Part I - Ashen Island

  Chapter I (1)

  The barrier materialized in an eye blink, carving the ship’s stern clean away. Mitsuko flicked her wrist, triggering her ring’s enchantment and creating a familiar blade of ice in her hand. Flipping her grip, she thrust the sword into the deck to keep her footing while other passengers tumbled around her.

  Gripping her sword tight, Mitsuko took stock of the situation. The barrier was like nothing Mitsuko has seen or heard of before. It rose from the sea in a seamless wall of opalescent light, as if the air itself had been polished to a mirror-like sheen. It thrummed with magical power, a low, constant vibration that set her teeth on edge.

  She knew a spatial mage who could raise platforms and shields, but nothing of this magnitude. This was something else entirely. The wall stretched impossibly high before curving inwards. It extended to either side without end and when she looked over her shoulder to see it touch the opposite horizon, the truth became clear: it wasn’t a wall, but a dome massive enough to swallow the archipelago whole.

  Strangely, the stern of the ship on the other side of the barrier remained frozen in place, somehow glued to the barrier’s surface. Likewise, while the water on her side lapped up against the barrier, it was utterly still beyond the barrier.

  She lacked the time to dedicate any more thought to the phenomenon. Only a meter of the stern had been shorn away, but the loss was catastrophic. With the rudder gone and the hull breached, the ship was sinking.

  After over a month aboard Selcouth Sable, her journey was coming to an abrupt end. There was probably no time to recover her maps and notes from her small cabin below decks, let alone gather food or supplies.

  Confirming her fears, the ship listed precariously as it took on water.

  “Passengers into the lifeboats, now!” the captain barked.

  Mitsuko didn’t hesitate abandoning her ice sword. The smooth, slightly curved pale blue blade remained firmly embedded in the deck. She vaulted the gunwale in one clean motion and dropped into a hanging lifeboat. Once aboard, she looked back at Selcouth Sable, examining the damage.

  The ship’s crew had a water elementalist who stood near the stern, her hands extended and their face twisted in a rictus of effort, as they struggled to hold the seawater back from the lower decks which were now open to the ocean. Mitsuko dearly longed to join the woman. To wield the elements in an effort mitigate the damage and fight back against the sea itself. Sadly, she knew that wasn’t her role in life.

  “Take my hand,” Mitsuko said as another passenger stumbled over to her. She helped pull him to safety. He collapsed on the bottom of the rowboat between the seats and vomited. Mitsuko recognized the chunky porridge served at breakfast as it splattered at her feet.

  “And I thought it looked gross before,” she muttered.

  “My son,” he gasped. Puke dangling from his chin, he desperately looked back over his shoulder. “He was right behind me!”

  Mitsuko cursed. She vaguely knew who he was talking about. She’d occasionally seen the boy, maybe nine or ten years old, throughout their journey, though she’d never bothered speaking to him or his father. She’d still recognize him on sight.

  “Wait here,” she said, leaping back onto the sinking ship. There was no time for this, but no doubt she’d be more successful searching for the boy than the pathetic father moaning at the bottom of the lifeboat. What kind of father ran to save his life before his child’s? Deplorable.

  Sailors shouted at her as she dashed across the deck and ducked into the trapdoor that led to the hull. She dropped, ignoring the ladder.

  “Wrong way, Mitsuko!” Holly said cheerily. Her gnome friend clung to the ladder, looking down at her with large blue eyes, accented by her purple hair that tumbled to her shoulders. “We’re supposed to go up! Up is the other direction!”

  “I’ll catch up in a minute.”

  “Our papers aren’t worth your life!”

  Honestly debatable. But Mitsuko didn’t bother to explain she wasn’t going for them anyway. She waved Holly away and darted through the narrow passages of the ship. First, she went to the passenger quarters. No one. Then the kitchen. No one. Then the cargo hold. The ship’s cat leapt onto her shoulder, bristling. But no humans to be found. The hold was already knee deep in seawater.

  The cat’s claws dug into Mitsuko’s shoulder. Scowling, she gripped the cat by its black scruff and peeled it off her clothes. It yowled and batted at the air, but she held it an arm’s reach away. Mitsuko wasn’t particularly fond of cats, but she still wasn’t about to let the thing drown. Even if it was being an absolute pill.

  “Stop struggling,” she demanded. The cat didn’t listen. Its claws raked against her forearm. She ignored the pain and continued her search.

  She found the boy huddled in a wooden crate in the crew’s supply room. He’d dumped out all the navigation tools. She almost tripped over a spyglass.

  “What are you doing?” she demanded.

  “It’ll float!” the boy declared, gesturing to the crate. “It’s a mini boat! I’m safe here! There’s not enough room for you. Sorry. I can take the cat though.”

  “There’s a roof over your head!”

  He looked up and stared.

  “Oh.”

  Mitsuko restrained herself from asking if he suffered from brain damage, instead dragging him out of the crate and wading through the water back over to the ladder. One hand held the yowling cat, the other the boy’s shirt collar. She threw the cat up through the trap door and then boosted the boy up before climbing after them. She kicked off her boots, now filled with seawater. Her soaked pants clung to her skin, but that extra weight was manageable for now.

  Only the captain and the crew’s elementalist remained on the topdeck. Neither looked pleased about still being onboard. The elementalist leaned against the captain, her normally tanned skin now pale as she gasped for air. The captain scowled as Mitsuko scrambled up the ladder with the boy and cat in tow.

  “Why are you still here? You daft?”

  Mitsuko’s eyes narrowed as she bit back a retort. No time for an argument.

  “Is there another lifeboat?” she asked instead.

  “No! The last one took off a minute ago. You can dive in and swim after it.”

  That would be a great option. If Mitsuko knew more than a dog paddle.

  She bit her lip and quickly scanned the deck for anything that could float. Even the kid’s crate idea suddenly sounded appealing.

  The captain glared at her. Then he slammed his foot into the side of the gunwale. He enhanced the kick with a spell and a chunk of wooden debris sprayed into the sea. It took four more strikes before he dislodged a piece large enough to support her weight.

  “Get on that,” the captain said. “Then kick your way over to the others.”

  The ship’s deck was now less than a meter from to the ocean’s surface. She flicked her wrist, summoning another ice blade. Then Mitsuko took a deep breath and flung herself over onto the wooden debris, plunging the sword into the center of it. Not the best plan. The impact capsized the makeshift raft and it took some floundering before she managed to wrap her arms over it. She spat, the taste of salt overwhelming her mouth.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  A second later the boy splashed into the water beside her and joined her clinging to the wood.

  “Take the cat,” the captain said, tossing the black feline at them.

  After the cat clambered up the wood shaking as its claws dug into their makeshift raft.

  Off the bow of the ship, the captain dove into the sea and swam to the collection of lifeboats in the distance, towing his elementalist alongside him in a sidestroke.

  A silence descended as the ship disappeared from sight. Bubbles popped as the remaining air escaped the vessel.

  Mitsuko kicked her feet, slowly propelling them forward. Wet hair bristling, the cat glared at her as if this was all her fault. Meanwhile the boy just clung to the wooden debris, eyes wide with fear..

  “For a worried father, he sure did paddle away fast,” she grumbled.

  The boy gulped. He looked into the sea where the ship had disappeared beneath the waves. Then his eyes wandered to the side.

  “What’s that?”

  Mitsuko repositioned herself to look down, expecting to see more wreckage floating back up. Instead, on the other side of the dome’s barrier, she spotted a massive orange tentacle suspended in the water at least ten meters down. The tentacle was thrice as wide as most tree trunks and with suckers larger than her head. The water at the edge of the appendage was clouded with red blood. Like the ship’s stern, the severed tentacle was affixed to the barrier.

  “Don’t worry about it. It’s on the other side of the barrier,” Mitsuko said. Then what she said finally processed. If the monstrous tentacle was on that side of the barrier, then that meant the creature it belonged to was… “Actually, worry about it a lot! Help me kick!”

  It was too late. The water roiled around them, bubbles obscuring what lay below. An intact tentacle smashed through the surface and slapped into the captain’s bare chest as he swam for safety, one of its suckers latching onto his torso with a sickening squelch, and lifted him high above the water. The captain magically enhanced his strength, muscles rippling with effort, and pried himself free, but the sucker remained adhered to his bare skin. The enhanced strength spell removed his body from the monster’s grasp, but not his skin.

  The screams on the lifeboats in the distance rose into a cacophony as the captain splashed back into the sea.

  The tentacle’s sucker remained above the water, a circle of the captain’s skin the width of a barrel still attached. The man howled as the salt water found exposed flesh. He thrashed for a moment, then was yanked beneath the waves by an unseen force. A second later, a tentacle wrapped itself around the weakened elementalist. The water rippled around her and lashed out at the monster with knife-like slices as she attempted to fight it off with spells, but her gaunt face and shaking body showed the woman had very little magic left in her. A moment later, she joined her captain under the sea.

  Another four tentacles erupted from the water, waving above the surface in search of new prey, and smashing against the lifeboats. One of the boats capsized and a dozen more people fell in the water. They swam for the nearby lifeboats. One almost made it before he was dragged below like the rest. Thankfully, Mitsuko spotted no gnomes among the victims.

  Mitsuko summoned another blade of ice and watched the water below. The weight and cold grip granted her a degree of familiar security. So far none of the tentacles had appeared within a stone’s throw of their raft. But she didn’t count on that luck to hold up. Her grip tightened on her sword and her hard, dark eyes scanned the water for any sign of a threat. She might be able to deter the sea monster if she acted swiftly enough with her blade. But she also didn’t stop kicking, desperately trying to get them over to the nearest boat. The boy beside her wept and moaned. Even with his dead weight, Mitsuko propelled the makeshift raft forward with a steady resilience in the direction of the nearest lifeboat.

  “We’re going to be eaten by the kraken,” he whimpered.

  “I don’t think it’s a kraken,” Mitsuko said, voice calm and steady despite her racing heart. “They’ve been hunted to near extinction. And elite sea monster hunters are known to live on the archipelago. No way they’d allow a kraken in their waters. This must be a different monster variety.”

  That didn’t reassure him. He continued to blubber and cry.

  Not only were those hunters some of the best in the world, they also famously held a deep grudge for krakens specifically. No, there was no chance they’d allow one of the behemoth monsters to live so close to their home. That meant it must be something else.

  The true mystery was why those hunters of the sea allowed whatever monster this was to exist. Unless… Mitsuko looked back over at the barrier. It remained in place. Perhaps it had been an attempt to kill the monster, only for Selcouth Sable to get caught as collateral. But, if so, it was an excessive spell. The barrier stretched as far as the eye could see. If she wasn’t in fear for her life, she might be awestruck by it still existing after a few minutes. It showed no sign of dissipating or fading. It remained a fixture, as if dropped there permanently.

  Minutes stretched on but no more tentacles appeared . The water calmed, the barrier shielding it from the winds and tides of the wider world. Despite the water’s clarity, there were no signs of the monster or its victims.

  After a few peaceful minutes, the lifeboat she’d been kicking them toward reluctantly started back towards them.

  “I can’t believe you two survived,” a haggard sailor said. She pulled them aboard a rowboat and then looked beyond them at the now placid sea. “The captain….” The sailor grimaced. “Well, it’s a miracle you made it.”

  The cat clawed the first person who reached for it, but soon the agitated animal realized it was drier on the lifeboat and flung itself aboard. Immediately after hauling them aboard, those holding the oars rowed away from the shipwreck as quickly as possible.

  “Do you know what that monster was?” Mitsuko asked. “Or why that barrier appeared?”

  The sailor shook her head. Her chestnut hair, tied in braids darkened by seawater, flopped to either side with the motion.

  “You’re part of the Hon Emperor’s retinue, right?” the sailor said. “Could this be an assassination attempt on you and your companion?”

  Mitsuko scoffed. “Not a chance. I’m not important enough to warrant this sort of magic. Let alone a sea monster assassin. We’re just sent to help map out areas. Holly is a cartographer, and my job is just to keep her alive and help record anything interesting.”

  “Oh.” The sailor went silent, still staring at the stretch of sea where her captain and elementalist had submerged. It was likely the first time the woman had seen someone die. Mitsuko held the tiniest bit of envy for that.

  “You protect the gnome?” another passenger asked. Mitsuko vaguely recognized his round face and placed him as one of the other passengers. “How? What powers do you have? I’ll hire you.”

  “I’m a bladedancer.”

  “Is that some sort of mage?”

  “Hardly. I use a sword. I have a tiny bit of affinity for divination, that’s it. And the only spell I know directs me northward. I’m certain I’m magically inferior to everyone else on board.” Five years after learning about her deficiency, and the sting had finally faded enough for her to say that plainly.

  “But what about that ice sword? It looks magic to me.”

  Mitsuko flexed her hand, the familiar white metal ring pressing against her skin. Her most prized possession. Since receiving the artifact she had never willingly removed it. It was a part of her as much as her fingers. Her reliable companion in a world of danger.

  “A gift from a friend. Not my own magic.”

  “So…if the monster returns?”

  “I’ll do my best to stab it. But I think getting to our next destination might be a better idea. Which island are we heading toward?”

  The sailor responded, the question breaking her trance. “Mauve Island. We’re lucky.” She pointed at another lifeboat, which was drifting further and further away. “They’re riding the wrong current. The Prismatic Archipelago is famous for its ocean rivers that carry ships. They can’t fight those currents in a small boat. Once we arrive in the city we should contact the Sailor’s Guild to send out a rescue team.”

  Mitsuko sighed. She quickly took a headcount of the boats nearby, looking for Holly’s familiar purple hair. No sign of it. It was possible she was just blocked from view, but Mitsuko wasn’t holding her breath. She’d have to join the rescue expedition and retrieve her friend from wherever the current carried that other lifeboat.

  “My papa,” the boy blubbered, coherent for the first time since they’d hauled him aboard the lifeboat.

  Another passenger comforted the boy, whispering empty reassurances. Like Holly, his father must have been aboard the lifeboat taken by the current.

  Mitsuko leaned back and rested her head on the gunwales. The adrenaline was fading from her system, leaving her hollow.

  So many people had died. Sailors and passengers that she’d traveled alongside for weeks. It was sad, but distant. Despite being on Selcouth Sable for over a month, Mitsuko had spent most of the trip reading and training in their small cabin. The crew and passengers had been little more than faces and names she struggled to remember..

  Holly on the other hand…well, the gnome was incredibly sociable. She probably knew every person who’d been aboard down to their favorite foods and first kisses. Her friend must be devastated by today’s events.

  None of the deaths had been Mitsuko’s fault. She knew that. But even still, she couldn’t help wondering what she might have done to save more lives.

  Bad idea to linger on those thoughts. There was no turning back time. They were dead. Better to look to the future.