The Battle

The fog had risen quickly, as it often does around the islands of Hilwahr—and no one on board was particularly pleased about it. Not only did they risk running aground, as they were quite close to shore, but the centaur could not have asked for a better cover under which to slip by them. Aenwyn stood silent for a moment, considering her options.

"Nina, get into the crow's nest," she ordered, pausing briefly as the gnome saluted and scurried up the mast. "And Caio, light a way to shore. We might find something."

Caio nodded and stretched out his hand, closing his eyes. He took a deep breath, and, with a slight movement of his wrist, a small flame flickered to life in the palm of his hand. Vivi looked on with an eyebrow raised—this wasn't the first time she had seen a firebender in action, but Caio only very rarely used his skill. Caio paused for a moment, clearly enjoying the attention of his crewmates, but then sent the fireball flying toward where he thought the shore ought to be. The fog swirled in its wake as the fire skirted over the water's surface, but after only a few seconds, it disappeared from sight.

Evidently, however, a few seconds were enough. "A ship!" Nina cried from the top of the mast. "Not too far ahead... With the course they seemed to be holding, they'll go just by our port side in about a minute."

"It must be him," Esmond mumbled. "Who else would try to sail in this fog?"

"Indeed," Aenwyn responded, then ordered the boarding hooks to be readied—an order that the crew hurried to carry out. A hushed silence fell over the ship, only briefly broken by a faint shout from the Onyx—which had fallen quite a bit behind—confirming that they, too, had spotted their target.

"Should we await the Onyx, captain?" asked Sarjeon, who was, as usual, standing at the helm.

"No," Aenwyn replied shortly. "If we wait, he may slip away. If his crew outnumbers us, though... we'll have to reconsider."

Vivi stood in the bow, tensely gazing out into the grey nothingness surrounding them. This wasn't her first battle—she had fought her way out of scrapes many times, usually whenever one of Zeren's jobs went awry—but she still felt uneasy. She had never met a centaur before, much less fought one, and considering her and Owen's recent brush with death... She paused for a moment and sighed before finishing the thought out loud: "More surprises are the last thing I need."

Suddenly, a ship emerged from the fog in front of them. For a split second, both sides took in the scene; Vivi immediately spotted the centaur towering above everyone else, but he was not alone on the ship. An old elf dressed in a wizard's robe stood next to the great ballista mounted in the bow; he had a staff in his hand, a sword by his side, and a longbow strapped to his back. Behind him stood three young men—the youngest one was no more than a boy—and perched on the centaur's shoulder stood a little fairy. Standing just in front of the centaur, however, was someone she instantly recognized: the infamous elf assassin known as the Crow.

"What's he doing here?" wondered Owen, who had temporarily left his post in the galley to stand on deck next to Vivi as his curiosity got the better of him. "I'd have figured he'd keep out of sight, especially after—"

Vivi cast a curious glance toward him, but before he could finish his sentence, Aenwyn apparently decided that there was no need to wait for reinforcements. "All right, boys! Let's get to it!" she shouted, and the crew let out a thunderous war cry. The centaur's crew responded in kind, and in an instant, both sides had drawn their weapons and launched themselves into the fray—and Owen had launched himself back to his post.

Vivi, too, drew her knife and boldly swung herself across the abyss, landing in a crouch on the deck of the centaur's ship. She looked up and picked out a target—the old wizard—and set off in a sprint across the deck towards him, but she found her way blocked by the boy she had seen earlier. He was armed only with a stick, but it looked heavy enough to do some damage, and Vivi preferred not to become more closely acquainted with it. She nimbly ducked under his strike and landed a left hook on his ear, causing him to stumble into the ballista, then quickly followed up with a crescent kick to his gut, sending him sprawling to the deck. Not wanting to waste any more time on him, she turned back around to look for the wizard but found, to her dismay, that he had retreated towards the stern of the ship, holding an old book he had pulled from goodness knows where in one hand. Deciding he was too far away to bother with, she turned to look for a new target, but she was suddenly interrupted by a gleeful cry. Spinning around, she saw its source: Kharis was standing in the middle of the deck, pointing a gun at the Crow with a malicious smile on his face.

"Well, look what we have here!" he snarled, his usually silent eyes glittering with an indescribable emotion. "The traitor."

The fighting around them came to a brief pause as combatants on both sides turned to watch the scene unfold. The Crow glanced around, a calm but intensely focused look in his eyes.

"Traitor?" he mused, the faintest hint of a smile appearing on his lips. "Depends on your point of view."

Without warning, he slipped under his opponent's guard, slashing at him with the dagger in his right hand. Still sneering, Kharis dodged the blow and opened his mouth—most likely to ridicule the assassin for his failed attack—but he never saw the knife in his left hand. Ardreth let out a howl of rage as Kharis fell and blindly rushed in to avenge his brother; faster than the eye could follow, the Crow had pulled a black spike from his belt and let it sail through the air—and both the elf twins lay at his feet.

Vivi felt a jolt run through her as their bodies crumpled to the ground, but in the very next instant, the battle resumed in full force. She tore her gaze away from the fallen elves and briefly saw Aenwyn charging at the Crow with her sword lifted for the kill. The assassin drew his own sword, skillfully parrying Aenwyn's first attack—but soon, the chaos of the battle drowned out everything else.

Over the din, she heard a faint but shrill "Yippee Ki-Yay!" followed by an equally shrill curse, and looking up, she spotted the fairy hurtling past her. Without really thinking, she reached out and snatched the little creature in mid-air. She was obviously intoxicated, and her attempts at resistance were enthusiastic but thoroughly uncoordinated—the impact with Vivi's hand had been enough for her to drop her little sword, and although she wriggled, screamed, and cursed until her face turned blue, Vivi kept a firm grip on her.

"Release me!" the fairy squealed. "Fear me!" Vivi just snorted in response, making it clear that she did, in fact, not fear her, which seemed to infuriate the fairy even more. "Fool!" she spat, cursing like a sailor. "You'll regret this!"

"Regret what?" Vivi asked sardonically. "It's not like there's much of you to fear."

The fairy froze, her face radiating pure shock and indignation. "Not much to fear?!" she howled. "Try asking my body count, you twat!"

Vivi rolled her eyes, not paying much attention to the fairy's continued ranting. She paused for a moment, keeping a wary eye on her surroundings as she pondered what to do with her little prisoner, but her thoughts were interrupted by a sudden, intense heat flaring around her head. She spun around, trying to find the source of the mysterious sensation, and found herself staring into the dark eyes of the old wizard. He was muttering the last few syllables of some ancient incantation, and his staff—to Vivi's alarm—was pointed right at her, the end of it shimmering with an eerie, blood-red glow. In a desperate attempt to break the wizard's spell, she raised her knife and lunged at him, but before she had even taken a single step, he vanished from her sight like smoke in the wind. Utterly confused, she turned around to look around the deck in search of him, but all she could see around her was smoke and shadows.

"What sort of magic..." she muttered, blinking several times and shaking her head in an attempt to regain her senses. She could still hear the shouting, the screaming, and the clashing of swords, but they seemed to have lost all meaning to her. She faintly wondered where the wizard had gone, but she didn't know why she cared. She felt herself become dizzy and took a few uncertain steps backward; she heard the clatter of the knife hitting the deck as her hands relaxed, and...

Vivi screamed in pain as she suddenly felt the fairy's surprisingly sharp teeth dig into her thumb. She stumbled backward in shock, tripping and falling against the railing, and instinctively flung the little creature away from her. The fairy didn't seem eager to continue her attack and simply flew away, shouting obscenities behind her.

A few seconds passed before Vivi managed to open her eyes. She still felt sickeningly dizzy, and her head throbbed as if she had run it into a wall, but her surroundings were beginning to look more or less normal—the smoky shadows lifted as if blown away by a gentle breeze, leaving in their place the still-raging battle.

She glanced around as she struggled back to her feet, trying to get her bearings. She saw the wizard, still standing right in front of her, but now with his back turned—he had just finished once again casting his spell, this time on Esmond, who collapsed onto the deck before Vivi could react. The wizard looked around for his next target, and his eyes landed on Aenwyn, who was now fighting the centaur together with Sergius and Sarjeon. He lifted his staff towards her, but Vivi, whose mind was finally clear enough to realize what was about to happen, finally sprang into action. She launched herself towards the wizard, snatching up her knife from the deck as she passed it, and latched on to his staff with one hand while slashing at him with the knife in her other hand. Reacting completely out of instinct, the old elf clumsily grabbed Vivi's wrist in a desperate attempt to keep the knife away from him, sending his spellbook tumbling to the deck in the process.

"Well!" he exclaimed, his tone somewhere in between intrigued and offended. "You're not supposed to be awake."

"Sorry to disappoint," Vivi grunted, struggling to pull the wizard's staff away from his grasp—but while he was old, the elf wasn't exactly frail and weak, and Vivi knew it wouldn't be long before he would manage to pull himself free.

"Oh, I suppose I should only blame myself," the wizard responded, with surprisingly little emotion considering the situation he was in. "I must not have read the incantation correctly... Or perhaps I needed to cast it just a bit longer..."

"Well, I'm glad to hear you have something to ponder about," came Aenwyn's voice from right behind them. Vivi quickly turned her head and spotted the captain, standing with her sword pointed toward the wizard. Behind her, Vivi noticed the others had managed to throw a net over the centaur, momentarily subduing him.

The wizard, however, made good use of the distraction to finally fling Vivi away from him, and, realizing his spellbook was out of reach, drew his own sword. "I have to warn you," he said gravely, "while I may be out of practice, this sword is not just for show."

"Duly noted," Aenwyn replied, lunging forward to strike at the wizard. Visibly surprised at the speed of her attack, the old elf raised his sword to defend himself—but he was vastly outmatched. After a very brief flurry of strikes, Aenwyn knocked the sword from his hand with a flick of her blade.

"Ah— Bravo!" he exclaimed, raising his hands with a sheepish look on his face. "But, perhaps it should not be too surprising, it has been quite a while since I used that sword last."

"I'm sure it has," Aenwyn said calmly, barely out of breath. "Now, are you going to surrender, or will I have to be a bit more persuasive?"

The wizard didn't look like he needed much more persuasion, but before they could find out for sure, they were interrupted by shouting from behind them. The centaur, even though nearly half the crew was now trying to hold him down, had managed to partially cut himself free from the net and was now charging towards them.

"This again?" Aenwyn said, turning away from the wizard to face her new opponent. "You really don't know when to stay down."

The centaur only replied with a slash of his saber, which Aenwyn expertly parried. Sergius and Sarjeon joined the fray as well, but the centaur was somehow managing to keep all of them at bay, swinging back and forth between them all with astonishing speed for a being his size. The wizard, meanwhile, dove to retrieve his spellbook—but before he could make any use of it, Caio sent a blast of fire towards him, forcing him to conjure a shield to take cover behind.

"I got this one," Caio said calmly, charging up another fireball in his hand. "You go help the others."

Vivi nodded and turned towards the centaur, looking for an opening. The remnants of the net still hanging from the centaur's shoulders flew by her as he turned to block one of Sarjeon's strikes, and she decided that was as good an opening as any. She grabbed onto the net, trying to hold the centaur down—but he was far too strong, and Vivi would have been lifted clean off her feet if Mao and Faelyn hadn't immediately rushed to assist her, grabbing the net as well. The centaur lashed out with his saber, trying to free himself—one of his strikes caught Mao in the arm, and she let go of the net with a cry of pain—but he was clearly running out of steam, and it wasn't long before they had cornered him in the stern of the ship. The fighting paused, and the centaur glanced around at them all—he was outnumbered and surrounded on all sides, but still defiantly holding his saber in front of him.

"I assume you want me to surrender?" the centaur said—his voice was calm but with a hidden edge to it, and it was deeper than Vivi had expected.

"Yes, I feel that would be appropriate," replied Aenwyn, who was standing face-to-face with the centaur. "Will that be a problem?"

The centaur cast a glance towards the wizard, who had finally been forced to retreat from Caio's explosive onslaught and had taken refuge next to him in the stern, then towards the fairy, who was again perched on his shoulder and, to Vivi's great satisfaction, still appeared to be unarmed. He scanned the deck for any sign of the wizard's three assistants, but they had been subdued and disarmed long ago—and the Crow was slumped against the mast with a bloody wound in his side. Vivi guessed it was Aenwyn's handiwork. "I suppose I have no choice," he muttered, giving Aenwyn a long, searching look before finally sighing and throwing his sword onto the deck.

"Excellent," Aenwyn said, sheathing her own sword. "Well then. Caio and Faelyn, keep an eye on our guests... and make sure to relieve them of their armaments." The wizard and the centaur begrudgingly started handing over their quite impressive load of weapons, while the fairy, who had none left to hand over, simply hurled insults at her captors.

"Imbeciles!" she hissed at them. "If I had my rapier now, you would all be stricken blind before you could capture me again! I am not to be underestimated!" She shook a fist in the air. "I am to be feared!" Clearly intending to act on her words, she threw herself towards the captain, but the centaur caught hold of her.

"Sarjeon, how are we holding up?" Aenwyn asked, turning her back on the wildly protesting fairy. "Any more injuries?"

"Yes, Captain," said Sarjeon with a slow nod. "Mao is rather seriously wounded in her arm, Nina has taken an arrow to the foot, and Tyrvoril seems to have been incapacitated by some sort of spell. I have been told Blackwood also had the spell cast on her, but"—he cast a quick glance towards Vivi—"she seems to be doing well now." He paused, looking towards where the wounded had been gathered in the front of the ship. "I don't want to move them back to the Ajdaha unless we have to, but I sent Terry to fetch his medical supplies. He will take care of them."

Aenwyn nodded, suddenly looking very old. "Very well," she muttered. "And what of our friends Kharis and Ardreth?"

Sarjeon's expression was one of subdued anger. "They are both dead, captain. There was nothing we could do."

"I see." Aenwyn sighed, standing on the deck and staring out into the fog for a while. Then she looked up with a start as if she had forgotten something and spun back to face Caio and Faelyn. "Make sure you tie those two up!" she hollered. "Not that I think they're not men of their word, but it's not proper to have dangerous captives roaming free on deck. Whatever would Zeren say?"

"Speaking of," mumbled Vivi, "where is Zeren?" No one seemed to be in the mood to answer her question, so she started making her way over to the front of the ship, where Owen and Terry had just started tending to their wounded crewmates.

"Hey Vivi!" Owen shouted, slightly less cheerfully than usual but with no shortage of enthusiasm. "How are you holding up?"

"Could be better," she groaned in response, rubbing her temples—as the adrenaline started to wear off, her headache had returned with a vengeance. "That old wizard tried to send me to the shadow realm." She cast a brief glance towards Mao, who was lying unconscious on the deck while Owen hurriedly bandaged her bleeding arm, but immediately regretted it. "Are they gonna be okay?"

"They should be fine," Terry muttered as he disinfected the rather nasty-looking wound in Nina's foot. "The only thing I can't figure out is how to break this spell that wizard put on Edmond—or whatever it is."

"That drunken fairy bit me in the thumb, and I seemed to come out of it pretty quickly." Vivi chuckled. "Maybe you should try that?" She quickly had to step forward and stop Owen, who had taken her entirely seriously.

Terry shook his head. "I've already tried everything I can think of to jostle him awake—not specifically biting his thumb, but I doubt that's what made the difference... perhaps the pain interrupted the spell before it had time to fully take hold."

"Or maybe there's just something special about that fairy... maybe the alcohol?" Vivi joked, sitting down next to Owen—but she shot back to her feet just as quickly as a dull, thunderous report came out of the fog.

"What in all blazes was that?" said Owen, who had also gotten to his feet. "Is there a storm coming?"

"No, not a storm," said Faelyn, who had approached to stand behind Vivi. "Those are cannons."