The moment that the crew members and runist came up the stairs, passengers swarmed at them, but before they got too close, several other crew members blocked them. It took a whole lot of yelling and shoving, but after a few minutes, the three were in the captain’s quarters, one of the only places on the ship that had privacy and hadn’t turned into a furnace.

“What do you think the chances are that they’ll let us in to hear what’s going on?” Lesin asked curiously.

“Low,” Helianna replied. “They wanted to know what they’re dealing with but aside from that, they have no reason to confide in us.

“Except that we have more experience dealing with and evading The Academy,” Lesin countered.

“I doubt they’ll see it that way. Even in Wulvinia, people would trust The Academy over a random stranger. And the captain’s Urani.”

They fell into silence, neither of them willing to reveal too much about themselves. They slowly gravitated towards the stern, looking back at the ship that was following them and quickly catching up. Their own ship was now incredibly slow as some of the runes normally helped the ship glide through the water. To make matters worse, the crew was even unable to access the oars to supplement their speed. They were stuck with only their sails while the ship following them was at full capability.

They couldn’t watch forever though as both Helianna and Lesin’s skin started burning from the sun. The three of them sat under a hastily made cover, which a few of the crew had been creating for passengers to gain a reprieve from the sun.

The crew handed out hardtack as well, one of the only foodstuffs that they were able to save before the ship got too hot. Apparently, the runes of the ship had been ruined during the previous evening and much of the perishables were ruined before people even knew there was a problem.

Helianna tried to be attentive to the other passengers as they ate, but between her slightly fading seasickness, her burns from the sun, and the terribly tasting food, her focus was wandering. It didn’t help that the tent-like structures were all near each other, so people were constantly nearby, distracting her.

They were just finishing their quick meal when someone finally acted. The tent anchor behind Helianna was kicked aside, dropping a large portion of the cloth on top of them. All three of them immediately started to get out from under the makeshift tent, Lesin getting out the easiest due to his location. Unfortunately, this was planned as the man who’d kicked the tent grabbed him, quickly forcing a knife to his throat. Helianna and Sylas soon followed, untangling themselves from the cloth, but it was too late. Lesin was already at the man’s mercy.

“Stay back!” the man yelled. “I don’t care about the rest of you, I just want this man.”

Everybody froze, not wanting to aggravate the situation or unsure what to do. The man started backing towards the side of the ship, dragging Lesin with him.

“You’re the one that sabotaged the ship,” Lesin observed. The man didn’t respond as he kept moving towards the side of the ship.

“Sylas.” Helianna whispered, her voice hidden among the quiet chattering that rose up. “Can you increase the space between the blade and his neck?”

“No. I can’t do anything right now. I still haven’t recovered my magic from when you were forcefully respawned, and I hadn’t even recovered from the battle when that happened so I’m even more injured now.” he responded frustratedly.

“So you can’t use magic still? For how much longer?”

“I don’t know. A couple weeks? That’s not important right now. We need to do something.”

“No we don’t. This isn’t our problem.”

“Like hell it is!” Sylas whisper-yelled. “We have to help. He’s in the same situation we are!”

“No, we don’t and we can’t. We’re weak right now, they’re not after us and we need to lay low.”

“Are you-”

“Stop talking!” yelled the saboteur. “I don’t want anybody talking until we’re gone!”

The deck went silent, the only sound being the water splashing against the side of the ship and the creaking that never ended. Lesin locked eyes with Helianna and Sylas each, before looking away, quickly noticing their stances and postures. Sylas wanted to help, but Helianna refused. He knew he was alone. A shadow began enveloping the deck as the other ship approached.

“Are we seriously doing nothing?” Sylas quietly whispered. Chattering resumed as fear gripped the ship.

“Yes. We can’t afford to.”

“I said shut up!” the saboteur yelled.

The Academy ship came alongside theirs and two massive gangplanks dropped, crushing the railings with a loud crunch. Only six people came aboard, but everyone recognized their uniforms. They were Academy uniforms. They were ithrax.

“Nice job Elak,” praised one of the ithrax. The mage looked around, his eyes searching around the ship.

“There’s two more people that he seemed to work with,” Elak informed. “When the captain wanted to know who was following, all three went in and when they came out, they didn’t leave each other’s side. And I want my money.”

“Fuck,” Helianna cursed as money was exchanged. “Since when do they hire mercenaries?”

“Essa, you deal with this. I’ll go talk to the captain. Captain! Why don’t we speak inside your office, sir?” The captain nodded and quickly led the ithrax into his office.

The passengers’ attention was quickly pulled away by a davraki ithrax loudly clearing her throat. “Well… Elak. Who are our other two people?” Elak pointed at Helianna and Sylas, but it was hardly necessary. Every head on the ship turned to them.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Well that’s interesting…” Essa sauntered over towards Helianna and Sylas, who both quickly became very aware of how tall she was compared to them.

“Who are you two?” Relief flooded through both of them when the davraki didn’t recognize them, but they knew this encounter was just starting.

“Get over here.” Her large hands clamped down on each of their shoulders and she dragged them back towards the gangplank where Lesin was.

“Alright guys, we’ve been given permission to take a crack at this guy, provided we don’t hurt him,” she commanded. “And it sounds like we’ve got some sympathizers at a bare minimum. Sounds like we have an opportunity.”

“Shouldn’t we wait to do this on our ship?” one of the other ithrax asked.

“Eh, why wait? Let the others see what happens when you cross The Academy.”

Essa whirled around and delivered a powerful blow to Sylas' gut, who was completely unprepared and he doubled over, gasping and coughing.

“Alright, Lesin. That’s your name, right?” She sauntered over, where Elak was still holding him at knife point. “I have a proposition for you. We know about your organization. What we don’t know is how to find you assholes. Tell us how to find them, and we won’t torture your friends in front of you. Your choice.”

“You really think that’s gonna work?” he asked stoically.

“I don’t know. Why don’t we see?” She walked back to Helianna and Sylas, who was just now standing up again, albeit partially hunched over. She grabbed Helianna by her hair and pulled her head back painfully. While the anger was obvious in her eyes, Helianna didn’t make a move.

“This is real simple Lesin. You know your people are prepared. So prepared that they’re reaching out to Wulvinia. They should be able to defend themselves even when we do find them. These people…” she clocked Helianna in the jaw, who crumpled to the floor, pretending to be momentarily knocked out from the powerful blow. “...can’t. In fact, they seem pretty damn helpless from where I’m standing.”

Helianna had barely managed to turn and soften the blow, enough to remain conscious. However, it didn’t change the fact it was a powerful blow made her head ring. She was gaining her bearings and starting to stand up when the woman grabbed her hair again and started dragging her up to Lesin.

“Why don’t you get a real close look at this Lesin?” She pulled out a knife. “Hmmm, where should we start? Perhaps the face? Ruin that beauty a little bit?”

Helianna was barely holding herself up, her tormentor holding her in a position that kept her perpetually off-balance. She lightly dragged the knife up Helianna’s collarbone and neck until she reached Helianna’s face. Knowing it was now or never, Helianna went completely limp, almost falling to the floor and pulled her away from the knife that was situated above her. The sudden shift in weight caught the woman off-guard, who assumed that Helianna had passed out in fear. Smirking, she let go of Helianna’s hair and caught her with an arm wrapped around her back, the other hand still holding the knife.

Seeing her opportunity, Helianna kicked her leg up as hard as she could, slamming her shin against the base of the knife in the woman’s hand. The metal cracked against her leg painfully, but she got what she wanted, the knife flying out of the davraki’s grasp. Sylas instantly reacted, rushing forward and pulling out his own knife. Before he could arrive, Essa brought an elbow down on Helianna’s stomach before she could pull out of the large woman’s grasp.

One of the other ithrax shot a ball of fire at Sylas, but was trying to avoid hitting Essa and his shot went wide. Barely affected by the attempt, Sylas reached the struggling girls and took the opportunity to start frantically stabbing the massive woman in the back, who instantly released Helianna as she howled in pain.

Lesin’s captor finally reacted, pushing Lesin forward into the fight as he scrambled onto the other ship as he muttered to himself.

“Fuck this, I’m not paid enough for this shit.”

Off-balance, Lesin stumbled forward towards the three already in close combat, receiving a heavy blow to the head from the thrashing davraki. None of them noticed the flames that had been started by the ball of fire that missed Sylas earlier.

Now out of the woman’s grasp, Helianna immediately stood up and turned towards the other ithrax, many of whom were at the edge of the gangplank. With two on one, she figured the others could handle the already injured ithrax.

Helianna was blinded by flashes of magic as icicles, fireballs and other less obvious magics were conjured, but ignored them all. The shock on their faces was wonderful as she ran without hindrance and slammed her shoulder into the one closest to her. Stunned and unprepared for a close fight, the man she tackled stumbled back and off the edge of the gangplank, falling into the water.

“I got him!” Helianna heard a woman yell, who then started to pull the man out of the water with her magic. Knowing she couldn’t let that happen, Helianna dashed towards the woman, who had to abandon her attempt. The ithrax reached a hand out towards Helianna, undoubtedly to stop her in her tracks with magic, which of course didn’t work. Helianna smashed a palm into the woman’s nose as she pulled out a knife with her other hand. Blinded by the tears that immediately formed in her eyes, the woman never saw the knife that swung for her neck.

One of the men tried to stop the knife, bending space to try to make her miss. As always, it didn’t work on Helianna and the woman was gurgling on her own blood moments later. Now standing on the gangplank, Helianna turned to the remaining two right as fire erupted at her feet. Despite it being magical, she knew it wouldn’t be long before it became true fire and lunged out of the flames towards them. That was when she saw the disaster that had started. Passengers and crew members alike were panicking as they tried and failed to put out the fire that had been lit aboard the ship with the first fireball.

“Sylas, Lesin! Get to the other ship!” she yelled as she charged the last two, hoping those two had taken care of their own ithrax member.

One of her attackers took an impossibly large step back while the other sprayed a ring of fire around himself, quickly releasing his hold over the flames. She looked towards Sylas, who was helping an injured Lesin walk to the gangplank behind her. She heard a massive crack and turned further, just in time to see the massive gangplank split in half as it was weakened by the fire. It crumpled, partially falling into the ocean but also banging against the side of the other ship. After a moment of stunned quiet, Helianna yelled out.

“Get to the other one!” screamed, turning towards the ithrax, hoping to protect her allies with a distraction. It worked, if a little too well as the leader, who had been with the captain, silently glided out of a shadow behind her. Unaware, Helianna advanced on the insane fire-user. Thairs on the back of her neck rose just in time and she twisted. She wasn’t fast enough to dodge the attempted backstab, but it was enough to prevent a fatal wound. She gasped from the sudden pain and followed through on her twist, throwing an elbow at head-height. She barely missed, but her twisting motion forced the man to release his hold of the dagger, albeit making the wound slightly worse in the process.

With one final step, she used her spinning momentum to deliver a powerful punch at his gut, which he slapped aside. She leaned back and threw a kick to gain some distance, pushing him away from her. She quickly glanced at the other gangplank, seeing Sylas and Lesin crossing. She saw the spatial ithrax step forward again and she turned to throw another kick at him. He immediately stepped away again, serving only as a distraction as the fire-user stepped forward and swung with a sword that he had finally pulled out. She fell backwards, the movement barely saving her from being bisected.

The floor of the ship ground the knife into her back, and she had to fight not to gasp as she rolled back to her feet. Seeing that they had recovered from their shock and she had lost all control of the fight, she knew she had no chance. Without another thought, Helianna turned and sprinted towards the other gangplank, hoping the other two were already across.

Her efforts were fruitless however, as the spatial mage moved impossibly fast in front of her and the leader stepped out of the man’s shadow. She stopped and turned to see the fire-user chasing after her, hemming her in. She was out of luck. She couldn’t run from them and she couldn’t fight. Doing the only thing she could think of, she dove off the boat.