This was not part of the plan.

Piers had known it wouldn't be easy to get out of Lemuria. He'd expected to have to fight the currents, he'd expected to have to dodge the boulders, and he'd prepared himself accordingly. What he hadn't expected was for a veritable tsunami to rise up out of the ocean and try to kill him. Nor had he expected some sort of gargantuan scaly thing to come out of the sea and nearly capsize his ship. It had taken Piers every scrap of energy he had - physical and mental - to keep the ship upright through that damnable wave and through the rushing waters until it had finally run aground. Now he lay sprawled out on the deck, limbs weak and temples pounding, and wishing he'd been just been decapitated. It probably would have hurt less.

He lay there, cursing his luck, as the pounding got louder, and he tried to pretend it didn't exist. If he ignored it, maybe it would stop. It would stop, and then he could figure out where he was, and get the ship moving again - the orb hadn't been damaged, thank the elements; he didn't know what he would do if he had to replace it - and get on with his mission.

The pounding continued, and Piers gradually realized that it wasn't all in his own head.

Damn. Someone else had come aboard the ship. His ship. He scowled.

A shadow fell across his vision. "Up!"

Not much of a greeting. Maybe they didn't have such a thing as manners, out here. Piers squinted up at the intruder. "Pardon?"

The man staring down at him was young - but then, what else had he expected? - sporting unfamiliar clothing and sun-beaten skin, and an oddly satisfied look on his face. "Up!" he repeated.

Whoever this was, Piers decided, he definitely didn't like him. "What do you-"

"I said get up, pirate scum!" He emphasized it with a hearty jab to Piers's ribcage, and Piers's scowl deepened.

He'd just begun work up the energy for a scathing retort when the rest of the stranger's words sank in.

Pirate?

He had to be hallucinating. After everything else that had happened today, this couldn't be real.

The steadily-growing ache in his side said otherwise. He tried to roll away from the offending foot, now prodding him impatiently, but his muscles had declared mutiny on him and refused to listen. Piers groaned, instead. "I'm not a pirate."

"Yeah, sure. Our village just attacked itself. Get up!" Another jab.

This was starting to annoy him. "Get off my ship."

It would probably have been more effective if he'd been able to do something about it other than twitch pathetically on the deck. The other man only smirked. "Make me."

"Gladly." He clenched his hand into a fist -

- and stopped. This man was an Outsider, and they'd always said Outsiders were ignorant. He took a deep breath, and tried to calm himself. It wouldn't be fair to pick a fight with this one. "If you've got any sense you'll leave. You honestly have no idea what you're dealing with."

"Oh, I think I do. What's the matter, can't take me without all your buddies to set up an ambush first? Or maybe you only like attacking defenseless girls." He delivered a full-on kick this time, and Piers grunted in pain.

That was it.

"You'll regret that." Piers forced one of his hands as high as he could reach, inches off the decking, and tried to call up ice. A few drops of water dribbled harmlessly from his fingertips, splashing onto the wood below.

His antagonist laughed. "You're not so tough now, are you?" He turned away, addressing someone Piers couldn't see. "Tie him up and bring him in! We'll see what the elder has to say about this!"

Tie him up?! No. No no no -

Seemingly out of nowhere, more of them - just as sun-beaten, and nearly as smug - arrived, and none-too-gently began lashing rope around his wrists and ankles.

"Hey-!"

Piers fought as best he could, wracking his mind for any semblance of power and trying not to flinch when it made his head feel like it was about to burst. He tried to punch, to kick, and only managed to stumble into one of them, who hauled him roughly up by the back of his jacket, laughing all the while.

"Look, Shin, this one's feisty!"

This couldn't possibly be happening.

"My ship-"

"It's our ship now, pirate!" Shin grinned, and Piers gave him the best scowl he could, wishing that he had the strength to just freeze the bastard. He'd do it, he decided, if it took him a hundred years. Oh, yes.

Shin snapped his fingers and with that, Piers was unceremoniously hauled away, hanging between them like so much cargo.

He was beginning to understand why his people never went Outside.


A night's sleep - it hadn't been a good night's sleep, with a rock for a bed and a gnawing empty stomach, but it was better than nothing - helped to put things in perspective, and by the time the sun rose, Felix felt slightly better about their prospects. They had their lives, they had a plan, and all they had to do was get going. His psynergy, such as it was, was more-or-less back to full strength, and even the rest of him didn't hurt quite so bad. Just then, with a pleasant breeze blowing and the sun glowing red and gold on the horizon, it seemed like this whole thing might actually be doable.

All they had left to do was smother the fire. Jenna tossed a handful of dirt on the dying embers and groaned. "I wish we had a Mercury Adept with us. This would be so much faster."

"I don't," muttered Felix.

Sheba yawned, bleary-eyed, and ran a hand through her hair. "I wish we had breakfast with us."

"We might," said Jenna. "Is anything around here edible?" She turned to Felix, expectantly, but he only shrugged. He'd never seen any of the plants around them before. Mentally, he made a note to ask someone once they found a town.

Kraden knelt to inspect one almost promising-looking shrub, but shook his head. "Nothing worth the time. Save your strength for walking. Shall we?"


They continued southwest, making good time. As the sun rose higher, though thankfully the air stayed reasonably temperate. They had little fresh water left; only Kraden's canteen had any. The last thing they needed was to start sweating.

He kept his hand on his sword-hilt as they walked, scouting the terrain and keeping an eye out for monsters. Jenna walked ahead, weapon to hand, although she was more interested in keeping an eye out for food. The vegetation grew denser as they pressed on, and she stopped to inspect a thicket of odd-looking trees.

"Hey, Kraden," she called, "Are these ones -"

She froze, suddenly silent.

Felix drew his sword. "Jenna?"

She said nothing, just backed away slowly, and when the tall grass around the trees parted they all saw why.

A wolf - or, something that had once been a wolf. This creature stood nearly as tall as Felix's chest, a skulking heap of mangy black fur. With a low growl it turned to them, hackles raised, amber-orange eyes glowing faintly.

Felix swallowed.

He stood absolutely motionless, his heart hammering. "Kraden, Sheba," he hissed. "You stay back. Jenna, when I move, you go back with them. I'll try to distract it."

She moved her chin a mere fraction of an inch, and he tightened his grip on the sword. He had some psynergy - not much - and he tried to focus it. If he could have closed his eyes it would have been easier, but he didn't dare look away.

The stones around their feet rattled, and for a split second the wolf glanced down, bemused.

"Now!" He charged towards it, and from the corner of his eye he saw Jenna running back. He had half a moment to wonder if the plan had worked before the thing was on him, all teeth and claws and anger. He swung his sword in desperation, with little more than instinct to try to keep it away from him, but he had no idea what he was doing and the wolf was fast.

"Felix!" he heard Jenna yell. "Watch out!"

He ducked, just in time to avoid the jet of flame she sent shooting over his head. The wolf was nearly as fast, though, and it dodged too, enough that Jenna's fireball only glanced its shoulder. The stench of burning hair filled his nostrils and he braced himself for the impact of its teeth -

"Hey, over here!" Another fireball, another miss, and then it rounded on Jenna, snarling. She got one good blow in with her staff before the wolf bit down on the weapon, locking her in a tug-of-war she stood no chance of winning. Felix sprinted towards them - if she could distract it long enough, maybe he could land a hit, get between its ribs, do something -

Behind them, Sheba screamed. "Get away!"

She punctuated it with the mental equivalent of a shove, strong enough that Felix grabbed Jenna by the collar and threw them both to the ground before he even knew he'd done it. He looked back to see Sheba - spindly arms outstretched, Shaman's rod brandished overhead - facing down the monster, which growled at her, crimson fangs dripping.

It lunged.

Felix made to get up, to strike at it - for all the good it would have done - but Sheba was still in his head, telling him to stay down and as it ran for her she stood her ground, frantically mouthing something he couldn't hear -

-CRACK-

He squeezed his eyes shut against the lightning flash and when he opened them again he saw Sheba, standing stock-still over one very dead wolf.

Kraden recovered from the shock first, ambling over to nudge it with his walking stick. Faint wisps of smoke rose from its stinking fur. "Oh my."

Sheba only stared at it, goggle-eyed. Next to Felix, Jenna let out a slow breath, and they got up to inspect the aftermath. It took a moment for him to remember how words worked. "Are you all right, Sheba?"

Sheba nodded, and Jenna grinned and punched her in the arm. "Good one!"

"I - I didn't know I could do that." She gave a shaky smile and giggled, nervously. "Wow."

Felix tried a smile and couldn't quite manage. That had been too close. They had been lucky. And she could do that… Once again he wondered who exactly she was, and when she met his eyes he got the sense that she didn't quite know, either. "You did a good job."

She smiled again, more surely this time. "Thanks."

Jenna's staff had knocked out a few of the monster's teeth; at Kraden's suggestion they picked these up in case they could use them to barter, and headed onward.


After another hour of walking they finally came upon the village whose smoke they'd seen from a distance. It was called Daila, and it wasn't in much better shape than they were. Puddles of seawater choked the streets, turning everything into a muddy mess, and the air reeked of days-old brine.

They found the inn still functioning, though barely, and exchanged the better part of their remaining coins for a room, fresh water, and bowls of a thin soup consisting of mostly-unfamiliar vegetables. The innkeeper lamented the lack of fish, but after days without, any food was good food.

Thus rejuvenated, they set about to solving their boat predicament. They split up, going out to talk to the villagers and see if there was any chance of finding a boat - though at this point, even if they found one, Felix had no idea how they'd pay for the purchase. When they reconvened for dinner he realized he needn't have worried.

"Any luck?" Jenna asked, settling in next to him.

"None. You?"

She shook her head. "No boats anywhere, and no one who knows where we can find one. Pass the bread?"

Felix handed her the plate. "The people I spoke to said there's another fishing town to the south; they might have a boat if they didn't get hit by the tidal wave." It was a big 'if,' and they all knew it. "Everyone said the road is bad, though, and without a boat there's no way around."

"Sheba," Kraden asked, "What did you find out?"

"No boats. But I picked up some other things from the locals." She popped a bite of flatbread in her mouth, and licked her fingers. "Two kids disappeared in the storm, Mrs. Patel is upset because she can't do her laundry, and I guess there's a big temple south of here with monks that have mysterious powers."

Kraden's brow furrowed. "What kind of powers?"

She waved a hand, dismissively. "They didn't say. But it doesn't matter, because that's not even the interesting part."

Kraden leaned in. "No?"

"They worship this Sea God, and there's a shrine to him around here, and it's haunted!" She grinned. "They can't stop thinking about how dangerous it is. If you ask me, we should go check it out. There's got to be something there."

Felix considered. Jenna was watching him eagerly, but Kraden looked less enthused, and Felix was inclined to agree. With his luck he'd probably only make the gods angry, and this wasn't the time to go sightseeing. "No."

"But don't you want to find out what makes it so spooky?" When that failed to elicit the proper response, she put on a pleading face. "It's the Sea God's shrine - I bet he has a boat!"

"Why would a god need a boat?"

"But maybe he could help us!"

Judging by recent events, Felix highly doubted that. He sighed. "Monks are educated. They should at least have a map. Where did you say this temple is?"

"South. Maybe half a day's walk?" She pouted. "But the Shrine is closer."

He looked out the window, at the pools of water flooding the town, and shook his head. He'd had enough of the sea for quite a while. "No," he said. "We'll go to the temple."