It was odd to see the mountains grow distant on the horizon. They had spent so long surrounded by them, that they had started to feel like a second home to Lidea.

Although she was glad to leave the eternal cold behind.

The Zuidster had barely stopped at the hidden harbor. Just long enough for them to replenish their supplies and of course, pick up their three guests.

Despite Warchief’s and Annemarije’s big talk of them helping out around the ship, the trio had quickly been delegated to being the entertainment for the other crew.

The water magician, whose name turned out to be Franoud, was taken by Crystal. According to her sea demons were the rarest kind of demon and therefore the woman had been nearly obsessed with learning from the older healer.

It was nice to see someone treating Crystal well for once, and it was noticeable how unusual such treatment was for her. Which broke Lidea’s heart a little each time.

As for Warchief, he had soon found himself near the other crew. Exchanging stories of his adventures and their trip through the Vazul’Kar. To most, their decision to climb the Godly Range was seen as insanity.

Looking back, Lidea couldn’t help but agree.

With both her companions occupied, it left her standing on the deck. Staring out at the ocean while enjoying the fresh breeze.

As the waves grew, so did the butterflies in her stomach with every dip of the bow.

Annemarije hadn’t told them where they were going, but she had said that they would spend another week at sea.

One week. Seven days.

Barely any time compared to the long road they had behind them, but still she found herself more impatient than ever.

Her thoughts returning to the city of Lynoës, and the rebels they had left in Udrän.

I hope you are doing well.

As if called upon, a small black spot pulled her attention. Lidea would have thought nothing of it. See it as one of the many seabirds that called the Vazul’Kar’s shoreline their home. If it wasn’t that something on it glinted in the sunlight.

The bird headed straight her way and her heart rate picked up as she recognized the brown feathered harrier bird.

Without hesitation, she held up her hand. Letting the bird land on her wrist.

It looked worse for wear. Skinny and exhausted from the long flight it had undertaken.

“It actually returned!”

Warchief hurried over to her, looking expectantly at the metal cover that would contain any messages.

Lidea smiled at his excitement, only hesitating a moment before detaching the harness of the bird’s back and opening up the lid.

Three rolls of paper tumbled out, which she clutched right in time to prevent them from being blown away by the strong winds.

Curiously she noticed one of them looking rather familiar. A roll of speckled gold paper, carrying the tree of life as its seal. Yet it was the signature that startled her.

In swirly, barely readable lettering the sender read as heir of the Evershade throne, Chase’Ziard Saelethil Ermarys, and it was addressed to one Dark’Zahar Draenai Ermarys, prince of the Evershade throne and leader of the Lynoën Rebel forces.

Lidea stared at the letter incredulously, rereading the names multiple times before looking up to meet Warchief’s guilty gaze.

“Lidea, I …”

She scoffed, appalled that he was about to try and give her an excuse as to why he had failed to mention that he hadn’t just been adopted by an Elvish family. But by the Elvish royalty.

“Leave it, Dark’Zahar!”

She emphasized his elvish name as she handed him the letter. He cringed as he accepted it, either at her horrible pronunciation of his name or at her biting tone.

Lidea didn’t care either way. Feeling annoyed that he had never once thought to share such a simple thing as his name with her.

Even though they had travelled such a long way and he had ample opportunity to do so.

His given name, she could understand. Knowing full well that it had to be tied to some horrible childhood memories. But the elvish name he had received, or his status as an elvish prince? Why hadn’t he ever thought to disclose such a thing?

“Lidea… Don’t overthink it. The title is only honorary.”

“Dammit, Warchief! If it wasn’t a big deal, then why did you never mention it? It isn’t like we met days ago.”

She hated that in her fury, she still addressed him with that foolish title of his. It would take time to adjust her habit and start calling him by his real name.

Their argument had drawn curious glances from the crew around them, and Lidea tried her best to contain her anger once more. Ignoring his searching gaze, she unrolled the letter coming from Firon in the rebel camp. Giving it a cursory read-through as Warchief stared at her.

“Don’t be like this. I wasn’t born with that rank, and the elves barely recognize me. I have been going by the name of Warchief for a long time… It feels truer to me than Dark’Zahar ever has. Besides, the elves don’t look kindly at me associating them with my escapades.”

She hated how rational his explanation sounded, especially as her anger refused to die down despite it.

With a deep sigh, she gave up on reading the letter to gaze at him. Seeing only sincerity and regret on his face.

“I understand. It is just that I have told the two of you everything. From my father’s death to Valerian’s betrayal. So why is it, that I can only discover hints of your life through others?”

She couldn’t keep the vulnerability and the hurt from her voice, and seeing him lower his gaze to the floor made her feel utterly pathetic. Since when had she become so desperate to be close to someone? Didn’t she know better than to expect anyone to bear their soul to her, just because they were… fellow travelers?

It was entitled for her to guilt Warchief into telling her anything, he didn’t want to.

Enough was enough.

Setting a physical step backward, she tried her hardest to remove any emotion from her voice and put on a smile.

“Forget I said that. The waves must be getting to me. I will go rest in the cabin, and we can discuss Firon’s news later.”

She hated that she waited a moment. Expecting him to say something, to stop her. But he didn’t, as he kept his gaze strictly on the deck.

Disappointment filled her as he nodded slightly and took Firon’s letter before turning and walking away.

Closing her eyes, she centered herself before she walked towards the stairs. Her eyes shortly met the captain’s, who stood at the helm above the entrance to the hull. There was sympathy in her gaze, and Lidea wondered just how bad she looked if she was receiving pity from a stranger.

With the bird on her arm and the third letter crumpled in her hand, she retreated to their room.

The three of them shared a small cabin which was normally reserved for anyone who turned sick.

At first, Lidea had insisted on sharing quarters with the crew, but now she was glad for the privacy as she gave the bird some drink and water, and then slid down to the ground and unrolled the last letter.

The familiar writing hurting her more than usual, as she started reading Valerian’s message.

He spoke of how her mother had been relieved at finding out that she was alive, and that Milena was expecting a child and would be going south to join her merchant husband. Finally, he wrote of the oath he had taken and how he was about to lead the army west.

“I can never apologize for what I’ve done, but I hope you believe me Lidea. I regret hurting you, and I wish you the best of luck in your endeavors. Don’t write me anymore, it isn’t safe. Stay alive, little sister.”

Wet spots appeared on the letter, smudging the ink, and she quickly put it to the side as she tried to dry her tears.

For the first time, she wondered what it would have been like if she had just kept quiet. Had just accepted her father’s death and had returned to her mother’s side.

Perhaps she would have been married by now. She imagined herself taking the hand of a faceless figure, as her family looked over her.

Yet, the illusion was broken by her father’s body swinging off the noose.

Even if she had stayed, she would have come under threat sooner or later. Now knowing how non-human she was, the church would have never let her family be. She had made the right choice, now she only had to see it through.

Lidea didn’t know when she had fallen asleep but was awakened by a wave breaking onto the ship’s bow. The hit caused the vessel to tremble, and she could see how everything around her tilted as the waves rolled the ship from one side to the other.

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She had heard of how terrifying the waters of the Drake Current could be, but Lidea couldn’t fathom that the weather had changed so rapidly.

Feeling slightly squeezy, she left the bird behind and exited back to the outer deck where she was welcomed by the rushing of people as the captain above her shouted commands.

Sails were adjusted and Lidea could see that the magician had taken up her position at the tip of the bow once more. The glow of her body giving away that she was using magic.

“It might be better for you to stay inside!”

Crystal shouted from where she was standing at the side with a particularly pale-looking Warchief.

Lidea wanted to shout back in protest but almost lost her footing as the ship shook wildly, causing Crystal to grab her hand and pull her to the barrier that the two of them were holding onto.

“That is why I said, you were better off staying inside. If Warchief wasn’t about to empty his stomach, I would have told him the same.”

The healer told her with a stern tone but Lidea ignored her urgings as she looked at the roiling waters.

“I didn’t know the sea could change this quickly.”

A spray of water hit them as the ship broke through a wave. The salty water stung her eyes in the process.

“It can, but this isn’t a natural change. I think that we must have happened across a sea drake’s nest.”

Lidea’s eyes widened and she looked at the water’s surface as if she would be able to see the dragon under the waves. Of all dragons, sea drakes were supposed to be the mightiest of all. And the most temperamental.

“So how do we un-piss it off!?”

“We don’t. Now it is up to our six-star captain and that mage, to get us out of this mess.”

Crystal grinned as she pointed out the captain. Despite her many commands, the woman didn’t even flinch as she kept a firm grip on the helm. Easily balancing herself despite the rolling movement of her ship.

Next to them, Warchief vomited out his last meal into the ocean and Crystal handed him a flask of water to rinse his mouth.

“Why do I feel like I have pissed off the gods?”

He grumbled as he glanced at both women who didn’t seem to suffer the same way he did. His eyes lingered on Lidea for a moment too long.

“Don’t blame the Gods for getting seasick. As for all the other things that happened to you these last months, most of them were of your own doing. Who decided to take on a slavers camp on his own? And who insisted that we cross the Vazul’Kar on foot instead of taking a ship from Astresh like I said!?”

“I get it.”

He interrupted her gruffly and Lidea couldn’t help but enjoy his suffering just a tiny bit.

“There!”

Crystal suddenly pointed at something on the horizon. A giant serpentine shape shot out of the water, its screech echoing through the skies as the surrounding ocean turned even more rowdy.

It was two-toned, with light blue underneath and a darker blue almost black coloration on its back. Spots of light lined its dorsal side and led up to its head where four eyes glowed as it opened its maw and showed off its multiple rows of teeth.

“Noud! Get us to shallow waters!”

The captain’s command cut through the wake of silence that followed the dragon’s roar. Her voice sounding slightly annoyed and not reflecting the imminent danger they found themselves in.

The water around the vessel started moving unnaturally, creating a wave that helped the ship surf away from the territorial dragon.

But they were too slow.

The dragon’s body vanished under the surface and used its massive flippers to propel itself at a terrifying speed towards them.

“Watch him for a moment, will you?”

Crystal didn’t wait for her reply and ran off to join the magician on the bow.

Another roar shook the vessel, and Lidea quickly grabbed hold of Warchief as the boat leaned dangerously to one side.

“Perhaps you really did anger the gods…”

Warchief grunted at her words in agreement, before heaving once more. She quickly wiped his hair out of the way and tried to soothe him by rubbing over his neck.

Feeling slightly remorseful for having felt glee at his misery before.

Nervously she licked her lips as she watched the dragon come closer. Panic filled her at the thought of dealing with such a massive animal.

Instinctively her hand moved to her sword, only for Warchief to grasp it and shake his head.

“It will be alright.”

His hand felt warm and mollified her frayed nerves, though she didn’t understand where his confidence came from.

Looking back at the dragon, she could see that it was about to reach them in mere moments and her hands became clammy.

However, before it did, the ship started to rise as the magical wave underneath it grew. A sudden increase in speed, lunged them backward, causing Warchief to fall into her and Lidea barely managed to keep the both of them standing.

At first, the dragon kept pursuing them, but it started to fall behind and as they moved farther from its possible nest, it seemed to lose interest and finally turn away.

As it did, the stormy skies cleared and the waves returned to the calm state they had been in earlier.

“Everyone alright?”

The captain’s question seemed to instantly relax all those on the ship. As if it was an announcement that the danger had passed.

Most of the crew simply shrugged as they continued their tasks. Like they hadn’t just survived an encounter with a sea drake, and Lidea could see the magician wave over to her lover with a broad smile.

“I told you that it would be fine.”

Though Lidea was sure that Warchief had wanted to tease her, his voice sounded too rough and exhausted to have the right effect.

With concern, she let go of his hair as he straightened himself out and used the flask of water that Crystal had given him, to rinse out his mouth and wash his face.

Some color had returned to him now that the sea had calmed, but it was clear that the seasickness had not yet left him.

“How did you know?”

Once done with cleaning himself up, he turned to lean his back against the bulwark and nodded toward some of the crew in front of them.

“Because none of them looked worried. They must do this route often enough that they have gotten used to dealing with the dragons. Even without Crystal’s help, I’m sure that they would have been fine.”

Lidea did observe the calm attitudes of all around her, but she had considered it to be due to their professionalism, and not a sign of their confidence.

“I should have realized that…”

She whispered as she looked at the healer who had been talking amicably with the magician since earlier.

“What did she do?”

His gaze shifted towards the healer as well before shrugging slightly.

“Magical beings are better at converting magic, so she offered herself as a medium so that magician could cast a grander spell. In essence, she provided the magical energy that Franoud used to get us out.”

Lidea wasn’t sure if she completely grasped what he meant, but seeing how pale he still was, she felt reluctant to keep asking questions.

“Let me help you down. You need to rest.”

As she was about to wrap his arm around her shoulder, he gently pulled back and instead turned his eyes to the ocean. Confusing Lidea greatly, who had just wanted to help him get to a bed.

“Warchief…?”

“About before. I’m sorry, Lidea.”

His unexpected apology baffled her. Merely hours ago, he had seemed so determined that he was right. So why the sudden change of heart?

Lidea couldn’t hide her doubt as she studied his side profile. Still, his regret looked genuine. His brows furrowed and a faint grimace plastered over his face.

“I was too focused on my own feelings, to notice that I hurt you. I hope you can forgive me for that.”

His words made her determination to treat them as strangers, waver. A hint of hope filled her, which she swiftly tried to squash.

“You probably have your reasons.”

She followed his example and looked off into the distance. To the glimmering ocean and the rocky peaks that they passed from time to time.

“None that you aren’t allowed to know.”

He paused as he sighed deeply and Lidea could feel his eyes on her.

“My birth name is Draenai. I told you how my mother was a slave who escaped Durgh’Ras. After meeting my stepfather, we lived with him and my five siblings in a rural part of Sihaya. He was a good man who treated my mother like a jewel, despite everything.”

A faint smile crossed his face at the memory, only for it to be replaced by a look of deep sorrow.

“Life was good, until my ninth year. My temper had become unruly, and I often found myself fighting with them. Sometimes I didn’t even know why I was angry, I just was. At the same time, I started to experience horrible fevers that would only last an hour or so but which would feel excruciating. I didn’t understand what was happening to me, but my parents must have noticed the signs.”

Again he became silent and Lidea watched the pain that those memories brought him, breathlessly.

“Warchief, there is no need…”

“No, I need to.”

He interrupted her abruptly, his eyes pleading with her to be patient as he struggled through recounting his past.

Seeing his determination, she could do nothing but respect his decision even when his eyes darkened while he fought those old memories that haunted him.

“One day I overheard them saying that were going to send me away, and I lost it. I remember how angry I was, an explosion of heat, and my family’s screams. I didn’t even fully realize what I had done when I woke up and saw everything had been burned to the ground.”

Lidea swallowed as she imagined his nine-year-old self losing everyone he held dear while knowing he had been the cause. No wonder that his nightmares were this bad.

Warchief didn’t stop this time and hurried his story. As if trying to distract himself from the painful truth, he had just stated.

“When I realized that I had awakened as a fire magician, I started wandering aimlessly until I collapsed. Next thing I remember, is waking up in an elfish hospital and doctors telling me that Chase had saved me. He had found me and decided to let them infuse his blood into me.”

Though the elvish prince had saved his life, Warchief looked far from grateful. His fist balling and his eyes staring intensely at one point.

“I should have died. In all their other subjects, the blood would cause a rejection and kill the human host. But for some damned reason, I didn’t. Instead, I woke up. Now no longer just a murderer, but also a mutant that wasn’t elvish enough to be accepted in Neoire but with too much of it, to be ignored. And as it had been the crown prince himself whose blood now coursed through my veins, I became an elvish prince as well. The human disgrace of the Ermarys line, and Chase’s pet. The evidence he needed to show his people and family that his idea to create elves out of humans, had merit.”

While speaking, his face had broken into a disturbing smile that made Lidea shudder. One that seemed to laugh at the insanity of it all, and despite her resolution to just listen, she found herself wrapping her arms around his neck and hugging him tightly. Trying to convey how unfair life had been to him without words.

He barely seemed to notice her soothing gesture, his eyes clouded as he kept talking.

“I managed to escape Neoire after I turned fifteen. Deserted my names and started working as a mercenary, fighting in war after war. I earned my title as Warchief in the war between Astresh and Durgh’Ras, and have been going by it since then. So you see, Lidea, Warchief is my name. Not the one given to me, but the one I chose.”

Her heart broke for the implication that him choosing that title as his name had. For if he realized or not, he had indirectly admitted that he no longer felt like a person, but considered himself a simple tool of war. No different from a sword or spear.

“I shouldn’t have asked…”

“Stop it. I didn’t tell you so you would feel bad.”

“Then why did you?”

The question that had burned inside her since he had started talking, exploded out of her without warning. Making her flush in embarrassment though she refused to look away. Wanting to see his face as he answered.

For the first time, since their conversation started, he met her eyes. His looking tired as he studied her face, in particular her scar.

“Crystal told me that I would have died if you hadn’t pushed to reach the hidden harbor. She hadn’t believed that you would actually manage it, but somehow you did.”

Lidea had suspected that the healer had humored her attempt, but it still stung to hear that she had never believed they would succeed.

“You are a rare kind of person Lidea. One with a pure soul. I don’t want to see it crushed due to my stubbornness.”

She wanted to protest that he hadn’t been stubborn. That she had no right to know about his demons and that she wasn’t as great a person as he imagined her to be.

However, a hand covered her mouth just as she tried to. Effectively smothering the sound, and causing her to glare at him with confusion.

“Just accept it, will you? I’m telling you that I want to believe in you. When I saved you that day, I fully expected you to be a snotty girl, about whom too many tall stories had been told by people with motives to do so. Instead, I found someone I wanted to support. I’m working to make you queen because I know that you care deeply for your people. And I want you to depend on me. If me disclosing my past, is needed for you to trust me fully. Then I will do so again and again. Got it?”

He pulled away his hand and she opened her mouth but no sound came out. Her world turned upside down, now that she understood that he didn’t look at her as a bother or a tool, but as someone he respected. The realization filling her with an unusual warmth that she didn’t understand.

When her silence continued, a grin spread over his face and eventually, he started laughing. Finally prompting her to move and slap him on the shoulder, only for him to block her with ease.

“How can you hit a person who is ill? Maybe I was wrong about you being a good person.”

His teasing caused her to break from her stun and she giggled as she eventually responded.

“If you hadn’t covered my mouth, I would have told you that. But you were too busy with your speech, to listen.”

They devolved into easy banter from there and Lidea felt lighter than she had been in months. The stress and her insecurity ebbing away with the thought that she wasn’t alone anymore.