Published at 8th of March 2024 7:44 am

Chapter Twenty Six

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“This is actually kind of funny,” I muttered to Alice and Ida, whom both nodded in agreement.

We were near the bow of the ship (I used a nautical word correctly!), several decks below the bridge, watching the island approach from a porthole. Ida still had her walkie-talkie and since they were frequency locked, or—and I think this is probably more likely—the fellas in charge just didn’t think to change frequencies. Because of this we got to listen to their back-and-forth chatter as they tried to figure out how to bring in this big ass ship into the tiny bay.

I could tell Terrance, or Stabs, or Forgettable—whoever is in charge—had told their crew to “figure it out” as there was almost no direction and every idea was being given equal merit on the airwaves. Alice mentioned being able to see a hive of activity in the bay, but I couldn’t make it out—my long distance vision being traded for the ability to see in the dark.

I turned away from the window—I mean porthole—and tore open a bag of jerky I had scrounged up on the way here. Since Alice healed me I’ve been putting away carbs and protein like a bear getting ready for winter.

“That’s the last one,” Alice said, shaking the clearly empty backpack the snacks used to be in by way of demonstration. “I’d say I can’t believe how much you’ve eaten, but considering what you went through and how dense you are…”

Ida frowned at Alice, a silent question on her lips.

“I’ve made modifications to my body,” I supplied for her. “I’m heavier and stronger than I look.”

“How strong?” Ida asked.

I winced and began to think of a way to evade the question, but Alice butted in. “I’m probably the wrong person to point this out, but we need to know each of our capabilities to properly plan for… that.” She gestured toward the island.

I sucked air through my teeth and considered her words. Well, there wasn’t much to consider. She was right.

“I’ll show you mine if you show me yours?” I suggested to Alice.

She rolled her eyes. “Yes, of course.”

I turned back to Ida, who had produced a magazine for her AK and was idly loading it without looking. Showoff. “I don’t have a lot of hard numbers,” I began. “But I can bench a little over eight hundred pounds. I can probably do more but I didn’t have any more weights to throw on the bar at my house. Let’s see, my bones are stronger and denser, I should be able to recover from illness easier but the last two weeks have made me doubt that. While I don’t seem to handle gastro-intestinal distress very well, I do heal from physical trauma better—“

“I dunno about that,” Alice cut in. “From what I saw, you might heal slightly faster, but whatever you did made it so you can take more damage rather than heal from it. Your cells are weirdly hexagonal.”

“Okay, good to know—in an alarming way. I hadn’t realized I had changed my cell shape,” I said. It took a moment to pick up my train of thought. “Uhhhh, what else…? Oh! I have improved hearing and I can see in near total darkness and underwater as if I were wearing goggles. ”

Ida was incredulous. “I do not want to call you a liar,” she began. “But I wrestled with you for twelve hours when you were with fever. You are not that strong.”

“S’fine,” I said. “I kinda have to work up to being that strong? It’s hard to explain. Or at least, I’ve never had to explain it before.

“So, imagine you’ve spent the last decade in hiding from a monster that killed all your friends,” I began. “You don’t know much about it but one of the only things that makes you feel safe enough to sleep for more than a handful of minutes at a time is to remain in hiding from anything that could leak your presence to the thing. So I kinda built in… behaviors? For lack of a better word, to allow myself to blend in with the every day folks. Right after I started strengthening my body I accidentally crushed a salt shaker at a diner and it gave me a panic attack. I might have overcompensated, now that I think about it.

“Because the changes to my body weren’t done naturally, but from a mental doodad I got from selling some cunts soul—sorry,” I said when I saw Alice frown at my language. “I was able to build in certain parameters. Which, obviously, I should take out before we storm Pirate Island.”

“Why didn’t you before?” Ida asked.

“I haven’t really thought about them, to be honest,” I said. “This is only the second time in my life I’ve been in a combat situation, and the first time I’ve done it with my abilities. I’m learning as I go. In your words, ‘I’m kind of a fuck up.’”

Ida smiled but didn’t take the opportunity to add to her opinion of me. She’s a better person than I.

“Lastly, I can kinda see the future? Don’t get too excited,” I said when the ladies’ faces lit up. “It’s only three seconds and not super reliable. In fact, if I don’t forcefully ignore it most of the time it literally drives me crazy.” I shot Alice a look. “It’s what made me go to bed early the first night we met.”

“The alcohol?” Alice guessed.

I shot a finger gun at her. “It was the first time I’ve been drinking since college and I guess impairing my mental faculties made it difficult to maintain the…” I paused as I searched for the word. “Mental buffer? I’d set up to parse the info it gives.”

“Then what good is it?” Ida asked.

“Definitely not as good as I was hoping,” I deadpanned. “But with it running in the background it gives me better reflexes as I basically get a three second warning on everything. Again, it isn’t infallible, so some things slip by.”

“Aaand… I think that’s it.” I gestured to Alice. “Your turn.”

She shrugged. “I don’t have any special augments outside of being a practitioner,” she began. “But I can bench press three fifty.”

Ida frowned.

“Most practitioners—people who can use magic, real magic,” Alice began to explain. “Are usually enhanced in some way. In order to touch the energies that dictate the flow of magic, you have to be more than the average human. Otherwise, everyone could be able to do it. The majority of practitioners are generally physically greater, but in a way that belies physics. I’m one of these.

“Then there are others who come to their magic through interactions with other planes of existence. People who have otherworldly knowledge or who, through the simple act of reaching out, are able to perceive the strange energies that control magic,” Alice turned to me. “You probably cast your first spell after witnessing your first summon, right?”

I nodded. A lot of what she was going over I kind of knew, but she was filling in a lot of holes in my education.

“The third kind of practitioner, one that is regrettably more prevalent than anyone really wants, are those that come into their power via sacrifice,” Alice continued when I didn’t volunteer anything more.

“Warlocks,” Ida guessed.

Alice nodded. “That’s generally the term that is used for them.”

I frowned. “Hold up,” I said around a mouthful of jerky. “You said ‘most’ practitioners. That implies you know of a good deal.”

Alice looked confused for a moment before she shook her head. “I keep forgetting you’re a self taught hermit,” she said. “Yes, I learned magic from my nana, who is a part of the Corvus Concord.”

“Corvus… Raven?” I asked. “Raven Agreement?”

“More of a treaty,” Alice supplied. “The Raven King stepped in a few centuries ago because he didn’t like how much personal power practitioners could accumulate, set down some laws and basically started a secret society with the charge of making sure magical Hitler’s didn’t pop up. I’m not a member myself but I’ve got the equivalent of a green card.”

A thousand more questions flooded my brain and I shoved them all into a desk drawer to be looked at later. Well, I grabbed one, because it seemed really important.

“Okay, green card implies some sort of government,” I said. “Does this government have a law enforcement arm we can call for help?”

“Yes and no,” Alice said. “They don’t have a presence in the south pacific, and I tried calling them as soon as the pirates—“

Ida shot me a glare. “Now you have her saying it.”

Alice and I both leveled a look at Ida. “They are pirates,” I said.

“They literally boarded a boat illegally,” Alice confirmed. “At sea, in international waters.”

Ida rolled her eyes.

“Anyway,” Alice said, turning back to me. “I don’t know if my call went through, and the item I had was a one-use.”

I groaned and rubbed my eyes with the heels of my hands, careful to keep my claws away from my skin. “Man, I was hoping we could just delay and wait for the cavalry.”

“No such luck,” Alice said.

“Remind me to ask what the fuck the Raven King is,” I said as I lowered my hands and reached for more jerky. “Sorry for interrupting. Continue, please.”

Alice made a gesture that seemed to convey “it’s fine” and paused for a moment, getting her train of thought back on the rails. “Okay so, right. While I’m not as physically powerful as Colm, I’m basically the equivalent of two strong athletes in one body. I’m stronger, faster and tougher than I should be. I have greater coordination—God this sounds like I’m bragging.”

“It ain’t bragging if you can back it up,” I commented.

Ida made an impatient gesture, akin to “get on with it.” Alice took a deep breath and continued. “So yeah, when it comes to the physical aspects of the body I’m generally improved. In a fight I can handle myself against one or two regular people, but I’m not trained or anything. I’ve taken a few self defense classes but they mostly focused on destroying testicles and running away.”

“A valid, workable strategy,” I said with a nod. Shit, I was out of jerky. I tossed the bag aside.

Alice smiled in amusement at Ida’s companionable nod. “My magic focuses mainly on mental effects, hiding and obfuscating. But—“

“What is that word?” Ida asked.

“Obfuscating? It means to make something unclear or to confused someone,” Alice clarified. “But I have a few direct combat spells, mostly centered on electricity.”

“Dope,” I said, meaning it. I’ve been hunting a lightning spell since I could do magic.

Ida turned to me. “You didn’t mention what magic you can do,” she said. “I know you can make fire, but little else.”

“My specialty—or at least the thing I’m most comfortable with—is wards,” I said. “Various mental effects, shields and summoning circles. Summoning spells aren’t really wards—“ I paused when I saw I was losing Ida. “Wards are semi-permanent spells that are anchored to a location. I prefer to write or draw them, but there are other methods. Unfortunately, unless you can dictate the location of a fight, they aren’t super helpful. Aside from that I have a few off-the-cuff spells I can use without prep, which are a few force and fire spells.”

“I would not say they are unhelpful,” Ida said. “Being able to set up fallback positions or traps is a much needed tactic when fighting a significantly larger force.” She glanced out the porthole. “We will need everything we can get.”

“Which brings up a question I’ve been thinking of;” Alice said. “How do we get over there?”

“I can swim it,” I said. “Looks like they’re going to… anchor? Moor? I really need to brush up my nautical vocab. Anyway, it looks like they’re going to park the ship about a half mile from shore, judging from the radio chatter.” I finished quickly.

“I am not that strong a swimmer,” Ida said. “Especially if I want to bring my weapons.”

“I like Colm’s idea, actually,” Alice said. “We can grab a bag big enough for your gear,” she said to Ida. “I know a spell that can water proof it for an hour or two. Between Colm and I, we could get you across and we run less of a risk of being seen in a boat or stowing away on one of their craft.”

Judging by her expression, Ida didn’t like the idea. “It has merit,” she admitted. “I…” She paused, thinking. “If we can get on the island undetected, I might be able to get us help. There are other women there who do not enjoy the attentions of the warlocks.”

Slaves, I guess.

“Only people you trust,” Alice said. “We’ll help all we can, but we can’t allow people who might give us away or betray us for a possible reward.”

I nodded in agreement. “Of course,” Ida said. “So we swim.”

“I’ll probably do most of the swimming,” I said. “I have an idea that’ll get us across in a jiffy.”

“Assuming it works.” I amended.

“Assuming it works,” Alice deadpanned.

Ida sighed and began loading another magazine.

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