Tag: serial fiction

06. Cassandra

On By MaryIn 2023, WritingLeave a comment

I saw blood dripping from Silden’s hand, and grabbed it, ignoring his wince as I opened his fingers to see the shards of the Focus embedded into his palm. “Was that even a spell? Did you figure out the unbinding?” I asked, pulling the shards out and letting them drop to the floor.

“Not exactly. I just tried to cast whatever came to mind first, like Lyre’s Focus was my own. Larina said something that made me think… and I… had a suspicion it might work,” Silden drew in a pained breath as the largest shard clattered to the floor. I placed my hand over his and concentrated on the healing I was able to do. As the skin on his hands began to knit back together, he looked over at Lyre. “You have to take her and leave immediately. Wrasker never intended for her to leave freely.”

I maintained my focus by ignoring the words to the best of my ability, but couldn’t stop the cold sweat that suddenly chilled me. “What do you mean?” Lyre demanded.

“After she had breakfast with the Captain, he summoned me in to cast on the mirror for him. He contacted the slave hunters in the nearest port, and explained that she had fallen out of the sky in some massive display of magic.” Silden addressed me as he continued to talk, “He doesn’t seem to think you’re a caster, but he suspects you’ve got some connection to the Empire and thought the hunters should collect you.” Silden clenched and unclenched his now healed hand and placed it on my shoulder. “I would have come sooner, but I was casting air for the sails after that, and was only now dismissed. We’re near to port now and they’ve had several hours to prepare to meet the ship.”

“They could be here by now,” Lyre groaned. He had jumped up and grabbed a large bag that already looked half filled with supplies from the chest near his bed. I looked at him in surprise as he shoved it into my hands – I didn’t know he had been gathering items as well. “I was going to sneak this off the ship for you. Nothing anyone would miss, but enough to get you started on your journey. Gather your stuff, quickly. We have to go now.” Nodding, I grabbed my clothes and the small red book from the chest and shoved the small towel on the table into the bag. I folded the smaller blanket and draped it over the top of the bag. Lyre placed a hand on Silden’s arm and spoke as I put on the belt, securing the dagger in place. “We should have gone with your plan. If we had left last night…”

The edge of his lips twitched upwards slightly, but Silden looked more worried than gratified. “I know,” he said.

“Maybe we can still get the rest of you out as well. The doctor still has Larina’s Focus – where is yours?” I said as I placed the bag on my back and slipped my knife into my pocket.

“You don’t have the time now,” Silden said, and I felt my stomach twist at the complete reversal of his previous position. Because it meant that we were finally out of time. As I finished that thought, his eyes went wide in shock, and I realized I could hear a clattering of several pairs of footsteps making their way down the hall. I could just barely make out the timber of the Captain’s voice speaking to someone, but couldn’t understand the words being said. Silden swiveled on his heel as the door opened.

For a moment, time seemed to slow down as I watched a blade bloom through his back. I felt the wet splatter of his blood hitting my face, and watched him crumple in front of me. “Hey, you’ll have to compensate me for that, that one’s valuable…” I heard Wrasker protest from somewhere in the hall.

In the doorway stood a man I didn’t recognize, dressed in dark leather armor. He stared at me impassively over Silden’s groaning, coughing figure, coppery-gold curls tumbled out from under his hood. He had once been ethereally beautiful, but standing out against the deep tan of his skin was a long pale scar – it ran across his face from the tip of his hairline to the bottom of the opposite jaw. The nose along the scar’s path had a notch in it, and the eye it crossed was a milky white. His other eye was almost as black as the pupil at its center. Both eyes were focused on me.

Lightning crackled around me suddenly – I watched the mismatched eyes widen in shock as he realized I could cast. I screamed and unleashed the jagged bolts of energy at the man. In almost the same instant, a glow enveloped Lyre and he shouted a spell and released an explosive ball of fire at him as well.

The man lifted his sword into the path of both spells – and a symbol glowed from within the hilt of the sword that somehow seemed to keep the spells from reaching him. Despite that, the overwhelming power of the unleashed energy couldn’t be fully stopped, blasting the man back through the opposite room and clear out of the ship, as well as completely wrecking the entire opposite side of the hall. I watched the splintered wood of the debris fall around us, felt the breeze of the sea sweep in through the new hole in the ship.

I immediately dropped to my knees, pushing pieces of wood off of Silden’s body. His eyes were wide and he was gasping and pale. I placed my hands over his wound and I tried healing him but felt so disoriented and unfocused and his blood seemed to be everywhere, too much blood to lose and still live, and I was shaking so hard, with adrenaline and terror and panic. I felt fingertips brush my shoulder. (Calm) a voice commanded in my ear. I closed my eyes and took three deep breaths, and focused. Silden had freed Lyre. I couldn’t let him die. I felt the wounds begin to knit under my hands.

I could hear Wrasker cursing in the hallway, then sounding shocked. “Lyre? How dare you, after all these years,” but his voice was cut off suddenly with a low whispered word from Lyre. Then Lyre’s voice rose, the echoey quality practically causing the words to boom as he commanded a storm of blades. I couldn’t see it from where I was, but I could hear the sound of metal scraping metal and clunking into wood and the screams as it cut into flesh.

I stood as I finished healing Silden, and stepped forward to see Lyre leaning down over Captain Wrasker’s body. He pulled an iridescent gem, carved into the shape of a bird, from one of Wrasker’s pockets and held it in his hand. He glowed faintly, but frowned after a moment and glanced at me. “This is Silden’s Focus, but what he did for me didn’t work.”

I turned back to Silden, who had sat up. He had a hand over his bloody robes, and he was paler than normal, but he was alive. Our eyes met and he nodded a brief wordless thanks, before saying to Lyre, “I think a slave has to do it. It’s the tether and the Focus not being correctly matched that breaks both.” Lyre immediately turned and ran down the hall of bodies. Silden stood, and I reached out to help steady him. He looked at the hole in the ship. “That hunter’s not far, and not dead. Neither of you have time for this.”

I gripped his arm, hard. “We have to make time. They’re not just going to let you live after this. We’ll all get out.” His expression was grim. We heard another explosion from above us. I tapped the straps of the pack and the hilt of the dagger to make sure they were in place, like I used to tap my pockets checking for the holy trilogy of the modern world (phone, keys, wallet). Ignoring the Captain’s body, I started to make my way down the hall, glancing back to make sure that Silden followed.

In a game, a blade storm spell usually summoned ethereal or magical swords to strike at people. It looked like the blade storm spell of this world had instead actually pulled all the swords from the sailors’ hands and sent them spinning indiscriminately down the hall. Some were stuck into the wood or had fallen to the ground, covered in blood, but others were also lodged into bodies – some, I realized, still coughing and groaning and reaching weakly for me as I passed. I felt a wave of horror and guilt wash over me for a moment as I stared down the hallway, seeing detached limbs and disemboweled stomachs and deep wounds, everything soaked in blood, blood pooling, blood dripping, and I froze, wondering if I should help someone. But then I saw Sarks – met his eyes as he reached for me, quietly saying “Please.” Maybe the rest of the men in the hall were innocent, maybe they didn’t deserve this. But seeing Sarks at least hardened my heart some, and I continued out of the hallway and into the open air of the deck.

As Silden stepped out onto the deck behind me, his own jagged tattoos lifted from his skin and shimmered as they dissipated into the air. Glancing around, I could see that the explosion had blasted a hole into part of the deck, and taken out a corner of the Captain’s cabin, and one of the sails was crisped at the edge and still smoldering. We both looked up to see Junel standing near the wheel, her hands dripping blood from the shards of Silden’s Focus. “We’re not going to get all of us out of this,” Silden said quietly, grimacing. “You shouldn’t have freed me,” he called up to Junel.

She smiled at him, as radiant as the sun. “I think I’ll do as I please for once,” she said. Then she turned to where Lyre stood, holding the first mate by the collar of his shirt. Lyre handed her something, which must’ve been her Focus because she glowed suddenly as he dropped it into her hand. The man lifted out of Lyre’s grip, crying out and blubbering what sounded like a plea for mercy. With a casual wave of her hand, she flung him into the ocean.

Then Lyre and Junel turned together to walk down the stairs, passing us as they made their way to the crew quarters. Silden and I watched them go for a moment.

“Go get Larina,” Silden said, seeming to rouse himself from his thoughts, “Let her know we’re leaving now.” And he turned to make his way into the Captain’s cabin. I was curious about what he was after, but I wordlessly nodded and made my way down below. From the crew quarters at the front of the ship I could hear the splintering of wood and the screams and shouts of the remaining sailors.

I didn’t have to go all the way down. Larina was standing at the foot of the stairs, her blue eyes wide as she looked up at me. “What’s happened?” she asked, her face pale, causing the yellowing of the bruises still on her face to stand out starkly.

“We’re getting out of here,” I said, gesturing for her to come up to me. She rushed up the stairs. As she reached me, I placed a hand on her shoulder and focused briefly on the healing spell, watching the bruises dissipate. She smiled and continued up past me. I paused briefly at the supply hold to put my hands on the first few rapiers I could grab and the crate of old clothes.

As I reached the top of the stairs, Larina turned back to look at me curiously. The tattoos on her face were gone. At some point while she had ascended the stairs, she had also obtained her freedom. I also realized it had gotten very quiet on the ship. “Why did you grab those?” she asked.

“I’m hoping there’s enough here to improvise a normal outfit for one or two of you. I’m guessing the robes mark you as slaves as much as the tethers?”

“Ah,” she said, nodding. Silden had already readied the small boat, lowering it to the ocean below. He was standing, casting his eyes about, a frown on his face as he gestured for Larina to go down to the boat first.

“What’s the matter?” I asked him.

“Hunters work in teams of three, but his boat was empty. Why was he alone?”

Frowning, I cast my gaze around. I realized we weren’t far off from land – in the distance, I could even make out a city with several ships sailing to and from its harbor. I shrugged. “Maybe they didn’t think I was going to be any trouble to take in? They didn’t know I could cast, and I’m sure they didn’t expect any of you to be freed,” I said, dropping the crate and blades down to Larina and making my way down as well. This smaller boat also had a sail on it, and I unfurled it and prepared for us to leave.

“I’m going to see what’s taking them,” Silden called down, sounding impatient to be gone, and he disappeared from view. I glanced around nervously, staring out towards the city, wondering how long we had before someone came to investigate the smoldering ship with holes in it. Silden couldn’t have been gone for more than a matter of seconds when I heard footsteps on the deck above and turned to look up into the black and white eyes of the hunter.

Larina cried out in surprise as she saw him, leaning back into the boat in fear. He slipped up onto the rail smoothly, prepared to jump off of the ship and down into the boat with us, his sword drawn and ready. I started to stand with a hand on the dagger hilt, the other outstretched, wondering if I could blast him back with a strong enough gust of wind… but just as his feet left the rail, Silden was there again. He appeared behind him, grabbing the back of his armor. With a growling wordless yell, Silden bodily flung him back and out of my sight. I saw a flash of light and heard the sound of something cracking wood. Nervously, I placed my hands on the hull of the ship as I heard the scuffle above continue. Then I heard the sound of Junel’s and Lyre’s voices joining Silden’s, and desperately wished I could see what was happening.

I heard Junel’s voice, louder and more commanding than I had heard it before, simply shout, “Go!” and Lyre was suddenly where the hunter had been, jumping down into the boat. Silden was moments after him. A glow rose up around Lyre as he flung his hands at the sail, commanding the air to fill it and sending the small boat rocketing across the waves, almost like being on a motor boat.

“What about Junel?” I asked, panicked, as Larina took to the more practical sailing matters, guiding the boat away from the ship and towards the shore, south of the city, where a forest nearly met the side of the ocean. I could see that tears were starting to slide down her face.

Silden grimaced. He was standing, looking back at the ship. “She’s not coming. She’s going to hold off the hunter and try to give us a head start.” He sat, and placed his hands on each of my shoulders.  “She’s making the time we need.” I wanted to argue, and my mouth opened but no sound came out. I watched the bright flashes of a series of quickly cast spells, saw the ship catching fire, the smoke rising above it – it was already so much smaller, so distant.

As we neared the shore, there was an explosion – a large one. I realized that the barrel of gunpowder must have finally caught blaze. I watched the ship begin to keel into the water, could see other ships and boats making their way out from the city to investigate or help. Larina grabbed the crate, splashing into the shallows, eager to be away. Silden grabbed the rapiers and followed her, glancing back at the ship with a pained expression on his face.

Lyre gently placed a hand on my elbow. I nodded, jumping out of the boat to follow, trying not to look anyone in the face as I hoped that at least the hunter had been taken out as well.

There was nothing we could do now but run.

05. Cassandra

On By MaryIn 2023, WritingLeave a comment

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.”

04. Cassandra

On By MaryIn 2023, WritingLeave a comment

When Lyre’s turn at the casting was over, he was replaced by the other woman elf. On the way down to my room, Lyre tapped the back of my heel with his foot and when I looked up at him, he made a short gesture with his head at one member of the crew. There were 18 men on board including the Captain, and then there was the 4 slaves as well, so I recognized each man easily but didn’t have names to go with all the faces. He was a burly man of middling height with shaggy black hair and a weather worn face, and he wore what looked like a permanent scowl. As we entered the hall in front of my room, Lyre said only, “Sarks.” I grimaced, remembering that the Captain had given me the name of the man that had assaulted the elf the night before.

I paused in front of my door. It didn’t seem right that I knew his name and not hers. “What’s her name? The one he hurt?”

“Larina.”

Instead of going into my room, I turned to face Lyre. “Where is she being kept?” The ship didn’t have anything like an infirmary, and the man that they called the doctor was actually a drunken ex-soldier with some field medicine training. He seemed to be a personal friend of Wrasker’s.

“Down in the slave beds.”

“Could I meet her?” Lyre tilted his head slightly as he studied me, but then nodded and turned to lead the way.

As we entered the area where the slave bedding was kept, Lyre checked the rest of the cargo area quickly before coming back and sitting at the bottom of the stairs leading up. I realized he was making sure we were alone.

It was the first time I had entered this area of the ship since Lyre had shown me around the first time. The hay still had the damp musty smell to it, and I wondered how healthy it was for someone recovering from bad injuries to be in a place like this. I could see that Larina was sleeping, and that the few blankets available to them were all piled under and over her. I also realized she was the elven woman I saw casting the air spell my first night on the ship – what I could see of her face was bruised, and her breathing was ragged.

The other male elf was awake when I entered. He gave me a brief unreadable glance before averting his eyes to the ground, and settled himself in a more formal position with his feet pulled up under him and his hands placed on his lap. “Please excuse my fellow for not assuming a more formal posture for you. She is recovering from being injured.”

 I shook my head. “No… please. You don’t have to be formal either. Sit comfortably. Please.” His head had been shaved recently, but the stubble growing in was dark brown, and his tattoos involved a series of striking jagged lines along the left half of his face. He made no move, except to shift out of my way as I came closer to Larina. I placed the back of my hand against her forehead – she was warm to the touch, feverish, and I worried for infection. More than that, the sound of her breathing… “I’m so sorry,” I said softly, though I doubted she could hear me.

“Silden. She was the one that cast at Sarks,” Lyre said, addressing the other elf. He kept his voice low, but it still managed to carry over to us.

Silden’s head snapped up in surprise, and seeing some gesture from Lyre he turned to look at me. “Her?” Lyre must have nodded or assented in some way, because Silden continued with, “But she’s human. How?”

I answered even though he hadn’t asked me directly. “I don’t know how. I walked in and saw what he was doing to her… and it just happened. It erupted out of me. I didn’t intend for this to happen to her. I’m sorry.” I stared down at her, feeling that it wasn’t apology enough.

Silden closed his eyes tight for a moment, and out of the corner of my eyes I watched as his hands clenched, unclenched, and clenched again. For a frightening moment, I wondered if he was going to punch me, and I tensed. He was actually very muscular, and maybe even more physically imposing than the Captain. Finally, he relaxed and sat back in a less formal position – leaning back on one hand, the other hand rested across a knee. He studied me carefully. I could see now that he had brown eyes.

“So, do you have any control at all, or are you at risk of being exposed?”

“Lyre is trying to teach me,” I said. He narrowed his eyes at me and I could tell that he wasn’t entirely convinced, though I wasn’t sure if it was about my ability or about my control. I flushed under his gaze, and turned my attention back to Larina as she drew an especially pained gasp of air into her lungs. “Is there anything more anyone can do for her? Could you heal her, Lyre?”

I started to pull his Focus out from under my shirt, but he shook his head. “Healing isn’t unheard of, but I don’t know it. It’s not an easy cast.”

“They’ve done all they can for her,” Silden said. The tone of his voice was cold and brusque. When I glanced back at him, the pained look in his eyes, the tight set of his jaw, said that he cared a lot more than his tone let on. He looked away as our eyes met.

I leaned back close to her, wishing fervently that I could do something to make her more comfortable, when a strange feeling came over me. Something like a presence. I closed my eyes and felt a cold hand brush the hair back from my face and a voice seemed to whisper to me, soft like a sea breeze. I could even smell the salt of it, and something else, like ozone. (I can show you) it said.

I opened my eyes and I could see, like looking into her body. Feel her injuries, through some sense I never realized I had. I could sense the broken rib that had punctured the lung, the pooling of blood where blood wasn’t supposed to be slowly drowning her from the inside, the festering of the infection like a light that spread from her lungs and made her entire body glow. But can I make it go away? I thought fiercely at the voice.

And then I felt it happening as I willed it. The bones mended, the blood that was where blood shouldn’t be shifted and seemed to dissolve, the flesh around the wound pulled and knit together, the fever burned bright for a moment and then dissipated.

“What are you doing?” I felt strong hands grab me and yank me up and away, so hard that I was afraid my arm would pop out of my shoulder. I started to fall back when another set of arms grabbed me, steadying me before letting go, and then Lyre was blocking my vision as he stepped in front of me.

“Silden,” he said, his voice a warning as he put himself between us. Silden glared at me and turned back to Larina, kneeling beside her.

He placed a hand on her forehead. After a few tense moments, he looked back at me, a bewildered expression on his face. “The fever’s gone,” he murmured.

Even from across the small space I could tell that her breathing had become less ragged. But I was so keyed up for a moment, that I closed my eyes on his searching gaze. I took three very steady, very deep breaths. Then I shook my head. “I don’t know. I’m… I’m not sure what happened. It was like what happened before.”

And then a different voice seemed to give a hearty chuckle, so loud that I opened my eyes and looked around in alarm. Both Lyre and Silden only looked at me in confusion. (So, the seal weakens) it purred, sending a shiver down my spine.

“What was that?” I asked.

“I think you cast a healing spell of some kind. But… it was very different than the magic we use,” Lyre said. I shook my head, confused for a moment until I realized that neither he nor Silden had heard the voice at all.

There was a brief shifting of movement that caught my attention – I looked up to see that Lyre had grabbed Silden’s hand. Silden gave him a look that said he meant no harm, and backed up a bit, showing his palms. “I…” he trailed off, looking a bit sheepish. “Thank you,” he finally said, staring straight into my eyes. I nodded, still feeling dazed.

 We stood together in silence for several moments, staring down at Larina. The bruises weren’t fully healed, but I realized that may be a good thing, because it would be obvious something had happened if she was suddenly fully healed. Silden had stopped me just in time. “So, you can cast,” Silden said thoughtfully. “And she has your Focus?” A strange mix of expressions flitted across his face as he considered the possibilities. “You should try to figure out the unbinding spell!”

“Unbinding spell?” I asked, the voices chased from my mind completely for the moment.

“No one knows if that’s even a real spell,” Lyre cautioned. “And even if it is, it’s much too soon to try it.”

“We wouldn’t have to try it yet. We could wait until we’re closer to land, and steal the small boat. Hells, we could even swim!”

Lyre did not look fully convinced. “Silden… I’ve heard as many versions of the spell as there are royal bastards in Covage. There’s no guarantee it even exists.”

“Why else are they always so careful to not let us handle each other’s Focuses? We’ve all heard rumors of slaves escaping that way before.” Silden shook his head. “I’m not saying we have to be foolish about it, but we can compare the variations we’ve heard and at least plan an attempt. This may be the closest to freedom we’ll ever actually get.”

“We would still need to get a hold of each Focus to get all of us out.”

Silden leaned toward Lyre, his voice low but fierce. “Even if only a few of us get out… even if only you get out. Lyre – if you get the chance, even if you have to leave us all behind, you should go.” I kept looking from one to the other as each spoke. Lyre looked slightly disturbed at Silden’s insistence, and frowning, he broke eye contact to glance back at the stairs.

“Is this unbinding spell exactly what it sounds like?” I asked.

“Yes,” Lyre said. “But it may not be real.” After a few moments, he said, “We should probably go.”

Once we were back in my room, I asked, “Where are the other Focuses kept?”

Lyre frowned. “I don’t know. And I don’t think you should concern yourself with it. It’s not a very wise plan,” he said. He sat on the other bed and seemed lost in thought.

“Do you really think the unbinding spell won’t work?”

He looked up at me. “It might. Every slave has heard about it. And they do take care to make sure we never handle another slave’s Focus. But… every time I’ve heard of it, I’ve heard something slightly different. And even if we do figure it out, stealing each Focus is going to be almost impossible. One of us is always casting, so there’s a high chance that not all of us will make it, unless we directly attack the crew.” He pushed himself back on the bed and leaned against the wall behind him. “Trying to free us is risky. To be honest, it may be safer for you to just bide out your time on the ship and then leave when we reach shore. Keep your head low. Make your way to the Empire, and see if they’d be willing to take you in since you can cast.”

“I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t leave any of you behind, not if I don’t have to,” I said. “We’ll find a way, somehow. I’m sure.” He tilted his head slightly to study me, his expression inscrutable.

“If you leave on your own, on good terms with the Captain, you will leave in peace. If you leave with all of his slaves, he will contact the authorities, and we will be hunted every step of the way by skilled individuals armed with enchanted items and trained specifically to combat mages.”  

I sighed and plopped down on my own bed, laying back to stare at the ceiling of my cabin. I closed my eyes and considered sleeping. “Maybe it’d still be worth it,” I mumbled, slightly sulky.

After a few moments of silence, he asked, “Do you really have no memory of anything before the ship?”

I opened my eyes and stared at the ceiling again. It felt like such a small cramped space to be in. I struggled internally for a moment over how much I should tell Lyre, and said, “I remember everything about my life before now. I just don’t know how I came here.”

“Are you from the Empire?”

“No. I’m from… somewhere else completely.” After a couple of moments, I commanded the light to turn off, and the small room darkened.

If anything, it just made the space feel even smaller, and when Lyre spoke, his voice in the darkness felt close, intimate. “There are old stories. Stories of outworlders being summoned to our world.” I wondered vaguely if he could read my mind and pulled the blanket around me. “These outworlders were meant to fight off some great threat to the world. I never believed them. When you live with ordinary monsters, you leave fairytale monsters to the fairytales. But I’ve never heard your language before. I’ve never seen clothes like the ones you arrived in. I’ve never witnessed someone delivered to the sea in a beam of light. And I’ve never seen anyone cast the way you do.”

I wondered how obvious my otherworldliness was to everyone else on the ship. He was silent for a few moments, as though he were waiting for me to confirm or deny anything. When it was clear I wasn’t going to say anything, he continued, “If you are an outworlder… there is some reason for you to be here. And if that reason involves saving us all from something terrifying, something mythic… then our individual freedoms will mean nothing.” I felt a chill travel down my spine as he spoke, and thought of the voices again. Was that why I was here after all? “If the rest of you wish to make plans, I can’t stop you. But I would feel better if three weeks from now you stepped off this ship with a few coins in your pocket and simply walked away from here, to wherever you need to go. That would be the safest thing for you.”

I curled up on my side, staring into the darkness of the room where Lyre’s voice was coming from. Finally, I said, “I don’t think I’d feel safe without you with me.” On one hand, it felt deeply manipulative to say – but on the other hand, it was true. Lyre had become a solace to me in this world. I could speak and act like I wanted to save every slave on the ship, but I desperately wished for his freedom above all.

“Tell me about your home.”

And I told him everything, rambling late into the night, until I finally fell asleep.

2023 Writing Challenge

On By MaryIn 2023, WritingLeave a comment

So this year a friend and I are going to be undertaking a writing challenge. We’ve agreed upon the following ground rules as follows:

1) The goal is to write 2500 words (at the very least) a week. We can go over the word limit, but cannot fall under it.


2) We have allowed that we can start plotting/writing before 2023, but the first post will start on January 8, 2023 and continue until December 31, 2023.


3) No short stories counted toward the challenge. The challenge will involve one full story, so by the end of 2023, we will each have written a full novel.


4) Through the year we must make at least 45 posts. This gives us a bit of leeway to miss the occasional week (because life happens).


5) The story does not have to end after the challenge if we are not done. But we must be able to stretch it long enough to meet the terms of the challenge (at least 45 updates of 2500 words or more).


6) Whoever quits the challenge first owes the other person a fancy cheesecake.

I’m not very good at keeping up with things like this for more than a few months, so I have the feeling I’ll be owing someone a cheesecake, but let’s see how far I can go.