PART XXI

"He's been pretty ill lately."

"Damn. Can't you do anything for him?"

"I'm a thief. Not a medic."

"Come on Signot, you must have had some experience."

"Don't you think if I knew how to help I would?"

"Sorry. It's just, I can't stand to sit back and watch somebody suffer."

"You do it all the time. You're a thief."

"Well, suffering I didn't inflict, then."

"Ha. Yeah, well, I don't think there's anything we can do."

"Damn."

Zinkata's memory of the time an illness killed a fellow thief he knew seemed appropriate. Vivli was suffering. She had been silent all night. She hadn't slept. She hadn't even complained about the rats sniffing around her. Vivli not complaining was a sign that something was very wrong.

Zinkata sighed and wondered over to her, hunched in the corner. He sat down beside her.

"Come on, tell us what's wrong." He said as gently as he could. "We can help." Vivli paused.

"But I can't." She muttered.

"What do you mean 'you can't'?" Zinkata asked curiously.

"I can't do it. I can't cast magic." She mumbled sadly. "I broke the oath. I can't cast anything anymore."

"What?" Bootus gasped. "I thought the oath was a joke. A bunch of guidelines that mages were supposed to follow, but didn't really."

"For most it is, but a few special students are selected, and under the Star Sybil they vow the most important aspects of the oath. She casts an enchantment on them to make us have to obey." She paused. "It's supposed to be a deterrent to all mages to breaking the rules." She started to cry again.

"So you were one of those students?" Bootus inquired. Zinkata didn't have the heart to ask anything else and Voldos was at a loss for words.

"Yes. And now I've betrayed my oath I've lost my powers." She explained.

"There must be some way of getting them back." Zinkata told her, trying to be comforting. "We'll find a way."

"What? And forget our mission? We have to save the world." Vivli reminded them. "We can't waste any time. I need to be able to cast."

"Can't you try and break the enchantment?" Bootus suggested. "Try to cast magic anyway?"

"Urm. I'm not sure." Vivli stood up slowly. And began to cast a spell.

She suddenly shrieked in pain and collapsed. It felt like her stomach had exploded.

"Are you alright?" Zinkata quickly asked. She was rolling in pain on the floor.

"This doesn't seem like a brilliantly thought out system." Bootus muttered. Vivli was crying. He suddenly felt something odd. He actually felt sorry for her. "Ur, I mean, you used a sword to save my life. You killed to save my life. I don't see why that's a bad thing." He added, in an attempt to make things better.

"They don't see it that way." She whimpered from the floor. "We aren't supposed to make the decision of who lives and who dies. We're supposed to help whoever needs it. Most of the time these rules are lenient, but when we make the decision to kill somebody ourselves, especially with a bladed weapon, then it's gone too far."

"What's wrong with a bladed weapon?" Voldos asked, decided to try and put some input. The question wasn't supposed to be insensitive, but to take her mind off her problems.

"A bladed weapon can only kill." Vivli explained. "That is its purpose. A staff supports. And when used as a weapon, it only bludgeons, rarely killing. Hence why we use them as a last resort."

"The 'extreme pain' result of trying to cast seems a little excessive." The elvaan sighed.

"Punishment." Vivli told him, trying to get up, but being overridden with pain.

"Look." Bootus began. "You rest. We'll go and find somebody to take us to the islands." It sounded strange to hear something sympathetic from the gigantic galka. "I know we'd be better off returning to Windurst, but we don't have the time."

"Okay." Vivli said quietly. "I'll wait here."

The three adventurers strolled towards the port and the docked ships, hoping to find something there.

"What was that, Bootus?" Voldos mocked. "Was that sympathy I saw back there?"

"I didn't want to have to put up with her crying. It was an excuse to leave her back there." Bootus sighed.

"Sorry, what's that? I couldn't hear you over that sound of a blatant lie!" Voldos joked, bursting into laughter.

"Shut up!" Bootus snapped. "I can be sympathetic if I want to." The three stopped, looking at the ships. A fairly small one was docked neatly against the edge. A scruffy looking human in a beaten brown jacket was loading barrels onto it. He walked up a ramp onto the ship and started fiddling with some kind of pulley system.

"Excuse me?" Zinkata asked.

"Two seconds." Came the response, as swung a rope down to a large crate. "Hook that on the crate." Zinkata did so. He pulled on the rope and lifted the crate up onto the ship via this crude crane mechanism. "How can I help?" Asked the stranger, jumping off the ship and landing on the dock (as opposed to walking down the perfectly serviceable ramp).

"We're looking to charter a ship." Zinkata explained.

"Where to?" The man asked.

"Some small islands, way off the main ship courses." Zinkata told him.

"Small islands? Why?" The stranger questioned, going back to loading barrels.

"We're looking for the King of the Dragons in an attempt to save the world." Bootus explained, smiling.

"Good as reason as any." The stranger said. "But I'm afraid I can't help." He suddenly paused. He saw somebody marching towards him. He ducked behind the barrel, and the figure passed. "Ur, out of the way of all usual ship courses you say?" He asked popping up. Zinkata nodded. "I need to lie low. I'll do it!" He cried. "Name's Captain Sampson. Olose Sampson." He told the three. "You have one hour before we leave. Just you three?"

"And one girl." Zinkata explained. Olose's face twisted into a smile.

"Then what are we waiting for?"

Vivli stepped quietly onto the boat. Olose ran over to greet her.

"Welcome on board the Lightning!" He cried. "It's not as fast as the name makes out, but it'll get you where you need to go." Vivli looked a little scared.

"Yeah, he's a bit hyperactive." Bootus sarcastically commented. "Could be worse. It could be Crazy Steve." Vivli smirked a little. "Ha! I saw that! A smile!" He taunted. Vivli laughed some more. Olose hurried about the ship, preparing to leave.

"We're out of here!" Olose sounded rushed. "Now!"

"What's he running from?" Vivli asked, sounding nervous.

"We don't know." Zinkata explained. "But we figured it was a convenient way to get where we're going. I'm sure we can handle anything that gets thrown at us."

"I can't." Vivli whimpered, before crying again. Zinkata put his arm around her rather awkwardly. It meant she could cry against his shoulder. She wouldn't admit it, but it was certainly comforting. Zinkata noticed Bootus going to make a comment so he shot him an angry glance. A glance that said 'make jokes later, but not now'. Bootus read it correctly and smiled in acknowledgement, turning away.

'Later' soon came, when Vivli had curled up and fallen to sleep from exhaustion against a sack of food.

"So, what was the hugging about?" Bootus asked.

"Oh, come on." Zinkata rolled his eyes. "It's nothing romantic. She needed comforting."

"Like a child?" Bootus said, mocking Vivli even when she wasn't there.

"Pretty much. Seemed to work." Zinkata nodded. Voldos entered the cargo hold that had conveniently became their sleeping quarters.

"I gave the captain our map, so we should be underway." The elvaan explained, sitting down. "How's Vivli?"

"She keeps whimpering in her sleep." Bootus told him. "It's driving me nuts." They paused for a moment, and heard one of the whimpers Bootus was talking about.

"Stop acting like you don't care." Voldos told the galka. "We all know you're as concerned as we are."

"Well, what can we do?" Bootus asked.

"We could teach her to fight. That we can manage. Get her a sword and-" Voldos's suggestion was interrupted by Zinkata.
"Do you really think teaching her to fight with a bladed weapon is a good idea?" He asked.

"Urm. No. Point taken." The elvaan responded.

"Bootus. You could teach her some of your moves." Zinkata suggested.

"My monk techniques are based off my own physical strength. Vivli isn't exactly the strongest person in the world. She'd be useless." Bootus explained. He was tempted to add 'not that she isn't useless anyway', but decided against it. They heard a quiet sobbing from Vivli, who was crying into the food sack.

"Don't worry, Li," Voldos said as kindly as he could manage, "I'm sure we'll sort it out. It's nothing to be so upset about." The mithra didn't reply, making him wonder if she even heard him.

The journey by ship took over a week. This time passed in a fairly dull way. Vivli was learning to cope with her inability to cast, but becoming more frustrated at the leering remarks of Olose's crew, since she was the only female on board the ship. Bootus had indeed tried to teach her some fighting moves, but she was uninterested and far too weak physically to match Bootus's fighting style anyway (which generally involved hitting things very hard). To top things off, she had become violently sea sick, which all in all meant she was having a horrible trip.

One particular time she was on deck, throwing up over the edge. Others had begun to make jokes that she was wasting the ship's food supplies by just throwing them straight back up again. She felt faint and weak as she often found herself feeling after being sick, and so wasn't certain what she saw on the horizon was correct at first. She repositioned herself, looking out. The ship and been rocking harder and more frequently lately, making her feel even worse. She could see the explanation. Dark rain clouds had formed, and rain was beginning to thrash down. Thunder and lightning clashed across the sky. And a twister was tearing across the sea right towards them.

"Storm!" Yelled Olose. "Bolt down the hatches! Secure the cargo! Lower the sails!" He noticed Vivli on deck. "Get below decks! Now!" Vivli ran silently down below. The ship lurched violently. Olose stared at the coming twister, the wind blowing the small single sailed ship wildly out of control. He wrestled for control, but realised this was futile. Something smashed against the deck of the ship. A creature was climbing on board, presumably to get away from the havoc being caused by the wind in the water. Olose fought for control, but a loud sound of wood breaking informed him that his rudder had just been ripped off. He ran below decks, now completely unable to control the ship. There was a crash from above the decks. The entire crew were huddled in the hold.

"There's something out there. Looks like a Sea Monk." Olose informed them.

"We can handle that!" Zinkata cried.

"It's stormy out there. Watch it." Olose warned.

"Come on, let's go." Zinkata gestured for the door. The four went to leave. Zinkata turned to Vivli. "Urm, Viv, I don't want to sound rude but-"

"I'm coming." Vivli interrupted him before he could point out she would be entirely useless. "I'm part of this party. I'm not cowering and sitting out."

"Vivli!" Bootus snapped, sounding very serious. "This isn't a game! This is dangerous!"

"I know." She whimpered. She was obviously scared.

"Stay." Zinkata ordered her. "I will not let you risk dieing!"

"Fine." She sat down, clearly upset, and frightened at the noises above. The three heroes charged out on deck before they could feel too guilty about being so rude to the mithra.

Voldos charged onto deck, slipped on the wet floor, and fell into the monster. It picked him up in a tentacle and threw him across deck.

"Stylish!" Zinkata cried. The monster thrashing about looked like a giant octopus, a little smaller than a Sea Horror, and luckily, no where near as nasty. It dove at Voldos with all of its tentacles flailing. Voldos cut them back. Zinkata stabbed it from behind before it swept around, knocking him off his feet. Bootus charged it, and hammered it with his fists. A gigantic wave crashed over the deck, sweeping them all away. The creature wrapped its tentacles around the ship's mast, tearing it down.

In the hold, a loud crash made Vivli jump to her feet.

"That's it!" She snapped. "I'm going to help them." Before she could move, Olose restrained her.

"You can't!" Olose told her. "It's too dangerous. They wouldn't want you to!"
"Let go of me!" She squirmed, being restrained by both arms.

"Sorry. I can't let you die." Olose informed her.

"Glad to see you have confidence in me." She grumbled, giving up the struggle. She paused, waiting until Olose was slightly off guard, and slapped him around the head with her tail. This distracted the captain enough for her to break free and bolt out the door onto the deck. She smiled at her own ingenuity. Too many people forgot mithra had tails.

The Sea Monk lunged at Voldos, who dove out the way of it. It crashed down beside him, and turned to face him, driving him towards the bow of the ship. His sword had been washed away, and the others were sprawled behind him.

"Right." He sighed. "Hand to hand with a sea monk. I can handle that."

"Voldos!" Screamed a voice. "Catch hold of this!" The old pulley mechanism (that somehow had not collapsed) was swung about to Voldos. He grabbed hold of the end of the rope, and Vivli pulled on the other end. She struggled with his weight, but Bootus and Zinkata quickly came up behind and the three hauled Voldos away from the creature.

"What are you doing here?" Snapped Voldos.

"Saving you." Vivli shot back.

"Any plans on taking it out?" Zinkata asked as another wave crashed over them. "We've lost our weapons, and can't hurt it." The Sea Monk began to crawl towards them.

"Let's use the pulley and swing it into the water!" Vivli suggested, smiling at her bright idea. A gigantic wave crashed over the deck, smashing apart the pulley and sweeping the adventurers across the boat. The Sea Monk almost capsized the ship as it grappled to stay on. Vivli looked up, completely soaked in water. "Okay, let's not do that." Voldos unclipped the top of his armour, and Zinkata did the same.

"Let's use the fallen mast!" The elvaan suggested. "We'll knock it off that way."

The four picked up the mast, just managing to lift it. They swung it around like a club, and the Sea Monk tangled itself on to it. They ran, and jumped off the ship, pulling the Sea Monk with them. They all crashed into the sea, and burst onto the surface.

"Oh, yeah!" Bootus cried above the storm. "Great plan!" He became aware of Vivli splashing about and making a gurgling noise. He grabbed her and supported her, holding onto the ship's mast to support himself. The other two swam to it. They watched as the Lightning disappeared into the storm. The Sea Monk had vanished to the depths, but they were all too aware it was around.

Vivli coughed up water. She had passed out quite some time ago in the freezing ocean. She was now sprawled on a golden beach, with a bright blue sky and the hot sun beating down on her. She got up, slowly. Her robe was soaked. She made sure to note this was the second time this had happened.

She wondered down the beach cautiously. Nobody was around. A rustling from a bush alerted her that somebody was near. She stumbled backwards in fear, to only see Bootus emerge.

"Oh, good. You're alright." He muttered. She coughed a little. She was feeling drowsy, and choked on salt water, so desperate for a drink.

"Just about." She managed to say.

"The others are around. We made it here. You didn't last quite that long." Something irritated Vivli about how Bootus said that as a casual fact. Of course, he was right, she hadn't lasted that long, but she was fed up with being treated like a little girl who couldn't take care of herself. "I saved your life you know. You would have drowned, but I held on to you. You owe me one." He beamed a smile.
"Or I could call it even for the time I saved you after you tried to kill me!" She pointed out.

"Urm, yeah. Let's do that." Bootus grumbled.

Zinkata and Voldos walked over to the two.

"Hey, you're awake." Zinkata pointed out. Vivli took a moment to look over herself and make sure this was true. "You alright?"

"Yeah. I'm fine. Where are we?" She asked the obvious question.

"I don't know." Zinkata replied. "But, that's where the good news comes in."

"There's good news?" Vivli seemed sceptical.

"Sure." Zinkata said reassuringly. "Just before the storm, I was talking to the captain. We were apparently approaching the set of islands."

"So?" Vivli asked. "That's what happens when you sail towards islands."

"You're starting to sound like Bootus." Zinkata warned.

"I've just been half drowned and woken up on a beach. I deserve to be grouchy." She pointed out.

"Well, since those islands you wanted us to go to are alone, with no other land for miles, if we washed up anywhere, it must be on one. There are plenty of caves around. We just haven't started to explore them yet. We were waiting for you." Zinkata smiled, waiting for them to move.

They trod through the thick jungle, with all kinds of bugs hissing and making noises at them.

"You could try to look less scared you know?" Bootus told Vivli. She had her robe tied around her waist, and a light top on that she normally wore underneath. The others had removed their armour (some on the ship, which was lucky because otherwise they would have sunk in the storm), and wore equally light clothes in the heat. This also gave them a chance to let their heavier clothes dry.

"I don't like bugs." She pointed out.

"You don't like anything!" Bootus cried.

"You've said that." She told him. "Many times." The four arrived at the cave entrance Zinkata had found earlier.

"I don't like the dark, either." Vivli felt it necessary to remind them.

"Right, there's a very slight possibility this cave leads to where we need to go." Zinkata told the others. "Let's go."

"Why is it always caves?" Vivli asked, following them reluctantly into the darkness.

The others moved quickly and soon Vivli couldn't see them ahead. She wanted to cast something to protect her. But she couldn't. She paused, managing to keep enough control not to weep.

"Urm? Guys?" She called. There was a pause. She waited, frightened.

"Get a move on!" Came a voice finally. She ran through the caves as fast as she could, soon catching up.

"Dammit! Don't leave me behind!" She yelled.
"But it's so funny when you're scared." Bootus laughed.

"Not for me!" She screamed. Her voice echoed. They heard a roar from within.

"Oh, way to go." Bootus sighed.

"Uh oh." Vivli spluttered as the roar got louder.