Wandering Agent
patreon
Melody of Mana- Chapter 154 After the Battle
🕑 Added 2022-06-27 20:06:15 +0000 UTCWhen I came to I felt like I'd been run over by a car. Everything hurt from my head to my toes, bruises and pain from using all of my strength in the previous fight. It took me a moment to realize that the hard heaving back and forth was the ship and not some symptom of my current state.
A quick check over confirmed that I'd been stripped of my soaking clothing and tossed here, probably by my roommates. Leah was leaning against the nearby wall, seemingly exhausted from her exertions.
"You're awake," she said as the boat pitched at a really concerning angle.
"Yeah, what's the current state of things?"
"In a word, bad. The storm isn't dying down, any thoughts?" As the resident user of weather magic I'd be in charge of that disaster.
"Maybe, let me get up." I tried to rise and promptly had to sit back down. "Woah, okay, maybe take things slowly."
It took several minutes to get dressed in something dry and clean up the worst of the bumps and bruises. I'd been slammed by several waves and thrown about, and there were rope burns on my hands and waist from the various bits keeping me onboard through the previous encounter. The stinging wasn't too bad, but it was distracting and I needed to be in good form for whatever what going on outside.
As I opened my door I found several sailors collapsed in the hallway outside. We were near the door out onto deck and it looked as if some of the injured men had been thrown in here to rest, unable to make it down into the hold and barely able to move from their exertions. Some nodded and tried to move out of the way a bit as I headed for the door, others barely acknowledged me.
There was no sound of rain, even as the waves pushed us to and fro violently. As I opened the door I saw why. Outside the sky above was a brilliant pink and gold, a pure circle of light. Around us on all sides clouds towered into the sky, bounding it above us in a circle perhaps a mile or so wide in walls of white and grey.
Glen must have seen me coming out and appeared at my side, offering me a hand. "Here, don't want you falling again now do we?" He tried to lighten the mood a bit but the smile he gave me was strained.
Our ship had been dismasted. I'd seen two of the three taken out by the Hurricane Whale, but it looked as if the third had followed while I was unconscious, at least parts of it were still there and several men were struggling to pull it back into place.
"You're up, good. I thought we killed the beast but the storm..." I heard the captain before I saw him, and turned.
Captain Tom looked terrible, he'd been soaked, battered, and hung out to dry. His eyes showed that he'd not slept a wink probably all night, and if I had to guess it wouldn't be long before he passed out. He as no young man, and these conditions were taking a heavy toll on him.
I sang a few notes and tried to push on the local weather. There was no resistance to the magic, not that I was trying to change much.
"I'm pretty sure we did captain, it's just that this storm is big enough to keep going naturally for awhile."
"Alright, care to explain this then." He just pointed up.
"We're in the eye, the center of the storm." It seemed odd that a well versed captain wouldn't know about those, but I didn't know the weather patterns globally on this world.
"Never heard of that... Good though, I've sent out some men in our rafts to get whatever wreckage or survivors they can." I could see one of them rowing in the distance as he told me, going after some bit of floating debris.
"Keep them close to the ship. Soon we'll be out of this and the storm around the eye is the harshest."
"Can you stop it?"
I shook my head. "With several dozen weather mages and a massive crowd for gestalt maybe we could lessen it. This storm is big captain, too big for me to do much to."
"Alright, I'll get the men working." He turned and started shouting orders, his harsh voice stirring the exhausted crew to their labors.
I placed a hand on his arm lightly. "Captain, after you've told everyone what they need to do, get some rest. We won't have long before you're needed again and you look dead on your feet."
He frowned a bit but nodded after a second. "Don't like being told what to do on my own ship, but you may be right here."
"I am, and like I said, we'll need you again soon to lead this mess." That got me a bit of a smile.
My piece said I retreated back below deck. I didn't want any risk of falling overboard again and there was work I could do anyway.
I wasn't an expert healer by any means, but I could do it and at this point we needed some help. I found Robert in the hold working on those who'd taken injuries. Overall the injured were few. A couple of broken bones and nasty rope burns or cuts, but nothing that couldn't be handled with ease. Sadly we'd lost seventeen of the crew in the fight, either thrown overboard by waves or crushed by rigging in the monster's final assault. Another four had been rescued from our sister ships though, having hung to debris or been thrown near enough for a rope in the fight.
The losses we took were staggering, our ship alone had survived of the three, and almost nobody from the other ships had managed to live, none of our casters even. Even with us here, we were still dead in the water without sails, unable to steer in any meaningful way.
As I healed what I could I moved through the ship, there I found our faithful cabin boy Elian, he'd clung to some netting in the hold and passed out. I smiled a bit at the resting child as I noticed something new.
Like all elves he always had some quantity of magic, and for the majority this was only a small bit. After that harrowing experience though he now had a proper aura. It wasn't large yet, and would still need development as he grew, but all around him small green ribbons snaked out, moving as he did like kelp in the ocean, small waves pushing it around.
"You saw too." Another elf, the bosun I was fairly sure, moved to my side.
"I've seen it before, lots of mana, lots of stress. He's developed into a proper magic user in time, probably a caster of some kind."
"Aye. This may be the lad's last journey with us. It'll depend on what he wants, and what we see when we get to home."
"Schooling?" I asked, unsure how the elves handled young casters.
"Perhaps, regardless though, being a caster now will give him options, options many of us here don't have."
"His previous ability was summoning water right?"
I got a nod. "Aye, a damn useful one on a ship."
"Probably a bard or wizard then. We've plenty of those on ship to give him a bit of training, and some extra help won't hurt."
"Kind of you to offer."
"Like I said, we'll need the help anyway."
He laughed a bit and we both got back to our duties.
I hadn't really been below the main deck before, rooms full of sweaty seamen didn't really appeal to me, and they needed their privacy too. Now I got to see it I could have done without. That said, the deck was still heaving and the wind and rain roaring once we left the eye. So that evening we passed through to go and have a conversation between us casters and the officers.
This meeting was to be held in the captain's quarters. It was the largest room we could easily clear and so we mages joined Tom and his first mate there.
"Alright, you lot know I hate to ask, but these are hard times," Captain Tom began.
"We know, and we're willing to help where we can of course." Olnir decided to speak for our group first, and he and the officers did the whole pleasantries thing while the rest of us watched.
"Our main concerns are water, food, and moving the ship. we managed to salvage some wood, and mister Olden tells me that he might be able to fashion a makeshift mast out of it. It won't be much, and it will take a bit of time to rig it up right, but it should give us some sails."
"Water is easy enough to handle, I think most of us can make that?" Olnir got a series of nods from all of us.
"Aye, we've got food for a few weeks to be sure, but without proper sails... I hate to have to tell you this but our rations are going to be tight, for all of us."
"What about fishing? We're in the ocean after all," Robert asked.
"Out here there's not many fish to be caught, most stay near the coast. We can put some lines out, but don't expect much from it."
"I can help some with that." I sang a few notes and a bit of bread and cheese appeared on the table before me.
"What!? I didn't know you could do that," Olnir said as he looked it over.
"There's much you don't know about me."
"How much can you make?" The captain was more practical in his questions at least and I gave him a smile.
"I can easily make a small loaf for everyone on board once a day. I'll want mana for other things, but if it gets too bad I'll consider making more. The cheese is not as efficient, but a little to go with the bread will improve morale markedly I think, so I'll make a small amount."
Captain Tom raised an eyebrow, having realized that I'd dodged his question and instead given him how much I would, not how much I could. It was clear I wouldn't be willing to feed his whole crew alone at the moment.
"Fair, we've got stores that should last for awhile anyway. Thank you for helping extend them."
"I'll summon a pint or two of oil a day, since we're helping." Leah demonstrated in a small nearby glass, looking a bit irritated.
"I can do a gallon of cream, but no more." Robert as well demonstrated, but the tone of his voice indicated he was irritated about it.
After working out a few more details about things like who would make what and how much the captain nodded, thanking us for our cooperation. Olnir on the other hand didn't seem to think that was the end.
"Deliver a list of what spells you know to me as as well." Olnir tried to say but he was fixed with glares.
It was expected that as students you would show your teachers your work, at least most of it. For this reason I'd had no issues before, but asking a grown mage for a list of their spells was taboo. You were effectively asking them for a list that could detail all of their vulnerabilities. Many would be willing to tell you in general what they could do, but the specifics would be vague. Even among friends, you had to be very close to get that sort of information. I for example didn't have an exhaustive list of what Dras could do, nor he me.
"No," Robert answered first.
"I need to know..." Olnir tried to start.
"Not going to happen." It was Dras this time.
"Yeah, nope."
"You know better than to even ask."
"Not happening."
We each refused, one by one. He sputtered a bit, but seemed to think better of it.
"Very well then, I suppose that's fine." His voice dripped venom at our refusal, even though he knew better.
A/N: In a very Writey mood this week, may pick back up on one of my older series, if you're not interested please feel free to ignore it. There will still be at least one more Melody chapter by Friday if all goes to plan.
