Disclaimer: I want it, but I don't have it.

"You heard him!" Tarin said more loudly than he intended, "'Weak little elves' indeed!"

"You should have held your bearing," Zane said sternly, "You very nearly ruined the entire encounter."

"Bearing?" the thief said incredulously, "They're savages!"

"And you are biased!" the mage shot back, "I don't know what to make of you. You take great pains to conceal your elven heritage, and seem to want nothing to do with any part of it, yet you maintain elven prejudices and take offense to any slight against them. I'm starting to wonder if you even know what you want."

"I . . . but . . . that's ridiculous!" Tarin sputtered.

"Is it?" Zane challenged, "Tarin, I've kept your secret against my better judgment, but I think it's time you start answering a few of those questions you hate so much."

Tarin glowered and said "Keep pushing it and I'll tell them myself just to take your advantage away."

The mage threw his hands up in exasperation.

--

Xak sat with his back to the mast, furiously scribbling on a piece of parchment, trying not to think of all the water around him. He'd been trying to face his fears, but the mast was as close as he could get. As it was, his art was improving considering the conditions. The ship was continually rocking back and forth with no rhythm, the fog still persisted, and a storm had thrown them off-course already. Sighing, the healer put the parchment away and started back for the cabin.

Swaying with the ship, Xak made it to the door and opened it to see Zane cry "When are you going to learn that I am not your enemy?!"

Tarin and Zane both turned their heads to see the newcomer, and Tarin looked stubbornly away while Zane let out a heated breath and stormed out of the cabin saying "Maybe you can talk some sense into him!"

Bewildered, Xak entered, closing the door behind him. Tarin took a few idle steps without going anywhere and looked at the white mage for a moment before finally shouting "Fine! Here, you want to see? Look!"

Tarin violently pulled his dark hair back, revealing slightly pointed ears. Xak blinked in surprise, then said slowly "Well that certainly explains a few things."

"Doesn't it?" the thief said, letting his hair fall back into place.

"What it does not tell me is what you and Zane were arguing about," the mage said calmly as he moved to a chair.

Tarin sighed and turned away, saying "I'm not even sure. Honestly, he's probably right, he just keeps pushing."

"Pushing?" Xak said quizzically.

"Yeah, pushing," Tarin replied, "and I don't like being pushed."

"So you reacted the same way you always have when someone pushed you," Xak said empathically.

"Yeah," Tarin admitted, "that probably covers it."

"But he has a point," Xak said politely, "we are not your enemies."

"I know!" the thief said as he fell into a chair covering his face, "It's just . . ."

"You do not have to tell me if you do not want to," Xak said, "but I will listen if you do, and I will keep your confidence."

Looking up from his cupped hands, Tarin said "See, if he approached me that way, I'd have answered all his questions a long time ago."

Xak smiled and said "He does lack some of the finer points of tact, does he not?"

Tarin chuckled and fell silent for a long moment before saying "Marinaeis is my cousin."

Raising an eyebrow, the healer said "Then you are royalty?"

"My father was a count," Tarin answered, "but he was executed as a traitor, our lands and title stripped. I was still a kid, only about forty years old."

Seeing the eyebrow shoot up again, Tarin smiled and said "What, you think that just because I'm only half elf I'd age as fast as you?"

"I suppose it was a little foolish," Xak replied, "But you age faster than other elves?"

"By more than half," Tarin said "But I also learn faster, and that made education a problem. I was always smarter than everyone else around me, and faster. After the execution, my mother took me away to live in an outlying village where I got into a lot of trouble very quickly. She died around ten years ago, and I returned to the main kingdom. As you might imagine, I wasn't welcomed with open arms. The only friends I could make were thieves and street thugs, and we were always on the run. But we had fun, and we had each other. Until they found us."

The thief fell silent for a time, and Xak placed a sympathetic hand on his shoulder saying "You do not have to go on if it is too painful."

Tarin shook his head and said "No, you deserve to know. We planned a burglary of the royal family. After all, I'd been in the palace plenty of times and knew the layout, the guards' patterns, all of it. We made it in and got a lot of gold, but on the way out we passed a room that wasn't locked and I stopped. Something from inside wouldn't let me just pass it by, for some reason. I was . . . transfixed. I couldn't help myself, I walked in despite the alarms, past most of the chests to a smaller one on a stand."

The thief then produced the orb from one of his many pockets saying "I found this. And I set off half the alarms in the treasury doing it. By the time I came to my senses, the guards were already swarming us. I ran. I left my comrades, my only friends, behind to save my own hide. After that I wandered wherever I could until the orb guided me to Coneria."

Xak nodded in understanding and said "What happened to your friends was not your fault, Tarin."

"I've tried to tell myself that for years," Tarin said "but saying 'the orb made me do it' sounds too much like a hollow excuse."

"It does sound that way," Xak agreed, "but it is not. In this case, the orb really did make you do it."

The thief looked at him for a moment, and finally smiled saying "You're all right, you know that?"

The healer smiled back and said "You are as well, whatever Zane might say in the next few hours."

Before Tarin could say anything more, sharp cries from the deck called their attention away. Drawing their weapons, the two charged out of the cabin to find the crew battling strange, man-like fish that had crawled their way onto the ship. "Cap'n!" a man shouted from ahead, "We're besieged by Sahags!"

On of the fish-men careened toward Xak, who brought his hammer to bear with all his might, sending the creature sprawling and leaking greenish blood onto the deck. Tarin jumped back from another who reached after him, and with a quick stroke removed the thing's hand. Screaming, the fish-man back pedaled to the railing and dove overboard. Zane stood with his back to one of the crewmen, his staff held up defensively. Six of the things grouped together and began advancing on the black mage when Blotch burst from below deck, sword in hand, screaming a battle cry.

Swinging his bastard sword in a wide arc, the warrior cleaved neatly through three of the creatures and plowed into another. While two grappled with him, the last lunged at Zane, who stepped back and raised his staff, but had no need to use it. The creature fell lifeless to the deck, it's blood decorating Tarin's sword. The thief looked as if he wanted to say something, but Zane pushed past him and, chanting quickly, loosed a bolt of electricity at one of the things that had managed to pin Xak.

The healer watched the sahagin convulse above him and slump to the deck. Scuttling out from under the thing, Xak took up his fallen hammer and looked about, but none of the fish-men remained who were alive. Tarin had dealt with two, the mages with one each, and Blotch had dispatched nearly half a dozen on his own.

Holstering his hammer, Xak called "Get the wounded lined up! I will not allow anyone to die today!"

--

"Keep the bandages tight, and change them once every six hours," Xak said to his last patient.

Murmuring his thanks, the man limped away, favoring his cut leg. The healer leaned back and sighed. He was exhausted. Nearly the entire crew had suffered some sort of injury, and all his strength had been spent fixing them. Sitting by the cabin door, the healer looked up as a shadow fell over him.

"Hello, Zane," Xak said politely, "how can I help you?"

Sitting next to him, the black mage was silent for a long while before saying "I don't know what you said to the thief, but it was effective."

"How do you mean?" The healer asked tiredly.

"Just now," Zane explained, "he came to me and told me a story of some interest about his homeland. He also said that he knows that I am not the enemy."

Xak smiled and said "All I did was offer a friendly ear."

The black mage looked at the white for a long moment and sighed. Shaking his head, Zane said "I simply don't have the way with people that you three do. Believe it or not, I don't mean to come off as . . . rude and impersonal as I often do. I try to be as polite and courteous as I can, but for some reason I always fail."

Xak laughed aloud before saying "Honestly, Barbatus and I have gotten used to it, and for the most part Tarin has as well. He simply has difficulty trusting, as I'm sure you know by now."

"And yet he trusts you and Blotch," Zane offered.

"That is because of who we are," Xak explained, "Barbatus is a fairly straightforward man. Give him a pint, a friendly brawl and a pretty girl, and he will be happy. I also open myself to all who ask, holding no secrets. This makes us easy to trust, because we are easy to understand. You, however, are enigmatic at best. Now, do not take this the wrong way, that is not a bad quality, but because he cannot read you, it will take the naturally suspicious Tarin a while to trust you."

Zane nodded and mulled what Xak said over as the two mages sat in silence for nearly an hour. Clouds rolled by the blue sky uneventfully as the crew bustled about their daily activities, those who were not too seriously injured to do so. Blotch would take up some of the more belaboring chores for those too infirm, and Tarin took the helm to relieve others. In spite of their recent encounter, the crew were hardened pirates accustomed to losses, and took the battle in stride.

Hours passed and the next few days wore on slowly as the crew returned to health thanks to Xak's magic. Fog and storms continued to confound Tarin and Zane and if not for Blotch's antics morale would have fallen. On the fourth day after the attack, Tarin stood next to the helm next to Zane pouring over a map, discussing their most probable location based on the night's stars when the cry of land came from the crow's nest. Looking up, the two men saw the shoreline in the distance. Zane pulled his spyglass from his sleeve and peered through, then handed it to Tarin shaking his head. The thief looked at the upcoming country, but saw no identifying markers, and handed the instrument back to the mage, who called "Eriks!"

Eriks arrived momentarily, still wearing the same pantaloons, and a vest as well, saying "Aye, Cap'n."

Zane handed the man the spyglass and pointed. After a moment of indecision, Eriks took the spyglass and looked, then handed it back and said "Wild country north of Coneria, west of Pravoca."

Tarin remained silent but Zane could hear his teeth grinding from several feet away, and said "We need supplies. Fruits and meat, and a few drums of grog wouldn't hurt, if we could find the barley."

"Oh, no, Cap'n," Eriks said emphatically, "This be evil land. A witch lives in the hills, they say. Turn us all into brooms, she would! Best to move on and try our luck elsewhere, says I."

Tarin looked at Eriks, then to Zane, and finally back at Eriks and said "Did you see a port?"

"Cap'n," Eriks began pleadingly, but a stern gaze caused him to shiver and say "Aye, a little way down the shore."

Tarin smiled and said "Don't worry Eriks, We're the Light Warriors, remember? What's to fear from a witch?"

Eriks shivered but nodded and moved away, and when he was gone, Tarin said to Zane "You're from around here, know anything about a witch?"

Zane thought for a moment, then answered "Rumors and hearsay. They say a witch has always lived in these hills, and whenever she gets old, she kidnaps a young girl to serve as her apprentice. There are also stories of trespassers turned into brooms."

"Well," the thief said "surely Xak can turn us back, right?"

"Surely," Zane agreed, then called "Send for Xak and Blotch!"

After a short scuffling on the deck, the warrior and healer arrived as the port came into view from the stern. Yawning and rubbing his wild hair, Blotch said "Is this Elfland?"

Zane shook his head and Xak asked "How far off course are we?"

"Worse than last time," the black mage answered, "but fortune allowed us yet another mystery port."

"Well" the white mage said resignedly, "It is not as if we have any shortage of time."