Shards of Old

As I was about to make my way towards the coast, I noticed, to my surprise, that Jack was still outside, apparently having some trouble with getting rid of the vines. He got an axe from somewhere, which was now stuck in the vines that were now starting to slowly envelop the weapon itself.

-Having issues? - I asked, approaching him.

-You're back already? I thought you were supposed to go to the boat.

-I changed my mind. What is going on? - I pointed at the door.

-I don't know what kind of spell this is, but those vines are aggressive!

-What.

Indeed, that thing which I thought was a harmless growth on the door was now moving and wrapped itself around the axe to the point where the metal blade was invisible. It even had thorns.

-What did you do? This did not look like this before.

-I know - he replied, scratching his head. - When I tried chopping it off, it came alive and attacked me. I managed to jump back, but…

-Can't you just, you know, burn it?

-Are you mad?! I would burn the whole village down!

-Oh calm down. It is alive, isn't it? Think of it like a wild animal. If we bring a torch it should just force it to move, scare it, you don't need to set your door on fire.

-Hmm. You might be right… Ah fuck it, let's try.

He went to the stable, brought a flint, a handful of hay, some cloth and straw, and proceeded to create a makeshift torch. Lighting it took him a while. For a second I was tempted to just ignite it with a spell but I stopped myself.

-Okay. Let's try this.

With a torch in hand he started slowly approaching the door.

At first it looked like it worked. The vines started moving, and when he got closer it slowly receded. The axe that was completely covered in green was now more and more visible and finally it dropped to the ground.

-Stupid plants… - he mumbled under his breath and leaned down, trying to pick up the axe. But while he was doing that, he swung with a torch a little bit too wide and touched one of the vines.

What followed was a weird, screeching noise that definitely came out of the plant, no matter how impossible might that sound. The vines multiplied in a blink of an eye. The plant itself was not on fire, but it got burned a bit and was now wiggling around angrily like a mass of green thorny tentacles.

-What in the…

He didn't even have time to finish cursing, the upset plant shot towards him and in seconds, he was now incapacitated, hanging upside down. It must have been pissed off, because the vines also shot towards me. It was oddly similar to my last adventure with plants in the hags garden, but this time I was far enough to react and managed to move out of the way.

-This thing is vicious… - I said while picking up the still lit torch that rolled away during this scuffle.

-Help! - I heard from under the vines.

This plant acted quickly. It already covered most of the guy and now I could only see his arms and legs poking out from a big green cocoon hanging from a thick branch growing out of the door.

-I am trying! - I replied while inching my way towards him, swinging the torch left and right.

Again, it worked at first. The vines moved away from the flames as I swung it, but the closer I got, the less responsive they were, and soon enough they just straight up didn't react. I was hesitant to set them on fire in fear that they would attack me again, but Jack was disappearing in more and more layers of vines.

-Do something! - I heard muffled under the green mass.

I couldn't see him any more.

Hesitant, I slapped some of them with the torch, but surprisingly, they didn't attack. Instead even more of them appeared in the places where flames touched them, covered in some slick viscera.

I could now barely hear the voice from inside of the rapidly enlarging cocoon. It now reminded me of a nest that was growing into the tree, with the egg-like cocoon in the middle.

-Ah, fuck this. Sophuk fi geksu, dosleyy nop nus.

I dropped all the pretenses and straight up used the same spell that I freed myself from the hag's trap.

The reaction was immediate. The vines closest to me started burning, and the screeching sound picked up in the intensity. The ones not covered in that weird fluid were burned almost instantly, while the other ones started rapidly multiplying, now covered in even more of this weird viscera. I don't know what that was, but it definitely made it harder to burn. It started attacking, but my aura successfully denied all attack attempts.

That is until it started attacking with those slick vines.

First one caught me by surprise, as it swooshed towards my head, hitting me straight in the forehead, knocking me back a bit.

I tumbled down and lost concentration on my spell. I don't know if I got hit so hard I started hearing things, but I swear, as the flames around me disappeared, I heard something laugh at me. But before I could even stand up or think about what happened, even more vines started shooting towards me, but this time not towards my head, but my arms and legs. Before it hit me, I managed to shake off from its attack and cast another spell.

-Gmyo fi geksu!

It was another pretty simple spell, just a singular, concentrated line of fire from my hand - basically a makeshift flamethrower. I did not put a lot more mana into it than I did into the first one, but thanks to it being a lot more compact, it did the trick. The closest vines instantly got incinerated and turned to ash the moment they got close to the stream. The plant started moving again, mobilizing more and more of those slick vines, but it didn't matter now, I just had to redirect the flames. With my handy flamethrower I made my way towards the core, where Jack was supposed to be. I tried to be careful to not ignite anything besides that writhing mass, but before me was another issue. I had to somehow get rid of all the vines trapping him, without burning him alive. But surprisingly, the closer I got to the center, the less aggressive the plant started to be. It even started to recede. As I managed to get to him, the cocoon he was trapped in was now almost gone, and only was holding him tied, similarly to when he was a prisoner not so long ago. I carefully started diminishing my flames, fully expecting for the plant to attack again, but nothing like that happened. Instead, the branch on which he was hanging tied snapped, and he fell down like some oversized fruit on the ground. The mutant-plant itself was now just back to being a growth on the door.

I started approaching the door, to burn the last moving piece. Before I got close, it started wiggling again and I was about to release full firepower again, but before I could, to my surprise, it detached itself from the door and shot towards the ground, like some kind of a crossbreed between a snake and a worm. I fired a stream of flames towards it, but for naught. It disappeared under the ground, leaving only a small hole in the ground, maybe the size of two fingers, that I promptly set on fire. I couldn't hear anything anymore, so I assumed I missed.

I waited for about a minute, with my flames out, but it didn't come back.

-I think it's over… - I muttered to myself and turned my attention back to Jack. He was still there, bound, but not gagged this time, yet he didn't speak a word. I reduced my fire to just a small flame on my fingertips and proceeded to free him from the rest of the vines.

-T-Thanks… - he finally said, shaken.

-Yea, that was unexpected - I finally extinguished my flames completely. - What the hell was that thing?

-No idea, sir.

I laughed.

-Sir? Where did that come from?

-I had no idea that you are… I am sorry, I didn't know you are a mage, one of the Red to boot… I owe you my life...

-Oh calm down. I just burned some weeds… And I am no sir, just a traveler passing by.

-If you say so… - he replied, calming down a bit. - Do you think it's gone?

-Maybe. But remember, there were a lot of those growths all around the town. And even inside here. We need to be careful.

-Right - he picked up his axe. - I feel bad for asking for something again, but can you help me get rid of the rest? If they also are… aggressive… I don't think I can do this alone.

-Just try not to get caught again… - I gestured to him to open the door.

He nodded, and we went inside his inn. But to our surprise, there were no growths on any of the doors any more. There were marks and holes, where they pierced the wood in as they were grown by the guard, but that was it. Actually, after a quick check, we realized that the rest of the growths from the whole village disappeared.

-That is… unsettling… - I said back in the inn, after we checked the whole village.

-Yea, but I am glad it is over...

-I guess your inn is back in business since that is gone, but there is still that tree…

-Oh, I don't care. After all this I made up my mind. I need to disappear for a while.

-What, you think that plant is after you? - I asked jokingly.

-No. I think that whoever is after me is not someone I have a way of dealing with directly. Especially if they send people using something like this after me. Unless…

-Oh boy, here it comes…

-I have a proposition for you.

-Not again...- I moaned. - I know I shouldn't have shown my magic…

-Again? - He asked, confused.

-Eh don't mind my complaining… Continue.

-Right… You said you were going to the capital. What if you met up with that mysterious O., told him you found his employees dead somewhere. Maybe you could learn a thing or two about who is behind all this.

-First of all, why would I even consider that. I already have things to do, and why would I risk my well being, mind you - again - for someone I barely know. There is literally nothing to gain here and everything to lose.

-Let me finish. First I would like to properly thank you for saving my life.

-And what does this have to do with anyth…

He slammed a sizable pouch on the counter. Judging by the sound the content was definitely worth a bunch. He pulled a handful of coins and pushed towards me.

-The rest of this - he pointed at the bag - Is all yours if you agree. And maybe even more if you come back.

-Hold on - I said, confused. - You are giving me this much for what exactly? I might just fuck off with all this and never come back? What gives?

-Listen, I know you are a Red Mage. And you people are not cheap to buy. So take this as my gesture of partnership. What do you say?

I laughed, but took the money, hiding it in my bag.

-I think you are crazy, old man, but whatever, I am not going to pass on easy earnings. So what do you want from me exactly?

-Just as I said. Go to the capital, try finding the man behind this, and let me know. Also, I’m not that old.

-Seems awfully easy for that much coin. So how do I contact you then? - I asked, ignoring the last part.

-I would prefer you come back here and report to me whenever you can. You have their boat, traveling should be easy for you. Can I assume we have a deal? - he extended his hand.

-Sure - I replied, shaking his hand.

-Before we split up, I wanna ask you something - I said outside of the inn, where I was about to leave for the port once again.

-Go for it.

-Where are you going? You said you want to hide, but you are not leaving this island it seems.

-I have some hideouts here… none of them are easy to find. Don't you worry about me.

-I'm not. I assume that is where you sent your kid when shit went down?

-Maybe.

-Fucking secrets. Always. Well whatever. See you. Maybe never - I added under my breath.

-Yea. By the time you come back I will be back in my inn.

-And if not?

-I will.

With that we parted ways. Back on the way to the ship I couldn't believe my luck. Twice, I met people that apparently gave away money, and trusted me pretty much right off the bat. I even got a map and something that I could write my notes in - he apparently changed his mind about that "not having anything to spare" thing. I couldn't help but wonder, who else was I gonna meet on this journey. Were all people like this in this world?

Back on the ship I pulled out the notes about the magic circle and the map.

Thanks to the notes I now knew that this boat was a lot more advanced than it looked.

At first I did the exact same thing we did before - I used the same wind phrase bound to the circle to get out of the bay. Even for me, a complete amateur, it was quite easy, the rudder was simple enough, and since the wind was controlled by magic, controlling the sail was also not an issue, just go straight. But as soon as I left the bay and was about a hundred meters off the shore, I stopped the wind and went back downstairs.

According to the notes, this boat had some kind of rough autopilot system, believe it or not. Supposedly you just had to specify the direction and the duration and the boat will do everything for you. Handy for a single person to steer, if you ask me.

-Well let's see how this thing works…

I placed my hand on the circle.

-North, two hours.

As soon as I finished speaking, the crystal in the middle started slowly and steadily pulsing and I felt the boat move. Amazed, I went out on the deck. The boat was indeed slowly making its way towards the open sea, steadily increasing speed.

I couldn't help but be speechless. It was astounding how advanced that thing was. Stealthy, auto navigating boat. And, if I was judging by the amount of notes, that was not the only thing this boat could do. I stood there for a good while, admiring how smoothly it all went. With this thing I could indeed travel wherever I want…

-Wherever I want…

There was a question that was on my mind for a while. Where do I really want to go? What should I do? Until now I was basically going with the flow, and it kind of worked out for me nicely. The only real reason I wanted to visit the capital was to figure out more things about this world, and maybe learn what happened to others. Since I was somehow transported here, it was not impossible that someone else got here as well. But to find them I would have to basically check every single person that appeared to be able to use multiple elements, and if that hag was not lying, there were not many of those.

That meant I had to get in touch with people that keep tabs on that kind of thing - judging by what I’ve seen so far, that would be either some guild or some noble. And luckily for me I had leads on both. But in the process I would actually start doing either what the hag or the Jack wanted me to do, which didn't sound appealing. One straight up left me stranded on some random island and the other was as shady as it gets. Considering those choices, I leaned towards Jack. He at least owed me something. Kind of. Well maybe not, he did give me a bag of gold in thanks. But at least he didn't try to tie me up and poison me, as far as I knew. In any case, I would have to get to the capital first.

But what then? If I was to try and get in touch with this O. that sent those thugs on him I would have to think of the reasons I was contacting him in the first place. "Oi, man, I found this letter in the ditch, looks like it's yours." Yeah, I needed something more than that. On the other hand, I could always pretend that I am looking for a job in the city… and if I was “accidentally” in the right inn, there was a chance…

I don't know how long I spent traveling on that boat, but it was most definitely longer than a few hours. According to that fake guard, I should be near the shore already, but knowing his incompetence it wasn't surprising that he had no idea what he was talking about.

It was boring as shit, since the surrounding consisted of just the flat sea and nothing else. That is also when I finally was able to start writing some notes about spells that I could remember, and about my current condition. I couldn't tell what more was gonna change with my body, but I was not going to miss that. I started writing some of my hypotheses about the crystal embedded in my arm and its weird symbiosis with me, all anomalies that I noticed in my body and mind and so on. It felt weird at first, writing about myself like I was some test subject, but I had to get used to it, since that was pretty much what I became.

Finally, my writing was interrupted by a singular pulse of white light from the crystal. Confused, I checked it out, but as far as I could tell, nothing changed. I peeked outside, and as expected, I was still out at sea, but further in the distance I could see a landmass.

-Finally…

I went back downstairs and reset the "navigation", but since this time I had no idea how far I was from the shore I just set it to ten minutes. The ship started moving again, and I emerged on the deck, trying to look for a good place to dock.

I had to repeat that process a few times, every time setting the time to a lower and lower value, to not ram into something. But, surprisingly, there were no ships in the area. I kind of expected to see at least one during this trip, especially now, since I was close to the continent. The sea was as flat as before and as empty as before. When I got to about a few hundred meters from the shore, I stopped using the “autopilot”, and instead started manually using the rudder. It felt awkward since that was not something I've done before, but I managed to turn the ship to sail parallel to the shore.

I tried to find some nice place to hide the boat. After a few glances, I started seeing familiar features. Cliffsides and sharp rocks, trees hanging over the water… - the shore was quite similar to one at the island. Sadly, the map I was given was completely useless, since it had no landmarks, or even land height marked on it. The capital was supposed to be somewhere deeper on the continent, but that was the only place that was marked on it, and it was outside the map anyways. Honestly, it looked like it was just a half-assed copy of an actual map that someone scribbled in a hurry. That would explain why it was so imprecise.

I followed the coast to the east for a while, but the scenery didn't change for a long time. An hour later, when I slowly started thinking that I should’ve gone the other way, the terrain slowly started shifting. It was getting smoother, and soon the sharp cliff faces were completely gone, instead I now had before me half-flooded forest, in contrast to the forest cut in half that it was before. Still, there was no place to dock, not like I planned to anyway, since there were no signs of life anywhere in the vicinity. I would’ve settled even for a fishing village or something.

I slowly started losing my patience. According to my shitty map, the land should've started to curve back to the north, but the actual terrain gave no signs of that yet, though in the distance I could see the coast ending relatively suddenly

After I reached the bend of the terrain, there was finally something different for once. As I made my way along the coast, the land shifted a bit. The flooded woods were replaced by, first muddy, almost swamp like land, that soon gave way to actual sandy beach. But still, the one thing that didn't change was the forest itself - still was covering the whole visible landmass, with no break in sight.

It was already getting dark, when in the distance, on the shore somewhere ahead of me I saw some kind of light. As I was getting closer and closer, I started realizing that I might have finally reached some place with more than three people.

But that came with another problem. How should I approach it? Do I stop somewhere away from what I hoped to be the village and walk? Or should I just drop the illusion now and stop my boat there? They need to have at least a semblance of port, right? As I was considering what to do, the lights were getting closer and closer, and finally I was able to tell what was in front of me.

It was a small village and a port - with actual boats docked! If there are boats, there are people. But that is when I realized something. The previous owner of this boat could've very well stopped by here. If someone, by sheer chance, noticed that, and would notice me sailing alone on it, that would've brought some very problematic questions. With that in mind, I decided to stop by the nearest, most safe looking beach. It didn't take very long to find a place where the beach briefly ended and gave way for some bushes and small trees to take over. I turned the boat and tried my hand in "docking", if you can call it that. I basically managed to beach my boat half-way on the sandy patch of terrain, right in the middle of the bushes. I was worried that I might have damaged something, but promptly remembered that this thing was magical, when surrounding me illusion shimmered, and the blue-ish bubble enveloping the boat turned green.

I quickly went back downstairs and placed my hand on the crystal in the middle of the room.

-Right… Now let's try this… Anchor!

That was one of the words I found in the notes about the ship. The command was self-explanatory, and, sure enough, as I finished speaking, I heard something heavy hit the ground somewhere in front of the boat.

I quickly went back on the deck and as I leaned down to check, I saw a thick vine now sprouting from the left side of the boat. On its end there was this large, almost completely black anchor. Funnily enough, it looked like it was made out of wood, but that would've made no sense. Also there was no opening or anything that it would've come out from, it was just like it was always there, growing out of the side of the boat.

-Well, at least that is working... - I muttered to myself, and proceeded to get off the deck, onto the beach.

As soon as I got off, I realized I wouldn't be able to assess the damage, if there was any, or inspect the anchor properly - the illusion was still holding strong. The whole ship was completely invisible, now looking like a big bush. At least I didn't have to worry about it being found by someone.

Deciding to trust this boat's magic, I started walking along the coast towards the lights in the distance.