Yurick was sitting in a locked cell on a gurak ship. Both Mirania and he had been captured in the previous battle, however they had both been taken to separate cells. Or at least, he hoped Mirania was only taken to a separate cell. This was a war after all; hostages were only another mouth to feed, and held no real value to either side.
If he could, he would burn down the cell walls and break out of here. Fire was a deadly element though, and setting a ship in the middle of the ocean on fire, without knowing how far or even where dry land was located, was not a good idea.
So instead, Yurick just stayed in his cell, feeling the harsh rocking motion of the waves. He had never thought that he would be back on a ship so soon.
'Soon'… wasn't that a funny word to use. Perhaps it would be better to say that he did not think he would be back on a ship ever. Ships, after all, had been his life when he was a child. He watched them, studied them, sailed on them, and when his father went missing; he even tried to build one. He had admired his father with feelings that he no longer thought possible to feel. He was his idol; everything he had aspired to be.
His father had been his mentor, teaching him everything there was to know about sailing. He had promised to take him out with him when he got older, told him that he was as welcome on his ship as any of his mates, and that everyone would respect him. It was a place where not only would he be free of bullying; he would be respected and listened to as the next captain.
Despite Yurick's small stature, his father had always believed in him. He had told him that he would grow up to be one of the strongest men alive. Yurick had believed that lie with all his heart. He trained daily, running around the village and finding objects to lift while hiding from bullies, hoping it would make him strong. He knew now that his dad's words were only said as a way to comfort him, but he could not help but feel that he had disappointed his father somehow by not living up to his ambitions.
Then his father disappeared.
Since then, he had given up on everything related to ships. He no longer knew anything but the basics about them, and he even doubted he could do most of the ship work with his lack of physical strength. He had given up on everything physical and focused on magic, which he had also been horrible at as a child. He had been horrible in everything he supposed. He was weak physically, he was horrible at magic, and he was weak emotionally as well, constantly crying whenever he got bullied by other children.
When his father vanished, Yurick was bullied even more by his tormentors. They called his dad a coward, saying he had abandoned his city and his family to save his own life. Yurick knew that couldn't be true. There was no way his dad was a coward. He would never run away from a battle, he would never abandon his town. Most importantly, he would never abandon his family. Yurick knew his father's love was the one constant in his life. Even if he grew up to be weak, stupid, useless; his father would still love him. After he disappeared though, none of that meant a thing.
His mom and him were forced to abandon the town after it was attacked, forcing them to live a life of poverty. His mom, who had rarely ever left their house, could not handle the conditions of living on the move, and passed away soon after.
Then Yurick was alone.
He delved himself even farther into the mystic arts, knowing that if he could only find a way of being powerful, then he could do what he must to survive; thievery, hard labour, being a mercenary; he would take anything the world threw at him. His only goal was to live.
School was a luxury he no longer had. Instead, his only source of knowledge was the library, which soon became his home in the daytime. That was where he found the legend of a stone that burned with the heat of fire itself. It promised power beyond comprehension for any human, stating that all that had tried to control it were never able to harness its true power. Yurick wanted to try though, thinking that perhaps his intelligence could help him where others had failed.
The sacrifice he had made for that strength was greater than any before him had ever given. Their failure had been brought about by their petty desire to gain power with no real sacrifice. The stone couldn't function from just being held in one's hand, or on a necklace. It needed to be one with its master. It needed to be part of their body. Therefore Yurick had sacrificed his eye, giving the stone a new place to live inside of him.
What Yurick had lost in vision, he gained back in pure unaltered energy. He no longer needed the ability to aim, the energy sought out his opponents for him. He had become the most powerful mage in the world within but a moment.
Yurick raised a hand up to his eyepatch. Even now he could feel the heat resonating from it, both on his fingers and from within his socket. Sometimes the pain kept him up at night, but overall he had grown to accept it as a comfort; A reminder of who he had become, a reminder that he was no longer weak.
After he gained the stone, life had become gradually easier for him. He wandered for a bit, earning money from fighting weak monsters and selling what he received from them. Then he ran into Dagran, who was looking for help with his band of mercenaries. He learned that their only mage (who he later found out was Lowell) had been severely injured in the last battle, leaving them without a caster. So Dagran hired both Mirania and Yurick, hoping their temporary help would be enough to cover the mission. In the end, both ended up permanently joining the group.
Then the rest was just travel and fighting up until the current moment, where he sat locked in a cell on a ship. Chances were he would be stuck in here until they either landed or he broke himself out. He was the weak link in the group. He held no personal connections with anyone, leaving him with little hope that they would come to rescue him. His only hope was Mirania, who had closely asserted herself as a loyal member of the party. Perhaps they would come for her. However, she was still one of the newest members. They had abandoned more important members than her before, so he had heard. Regardless of any of that though, he was on a ship going who-knows-where, even if they did want to rescue them, where would they begin to look? Perhaps they were destined to disappear just like his father.
Yurick let out an audible sigh. This was the exact reason he hated ships. He was unable to stop the memories…