As we got closer the fire became more concentrated and a few shots scored the hull of the small vessel. Valerie took out her shield made of large dark scales and blocked several of the shots at the prow of the ship. As we neared an upcoming large wave I judged the distance and angle and turned to Mystal coaching her on her approach.

  Finally, I shouted, “When you land after that wave turn and head for that other ship! Don’t slow down!”

  Her expression was fearful but excited. Winking at her, I felt the small skiff hit the wave and start to crest it. As we launched into the air I activated Blood Mist and felt the wind hit my incorporeal form hurtling me toward the small ship. Studying the fast oncoming vessel I tried to time my arrival so I didn’t tumble off and into the silt, angling toward the center of the vessel. Most of the crew running along the ship’s deck were trying to fire their weapons over the starboard rail toward my departing comrades. Counting down I rematerialized on the deck beside a man wearing an all black robe tied with dark red belts. His eyes, scored around their edges with lines of fiery light, widened at my appearance.

  Activating Eyes of Theodora, the tension went out of the man’s body and he whispered, “Hey babe.”

  A cry of alarm went up as another crew member spotted me and I asked, “Defend me?”

  The man grumbled, “Always!,” and without preamble turned, leveled a long pistol and fired a beam of fiery energy into the woman’s chest. Using the man as a shield I dug out a stack of slate wards from my belt and tossed them over the man’s shoulder toward the cultists arrayed at the rail. Rifle fire lanced into the body of my defender setting him ablaze and ending his charmed condition.

  Explosions rocked the ship as my wards sent up plumes of electrical energy, filling the air with screams of rage and pain. As the charred husk of my defender slumped, the power of Surging Blood raged through me and I charged the remaining defenders. The men and women tore out heavy cutlasses or whips arcing with fiery energy and I smoothly moved amidst them leaving wounds pumping blood into the open air. The screaming zealots rushed to crowd around and lock me down and when Dance of the Rose Hurricane activated they were savagely mauled by their own lifeblood.

  As I passed the last of the cultists I kicked him in the knee and Hobbled him as I charged up the sterncastle stairs to face the officers of the ship.

  A cultist in a brilliant red robe screamed a zealous warning as I charged toward a pair of guards flanking him, “Cursed spawn of darkness, face the fiery…”

  His warning was cut off as I ducked between his surprised guards and kicked him in the throat with a crunch. He staggered and clutched at his neck as I drove one of the Sisters into his side and headbutted him. The second guard managed to hack into my side with a cutlass but I rolled with the blow to sprint toward the recovering priest. He leveled an accusatory finger at me that glowed with building simmering energy and roared, “Damn ye monst…,” and I kicked him in the chest and sent him tumbling over the aft rail of the ship toward the rising silt waves below.

  Spotting the second ship, its deck now embroiled in a huge battle about two hundred meters away, I turned and charged back toward the recovering guards with a smirk. Several other wounded cultists were charging up the stairs from the lower deck toward me. Sprinting toward my foes I slid between their flashing weapons toward my true target. Rolling to my feet I reached out and grabbed the unattended wheel of the ship, casually spinning it toward the other cultist vessel before turning to face my foes.

  The entire ship groaned as its energy charged hull carved a path through the waves toward its sister ship.

  “Stop him!,” one of them shouted.

  “We’ll hit them!,” bellowed another.

  Holding my ground I deflected strikes and left stinging wounds on the cultists as they tried to regain control of the ship’s controls. Growing increasingly panicked, several rushed toward the hold to somehow deactivate the engine. They were far too late, however. As the ship crested a wave and started down the slope toward the other ship several cultists at the front of the vessel shouted warnings toward their comrades arrayed against my allies on the other deck.

  To my relief my friends seemed well aware of my madness and were in the midst of abandoning the doomed vessel to return to their skiff on the far side of the ship.

  A cultist turned from the horrifying tableau of oncoming destruction and looked at me wild eyed, “You’re mad.”

  “You have no idea,” flashing him a fanged grin, I burst into mist as the entire world turned into a cacophonous roar of crunching wood and screams. Below me several of the figures on the deck the ship had struck burst into mist and threaded their way toward the skiff that held my friends. Landing on the tilting foredeck of the crippled ship I sprinted to the edge and vaulted it in the direction of my allies. Several rays of blazing energy lanced past me but tumbled below the rail spotting the fast approaching skiff. Mystal was at the helm waving at me excitedly. Val and Sakurai were unreadable as usual. My magic leggings activated as I impacted the shifting silt. Quickly growing mired in the powdery material my allies grabbed my arms and dragged me into the small boat.

  Before I was even fully safe inside Mystal dropped the tiller and we sped away in the direction of our own distant ship. Behind us the hulls of the two pirate ships winked out and their iron frames sank deeper and deeper into the silt sea.

  Valerie, her face covered in soot and cheek marred with a small burn growled at me with a glare, “Too damned reckless.”

  Adjusting my reclined position to give the young woman a relaxed smile I said in a surprisingly familiar way, “You like it.”

  “Test me too far Remnant and I will toss you over the side and leave you to crawl to our destination.”

  Shifting to the edge of the skiff I peered down at the inky black silt and muttered, “How bad would that be? How far can you sink…”

  We were all shocked out of our discussion at a tremendous crash from behind us. In the moonlight something huge had risen up out of the sea around the vessel. After a moment I realized that it was a massive tentacle. The limb crashed down over the metallic frame of one of the ships and there was a great screech of metal, only marginally louder than the now persistent screams of terror. The massive dark limb flexed and yanked the metal frame beneath the waves of silt and out of sight.

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  Valerie muttered without looking away from the macabre scene, “That bad.”

  Behind her Mystal had a look that could best be described as that of an excited child watching a volcano explode as she whispered, “Silt. Kraken.”

  Wincing I dropped back down into the boat as it bounced over the dark waves of powder, “What the heck did I get myself into?”

  Out of habit, I started to reach for my helmet to log off for a few minutes but left a shaky hand in the air for a moment before dropping it back to my side, “No thanks.”

  Back on the ship there were cheers and offers of thanks. Even though all I wanted to do was return to my cot and rest I embraced the accolades, shaking hands and thanking each man and woman who came to me with the flair I had come to embrace as a minor celebrity.

  “It was the least I could do!”

  “I have to do something to earn my passage!”

  “We’re all in this together.”

  At one point I caught Valerie studying my little performance with those intense pools of gold and finally begged off an offer to go drinking with the crew, “Nope, I have to rest.”

  As I ducked down into the galley lined with its dark energy ballista I heard Valerie follow after me and paused to regard her in the dark of the stairs with a tired smile, “What’s up Val?”

  She paused there, leaning against the wall at her side, and looked a lot less strong and sure. The only real feature I could make out were her eyes as she studied me intently, “You know, you never really called me that. Only at the end.”

  Chuckling, I leaned against a column and watched her with my arms crossed, “It would be nice to remember all that.”

  Her response was a little breathy, “I wish you did.”

  After a long tense beat I said, “It seems like we were really close.”

  She shifted uncomfortably and then said, “We did not get very close but things were leaning that way.”

  “It seems strange that I did that, given everything…”

  “With Sydney?,” she said, surprising me.

  “Yes… yes… with Sydney.”

  She nodded, “It was contentious. I gave some unfortunate advice about your romantic situation when I was drunk.”

  When I chuckled at that I could hear the smile in her voice, “There are some things I am glad you can’t remember.”

  Letting a moment pass she finally said, “What I do know is that she hurt you.”

  “I…”

  She cut me off again, “You think you deserve it,” she didn’t wait for me to respond, “things are different among Haithans. Apparently our hierarchies are reversed. Amongst Haithans women hold far more power, and it's difficult for me to understand a world with the balanced relationships men and women seem to have amongst your people.”

  After a moment she nodded and said, “I have tiptoed around the question out of respect but I will tell you this now… I want you. That has not changed in six years. If you find that this Sydney and your relationship with her can not be salvaged consider my interest.”

  A little surprised and taken aback by the directness I managed an uncharacteristic stuttered response, “I… I will remember that.”

  Her eyebrow arched and her smile was nearly lascivious, “Not a no?”

  Regaining my composure I looked into her eyes and nodded slightly, “That is not a ‘no’.”

  Her lips quirked into a full smile and she turned as she said, “Goodnight, Malcolm,” and made her way back up to the deck into the eternal night.

  Breathing deeply I watched her go for a moment before turning and making my way back to my small cabin, my mind warring with everything I had just said.

  Halfway across the galley toward my cot and rest I nearly screamed in terror when someone I had not seen grumbled, “Aw, no smooches?”

  Hissing through my teeth I scanned the area until I noted the too large shape of Mystal peeking from behind one of the wooden columns in the hold. I was not sure how she had managed to conceal herself and voiced that with a sigh, “How the heck are you hiding in here?”

  “Mistress of Stealth, remember?”

  Narrowing my eyes at her I asked, “What do you need?”

  She ran up and latched onto my arm as I walked back toward my small room hugging up to me with a beaming smile, “I’m just so happy that you and Val are getting back together.”

  “No one said that.”

  She ignored me and said, “She has been so sad all these years. Everyone else, except me and her, were sure you were dead! Her mom wanted Val to get married but she was all,” her voice dropping several octaves in an impersonation that was nothing like the warrior woman, “No, I have a duty to the cause.”

  She grinned at me and winked, “The cause definitely being that sweet sweet Malcolm Beef.”

  Sighing, I stopped at the door and looked her in the eyes, “I am not the same guy who Valerie was so interested in before.”

  Her grin was unrelenting, “Nah, you are the same Mal. I can tell.”

  “You know I can’t stay here forever.”

  “Who says?”

  “Like,” I sighed in frustration, “I have a body in my world that needs care and… It’s my world, ya know.”

  The unconcerned mist creature gave me a pat on the arm and beamed a smile, “Our world is better. It might be falling apart but it needs you.”

  “And my world doesn’t need me?”

  Her smile faltered and she looked down as she fidgeted, “Sakurai told me everyone treats you bad there. She said you did bad things, but you want to change.”

  Nodding, I leaned against the door as I said, “That is all true.”

  She sounded genuinely hopeful as she leaned forward and took my hands in hers, the lavender of her skin a stark contrast with the pale lilac of mine, and said, “Then do that here. We want you, Mal. Valerie needs you.”

  Giving her a sympathetic look I chuckled, “She doesn’t ‘NEED’ me Mystal.”

  Shaking her head she said, “No, she does. I know because,” she looked off into the empty dark hold and snapped her brilliant golden eyes, so full of hope, back onto me, “A lot of me is Val, and I need you.”

  Starting to speak she cut me off, “Not like she does. You and Val helped make me who I am. You spared me and kept me safe. You taught me and cared for me.”

  “That…”

  She cut me off, “That was you. You,” she searched the darkness with her luminous eyes and then snapped them back to me, “you are like a father to me.”

  Sighing she released my hands and wiped away a tear on her cheek I had not noticed muttering, “Think about staying with us. Thinking about being with us.”

  She departed then, following after her twin back toward the deck.

  Sighing, I pushed through the door and back toward my small room.