The next day just flew by, as our group decided to help around the ship. Sam and I had decided to help Auguste in the galley while the others helped with tasks such as rigging or even doing some cannon firing drills. Life on board a ship was very different from our previous experiences and it was definitely a nice change of pace. In the evening we played a couple of card games with the crew and as the day grew to a close we went to bed tired but at peace. However…

“All hands to battle stations!” I voice rings through the crew quarters, waking up all three of us instantly.

“What’s happening?” Sam immediately sits upright.

“I don’t know, let’s go and take a look.” Hilda jumps into her boots and hastily puts on her jacket.

Me and Sam quickly do the same and follow her outside to the upper deck. Élise and Nikki follow us on the foot.

“Good, you are awake.” Taylor is standing on the aftcastle, looking through her spyglass. “Sorry for the rude awakening.”

“What’s happening?” Hilda asks.

“See for yourself.” She hands over the spyglass. “Look at our 4 o’clock.”

The rest of us look in that direction and see a ship, but it’s too small to make it out too well with the naked eye.

“Shit.” Hilda says and hands the spyglass to me next.

I can see not one but two ships coming towards us, with on their sails a purple encased by a purple diamond.

“See the emblem?” Hilda asks.

“Mhmm.” I nod.

“That’s the sign of the Osvik inquisition.”

“Oh…”

“How did they catch us? Didn’t you say this was one hell of a fast ship?” Élise asks Taylor.

“It is, but I didn’t expect them to be so adamant to use bloody windcasters to catch up with us.

I tilt my head a bit while I had over the spyglass back to Taylor as no one else wanted to look.

“Windcasters are an extremely rare kind of casters.” Hilda explains. “I don’t think the continent has more than 100 people who can cast that magic.”

“And to risk a couple to be able to chase you... that’s quite some dedication.” Taylor looks back through her spyglass. “Those are ships of the line as well…” She sighs.

“Meaning we can’t outgun them…”

“Hmmm.” Nikki rubs her chin. “Taylor, do you know how those ships are laid out?”

“Yes, of course, why?”

“Heh.” Hilda chuckles, she probably already knows what Nikki has planned. “You see, Nikki here is probably one of the most powerful fire casters in the world…. well… apart from Ami when she gets angry I guess… but still.”

Taylor puts away her spyglass and looks over to Nikki for a second. “I see… let me grab some blueprints from my cabin.” It doesn’t even take her a minute to come back. “Don’t tell the navy I have these.” She winks. “I suppose it’s this room you are looking for.” She points at something on the blueprint and Nikki happily nods.

“Exactly.”

After looking at the plan for a couple of minutes Nikki replies again. “I will need them to get pretty close to get the hit though.”

Taylor nods. “Let’s just see how aggressive they are, otherwise we can bait them in by bluffing that I want to hand you people over. Luckily us pirates don’t have much of an honorable reputation abroad. Not these pirates though.” Taylor winks. “Anyway, I think they’ll be in cannon range in about an hour.”

“Are we planning to blow up their ship?” I ask the group.

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Nikki nods. “That’s what we were looking into, yes.”

“Can’t we just burn their sails or something like that?” I protest.

“They’ll be keepin’ their sails wet to prevent exactly that, Amicia.” Taylor put her hand on my shoulder. “And together with using wind casters… I don’t think that will work. However, goin’ for their powder room directly may be something they don’t expect.”

“But…”

“Attention, pirates!” A loud disembodied voice shakes the ship. “You are harboring heretics, hand them over and be spared! If you don’t follow our demands everyone on board will face swift judgement by our cannons. Lower your sails and wait for us to arrive if you comply.”

“Usin’ their windcasters to enhance their voices, huh? Smart.” Taylor looks back over to the approaching ships. “It does not look like a peaceful exchange is in the books anyway. But at least we know we can definitely bait them in though...” Taylor follows her comment by ordering the crew to lower the sails. “Okay, the one thing we need now is five volunteers to stand in as our prisoners while Nikki here finds an advantageous spot to unleash hell.” She then looks back at me. “Sorry it has to go like this but I personally don’t see another option.”

“I understand…” I reluctantly agree even though it was clear from their tone that they carried severe ill intent.

In the end we decide that our party, except for Nikki, should be the one to play us, as it will be the most convincing. For Nikki’s substitute one of the crewmembers volunteers. In the meantime, Nikki hides behind the solid railing on the main deck, waiting for her chance to strike. Taylor is standing besides us with her spyglass in hand while giving orders to the crew. “Only open the gunports on my command. We just need them to get a bit closer for Miss Nikki.”

“We see the heretics, be prepared to hand them over the moment we dock.” The disembodied voice rings through the ship again.

“I see, so that’s the one givin’ the orders huh…” Taylor smirks. “Any hesitation I had about our plan has just disappeared.”

“What do you mean?” I look over to her.

“The bishop givin’ those commands is a nasty one, I recognize his face from posters in oppressed cities. Notorious for torture techniques and robbing people of their liberty for his personal gains. He’s smiling so hard right now, thinking he won another easy battle. Let us rob him of his smirk shall we?” Both of the ship of the line start turning parallel to our ship and right at that moment Taylor gives Nikki the command.

“Light ‘em up.”

Nikki doesn’t say a word as she pops up from behind the railing, casting an enormous spear of fire and unleashing it on the ship that is closest to ours. The flaming spear shoots across and penetrates the wooden hull of the ship. And then, nothing.

“Did she mi…” I hear one of the crew ask but she gets interrupted by the loudest bang ever. Everyone takes cover behind the railings as small pieces of wood launch themselves in all directions. When the shrapnel has stopped and everyone can look back at the ocean, the spot where the first ship of the line was is now just filled with burning wreckage.

“Holy, flying, shit.” Taylor says, putting her captain’s hat back on her head. “Full sail and fire at will!” Her order immediately gets relayed by the other officers as our ship starts firing on the remaining ship of the line.

“Want me to fire again?” A little flame is already burning in Nikki’s hand.

“Nah, they won’t be able to follow us.” Taylor looks through her spyglass. “Those wooden splinters completely ripped up the sails of the other one, and I can see a couple of fires aboard too… hell, if our sails were down we wouldn’t be much better off...”

The mayhem we leave behind has me completely shocked. Not to mention the sound of our cannons firing.

“Ami… are you okay?” Sam asks while embracing me.

“I… I don’t know…” I hug her back and squeeze her tightly against me.It wasn’t so long ago where I myself had committed similar acts… however this hit me completely differently.

Just like that… gone in an instant.

“We should be out of their range in a couple of minutes.” Taylor comments, putting her spyglass away.

“Captain!” One of the crew runs towards her. “We have a couple of wounded.”

“Anythin’ bad?”

“A couple…”

“Want to go and help them, Ami?” Sam pets me.

“Mhmm.” I nod.

“Alright…” Sam smiles and then looks at Taylor. “Me and Ami will go and help the wounded.”

“Thank you.” Taylor nods as we follow the crewmember towards the wounded.

All by all the wounds weren’t that bad and soon everyone was back into shape. However, what just happened was still weighing heavily on me.

“Want to go get breakfast, sweetie?” Sam asks while putting away the left-over bandages in the infirmary.

“Not really… I just want to lay down for a bit…”

“I understand.” Sam gives me another hug. “You know what? Why don’t you go to our cabin for a bit, I’ll join you in five minutes.”

“Okay…” We split up for a moment as I went to our cabin and plop myself down in bed, but it doesn’t take long before Sam peeks her head in.

“Hey there kitten.” She sits down on the edge of the bed and puts a plate down in front of me. “I got you a bit of dried meat and some sushi.” She continues her sentence while petting me. “Just in case you got hungry.”

“Thanks Sam… I love you…” I put my face into the pillow while Sam continues petting me.

“I know. I love you too.” She momentarily stops her petting and crawls over me, getting in between myself and the wall, pulling me close to her into a warm embrace, wrapping her legs around my legs and using her tail to curl around my tail too. “Just try to rest for a bit. I’ll be right here if you need me.”

“Mhmm.” I let her warmth overtake me and before I even notice, I fall asleep.