Ashley sat in the windowsill, her back against one side and her right foot against the other while she waited for Mikhail. From here, she had a clear view of not just the ocean, but also the door to their hotel suite as well as the streets. Her bored gaze wandered between the room, the streets, and the ocean. With each ship that appeared on the horizon, Ashley's left hand instinctively reached for her pocket-sized book of scriptures, and remained there until she was sure that it wasn't the Santa Lyrica. There seemed to be some commotion in the streets about a pervert on the loose, but Ashley thought little of it. Wow. A pervert. Who could have imagined dressing like that would cause lewd men to come out from the woodwork, she thought self-righteously. A lady like her was above such brazen tactics as showing off her skin to strangers. Hers was an educated woman's game—one that worthless men like that would surely fail every time.

Aside from her newest contestant, an exception whom she tries to push to the back of her mind for the time being.

Realizing that she'd been impatiently looking at the door to the bath for a moment too long—as if expecting to see something—her slightly embarrassed gaze wanders around the room. Abruptly, she had a revelation: Ah. This is a couple's suite, after all. With every thing she noticed that wouldn't be in a normal hotel room, her cheeks became a slightly brighter shade of red. Okay, maybe I am a bit brazen myself.

Suddenly, something breaks her train of thought—a bang, which would have been barely perceptible at ground level, in the noisy streets below. From her vantage point, she could see smoke rising in the distance, and as she watched it, she felt her heart beating faster. Had they disembarked higher up the coast, and approached on foot? It became apparent in that moment that Ashley didn't know what her pursuers looked like—she only knew what ship she needed to steer clear of. Eyes locked on to the smoke, she listens for another explosion, barely noticing Mikhail's return as she hopes desperately to be wrong.

"Anything show up yet?" he asked, but received no reply.

No second explosion. Either it was nothing, or the battle she imagined might be happening was already over—a bad sign.

Various feelings—instincts, Ashley called them—waged a war for dominance in Ashley's mind. Torn between her desire as a knight to investigate and protect the peace of this place, and her duty to guard Mikhail, Aleria, and the mission, her face betrayed no emotions—only the urgent look of someone thinking fast. Underneath the darkness clouding her heart, there may have once been a scared, helpless girl who was in over her head, but now, she couldn't feel anything that she would call "fear." Instead, perhaps, there was a "weight" of responsibility.

"I wish I could give a clear answer. Did you feel that?" Ashley asked Mikhail. Surely, she thought, the bathwater must have been shaken as a result of the explosion. "Either way, we've no more time for luxuries. We're regrouping," she says plainly, exiting the room and holding the door open for Mikhail. As she said this, she scowled at herself for not having given everyone some kind of signal to watch out for—or, at the bare minimum, a deadline to return to the ship. Remembering her remark to the captain about "herding cats," she couldn't help but wonder if she could be so lucky a second time.

Everyone is counting on you. If you can't act like a leader—with or without coffee—you should just let Mikhail take over.

As these thoughts are going through her mind, she almost forgets to toss the hotel key into the wooden bowl sitting on the desk at reception. That's when she remembers that Mikhail still has her money. She looks at him as if to ask for it back, but then turns away and keeps walking, as though now weren't the time to worry about it. Or perhaps, she thought their funds were safer with him, after all.

Unfortunately, she only knew where one person was, and it was the person she considered the most dangerous of the nine. However, someone as tall as her would have a much easier time trying to find someone in a crowd than either of them, so Ashley felt it was her best move. "We know where Tonka is. Let's get her first. Lead the way," she said to Mikhail, drawing closer to him. One hand on her scabbard, she eyes everyone in the crowd warily, as if unsure who she were looking for. She seemed almost... no, she was definitely tense.

The wine bottle was either half empty or half full, depending on how one looked at it. Margot gazed at its delicious dark liquids swirling left and right in tune with the ship's toss and turn above the waves. The wine bottle felt warm in her arms, like a cherished baby, while she laid herself on the captain's hammock -- her tired yet restless eyes wanting more... always wanting more.

With one dangling foot touching the wooden floor, and another foot caressing the captain's muscular chest, Margot was all aware that she had committed a pretty serious crime. But who would know?

"Wine, wine, wine, you and I were made for one another. Life is so boring. Luckily, you are my best friend. Well, my second best friend," said Margot, as she took another chug from the wine bottle. Its sweet, sour, and salty flavor swirled in her mouth before she swallowed it. Quality wine that only a ship's captain could afford!

"Are you talking to yourself, again?" said Captain Tedreus.
"No, only to your wine bottle," said Margot, smiling. "Your collection is the best! We should try all of it!"
Captain Tedreus grunted. "The occasion?"
"Well, wasn't that fun?" said Margot. "Don’t pretend like you didn’t enjoy it."
"I did," said Captain Tedreus. "Do you feel guilty? Having done this with a married man?"
"Well, if you hadn't noticed, I have no morals," said Margot, smiling. "Isn't all is fair in love and war? What about you? Do you feel guilty?"
"What we did... my wife would be mad at me."
"No one has to know. We shared something special," replied Margot.
"Why choose me?"
"Well, the short answer is there was no one better. I love leaders."
"How many boyfriends have you had?" asked the Captain.
"Steady ones? Three, but I wouldn't count you as a boyfriend. This is still just a random fling," said Margot, grinning.

The Captain rolled his eyes. Inwardly, Margot felt extremely satisfied. The Captain was another notch on her list of social conquests. It had not been easy, but she had wanted to experience him.

"Let's do it again!" said Margot
"So soon?" said the Captain. "I’m not sure if I’m ready."
"I promise it'll be quick this time," said Margot, as she took two mushrooms from her time weed bag and began the process of making joints for both of them. As a magic user, she was able to create shared dreams with another person, and time weed made the best dreams. She was ecstatic.

When she was done, she offered a joint to the Captain, which the Captain meekly took.

"Flame," said Margot.

Nitonka heard the small woman behind her, making her turn around, she was almost startled by Aleria. She sighed mentally “well now I cant get into a bar fight, but I guess pretty company isn’t the worst to have. Just a fair warning, everyones going to find the fact a priest is with an amputee as a charity case, so it might attract some unwanted attention, that okay with you?” she found herself being nice to Aleria, for whatever reason, this tiny woman made her palm sweaty, and she fucking hated it. It was an unknown feeling to Nitonka, as she had never really found someone attractive, and her father wasn’t the best at teaching Nitonka these emotions. She half prayed the girl would say no and half prayed she would be okay with it and follow after her.

Aleria’s smile widened as she realized she wouldn’t be booted. Clasping her hands together in front of her face she smiled sweetly. “That wouldn’t bother me a single bit! Curious though, why couldn’t you still get into a fight? I could take bets, and it’d be amazing to see you in action. You look like you could do anything you wanted, you're so strong and..” Rambling a bit she stopped and bit her lip. She didn’t mean to prattle, she was just excited she was able to be around someone so capable. And beautiful, but she didn’t want to admit that out loud.

Instead she smoothed out her dress and quieted down, not wanting to scare off her new companion. She’s rather not fend for herself on this island if at all possible. “So we are going to the bar first? I’ve..never drank before actually. What’s it like? Is it bitter and nasty like I’ve been told?” She stuck out her tongue, imagining the taste. “Oh uh..I mean. I have. Sure. Absolutely. I’m a grown woman and I’ve definitely drank before.” Aleria nodded confidently, looking back at Nitonka. God I’m stupid, she sighed to herself

Nitonka was pleasantly surprised by her answer, a smile creeping on her face at both the idea of a fighting ring in the bar and the fact that she admitted she had never had a drink before. “Oh you’re going to get the Santorini experience then, or whatever my father was going on about, come on” she said, pushing through the crowd of people towards the Tavern. She typically would just walk away, expecting whoever she was talking to follow her, but this time around she made sure Aleria was following closely behind, sending a glare to anyone daring to get anywhere close to the tiny woman. Making it to the Tavern, Nitonka pushed through the doors and stepped inside, prompting the room to look in their direction. It wasn’t everyday that a Giant one armed woman and a priestess walked into a bar.

Those that met Nitonka’s eyes immediately began minding their business, but there were a couple of bigger men eyeing the two. Walking straight through the tarven to the barkeep, she pulled out a stool for Aleria before sitting herself.

“What can I ge-”

“The strongest, sweet drinks you got, this ones never had a drink before, and I was told there was a Santorini experience for drinkers here” she smirked as the Barkeep’s eyes widened.

“Uh are you su-”

“Absolutely, and don't skip out on us either, we want to leave with one of us pulling the other off the floor” Tonka and the barkeep met eyes and he sighed, shaking his head.

“Alright if you say so...time for bets everyone!” he pulled out bottles with liquids all ranging the color of the rainbow “here’s the rules, if at least one of you finishes all the shots, then this experience is free, if both of you finish it, then we’ll give you the pot, but if neither of you finish it, then you’ll have to pay for all these bottles, sound like a deal?”

“You okay with this?” Tonka looked to Aleria to make sure this was something she was up for.

The Santorini experience? Aleria didn’t want to ask, she was honestly just a little afraid. Of course she was going to do whatever, what else would she do? Most certainly not backing down. She made sure to stay as close as possible, worried about being swallowed up by the crowd. She was pleasantly surprised at how well Nitonka was guiding them. Grateful even for the protection.

Once they reached the bar though Aleria broke a small sweat on her forehead. Everyone seemed to eye them down and it caused her to look down and shuffle a little closer to her partner. Following her silently, they made their way to the bar top. Aleria promptly sat on the stool that was pulled out for her, thanking her quietly for the kind gesture. She was a lot more interested in this game. At least that’s what she assumed it was.

“Absolutely, it sounds like fun! You said it’s sweet right? Shouldn’t be a big deal, I mean how hard can it be?” Aleria stated, blissfully ignorant to what exactly she was heading into.

“Uhh so you just drink them? Nothing special?” She said before grabbing a shot and eyeing it up. Shrugging she decided to go ahead and down it, wanting to seem like she knew what she was doing. It was something she had never experienced before and it burned slightly but the taste of watermelon and what she assumed was strawberry very quickly overtook that. She coughed afterwards, eyes watering a bit. Blushing a bit in embarrassment she turned away for a moment to muffle the coughs while giving a thumbs up towards Nitonka.

After taking a second to brace herself again Aleria turned back and sat up properly. Trying her damndest to look pretty and poised she downed another two shots, a blue and orange bottle. They got easier, easier than the first at least. After her third her cheeks were just burning. She felt like an absolute wreck and she thought that was hilarious. Didn’t help that she hadn’t eaten much earlier so everything was hitting a bit faster then she knew.

“Okay. Okay okay it’s your turn! Come on pretty lady, drink.” She said, pointing at the bottles.

They had started to gather a crowd of people now, throwing money down to see if they would make it or not. Nitonka watched as Aleria downed three of the shots, the barkeeps eyes widening before he shook his head. Fighting her body to not blush, a smile crept onto her face “oh okay miss “ive never drinked before” lets do this!” she said as she grabbed the same three shots with one hand and drank them all together. The crowd made an audible gasp as she slammed the shot glasses back onto the bartop. Reaching for the fourth, they both would start to feel the true effects of the alcohol, the colors in the bar becoming hyper vibrant. The various line patterns on the wall began to do a dance of sorts, waving ever so slightly that they wouldn’t know for sure if it was moving or not.

Shooting a look to the bar keep, he threw his hands up “it's only going to get weirder from here, the last shot is suppose to bring it back to a mellow buzz, or so they say, but no ones tried this since twenty years back” he laughed and crossed his arms waiting to see if they’d continue.

Nitonka made eye contact with Aleria, her eyes seeming to be swirling blue oceans under the effect of the drinks. Taking the fourth shot, a seemingly hazardous green liquid swirling with gold flakes, though she was unsure if the gold flakes were actually there or not, she downed it and slammed it back down onto the table “why did you actually come along on this adventure if you dont mind me asking” Tonka realized she didn’t actually know much about Aleria other then her name, and she felt weird constantly staring into Aleria’s eyes without making conversation. She felt maybe learning more about her would give her a better understanding of whatever the fuck she was feeling when she made eye contact with the tiny woman.

At this point Aleria was seeing the world in colors she’s never experienced before. Everything seemed so..confusing but amazing. She blinked a few times watching her companion down that many shots at once. She gasped along with the crowd, clapping as well.

“Your..well, you.. You gotta teach me!” She laughed, putting her hands over her face. Nitonka was amazing, a breath of fresh air honestly. Completely different then the boring grey tones of the chapel walls. Aleria felt alive for the first time in a long time and she couldn’t tell if it was this or the alcohol or both. Probably both. Not one to be outdone Aleria grabbed another bottle, swiftly downing it. She didn’t even bother to look at the color or comprehend the taste.

After that her face truly started to buzz. She stuck out her tongue slightly, the tingling sensation refusing to leave. Her face was flushed and wouldn’t die down at all. It also didn’t help that each time she looked back at the other woman her face got a tad more flushed.

“I...Honestly? I came along because my family..they needed me too.” She stumbled through her words a bit but she was trying her hardest to make sure she could be understood. “Something about honor and..providing a service for the church. I guess I was the best solution they could come up with. Or some..some bullshit I dunno!” She shrugged, giggling a bit. Normally she hated delving into her family affairs and relationships but right now she didn’t care.

“How..how many are left? I want the money! Let’s do it!” She raised her fist forcefully in the air, which prompted a cheer from the bar. She almost fell back off her stool after raising her arm but she managed to catch Tonkas shoulder. After stabilizing herself she immediately removed her hand, stammering out her sorries.

Aleria’s laugh seemed to invoke laughter within Nitonka, her focus, or rather the drinks, making it seem like it was only them two in the bar. This woman was something else, Nitonka almost forgetting she even had asked her a question. But she loved the fact that she seemed to be similarly carefree about responsibilities thrusted on to her. The tiny woman's touch sent vibrations through Tonka’s body that left her tongue tied. The effects of the shots made her turn away from blushing and to hide her smile, telling her she didn’t need to apologize. Quickly steeling herself, she took two more of the shots “that makes phfour mhore '' a slight slur beginning to build in Nitonka’s speech making her laugh at herself. Never had she been intoxicated in this way, and the stories her father told of his attempts began to make more sense as the room really began dancing around the two. It just so happened this challenge had been how her parents had met, and she could understand why, feeling an even deeper connection with Aleria through these drinks.

The world seemed to just stop for a second as she was essentially able to smell colors at this point. It truly was just as if they two women existed and it made Aleria so absolutely happy. Swallowing back a small gag she somehow managed to make it up off her stool and onto the bar top. Unsure of how she was even able to, she stared at the ground. Everything was spinning and she had no idea how to deal with this feeling. Instead of worrying she just laughed, and the more she laughed the more she kept stupidly smiling. It was infectious, as if everything was one big joke. Turning back towards Tonka she tried to keep the straightest face she could before failing and just devolving into hysterical laughs. Through her fits of giggling she grabbed her four remaining shots and put them two and two on each side of her. It took Aleria a hot second to gain enough composure to grab two of them but eventually she did. Taking two bottles, she drank both of them at the same time before tossing the empty vials down.

She was trying so hard to look impressive in front of Nitonka, she couldn't do that trick she pulled off earlier but man she wanted to. Before the rest of the effects could hit her hard enough to stop her she grabbed the other two and downed them back to back, staring straight at her companion. After finishing her last one she gleefully laid down on the bar, cheering along with what sounded like cheers from the other. Pressing her cheek on the countertop it felt so cool, and nice and refreshing. He was right, the last one seemed to bring her down a bit but she still felt like she was flying.

“Oo..alrigghtt..” she groaned, barely able to speak much at this point. Now she just felt kinda queasy and she just wanted to lay down. Without thinking much she scooted her body closer to Tonka’s on the bar top and threw her arms around her neck. Basically using Nitonka’s chest as a pillow she let out a happy laugh. “Wwaarmm..! Finish, finsh yurs, finsh!!” Aleria practically demanded, her speech slurred to the high heavens.

Nitonka, not wanting to be outdone by the tiny woman, took all four and finished, slamming the vials onto the bartop and raising a fist, making the bar erupt, despite the fact they had just lost their money. Holding the girl with her good arm, she stood up holding her sort of like a baby. “Ma...maoney plese!” the bar laughed, slapping a hefty coin purse on the bar top and shaking his head.

“Twenty years since that challenge was done, and completed similarly. Say now that I think of it, you kinda look like the two people who did it. But there's no way, last I heard they died at sea…” he began intently looking at the tall woman’s face, making her turn away.

“Thhanks fur the easey money!” walking towards the door and avoiding further talking about what she assumed was her parents. She thought she saw Troe but she honestly couldn’t tell if that was the case or not. Aleria’s fully body touching hers was enough to make it impossible to focus, and with a full bag of money she was unsure of what they should do now. Seeing an in a bit further down the road, everyone seemed to be looking at her as she half haphazardly stumbled through the crowd to the door, before her shoulder was grabbed by one of the men that had been eyeing the two when they walked in. “What’s yur fucking problem” she said, glancing behind her, she saw another man looming behind them. Sighing, she looked to Aleria “sorry, you’re going in the air for a second!” tossing the tiny woman high up into the air. Using her now free hand, she pulled the man over her shoulder and kicked the man behind her back onto the ground, before the man that had been flipped over held his hands up.

“WAIT!” her fist stopping a mere inch from his face, she stood up, and caught Aleria as if nothing had happened, waiting for an explanation. The man laughed nervously, dusting himself off and getting up from the ground. The other man however was still holding his stomach on the ground, the other man standing went over to make sure he was okay, only to find that he just had the wind knocked out of him. Sighing with relief, he bowed “I’m terribly sorry for the misunderstanding, but now that I’ve seen you in action, I'm one hundred percent certain, you’re a Zhtomir aren’t you?” Nitonka’s drunken happiness was quickly killed at the mention of her last name.

“No, im not, and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t assume anything about me, or touch me again, or ill kill you” her glare made the man gulp, backing away with his hands up.

“Okay...sorry for the misunderstanding, come on lets go dumbass” he said as he helped his comrade off the ground and away, sneaking a couple of glances only to be met with Nitonka’s watchful eyes. She sighed, the effects of the challenge slowly starting to die down. She had a feeling this wasn’t the last time this would come up. Moving away from the Inn she originally planned on using, she moved much further down the strip, picking the first Inn she saw next. She did however neglect to realize it was a love hotel, until it was too late, walking inside they were immediately swallowed up by the staff.

“Welcome to Paradise! Where you’ll find every need and want possible, would you possibly be interested in our Love Island suite? It’s at the top floor and has a beautiful overview of the cit-”

“Sure whatever you have Ill take it, we just need to rest, but can you guys guarantee discretion?” Nitonka still did not realize the situation despite the fact the woman was in a cupid costume.

“Sweety, discretion is on the sign for the building, but if you need further reassurance, we have a long list of clientele, that lets just say, would be pretty damning to the island if it were to co-”

“Wait a minute what is this hotel, why are there so many hearts everywhere, and why are you dressed in that stupid costume?” the woman giggling at Tonka’s comments.

“This is Paradise Hotel, the best love Hotel on the island, how did you miss the giant heart shaped sign on the top of the building?” Nitonka stuck her head out the window of the lobby, looking up to see that indeed, there was a giant heart shaped sign on top. Her face immediately blushed from embarrassment, looking down to Aleria for what she wanted to do.

Still half awake, she rubbed her eyes. When Tonka looked back at her for an answer, she simply shrugged.

“I don’t see the issue with it! It’s just an inn that’s decorated all cheesy yes? I just really need a shower.” She yawned, not really understanding just exactly where they were. She smiled softly at Tonka before letting the weirdly dressed woman know they would head up.

“Have fun ladies! Not too much fun, you break the room, you pay for the replacements!” she winked at Nitonka’s glare as the woman carried Aleria up the stairs. Upon reaching the second floor, their room was directly parallel from the stairs, allowing for an easy transition into the room, the door already open from pre-cleaning. Walking into the room, all Nitonka could do was laugh, this was certainly something her dad never mentioned anything about places like this on Santorini. The room was essentially a beach themed room, candles lit everywhere, the bed was an enormous king size bed with a ship bed frame. The balcony was more or less the length of the back wall, leading to a view of the city and the beach. They could see the ship from the room as well, Nitonka was slightly relieved that it was visible just in case anything happened on the island.

Plummeting down, back first, into the bed, she finally let go of Aleria who was now laying on top of her. She wasn’t exactly exhausted, but she felt like her energy had been sapped from both the experience of the challenge and the trek to get to the Hotel. Looking up at the ceiling, she was unsure of what to say or if she should say anything at all. She wasn’t going to admit it, but she was one hundred percent enjoying Aleria’s body on top of hers, the alcohol still making skin to skin contact feel like pleasant vibrations over and over again.

Aleria squeaked a bit as they fell back onto the bed, going a bit rigid. Being held like this was a first for her and she could feel herself going a beet red in the face. Looking to hide away further she pushed closer against Nitonka before realizing just how close she had gotten. Eventually she was so embarrassed she got up, quickly clambering her way to the edge of the bed. Taking a deep breath she muttered her sorries again still a whole shade of red all over.

At this point she started taking in the room, and the view. “Honestly this is breathtaking, I never knew people could have so much fun. Is this what life is? And who-“ she stopped herself short. Aleria was curious about the men from earlier and her last name but she knew better than anyone to ask about family affairs. Aleria turned back around scooted back over. She was still red but she was still buzzed and didn’t quite care. She laid next to Tonka and closed her eyes.

“Thank you for watching over me today, I don’t think I would’ve lasted by myself out there. When do we have to get back to the boat? I don’t want to leave quite yet. It’s nasty and everyone but Ashley kinda scares me” she laughed nervously.

Nitonka was quiet for a second, thinking about if she should tell her about her family or not. She was beginning to get a better understanding of Aleria’s life before taking up this adventure. The fact that she had never had a drink, and coupled with her being quite the nervous person, only made Nitonka want to show her more of the city. But she was right, mentioning when they needed to go back eventually sort of snapped her back to her normal self “I should be thanking you, I haven’t had that much fun in a while. Hanging out with you just feels so fucking different from hanging out with other people. It’s kind of like your a blank canvas and im a paint brush with a million different colors on it....that sounds so fucking stupid when I say it outloud” turning she looked at Aleria with her eyes closed next to her. She had never felt this happy before to be around someone, or content just to watch someone with their eyes closed. She was both afraid and fucking confused with her feelings at the moment.

Rolling up onto her butt, Nitonka stretched, looking around the room. Seeing the bathroom door, an idea crept into her head, but she quickly smashed it away mentally. Instead, she stood and began undressing “I think we could stay for a little way longer, we did just get her after all. There’s no way i'm not taking a bath or a shower while we have this room, want to join?” she said half joking, looking back at the girl over her shoulder.

“No no, it makes perfect sense. I like that, it describes how I feel too. I think we make a good pair, and battle wise I think we would be unstoppable. I want you to help me and show me everything I’ve missed out on all my life. I was reluctant at first about all of this but I’m happy now. I can’t believe I almost passed this up.” She yawned, content to keep her eyes closed. The bed was so comfortable and she was about ready to sleep. Sensing Tonka getting off the bed she peeked an eye open.

“There’s no way I’m going back, not for at least another hour..” She sighed before noticing her companion start to undress. She blushed and turned away, confused as to why she felt so embarrassed. They were both girls and this wasn’t the first time she had done communal bathing.

“O-Of course, if you wouldn’t mind. While silence is nice I usually prefer to bathe with others.” She said innocently, getting up to also get undressed as well.

Nitonka was not only caught off guard by the fact she agree’d but that she wanted her to show her everything that she had been missing in life. This girl was full of surprises and in an odd way, she fit well with Tonka’s brash personality. Her saying they’d be an unbeatable duo in combat only further fan the flames of her feeling like Aleria was a perfect match to her.. Trying to not blush, she pushed open the doors to find a huge sea themed bath to match the room outside. The water already drawn in the huge bath seemed to be infinitely flowing, with a couple of vials of liquid labeled various things, seeming to add different fragrances and effects to the bathwater. Picking up an orange one, she dumped it into the bath making it smell like oranges and the water itself seemed like stars had begun to form under the surface. The bath looked like a starry night sky, Tonka inspecting it closer, saw silver and gold flecks of some sort making the effect. Stepping in first, it felt nice to take a bath after traveling by sea for the past three days. And this bath was millions of times better smelling, not to mention the fact she’d get to see Aleria naked, not that that was her intent by any means, just happened to also be a plus.

She felt like now was as good a time as any to talk about her family since Aleria seemed curious about it. Besides she didn’t think she needed to hide it from the tiny woman. “I know you didn’t ask early out of respect, and I really appreciate that, so I’ll tell you what that was about with those guys. Though to be completely transparent, I honestly have no idea what he was going to do if I admitted I was indeed a Zhtomir.” She took a second as a sort of daydream happened with her thinking about what may happen if someone who actually knew her family found her. “My family name is Zhtomir, and a couple months after I was born, we were excommunicated, or exiled, either fucking way, my family and a select few people who worked with my family were forced to leave here twenty years ago. Im sure it’s not something you would know about, as it seems from me asking around on Faroth-En Island, there's no record of what the cause was. Whatever the case may be, we made a home on Airi island and that’s where I grew up. For all I care, Airi is my homeland, I dont really feel anything here that connects me to it, the way I do when I'm on Airi. Despite all the bandits and fuck faces, it’s actually kind of pretty. I guess you could say, I’m a Bandit Princess...I hope this doesn’t make you feel any different about me…” she slumped down, her face up to her mouth underwater, hiding herself from Aleria.

Aleria waited a second until Nitonka walked into the bathroom before she got up to finish undressing. She looked around, wondering if this was alright. She had done this before this wasn’t different..except this time it was with an exceptionally pretty girl. Sighing she walked in after her, loosely pulling her hair up as she climbed into the bath after Tonka. Keeping her eyes down she waited until she heard her companion speak up.

“Ah no I’ve heard nothing about that. And of course it doesn’t make me think differently of you. A bandit princess. That’s kinda cute!” She laughed teasingly. “You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to of course. I wish my family history was that rich. My parents were devout followers who met in the chapel and then stayed in the chapel. After having me and my other several siblings we were raised as little mini thems. I wish I was that individualistic. Instead in the chapel's golden child. Everything about me was cultivated to be exactly that way, and they did whatever they had too to make it happen. I’ve known literally nothing else, it’s kind of sad. A-Anyways. I’d love to see more of the world, especially Airi. Are we stopping there by any chance? I’d like to see more of your life. It seems so interesting..” she sighed, swirling the water with her hand. She suddenly felt dull and a tinge sad. She quickly wiped a tear and smiled. Aleria slightly splashed Tonka, trying to change the subject. “I may be small but I’m not easily deterred.”

Aleria splashing her made Tonka smile, she loved this girl's attitude so much, it was so fucking refreshing. Splashing back, she looked at the ceiling "Well theres a decent chance we'll pass by it, but I don't know if the ship will stop there. It's pretty lawless, and while docks exist, they're usually a trap set up by bandits….but we could possibly pass by my village there. When I was leaving, the villagers and my dad were attempting to build their own dock to welcome others. I think my dad would love to meet you, but I have to warn you ahead of that potential meeting, he's a loud Goddamn idiot, but his hearts in the right place...most of the time" it had been a little bit since she thought of the village and she wondered if they were doing alright.

Going under the water, the bath was big enough for her to swim under and too Aleria's side. Sitting next to her, she grabbed her hand in hers "Its not sad though about your childhood, at least I don't think it is. In a strange way, you and me are complete opposites in the way we were raised" bringing their hands out of the water, she had Aleria's palm out, her big hand under to show the difference. Aleria's hands were clean and free of any scars, as was her arm. Vice versa Nitonka was riddled with scars on her hand and arms up to her shoulder. Her one hand was also much rougher from the work and training she had put in through her twenty years of life. "I don't exactly regret my upbringing or my way of life prior to leaving Airi, but I sort of wish my dad had treated me like your parents, I might have actually been as pretty as you are" she joked before letting their hands drop back into the water and quickly back to her thighs, realizing she might be making Aleria a bit uncomfortable.

Aleria blushed at her comment, unsure of what to say next. She never thought there could be another side to her story. That another could possibly envy her in that way. Pouting a bit when Tonka dropped her hand, she leaned in and grabbed her hand again and gave it a small squeeze. “I don’t understand, you're very pretty. I wish I had the same resolve as you, I think it makes you gorgeous.” She smiled eyeing her scars. “You're covered in stories, I think that’s something special. Besides you don’t wish that, I was treated like a porcelain doll. No one touched me. Earlier was the first time I’ve been hugged in a long long time. So thank you.” She hesitated for a second before bringing Nitonkas hand up and giving it a soft kiss. “Thank you.” She gave it another squeeze, hoping it showed her abundant gratitude.

Nitonka had neglected to read what the effects of the orange liquid did to the bath. So she was wholly unaware of the fact that she had swam head first into a bath full of aphrodisiacs. She pulled Aleria closer until they were inches from each other and Nitonka was almost compelled to swallow up the tiny woman. Going in for a kiss, lips almost touching, an explosion snapped her out of it, her head going straight to the open door as the building shook. Screams were heard outside and she sighed. “I think it might be time to leave, come on” she wanted to move past from this potentially really awkward moment. Still holding her hand, she pulled the both of them out of the water.

Letting go finally, she grabbed two towels and put one over Aleria’s head “thank you for calling me pretty, sorry if I stepped over the line with...yeah. I hope we can still be friends or...good friends” she didn’t look back as she dried off, opting instead to get dressed and look out at the city below. It seemed two separate explosions went off, or at least that’s what it seemed like by the two columns of smoke now rising into the air. Citizens down below all began scattering in different directions making for maximum chaos. “When we get downstairs, it might be better for you to ride on my back through the crowd or on my shoulders. It’ll help in finding the others, and I'm sure that’s what Ashley’s thinking right now, you okay with that?” she didn’t see any signs of what started the explosions and she was only slightly worried that it was this mystery army that sent them all on this adventure in the first place, but having Aleria around all this kind of gave her small anxiety.

Stammering, she let Tonka lead her out of the water. She was terrified of whatever was happening outside but was still very confused by what just happened. Or well what almost happened. She silently dried off with the towel and got dressed, quickly trying to sneak peaks of what was happening outside. “Y-you, I..” She sighed, biting her lip as she watched the chaos unfold below.

“I agree, I don’t want to get separated from you. Please take care of me” Smoothing out her dress she moved closer to Nitonka, taking her hand again. “And you didn’t cross a line, we can talk about this later. Or continue this maybe.” She softly muttered the last part before taking the lead this time, pulling Tonka down the stairs. “Alright, uhm, can I get on? We should probably hurry and quick” Aleria asked, giving her hand a squeeze.

It seemed the front desk lady had already disappeared, probably from the commotion outside. She was left tongue tied by Aleria’s statement of them talking about whatever just happened earlier and she cursed herself mentally for making a move like that. Though it sounded like it was the right move after all and Nitonka would very much like to continue that conversation. Picking up Aleria, she walked through the door and put the tiny woman on her shoulders. “If you see anyone let me know, I told Ashley I would be at the tavern by the docks so we can start there!” she spoke over the panic of the crowd pushing past her. Moving through the waves of people, she slowly made her way towards the docks where she figured they would run into Ashley and hopefully the rest of the party.

Upon exiting the bathroom Mikhail noticed that Ashley looked fairly concerned. And for good reason too given the response to his question. As soon as Ashley pointed it out he realized he did in fact feel the explosion but was too lost in thought to really process it. He decided to shove the whole previous situation into the back of his mind for now, he had to focus.

Meeting up with Tonka was a good idea. With just the two of them and the fact that he left his weapon on the boat it’d be a great help to have Tonka there in case things started to get messy. Plus he saw Aleria and Troe follow after her so he was confident they could still handle most problems thrown at them. Or at least, that’s what he was hoping.

He looked out into the crowd and started figuring out how they should proceed. He looked down to ask Ashley but realized she was real tense. Either something was making her nervous or she was just real out of it. Either way it didn’t really matter. Mikhail took her by the hand. Not in a comforting way, no. Instead he grabbed her hand and started dragging through the crowd to get her moving. “Keep an eye out. I’m getting us to that bar.”

It took some time and effort. Luckily with Mikhail’s force he was able to shove his way through the crowd, knocking a few people on their asses on the way. And with him holding onto Ashley the two of them weren’t getting separated. Didn’t seem like any enemies were hidden in the crowd and they finally made their way over to the bar.

The only person he was looking for that he found was Troe. Who Mikhail quickly approached him and put a hand at his table. “Slight emergency, gotta go it looks like. What happened to Tonka and Aleria?”

Troe hadn't even noticed Tonka and Aleria leaving, becoming slightly too engrossed in the textbook-like tome he was reading to even see the scene they had made. Ever since that point, it seemed that a few patrons had jokingly began buying him drinks that he subconsciously consumed as they were set where his coffee had been just minutes before. Since that point the joke had turned to fascination, and then a game had begun where each patron would buy Troe a shot and have it set in front of him to see how long it would take him to notice...but he simply didn't.

By the time Mikhail slapped his hand on the table there were at least twenty-three shot glasses neatly piled to Troe's side and everybody in the bar watched in amazement as Troe downed another shot of the bar's hardest whiskey without even flinching or taking his eye off of the book. He turned another page before looking up at Mikhail much to the crowd's dismay as they booed the spearman that had ruined their game. Troe's face held the lightest of blushes, yet his speech wasn't even slightly slurred.

"Oh, they're at the bar....Or they were. Just a few seconds ago...." Troe glanced at his book to see that he had already read a third of it. He had most certainly lost track of time. He looked at the pile of glasses that had accrued beside him and simply assumed that somebody had hosted some sort of drinking contest to his side some time ago.

As he stood he felt ever so slightly unsteady, which he simply chalked up to him sitting down for some time before he unknowingly let out a single hiccup. "Well, I suppose we should get to looking for them then."

The patrons didn't miss his hiccup though, and quite a few began passing coins around and muttering about Troe not being entirely immune to drinking. Some had seemingly bet on him being some sort of gimmick and that him downing each drink had to have been some sort of trick. The fact that he was showing at least some signs of inebriation, even if it was even less than a light buzz, had rubbed dirt on their theory.

After a small amount of time had passed and Kavius grew bored of watching the fire burn he turned his head towards Xara and spoke. "Yo Table...Xara, bout time we start heading back to the ship don't ya think", Kavius asked. As he spoke next Kav began to stand up. "I'm gonna start heading back, I just need to do something real quick before I return. You should go back too unless you have anything else you wanted to do too." Kavius outstretched his hand towards Xara, offering to help him up. "Sound good new buddy"?

After Kavius finished conversing with Xara, Kav ran off towards the way he came from originally. Most of the aggression he was starting to feel had evaporated and he felt ready to settle this. Kav thought of coming back here with Sam at some point after this job, they probably will deserve a small vacation and Kavius bet he persuade Sam since she missed so much. It did not take long to return to the scene of the Bath Crime, where Kavius walked around trying to find anyone who had been here earlier. Little did he know, however, he would be spotted first. It would just so happen that the ringleader, petite redhead who looked to be in her twenties, would spot Kavius before he had a chance to react. At the sight of this women and sound of her shriek, Kavius rushed over to the women and spoke as he walked.

"Ok look listen you have the wrong guy, the guards here even arrested the right guy your just being too stupid too- "", Kav tried to say as he was cut off by the women.

The redhead angrily make many remarks about the perverted young man, how he would rot in a jail cell for the rest of his life, then how she would kill him.

"But..if you kill me", Kav asked confused, "I cant rot in jail...and if I rot in jail...", Kav asked as he scratched his head, "Then you cant kill me...."

The women nearly lost it at this point, rallying her fellow petite womanhood who seemed appear from around every corner around Kav. Kav gulped at the sight of this.

"Well......shit."

Kav made a run for it, running as fast as he could through and around each women. Kavius returned to the stink boat, climbing aboard as quickly as he could to hide from the fast approaching horde of petite women.

---

Nitonka pushed passed the scurrying citizens, only getting pissed off more and more as people rudely bumped into her. She stopped, standing like a brick wall "IF YOU FUCKERS DONT GET OUT OF MY WAY, IM GOING TO MAKE SURE NONE OF YOU CAN WALK AGAIN!" her yell could be heard above the chaos, making everyone around the two stop, move away swiftly and make a path for the tall girl and her companion.

Sighing, she spoke up Aleria "sorry for screaming, but getting elbows in my ribs is not pleasant, in the slightest" glaring at a family who hurried past them with stank faces. She was able to see over the crowd fair easily but the vast amount of people would make it impossible for her to pinpoint Ashley, who she assumed would be well under the sightline of the top of the crowd.

"Any chance you see them Aleria? You might be able to find them easier then I can. I going to assume they're coming from the direction tavern we left" she pointed to a building far ahead of them, but still visible which meant they were relatively close to Ashley, Mikhail and Troe. She was hoping these explosions were completely unrelated to their group, but some how, she was almost certain at least one of them had to do with her party. Meaning it probably time to leave before getting arrested by the knights here, a situation she was none too excited to be in.

She still had no way of knowing what would happen if they found out she was on Santorini. Judging from the two men earlier, it didn't seem like it would be the worse case scenario. Though it was possible he was putting on a charade to get Nitonka to out herself. He did get a good look at her face, and she unfortunately was undeniably her father and mother's child, without a shred of a doubt. If someone actually knew her parents still, she'd be shit out of luck. Shaking the thought out of her head, she found a table, testing it with her top half. Deeming it capable of withstanding both their weight, she climbed up with Aleria still on her shoulders, holding on to a lamp post as she leaned over the crowd. Hopefully Ashley and company would see the giant looming over the crowd.

Ashley was closely watching the slightest movements of everyone who stood out from the crowd, which was difficult given the colorful and festive nature of many of its members. Her concentration was broken when Mikhail suddenly started pulling her by the hand. How do you expect me to draw my sword like this? Oi! she thought, glaring at him accordingly—but he was focused entirely on getting to that bar. "Mmh." Ashley made a half-hearted sound of protest, well beneath the noise level of the crowd. Were she a helpless maiden, she supposed that Mikhail's "man-on-a-mission" face might be really charming, but right now she wasn't feeling it.

She was visibly worried when she couldn't find Tonka or Aleria in the crowd at the bar, and audibly groaned when Troe confirmed that they were missing. "This is bad. Only a third of us are accounted for, and the captain probably won't leave without Table Hopper." Ashley tries to leave—stumbling a bit—when she realizes that Mikhail is still holding on to her hand. "Move it, boys!" said the boyish mage to the two grown men, wresting her hand free from Mikhail's grip.

Ashley's face and movements became noticeably less tense when she suddenly spotted something. "There!" she said, pointing toward Aleria, who was riding on Tonka's shoulders. Aleria seemed to notice Ashley too, as she was waving, seemingly in her direction—or maybe she was still a bit drunk—not that Ashley could tell from this distance.

As it turned out, Ashley was surprisingly easy to spot. It was as if the dark mage's very presence sucked the light and color from the crowd, creating a pale spot of duller hues that drew Aleria's attention—or maybe, she was still a bit drunk. Ashley's hand gestures seemed to indicate that she'd spotted them, and that she wanted to meet up at the boat.

Pushing through the crowd, this time on her own, Ashley made it close to the boat without being trampled. The crowd was thicker here, and angrier—not a good sign. Eventually, she finds herself face to face with the redheaded girl spearheading this "protest," currently arguing with one of Tedrius' crew. "Peace! Peace, at once, in the name of the law!" Ashley shouted, projecting her best "knightly" voice further and louder than those standing nearest to her would have ever expected—fruits of her training, one could suppose.

The "peace" Ashley asked for was marred somewhat by the slight din of chaos still going on in the background, but it was serviceable for her needs. "I've heard the gist, loud and clear. Now, one of you, please calmly give me the details," she says sternly, eyeing the redhead.

"Are you in charge of that black-haired blackheart?" she demands, a bit subdued compared to before, but still furious.

"That depends on the context. Who is she talking about?" Ashley asks, turning toward Ted's man. He whispers the name to her.

Ashley's stern face melts, replaced by one of concern. "You poor girl!" she suddenly cries out, in a distinctly feminine voice, catching the redhead and many of the other women off guard. "Did he attack you?! Are you hurt?!" she breathes, leaning toward the redhead, who was shorter than her for a change. As if suddenly realizing that she'd lost her composure, she takes a step back and clears her throat.

"Uh, n-no, I'm fine—he didn't hurt me, per se... he... he peeped on me in the bath," she says in a low voice, as if suddenly embarrassed.

Ashley softly embraced the girl, comforting her. "Thank the Goddess," she whispers to the motionless redhead. "That man is more dangerous than you know. I've been tracking him... and once he leads me to his hideout, I'll make him pay. I swear," she grits her teeth and tightens her embrace, before suddenly letting go of her. "Go. You and your friends get somewhere safe—now. Leave him to me, okay?" she says to the redhead, giving her a determined smile.

"O-Okay!" the redhead blurted out, getting swept up in the moment and taking a few steps away from the boat.

Ashley turns, smirking proudly. The 'gap' always puts them on the back foot, she thought, satisfied with her performance. Getting her to admit that Kavius didn't attack her probably helped calm her down, too.

"Hey," Ashley calls after the redhead. "Name's Elizabeth," she said, indicating to everyone that knew her that this was an act. "Let's meet again," she said insincerely, waving the back of her hand to the girl.

"Yeah! Go get 'im, Liz!" she shouted.

"You're so cool, miss!" another girl called out to Ashley as she boarded the boat.

"...Maaan. I thought she looked like some lame pushover, before. To think I almost bagged a knight," the tall girl from before groaned.

"If you did, we'd have been in real trouble," her business partner replied, laughing nervously. "The scary pirate lady saved us, there."

The crowd of girls began discussing whether or not this "Elizabeth" character was an undercover knight or a bounty hunter, and which would be cooler, as they walked away.

Ashley, meanwhile, barged below decks, clearly unhappy with Kavius. "I heard you peeped on some girls in the hot spring—care to explain?" she begins, with a false smile. Then, she remembers the more important matter at hand. "Who's accounted for?" she demands coolly, looking around. Sam's still here, poor girl. ...No mushroom girl... but she probably flaked out, like I hoped she would. She's too young to die on a suicide mission. Overdosed in an alley is still tragic, but it's a peaceful way to go by comparison. That just leaves...

"Where's Table Hopper?" she asks Kavius calmly, as though she hadn't just glared daggers at him over the hot spring incident.

Kavius had attempted to hide out of sight once he had climbed onboard the stinkboat and had successfully vanished from the sight of the angry mob. He crawled/walked towards the stairs that lead to the cramped deck below where he was hoping to find Samara still resting. Only able to snatch a loaf of bread and a flask of something clear, Kav was disappointed with what he had brought back for Sam. Things just had gotten out of hand so quickly, then he bought a sword, fought Xara........Kav grinned when he realized he had so much to tell Sam, even though it had only been a few hours. Kav froze when a familiar voice came from behind him, asking him about the peeping situation and Xara. Kav raised his hands defensively at Ashley as he spoke.

"I will not deny that I find the female form to be an alluring and tempting prospect in which I could find myself lost in for days, especially with the right women, but be that as it may.....", Kav began to stay but stopped midsentence. Realizing that nothing he could say would make anyone believe he was innocent Kavius shrugged and moved on to the next question. "Anyways I don't know where Mr breaks-stuff-then-doesn't-pay is, we uh...kind of sparred a bit. Broke some stuff. Set some stuff on fire OH there was this explosion that wasn't our fault", Kav said quickly.

Truthfully Kavius did not know where Xara was. Last he had seen him was after they had gotten up. He had assumed he would be here by now. Kavius grinned and put his hands behind his head, relaxed.

"Yea so no clue where the magic wind guy went. He should show up any second now....Oh by the way", Kav began to ask leaning forward closer to Ash, "Does the stinkboat smell worse somehow to you now? Like some new nasty smell?"

"Be that as it may..?" Ashley prompts him to continue as she watches for Xara, blocking the stairs with her leg. Ashley knew from firsthand experience how vindictive the fairer sex could be, and wasn't prepared to believe the redhead's version of events merely because she'd amassed a crowd of "witnesses," especially since Kavius honestly didn't look that guilty to her. She supposed it was possible Kavius simply had the same mastery over his own emotions that Ashley reckoned she did hers—though, at his age, it was unlikely.

Ashley let out something like a mix between a groan and a sigh of relief. "That explosion was you, huh? Well, we should set sail anyway, before Redhead changes her mind." For a proper-lady-knight type, Ashley seemed surprisingly okay with this, but Kavius didn't know that Ashley had just dodged about 30 arrows.

"Does the stinkboat smell worse somehow to you now? Like some new nasty smell?"

Ashley covers her mouth, concealing a condescending smirk. "Kid, I'm a knight. I've spent my whole life surrounded by nasty smells. The stables, dung-caked criminals with infected wounds, decaying corpses, bleach—sometimes all of the above. Compared to that, the smell of fish is—" she inhales sharply as a new smell approaches her from behind. It was the strong smell of perfume, mixed with the weaker scent of love potion and just a hint of alcohol—a combination Ashley found intimidating. She turned and was surprised to find Tonka standing there, cradling Aleria in her arm. I knew this woman was dangerous... She's like a feral beast!

Tonka looked down at Ashley with the same type of gaze, since she smelled just about the same to her—minus the alcohol—and no-one was getting any points for guessing who she would take to a hotel, given the chance. They both stared at each other with a mix of disbelief and awe. One had ostensibly just bedded the son of a duke, and the other, a chaste maiden of the holy church. It wasn't immediately apparent which feat was more impressive, but they weren't about to talk about it with everyone else eavesdropping.

Don't ask, don't tell? Ashley's face seemed to suggest.

Agreed, said the nod from Tonka as she passed Ashley, carrying Aleria to her bunk.

It would be many hours before Xara would be seen. After watching Kavius get chased around by a bunch of random girls, he decided to head back and tell one of the crew that he has the supplies for the boat upgrades. After that, he caught sight of the angry mob again. Having felt a little bad that he didn't save Kav earlier, he decided to do something about it. He hides behind a nearby building corner, and with a little bit of aiming and a wind check, Xara shoots a big fireball into the water nearby. The resulting reaction of the impact causes the fireball to explode and soak every single of the mobsters. They all shout in disarray and one even trips in panic and lands in the water. It took all of Xara's constitution to not laugh out loud and give away his location, all he could do is giggle endlessly. Not quite done with them yet, he watches as all of them disperse.

He follows the first girl to a nearby stables. As she goes inside, he puts on his first act.
"Crap crap cRAP! My wife is gonna kill me!"
Being curious and self-righteous, confronts him about his issue, hoping to be the hero.
"What's wrong sir?" She feigns concern.
"I lost my wedding ring, and I swear I left it here!" Her eyes light up, she could use a new ring.
"If you help me find it that'd be great!"
She decides to go along with it. Xara proceeds to start digging around near where a horse drawn carriage is. She starts to dig around as well.
"Do you see it yet?"
"No, not really." She says with false innocence. Things quickly escalate as she crawls underneath the carriage to find the jewelry, and suddenly she feels her leg go cold. She turns to see... Her leg is frozen to the bottom of the cart! She wonders in confusion as Xara quickly goes to the opposite side. "Hey, what are you doing?!" Xara grabs her arms and freezes them as well, kneeling down to see her short blond hair getting dirty, an unrivaled scowl on her face. He snaps back, "Next time, don't accuse people of harassment for no reason." She quickly realizes what he means, and can only yell angrily as Xara goes to the back of the cart, and kicks the block, causing it to slowly start rolling down the hill, it starts going faster, and faster, and Xara sadistically watches as the cart starts rocketing down the hill and into a pile of manure below. He glimpses her fate as he makes his escape.

He continues his search, he sees the most athletic girl of their little posse, all alone doing her stretches. and he quickly goes inside a store and spends a little bit of gold on measuring supplies, like a rope and a compass. As she's doing her exercises, Xara proceeds to act frustrated and annoyed, pacing back and forth with the objects. He makes a bunch of squares around a tree, pretending he's doing something important. He eventually comes up to the girl. "Excuse me, can you help me? I'm a surveyor, and I need to know how tall that tree is, but my hired help didn't arrive. Would you be willing to fill in? I just need someone to climb the branches real fast. I'm willing to pay you."
"Uh... Sure?" She's a little suspicious of this guy, but this is her favorite spot to work out and she hates anyone being nearby, hopefully this will get rid of him.
She climbs the tree with rope in hand, showing off a bit, might as well have fun, right?
"Ok, right there."
She has her back to him as she reaches about halfway up the tree. Suddenly, she feels something hit her from behind, she catch the tree, trying to save herself. She looks down to see her entire torso and her long brunette pgtails are frozen to the tree.
"What the!? Hey! You'll pay for this!"
"I bet that's what you said to that guy you tried to mob too."
She can only growl as Xara runs for it, taking the rope with him, it'd be a waste otherwise.

His next victim would be going to an outhouse in a remote campsite. She sits on the toilet, thinking about her day. It was so rude of Gary to talk to Maddie like that, if only she had the confidence to confront him. As she daydreams and plays with her long ginger hair, Xara runs up and freezes the door on her. She recognizes the spell chant and tries to open the door, but it's now jammed, and her panicking doesn't help. As she realizes what the heck happened and starts to cry, he swaps the woman's and men's signs on the outhouses, hoping someone will come by and discover her in the supposedly wrong bathroom. "The guy who you chased today, sends his regards." He walks away, skipping happily a bit.

After many other misadventures, it's nearly sundown by the time Xara is back. He looks a little beat up from the battle with Kav, as well as some other things. Tedreus soon hears rumors of woman being frozen to various ridiculous places, including to the branches of trees, in men's bathrooms, and even underneath a horse carriage. He wonders what kind of madman would do such a ridiculous crime, but he quickly connects the dots, and he stops Xara when he tries to get on the boat.

"Hold it right there! Do you have anything to do with the mysterious pranks happening to a bunch of woman? Don't lie to me."
"Yah, I did."
Tedreus is flabberghasted by this confession, he atleast expected some banter, he always wanted to go full Felix Ryte, a legendary lawman of Faroth-En.
"But- why?"
"They accused an innocent of being sexually inappropriate, they deserved the embarrassment."
"How in Siren's name did you get them in trees and shit?"
"You'd be surprised what woman will do if you ask carefully. The carriage girl? I asked her to help me find my wedding ring. The tree girl? I pretended to be a surveyor and that my hired help didn't show."
"Well I'll be-"
"Now, to be fair, I did bring you parts. Surely you can let this slide, after all, surely you've probably been accused of worse."
"Haughty words, but you impress me with your accuracy. I wasn't gonna say anything regardless, you really know how to work favors, don't ye?"
"Apparently."

Xara proceeds inside the boat, feeling smugger than ever.

The next leg of the journey was, thankfully for everyone sanity and stomachs, pretty much bereft of storms and rough seas. It wasn't devoid of omens on the other hand. A few days entirely without wind, a (thankfully short lived thanks to Aleria) lice outbreak, and a lack of signs of life in any direction. Even the fish that were usually quite plentiful out in this area were seemingly absent. The shortest part of this journey had been extended for several extra days past what they had initially expected.

Today, however, things seemed different. They had the tailwind suddenly, allowing them to continue the journey without any more delay, it was a little foggy, but the fish were suddenly rather abundant. It was almost as if they had simply passed some odd patch of water over the past few days and now that they were through it, things returned to normal.

At this pace they would be there before they hit nightfall, though at least a few of their number were a bit upset by the delays. There had already been several ships ahead of them, and with all of that wasted time the past few days it was honestly not too surprising to see a couple of ships sailing back towards Santorini...Until they were clearly on an intercept course with the Stinkboat.

In mere moments the calm that had filled the day thus far had changed to a panicked cry for battle stations as the much larger ships seemed to be preparing to engage their vessel. It seemed that whoever was in charge of these aggressors had either seen past the fishing ship ruse or simply didn't care in this moment.

It didn't take long for the ships in question to turn around and pull alongside the Stinkboat, the ladders heavily falling aboard. Of course, this was in part planned by those aboard as while they stood no chance in a true naval battle...perhaps they could overpower their attackers on foot.

For now, they all stayed below deck and waited for the pirates to board. Above deck would have likely been suicide as the other ships most certainly had their own mages and archers that could have easily picked them off. Whispers pervaded the space of the lower deck as everyone tried to figure out what they could do in this situation.

The less combat savvy sailors opted to stay below and prepare to set sail as quickly as possible if the combat team managed to repel the invaders. Now, as the rumbling of feet could be heard crossing the boarding ladders, the time for action approached.



Once everything had gone down, Troe had to be physically shaken to stop his notetaking. He had been writing nonstop recording the happenings of the past few days as he was convinced that they were connected somehow to what was happening. There was no way that deadspot in the ocean was something natural, he could feel it. He had been certain to not miss a detail, asking everybody aboard if they had noticed anything else strange...Even if most of their answers hadn't led to any breakthroughs and had been almost entirely comprised of what they did that morning or how their breakfast might have 'tasted off'.

Of course not all of them had been entirely useless, as per the norm Ashley's astute observations had added several pages to his notes, and the other mages weren't exactly meritless either. They could all agree that something had felt very wrong while they had sailed through the 'Deadspot' as it was being called by the others. If it wasn't relevant to their current investigation, it was at bare minimum worth looking into later.

Troe felt a bit guilty that he hadn't taken too much time to help Nitonka with her training like he had before they hit the 'Deadspot', but he had to record this immediately to prevent any information from being forgotten. Of course, he personally believed that she could benefit from some solo-study as she tried to find her personal magic affinity amongst the tomes he had bought for her.

Truthfully, his interviews with the others had probably been the most interaction he had had with any of them save for Nitonka and Ashley...And while he didn't regret that after speaking with some of them a bit, he did note that a few of them were worth further study.

Now, as Troe was informed of the current situation, he carefully closed the book he was writing in and safely stowed it. This wasn't good. The plan to just look like an inconspicuous fishing ship had clearly broken down, and it wasn't just one ship either. Their group wasn't entirely talentless, but they had literally zero intel on the 'pirates' now bearing down on them. Can't be helped. Troe thought to himself as he readied for combat. It would be a real shame for them all to die before even reaching Irinoth.

The past few days were a trial for Kavius, as the boredom of peace and tranquility set in. The island had offered so much drama and fun that while it was not hard to leave, Kavius htought that it would not have been a bad place to relax for ahwile. That is, as long as no one recognizes him from the previous debacle he had been partially to blame for. Kavius spent most of the time hanging around Sam, his motivation for the job dwindling and Sam could see it. She simply did not have the strength to argue with Kav, and he knew it, so while Sam did what she could to keep from losing her mind from sea sickness Kav stayed by her side. Even if sometimes he was just laid down close to her, trying to ignore everyone but her. At one point Troe would approach the two but Kavius would dismiss Troe easily. Kav was not into answering a lot of questions and had nothing to say to Troe, He did not want him bothering Sam, and would attempt to brush him off of Sam as well. However if Sam were to answer Troes questions was entirely up to her. It isn't as if Troe was an enemy o someone untrustworthy but Kavius saw Troe as a huge nerd. With a aura of power that made Kavius recognize that he would probably no challenge Troe to a sparring match. His magic was his magic and Kav wasn't interested, especially after fighting Xara.

Ashley at one point would take the time to question him about the incident on the island and about his fight with Xara, once it was reveled what they did. Kav couldn't see any other reason she would ask about it except to find out more about how they fight, but Kav wasn't against explaining what happene don the island. After coming clean about how he truly did not mean to peek and how he was only trying to help, Kav felt a little better. At Ashleys remark about how Kavs fight went Kavius could not help but laugh slightly.

"I wasn't holding back against you, but it was just a sparring match. besides like you said. I'm just a kid. Your just such a strong adult", Kavius said sarcastically but with good intentions.

Kavius was already below deck when the rest of the crew suddenly descended below deck filling the stinkboat with feelings of anxiety and terror. The stinkboat crew were not hardened veterans, so Kavius was at first doubtful that anything was seriously wrong. Until he heard the familiar sound of another boat attaching a bridge to the stinkboat above deck. With a sigh Kavius looked at Samara and spoke.

"what the shit is happening now", Kavius asked Sam rhetorically, "Hang out a second I will be right back."

Kavius was encouraged not to leave yet, especially by his companions, but Kavius dismissed their warnings. "Listen I am just gonna take a look." Kavius walked up the small staircase leading towards the top deck and had unlocked and slightly raised the hatch door when Kav suddenly let go of the hatch, the hatch door lamming shut as an arrow was buried into the hatch. Kav looked back and shrugged. "I saw that coming", Kavius said lying to himself and the others.

Kav raised the hatch by pushing it open then leaping and rolling forward dodging a few more arrows. Now that he was above deck he could see their were two large looking ships surrounding the stinkboat with a makeshift ladder bridge connecting to the stink boat on both of its side to a different enemy ship. Kavius may not be a veteran but he was experienced enough in living in areas where he had to quickly scan his surroundings for an enemy count. There were too many to count, but Kav could see plenty of archers with arrows trained on him, mages with spells at the ready to be cast, and rather simple but muscular looking privateers with swords and the like slwoly approaching the stink boat. As Kavius looked for the variety in the enemies before him, Kav would not stop moving to dodge incoming enemy arrows. As an arrow came close to piercing his face, Kavius quick drew his sword from his sheath, knocking away the arrow by shielding his face with the side of his sword.

"OK", Kavius yelled out halfheartedly, "So listen. You really dont want to do this. We have a guy on board that is not afraid of giving ya'll-", Kav said as he was stopped midsentence to twirl around a melee combatant approaching him and kicking him in his family jewels. As another melee combatant approached from behind, and an arrow was finding its way towards Kav, he fell on his back on ground as the enemy arrow found itself lodged in the melee combatants head. Kavius sighed and kicked himself up. "-a really cold death. Plus the all the women on board are gonna get really really-", Kavius said as he stopped yelling once again to slice another incoming arrow in half, "pissed about this."

Kavius gulped as more and more melee combatants began to encircle him. Kavius shrugged, no longing caring to shout pointless warnings. Plus he really was not in a position to be shouting demands but he would be damned if he did not at least say something.

"What gave anyone of you the idea any of you had the right to surround me?"

Kavius hopped to his left and kicked the rope pulley next to him, grabbing the eagles nest rope and going upwards quickly. Kav landed in the eagles nest of the stinkboat and ducked down, avoiding another few arrows. The others had begun to take action in their own way by now, but Kavius preferred to work alone or with Sam. Plus there were plenty of pirates for all. Kavius leaped out of the eagles nest, diving into the water, and swam underneath the closest enemy ship. After a few moments Kavius would resurface on the other side of the enemy ship and would attempt to quickly climb the side of the boat and attempt a sneak attack. The others could use teamwork to survive this, Kavius was better alone. Or at least worked better with Sam.

Ashley gave Xara a load of shit for holding them up for hours—something she only allowed him to do because she had allowed Kavius' confession to their responsibility for the explosion to calm her nerves a little regarding her pursuers. Luckily for Xara, Ashley had no idea what he'd been doing all that time, aside from acquiring some supplies—and luckily for Ashley, Mikhail and the others were there to dissuade Xara from trying to do something similar to her. She did try to interrogate Kavius regarding the duel, pretending to be interested for more "normal" reasons than to gather more details regarding their fighting styles, but when it came out that Kavius somehow managed to beat the mage, she had difficulty focusing on her original intent. "You beat him, but lost to me? Something doesn't check out here. Who's holding back against who?"

After unsuccessfully trying to push it out of her mind, Ashley decided that she'd better check in on Aleria, to make sure that what happened was at least consensual—she had smelled of alcohol, after all. As was typical of Ashley's way of thinking, she wasted a lot of time and brain power trying to come up with a way to delicately broach the subject, before realizing something obvious: Why am I still trying to find an opportunity to ask her? If it's this hard to catch her alone, she must actually like Tonka. They've become inseparable. Asking the question is redundant. Upon having this realization, Ashley decides that she'd better give up, rather than risk making one or both of them angry with her undesired concern.

She was both glad for and somewhat annoyed by the quietness of the sea. At some point, she had decided that she'd better cut back on the coffee and try to match everyone else's sleep schedules, but now that she was here in the moment and the withdrawal headaches were more than just a theoretical something "future Ashley" may have to deal with, the fact that making a pot of coffee was now actually possible made resisting her addiction that much more difficult. For the briefest of moments, she contemplated making Mikhail a sort of accountability partner for her, but she felt so utterly ridiculous for even thinking of it that she gave up on the idea immediately. Just one cup of coffee. Just one. And a bit of wine to dull the... shit, what is this, the Santa Lyrica? Of course there's no wine, you idiot. Only the strongest stuff for burly seamen. She eyes the moonshine warily. I haven't really drunk much alcohol aside from the poisoned stuff Lady Madeline gives me at parties, have I? Hmm... I can handle about... this much, maybe?

When next Mikhail saw her, they both got to find out what kind of drunk Ashley was. "Hoi, Mihhell. Dun bovvah mee. Ah'm dwunk. HUCK!" She hiccuped loudly and suddenly, completely disrupting her grumpy demeanor. "I's shorryy. Ah donno wathaell deesh saylersh puddin at—" She points at the bottle of moonshine. "Aye wazzna dry'n twogeddrun. On'st." Apparently, she didn't know what kind of alcohol it was. Still, despite drinking what she must've imagined was a very conservative estimate of how much she could handle, she was apparently that much more of a lightweight.

Later that day, after she'd sobered up a little, she suddenly spoke up. "Hey. ...I've been a little selfish. Back home, at the tavern, it seemed like you wanted to speak to the 'real Ashley.' So, since this mission may be our only chance to speak together as equals, I wanted to... show you something a bit closer to how I am at home, I guess. Actually, I may have gone overboard just to see what you'd think of me. ...I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable." She shifts awkwardly, looking out over the railing of the ship at the stars on the horizon. "I'm a dark knight. Er, dark mage—and a knight. Both those things—" she clarifies, still a little tipsy. "—so choosing my words carefully is often a matter of life and death. I know my way of speaking is a bit stiff, and the way I have to switch between hiding my emotions and exaggerating them to fit in makes me seem... well, I get all kinds of comments about it. Anyway..." She turns away from Mikhail, a little shy now.

"Oh, but you deserved that joke about your 'lance.' You didn't believe me when I called you handsome, and that ticked me off just a lil' bit, yeah?" she says in a faux-grumpy voice. "My heart may be given over to the darkness, but I still have feelings, you know? A gentleman like yourself should be more considerate, really," she drawls like a spoiled noble lady, as though she were mocking somebody in particular with this "bit" she was doing.

---

The next day, Ashley realized that the calmness of the sea was unnatural. Yesterday—although she was drunk—was an ordinary day. This was not.

As she always did with Troe, she considered his words as carefully as she did her own. Without trying to lead her in any particular direction, he'd asked her how she was feeling today, while doing his best to pretend that engaging in small talk wasn't something completely unusual for him. "Yes, I feel it too," she confirms, cutting in line a bit with his planned list of questions. "I've worked with curses, evil spirits, and various mind-altering drugs. Even been bitten by a black widow once. You know that feeling of impending doom you get when you're poisoned like that? That unspeakable dread? ...Well, if you know it, you know it—but this isn't quite like that. It's more like the feeling of being watched, but... much more intense." Ashley continues to ponder a bit. "You ever been in someone else's manor—maid and menservants coming and going, clamoring every which way, busy about their work—but then you turn a corner, and there's nobody there?" she says ominously. "And you start to wonder about why. Why is nobody here? If someone sees me in this place, will I be in danger?" Ashley persists, making a bit of a clueless face. "It's that kind of feeling. This... profound sense of not belonging. Like I've unknowingly set foot on holy ground, angered some powerful something that's sneering down at me, and I'd better pray that I don't anger it any further."

It wasn't often that Ashley spoke her true feelings on something, with no reservation, so she took this opportunity to privately ask Troe a few questions of her own. "You know. Just because something no longer has a mind of its own doesn't mean it can't coordinate with others of its kind," she says, assuming that Troe will know what she's talking about. "You know how insects can communicate using pheromones? For example, you kill one hornet, and suddenly, the entire nest is attacking you? ...At first, I was thinking that our best option to secure the reward money would be to bring a live specimen back to the capital, perform a live dissection, and report our findings in person. But, as I keep thinking, more and more—especially with this foul mood—I find myself thinking: forget the reward money; what about the safety of our country? Let's do the research on-site, and report our findings normally—maybe bring back a severed head to appease the adventurous among us. But whatever evil is at work at Irinoth, we should leave it here—not risk bringing it back with us. Don't you think so?"

---

Ashley had her eyes on the horizon the whole time, looking out for the Santa Lyrica, and was one of the first to notice the approaching ships—and their trajectory. "BATTLE STATIONS!" she cried out, shortly before the first round of enemy fireballs flew up into the air.

Ashley reached a hand forward, creating a magic circle. It was an off-white, slightly violet color, and legible only to mages. Of the various forms of dark magic, this was a subtle one: that of a kind of "counterfeit" holy magic. Its runes pronounced suffering upon the enemy, masquerading as judgment.

"Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, who turn their eyes and ears from the Goddess and her precepts. Children of men, I know thy iniquities: how thou plunder and kill innocent men, and ravish women. Therefore, hear this word of judgment concerning thee: This day, the sea shall be thy master, and ye shall have the winds for a tormentor; yea, ye shall have each other's flesh for meat, and blood for drink. So have I written," Ashley finishes, pointing forward as the magic circle disappears... and nothing seems to happen, at first.

But aboard one of the enemy ships, there was chaos. All at once, a swarm of locusts had descended upon their sails, chewing at them. If nothing was done about it, their ship would be severely, if not completely disabled. One reckless mage, clearly a new recruit, was trying to delicately scare the insects away with flame, before a more senior sorcerer nearby scolded him severely, then began using ice instead. Others joined him, and soon the situation was under control, but not without damage to the sails, and a disproportionate cost in magic.

"Take evasive action; keep us out of range of their archers for as long as possible, and see if you can't separate the ships from each other—that one should be slower now," Ashley barked to the helmsman, before running back down to the main deck.

"O Goddess, my eldest friend. Be my shield. Envelop my mind, that I spare no thought for my enemies. Envelop my heart, that I may not be troubled. Envelop my body, and mold me into the image of an angel of death." As she says this, a thick, dark miasma emerges from under her cloak, surrounding her.

"Is that..?!" one of the mercenaries aboard the locust-infested vessel exclaimed quietly.

"Aye. The rumored dark mage, wanted dead or alive. Today's our lucky day. We bag her, you and me are set for life!"

"Khhk-khhk-khhk!" Ashley snickers, pure malice spreading across her face as she smiled. "That's right! All eyes on the witch! Waste your magic on me!"

Ashley cackled as fireball after fireball came hurling toward her like meteors, and she batted them out of the air like they were nothing. She limp-wristedly shakes her hand as though it were slightly too warm, mocking the enemies through the looking glass. As though they suspected it to be some kind of a trick, or a fluke, they try again with a second volley, only to fail a second time.

However, as it became obvious that Ashley's plan to evade the enemy ships had a definite shelf life, the voice she used to bark orders became more desperate. "Do we have any cargo we can toss?! Anything?!" she begged Tedreus, mentally going through everything she knew about naval battles—which, admittedly, wasn't much—but she had to think of something. She had to.

"Nothin' that'll make up that much difference in speed, little champ. You did yer best. Our best option now is to fight 'em man to man."

Ashley knew what that meant, despite the captain's attempt to make it sound simple. She looked crestfallen.

"Prepare to be boarded!" Ted shouted out, while Ashley took the moment to swallow her pride.

She angrily casts another miasma, using it as a smoke cover against impending archer fire as the two ships—which had hardly had time to be separated at all—approached, and the faster one was very nearly within range to shower them with arrows. "Everyone, retreat below decks now!" She shouted, maintaining the others' cover as she watched them scramble. By the time she herself began to run for the hatch, arrows had begun raining down, and were missing her by narrower and narrower margins as her cloud cover started to dissipate. Before she could shut and lock the hatch, one lucky arrow made its way through the crack and embedded itself in her left shoulder.

At first, Ashley didn't know what had happened. It felt like she'd been punched. It wasn't until she started falling down the stairs, and the arrow started getting knocked around and jostled against the gaps between the planks in the wall that she started screaming. But, she wasn't crying for a healer.

"Lock the hatch! LOCK IT PLEASE!!" she screamed, channeling all of her agony into those three words, as though it were the last order she'd ever need to make.

Tedreus obliged, scrambling over her writhing body to get to the hatch while Mikhail helped her to her feet.

---

Ashley had steadied her breathing as best she could by the time she was brought to Aleria.

"I hoped I'd... not need your... services... so soon, Sister..." she breathed, trying to ease the tension. Her shoulder was torn up pretty badly, as though she'd tried to remove the arrow herself, though she obviously wasn't so inexperienced as to try something like that. Something else must have happened. She was losing blood fast, and without a healer on deck, she would, at the very least, be down for the count. She seemed to be taking it well, though. So well, in fact, that she was still—weakly—barking orders.

"I need... mages... the portholes... knock'm dead... drown'm..." she mumbles weakly. Were there portholes? She couldn't remember. "Mikhail, you... take over—for me..."

Mikhail was really not all that concerned with the throng of women outside of their ship. It wouldn’t have surprised him all that much if one of his companions had pissed them off in some way or another. He wasn’t about to make accusations but he had an idea… thankfully something Ashley said to them got them to calm down and he stopped paying attention as he boarded the boat. Fortunately for him so he didn’t see what ended up happening to them afterwards.

Now most of them were on the boat again. Tonka and Aleria reeked of alcohol, then again so did Troe even though he didn’t seem all that affected. Now that he was thinking about it that man had a lot of shot glasses on his table. Either he was a monster or people just started putting their dirty dishes on his table. Unsure of which answer he preferred he started taking stock of the rest of the crew to verify they were all aboard. And with Xara being the last member to board he was satisfied that they were all here as they began to set out on the final leg of their journey. For the most part it was fairly uneventful, which was a very nice reprieve from the storms that beset them on the first leg of their journey. Thankfully this gave him some good opportunity to keep up with his training. At least once a day he’d use part of the top deck for working out and making sure he didn’t get rusty with his weapon.

Even though one day Ashley managed to walk up to him, completely sloshed out of her mind off of some stuff the sailors had on board. Her words were slurred so badly he could barely make out what she was trying to say. He took the bottle from her, taking a small swig for himself and sighed before he started dragging her to her bed. Practically having to carry her about halfway through considering she could barely walk. He made sure to sit with her until the alcohol wore off. Partially to make sure she didn’t accidentally hurt herself and partially to make sure she was okay afterwards. And only a small part was due to the fact that the alcohol was a bit stronger than he anticipated and he was not about to move till it settled down.

Once she eventually did sober up she started piping up about some of her earlier actions and even apologizing for some of the things she had done. Though when she was talking about wanting to show him more how she was at home he was also starting to get a bit embarrassed. But still he smiled. He stood up as he started to prepare to leave. “Well thankfully it takes a lot more than that to make me uncomfortable. Besides, it wasn’t too hard to tell that most of it was overplayed so I was wondering when I could get you to drop the act.” This time he laughed off the comment about his ‘lance’ again, even if he did start blushing again. “Of course milady, that was my mistake. I promise I shall not make that error again.” He said with the fakest voice and bow that he could muster before turning to walk away. “I look forward to seeing the real you.” A smile on his face as he left the room… and started entirely overthinking what he just said after getting a small distance away.

When that strange deadzone Mikhail didn’t put too much concern into it. Was it suspicious? Absolutely. Was he the one who could do anything about it or figure it out? Hell no. He left that to Ashley and Troe who talked and took notes extensively but he still answered questions that Troe had. Which ended up helping as he was one of the first to notice the distinct lack of animals considering that stood out to him more than the lack of wind. Once that came to his attention he realized something was extremely wrong, as animals are typically more attuned to noticing when things are just… wrong. Every day they were in that deadzone he would subtly and silently check in on the whole crew to make sure none of them were too off.

Once the wind picked up he was far more relieved. He was on his way to speak to Ashley on the deck until they were so rudely interrupted by the sudden approach of ships. As soon as their commander gave the call he was starting to evacuate people below the deck. Although he did get a little caught up in watching Ashley perform her magic, so dark and sinister. Though it’s power was absolutely nothing to sneeze at, as is usually the case when you see a skilled mage. He shook his head and kept corralling people down into the lower decks with Ashley being one of the last.

Everything stopped. Mikhail saw the arrow embed itself in Ashley’s shoulder and he rushed forward but he wasn’t able to catch her before the arrow got knocked around in her shoulder, mangling the wound pretty badly. “WE NEED A HEALER!” He called out as he brought her down towards Aleria, hoping that she’d be able to help.

"Mikhail, you... take over—for me..."

Mikhail nodded. He wasn’t sure how well he would be able to do but he’d be damned if he didn’t try. He grabbed his weapon and held it up as he began to disclose his plan. “Everyone listen up! We’re outnumbered and things are looking pretty dire, so if we wanna get out of this we’re gonna have to be smart about this. We’re gonna use this position we’ve holed up in to our advantage and let them funnel themselves into a bad position. Me, Tonka and Kav…” He looked around and couldn’t find Kavius. “Shit. Me and Tonka are gonna be the wall and hold them off in the melee front. Aleria, heal up Ashley. Make sure she doesn’t die and then support us at the front. Samara. Try to pick off as many people as you can and try to make sure we don’t get overrun. Mages, if you can do the same without collateral damage then do that too. If not then do as Ashley said and try to blast up as much of that ship as you can from the portholes. If we can thin their numbers down enough then we might be able to pull back the ship.” If he was being completely honest, he wasn’t sure how well this plan would work. He was hoping for a miracle… if only something could happen to one of those ships!

He waited for everyone to get into battle stations before yanking the hatch open and barely avoiding a few arrows that came his way. A couple of the invaders started trying to trample over themselves as they tried to enter the hatch but ultimately failed and had to file in.the first one tried to swing at Mikhail from a higher ground who used his weapon to parry the blade and impale his opponent who quickly fell. He backed down to the base of the stairs to avoid the ranged attacks and prepared himself as some of the dumber attackers started filing into the trap. “Just hold on everyone! We got this!”

As the battle commenced in a spectacular fashion, Kav remained out of sight. The others were at least returning fire in some way, Kavius could swear he could hear the magical whooshes of spells being cast. Other sea battle sounds drowned out anything that could be heard by Kavius to let him know the state of his comrades......that is if Kavius had bothered to think of them. After Kavius managed to miraculously escape immediate danger that he himself put himself in Kav hid himself on board one of the enemy ships. After diving into the water, resurfacing after the sight on him had been lost, and scaled one of the enemy ships walls, Kav had managed to hide himself by hanging on to the ship on the outside of its stern. Staying attached to the ship was proving difficult for Kavius who knew he needed to act. Quickly.

"Damn it", Kavius muttered to himself, "Need to move before I'm spotted." Kavius sighed softly and rolled his eyes. "You know what", Kav said while wagging his finger in the air mockingly, "Ashley would probably have had a better idea. Margot and Xara could have magicked something to he-OW MOTHER FUCKER OW!"

Kavius was cutoff mid sentence as an arrow suddenly found itself lodged on his lower left leg. Kavius was about to start cursing when his eyes spotted his assailant, an archer from the other boat who had unfortunately spotted Kavius as he wasted time. Kav gritted his teeth and practically began to throw himself upwards as he climbed up and over the side of the boat he had been climbing before his assailant had managed to find their mark again. Kavius landed on his rear, against the boats wall sitting directly across from the wheel of ship. With the loud noises of battle engaging, the archer that shot Kavius was not able to clearly communicate quickly that there was an intruder on the other boat. That would not last long. With a limp from his left leg and his now drawn sword in his right hand Kavius walked forward and up to the wheel. Seeing the multitude of enemies in front of him, Kavius began to sweat. He made eye contact with a few people who had spotted him but mostly everyone was distracted by their own fights. Mostly everyone. Two pirates who had spotted Kavius from the other side of the enemy ship began racing towards his position. As the first pirate strode up to Kav on his left, Kavius clashed with the pirate for a few strikes with their respective swords before Kavius landed a fatal blow to the pirates chest. As Kavius brought his sword up from his previous strike and turned to face the second pirate incoming, the pirate specified moved faster than Kavius could have predicted. Kavius was able to block the pirates first sword strike, received a painful slash to his left side. Only avoiding a fatal blow because Kavius twisted his body as much as he could to turn to the side to lessen the blow. This did not help with the pain as much as Kavius hoped as the pirate raised his right foot and kicked out at Kavius, sending him over the ships steering wheel and down to the floor of the deck. Bouncing once then rolling unintentionally for once is what saved Kavius, as he bounced and rolled Kavius fell down through the ships deck hatch to the ships below. Down a small staircase and bouncing and rolling below deck for a few moments, Kavius rolled into a barrel. When he did a few specks of red dust puffed out from underneath the barrels non secured lid. Kavius stood up as quickly as he could after a few moments, gasping at the pain from his left leg which still had an arrow lodged in it. He could make out a voice shouting to go below deck, which Kavius assumed was the pirate that knocked him down, and began to panic. He had less than twenty seconds at most before more pirates would swarm him and he would die. This was it. Kavius turned around and slammed a fist on to the barrel he bumped into and was surprised to see what was inside as the barrels lid fell off. Kavius smiled, realizing what he needed to do. Kavius scanned the area he was in, spotted a few small items within a few feet of him, and formed an idea.

Flash forward about sixty seconds later, an explosion suddenly burst from the bottom middle of one of enemy ship to the left of the stink boat. The explosion faced away from the stink boat but could be seen by all in this battle. Within ten seconds, the entirety of the enemy ship felt the warmth of a blazing fire spreading from the bottom of the ship all the way to the top. Two more smaller explosions shooting upwards right after each other from the bottom of the enemy ship caused mass fear and hysteria in the pirates on the ship. All who were not burnt alive or died from the sudden blasts took to doing whatever it took to escape the ship, albeit their chances of surviving were low to zero. As the fire spread throughout the ship the flames nearly touched the boarding ladder the enemies used to connect to the stink boat. In an act of desperation some of the pirates on the stink boat knocked away the boarding ladder in an attempt to stay safe from the potential threat of burning alive, as a few others still attempted to fight those who hid in the below deck of the stink boat. Luckily none of the fire or flaming debris from the explosions hit any of the other ships. Kavius had escaped through the burning hole in the enemies ship that he had made and had jumped through it and into the water before any enemies were able to touch him. Swimming underwater to his ship, with all his strength since he had to make up for the loss of usability in his left leg, Kavius felt very proud of himself. Kavius thought to himself how they must not have been this peoples first victims, or if they were these boats were stolen. Under the deck were half a dozen barrels of different spices such as Saffron, Cumin, and Cinnamon. If this next part was not due to Kavius extreme luck then Kav did not know what it was with him. Kavius was also able to find several small items such as flint and other items that could cause these spices to combust.

The only reason Kavius knew what to do with these items is because of his veyr short time spent amongst sailors. His mentor had not made Kavius spend an abundant amount of time at sea, but the sailors they befriended did take Kavius out to sea to find his sea legs and taught him several useful tips of the trade, such as what you could do with your inventory if you were surrounded on your boat at sea. Dark, but Kavius was never more grateful. He had taken an arrow to the leg, several shallow sword wounds, and was beat up and was extremely tired. Kav managed to swim over to the rear of the stink boat and simply held on for a bit. He needed to rest, but not fall asleep, since he doubted he could scale the ship now in his condition. He was out of sight and out of mind, but Kavius knew he was still at risk. It was only a matter of time before an enemy spotted. Kavius sighed again, cursing what rotten luck he had and wished he and Sam could be doing literally anything else at the moment. With a newfound strength rising beneath Kavius as the thought of Sam finding his dead body drifting at sea made him angry, Kavius turned and faced the both and found as tight of a grip as he was gonna get. Slowly, meticulously, and nearly falling Kavius managed to pull himself up and climb the ship. Kavs fingers bled as the small cracks he could find for his fingers caused an intense amount of pain. Kavius raised his head over rear wall of the ship once he made it to the top and shouted with all his strength.

"SURROUNDED BY THIRD RATE TRASH WITH THE ODDS STACKED AGAINST US! WHO DECIDED THAT??"

Hopefully this was enough to get his friends attention. As an enemies attack was sent towards Kavius, he let go and fell backwards into the water with a big splash and the sound of an arrow missing its target.

As Xara entered the boat, he could see the absolute fury in Ashley's face. She spent easily 5 minutes tirading him. About how they're on a mission and that it's irresponsible and they should've let him, all this time Xara pretty much mentally shuts her out and acknowledges her with a combination of hums and nods. He has better things to do then be treated like he's 8, like change his now dirty clothes.

Xara was the first to jump to Troe's research regarding the strange deadzone. He ultimately believes whatever is causing this strange interference is magic related. He tries all sorts of experiments to test for such a hypothesis, but nothing seemed to work, everyone's magic is working, tomes aren't reacting to anything. What could it be? This mystery bothers him to no end and he'll absolutely come back here one day to figure out this anomaly.

Naturally curious, Xara was one of the first to watch the ships approach, but his curiousity quickly turned to apprehension, as he makes out a surprising amount of people on the upperdeck. He mutters outloud, "Uh, Ashley?" As he says this, he makes out that those people are carrying, bows?! "NOPE!" He's the first to bolt to cover, hiding behind the sail's mast.​ As he soon as he runs, the archers release their wave of arrows, and everyone else proceeds to panic and follow in his lead. He watches the ships quickly approach and use make shift ladders to board. He bolts and practically jumps down the steps and out of the way of the stampede, running to the other side of the inner boat. Seconds after everyone else enters, he hears someone fall down the stairs, as well as a loud scream and his companions yelling amongst each other.

He closes his eyes and breathes. Be the stone among the pillars of sand. What do we know about the situation? One of them is injured, Aleria will be busy. Mik, Tonka and Kav will likely be defending the latch, and Samara is probably still sea sick. That leaves potentially Margot, Troe, Ashley, and Tedreus.

He looks for tactical means. It's likely the invaders have already boarded, making hatch escape nigh impossible. The port holes could work, but they're too small for everyone. Well, everyone except for him. What would that accomplish though? Fire would take too long, ice wouldn't do jack, and his wind likely couldn't break through the hull. What about his Bolting tome? He'd need direct line of sight for it to be any good. And where would he hit? What about the bridges? They're a critical part of the pirates' strategy... How is he gonna reach them though? Through all the chaos around him, Xara gets an idea.

Pushing through the crowd, Xara takes Troe by the hand and brings him to the closest porthole. "I know this sounds crazy, but I want you to launch me straight up into the air, as high as you can get me. You're a dedicated wind mage, right? Well this is your chance to prove it." Troe eyes Xara trying to fit through the porthole, it's an incredible squeeze, even for him. But he manages it, trying not to look down at the endless water below. He firts gets seated and then stands up. "I promise this is a good idea!"

Troe launches Xara, and as he does so, the world slows down around him, he passes the upper deck, and he sees the first bridge, currently ignoring the extra stimulus like the other boat currently exploding. As he reaches past the crow's nest, he sees the other boat board as well. With expert speed, Xara activated his tome and points at both bridges. "SNIPE!" 2 large thunderbolts from nowhere appear from the sky and strike both bridges. They explode into thousands of pieces as the raiders are now falling in the water or unlucky enough to be struck by the blasts themselves. All of the chaos that ensues means nothing to him as he prepares his wind tome, falling at an increasing rate, he passes the upper deck, his adrenaline pumping. If there's a time trust himself, it's now. As he sees the portholes get closer and closer, he activates a spell. He uses the same spell he used in the tavern and on Kavius, he slows his momentum a bit as it stops all together for a hair of a second. He stretches his arms forward like an olympic diver and shoots himself into the open porthole. He's lucky he makes the narrow hole, but is stopped midlaunch has his hips strike the sides of said window, knocking the wind out of him and leaving him with sudden pain in his lower body. He immediately feels like an oaf as he's now struggling, stuck there with his legs and butt sticking out for easy archer fodder.

Margot opened her eyes and yawned. She glanced up at the wooden ceiling and climbed off the hammock that she had been napping on. Ah, another day as the captain's woman. I know exactly how to pick the right man so I can enjoy an easy life, don't I? The captain's quarters is sooo comfortable.

Her first instinct was to look to her right. There were sooo many wine bottles. The captain's wine collection...

Which ones should I taste this time? Pinot Grenoir? Pinot Savour? White wine? Red wine? Maybe some burgandy? Maybe some Veliz Altriz?

Wine of any type is deelicious! But a captain's wine has the best taste, especially this captain... who really likes to collect wine!

A man's work is my enjoyment!

She caressed each of the bottles, unsure of which one to taste this time, until she found the perfect one. She took one of the bottles, popped its cap, poured the wine into a glass, then took another bottle, popped its cap, and poured it into the same glass. She was in the mood to experiment today. A mix of the best! That's right! The best of both worlds!

After she finished pouring, she swirled the dark liquid in her wine glass, smiled, then let it rinse into her mouth. Delicious! The flavor rushed through her nostrils and her taste buds, making her squeal in delight. Oh, wow! This is great! I've invented a new flavor by mixing two types of wine together!

She relaxed. Life is good. A captain's woman's life is the best! I get the best treatment. I get to enjoy life.

After she emptied the wine glass, she looked at another bottle to experiment. She smiled. She was gonna mix three wine bottles this time. Creativity at its finest!

Life is short. isn't enjoying life is what life is all about?

The past few days had been a horrid and cloudy experience. Sam's involvement with the sea had always been bad but never had she been aboard a vessel during a storm so bad as this one. The first day was fine but after the storm, her days and nights during the first part of the voyage were either spent relying on Kav or being out of it probably puking into a bucket somewhere. She isn't entirely sure what happened during the time of the storm or after but she knows that Kav was there to help a lot and she woke up one time from her delirium in a hammock. She wasn't quite sure how she had arrived in the rope bed. She didn't fully understand it but the unusual bed definitely helped her stomach to not be doing as many flips as it normally would be.

At some point, there was a period where she could tell that the rocking of the sea was not as harsh. Were they at land then? Samara was still feeling very squeamish and lay in the gentle swinging of the hammock. Unbeknownst to her, Sam had slept through the entirety of the stop at Santorini. Unless told by someone she would know nothing about the very interesting occurrences that happened on the island. Guaranteed she barely knew what had happened during the storm or after that either.

She did wake up when the boat began moving again. Slowly she made her top deck to see they were slowly drifting away from the island. A small splash of disappointment flashed across her face, but they could always make the stop again on their way back. She saw Kav near Ashley. Samara quietly walked over to the two. She needed some sun so even if someone tried to force her back into bed she'd fight against it. Other than that she'd stick close to Kav.

Oddly enough, after departing from Santorini, the crashing and rocking of the waves were almost non-existent. It was odd and eerie. In the city, if things got too quiet it was almost a sign to run or at least find somewhere to hide. But the wide-open seas were a different matter. She had no real experience to draw from on if this was unordinary or not. She just found it odd that it felt almost like she was back on land with how little the boat swayed. When Troe began asking about the oddity of this dead spot, Sam's unease about the situation grew. She answered whatever questions she had but eventually added, "I don't know about the sea but in the streets of the city you never want it to be this quiet." Then she went below deck to try and sleep the rest of her nausea away.

Eventually, the open ocean seemed to return to normal but that didn't help to assuage her worry. As the ship began to renew its rocking she chose to stay below deck and rest. Suddenly, she was woken from her slumber by shouts and people flooding below deck. They were under attack? Why though? Anyone looking at their boat would think the people on it had nothing of worth to take. Or was it because they seemed to be the easiest marks? Sam weakly gripped Kav's shoulder trying to keep him from going out there but he easily slipped out of her hand to continue his way towards the hatch. At this point, she knew there was nothing she could say or do to stop him so instead she tried to quickly ready herself for battle. Once she was ready she tried to follow but was soon stopped by some members of the crew. While normally she would've been fine up there, in her condition they could tell she'd be in a bad way if she tried to go up there without cover or assistance.

As Mikhail called out orders she noticed that their leader had already been hit. That definitely wasn't a good sign. "That IDIOT rushed up there alone. I need to get up top." Mikhail's plan didn't seem to involve taking back the top deck just yet, and it wasn't like she could push past a horde by herself. She grimaced at the thought of what Kavius may be going through. She had to get up there. Anger and anxiety-fueled her as she let loose her first arrow once Mikhail opened the hatch. The arrow flew with deadly accuracy and embedded itself in the eyepatch of one of the invading 'adventurers'.

Out of the corner of her eye, she notices Xara talking to Troe about some scheme. Samara lets loose another arrow connecting with an enemy's torso a little to the left of the heart. As the two mages set about their plan, Sam thinks up one of her own. She rushes to the other side of the boat from the two and slowly begins working her body out of the porthole. She had to leave behind some of her gear, but having leaned her bow and quiver against the wall, she was able to reach back in while hanging off the side of the boat to retrieve those items. Many times she has had to fit through very tight spots but the porthole was definitely among the smallest. It was a good thing that everyone else was drawing enough attention so that her grunts didn't alert any of the enemies. Sam knew she was likely to be berated later as this was a dumb move and since she couldn't swim she'd be in serious trouble if she fell.

As the chaos on the other side began Sam started working her way up only to hear an explosion not far behind her. Pressing herself against the side of the Stinkboat to avoid being spotted, she looked around wondering what had happened. The people assaulting their boat were split and frazzled by all the big moves. Some were abandoning the sinking vessel rushing aboard the Stinkboat while some seemed to be moving to see what was wrong. There were way too many people on the Stinkboat now for Sam to safely and stealthily maneuver around up there. Deciding upon another dumb idea, Sam brought her legs up between her torso and the boat. Making sure she knew where she was trying to land, Sam kicked off the side of the boat towards the sinking one only to collide with it missing her intended target. Luckily she was able to find a purchase when she reached out her hands.

Her head was spinning but she started climbing anyway. On the deck of the slowly sinking boat, she had a good visual of the Stinkboat. She was about to begin Shooting down the horde only for the attention of hers, along with many others, to be drawn to the back of the boat. It was Kav and he looked in absolutely awful shape. She took aim at the person close to him but the arrow fell early and landed in the man's leg. CRAP! This was not good. Kav was all the way to the back of the Stinkboat and back in the water. Sam took a few more shots at anyone who seemed to be going near where Kav was only one finding full purchase while the others merely grazed their targets. Her position by now was fully given away and enemy archers were sending their own arrows at her. She ducked behind cover to avoid the missiles. She was panicking about how to help Kavius when her vision latched onto a long coil of rope. She didn't know if it would work but it was better than nothing.

Quickly she tied one end of the rope around an arrow and the other end around a banister. That's when the few who had stayed behind to stop the sinking of their boat came back up. She let two arrows fly with one embedding itself deep into the mage's throat and the other hitting another shoulder. Taking the rope arrow she quickly shot it towards Kav only for it to not land near him. She pulled out her dagger and rushed the enemy yelling, "KAV HURRY!"

"Kav, wake up you lazy ass."

Kavius awoke with a start, eyes suddenly opened and mind scrambled. It took a few moments but Kavius began to remember where he was. He and Sam had taken a small respite from work and training, napping in an open field. Well....Kav had been napping while Sam refused to leave them both defenseless. Kavius had tried to convince her to rest as well, very lazily, but had fallen asleep mid sentence. They were both in an open field that seemingly stretched on for miles, no sign of any towns or other settlements anywhere nearby. Kavius smiled but stayed laying down.

Kavius sighed happily. "Sam-ah-lam seriously, you gotta try relaxing more. You're gonna die young or at the very least ruin that pretty face of yours."

Samara slapped the top of Kavs head, as she was sitting next to him and it was easy to do so, which made Kavius flinch but never made him lose his smile.

"That was not very nice madam Sammy."

"It wasnt very nice of you going off on your own, leaving me behind."

Kavius raised an eyebrow at Sam clearly confused. "What?"

"You left me, to go fight pirates. You almost died, your bleeding pretty bad right now and for what? To try to play hero? Thats soooo not like you."

Kavius, more confused than before, slowly sat upright and cross legged next to Sam.

"What did you think you could accomplish by yourself? Against what is basically an army?"

"Sam your not making any-"

Kavius cut himself off mid sentence as a flood of memories began to pour into his mind. He remembered being on the boat, he remembered going off on his own, and he remembered-

"Crap", Kavius exclaimed, "I'm dead."

Samara sighed and stood up in front of Kavius. "Your not dead dumbass, if you were dead why would I be here? Even if I died too you think I would want to spend my afterlife with you?"

At this Kavius frowned. "Yea no your right. The real Sam would never say something that horrible to me. Hit me? Oh yea. Degrade me a bit, why the hell not? That was just cold though."

Sam laughed loudly at this. "Kav, I am just a projection in your mind. You passed out, probably, and your mind is roaming. Anything I say, you have already thought of."

Kav looked down. She, or he as in himself really, was right. Deep down he was waiting for Sam to just not be there one day. But that hardly mattered now. "Maybe but I dont have time for this."

Sam kneeled down in front of Kav and spoke. "Then KAV HURRY!"

Kavs eyes opened widely, the sound of warfare penetrating his skull. His left leg throbbed painfully and he felt sore and wounded all over. Turning his head slowly to the left then right, he spotted and arrow with a rope attached to it. Kavius smiled, knowing only one person he knew who would do that. There was a bit of distance between him and the arrow but Kavius knew what he needed to do. This was going to hurt. A lot. Kavius groaned as he turned his body sideways, readying himself to swim. He had no time to pace himself, gritting his teeth, Kavius swam to the arrow. Once he reached it and grabbed hold of it. He wasn't sure if anyone was going to help him further, so as quick as he could Kav tugged and pulled himself closer to the boat. Once he was able to touch the boat he hoisted himself up the boat, using the rope, and was pulled up and overboard. Kavius gasped rapidly for air, not believing the amount of pain he was in was real. Looking up he saw Sam, remembering his little dream.

With a smile Kavius looked Sam in the eyes and spoke, unable to stand and gasping for air and in pain after every word. "Hi..Sammy..just..been..out..for..a..stroll."There was still battle raging, but everyone seemed to be doing their part or defending themselves. "Having..fun?"