Going back wasn't an option. Even if Emma could have convinced Herag that it had just been Vari smuggling himself which led to them leaving the castle with him in tow, and she doubted very much it was possible to convince that gibbering monkey of anything at all, their escape had cost the lives of more than a few of his men. He'd be pissed, they'd be pissed. And, worse, he was a new leader taking the position in a time of crisis and uncertainty, after killing the old one and colluding with a perceived traitor. Even if he himself didn't want to do it—a big if, for that matter—he'd probably have gotten his hand forced anyway by the rage of his men.

So going back was not, in the end, an option. Not at all.

Emma and Aexilica had travelled fast, as far as travel in this world went. Oh, Emma would've killed for some modern convenience of course. A train could've gotten them to their destination in one fifth the time, a plane more like a fiftieth. Even a decent off-road truck could've managed it quicker. But compared to actually slogging by foot, or even her sledge, it was damn quick.

They reached their destination, the riverbank nearest to Port Gorig, within three days, and walked the rest of the way. Vari was not in tow, of course. Emma and Aexilica had taken the loss of their lifetime fortune about as one might expect them to, and were in no mood to travel with the moron responsible.

Port Gorig was pretty small as far as ports went. Actually, it was the smallest one Emma had ever seen. That was turning out to be a recurring theme of this world, though. There were odd anachronisms at points, like the castle's size and architecture, but for the most part it seemed modern construction remained beyond its denizens.

Shoddy-looking wooden structures, a few fragile docks and ships that, Emma suspected, could have all banded together into one fleet and still been destroyed by some rich asshole simply ramming a yacht through them all back on earth.

And I don't get to be a rich asshole here.

But she wasn't going to think about that, high blood pressure was bad for you.

Their boat was one of the larger vessels, at least, and Emma had to say it was well-maintained compared to the others around it. Most of the ships here were of local Sculd make, this one was clearly different. Taller, wider, not a long-ship at all and more something she'd expect to see crewed by colonial-era pirates.

It was crewed by pirates.

No surprise there, just about everybody Emma had met in this world so far was a pirate. Aexilica and a scant few others excepted. It seemed to just be the career of choice, in a general sense, and if nothing else these pirates were not actively antagonistic towards her. They were oddly multi-cultural, too. This was demonstrated nowhere so well as the ship's captain, one Asgrim Storm-Eye. A tall man, a very tall man, and with shoulders that were broad with stacked musculature. He had a nonetheless rapier-lean frame that reminded Emma much of some olympic athletes. The ones who exploded into motion near-instantly and cooled back into stillness just as fast.

What struck Emma most were his skin, hair and eyes. Which were brown, blonde and browner respectively. His hair marked him as having Sculd ancestry, she thought, but the tone of his skin and other features had an undeniable Aethiqi touch to them. Actually, looking at him, Emma realised that the only person she'd seen here with features comparable to his was Aexilica.

Mixed race, then? Probably. She almost found it funny how novel that was compared to back home.

"You're the clients?" Storm-Eye asked, running his gaze along Emma and Aexilica with something of a business-oriented intensity. She could practically see the gears turning behind his eyes.

Fortunately, Emma had sent her payment along by courier ahead of time. That meant that Storm-Eye already had a few silver pieces buying them safe passage across the ocean. Unfortunately, she had since become a lot poorer than when she sent said payment…And it had only been half of the total sum. The other half was to be delivered upon their safe arrival.

"We are." Aexilica replied, squaring up slightly at the man. He looked more amused than intimidated, though equal to her in height there seemed to be some unspoken disparity between them. Emma suspected it may have possibly had something to do with their standing five metres away from a ship full of his own men.

"And you?" The pirate turned to Emma now, studying her just as he had Aexilica. "You're the one who paid, right?"

Emma realised that technically was correct, Herag had given her the money, not Aexilica. Felt strange to be the one with finances. What could come of her having monetary influence over others? Nothing good, that was for sure.

Nothing at all, actually, asshole robbed it all.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"I am." Emma confirmed, instead of screaming. "Ultra-powerful wielder of magic, at your disposal." She thought about letting the claim just sit there, then it occurred to her how easily this man might double-cross them. How tempted he would be to do so, alone with them in the middle of the sea with no witnesses and dozens of allies. She produced a ball of hardened energy in her hand, heated it up and dropped it onto the pier. It sat there for a few moments, making the wood smoulder and smoke. Only when flames started to appear did Emma douse it all in a jet of conjured water and look back up to meet his eyes.

"I can do a lot more than that." She informed him, and waited to see if he would put two and two together.

Wooden boat plus incendiary magic equalled four, and he quickly stiffened to look at Emma with a shade more caution and friendliness.

"Right." He nodded, hiding the nervousness she'd inspired behind a smile. Hiding it pretty well, actually, Emma figured he must've been pretty thick-witted or thick-skinned in the first place to handle himself so solidly after a shock like that. "Well, you've paid up already, so you can just head right aboard."

That set off alarm bells in Emma's head, and not entirely irrational ones. She'd demonstrated that she could take the ship out if pushed, but that didn't mean the captain wouldn't fancy his chances of immobilising or incapacitating her fast enough to prevent it. Better not to relax. What else was new?

Aexilica and Emma set foot on the ship's deck, and Emma instantly felt the change. She'd been at sea before, of course. Once or twice. Cruises, on modern vessels larger by far than most of this world's buildings. Those had rocked, slightly, but it was nothing compared to the shifting she now felt underfoot.

To Emma's surprise, Aexilica was handling it far worse than her.

"Gods." The woman croaked, legs seemingly threatening to give out beneath her. "The sea really does move beneath you!"

Emma found herself grinning. Aexilica looked impossibly cute, all baffled and surprised like this. It was nice to actually see such vulnerability outside of a life-or-death struggle.

"You get used to it." Emma told her, confidently. Aexilica stared up at her, seeming somewhat awed.

"You're familiar with sea travel?"

Nope. And definitely not on vessels like this, but Emma saw no reason to admit her relative unimpressiveness to the devastatingly gorgeous woman who was suddenly so dazzled by her.

"Familiar enough. But mainly this is just common sense, there's nothing special about sailors that let them avoid falling on their face all the time. You'll adjust, give it a few days at most. And, uh, maybe keep a bucket ready. You might vomit. A lot."

Aexilica nodded in understanding at that, smiled gratefully. Then vomited. She did not have a bucket.

"We do have buckets, you know." A new voice cut in, sounding disapproving and irritated but not at all surprised. Emma looked around to find another of the pirates standing before her, this one far shorter, leaner and womanier than the captain. Her hair was cropped and dark, skin browner than Aexilica's, and features blunted and tough. Pretty, but not beautiful. Emma was being spoiled for pretty people of late, even Vari the Idiot, she reluctantly had to admit, fell into that category.

"She couldn't wait." Emma replied, deciding to do Aexilica the favour of handling their conversation. Her throat seemed far too busy with solids and liquids to further concern itself with air. "Are you here to introduce us? Get us settled in? Something like that?"

The newcomer smiled. "Something like that." She echoed. "The name's Sade Lanakila, pirate, thief, assassin and acrobat extraordinaire. You are?"

"Emma." Emma told her. "Emma uh…Nothing, just Emma, I don't have any cool titles."

Lanakila grinned. "Well stick with us and you might win a few by accident, things tend to get exciting around this ship. Come." She gestured them both after her, and Emma and Aexilica, now just about finished emptying her insides, followed.

Below decks, evidently where Emma and Aexilica would be spending the duration of their journey, was cramped, vaguely unsanitary and rather unpleasant to the nostrils. Each step further into the ship's bowles left the air smelling more like…Well, the inside of something's bowels. Even a lifetime spent in her own room hadn't inoculated Emma for the smell.

"You're staying through here." Lanakila explained, ushering them both into an altogether too-small cabin that would've fit into a single corner of their Vichin quarters with room to spare. Emma quickly did some estimates, and quickly realised they'd be making room for all their stuff only by using spare clothing as pillows.

"We paid you with an ounce of silver." Aexilica cut in, sounding more than a little pissed. "And that gets us this?"

The pirate turned to her with a look which would've frozen fire.

"Yes, it does. I don't know how big you think the ship is, exactly, but space comes at a premium when you're in the middle of the fucking ocean."

Aexilica paused at that, and Emma spoke up before her friend could shit everything up even more.

"Thank you!" She added, grinning in what she hoped was a not-too-forced way. "Really, thank you, I—"

—"And I'll be seeing the rest of the money now." The pirate added, turning to Emma as she said it. "Before we set off, that is, to prove that you can pay it."

Emma felt as if her guts had just fallen out, and thought fast before speaking.

Thinking fast availed her nothing, and she only sighed.

"We were robbed before arriving here, we don't have more money. But we have already paid up half of the fee, and your boss has already seen my power, we're willing to work the rest of it off on the way."

It ended up being the captain's decision, of course. Lanikala took it right to him without hesitating, and he quickly drilled Emma and Aexilica on their exact capabilities—insisting on seeing everything claimed about either of them proven before his own eyes. By the end of it Emma had made so many demonstrations of minor and greater power that she actually felt a little tired. The paranoid part of her wondered if that was intentional.

"...Fine." Storm-Eye sighed at last. "Fine, you can still travel with us. But we'll be putting you both to work all the way, understand?" Emma did, and was just halfway through nodding her enthusiastic agreement when the man continued. "...Also, you'll now be sharing your quarters with a third passenger, a new arrival."

Before Emma could even ask who that was, the captain turned to a figure approaching them. Tall, lean, red-haired, annoyingly handsome, infuriatingly pathetic. Vari the fucking Idiot made his way onto the boat.

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