Upon entering the house that served as our temporary accommodation, I expected the others to be still asleep, but to my surprise, two members were already up and chatting.
“So basically, if you understand the principle of the emotional connection between our mana and the spell casting, you can shortcut— oh, there you are, Rex.”
Gustav turned from Meztili and greeted me. I only caught the end of their conversation, but I presumed they were discussing Gustav’s unorthodox spellcasting technique.
“You two are up early, the sun hasn’t even started to rise yet.”
“I just couldn’t sleep well, Meztili was awake too and wanted to ask some questions about spellcraft.”
Gustav shrugged.
“Something’s off about the magic in the air around here. Like mana itself has been tainted. Sleeping makes me more aware of it, and I feel… Itchy.”
Meztili explained why she had been up.
“Was that it? I couldn’t pinpoint the reason, but now that you put it into words, that’s how I felt, too.”
Gustav nodded, impressed by Meztili’s description.
We looked to the others, who were all sleeping soundly.
“Is it only people with a certain level of mana awareness who can feel it?”
I proposed a theory, though I couldn’t claim to be confident in my words. Surely if that were the case, Lily would be awake too.
“I’m not sure, is that why you were up?”
Gustav asked me, and I remembered what I really wanted to talk about.
“No, I never slept. I’ve got some info you’ll want to hear before we move out.”
I sat with them at the dining table and laid the eel out for them to inspect. I then explained to them everything I had learnt, both regarding the underwater nest and from my conversation with Sir Connor.
As I finished, Meztili took the eel and a kitchen knife, then began dissecting it quietly. Gustav leaned back in his chair and began thinking aloud.
“That explains the mayor’s behaviour towards me. In his eyes, I was representing people who had belittled him and refused to assist a community in need…”
He sighed as he realised they had both been fooled by such a basic case of miscommunication.
“The knight you spoke to is right. This is definitely the work of Esmee Waters.”
Meztili cleaned the blade with a tablecloth and pulled some thin metal rods from the inside of her cloak. They looked like surgical retractors, and as expected, she used them to hold open the flesh of the eel as she continued to delicately inspect the insides.
“Esmee Waters?”
I asked.
“The Black Dael Banshee. Her real name is Esmee Waters. All followers of Nekrotica know her, our order keeps track of criminal necromancers like her.”
“And you recognise her by an undead snake?”
Gustav asked.
“Eel.”
I corrected him.
“Actually, it’s neither. This is a familiar summoned into an artificial body. Observe.”
Meztili reached inside the creature—which wasn’t an eel, I guess—and scooped her finger up into the head.
“No brain. No organs at all in fact. Even the eyes are just artificial discs made from bone and coated with brain matter. The flesh is human, her favourite canvas. She mummifies her victims, then strips the flesh and shapes it into this snakelike form to act as a shell for the familiar inside to operate. She does this so the familiar doesn’t need to be summoned with a physical form, saving mana and allowing her to mass produce loyal servants.”
“Then where’s the familiar that was inside this one?”
Gustav readied a swirling ball of wind in his hand, likely intending to use a magical attack to destroy the familiar’s spirit.
“Already dismissed, probably shortly after Rex pulled it from the water. Esmee would have known the moment it was captured.”
I frowned at my own mistake.
“Don’t worry about it, there was no way to know about this unless you knew her methods beforehand.”
Meztili reassured me, then Gustav cut in.
“If you can get us another one, I could trace the familiar’s link back to the owner… And I need to clear the air with the mayor... but there's still the problem with the bandits... Give me a second, kids…”
He put his head down onto the table and went quiet. When he stayed that way for more than a minute, I took the eel and discarded its remains in the outdoor metal bin.
"Looks like he's deep in thought..."
I commented, still waiting for Gustav to update our orders.
When another minute passed, and it was clear we should leave him to it, Meztili came outside as well and spoke up, filling me in on another theory regarding my spellcasting.
“Sir Falk’s explanation gave me a new insight. The reason spellcasters speak the name of the spells is to solidify our understanding of what we are casting. This emotional and mental connection to the logical formation of the spell circle is what allows it all to come together, correct? Sir Falk utilises an ‘emotion above logic’ approach that stitches together the formula with his own understanding of what each rune and ring represents, allowing him to—”
This explanation dragged on and grew increasingly complex, but I understood the gist of it. Basically, the monster method lets me skip certain parts of spellcrafting thanks to my companion’s instinctive understanding of magic. We tried to make up for the rest with conventional logical spellcraft, but now Meztili thought I could disregard the formula altogether.
In layman’s terms, so long as I really strongly visualise ‘fire’ in my head and don’t let a single other thought interfere with it, I can altogether skip writing the ‘fire’ rune.
“It’s something to consider.”
I already promised her I would keep trying, and she had done so much to help me, so I couldn’t bring myself to refuse. But to be honest with myself, this sounded far-fetched. If formula could be replaced with imagination, why wouldn’t all accomplished spellcasters be spontaneously shooting laser beams from their eyes and flying around as they pleased?
It made no sense to me, but I would trust Meztili as the expert in this matter. However, this was all neither here nor there, as Gustav soon reminded us as he suddenly sprang up and called for us through the open door.
“Right!”
He clapped his hands and slammed the table, waking the others up into a stupor.
“Here’s the plan! I’ll go alone to the mayor’s office and get to the bottom of the false letters and repair relations all in one go. Rex, you go check out that nest with Meztili. Leon, you’re in charge of the others. You’ll be scouting the bandit camp today, and I do mean , got it? Do not, under any circumstances, engage in combat. If you’re discovered, you prioritise the group’s safety and withdraw safely.”
Leon, who had to sleep on one of the couches after the two beds were claimed, rose with a look of bewilderment. Nevertheless, he saluted and acknowledged his orders.
“Ah, I should probably debrief the others, huh?”
Gustav laughed at his own thoughtlessness and began running the others through what the three of us had just discussed. Meztili practically dragged me outside, eager to immediately try her new spellcrafting theory.
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***
We spent two hours practising the new method while the others got ready for their tasks. It was too short a timeframe to revolutionise the entire theory of spellcrafting, but apparently long enough to make a dent in it.
We tried a different spell than which is what we previously attempted, since the runes were a little too obscure for me to mentally visualise in a short timeframe. Seriously, how does one visually represent the concept of ‘optics’?
So instead, Meztili had me try a spell called The name says it all, really. You create a spear out of dark mana, and it fires towards your target. Lily stepped out for all of five seconds to demonstrate it for me before going back to finish her breakfast.
There were three runes Tiara’s mana couldn’t fill in for me with the monster method: ‘spear’, ‘force’, and ‘velocity’.
So I linked with Tiara and focused her mana into my hand while closing my eyes and imagining a spear. I felt magic taking form immediately, ‘spear’ was an incredibly easy concept to visualise after all. Then came ‘force’.
This was more difficult. I first tried imagining the spear being thrown, but this overlapped too much with the concepts of ‘spear’ and ‘throw’. I had to visualise ‘force’.
Try as I might, the vague black spear I conjured would always crumble uselessly before it could be launched. Still, it was progress.
“You see? This method suits you better.”
Meztili nodded emphatically to her own words.
“I can’t deny that. Anything that lets me skip memorising all that gibberish in spellcraft is a plus for me.”
“Oh, you’ll still need to memorise the various spell circle formations. Otherwise, how will you know what concepts you need to visualise?”
“...Damnit.”
My shoulders sagged. Why couldn’t magic just be simple? Let me waggle a twig and scream ‘abrakadoodle’ to shoot fireballs at whatever idiot conceived of spell circles.
“Look alive, you two, we’re ready to move out.”
Gustav came out, his brown silky hair freshly combed and parted in the centre. He had cleaned up nicely in the hopes the mayor would be more receptive to a presentable knight.
“Take this, Mez. It’s a sending stone. Just focus some mana into it, and you can activate one of three pre-inscribed messages that will be sent to its sibling stones.”
Gustav held up an identical flat, disc-shaped stone. Leon came out shortly after and flashed his own stone, showing that each group possessed one.
“You’ve got ‘danger’, ‘en route’, and ‘retreat’. The communication distance is above average thanks to the limited word count. We should have no issues hearing one another so long as we are within 30km.”
Meztili stashed the stone into her robe, and we gave a salute to acknowledge we understood the directions.
“Each of our tasks will likely take a different length of time, so once you’re done, simply send an ‘en route’ message and make your way back here. However, in the event someone calls for ‘danger’, we should prioritise heading to their position. If something has gone wrong and we need to abandon our objective, use ‘retreat’ to signal that the others should come to assist.”
At that point, the others had all come out to the front of the house as well. Leon, who had been appointed leader of the scouting team, would relay everything on the way to their destination. Gustav gave a final salute, and we all took separate paths to our goals.
Meztili and I returned to the docks once more. We would need to secure a vessel to reach the shipwreck, but even then, we had no way to safely dive down and investigate.
Well, didn’t. But so long as I had Kipper, I could handle that much alone.
“Shall we order someone to take us?”
Meztili asked as we passed various vessels.
“If we have to. Let’s try diplomacy first, though. I already waved my authority around last night, best not to overdo it and damage our reputation.”
She looked at me but held back from asking what I did. Whether out of trust or wanting to remain disconnected, I couldn’t tell.
“Very well, I’ll leave that to you then.”
I nodded and stood against a warehouse wall, taking in our options.
We didn’t know what to expect once we disturbed the nest. Ideally, we could get in and out without causing a disturbance or attracting attention. But now that I knew those eels were actually familiars capable of sharing information with their master, I had to assume they would all be on high alert after one of them was killed.
So, do I try to get a whole crew with a sturdy vessel? It would be more defensible, sure, but there weren’t many of those here at the moment. The ones I could see were packed with stressed-looking sailors loading cargo and barking orders back and forth. They didn’t seem the type to take kindly to being ordered to take time away from their business.
Given that they looked to be merchant vessels as well, it wouldn’t be in the empire’s interest to annoy them by forcing them to cooperate.
Something quieter, perhaps? I could reach our destination with a simple rowboat if needed, and those were relatively inexpensive to purchase.
That didn’t sound ideal. From the number of ‘eels’ Kipper saw previously, they could easily topple our boat if they wanted. I would be fine, but Meztili would be little more than a sitting duck in the water.
“Ah. That one’s perfect.”
I nodded to a small fishing boat with a solitary figure slumped over the side.
Wasting no more time, I approached the man and called out.
“Hello there, fisherman!”
The man looked up slowly. His eyes carried the burden of sleepless nights, and his ill-fitting clothes spoke of hard times.
“Mornin’ sir… somethin’ ye be needin’?
“We need your vessel and no more than a few hours of your time. We can pay for your troubles.”
He stood up properly now and looked out to the sea, then to his modest vessel, devoid of any recent catches.
“Yeah, whatever. Climb aboard.”
He agreed easily enough, and since I was not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I hopped the gap and landed next to him, the boat swaying gently beneath me. I then held my hand out and helped Meztili aboard.
“Where we goin’ sir?”
The man had already begun unfurling the rope that secured his boat to the port. His immediate cooperation did not speak of an eagerness to assist in my eyes, rather, his movement carried with them the feeling of a man resigned.
“There is a shipwreck nearby. I’ll provide directions. As for your payment, does one gold piece sound agreeable to you?”
I produced the proposed amount and held my hand out. The man’s eyes lit up briefly, but he concealed his surprise and attempted to remain nonchalant.
“That’d be fine, I reckon.”
He quickly pocketed it and unfurled his sail, a small grin and renewed energy brightened up his actions.
Meztili whispered to me as he turned his back to us.
“Why did you pay so much?”
“He’s doing us a favour, and could very well be put in danger himself. I feel like I low-balled him personally.”
I spoke honestly. In fact, the only reason I hadn’t given him more was that too much money would raise suspicion, and he might reject us out of fear of the unknown.
“Me name’s Boris by the way. Of Farrowgate, obviously.”
The way he spoke to us had also become more lively with his payment.
“Rex Jaeger. This here’s Meztili of Darrowby.”
Meztili turned her head ever so subtly, but remained quiet. She was intelligent enough to know why I would be lying about her name at this moment. Nekrotica is a reviled god in Soleo, and this man was born here. It was unlikely he would be happy to have a necromancer aboard.
“The ol’ shipwreck ye said? I know the one, used to try swimmin’ down there as a lad. Me Pa, gods rest ‘is soul, knocked me over me ‘ead right good when he found out.”
Boris laughed loudly and continued to share tales of his long-gone youth as we sailed. He was so talkative that I was able to silently practice for the entire ride.
Kipper swam beneath us the whole time, and thanks to his sight, I was able to direct Boris when to position the boat directly over the shipwreck, even though we couldn’t see it ourselves through that dark water.
Farrowgate was still within sight, we only sailed for an hour to reach our destination. Still, if things go wrong, I failed to see how the others could assist us here. It really drove home the fact that we should try to avoid any confrontation down here.
“Rex. A moment, please.”
Meztili sat up, she had been huddled in a corner with her head down this entire time. I didn’t question her on the behaviour, predominantly because I could clearly hear her stomach churning even over the waves.
“I imagine you’ll be using the barracuda—”
“Kipper. Use his name.”
“...I imagine you’ll be using to scout first?”
“No. Well, kind of. I’ll be going down with him, why?”
“Take this, I’m not using the water-breathing potions you brought. Bandages will get ruined.”
She handed me a small black box with golden inscriptions. It was a little larger than my head, but was lighter than it appeared.
“What is it?”
I asked, already moving to open it. A bandaged hand softly but swiftly landed atop mine, and Meztili shook her head.
“Don’t open it. It will open when you need it. This is the only way I can assist you from up here.”
I still wanted to open the box, but I would resist out of a sense of respect.
“Alright. Hey, since you mentioned it, take this.”
I had obtained a total of nine water-breathing potions from Fleur prior to leaving Borderton. I didn't plan to need any for myself, but carried one anyway to be safe. I handed mine to Meztili.
“Just in case something happens, use one for yourself, and the other for Boris.”
“What about you? You should at least bring a harpoon instead of that axe, it won’t swing well underwater.”
“Nah, I considered that already. I’ve got everything I need right there.”
I pointed to the empty sea, and Kipper launched out on cue, directly into my chest. The impact was heavier than expected, and I was sent reeling.
This was meant to be a cool display to debut my new form, but Kipper had totally ruined it. The taste of seawater and fish assaulted my mouth as Kipper’s tail slapped my face.
Ah, screw it, the moment’s over.
I reached out to Kipper’s soul with my own, and he eagerly reciprocated.
My fingers and toes elongated, and webbing quickly formed between them. My flesh turned a pale teal colour and scales sprouted over every inch. I kept my mask, as there was no functional reason to alter my head shape too drastically anyway. My spine violently popped up and tore through my skin, then shifted and sharpened into a back fin. My skin lunged over the bones and reformed as if this was how my body was always meant to be structured.
As my transformation was completed, I tried to breathe. In through the nose, out through the mouth. All normal on that end. I dived from the end of the boat and tried again underwater. In through the gills, out through the… gills.
All good here, too. I swam around with my flipper-like appendages and immediately noted my incredible speed. I looked at my fingertips, there were small holes at the end of each one, as well as two larger ones where my wrist met my palm.
I followed Kipper’s instincts, and ‘inhaled’ through my hands and feet. I felt water enter my body, then ‘exhaled’ in a violent burst while pointing my hands downward.
It was obvious that I would be propelled, but I severely underestimated the power of this propulsion. I practically soared through the sky. I could see Meztili far below me, and my shadow was being cast over the boat with the sun to my back. Boris had not seen me leave, but certainly saw me now, his eyes bulged and he dropped to his knees.
I spread my limbs, and more webbing connected my limbs to my torso, acting as a wingsuit that allowed me to glide with ease.
Landing back in the water after enjoying the cool air against my wet, scaly body, I popped my head out to speak to Meztili.
“See? I’ll be fine like this.”
Boris heard my voice and rushed to look down at me. He was clutching a holy symbol of Aelthara.
“We are blessed! The gods above ‘ave ‘eard our pleas and sent a marine majesty to cleanse the taint!”
I floated there silently for a moment, then stretched my arms out into a T-pose and slowly rose from the water.
“Yes, mortal one! I have been sent by the great Poggy Rot-tooth, truest of all the deities! By his will shall I deliver the good people from their plight!”
“...Heh…”
It was subtle, but I heard Meztili laugh right before I retreated to the sea.
Rex/Kipper fusion