My second week on the ship felt busier. Between the language lesson, the very occasional reading lesson, the magic lesson, my duties on the ship, and occasionally sneaking meetings with the elves, I was exhausted by the time I fell asleep every night. Despite that, I was strangely happy as well. Although he maintained a dutiful demeanor when we were above deck with the crew or in the Captain’s cabin, Lyre was more open when we were alone. There was also a great relief in having at least one person know where I was really from. I had asked Lyre about sharing my origin with the others in case they knew more about the stories that Lyre had mentioned, but he recommended against it. “Don’t say anything until you get to the Empire,” he said. “I don’t believe they would ever tell anyone, but it’s safer if fewer people know.”
I was also finally able to cast the wind spell. It was thrilling to have control over actual magic, to see a glow spring up around me, and hear the echoey quality of my voice as I commanded a light breeze. I focused hard on how I felt in the moments that I succeeded. It was more than the words. There was a feeling of tapping into a power of some sort – a well of energy from within myself that I had never noticed before. I wondered if it was something I had always had, or if it was something that only existed for me here in this world.
The first time I succeeded, I paused and closed my eyes and waited to hear the voice. There was nothing. I smiled with relief and opened my eyes. Lyre smiled back at me. “That’s very good. We’ll make sure you can do this again tonight, and then we’ll try creating fresh water tomorrow morning.” I’m sure he took my smile as pride, or if he read anything else into it, he didn’t let on. As much as I trusted Lyre, I had decided not to tell him about the voices. I wasn’t entirely sure why. I think I was more afraid of acknowledging them and what they could mean.
Since I could finally manage casting at will, Silden and I started testing ideas with the unbinding, despite Lyre’s disapproval. Every time Silden thought he had worked out how to cast the spell, I would attempt to direct it into Lyre’s Focus. And it failed every time. So in lieu of any real plans we kept track of who on the ship handled each Focus.
Junel was the other female elf – from what I gathered, she was the oldest of the four of them, though she appeared to be only in her late 40s. She had golden hair and bright yellow eyes, and her skin was a deep golden tan. She had such a warm demeanor to her that everything about her reminded me of sunshine. When I first met her down in the hold, she hugged me and murmured a fervent, “Thank you for saving her. I had lost hope that she would live.” I didn’t see her very often since she was the one that was up on deck when I was usually meeting with Silden. The first mate, Tilke, kept her Focus since he was in charge when it was her turn to cast. It was harder to know where Silden’s Focus would be – sometimes the second mate had it, sometimes the Captain. I only surrendered Lyre’s Focus when the Captain had him casting, so we always knew where it was. Larina still slept. The doctor had her Focus. He came to check on her daily, but Silden noted that he was often drunk and besides being pleased that she had beat the fever, he did not seem to be aware of any of her other improvements.
By the end of the second week, I had managed to build a small array of personal items as well. I had the clothes that I had arrived in, as well as the clothes that had been given to me the first night. There were extra clothing items that had been left behind by previous or dead crewman, and they were stored with the other supplies. From my understanding, anyone could claim something and begin using it, or the rags could be used for cleaning, or the fabric would be cut apart to patch up ripped clothing. It was hard to find something that hadn’t been dirtied or cut up, and harder to find something close to my size, but I did claim a blue tunic for myself.
Impossible to find was a good pair of boots. Even boots at their worst and falling apart were often claimed immediately. Some of the crew members went about the ship bare foot, and the slaves did as well. Though I hated wearing wet socks, my feet weren’t used to walking around without the protection of shoes and the socks offered something at least. I wondered about maybe sewing a stiffer material into the bottom of the socks at some point, especially as they were beginning to wear thin.
I had also obtained a few small leather pouches, and filled one with a handful of the cannon’s gunpowder. I had no idea how or if I’d ever use it. And from the weapons they had below, I managed to steal one dagger with its sheath and a belt, that I kept buried under my clothes in the chest. At least it was longer and sharper than the knife.
Larina woke at the beginning of the third week. I had heard about it first from the Captain, who mentioned that Sarks’ paycheck had been saved. “I’ll be wanting to keep Lyre on duty though. We’re close to land and short on supplies, so I plan to berth briefly at the nearest port. Besides, you seem to get along fine without him now.”
After I was done up top, I went immediately to the slave beds below. Larina was sitting up, her blue eyes wide, and when she saw me, she beamed and jumped up to greet me. For a moment I thought she was going to hug me, but she stopped short and tilted her head down almost shyly. “I heard that you were the one that saved my life.”
I flushed, eyeing the yellow-tinted bruises that still splotched her face and feeling awful to hear the undeserved praise. “And the one that almost got you killed.”
The smile faltered briefly and she opened her mouth to say something, shaking her head at my rebuttal, but seemed at a momentary loss for words. Into the silence, Lyre asked, “Are we running short on any supplies?”
I glanced over at him curiously. He was talking to Silden, who was sitting in the corner. Silden frowned up at him. “Not that I’m aware. Why do you ask?”
Lyre looked a bit disturbed – he crossed his arms, and the way he moved seemed to suggest that he was suddenly very nervous. He moved to lean near the door frame. “We may be spending too much time down here,” he said to me. “Perhaps we should go back to your room.”
“Larina and I were talking and it gave me another idea for the unbinding,” Silden said, but Lyre was already shaking his head again.
“It’s a fool’s dream. We’re getting nowhere. And it’s not safe for her to be spending so much time with us.”
Silden made a face like he had bit into something bitter. “The crew pays us no mind until they need or want something from us, as long as we stay out of their way. Besides… She’s our best chance at freedom.”
“And we’re her quickest path to slavery… or worse.”
“If we’re getting close to land, we should be working harder at figuring this out…”
“And if we continue to fail? And she gets caught casting?”
Silden let out an exasperated huff. “She won’t get caught.”
“You don’t know that!” Lyre seemed to startle himself with his own raised voice, and looked back up the stairs. After a moment, he turned back to Silden and with a lower voice said, “The Captain is stopping at the nearest port. He says it’s for supplies. But I suspect he plans to let her leave from there. We’re out of time.”
Silden seemed a bit taken aback by the information. Into the pause of their conversation, I said, “Isn’t that all the more reason to try harder? Right up until the last moment?” Silden gestured to me as I finished speaking, as if to say that I had taken the words right out of his mouth.
Lyre scowled at me. “We should be preparing you to find your way to the Empire alone.”
“You plan to send her alone? She’ll be safer if you go with her, at the very least,” Silden said, at the same time that I said, “I don’t want to leave any of you here, if I can help it.”
Lyre pushed himself away from the door frame. “If even one of us goes with her, the hunters will kill her!” His hands balled into fists by his side as he spoke.
Silden controlled his expression, becoming unreadable as he studied Lyre for several moments. Lyre looked angrier than I had ever seen him, and seemed to be steeling himself for a more heated argument. But when Silden said nothing and the silence lingered, he sighed and turned to walk up the stairs.
“Are these slave hunters really something to be scared of?” I asked. “How much can they do against magic?”
“There was a band of pirates that once talked the slaves on a passenger ship into joining them by offering them freedom as members of their crew. At least seven elves joined them,” Larina said. “A group of three hunters found the ship, and killed every last member of the crew on top of the seven escaped slaves. They spread the bodies across every port down the Coast of Mann as a warning. I remember seeing the bodies every time we docked.” She closed her eyes and visibly shivered as though seeing the memory again.
“There are other stories, all the same,” Silden added. “They carry items that protect against magics, and are fearsome warriors by all accounts.” He turned to study me for a moment. “He’s not wrong that freeing us carries risk. Perhaps you should take the night to sleep on it.” I grimaced at the idea of Silden taking Lyre’s side, but he smiled at me reassuringly. “I’m not giving up. But if we’re out of time… at least try to convince him to go with you, if you can.”
I frowned, wondering how much luck I would have with that. Then I sighed and made my way up the stairs. When I reached the hall outside of my room, I found Lyre pacing the short space. He glared at me, then opened the door and went inside the cabin, and I followed. I sat on my bed and studied him. He sat on his bed and stared at the floor of the cabin, refusing to meet my gaze.
The silence felt tense, and I felt my own anger growing as he steadfastly refused to acknowledge me at all. “Are you really going to act like this all night?” I asked, a bit snippier than planned.
“I’ve already expressed time and time again what I think.” He sighed and pushed himself back to lean against the wall. He stared at me with his grey eyes, a slightly wistful expression on his face. “The Captain’s detour isn’t… insignificant. I have a bad feeling about all of this.”
The next day as I ate in Wrasker’s cabin, he seemed cheerful. “Weather’s fine and we’re making good time. We should make port tomorrow,” he said as I was eating some of the hard bread for breakfast.
My heart did a weird jump into a deep pit past my stomach. “Really? So soon?” I asked.
He nodded, a wide smile on his face. “Yes. We’ll pay you fairly and you can be on your way.” So Lyre had been right to assume that we were out of time.
I nodded, lost in thought. I doubted it would work, but felt the need to ask anyway. “If I decided to stay on your ship for a time, how long would I need to work to be able to buy Lyre from you?” Wrasker raised an eyebrow at my question and glanced over at Lyre, who was standing near the door, eyes cast down as was expected of him. “I haven’t fully mastered Blest yet, and I’m nervous to be on my own. He’s been very useful to me these past few weeks,” I said by way of explanation, carefully keeping my tone as detached as possible, like I was only inquiring out of a passing curiosity.
“Ah, well. Lyre has quite the repertoire of spells at his disposal that makes him valuable as a good guardian, it’s true. But he’s been in the family since I was a child, and I couldn’t part from him for any meager sum. You’d be working for me for a long time.”
“I see. I guess that can’t be helped then.”
After a few moments, I prepared to hand over the Focus, but Wrasker waved it away. “Seeing as your time on the ship is nearly ended, you might take the day off. It may be a good chance to get in some last minute reading lessons from Lyre before you take your leave.” His tone seemed to say he found this suggestion funny, but I wasn’t sure why.
“That’s a good idea. Thank you, Captain,” I said and excused myself. I left to return to my cabin, Lyre’s gaze burning into me as we went below to my quarters. When I turned to face him, his expression was unreadable, and I wasn’t sure if he was angry or not that I had asked to buy him. “It was worth a shot,” I said with a shrug. Then I thought of part of Wrasker’s reasoning for turning down my offer – Wrasker looked to be at least a decade older than Lyre. “How old are you, anyway?” I asked.
“They don’t keep accurate records for slaves. I’m near enough to 60, I think.” I gaped quite openly at him for a moment. He looked to be about my age, so it was hard to imagine him as twice as old. He tilted his head and smiled at me. “Elves live to be 200 if they’re healthy. Some start dying naturally of disease and age past 100, but I have heard of some that have reached 250 years or more, though that’s rare.”
“Wow,” I said, feeling a bit stunned. “And how old is Junel?”
“She’s twice my age,” he said offhand like it was no big deal. Which would make her well over 100 years old. I’m not entirely sure why I was surprised. Most stories had elves that were long lived – in some cases practically immortal – so I should have suspected that he was older than I thought.
Still, it made the slavery seem even worse somehow. “Were you born into slavery?”
He nodded, and sat on the other bed. “Yes. Elven slavery here started after the Fracture.” I nodded like I understood, but my expression must have betrayed how lost I felt by that statement, because he chuckled. “It’s strange to think of how you simply don’t know anything about our world, even the most basic history. Because of course you couldn’t.” He stared at me for a long moment, seeming to gather his thoughts. “The Elven Empire once stretched across most of the known world, across the majority of three continents. The last Emperor before the Fracture was especially cruel. There was civil unrest, and the beginnings of rebellion. Not just from the other races chafing under Elven rule, but from within the Empire as well. The Emperor was eventually murdered by his own bodyguards.”
“Similar things have happened in my world,” I noted, thinking of the various Roman emperors that had been assassinated by their own soldiers. “Did it all fall apart once he was dead?”
Lyre nodded. “Yes, and that is what is known as the Fracture. He had nearly a dozen children, and they each attempted their own claim to power. Not to mention the various magistrates and generals that had once served him. There was no strong central leadership for a long time, and the rest of the expanded Empire crumbled, broken into smaller territories and claimed by the lines of former kings, or barbarian chiefs, or anyone that had the power, means, or influence to fund a small army.”
I nodded as I listened. “How long ago did all of that happen?”
“Maybe 400 or 500 years ago.”
“And the elves that remained in human lands were all enslaved around then?”
“Not immediately. In many of the human lands, people had chafed under the casual cruelty of powerful mages, so many elves were forced to flee, or they faced death or imprisonment. Once they figured out how to limit our magic, we were allowed to stay if we tethered ourselves. But many still feared how dangerous we could be. Those that didn’t migrate back to the Empire were eventually forced into slavery.”
I nodded, digesting the information he had given me. He leaned forward after some time. “Do they have slavery in your world?” he asked.
“There’s some, but wide scale slavery like here is abolished, and even the new forms that slavery has taken are illegal or at least highly frowned upon. I don’t know much about it though.” We sat in silence a little longer, and I realized we were staring at each other. “I wish you’d come with me.”
He frowned and looked away, but said nothing. I thought about leaving the ship that had been my first home in this world, if only very briefly. I didn’t feel comfortable here at all, surrounded by men that were practically strangers, some who were even rapists. But leaving Lyre and the others… I felt tears well up in my eyes, and suppressed a sob by burying my face into my arms. “Cassandra,” Lyre said, sounding somewhat alarmed, and apologetic, and ready to argue that it was better for me to leave by myself.
I shook my head, also not wanting to argue in one of the last conversations I could be having with him, and feeling ashamed and embarrassed to be bawling so childishly. He moved across the cabin to sit next to me and gently placed a hand on my shoulder, and I turned to hug him, pulling him close.
He froze for a moment, then wrapped his arms around me tightly and held me quietly. It was a while before I finally managed to get my crying under control. We sat for a long period of time just holding each other, until I finally felt awkward and like maybe I was imposing on his good will and pushed away. I focused on summoning water, replenishing the jug. After taking several hefty gulps, I poured some into the basin to splash on my face. Then I laid down on the bed and closed my eyes with a sigh. I had done nothing with this day, but I already felt like sleeping. I also did not want to look at Lyre after having just cried so much in front of him.
Lyre was still sitting on my bed, but stood as I started to lay down. I had assumed that he had moved back to his own spot, but as I started to drift to sleep, I felt him brush the hair back from my face. “I’ll miss you too,” I heard him say very softly. But I was already so close to sleep, that I wondered vaguely if I was dreaming.
I woke suddenly when Silden entered the room, a look of panic on his face. “What’s wrong?” Lyre asked, sitting up immediately.
“Give me the Focus,” Silden demanded, and without question I handed the smooth black stone of Lyre’s Focus over to him. He closed his eyes and concentrated on it hard.
As the glow began and flashed brightly, Lyre cried out, “Stop!” and I heard something, a loud crack! that made me jump slightly. As I looked over at Lyre, I watched the intricate designs on his skin lift off in a glittering cascade and dissolve into the air, like they had never existed at all. Lyre and I both turned to Silden, shocked. “Why,” Lyre began, his voice pained, his hand reaching up to his unmarked skin.
“Because you need to leave,” Silden said, his tone urgent. “Both of you. Now.”
mehryment 