The island was unexpected. Not the best words to hear in the middle of the ocean, Aexilica had to say. In her mind, unexpected islands tended to smash into the ships who failed to expect them, sentencing everyone aboard to a watery grave.

Sade laughed when she brought that up.

"We're not going to hit an island." The woman grinned. "Rocks, maybe, sure. The captain's giving it a wide berth for that reason, but in any case we've seen it now because…It's an island."

Aexilica felt her face burn, and was suddenly wishing her current company were not so accustomed to recognising the flush of embarrassment in bronze skin.

"Sorry." She grumbled, only to get a slap on the shoulder.

"Oh relax, it's actually nice having a rookie around asking all the stupid questions. Makes us feel properly professional." Sade grinned wider, and Aexilica couldn't help but mirror it.

She remained on deck as they continued their journey, angled slightly around the island but close enough that it would remain within visual range for quite some time. The winds were strong, and so the boat fast. Perhaps a shade too fast. Within another half-hour the ocean started churning, breeze turning to gale, rain hammering down onto the deck.

"Storm!" The captain roared. "Bastard thing came out of nowhere!"

Aexilica wasn't too panicked, they'd sailed through one other storm already. Her thoughts detached from the crew instantly, leaving them to do their vital work while she sought out Emma. She was not, unfortunately, seeking for long.

"You like that, asshole!?" Emma laughed, standing at the front of the ship well up onto the pointy bit at front. Bow, it was called. The bow. This was all still new to Aexilica, new enough that her panic at seeing the smaller woman prancing around on the water-slick wood and cackling felt somewhat primeval.

"Emma!" Aexilica screamed. "Get down!"

Emma glanced back at her, snickering.

"What? Oh come on, I'm fine, relax." She turned her gaze from Aexilica and down to…Vari, of course. Now being half-drowned in stormy water. The Sculd's struggling was impossible to even see beneath the thrashing waves.

"You're going to fall!" Even now, the ship was starting to rock more beneath them. Emma just laughed harder.

"Me? ME?!" She called back, splaying her arms out wide, eyes wider still. "I'm Emma! A wizard, I can kill a tree at fifty paces, what exactly do you think a little rocking ship and wet wood can do that—" Emma's feet slipped out from under her, and she fell. Aexilica watched it all seem to happen so very slowly. The woman dropped down, smacked her head against the bow and went suddenly slack before disappearing into the water.

Aexilica screamed.

***

The restraints disappeared instantly, and Vari enjoyed unrestricted movement for all of a second before something came down atop him hard. He yelped, driven slightly under the water, thrashing around before surfacing again several moments later.

By then, in that little time, the ship had already passed him by, storm winds and waves too high for him to even see the towering vessel easily. And if he couldn't see it, Vari was almost certain that it couldn't see him. He caught something else though, from the corner of his eye, something much closer.

Emma, the wizard. His tormentor. He saw her floating away face-down and limp, considered letting her die. Couldn't. Cursed.

There was a trick to swimming in the sea, even swimming in stormy seas. Vari knew it of course. A sea-raider, a Sculd. Whatever his brother said now, Vari was a warrior of the tides and he used every screed of those skills to cut his way through them. Ringmail weighed him down, twenty pounds of cold iron doing its best to drag him down like the grip of a hungry sea serpent. It was no match for his strength, though. Even exhausted and battered by hours of gagging beneath the waves, of days running from his brother's men, the power of his muscles was triumphant. He reached the girl in under ten seconds.

She was dead meat, but not dead weight. Buoyant compared to the body of a man left unconscious in her position, as if there wasn't an ounce of muscle or bone on her. Vari glanced around to try and find the ship again, realised the futile effort for what it was, and cursed.

He continued swimming, but towards the island. The only spot he knew that might be safe from the storm. Even his strength wasn't without limit, and if he tried to hold up mail and woman both for the entire duration of the weather then it would like as not simply drown them both. His choice was made for him already, and so he just followed it to the end.

***

"Where is she!?" Aexilica screamed, face turned over the railing and desperately scanning the water. She saw nothing, of course. There was simply too much distortion. For weeks they'd sailed on flat, clear waters which she could've picked a target out from at a hundred paces. Now, when it was life or death, the sea churned and broiled and threw out waves taller than the woman she searched for. Life had a way of being funny like that, Aexilica supposed. And usually it chose to be funny when doing so was most likely to get people killed.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Still, she looked.

Aexilica cursed, gave up her search and started to dive into the water. She was stopped by strong hands around her shoulders, hauling her back. Haruki.

"Let go of me!" She snarled, throwing her strength against his and turning to leverage it better. Haruki, clearly expecting her to simply struggle on without strategy or thought, was surprised for a moment. Then he responded in kind. Within moments things had degenerated into a silent wrestling match between the two of them. Aexilica had gotten stronger, but Haruki was a man whose body was just as superhuman as her own—perhaps moreso. He had enjoyed the luxury of comparable sparring partners for tens of times as long as her, and that brought a skill and strength which would've made the struggle testing on their own. Together, Aexilica wasn't sure she even could win.

"You won't achieve anything going in after her, we'll just lose you too." Haruki told her. He spoke as calmly as ever, in cadence at least, but Aexilica could hear the strain in his voice. Then Sade's hands tightened around her to match his, and the struggle was over. Whatever chance Aexilica had of overpowering Haruki alone, it had disappeared with her assistance

"I can try!" She spat, fury turning her voice into a bitter snarl.

"Can you even swim?" Sade asked her. Aexilica paused, and was reluctantly forced to take a few moments before replying.

No, she could not. Not that she knew of. Her father could swim, that much she was fairly sure of, but the only thing Aexilica had ever gotten from him was slurred orders and derision. He'd never taught her, and she'd never learned.

"We need to do something!" She pressed, feeling bile threaten to rise up in her throat. Emma couldn't be dead, Aexilica couldn't just…Just let that happen.

"We will do something." Came a new voice, captain Storm-Eye himself. Aexilica felt the arms release her as everyone stood ready in his presence. She, of course, did not make another dive for the water. Putting aside the sense Sade had made about her swimming ability…Storm-Eye would stop her. Easily.

"What?" Aexilica pressed, not letting him cow her tongue as he did her body at least.

"The island." He replied. "If Emma is alive, she'll have washed up there. We search it. I've already adjusted course to head for it now."

In that moment, Aexilica felt more gratitude towards the man than she had ever felt for any other. It was almost too overwhelming for her to remain standing.

"Thank you." She managed. He just nodded, turning away.

"Yeah, well, she paid us for safe transport, and I can't have you both souring our good reputation. We're pirates you know. Live or die off reputation."

"True." Haruki added, helpfully. Aexilica turned back to the ocean, tuning out the crew. Thinking of Emma, alone out there, in danger. Far from her reach. Why had she never learned to swim?

Too late for regrets now, she'd just have to keep herself ready for when they finally made shore. If Emma hadn't already drowned by then.

And if she'd even made it to shore at all.

***

Emma woke up on the shore. For a few moments, that was a relief. The last thing she'd experienced, before her memory cut off, was a lot of flailing, salty water in her eyes and infernal dizziness. She turned over onto her side, and immediately hacked up about a gallon of seawater. The vomit came out next, practically of its own volition.

For a while, Emma just knelt there and heaved up more detritus from her guts. She tasted the foul acid of it, barely saw anything through her watering eyes, trembled and felt suddenly, ridiculously hot. It wasn't dark outside, but the clouds above left the sun obscured enough that the morning felt more like an evening.

Between all the sensory distraction, Emma took a long while to notice that she wasn't alone. Glancing at Vari the Idiot left her scrambling back in an instinctive retreat. He didn't raise his hands, or do anything at all to put her at ease, just glared.

"I saved you." Vari spat. "So we're even now, yes? No more…Drowning."

Was he still on about that? Emma took a moment to marvel in disgust at how whiney the man was, then sighed. And shook her head.

"We're not even at all, the only reason I fell overboard was because I was busy drowning you. This is all your fault."

He stared at her, seeming somehow disbelieving for a moment. Typical, some people just couldn't accept accountability for their actions.

"You're insane!" He snapped. "You—you…What?"

"But we have more important things to concern ourselves with." Emma declared, hopping up to her feet and wavering for a moment as she felt dizziness rack her.

"Ha, not so tough now are you bitch?" Vari sneered, earning another glare from Emma and a quick contemplation regarding the merits of holding his head underwater again. She decided against it only reluctantly.

"We should stay here." Emma said at last, giving their surroundings another cursory examination. "We need to be easily found so the ship doesn't conclude that we're dead, or something, and…And…" She trailed off as something caught her eye. Really caught it, practically ensnared.

Pillars of stone, tall and impressive. They were half-hidden beyond rocky growths that Emma could only now see past after moving farther into the beach.

And they were not natural, either. Emma recognised very deliberate effort had gone into their construction. They were too uniform and too perfect to be mere accidents of wind and water, and they were clearly patterned in a way that struck her as meaning something.

"You see those?" She asked Vari, nodding towards them. "What do those symbols mean, do you know?"

She hadn't actually expected an answer, not a useful one at least, but he surprised her by giving one, and giving it quickly.

"Runes." He whispered. "Warning signs, and…" He trailed off, clamping up. Emma pressed him.

"Go on." She urged. "Warnings and what?"

"Warnings and…Markings of an offering-site, to…To a God, or all of the Gods."

"Offerings." She echoed. "Such as…What, money?"

He frowned at her.

"Silver is…Part of it, yes. But also favoured weapons, relics from other people, the most valuable hauls from any given raid are turned over to the Gods."

Emma grinned at that, and fired an energy lance into the beach. The impact blasted sand apart, and melted some of it. Unmistakably her.

"Let's go and see this offering site." She suggested.

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