Jana informed Helianna of her previous venture with her strange magic and by the time they were done, it was fairly late at night, prompting both of them to go to sleep. And as per usual, Helianna woke up at dawn and got herself ready for the day. She was walking out the door to hopefully find food when she heard her mother’s sleepy voice behind her.

“Wait.”

“Yes?”

Her mother grunted, having to take a moment to mentally switch languages. “Don’t leave without saying goodbye.”

“Don’t worry mom, I’m not leaving. Just looking for food.” Jana blinked the last bit of sleep out of her eyes.

“Pretty sure Tissan will be awake by now. He’s been cooking for people until we can all get our own kitchens back.”

“Where is he?”

“He should be in the center area. I’ll meet you there in a few minutes.”

Helianna nodded and left, looking for Tissan. She recognized the name, but had no clue who he was, simply relying on her mother’s directions and the smell of food to guide her. Before long, she smelled something that immediately forced a small bud of nostalgia to rise in her. She couldn’t place the smell, but she knew it. She quickly identified the source of the smell. On the side of a small clearing in the center of the temporary shelters, a man was tending a large cauldron several feet tall.

“Good morning,” she said and he grunted. “What are you making?” He looked at her with a fed-up expression, causing her to frown. “Ah… What are you making?”

“Guusa. It’s good for large groups.” Now she remembered. It was something her mother would make her for breakfast when she was young and her father wasn’t available. It was made from the local grain called guusin and then cooked with water, oil, and a few basic flavorings. It was simple, but tasty and easy to make.

“You’re making this for everyone?”

“For those that need it.”

“When will it be done?” she asked.

“When it’s done,” he responded brusquely.

“Can I have a rough guess?”

He scowled. “A quarter of an hour. Maybe.”

“Thank you.” He rolled his eyes as she walked off, determined to make use of her time. She made her way to the shelter that Sylas was in and barged in the door, forgetting that nobody had solo shelters. She immediately saw multiple people sleeping, with Sylas slightly stirring at the noise. She walked over to him and lifted the side of the mattress, dumping him onto the floor.

“Wha? Where?” He demanded, his eyes still unfocused from sleep.

“Let’s go,” she said quietly, barely trying to keep from waking the others who were stirring.

“Motherf… fine. Just… give me a minute,” he snapped, although the slurring of his words from grogginess lessened their impact. Not wanting to be on the receiving end of several grumpy wakers who were stirring, she promptly left before the others could fully wake up. She wandered back to the central area with the cook, deliberately taking her time. By the time she arrived, her mother was talking to Tissan, who was still working the cauldron.

“Hello.”

“Food’s still not ready,” Tissan said grumpily.

“Oh calm down you grump,” her mother teased. “She’s just hungry. And she needs an early start today.”

After a bit of grumbling, the food was soon ready and Tissan provided Helianna with food right as Sylas wandered by. He added to the morning grumbling and they both ate their breakfast. It was simple and somewhat bland, but had a unique taste that induced nostalgia in Helianna and confusion in Sylas.

“So when is Isela going to be able to… come back?” Jana asked Sylas.

“It’s going to be a long time. I strained myself really badly and I’m not going to be able to gather the magic back to resummon her. If I take too long, the magic will force it to happen and I’ll strain myself again, kind of like it did with Helianna. My guess is at least a month. Probably longer.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. She’s a sweet girl.”

“It’s fine mom. It’s not like she’s dead forever. She’ll be back.”

“I know Anna, but still. A month of life just missing. It’s a little strange to think about.”

The conversation died for a few minutes as Sylas and Helianna ate. When they finished, they said their goodbyes, Jana doing her best to avoid crying while Helianna did her best to remain stoic. After a few minutes, they got on their carriage and left before a many people were awake. Helianna looked back, reminded of the last time she had left. Her circumstances were so different even though only five years had passed and she wondered what it would be like the next time she saw her mother.

Instead of riding back to Eichlach as they had come, they now headed south straight through Portonlach. The trip was less eventful than last time due to a lack of fake bandits within Portonlach. That was Portonlach’s strategy, not Eichlach’s. On the way, they stopped at a few small towns and what they found was consistent. The people were a little tense, but not altogether fearful. “War” seemed like a possibility in everybody’s minds but nobody was expecting an attack anytime soon. For Helianna, it seemed pretty normal. Small mini-wars like this were fairly common in Wulvinia and the changing of lands was frequent, although the blood-shed was fairly low. Especially in comparison to the New Empodian Invasion.

Eventually, they arrived in a large port-town and spent the next couple days looking for passage on a ship. This time, they were able to find a genuine passenger ship instead of dealing with a cargo ship. Helianna was slightly worried that it would make them easier to track, but figured it would be fine. Ships were always difficult to track. There was no evidence to leave behind and if someone snuck a tracking rune on the ship, it didn’t particularly matter as tracking runes never worked quite as well over water for some reason.

And so the trip began, much to Helianna’s chagrin. As per usual, she spent much of the next week and a half desperately trying to keep any food she ate from immediately leaving her body out the wrong end. Fortunately, they never went too far out into the open ocean, quickly heading straight to the coast of the island continent of Prakanai and following it south. The plan was to follow the coast down to Seland and follow the islands into the mainland, where they would land. With the war between Okegora and Empodia, the captain of the passenger ship had no desire to get close to the war, Seland already being too close for his comfort.

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While Helianna was busy trying to hold her lunch, Sylas was starting to worry. He had called Helianna paranoid when she had said she was worried about being tracked easier because of their use of a passenger ship, but he couldn’t stop thinking about it. It would have fled his mind if not for the ship that was sailing along the same path behind them, never quite sinking below the horizon. Of course, it wasn’t uncommon for a ship to appear on the horizon from time to time, but this one ship never left.

He asked a few of the crew if it was anything to worry about and they had simply laughed at him, telling him that this was a common ship route and that there was nothing to worry about. That didn’t stop him from noticing the captain from a distance one afternoon, gazing at the ship behind them with a furrowed brow. Hoping he could get a more honest answer out of the captain he approached.

“Captain.”

Before he could get another word in, the captain spoke. “You’re the one that’s been asking the crew about the ship behind us, are you not?”

“I am.”

“Got something to tell me, kid?”

“I’m sorry?” Sylas questioned, confused.

“This ship. It’s following us. I’ve been varying our speed day to day, but it’s not chasing us and it’s not letting us get away either. It’s been following us.”

“Ah.”

“Considering your questions, I’m a little suspicious. Who are you? And who are you worried about that could be following us?”

“I don’t know. I just thought it was a little suspicious,” Sylas responded defensively.

“Oi!” The captain jabbed Sylas in the chest hard with a finger. “Yer a shit liar, you are. Who am I dealing with?”

Sylas stood in silence for a few moments, trying to figure out how to answer when he was saved by one of the crew.

“Captain!”

“What?!” the captain snapped, resulting in a surprised and slightly more subdued crewmate.

“Some of the passengers started a fight. We managed to subdue them, but we’re not sure what to do.” The captain huffed angrily.

“This conversation isn’t over and you better be ready to tell me what’s going on.”

The captain stomped off after the crewmate, leaving Sylas to trail behind. He followed along, and it didn’t take long to get to the fight, which was in the main eating area just under the deck. He quickly noticed Helianna in the corner, still sick but clearly paying rapt attention to what was around her. He immediately made a beeline towards her.

“What happened?”

“There was a fight.”

Sylas rolled his glowing eyes. “I gathered that.”

“No, it was just a fight,” she insisted.

“You’re not making any sense.”

“It was a fight to-” she immediately cut herself off and put her hand on her mouth. She quickly stumbled over to the porthole and vomited out of it. Once she was done, she collapsed against the wall inside the porthole.

“Nope. Still can’t keep anything down,” she said morosely.

“Helianna. The fight?”

“It didn’t make sense.”

“What do you mean?”

“It was a fight to be a fight. The reactions were overblown. The fight shouldn’t have happened.”

Sylas scoffed. “We’ve been on the ocean for a while. Some people don’t like it. They get emotional.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“Then what did you mean?” he demanded.

“Who did you see on deck? You were up there, right?” she asked, ignoring his question.

“I was, but don’t ignore me. What did you mean?” Sylas asked, getting increasingly frustrated.

“I mean the fight was on purpose. They came in here wanting to make a fight. Either they-” she started dry-heaving, and stood back up to look out the porthole, not wanting to make a mess in case something came up. She slid back down the wall once she was done and groaned.

“Either they have a long-standing grudge, but they supposedly barely know each other. Or they were trying to pull people’s attention here, which I think is more likely. Notice how pretty much all of the crew and the captain are here?” Sylas looked around and frowned.

“You’re being paranoid.”

“I hope so. If not, then why did they need a distraction?”

“What would they even do? Pretty much anything that could damage a ship from the inside doesn’t need a distraction. If they blow a hole in the hull, it’s done. End of story. No need for a distraction. And that’s the case for kinda everything on a ship. Just…” Sylas sighed. “We have a more pressing problem.” Helianna let out a small groan.

“What?”

“The captain knows we’re on the run, but he doesn’t know what from.”

“How?”

“There’s a ship that’s following us.”

“Oh come on,” Helianna whined and thunked her head against the wall.

“Just… as long as we don’t get thrown off the ship, I don’t care. Tell him whatever works. Since when do you come to me for decisions, anyway?”

“I’m not!” he said defensively. “I’m just letting you know. I already made my decision.”

“Right. Well thanks for the heads up, I guess.”

Sylas scoffed and turned away, leaving her to her misery. He then spent the rest of the day, trying to avoid the captain, not wanting to continue their earlier conversation. He wasn’t sure if the captain was busy or if he simply wasn’t trying very hard to speak to Sylas, but he managed it throughout the rest of the evening and even close to midday the next day.

Unfortunately, his plans were ruined by the ringing of the alarm bell on deck. He immediately ran up to the deck, cursing himself the whole way. He figured most of the other passengers would be heading to their quarters, not wanting to get involved in whatever triggered the alarm. But to his surprise, he found easily half of the passengers on deck, all too curious for their own good.

“All passengers stay on deck!” announced the captain. “I currently have crew members getting everyone that’s not already here.”

Murmuring immediately erupted from the passengers and Sylas looked around for Helianna. The murmuring had turned into a full-blown sea of voices by the time he saw her, and she was being led up onto the deck by a crew member alongside several others. They locked eyes and she immediately approached him.

“Any idea what’s going on?” Helianna asked.

“Probably the ship that’s following us,” Helianna nodded, but didn’t respond. She felt better than she did yesterday, but was still green and was desperately hoping that no fighting or running around would be required. It took a while longer for everybody else to show up and the captain rang the bell to shut up the crowd.

“While many of you probably haven’t noticed or cared, a few of you have been asking me and my crew about the ship that’s following us.” The captain paused and scanned the over one hundred passengers. “I will confirm right here and right now that yes, they are following us, not just our route.”

“However, that is not why I’ve had my crew drag you all up here. Those of you that took the longest to get here might have even noticed the issue. The runic systems on our ship have failed.” He paused, expecting a large response from the crowd, but aside from some whispering and murmuring, it remained quiet.

“Without the runes active, most of the perishable food will go bad if it hasn’t already. But that is not the issue!” he yelled, trying to be heard over the rising volume of people. He wasn’t and had to resort to ringing the bell once again.

“The bigger problem is that the cooling systems of the ship are down.” The entire ship instantly went silent. They could all feel the heat beating down on them and most of the people were already sweating intensely from the heat despite being outside for less than an hour.

“Within a few hours, the interior of this ship will turn into a furnace. Outside will feel like winter compared to the inside of the ship. Is there anybody aboard the ship with experience in crafting and repairing runes?”

After a few moments where nobody said anything, a young tijatan raised his hand.

“I’ve got a little if nobody else can, but I’m still in training,” he said hesitantly, his voice barely loud enough for the captain to hear.

“It’ll have to do. Greez and Danton, you two take him down. If it starts getting too hot or if you run into any other problems, come right back up.”

Two men immediately came up to the young man and led him back down into the ship.

“Now! This conversation is not over!” the captain yelled, quieting the murmuring that had started up again. “As I mentioned earlier, we have a ship following us. And this ship-wide collapse of runic systems is not possible without intentional sabotage.” He raised his voice to make sure he could be heard over the crowd getting loud again.

“You will not be punished or thrown overboard or anything like that, but whoever is on the run, I want to know what I’m dealing with! How I keep everyone safe is highly dependent on who I’m dealing with. I will be in my quarters talking with my crew and I expect to see you there, whoever you are. Find some cover on the deck if you can and I’ll see you all later!” The captain immediately turned around and disappeared into his quarters.

“Well that could have been handled better,” Sylas grumbled.