The deck of the ship descending into chaos. Chatter quickly devolved into yelling as some tried to gain control of the situation and accusations started flying. Half the people had already been unhappy about being disturbed from their lives and now being stuck out in the hot sun with a pursuer made them all oversensitive. Sylas and Helianna immediately retreated to a further part of the deck, grateful for the ship’s large size, but they weren’t alone. A number of other people had the same idea and quickly, there was nowhere on deck that was empty. Sylas even saw a few people try to go back down into the ship, but crewmembers were blocking it, claiming that they had no idea how quickly the ship would overheat to dangerous levels.

For those that kept a more level head, one thing was obvious. No matter how they went about it, the person who walked up to the captain would be seen by everybody. It was at a slightly raised section and a majority of the deck had a view of it, including the large crowd of irate passengers. Walking up there would be dangerous, not because of the captain’s actions, but because of everyone else.

As a result, everybody noticed a man walking up. He was tall and broad shouldered and held himself confidently despite the situation. He clearly had his eyes on the crowd, but managed to avoid looking scared as he walked up to the captain’s quarters. The deck went largely silent as they watched him like a pack of hyenas, ready to bark and bite at him. He largely ignored them as he disappeared into the captain’s quarters.

“We need to go in,” Helianna stated, much to Sylas' shock.

“What?!” he demanded before shifting to a yelling whisper. “Seriously?! I mean, yeah, we should. But if someone else is going in, then we have a scapegoat! Of anyone, I’d expect you to take advantage of that. We’re trying to keep a low profile after all.”

“We’re too late for that.”

“Not really. The captain suspected us, but now we’ve got someone else to take the blame. We don’t even know if the ship is after us or him!”

“Yes it is. Being on this ship and in this situation will already bring attention to us. We can’t cover our tracks like this. And we need to be in the loop. We can’t let ourselves be caught off guard and we don’t know what we’re dealing with. And besides, are you really trying to convince me to let someone else take the fall for us? What happened to your silly heroics?”

Sylas’ face morphed into a frown. “I’m not trying to convince you. Just…”

“I’m going in with or without you.”

Helianna immediately started walking toward the quarters, the seasick sway in her step less noticeable at this point of the trip. Sylas cursed Helianna under his breath as he followed, knowing it was too late to try to distance himself from her in the other’s eyes. When they opened the door to the captain’s quarters, three sets of eyes immediately locked on their entering forms, silence taking over. The captain stood on the left side of the table, his intense eyes making him feel much larger than he actually was. On the other side of the table was a large kinuze man that Helianna didn’t recognize, but Sylas recognized as the first mate, Nagus. On the right was the stranger that Sylas had hoped to be their scapegoat.

“Why are you here?” Nagus asked.

“We were requested.”

“Don’t tell me we’ve got more people on the run,” Nagus dryly retorted.

“I wouldn’t put it as on the run,” Helianna defended. “We’re simply trying to remain hidden. And I couldn’t sit back debating whether they were after him or us.”

“So who’s after you?” the captain questioned.

Helianna pursed her lips as she deflected the question. “Who’s after him?”

“That’s a good question. He was being awfully evasive,” the captain responded.

“Sir,” the man started. “You must understand, the less you know of my situation, the safer you and everybody aboard this ship will be. If you simply drop me off at our first port-”

“I said that’s not happening.” the captain interrupted.

“Why not? I have no illusions about whether you wish to aid me in my escape, but I would imagine you’d want me off your ship.”

“I absolutely do. But the current situation will not allow that.”

“The reason for which, you refuse to enlighten me on. But I will not divulge information that could put you in more danger without a greater understanding of our situation.”

The captain stared daggers at the man when Sylas interjected.

“Just fucking talk already! You don’t want to tell him the situation and you don’t want to tell him who might be following. Just agree to share your information in exchange for the other’s!”

“Well then why don’t you start?” asked the stranger.

“Dammit, Sylas,” Helianna muttered. Silence reigned for a few seconds before Nagus complained.

“Come on, it can’t be that bad you three! Out with it!”

The stranger put his hands up placatingly as he spoke up, “Captain, perhaps a small show of faith. Perhaps let us know our route of travel or when you suspect the ship following us may catch up? Not necessarily everything, but just a bit of information?”

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

“You know what, Lesin? Fine. We’re currently off the coast of the deadlands of Prakanai so we’re heading to the nearest port in Krai.”

“Doesn’t that take us significantly off course?” Helianna asked, finally joining the conversation. The captain nodded.

“Now speak.” the captain insisted. Sylas and the man he now knew was named Lesin stared at each other, but it was Helianna that spoke.

“The Academy.”

Lesin jumped and his eyes widened for a brief moment before he schooled his expression. The captain immediately began cursing, while the first mate groaned and facepalmed, not noticing Lesin’s reaction.

“And you, Lesin?” Helianna asked.

“I’m not sure if that makes this any worse or any better. I am also trying to avoid The Academy.” The captain stopped cursing and Nagus looked up again, staring at the man.

“You’re kidding me,” Sylas complained.

“Well I guess that makes it simpler for you, right captain?” Helianna asked. “You know who’s following us.”

“And I don’t like it!” the captain barked. “How the hell did I pick up two different parties of nutcases on the run from The Academy? In the same trip?!”

“Please tell me we’re giving them up when the ship catches us?” Nagus begged.

“When the ship catches us?” Helianna noticed. “That’s why you can’t drop him off. They’ll catch us before we get to Krai, won’t they?”

The captain didn’t answer, simply leveling a harsh stare as his eyes flicked between the three of them.

“Nagus. Make sure to have a crewmember on them at all times. I need to think.” Nagus instantly nodded and started pushing the three of them out the door. Surprisingly, they instantly ran into two crew members blocking the door.

“What’s going on?” asked Nagus.

“We saw a couple passengers trying to eavesdrop.”

“Alright, well we’re done and this is perfect. You two need to guard them. I don’t care who follows which ones, but I need tabs kept on them the whole time. If you need to trade out, grab Korter and Dulse. They can figure it out from there. Have Greez and Danton come back up?” They shook their heads and Nagus sighed.

“Better not be getting cooked alive down there. Alright, scram troublemakers.” He waved his hand dismissively as he reentered the captain’s quarters. After a brief moment of awkwardness, they looked around, noticing that a number of the ship’s passengers were watching them.

“No privacy. That’s unfortunate. I would have liked to talk to you two.” Lesin confessed.

Before either of them could respond however, a few young men approached them, one of them protesting against the others.

“Wait, stop. Come on,” the young man pleaded. “You’re making this even more awkward!” he whisper-yelled.

“So you three are the reason our families are in danger?” one asked, clearly the leader of the group of four. Three of the four were human, but were clearly not related. The leader himself was built like he was trying to mimic the shape of a barrel while the others were more normally proportioned. The last, but not the one trying to stop the group was a kinuze man, clearly more adept at dealing with the heat than the rest, who were all sweating at this point.

“You shouldn’t be in danger. They are only after us. As long as you all comply, they should not harm you,” Lesin explained calmly. Sylas, unfortunately, was not so appeasing as he muttered loud enough for the man in front to hear.

“Yeah, right. Since when do they care about collateral damage?” Everybody’s gaze snapped to Sylas.

“What? It’s true.”

“Shit…” Lesin muttered as a couple of the men stepped forward.

“You lying pieces of shit!” the leader yelled as he threw a punch at Lesin.

Lesin took a step back and slightly to the side, clearly not a stranger to fight, but Helianna stepped forward. The man was slightly overbalanced from his missed swing and she took advantage. She grabbed his wrist before he could recover and twisted as she put a palm to the back of the man’s upper arm, bending him over from the torsion. Twisting her body, she forced him to stumble in a circle around her, half bent, before tripping him and sending him sprawling in his overbalanced state.

She finished her turn right as the second person took a wild swing at her. She quickly reversed her twist as she stepped into him, catching his wild swing and flipping him over her back. She maintained her hold on his arm as he landed with a thud, twisting his wrist painfully. She quickly took a moment to notice that Sylas had put the leader into a lock with an arm behind his back, a position where he could easily dislocate the man’s shoulder.

“If you don’t want me to shatter his wrist and for him to dislocate your leader’s shoulder, I suggest you back off!” Helianna commanded, her voice carrying. The other two men stopped, and the one asking the other men to stop earlier spoke up.

“I-I’m so sorry. We’ll go. We won’t bother you again. R-right guys?”

The leader being held by Sylas squirmed for a moment, but Sylas increased the pressure and he hissed in pain.

“Fine! We’ll let you go.”

All three of them rolled their eyes as they let the men go, who were massaging their respective strained joints. A few glares were fired off, but the men walked away, trying to keep their pride intact as they sauntered off.

“Well you two sure know how to handle yourselves,” Lesin remarked. “Who are you two?”

“I’m Helianna and this is Sylas,” Helianna offered unhelpfully, prompting a barking laugh from Lesin.

“Right. I think my name may have been mentioned in there, but I haven’t properly introduced myself. The name’s Lesin, and if you’re about to make a joke about teaching or schooling, trust me. I’ve heard them all.” Sylas huffed a laugh in response.

Helianna finally took a moment to properly look at the man. He was tall and broad-shouldered with pure white hair, greyish-red skin and electric blue eyes. If he was twenty years younger, Helianna would likely have considered him quite attractive, but he looked a bit too close to her parents in age. He was dressed fairly well, but not obviously wealthy. The only jewelry she could see was a wedding band and a chain which hung from his belt with the final link broken and remodeled so it wouldn’t fall off.

“So, since we’re both in this situation, you think you might be able to tell us why?” she asked, but her eyes didn’t leave the chain. She felt like she recognized it, but couldn’t quite place it. He noticed her gaze and spoke slowly, as if cautious.

“That depends. If you-”

“Let me guess,” Sylas interrupted, clearly annoyed. “You won’t tell us anything unless we tell you first?” Lesin smiled wryly.

“You’d be partially correct. But more importantly, our conversation is far from private right now.”

“Speaking of the devil…” Helianna murmured and they all turned towards the main stairway, where the men who had gone down to fix the runes were coming back up. The runist and a crewmember were carrying the third man by the shoulders, who was unconscious.