My eyes snapped open in Jasper's cabin, and my aura flashed out around me. Someone cried out, and as I sat up, I saw Prended ducking behind the central table as lines of blood dripped down his flesh, and his tunic was slashed in a dozen places. Bob stood stoically, sparks flashing as the invisible blades glanced off his armoured shell.

I reached for control and pulled it back in. The aura had changed. Before, I'd had to struggle to send it out; now it was coiled and ready to go, and I had to fight to keep it locked up and could release it with a thought.

Path of Divinity. Patron: Aresk Foeslayer

Divine Ichor: level 2

Divine Physique: Level 3

Divine Intellect: Level 3

"Sorry, kid." I threw a Heal Other spell at him as I rose to my feet. He glowed green for a moment, and his injuries began to quickly knit back together. This didn't seem to reassure him, and he pushed himself back into a corner of the room, staring at me wide-eyed.

"L–Lord. The machine was concerned when you emerged unconscious from the crow! Are you… well?" the boy asked.

"As well as can be. And just call me Mond. Bob, you were worried about me?"

"It was an aberration I could not explain. Technically, while in storage, an object ceases to exist until it is released. A state change from waking to unconscious should not be possible. Are you sure you're well?"

"Had a chat with your old man. Seems things have changed a little. Is Wilson still in storage?"

"The bird felt it was best to keep him in limbo, in light of his irrational aversion to the water," said Bob with a mechanical, many-armed shrug.

"Fair enough." I moved over, swept a patch of the table clear of Jasper's charts, and dumped the books and charts from the hidden locker aboard the Juntian vessel out of my storage ring. I spread out a couple of the charts and glared at them. They were thick with notes scribbled next to strange markings. A couple of them showed stretches of coastline that I didn't recognise; it could be any section of this version of the Mediterranean. One of them caught my eye because it wasn't the coastline.

The outlines of a series of islands showed amidst an incredible amount of notes. Anywhere that wasn't an island or a reef was covered in tiny, neat scribbles in a written language I didn't recognise.

"Prender, Bob, does this make any sense to you?" I looked up to find Bob flicking through pages of a notebook like the machine he was, bronze fingers blurring as the pages turned so fast they hummed. The bot and the boy moved over, one uncaring, the other cautiously, and shooting me sideways glances when he thought I wouldn't notice.

"I don't recognise these islands, sir… Mond. They could be anywhere. The Inner Sea has hundreds of such clusters. That–" his finger fell on a crude drawing to one side of the chart, "–is a Jarliut plant. They're very rare. They are used in religions."

"In religions?" I asked.

"In secret rites. No one knows how they are really used, only that the Kantic Ritual of Absolution uses them for something."

"They are used to induce a euphoric state at the climax of the ritual, to reinforce the belief that they have been touched by the gods," Bob interjected. "They need a near-perfect climate to grow. According to the notes, these islands have a near monopoly on them."

"Oh great, a fucking clue. Do you know where the Kantic cultists get their drugs from by any chance?"

"No, Raymond, I do not. But that is largely irrelevant. These charts state that this archipelago is three days south-southwest of Junt. It also details the shoals and shifting sandbanks that make the place dangerous to approach. As well as some dangerous local fauna that you will need to be wary of should you make landfall outside of the safe harbor."

"So this is the Kentani stronghold?"

"It is one of them. The notebooks suggest almost a dozen similarly difficult-to-approach locations that they have used to construct a series of bases to refit their ships." The golem nodded solemnly. "I believe this is likely the main base of operations."

Can you get us there? I asked Glimpse. The crow flapped in from outside and settled on the chart table, cocking his head to one side. He hopped back and forth, then did a crap off the edge of the table.

"I take it that's a no?" I asked.

Not from this distance. If we were closer, if there was something familiar I could see, it wouldn't be a problem.

"Prender. I need a favour." The boy looked up at me, then bowed deeply.

The former slaves were only too happy to oblige. The men had taken a liking to the boy-captain, as I now thought of Prender. He had been kind to them before they were freed. Whether that was simply because he was too slight to intimidate the thickly muscled slaves, or from an innate gentleness, I had no idea.

But the kid had won their affections. A deal had been worked out. Those of them who wished to leave the ship would do so at a port of their choice, and the value of the cargo in the holds would be divided up equally among them all, giving those who were sick of the sea a decent start in their new lives.

Most of them had been at sea for such a large part of their lives that they couldn't imagine going back to the land. The majority were eager to receive daily instructions in close quarters and unarmed combat from Bob and me as we sailed southwest towards the Jana Isles, as it was called in our stolen charts.

On the second day, we put ashore at the mouth of a minor river, and a group rowed ashore with barrels to collect fresh water. As we were waiting at anchor, another ship rounded the headland in the distance and began to turn towards us.

"Kentani?" I asked Prender, who scowled and shrugged.

"Not flying their colours, but what pirate flies under their real flag?"

"Want Glimpse to deal with it, or do you want to give your new wizards a try?" I asked.

"Keep the bird close, to intervene if necessary. Leave it to us for now." Prender still looked like he was barely an adult, but in the last few days, he had grown into his new position, and now he acted like a captain without even thinking. He was one of the better fighters as well, which didn't hurt his reputation among the former slaves. Quick and wiry, dangerous if he got in close.

"If you're sure."

"We won't have a god to shield us forever. We need to train with the artifacts you've given us. They might just be here to gather water and trade."

Most of them had come from the leather pouches hidden aboard the pirate flagship. Replacements in the event that a Battery-Mage was killed or lost his own equipment. I had crafted a few stones for them, though. My best fireballs, a few Shape Vegetation spells in case they needed to repair hull damage quickly. That kind of thing.

"You reckon? We haven't seen another ship for a while," I replied softly. It was the kid's show as far as I was concerned. I could step in anytime I felt the need.

"See how the sail is rigged?" he asked, leaning out over the railing at the prow of the ship to squint against the sun glinting on the waves. "It's not like us. Slanted boom, triangular sail, not square. And they're rowing hard. Which makes no sense, the tide and wind will carry them in. They're at ramming speed but too far from us for the oarsmen to sustain the pace. They're running from something. PREPARE FOR BATTLE! RUN UP THE BOOM BUT KEEP THE MAST FURLED FOR NOW! MOVE FAST!" he finished in a bellow that snapped with the timbre of command.

"What about the shore party?" I asked.

"They're the safest of us all. I'm more worried about Windspite." Oarsmen had boiled up from the hold below and were taking up their stations. No longer chained, and now armed with a variety of looted swords and daggers, they were a mean-looking bunch who all blanched and bobbed their heads whenever I caught them staring at me.

The anchor was hauled up, and a beat rang out from the drum as the ship slowly turned and fought the tide. We moved more slowly than usual, but we were soon making decent enough speed, aiming to cut across the bows of the visible ship and present the recently introduced concept of the broadside to whatever was following them.

"I'm going to go below!" called Bargip as he scurried down from a perch on the ropes at the front of the vessel. I really should have executed the man already. I'd healed him instead, and I wasn't sure why. It was an irritant, like sand between my toes, that I could resolve whenever I wanted, but I was choosing not to kill him.

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Windspite cut through the waves, the oars splashing in a steady rhythm. We passed within a hundred metres of the fleeing vessel. The crew was frantic, men were heaving at the oars, throwing off the rhythm and slowing the ship down rather than helping. Officers screamed at and whipped the oarsmen, further ruining their pace.

At the top of the aftcastle, a solitary man in a long black cloak stood with his arms crossed, staring behind the ship. He flicked his gaze to us as we passed him, heading for the open sea. He nodded his head and raised a hand, then spun and moved down to the main deck, barking orders.

We continued to run for open waters; we needed space to maneuver against whatever was following him. As we passed beyond the headland, another vessel came into view. A ship with no masts or oars that surged forward like a motorboat.

"Is it me, or is that ship kinda big?" I asked Prender.

"It's huge. Look to the coastline. It's a couple of miles away at least, which means it's vast. And no sails or oars. How could the wind or men move the thing anyway? It must weigh six times as much as 'Spite. The tide should be driving it onto those rocks, but the bastard isn't bothered by them."

Glimpse, go take a look, please, bloke?

The crow wheeled towards the strange vessel and shot through the air. As he got closer, I began to make out more details. It was huge, easily three times the size of the pirate flagship from before. It did have masts, but they were stubby things, lacking the rigging needed to support sails. Long, thin platforms and rope bridges were slung between the short masts, and men scurried back and forth on them, moving into what looked suspiciously like firing positions.

A network of chains led from the front of the ship into the water, and the sea churned as something beneath the surface disturbed the natural motion of the waves. Glimpse circled slightly lower behind the ship and then made a quick pass just below the level of the upper deck. Cires went up around him, and blasts of lightning and ice shot past his body to slam into the ocean.

That might not have been wise? I sent.

No shit! The bird had never sworn before, and I blinked in surprise. My fists tightened on the railing, and wood splintered.

Beneath the water, murky shapes thrashed. Glimpse caught a fleet look as he peeled off by the bow and skimmed the waves towards the shore. More yells, and from the corner of one of his eyes, a handful of chains were released, slipping into the water as something surged after him.

Big fish! he sent as he dodged spellfire. One of the creatures rose to the surface just behind him and leapt from the water. A dolphin, but too large to be a normal one, leapt upwards. Instead of the usual blunt teeth, this specimen had fangs that would put a great white shark to shame, and it wasn't far off the same size as one of those leviathans. The creature was scaled as well, not the smooth rubbery rubbery-looking skin I associated with dolphins from back home.

"You guys have dolphins here, right?" I asked Prender. He looked confused. "Big fish, blow holes on the top so they breathe air, famous for saving drowning men back where I'm from. Little known fact, they also rape other animals, including lost human swimmers?"

"We don't call them dolphins, but yes, I know what you're talking about. Although the rape thing is new."

"Do you know about an armoured variant with fucking big teeth?" Glimpse continued dodging, but he was in a difficult situation. His only available cover from the sailors slinging spells at him was the waves, but getting too close to them resulted in dolphin-sharks trying to take a bite out of him. He was spending his mana fast, throwing up fire shields behind him and occasionally detonating an overly aggressive vile-dolphins head.

"Vile-jardins. Yes, a pod of them can take down a vessel like this if they decide to attack, but they're very rare and usually avoid our ships."

"Well, that thing over there is being pulled by a bunch of them. And maybe something else. Let's leave this one to the professionals, eh?"

"Should we run? We can outpace them for a while, but the oarsmen will tire quickly," he said in a worried voice.

"Nah. Soon as they get too close, they're toast. Have your guys ready with the shields. They might get a few shots off before I unleash the big guns."

It's an old joke in the army that joining the service dooms you to long periods of boredom interspersed with moments of utter terror. Naval warfare was even worse. Despite its speed, and the Windspite turning towards the giant raft, it took nearly half an hour for us to close the distance. The oarsmen stopped to rest once we had the wind behind us, and we moved solely under wind power. They'd need their strength if things went sideways.

"Watch the water!" Prender barked at his wizards. "The vile-jardin may be released to attack us from below! I want a fucking iceberg around the ship if that happens!" I nodded in approval. The kid was growing into his role admirably.

"Another minute or so, I think?" Glimpse had managed to evade his pursuit without anything worse than losing a few tail feathers to snapping jaws.

I need my tail feathers! the bird mentally hissed at me from the treeline on the shore where he was shadowing our prey.

And it was too close. We need to figure out a way to make you stealthier. A mental snort-caw, full of derision, came back down our link.

"Are you ready yet?" asked Prender nervously. He kept his voice low so the rest of the crew couldn't overhear. The barrage of ranging shots from the raft that hadn't missed had been absorbed by shields, but it had used a lot of the charges on their trinkets, and Prender was clearly running the numbers in his head.

"Where'd you learn to count?" I asked as I watched the raft drag itself closer to us.

"My mother. She died when I was nine summers old, and my father couldn't care for us all. I got indentured as a sailor. Boys have an easier time on the rigging than men."

"That makes sense. You bitter about it?" I asked.

"No, I love the sea. I'm blessed by Poseidon, so the men say."

"She's no friend of mine, I'm afraid." I'd been debating giving the kid some Souls, but his words killed the idea. He didn't need to inherit my enemies. "Right, I think they're about ready. Don't worry, everything is going to land on them."

"What are you going to do?" he asked as the clouds above us thickened and turned blood red.

"The same thing I always do in these situations."

"This kind of thing happens to you a lot?" he asked.

"Meh. Normally, it's an army on land, but the principle is the same. You get used to it."

Burning Skies took a decent chunk of mana, ten percent of my total now. When I'd first gotten the spell, I'd only been able to cast it, what, three times in a row? I wasn't fully topped off in terms of mana, but one cast should be enough to deal with the raft and its draught animals.

I shaped the spell; it was second nature to me now. A thin filament of it stretched away from my maximum cast range before spreading out to cover the ship and the area immediately in front of it. My fireballs didn't so much fall anymore. They seemed almost to teleport to their destination.

Shields went up above the ship immediately after the first explosion removed a section of a mast and sent the walkways crashing to the deck and the sea. We were close enough that the screams and curses reached us clearly, and our crew cheered briefly before falling silent. The barrage didn't stop.

I beat my way through their shields to start incinerating sections of the decking. Fires caught and spread, but the smart ones who leapt towards the water weren't as clever as they thought. None of their Soulbound or wizards had thought to defend the animals hauling the ship, and I was mindful of Prender's comments about a pod of the things being a threat to the Windspite.

So I boiled them alive. A third of the first Burning Skies cast was aimed around where the chains vanished into the water. Another series of shots landed in the water to either side of the ship. Water vanished into steam, throwing up a sudden fog, but the residual heat from the bolts raised the temperature of the water to near boiling point.

Vile-jardin cooked and thrashed on the surface, and the men who jumped overboard screamed very briefly before shock locked their muscles and sent them deeper into the hot soup I'd transformed the sea into.

The upper reaches of the vessel were burning wreckage, but the thing still floated, and that wasn't acceptable. I cast again, and the skies darkened, turning blood red once more. When I was done, there was nothing left but the odd bit of smoking flotsam.

Normalis Humano (Soulbound Servant) slain x48

Nine hundred and sixty Souls gathered.

Normalis Humano slain x512

Five thousand, one hundred and twenty Souls gathered.

Vilis Jardin Slain x97

Four hundred and eighty Souls gathered.

Normalis Sardine slain x1354

One thousand, three hundred and fifty-four Souls gathered.

Profitable.

"I'm not sure I want to get used to this kind of thing," muttered Prender as he turned to start shouting orders. The ship began to turn, heading back towards the cove and the shore party we had abandoned.

As Windspite passed back into the natural harbour, a call went up from the lookouts. The other ship had turned and was trailing us back towards the land.

We set anchor again, and I kept Glimpse out at the headland to keep an eye out for any other suspiciously large ships. It was unlikely that the vessel had been patrolling on its own. That kind of thing would be the centrepiece of a flotilla or the command ship for an armada. It had clearly been part of Amir's fleets; the weight of magical firepower it had thrown at Glimpse proved as much. Was this straggler a regular vessel or a renegade from the raft's group? Time would tell. Slow, painful time.

Jesus, naval movement was boring. I watched the weirdly rigged galley creep after us, moving to stop upwind and throw down an anchor half a mile away from Windspite.

"Is that an issue?" I asked after Prender pointed it out.

"Here and now? Not so much. It would come down to oars; there's not much difference in sail between us, although they're rigged to run closer to the wind. Usually, being upwind gives you the movement advantage. You can barrel down hard on the enemy or break off more easily. Harder to chase into the wind, after all."

"And all of that means shit when Glimpse can just firebomb them from out of the dark," I grunted. I called the bird back; there weren't any other ships that he could see following in the wake of the now defunct raft, and the sun had set not long ago. I'd send him back out later, but keeping him on hand as this unknown vessel sat close by seemed like the best idea.

The away team, red shirts to a man, rowed their longboat back to us, and the rest of the crew began to haul the barrels of freshwater up to the deck before rolling them into the hold. I paid little attention to them; my eyes were fixed on the unknown ship, but I was mostly watching through Glimpse.

"They've let down a boat," I called to Prender. He hurried over and squinted into the darkness from beside me.

"How can you tell? Too dark to see shit!"

"Glimpse is well named."

"Just the one boat?" he asked, wisely choosing to take my words at face value.

"Yeah. Thirty rowers, a handful of blokes in the middle. The fella in the black coat might be their captain, you think?" I asked as the man in question stood at the front of the boat with a long harpoon held poised in his right hand. He was watching the water closely.

"Any magic?"

I sighed. "Can't tell at this distance. None of them is Soulbound, at any rate. Whether they have some trinkets, I don't know."

"Can you make me Soulbound?" he asked tentatively.

"Would you want to be Bound to a man who plans to kill Poseidon?" I asked seriously.

"Er, probably not. You can do that? Kill a goddess so powerful?"

"Not yet. But I fucking will." The certainty had grown in me since my chat with Aresk. I would take my revenge on the bitch.

"Maybe it's best I just stick with the gems and stones and stuff." He suddenly sounded like the boy he appeared to be again.

"Don't sweat it, Prender. I'll get out of your hair soon enough."

"Hail! Permission to come aboard?" The longboat had crept closer and stopped fifty metres away from us before the man in a long cloak called at us in a gruff voice.

"What do I do?" Prender asked quietly.

"Whatever you want. We've got your back."

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