The crew of Opportunity was abuzz with excitement after the land sighting. They were anxious to see if there were signs of previous expedition crews on the island. It was possible members had become stranded here and survived.

The short trip through the island shallows was peaceful without a Kraken tailing them. After testing the waters, it was shallow enough for the crew to swim in. They dropped the ship’s anchor, allowing the team to approach the island. They decided to use landing canoes to reach the shore. No one wanted to swim into a squidling.

Three crew members remained on the boat as Kewari, Malysseus, and Gurten piloted canoes to shore. The other six surviving crew members split themselves among their leaders. The trip to the beach was so pleasant, Malysseus didn’t even tell the crew members to shut up as they incessantly speculated on the island. They didn’t talk about Uro.

When the canoes made it to the shoreline, the crew pulled them onto the sand and began searching the landing zone. There were no hostiles within the stretch of sand eyes could see. Two men went into the forest to scout, reporting that the trees were not very dense, but nothing was otherwise amiss.

“Welcome to base camp, sailors,” Malysseus stated. The crew set about making space for a fire, finding logs big enough to sit on, and creating a makeshift base camp to utilize for a few days. Over the span of a few hours, the camp slowly came together. Now that his secret was out of the bag, Malysseus tossed magical flames onto the fire pit, starting an intense blaze effortlessly. With the fire, the base camp was established.

“So you’re a Wizard,” Marcus finally said, speaking directly to Malysseus.

“I’m a secret Wizard,” he agreed, “but Kewari is a Healer. Bother her, would you? She can maybe fix the empty space in your head.”

Marcus looked him over, eventually deciding that wasn’t an outright refusal to continue the conversation. “Fine,” he said, “but I don’t understand why you never told us. It must have been difficult to keep your secret. Wouldn’t explaining have made your life easier?”

“Because,” Malysseus said as if that explanation should be enough. “What you don’t know can’t be used against you.” He shuddered, remembering the ages-old situation with Sarah he had narrowly avoided. “I didn’t want people coming after my crew to get to me.”

“Who would come after you?” Jamie asked suspiciously. “Malysseus, Captain, sir, are you on the run from organized crime?”

“In a manner of speaking,” Malysseus agreed. Jamie looked on with horrified awe. The remainder of the crew rolled their eyes, knowing what was coming from his tone. “I’m on the run from an organized group of criminal Wizards who think all they’re good for is reading dusty tomes. They’ll stick me in an old library and force me to read until my eyes fall out. And beyond that, the allergies I’m bound to get are far too much for me to bear.”

“Are all Wizards really so uptight?” Marcus asked, shaking his head at Jamie, who was now genuinely confused.

“Obviously not,” Malysseus said, lighting one of his cigars off the blazing inferno campfire. “But I’m the exception to the rule. Best not to start including most Wizards in your social calendar.”

The crew fell silent for a few minutes. They collected firewood, stared into the abyss of the fire, and thanked their stars for continued survival, remembering Uro. In the end, Jamie was the one to break the silence.

“Are most Wizards connected in with the Malforce criminals?”

“No,” Malysseus said. “Just a joke, Jamie. I’m sure the Malforce employs several Wizards, but most Wizards are well-meaning. The central guild of Wizards believes those with power should study it intensely.”

“You don’t study your powers?” Jamie asked. His confusion shifted gears. Now that he knew Wizards weren’t criminals, he felt much better. Still, he couldn’t understand why anyone with magic powers would want to skip out on studying them.

“Of course I do,” Malysseus said nonchalantly. He used his magic to create smoke tricks, entertaining the crew; many tricks were inappropriate for children. “But the Wizard guild’s idea of studying their powers is theoretical. They believe magic is stuffed away in tomes written by people who actually did things. On the other hand, I study my magic in practice. I study how to use it by doing things.”

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“Any secret Wizard would need to be Captain so that he could have private quarters,” Kewari added. “Besides, where did you think the fog came from?”

Kewari, Gurten, and Malysseus roared with laughter as a crew full of sailors blushed.

***

The crew had stayed up late telling and retelling stories about their previous journeys at sea. Marcus, in particular, had a favored story involving seven people named Tom, a bard, and a case of mistaken identity. That bard was never going to write about any Tom again.

In the morning, Kewari and Gurten roused the crew. Malysseus was already awake. He stood away from the base camp, where he would not disturb anyone. Reaching into his Mana reserves, he skillfully summoned and commanded sparks to dance across his hand. He could send the jolts of lightning into the sand. The jolts burned hot enough to create small patches of glass.

Satisfied with the results, Malysseus moved on to the next, and allegedly final, stage of his development as a Wizard: pure magic. Sometimes it was called Arcane magic. Sometimes it was called essence-less magic. Every once in a while, a theoretical Wizard, with dusty tomes, in an old library would stumble onto something called ancient magic. Such Wizards assumed it was Arcane magic. Arcane magic was Malysseus’s preferred term.

There was no easy way of summoning magic lacking essence. Ambient magic had biases born into it from the surrounding world. Internal mana reservoirs had tendencies, too, shaping themselves based on the typical casting habits of the Wizard. The tiniest spark of essence would shift the spell, despite contrary intentions.

As Malysseus trained, his frequent use of fire magic to light cigars, and the ambient essence of the campfire in the distance, converted his attempts at Arcane magic spells to fire. He tried again, summoning a bolt of Arcane energy. The energy absorbed fire essence from the typical sources and collided with a tree.

The tree was set on fire, causing Malysseus to release a deep sigh. He summoned water magic, dousing the flames before the blaze could get out of hand. He returned to his crew in lower spirits, no more capable of Arcane magic than he had been before his practice.

“Ready to explore?” Malysseus asked, getting the attention of Gurten. Everything seemed to be in order, but Gurten had a better handle on such things most of the time.

“Pretty much,” Gurten agreed. “We’ve been discussing whether or not someone should remain at base camp. They’ll be close enough to communicate with the ship using distress signals from the canoes. What do you think, Captain?”

Malysseus pretended to consider the problem for a few seconds, even though his decision was made long beforehand. He had already been looking for any excuse to sideline Jamie. Though the young man was no child—he was twenty years old—his youth still made him far and away the youngest member of the crew.

Jamie hadn’t been invited to join the expedition but had heard of the pay from other crew members. Despite Malysseus urging him not to join, Jamie had sworn his family needed the money. And Malysseus had to respect a man who cared so deeply for his family.

“I like the idea,” Malysseus finally agreed. “We’ll put Jamie on distress signal duty. Jamie, if we’re not back from exploring the forest in three day cycles, send up the distress signal.”

Jamie nodded, knowing what the Captain was doing to keep him out of danger. He didn’t want to speak up, even though he wanted to join the others. Every sailor knew this: speaking to Captains out of turn was a great way to get ‘accidentally’ left behind. Jamie set himself up at the campfire, which still burned brightly with the magic flames from the night before. He tossed another log on it, watching the cinders thrown into the air.

“Perfect,” Malysseus declared. “Anything else, Gurten?”

“Might be worth looking for sticks to whittle into spears or bows,” Gurten said. “The swords are nice, but if we’re here long enough to run out of provisions, we’ll need to hunt. I don’t think we should hunt with swords.”

“Weren’t longbows on the ship?” Malysseus asked.

Gurten nodded, adding, “Only two, though. We’ll need to make more if we’re hunting to feed twelve people.”

“Marcus, keep your eyes out.”

The crew of sailors—somewhat out of their element—made their way into the forest. The trees were immense. There was plenty of space between trees, but the branches were very dense, forming a thick canopy. Some light leaked through, but it was slow going as Malysseus led the way.

The crew walked through the dim light, spotting squirrels and other small animal life. The crew didn’t see any larger animals as the hours passed. Not even a glimpse of one. Hunting would not be straightforward in these woods. Finally, two hours into the expedition, they had only moved two miles from the shoreline when Malysseus tripped over something.

He was in a small hole. He knew using light would draw attention to the crew. It would make it easier for predators to find them. To avoid them, no one in the squad had been using light. But he was a Wizard and couldn’t be tripping over his own feet. He summoned a small ball of fire which fired light throughout several meters encircling him. He planned to dispel the fire as soon as he understood what had happened.

As Malysseus passed the light around the hole’s edges, a realization dawned on him. He knew where he was standing. He was inside a giant footprint.

The ground around the crew began to quake.