved Omar from one of his many games, Omar was none too pleased. Qinran explained the situation and being surrounded by guards in the outpost and Omar wasn’t pleased for entirely different reasons. Omar had wanted to clean even more money from the dockworkers and sailors, but conceded that leaving was probably a good idea. If Qinran lived this life again, he would hunt down the displeased guard just for fun.

Omar leaned along the starboard side of the ship, dangling his hands over the railing.

“How much longer would you say?” asked Qinran.

Omar yawned and shook his head side to side.

“It’s at least a month,” he said as he managed to push down another yawn.

Qinran leaned against the railing, having to stoop lower to match Omar.

“This is the farthest south I’ve ever been.” Qinran stated.

“The Second Tower is a great place, if you like magic.” Omar said.

He turned and looked at Qinran and asked, “Where have you been?”

Qinran continued to stare out into the sea, “Mostly I’ve just trained the various raiding parties. My family was one of the most prestigious.

“Is this visions, or just life experience?” Omar asked.

Qinran looked at Omar with a complicated look, “Do we have to keep calling them visions?”

After a long silence Omar answered, “No, I don’t actually think we do.”

“Do you remember your first death?” Qinran asked.

Omar shook his head, “Not really.”

“I remember mine,” Qinran said “I was poisoned by some minor family. I still remember the look on her face as I choked to death.”

“Did you kill her?”

“I poisoned her the same way, but she wasn’t the same person that time around. I still feel a little guilty.”

“I know I hated the sea elves for quite some time,” Omar said.

“I noticed,” Qinran laughed.

Omar laughed too.

“I think my first loop was something like 4 or five years from now?”

“What do you remember?” Qinran said.

“I was in an alley fighting some street trash,” Omar said “To be fair, I was street trash too.”

“Did you kill them?” Qinran asked.

“Just about as many times as they killed me,” laughed Omar.

The boat continued to rock beneath them. Qinran was glad he could talk about his previous lives. It had been a little lonely. He could only imagine what Omar had to put up with. Qinran was the first to leave, he was scheduled to check the cargo for shifting. If the cargo were loose, it would cause all kind of problems. Omar still stood at the railing, looking out in the distance.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

—

Omar enjoyed chatting with Qinran. He felt an unmeasurable burden lift from his shoulders. He had talked to someone. He thought about Samuel. It wasn’t any of the Samuels he had met in the loops. It was the first Samuel. He sighed. Omar had lied to Qinran. He had remembered his first death. He remembered how helpless he had felt as elves had slaughtered their way through the city. It wasn’t a spectacular death. It was probably the least significant of all his deaths. Just another human killed at the blades of an elf. Ancient history that would be happening soon.

The ocean was calming. He watched the waves break against the hull of the ship and enjoyed the salt in the air. Omar didn’t appreciate it as much as Qinran did. He was looking forward to meeting Amie once again. How many friends that didn’t know him could he meet this time around? That’s what drove Omar. It was the people, always the people.

Qinran had made this loop especially interesting. It was a unique treat to meet someone just like him and it was even better that they could actually get along. Omar sighed as he moved away from the railing. The captain hadn’t assigned him any task. Omar wasn’t getting paid. The Captain said it was because child labor was against the law. Omar knew it was because he had cleaned out the man a few days before they were offered to board.

—

Amie stood in her cell, repeating her routine. She had lost count of how long she stood, shifting between the sink and the door. She hadn’t felt the need to sleep in the entirety of her being confined to the small room. Her internal mana flowed freely, unable to leave her skin. Something about her body made it hard for the mana leaching walls have difficulty. She was sure other mages would be husks after a few months in such a place. Her need for food also decreased. She still ate, but she found a method for absorbing it directly from the food. She would scoop the unused portions of her meal into the toilet and flush them down. When the guard came to retrieve the empty tray she would deliberately slow her movements to maximize the time the slot was open. The guards would yell and shout but they would not enter the room. Thus, a new part of her routine was added.

She stood at the sink, water falling straight to the drain. She had found herself thinking about her interaction with her master. Amie must have scared the gnome. Was changing her affinity to all affinities that much of a shock? Amie’s own father had never talked about something like that. She wondered where the gnome had gone. Amie wasn’t sure if she could still trust the gnome. Amie wanted to. Amie desperately wanted to, but there was no way to be sure. Her husband hadn’t been able to visit. She was worried for him. He must be worried for her too. The damage she had done was significant. There was no way around it.

Amie needed her book. She should have read more. She was so bored. She felt more complete the more mana had flowed into her. Maybe an answer would come. All she could do now, was wait in front of the faucet as it’s meager amount of mana joined her own.

A sound woke her senses. Someone was at the door. Amie shut off the faucet. She could hear the slot open.

“Prisoner, on the bed.” A voice commanded.

Amie scrambled to the bed. A trio of guards came in and shackled her in the same way she had been shackled before. They did not speak to her, only barking orders to keep her moving as they left the cell. She felt relief flood in as mana seemed to be drawn straight into her body. They lead her to a room more guards stood around. There were a few officials in unknown uniforms. The warm metal that surrounded her body seemed to reassure her. She was lead to a chair and locked into place. She hadn’t noticed it before, but on the table was a tome. It was her tome.

The people in the room introduced themselves. Amie had noticed that she didn’t care. The names went in one ear and out another. They were trying to figure out what exactly she had done. It was fair enough, but she couldn’t tell them. The pattern she had painstakingly drawn on to her floor had vanished from her head. She tried to review it with the countless hours she stood inside the tower.

The demands to open her tome came next. They were polite enough. If anything the tome was her bargaining chip. She had spent enough time around her husband to learn the basics of trading, and this was her one commodity. She needed to make sure whatever she received was worth the immediate decrease in value her life had the moment she opened it. Her only hidden card was the fact that the mana suppressing shackles were reinforcing her own mana. She could wear them down due to the fact she didn’t need to sleep. There was another advantage that worked in her favor.

The shackles felt weird. They weren’t as warm as they had been.

“Huh.” Amie said, “I think the shackles stopped working.”

The guards turned to face her, their faces a range of expressions. The other officials grew pale. She summoned a small orb of water in her hand. She disrupted it before it grew to big. The created water splashed on the ground. The guards around the officials pulled their charges out of the room at lightning speed. Her own guards stood for a moment before one of their number looked Amie dead in the eye. She smiled at him. They quickly unchained her and walked her back to the cell. She had tried to keep it small, to make it seem as though the shackles still had some effect.

She let them lock her in the room. It would give them something to think about. Negotiations might be a little bit harder now, due to the fear element. The guards hadn’t talked to her. Amie hoped she wouldn’t be spending the rest of her life locked in the cell. She also knew she was terrible at bargaining. She missed Eric. She walked to the sink. The small stream of mana flowed into the nearest wall. She walked over to the bed and lay down. What could she do now?