RavensDagger

  Chapter Eighteen - A Goal

  53rd Day of Spring - Year 1758 of the Golden EraThe shores of Yellowfield, the Sapphire Ocean, Draya Calyrex

  The moon was just a thin sliver in the sky at the moment, but it was enough to see by.

  They were gathered on the deck of the Gentle Tidings, the three of them bundled up with their gambesons and caps and now three backpacks sitting on their backs. The bags were on loan from the ship's quartermaster, and they occasionally clinked as they moved.

  "Ah, you're here already," Jorvin said as he stepped out of the ship's cabin. The tall mage-knight was carrying three long sticks in one rge hand, and looked only somewhat exhausted by the early hour.

  Around them, the ship's crew was bustling as they loaded up the boat and lifted it towards the edge of the ship. Ropes and pulleys and a small crane were being moved about to lower it into the somewhat choppy waters of the ocean.

  "Hello," Viridian said. "What are those?"

  Jorvin grinned. "Those are my st gift to you three before you head out, but first, you'll want these." He had three swords in his off hand.

  Viridian took one, and looked it over, tugging the bde out of its sheath to inspect it. It was the same sort of short sword they'd used in their st excursion, down to the little pattern number stamped on the hilt. She nodded, then started to strap the sword in around her hip where it would be easily accessible.

  "These," Jorvin said as he raised the poles and let their bottom tap the deck. "Are pikes. Boarding pikes, to be precise." The pikes were a little taller than the puppets, with narrow heads no thicker than a thumb joint and just a little shorter than the length of her hand from heel to fingertip.

  "How do we use them?" Carnel asked.

  Jorvin handed one to Carnel and the other to Viridian, but he used the st to show them. "You hold it along the haft, here. One hand almost at the rear, to allow you leverage and control over the tip. When you want to stab, push forwards and use your leading hand to guide the tip. The spearhead isn't a bde. You can puncture and little else, but it is sharp, and you'll be able to punch even through thin armour with little difficulty if you put some weight into it."

  Jorvin gestured at Carnel's hip, and she pulled out her short sword and handed it to him.

  "When engaging in a fight, hold your sword like this, and the pike like so." He demonstrated a grip where his back hand held the pike and the short sword's hilt at the same time, and his forward hand had its thumb pressing down on the ft of the bde. "It means that when your pike is stuck, you can immediately let go and start cutting or stabbing with the sword. A lot of foes won't be ready to switch so easily."

  "Easy," Carnel said.

  "I make it look easy, yes," he said with a confident grin before giving her the sword back and then handing the pike to Lazur. "In a pinch, swing the pike wide and hard. With a good amount of leverage it can deliver a fatal blow, or knock someone back. But it's primarily a thrusting weapon. If you make it back in one piece, I'll show you three how to use a shield."

  "We have shields?" Viridian asked.

  "No, but there are carpenters on this ship," he said. "And a small shield isn't complex work."

  Viridian nodded. A shield might be nice to have. She didn't particurly care to be hit, but if it came to it, she'd rather have a shield take the blow than her all-new body.

  The puppets all straightened as three figures stepped onto the main deck. Magus Maldrak, the captain, and Artificer Woodbone the younger.

  "Ah, you three seem ready," Maldrak said as he looked them over. He nodded. "Good. First, you've received the items from our alchemist?"

  "Yes," Viridian said.

  "Let's hope they serve you well," he said before reaching into a pocket of his robes. He pulled out a tube. It was wooden, with intricate carvings all around its haft. "This is the weapon I spoke of. It is a weapon designed to be used in ship-to-ship combat by non-mages. It's a pre-recorded spell, simir to the disks I gave you previously."

  "Can we have more?" Lazur asked. "Disks. Spells."

  Magus Maldrak blinked, then nodded. "Return, and I'll see to it. Perhaps by then you'll have taken in enough essence to justify the frequent use of magic. In the meantime, take this."

  Lazur took the tube and looked it over.

  "The activation is at the rear. Twist the knob, then point the end with the hole towards your foe. It will fire a trio of small spells. These are mostly harmless and should be used to aim, and then the primary spell will be cast."

  "It's one of the few we have onboard," the captain said. "I hope it serves you well."

  "You may discard it after, or return it," Maldrak said. "In either case, it should be enough to dispose of a single stronger foe."

  "Thank you," Viridian said before Lazur could start asking the magus for the robes off his back as well.

  He nodded. "Artificer Magus Brian here is going to assist you in infusing your essence, and then I suspect that it will be time for you three to be off once more."

  Viridian stood up straighter, then hurried to open the front of her gambeson to allow the artificer access to her chest. Another reason to dislike the bulky garment. There had to be a better way to make armoured clothes so that her siphon could be deployed without having to remove several yers and knots.

  Soon enough, the artificer was extracting the essence she'd collected, and it was quickly purified in his little device and a glowing vial was reslotted into her chest.

  And then Viridian hummed contentedly as the magic flowed through her. She felt it wash around the inside of her core, an ecstatic, warm feeling that then spread out across her entire body. She couldn't truly feel her body, but as the essence flowed out she almost had the impression that she could, if only for a moment.

  And then the feeling faded, and Viridian was herself once more.

  Or was she?

  She raised her hand and csped it open and closed a few times. "Will this change me?" she asked.

  "Such a small quantity will have minimal effect," Magus Maldrak said. "Though minimal isn't to be confused with none. It will strengthen you, and change you as well. Your new bodies are capable of such. The more you take in, the faster the changes will come."

  "How long until they're no longer pushovers?" Jorvin asked.

  "That may take some time," Maldrak said. "I estimate that it would take a hundred thousand units of essence to reach the level of a Mage-Knight."

  A hundred thousand? Viridian boggled at the amount. One peasant's death, not shared with her puppet companions, was worth almost a hundred such points. They'd need to end the lives of a thousand peasants each then.

  A town's worth, for one of them to reach Jorvin's level. Three, if they shared equally. "So many," she said.

  "There are ample pces to gain that many and more," Magus Maldrak said. "Have no fear. Given time, you will reach such levels. But not if you stay on this deck. Captain, let's lower that boat and see our friends off for the morning."

  They cmbered onboard the boat, and with a final good bye and good luck from the Magus, the boat was lowered into the choppy early morning waters and the sailors started to row them out to shore.

  Viridian stood as still as she could while the thick fog coalesced around her and the waves spshed against the side of their boat, some of the spritz catching on her gambeson.

  She supposed that being as strong as Jorvin was a good goal to set, for the moment. It was far, but it was... doable.

  And yet, for as strong as Jorvin felt, Maldrak was so much more. A bonfire next to a torch.

  "Focus," Lazur said. "First, the vilge. Then we continue to grow."

  "Stronger," Carnel said. "We grow stronger. Kill, reap, repeat."

  "Yes," Lazur said before turning her puppet head towards Shorefarm. "Yes, because there is much to do, and we can only do it once we are strong."

  In due time, their boat arrived around the piers of the town, just as the sun started to crest the distant horizon. They stepped off, with greater ease than just some days prior. Her essence counter was set to zero at the moment, but she didn't expect it to stay there. Fingering her pike and running her hand over the hilt of her sword, Viridian prepared herself. Today would be a red day.

  ***