“I always miss the fun stuff,” the gnome grumbles.
8
The River Scout is a bustling hive of activity as most of its crew go about unfurling the sails and pulling up anchor. Departure preparations are nearly done when the kitchen staff begins to set up a long table on the main deck. The table is set for seven people with a large array of breakfast dishes and juices. By the order of Captain Higgs, a separate buffet table for the crew is prepared near the wheel. The sailors cheer their captain’s kindness as those that are off-duty get food for themselves and their busy shipmates. It is at the long table that Kellia and her escort enjoys breakfast with the captain. Almost everyone is happy to settle down for a quiet meal and relax after their adventures in Rodillen. The exception is Luke who takes a nervous breath as he hears the anchor lock into place and the sails are grabbed by the wind. He swallows a few more ginger pills as the ship eases into the current. Captain Higgs gives the forest tracker a cautious look from across the long table while pouring some coffee.
“You might not want to take all of those pills now, young man,” the captain suggests as he passes a plate of jellied toast to Kellia.
“Thanks for the advice, sir. I’m just a little tense,” Luke admits, taking a deep drink of water. “Is there anything we forgot to tell you, Fritz?”
“Not from the sound of things,” Fritz says. He hands a plate of star-shaped sausages over to Captain Higgs as Aedyn gives him the scrambled eggs. “From what you described, last night was more of a test to see what our strengths and weaknesses were. I wish I was there to help even though I don’t think I could have done much good. This woman sounded too strong for my illusions to be of any use. She could be stronger than Nyx.”
“I doubt it,” Nimby interjects, eating the crust off his toast. “Nyx beat her into the ground.”
“Please, pass those flat doughy things and the tree sap stuff,” Nyx politely requests. She is already on her second plate of food, which is nearly cleared. She pushes four pancakes onto her plate and drowns them in syrup. “I have to disagree with, Nimby. She had no idea what I was capable of, so she was fighting blind. Now, my element of surprise is gone. Next time will be an entirely different fight, so I’m going to need some new tricks to keep this chaos elf queen on the defensive. This is going to require a lot of studying and meditation. Do you guys mind if I spend tomorrow in my room? I’m not trying to be anti-social, but . . . why are you three looking at me like that?”
Aedyn, Fritz, and Nimby are staring at her with food stuffed in their cheeks. Eventually, Aedyn swallows his food to speak. “My apologies. It is just that we never heard you say anything like that. It was friendly unlike your usual aggression.”
“I must have come off worse than I thought at the beginning,” she mutters.
“Excuse me, Luke,” Captain Higgs interrupts with a forkful of eggs almost to his mouth. “I heard you mention that this woman claimed to be the queen of the chaos elves. Did she have a violet gem in her forehead and another gem in each of her palms?”
Luke thinks for a few seconds but Nyx answers for him. “That’s her. Those were magic channeling gems. Every caster in chaos elf society gets one once they turn thirteen. It’s like how chaos elf warriors get unique tattoos when they come of age. I read up on their history a few years ago and they are a curious race. Problematic tricksters for centuries until a few years before the Great Cataclysm changed Windemere. They suddenly became a malicious race, acting more like assassins than pranksters.”
“You and that gnome just love spilling knowledge,” the captain jests. He reaches out to stick his fork into a fish when a high-pitched scream echoes from below decks. Fizzle speeds out of a porthole with Nightshade biting his tail.
“Nimby! Cat mean! Try eat Fizzle pie! Cat no let go!” the drite cries in more fear than pain. Nightshade continues to hold on as Fizzle shakes her around above Nimby’s head. The cat finally releases Fizzle and lands on Nimby’s shoulder before dropping to the floor and scurrying up to the crow’s nest.
“I’m very sorry, Fizzle. She was curious. I promise that she won’t touch your food again,” Nimby swears, watching her peek out from her hiding place.
Captain Higgs shakes his head and snaps his fingers at the halfling. “I told you that cat would be a nuisance. Thank Myilia for convincing me to let you keep it. It’s bad enough that I have to allow that sheep to wander around the hold.”
“Bessaria is the best trained sheep that I’ve ever had,” Fritz loudly declares.
“She’s well-behaved, gnome. I’ll grant you that,” the captain apologetically admits before turning back to Nimby. “I’m serious about thanking Myilia. Do it after breakfast.”
“I’ll thank her. Nightshade seems to like her,” Nimby mentions.
Kellia finally breaks her silence by slamming her hand on the table. Everyone looks at her as she glowers at them. The girl has been irritable since she woke up. Since stepping onto the deck, she has yelled at Fritz for not staying with the group and she has been more than prepared to hurl Nightshade into the river. Even Nyx and Luke have been scolded for leaving her unattended during the night.
“Forget about the stupid cat and the sheep. Why did you ask about the gemstones, Higgs?” Kellia impatiently inquires.
“That is Captain Higgs,” the sea elf says with a stern stare at the heiress. “I will forgive you this once for your rudeness, your majesty. The events of last night have clearly left you on edge.”
With a polite bow of her head, Kellia whispers, “My apologies, Captain Higgs.”
“My question was in regards to the placement of the gems. Chaos elf casters typically wield one gem,” Captain Higgs explains, leaning back in his chair and putting his feet on the table. “The exception is a woman named Trinity, who is able to utilize three magic gems without damaging her body. Rumors tell of her gaining her first gem at the age of five. Her other gemstones were gained at age thirteen when she defeated her teachers in combat. It was to the death and she destroyed both of them within seconds. I believe it was about six years ago that she took over the continent of Shayd and restructured the chaos elves into a matriarchy. If you ran into her then you are lucky to have survived. She really is the queen of the chaos elves and she is barely twenty.”
“Great. The Lich has a Nyx with an entire race at her beck and call,” groans Luke, whose face has turned slightly pale. “Though, it’s rather strange for you to call her an old hag when you’re the same age. Maybe you should practice your insults as well as your spells.” He can feel Nyx kick him in the shin under the table.
“I stand by what I said. It isn’t the age, but the mileage that makes her an old hag,” Nyx stubbornly claims.
Nimby raises his hand along with a fork full of food. “I have a question. Why did Trinity go blind after looking at Nyx? I mean, we all fear her wrath and fury to some extent, but we aren’t so scared that our sense of sight turns off. That’s something that a dragon or a god could do . . . unless you’re really a goddess who is secretly protecting us. Goddess of rage? Maybe goddess of unnecessary violence?”
Captain Higgs and Luke can’t hold back their laughter when Nyx’s face becomes a distorted mixture of embarrassment and rage. The sputtering noise that comes out of her mouth is enough to make Aedyn laugh until his lungs hurt. Within seconds, Fritz and Nimby succumb to their own fits of laughter. Eventually, Nyx is forced to crack a smile as Nimby falls out of his chair and pounds on the deck. Kellia is the only one that refuses to join in the fun.
“I think we have had enough. Sorry for laughing so hard,” Aedyn gasps once he regains his composure. Luke hands the priest a cloth to clean his face of specks of juice that he sent flying by laughing into his drink. “Again, we are not really used to you being anything other than angry, Nyx. That look on your face was priceless.”
“I’m gonna be hearing that excuse for days,” Nyx hisses.
“You do have to admit that you earned the angry reputation,” Luke states with
a warm smile.
Nyx pouts slightly and crosses her arms. “I don’t know what happened to her. She just started stumbling around blindly.”
“I have an idea about what happened. I believe Trinity used an aura sight spell to examine you. Luke was pinned and you were nursing a hole in your leg. As far as she was concerned, the fight was over. All chaos elves get obsessed when faced with something mysterious and she could not resist prying into Nyx’s aura,” Aedyn explains while sipping at his replenished cup of juice. “My theory is that she looked at you just as you powered up the fire spell to cauterize your wound. Combine that with the potent aura a caster of your talent would have and the effect could be blinding to a person viewing auras, which is the only risk associated with that spell. I remember one time at the academy; Luke’s aura dazed me with its brightness. I watched him through the aura sight spell several times and noticed that his aura increased whenever he was focused. Thankfully, he does not focus that often, so I can use the spell around him without having to worry.”
“Another big talker,” Captain Higgs grunts, finishing his breakfast and handing his plate to a passing crewmember.
“You spied on my aura? Isn’t that intrusive? I mean, you can’t just do that without my permission. Can you?” rambles Luke, who assumes he should feel violated. “I feel dirty all of a sudden.”
“You have no idea what he means by auras,” Fritz wryly says.
Luke looks down at his plate and pokes at a scrap of food. “Not exactly. I still feel strange about him spying on me.”
“To put it simply, every creature has an aura of magic. Most people have a weak aura that remains untapped. Magical training and natural talents are the only ways to tap into your aura. Without such things, an average person will go through their entire life without utilizing their magical aura,” Nyx says. Her voice sounds like that of a schoolteacher talking to a child, but Luke doesn’t seem to notice her condescending tone. “Once you begin utilizing your aura to make spells, you’re called a caster. This is the big difference between priests and casters. Priests get their magic from the will of the gods that they worship while casters get their magic from their personal aura. The strength and amount of magic is determined by your aura’s potency. The details are beyond you, but it’s good for you to know how magic works. Now the schools. . .”
“So, Trinity and the Lich use these auras too?” Luke interrupts.
Nyx sighs before continuing, “Not quite. They are slightly different. Trinity uses her personal aura to cast spells as well as the aura from her magic gems. Items that are magical will have their own aura. A magical item is able to merge its aura with the aura of a living creature. This is how a person with no caster training can still use a magical item. The auras of these items remain dormant until a specific activation requirement is met. You will probably come across magical weapons that merely require someone to touch them for their auras to activate. Other items require a hand motion or a word, but those activations are not that common these days. To sum up, Trinity is a caster with both training and enhancement from magical items.”
“She just keeps talking,” Captain Higgs mutters under his breath.
Nyx ignores him and the bored stares of everyone, except Luke who is enthralled with the explanation. She blushes slightly at the attention and turns away from him to stare at the distant crow’s nest.
“Now, the Lich is entirely different . . . I think,” she declares after some thought. “Maybe I should avoid talking about him since your description makes him an enigma. The Lich should only be able to use necrocasting. We call these people necrocasters and their specialty is in manipulating the aura of others to cast spells. This is why it’s considered a perverse and unnatural art. A necrocaster literally invades and twists another being’s aura. A necrocaster will twist and mold your aura into what they want. This is good for Liches who control other undead since most species of undead have residual aura at best. I believe vampires are the only undead with auras since they are technically alive. That is an entirely different discussion because vampires are only considered undead because they feed off blood. There is also the issue of old world vampires and new world vampires. I guess I should stop since Nimby is faking a coma.”
Kellia slams her hand on the table hard enough to flip it and send everything flying across the deck. Nimby is quick enough to tackle Captain Higgs out of the way, but the sea elf looks angrier than ever. He jumps to his feet like a man who has been slapped across the face. He is about to scream at Kellia when he thinks better of it and leaves the deck without a word. Every sailor on deck stops staring and goes about their business as if nothing happened.
“That was not necessary,” Aedyn calmly mentions.
“Shut up, Aedyn,” she cries in a sudden panicky rage. “You idiots should be discussing how to keep me safe. I don’t care about auras or vampires or how magical items work. Your job is to make sure that I get home alive. Are you forgetting that I was nearly killed last night?”
Luke calmly gets to his feet and walks over to her. Kellia stands up straight and steps closer, so that they are nose to nose. Luke gives her a cold stare as she sneers at him. He cracks a grin before he begins to turn away from her. The backhand to Kellia’s face echoes along the river as Luke massages his sore knuckles. Kellia stands with her upper body frozen in mid-twist and a look of stunned rage on her face.
“Luke!” Nyx shouts.
“How dare you, Callindor?” Kellia snarls. She throws a punch at his forehead, which he refuses to dodge. The force of the strike pushes Luke a half-step back, but he immediately goes back to his original standing position. Blood trickles down the center of his face as he continues to stare at Kellia. The diamond ring on her hand still has some skin and hair on it from the impact, so she wipes it clean on Luke’s shirt.
Luke refuses to look away or wipe the blood from his face. “My slap was to remind you that you’re tougher than this. The Kellia I know wouldn’t act like a scared, angry child. Hopefully that love tap jogged your memory about who you are.”
“This isn’t the academy, fool,” she snaps.
“That’s why you should be stronger. You told me before that my mind has to be in this or I would be a liability. I think you should heed your own advice,” Luke calmly says. He wipes the blood from his face with the back of his hand. “All of us put our lives on the line last night when Trinity attacked. Nyx and I were injured protecting you. Aedyn pushed his magic so much last night that Trinity could have killed him easily. Nimby stood alone against chaos elf assassins to make sure you stayed alive.”
“What’s your point?” Kellia asks.
“His point is that you have to realize that our lives are in danger too. Keeping ourselves alive is just as important as protecting you. Bodyguards with a one time use aren’t worth having because once they are gone, you’re alone,” Nimby politely explains while proudly standing next to Luke. “Nyx telling us about auras helps us understand how a caster thinks and gives us another dimension to our strategies. Even our joking helps us get a sense of each other and create a strong bond between us.”
“You’re stretching for a good reason,” the stubborn heiress retorts.
Nimby grinds his teeth in frustration. “Then remember this, your highness. All of us standing here chose to put ourselves in harm’s way for you. Never forget that.”
“The halfling comes out with wisdom. This day is just full of surprises,” Fritz whispers.
Kellia clenches her fist and bursts into tears. Nyx makes an attempt to reach out for her shoulder, but she is violently pushed aside as Kellia dashes to her room. The force of the push sends Nyx tripping over a chair and crashing to the ground. Aedyn helps the caster to her feet as the sound of a door slamming echoes from the depths of the ship.
“What is wrong with her?” Fritz wonders out loud.
“I do not know, but I do not like it,” Aedyn anxiously claims. “What do you think, Luke?”
“She’s j
ust being Kellia. I’ll admit that this is a little much, but it reminds me of how she acted after the Hellfire Elf attacked her. She was rather bratty and yelled at everyone in order to mask her own fear. Then, she went into a crying fit like she just did,” says the forest tracker before turning to Nyx. “Can you check on her and see if you can calm her down, Nyx?”
“Sure thing, little brother,” Nyx mutters without thinking. She stops rubbing her sore shoulder and blushes when she realizes what she said.
“Little brother?” Luke repeats, eyeing Nyx suspiciously.
The four friends stare at Nyx as she quickly walks away and goes below decks to check on the heiress. They begin to disperse to go about their daily business. Nimby clambers up to the crow’s nest while Aedyn goes to pray at the bow of the ship. Fritz decides to stay with Luke who is the only one left standing on the deck in a state of confusion.
“Why did she call me that?” the forest tracker asks.
“Men were never meant to understand the words and actions of women. We are simply here to enjoy their presence and whims,” Fritz whimsically says. “Though, if you think about it, I believe you were just told that Kira has nothing to worry about in regards to you and Nyx. You have been designated the safe friend. Congratulations.”
“I’m dunking you in the L’dandrin,” Luke swears with a sadistic grin.
“This is where I run,” the gnome announces.
Fritz runs like a scared rabbit as Luke makes a half-hearted attempt to grab him. The two continue their chase around the ship to the amusement of the crew. That is everyone, except Captain Higgs, who loudly swears he will use the pair as depth checkers if he gets his hands on them.
*****
Trinity coughs and groans as she drags her battered body through the Caster Swamp. Smoke is still wafting off her burned clothes and she shakes off a cloud of ashes whenever her body spasms in pain. The foul-smelling smoke, in addition to the hideous cough that sends putrid blood into the air, keeps the swamp creatures away from her. This gives her very little comfort now that her once pristine body has been left bloody and twisted by Nyx’s fire attack. The only thing that keeps her moving toward the green light is her anger and warm thoughts of vengeance.
Legends of Windemere: 02 - Prodigy of Rainbow Tower Page 17
