Chapter 58 – And We Meet Again

Darya awoke the next morning in her cozy princess bedroom on the Desert Rose. She was buried in soft sheets, burying her face in a warm pillow.

She felt as if the water race in the evening with Lurim and Nerima had taken two years off her life. She had caught a bad cold almost within the hour, turned feverish during the dinner at the beach camp, and had to excuse herself early with Seris.

She didn’t want to wake up. The bed felt too comfortable, and the pillow even more so. Burying herself further into the sheets, she closed her eyes again. 

The pillow started moving; it grew two hands to tickle her scalp. The pillow had been the pretty elf. 

“Awake, princess?” Seris’s soft voice filtered through the sheets. 

Darya shifted, resting her head on Seris’s chest. She felt almost too soft. 

Touching around, she couldn’t feel a dress. She couldn’t feel it on herself either. 

Are we naked?!

The thought made her heart race. She had been naked with Seris before, but it hit like a taser each time. With everything happening one after the other, she hadn’t had enough time to mull over how much she really liked the elf.

“We can sleep for another hour if you want,” Seris said, tickling the side of Darya’s head. 

Darya muttered nonsense under her breath as a reply. It was a collection of noises that she hoped would add up to ‘yes, I would very much like that.’

Then she remembered what they were doing. They were sailing over a trench of sea monsters to look for their missing friends. She didn’t want to waste more time. Rossarie was in a dark dungeon. 

No more stops from here on. Heading straight to rescue that girl, then that boy. 

“Let’s just get ready,” Darya mumbled between Seris’s breasts. “Also, why are we naked?”

Seris pulled her up to a real pillow and opened the sheets, exposing them both to the morning sunlight filtering through the window. She looked like a painting. 

“You sweat like a fountain and drenched your nightgown and the sheets. I had to change everything. This is the second set.” Seris said, patting the bed. 

“Was I that feverish?” Darya was surprised. The fever felt bad, but not abnormally bad. Drenching sheets enough to change them sounded far worse than what she thought. 

“I think it’s the mana around here, not just the cold. Two other people caught fevers just as bad. I was worried it was contagious, but then master Lam told me this happens to people around the Behemoth.”

Darya raised herself onto her elbow, suddenly interested to know more. “What do I have in common with the others that got sick?” 

“Well, funny you ask that.” Seris rolled her lips, gently caressing Darya’s ribs. “Promise me you won’t freak out?” 

“Uh, okay?”

“All of you saw ghosts.” 

“What!” Darya almost flung herself upright. 

Seris grabbed her shoulder, wrapping an arm around her again. “You just promised!”

“I wonder if it's the same one I saw?” Darya wondered aloud, resting her cheek on Seris’s collarbone. 

“There’s a lot of stories; I just don’t know what to think. I’ll feel better when we’re out of here—”

A pulse reverberated through the ship, passing from their left to right like an electric wind. 

“—and there’s that. Every four goddamn minutes. By the light, I even got used to it.”

“Yeah, that’s annoying.”

Darya caught a glimpse of a floating flame twirling weightlessly mid-air. She raised her head, trying to see it again. 

She let out a gasp when she realized what it was. “Is that Enta?!” 

“Ah, yes. He’s a bit overcharged right now,” Seris giggled. “He’s the only one happy about the mana pulse.”

Stretching and groaning, they raised themselves upright, basking in the sunlight after a sweaty night. 

“Enta, come here!” Darya extended her hand.

“Eek!” he chirped in reply, swimming through the air with a little wiggle of his legs. He rolled up and settled on her palm. His eyes were full circles, mouth slightly open in a permanent smile. 

He looks super hyped. This must be a mana wisp version of a sugar rush. 

Enta couldn’t stay in her palm. He moved around, trying other places to anchor himself to. He tried her shoulder, nose, ear, and tried to balance himself on the slope of her chest.

“That’s not going to work!” Darya told him, poking his cheek. 

He settled on the side of her neck, hugging it like a koala in a tree. 

Darya stretched lazily, feeling her joints pop. Wrapping herself in a fresh robe that Seris handed her, she dragged her feet to the washroom for a quick bath. 

Later that morning, she demolished a plate of smoked brisket that Fominel had brought from the beach camp. The fever subsided around the time they were ready to set sail again. 

Darya walked out to the weather deck with Seris to meet everyone else.

She found Nerima and Lurim with master Lam. This time, the boy was wearing a rope harness with its other end safely tied to master Lam’s waist. 

“I can’t trust this brat to stay on the ship, what with all the whales around!” master Lam said, checking the knot.

“Well, now if he jumps, he’s taking you with him,” Darya said with a scoff, messing with Lurim’s hair. 

“Not to worry, I’ll fish them out. I have the longer rope!” Nerima said, adjusting her harness. 

Fominel yelled for the merfolk sailors to unfurl the sails. They began circling the Behemoth island, heading towards the center of the crescent. 

They passed the safe ring of Cartogar belugas, heading towards the black waves. Darya stayed with Nerima, ready to fight with sea monsters again.

Something caught her eye as she leaned lazily over the railing to watch the waves. Glowing streaks of light were moving with them. 

“Are they following us?” Darya asked Nerima, who was watching the same thing. 

“Oh, forgot to tell you!” Nerima smiled. “I don’t know what Lurim told them, but some of them are coming with us all the way.” 

“Huh?” 

“Master Lam says now we don’t have to fight so many sea monsters. They stay out of the way.” 

“Whoa, that’s great news!” Darya was sick of being a human missile. It really wasn’t going to work as a strategy to get to the center of the crescent. 

Nerima told Lurim with a bunch of signs. He smiled wide and hugged Darya’s leg. 

“I’ll go keep an eye on them,” Nerima said, leaning over the railing. 

“Is this necessary?” Darya asked curiously. 

“They’re good at keeping the sea monsters away if they perform their mana pulse together,” Sarka explained, joining the conversation. He seemed comfortable on Nerima’s finger now. 

“I’ll circle them to make sure,” Nerima said eagerly. “Magus Sarka can detect further than they can.”

“Jump if there’s any trouble. Master Fominel will be there with the princess.” Master Lam said, giving her a hand to flip herself over the railing.

Nerima nodded before falling headfirst into the water. She sank below the waves, heading towards the glowing white streaks. Darya actually felt safer with this arrangement. Before, Nerima’s life was on the line even with the porting spell. Now she had some whales around her for protection. 

Come to think of it, Seris is handling that. 

Seris was watching the other mages practice smaller warding shields. The previous hull damage had come from a split-second delay in casting the hull shield. Smaller warding spells activated faster, giving the others a chance to cast the hull shield if needed. 

This time, Seris had picked a fixed position to stand. She was close to the mages, and she was close to Nerima’s porting spot marked on the ground with chalk. She had Nerima’s rope looped loosely through her waist. 

The first sign of trouble came about an hour into the journey. The climate turned about twice as cold with no explanation. There was no rain or stronger winds. It was as if they had sailed into an open refrigerator. 

“Not a good sign,” Master Lam said forebodingly as he stared ahead. Lurim had his eyes on a glowing blob traveling parallel to the Desert Rose. It was his friend from the day before. 

Darya wasn’t sure what to do until Fominel took off in a splash of golden feathers. She followed his movements, looking for any trouble ahead. He was doing his circling pattern. 

They had smoothed out their attack pattern during dinner at the beach camp. Fominel now had a way to send a clear signal for her. 

He’s not doing that. Maybe he hasn’t seen anything yet. 

The spotters hadn’t called anything out either. 

Fominel began spiraling higher and higher. There were two explanations. He either wanted to see more around the ship, or he wanted to check out something in the sky. 

Still, there was no signal, and she had agreed not to surprise him out of nowhere. 

“Look!” Someone yelled as she was busy staring up at Fominel. Turning her head down, she looked around frantically. A merfolk sailor from the cannon crew was pointing at something to her left. 

Master Lam was already staring at it. Seris drew her wand as the other mages rushed to that side with their warding spells. Lurim tugged at her dress. 

The black waves looked weird on the horizon. Colossal things were breaking the surface behind it, causing the water to ripple. 

Fominel had been right to fly higher. It was too far out to see from the ship. 

Nerima leapt out of the water in a wide arc, flying parallel to them. She was waving her arms like a maniac. 

Darya expected to see an oversized fish or a tentacled monster again.

Something broke the water surface with a giant splash of water that almost looked like a mushroom cloud.

The ship swayed dangerously to one side with the shockwave, splashing seawater towards them like a pressure washer. 

In the middle of this chaos, a black sphere twice the size of the Desert Rose hovered silently above the rippling splash. 

Dreagans. We meet again. 

Darya grabbed her manacer. 

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