A Bright and Shiny Life

Sarah takes my measurements for the silk armour. “It’ll be crude, just a tubular vest, plus a little neck and leg protection. I’ll add a metal plate over your heart, but don’t trust it. Silk is supposed to be strong, but I won’t guarantee anything especially once we’re in boarding range.”

“Thanks. Did you learn contract law from your mentor too?”

“Huh, oh no. I’m the fourth in line so I needed some sort of job. I assumed solicitor until a roaming knight decided I had a talent. Figured I could always go back to law if this doesn’t work out, and besides, I love the sea.”

I continue to train Martin and Edmond at sunset but stay out well after the lesson is done to train myself. Edmond, having felt the eye stays with me before going down an hour later, being wowed by my displays of power. Since, rather than learning new spells, I train maintaining two spells at once to mixed success. He would stay longer, but his father comes to get him.

The main thing I am hoping for is to be able to keep up my personal shield spell while casting anything else. Firestream is way too much, causing headaches whenever I try. However, lesser firestream is fine. Missile guidance is mixed. I can cast and maintain it with the shield, but the shield painfully drops when I actually shoot. Mental whisper can be cast with anything else except firestream.

I occasionally go back down to perform a divination then have the crew at helm make minor course changes based on it. Hopefully this will counter their divinations enough to buy us time to reach the reefs, but I am at a severe disadvantage compared to on land.

We have to move with the wind. Apparently, there’s something called ‘tacking’ we could do, but that will both slow us down and take us away from our destination. Moreover, they should know by now that we’re going for the reefs, and there are supposedly only a few safe routes through there. So really all I can do is make them a little less efficient in their pursuit.

This is of course pointless if they’re also tracking us via a remote sensing spell. On land I would counter it with concealment, but a ship is too big. So, I must assume they aren’t, because the opposite isn’t action guiding.

I stay up training all through the night, going to sleep only at dawn with the intent of being fully rested when I’ll have to guide us through the reefs.

When I wake, I see that the staff has borne another batch of berries, so I pick them and place them in a bag. Experiments have shown they’ll retain their power for a few days after being picked, so I might as well start stockpiling them for the fight. I’ll give everyone two, one to take right before the fight, and one to take if injured– it might save a few lives… probably not though.

I also give Kalen three more for her injury then examine it. She says she’ll be fully healed by when they come, but I’m not so certain.

I do get her to show me a few combat tricks along with the rest of the crew. She says I’m ‘fine’ with a dagger, and ‘adequate’ with the club and hand axe when she’s done teaching, but that I should rely on my magic instead.

Our training is interrupted by a cry of ‘ship on the horizon’ from the crow nest, then a second cry a half hour later.

“Well, will we make it Martin?” The captain asks as we huddle around the map.

Martin studies a map and sextant before answering. “To the reefs? I think so. We should reach them a half hour before sunset. At that point they’ll be about an hour from catching us.”

When we leave the meeting the pirate sails are just visible from the poop deck. I stand there as more and more of the rigging slips into view until finally their hulls creep over the horizon. It’s an hour before sunset and they’re rapidly gaining.

“Reef ahead!” Cries the crow nest.

I retrieve the silver rod and chant the divination, needing to test the technique. The rod flashes hot when directed at the reef, and rapidly cools when moved to the course Martin barks out. I pull out the compass and chant with the rod hovering over it, and the needle rapidly spins before landing on the new course.

“All right.” I say to Martin. “We can do this. The compass will show us the best way through, while the rod will show us danger. Though we might want to ignore the compass a few times to try and lure them closer to a reef.”

He nods and we work out a system for quick communication before the sun sets. The pirates are close enough to make out individuals on deck and the second ship has not broken off.

I have Edmond stand next to me with a candle for the compass, learning his cantrip as he does. The light isn’t necessary due to my enhanced night vision, but there is no reason to let them know that and the boy is happy to be part of the excitement. Besides, this way I’ll get paid for another lesson.

It’s high tide, the way will become impassable at low. We need to clear it in about four hours, and so must maintain a high speed.

Things are going easy. My divinations work as expected as we twist and turn through a dozen reefs, shaving closer each time. Suddenly a cloud hides the moon and we lose sight of the pirates.

Hoping for this I pull out the crystal pendulum and chant a third divination to avoid pursuit. The crystal swings to the left of a reef we intended to pass on the right. I call out frantic instructions to change course and the captain swings about just in time. When the moon comes back the right pirate ship is committed to the old path, costing them time. Or it would if they knew it and didn’t try to follow our course.

The snapping of their hull is heard from here and the crew cheers. The feeling of dealing with an enemy with such a method is… smugness. My skin itches at the thought of all those souls I could have offered, but that is quickly overwhelmed by the exaltation of victory that’s rushing through the crew.

The other ship continues to close but has to break away an hour later due to our manoeuvring through a tight corridor. Martin says that it cost them about an hour.

An hour later we’re clear of the reefs with an hour to spare. The pursuing ship is only visible by its sails. There is some hope that they might get stuck in the reefs, but Martin dashes it with calculations. I retire to my room and see my array is in a mess from the multiple close calls but leave it in favour of sleep.

Knocking on my door wakes me a little before dawn. The pirates had maintained distance about two miles away after catching back up but are closing fast with first light.

Sarah presents me with my armour as I climb to the poop deck. It’s as crude as promised, but its sleeveless design allows for freer movement when slinging. It does still hamper the power from my body, but I estimate no more than ten percent is lost. She also gives me a leather cap with a metal frame from the armoury.

I do another lesson with Edmond as they approach. He’s happy to watch the ship creeping closer, so he doesn’t make much progress, but I’ll charge the full amount anyway. He protests weakly when I send him below but complies.

About half a mile away I pull out my sling and load it.

“You’ll never hit from here, even if you can reach. Save your ammo.” Sarah says from my side.

“On the left rigging.” I say, then cast missile guidance on the figure designated and throw a bullet in an underhand lob.

It sails through the air and around ten seconds later the targeted figure screams and falls to the deck below. Sigh, I was hoping they’d land on someone. Maybe I could manage that when I learn multi targeting.

“Oh, is that how it’s going to be? You’re just going to cheat?” Sarah says before loosing an arrow from her enchanted bow. I had a look at the symbols earlier, the springiness changes to match the user’s strength, and adds about a hundred pounds of free power on top. With her squire strength she probably could have reached the ship a while ago but didn’t think she could hit anyone.

Another scream as the arrow hits.

“I’m cheating?!” I snap at her. “You just targeted the group gathered around mine!”

“But I didn’t just let magic aim for me.”

“That’s not cheating, that’s just how I shoot! Right rigging.” I say loading a bullet and loosing it at another target. This one does hit someone on the way down. “Three.” I say smugly.

Sarah has loosed three more arrows by the time my bullet hits and two of them find flesh. I gnash my teeth at being tied.

“Helm.” I say, sending a bullet through the steerer’s head. Unfortunately, I have to wait for my bullet to hit before casting on another target, so Sarah can shoot three times to my one. Only half hit their marks, but that means she’s steadily getting ahead of me.

I console myself that my victims are more costly to the enemy, and my wounds more fatal since I can choose where to hit.

“Change course, twenty degrees.” I tell the captain. “I’ll try to hold up their steering.”

The captain complies to my suggestion while I repeatedly shoot anyone who tries to take their helm. Bodies pile up at the wheel, and Sarah shifts her aim to help. They move two shield bearers to protect the helm, but there are gaps. One of my bullets hits a shield to no effect, but my next one removes an arm.

We’re gaining distance.

A gleam of metal and a figure in plate armour walks on deck, climbing to take over the helm.

“Ah, we lured them out.” I say, assuming it’s the knight. I hit them in the head, but they don’t even seem to flinch.

“Too far.” Sarah says. “You’ll never penetrate the magic plate from here, since I assume we’re at your extreme range.”

I don’t agree. My shots are accurate enough to hit the same spot multiple times, so eventually something might happen. However, this plan is defeated as the shield bearers return and cover the spot I just hit. I shoot one of them, but their place is taken before I can send another shot.

Seeing the futility of that I move back to the riggers.

They learn quickly and stop sending more crew up. This slows them, but not enough. I try targeting the ones doing the ropes on the deck, but they pair shield bearers with each crew as they run about, and my accuracy drops to about fifty percent. The only good news is that Sarah’s drops to about twenty…

I’ve killed thirteen of them when Kalen is finally in range of her magic bow and joins our shots. Fortunately, she doesn’t seem to be in danger of catching up to me. Sarah is at eighteen.

A mass of pirates rush to the prow and begin cranking a ballista. The shield formation isn’t perfect, letting each of us take at least one down, but they still manage to fully crank it.

I target the ballista itself and shoot one of the arms. The damage would be minor, but it snaps under the tension, swinging about and knocking the crew down. At least one is killed from the malfunction while others are killed by arrows due to the broken formation.

They seem to have come up with a system in which crew are waiting below deck to rush out and replace the fallen, allowing them to operate the ship without significant hindrance. They start throwing the dead overboard, both to clear space, and to reduce their weight if just a little.

I estimate we’ve killed around fifty of their crew, about a third of their total divined, when we enter mundane bow range– about half the distance at which I started shooting. The accuracy is bad on both sides, with most arrows not even hitting the boats much less the crew. However, a few do find flesh.

“Thanks, Will.” I say as my assigned shield bearer blocks an arrow from hitting me. My crude armour likely would have blocked it, but no reason not to be polite.

“My pleasure Malz.” He says, blocking another that almost hits him.

Our other shield bearers are also hard at work blocking for our archers, but a few fall, only for another to pick up their bow. The enemy has more shields to block with, but also more archers to protect, and so the magically aided projectiles quickly thin their ranks.

Eventually they decide to only replace those who they can cover with the shields. Still, the coverage isn’t perfect, and the enemy continues to fall. Likewise, protecting the archers expose those working the ship.

I try shooting the ropes directly to mixed results. It takes two or three shots per rope, but it does seem to slow them down, until a surge of crew rush out from below decks and pull the ropes back into place. This does result in an abundance of easy targets, but it only delays their approach rather than reducing their speed fully below ours.

We’ve killed at least half their crew, but the knight at the helm stares unflinching towards us. The knight’s shield bearers are gone so I hit them in the head a few times, and Sarah joins the effort at the closer range, causing the knight to summon back their protection and exposing more of the crew.

I’m panting from throwing so many bullets. I look down and see I only have a little over a dozen of the starting ten dozen left. Our arrows have dwindled down to almost nothing too. We shoot some of the enemy’s back, but most break on impact. The crossbows still have plenty of bolts though, given their slower rate of shooting.

I decide it’s time to pull out the mirror and signal for everyone to look away, giving them a five count. Even looking away with my eyes covered I can see some light. Screams from the other ship, then the light fades.

I look back to the ship and see pirates rolling on the deck clutching their eyes and small fires throughout, including the sails. Some were lucky enough to have their heads behind shields, but most are incapacitated, and completely vulnerable to our few remaining arrows.

One who is unfortunately completely fine is the knight, either from a glare protection enchantment, having their head behind a shield, or just being that tough. They casually walk from the helm and pick up whole barrels of water as if they were empty and splash them onto the sails, putting them out before significant damage can be done.

Still, drawing them from the helm lets us move away and buy a little time. Likewise, the chaos of them replacing the crew on deck exposes them to our missiles as planned.

By the time they start boarding manoeuvres their deck is littered with corpses. Certainly, more than a hundred have fallen out of the starting hundred and fifty estimated. Our side has lost six. They still outnumber us two to one.

They’re lining up on their deck, shields in front with pikes and other weapons behind. They swing closer. Fifty yards. Forty. Thirty, Twenty.

I cast firestream, sending a choir of screams into the air as the front ranks buckles from the flames, exposing those behind and spreading chaos. I smile as our enemies fall.

Will slams me to the ground followed by a thunk. I feel warm liquid and look up to see him skewered through his shield and out his back by a javelin.

I pull myself up to see the thrower Knight having left the helm, running to the side. I cast guidance on them and throw a bullet as they leap off the edge towards us.

An impact rings, and their body jerks midair. Hope swells, maybe it’s enough to drop them into the sea. But no, it wasn’t enough power. They land badly, but they do land. Our first goal has failed: the pirate knight is on board.

Sarah shoots them with her bow, producing a loud clang and shallow dent then drops it and jumps down, grabbing her shield and drawing her sword as she does. She swings as she lands, managing to hit while the knight is still recovering from the awkward landing and arrow impact, but it doesn’t penetrate the armour.

A few crew members foolishly rush forward to help but are cut down without even providing a further opening. Only Sarah, myself and Kalen will be of help here.

Kalen stays her distance and shoots her bow at the knight. The arrows don’t even make a dent but do provide Sarah another opening… or so it seems. The knight casually parries the stab, then cuts through her armour with a spurt of blood. They move in to finish her.

Panicking, I quickly cast mental whisper with max power to scream “Look out behind you!” in their mind, causing them to hesitate a brief instant for Sarah to jump away– the cut deliberating but not fatal. Kalen, seeing the futility of her arrows jumps down to join her.

Knowing my trick with the mental whisper won’t work a second time, I move to my plan of last resort. “Crossbow, hand it over.” I say to the crew who most recently grabbed the crossbow positioned on the poop deck after the previous users had been shot.

“What?!” They shout, not hearing me over the clamour and shooting before turning.

I give them an annoyed look. “Load the crossbow and hand it to me!” I say, believing they’ll be quicker. I’m strong for my size, which helps with slinging due to weight ratios, but it’s not enough when high total strength is needed.

They comply and yank the string into position using their foot on a metal rung made for the purpose, but I stop them from placing the bolt and load the heat wand instead. I crouch with the crossbow resting on the railing, ordering the weapon’s previous wielder to yank Will’s shield from their pinned body and cover me.

I aim carefully at the knight. The wand isn’t balanced for this, but the guidance spell says it’ll work at this range, I just have to aim high. However, even at this range the duel between Sarah and the knight (Kalen already lies bleeding on the deck) is too fast for me to reliably hit the right person. I’ll have to wait for the correct moment.

Sarah gets hit several times with shallow cuts but moves backwards towards the prow to avoid anything fatal. It’s impressive that she’s still moving, but she’s running out of deck to retreat to. I suspect the knight is toying with her.

Suddenly the knight lunges forward and stabs her in the chest, the magic blade cutting through the chain links with little resistance. Sarah falls backwards, and the knight looms over to finish her off.

I pull the lever, shooting the heat wand into the back of the torso. The knight screams, going to a knee as they vainly try to reach the wand to pull it out of their melted armour– the entire back plate glowing red.

Sarah weakly stands up, holding her sword by the blade and repeatedly slams the hilt into the knight’s helmet. The knight rolls away, but Sarah pursues and lands a blow directly on the heat wand, hammering it completely into the armour.

The knight lets out one last scream and goes limp. Sarah removes their helmet, and then their head.

She pants heavily, staring into space at her victory. An arrow slams into her side– it doesn’t penetrate her amour but is enough to jolt her back to her senses. She crams a berry into her mouth, and stoops to do the same for Kalen before climbing to the poop deck.

The enemy ship, including one of its sails, is on fire from my spell, and our captain is using their chaos to agilely pull away as their crew frantically puts it out.

“Tacyn’s silent halls I’m alive. What now captain?” Sarah says as she stumbles towards us.

“Now we get out of here.” The captain says gruffly.

“You sure?” Sarah asks. “With the knight dead they’ll be easy pickings. We lost half our crew, so making it to Tibrous will be difficult. Not impossible, but slower. There’s a law allowing us to offer pirates commuted sentences in exchange for helping sail victorious merchants. Besides, they might have treasure on board, to say nothing of the bounty of bringing the ship in intact.”

“…You can break them?” The captain asks.

“With Malz’s help? Certainly.”

“Maybe wait a bit.” I speak up. “Let them put out their fires and give me time to treat our wounded. I doubt they’ll be able to escape with their main sail burning up.”

“Aright.” the captain nods.

“Just one thing.” I say. “Sarah and I get an… eighth?” I look to her, and she nods with a smile, “of all treasure on board and any bounty each. You won’t be able to take them without us.”

“Pluss the full bounty for the knight.” Sarah adds.

The captain nods in agreement and continues to move our ship away. Sarah peppers them from beyond their range while I go over our losses. I start with Kalen, who is fortunately still breathing. I stuff a few more berries down her throat and mash some into her wound then quickly bandage her up. She’s pale from the blood loss, but hopefully she’ll make it.

For the rest of the crew, seven are dead, nine are severely wounded and fourteen are still standing. I bandage the wounded, removing arrows when necessary, and feed them a berry each, then order the able bodied to move them below. Having done the best I can, I tell the captain I’m ready.

We pick off archers methodically as we approach. They try to mount a resistance, but at least half their shields were destroyed by my firestream, or Sarah’s high-powered bow so they’re easy pickings. Then we run out of ammo, so we wait to reach them with the crossbows pinning them down.

“So, what’s the normal bounty/ treasure distribution?” I ask conversationally after casting my personal shield as we wait.

“Oh, captain gets five shares, quartermaster gets four. Kalen gets three for being a guard, or maybe four for being the senior one. Doctor, carpenter, cook, navigator and any other job that’s not basic crew gets two shares, and everyone else gets one. You and Martin will get extra shares for running the other one to ground, but that’ll be a reduced bounty anyway since we’re not bringing it in and there’s no direct confirmation. Why are you taking that off?” She motions to me removing the armour she made.

“It’s very hot and cumbersome, and my shield spell will protect me. Don’t get me wrong though, it blocked a few arrows so thanks. It just isn’t useful when I’m not casting other spells, at least if I’m not getting attacked by a knight.” To punctuate my claim an arrow slams into the shield and is deflected harmlessly away with a flash of blue light.”

She nods. “Thanks for saving me, by the way.”

“Think nothing of it.”

“…Do you not know how expensive that heat wand was?”

“…No, someone gave it to me.”

“It um, is probably more valuable than the bounty we’ll get for that guy. They’re one of the few ways to make the highest quality magic armour.”

“… I don’t suppose you could give me your half for expenses?”

“Whatever for? I’m thinking nothing of it.”

“…” Comedic seething.

“Do you think Kalen will make it?”

“Fifty-fifty. So, you two are getting along now?”

“Yeah, she’s alright once we cleared our misunderstandings.”

“Good.”

“Cause she’s your type, right?”

“Pfft.” I had forgotten I told her that. “You didn’t say anything did you?” I ask, remembering their drinking session.

“You’ll have to ask her.” She laughs then leaps off onto the enemy boat fifteen yards away in imitation of the knight before I can complain.

I curse. It’s petty to be reckless just not to be shown up by a full knight. I wait until we get five yards closer then follow her.

She already cleared a spot for me to roll my landing on. A swish swish of her sword and pirates fall.

A pirate swings a short curved blade at my head as I recover from the landing, but it bounces off my shield without me bothering to defend. I lunge forward while they’re unbalanced and stab their gut with my magic dagger then slice out.

Another comes charging but I quickly cast lesser firestream, focusing the flame on their face. They scream, trying to put their head out then suddenly drop.

A few more fall to our combined might, then our ship makes contact with our remaining crew coming to back us up. They all pause.

“Drop your weapons and your lives will be spared!” Sarah shouts.

About half take her up on her offer.

There’s a pair of pikers, one young and one old. The younger one drops their pike, but the older one slaps them on the head saying “Grinton bay, you idiot.” which makes the young one hesitantly pick it back up.

I cast missile guidance, upping the power to make the glow visible even in daylight, and pick up a stray hand axe which I throw full force into the old one’s head. The young one drops their pike again, as do a few others.

Only after my reckless attack lands do I realize my shield spell doesn’t drop, though I do briefly get a sharp headache. I guess throwing over a hundred bullets with it has made it easier to use.

A handful try to rush below deck for a better position, but Sarah intercepts and cuts them down.

She and I start going through the ship looking for others, leaving the captain and crew to guard the prisoners.

We get attacked a couple of times and send a few more upstairs as prisoners. Then we get to a door with a sign on it.

‘DON’T COME IN.

I AM A MAGE.

I WILL BLOW YOU UP.’