The Sea Witch

Lavender paced agitatedly in the small space of Leonora's cabin, the lady herself was absent... luckily or unluckily, depending on how En looked at it. Leonora would have definitely given her a clip around the ear for entering without knocking, but her absence also meant that there was no one around to give En council when she desperately needed it.

A sharp nip to her ear brought En out of her panic, it was the spirit bird that she had rescued from Blakestaff's cabin. "Sorry little one, I'm forgetting you, and you must be desperately hungry after flying all the way here." En remembered that she had kept the apple core from earlier, so she put the bird down on Leonora's dresser, and got the core out of her waist pouch, placing it in front of the spirit bird.

The hungry bird pounced on the core like it was starving, which maybe it was, it had flown quite a distance without rest over open sea, "Eat it all up now, especially the pips... as the seeds of future life they hold the majority of the apple's spiritual energy."

Soon there was nothing left of the apple but the stalk, and Lavender went over to the cabin window which was currently shut, after all Leonora had no need for an open window to create a breeze. "Time for you to return to your Master little one, we are much closer to shore now, so you'll be reunited soon."

The spirit bird glanced at the window, then bent down and picked up the apple stalk in it's beak. It was looking much better now, and was emitting a soft soothing glow which made En raise her eyebrows in surprise. "Your Master follows the Path of the Healing Breeze, huh... that's pretty rare. Guess my instincts were spot on, your Master has a rosy future ahead of them."

The bird flew over to the window, but instead of passing through, it stopped to perch on the window ledge, and looked at Lavender expectantly.

En guessed what the bird wanted, and held out her hand. The bird placed the apple stalk onto her palm, but now it was tied into an intricate knot.

"Thank you, I will keep this talisman safe on my person, until the day I meet your Master." The bird dipped it's head in what could only be referred to as a bow, and En made a shallow bow in return with her head and shoulders. "Until we meet again."

Lavender watched the bird until it became a speck in the distance, and the magic in the talisman seemed to pulse with each flap of it's wings. Once it was out of sight En sighed, and opened her hand to look at the talisman,

"Someone out there owes me a pretty big favour, and whoever they are, they are gonna grow up to have power and influence. I think I'll take this as an omen, don't sweat the little stuff, trust my instincts, and wing it!"

Lavender carefully loosened the ties of her girdle. It held many secrets, the most obvious being the array of razor sharp throwing blades on the outside; not much bigger than the silver coins En had used to practice throwing; and hidden alongside several poisoned senbon needles.

The glamour array stitched into the leather made them invisible to normal sight; but what even the original artificer who created the girdle didn't know, were the internal pockets in the girdle, those En had created herself.

En carefully teased open one of these small pockets, and placed the talisman inside, smoothing the opening once more with her nail, until it appeared to be only a scratch on the surface of the leather, then she retied her laces.

The girdle was something that was mass produced, and worn by many female battle mages, the hidden outer pockets originally meant for concealing spell reagents. It amused En to recall, when she had revisited the original artificer, he had tried to sell her another, not even recognising his own work after Lavender had got her hands on it.

However, she also had to take her hat off to him, since most people weren't s.e.n.s.i.t.i.v.e enough to even realise that En was a mage at all. Assuming that En was the pure fighter that she appeared to be, without staff or wand to show otherwise, since they were items that En didn't need, to do what she could do.

Not surprising really, En was a true shadow, and the shadow element was something rare and ephemeral, dealing mostly with clairvoyance and illusion. Most of those who dabble in the shadow element, walk the darker paths of Thieves or Assassins in the city states. However, Lavender had chosen the Way of the Ranger, a path more common in Elves of the Grasslands, and in the wilds of the Great Forests.

When Lavender looked up, she realised that she could see a wispy distant shadow on the far horizon, and sure enough a call went out. "Land ahoy... Where away... Dead ahead, Captain."

Lavender closed the window, and made her way out of the cabin, and onto the main deck. Not seeing Leonora, Lavender nodded to Javis and George as she went past, and climbed the ladder to the quarterdeck, there she found Tomo manning the wheel, with the Captain next to him, but still no Leonora.

En stopped briefly to speak to the Captain about their time of arrival, and found out they were ahead of schedule. That could only mean one thing... the discussion she had had earlier about taking on a apprentice, had left her dearest aunt feeling disturbed.

Meaning that the vortex of her magic was spinning faster, and the winds it produced gusted stronger... Leonora would have to be close by to dampen the field, and stop the magic released in the ritual, from going out of control, and running amok.

Not wanting to alarm the Captain and Tomo, Lavender climbed the ladder to the poop deck, no faster than she had climbed the ladder to the quarterdeck, but she was relieved when she saw her aunt stood at the stern rail looking fairly relaxed. Leonora did not turn to look at Lavender, since she was concentrating on the magical wind vortex created by the ritual, and her own magic, she just said, "Don't worry, I put a lid on it."

Lavender stared critically at the vortex off the stern, it was spinning a bit faster than usual, but the pattern was steady with no dangerous fluctuations, so she just carefully skirted the magic circle chalked on the deck. Leonora's hands were resting on the stern rail, but it was no white knuckled death grip, and the rest of Leonora's body language said that she had things under control.

Lavender reached up, grabbing one of the lines that arched overhead. En rested her foot on Leonora's storage c.h.e.s.t, and just enjoyed the wind fluttering through her long hair for a moment. "Sorry... I shouldn't have surprised you like that."

Leonora was quiet for a long moment, then she let out a long sigh. "It's okay, you're probably right the change will do me good... but next time don't throw something like that at me out of nowhere. The more I thought about it, the more my thoughts were scattered all over the place, like leaves in an autumn wind. Before I knew it, my mental state had whipped the vortex into a frenzy, and I had to come and calm it."

"Next time I'll remember not to drop something like that on you when you are using active magic." Leonora turned and glared at Lavender, "So that means that you are quite willing to drop surprises on me at any other time when I'm not using active magic... and will you please take your foot off my storage c.h.e.s.t, you're making the ward throw off sparks, doesn't that hurt!"

En took her foot off the c.h.e.s.t, but instead she bent down, stroking her hand across the lid of the c.h.e.s.t, making sparks flicker across her hand. "It does hurt a bit, but I have a fairly high tolerance to pain, and it feels like Mom."

Leonora shook her head, and turned back to her vigil over the vortex. "I can understand the need to feel your Mother's magic, since Lavinia is gone from this world. Before the war, she had already made her name as a Master of Wards, but to actively seek out pain like that... I should just key you into the ward, and then you won't be able to do that again."

Lavender stood up sharply, "Please don't do that Auntie, after all this ward won't kill me." Leonora didn't say anything more, and Lavender took that silence as acceptance, since Leonora couldn't key her into the ward without her permission.

En returned to the position she had been in before, one foot on the c.h.e.s.t, one hand on the line, the wind and static electricity making her hair seem like it was alive. They both stood there in silence, lost in their own thoughts and memories, until another call went out, "Harbour pilot spotted... Signal the rendezvous."

"En, please could you break the circle before you leave." Lavender nodded, and picked up the bucket of seawater that had been left there for that purpose. Carefully En poured the water onto the deck, washing away the ashes of the ritual ingredients at the compass points, and blurring the chalked lines and sigils.

"I'll get George up here to scrub the deck properly in a minute." However, the ship had already slowed significantly, the strong magical wind no longer filling the sails. It now moved only through it's own inertia, as the harbour pilots would guide the ship into Port, and to the dock assigned to Blakestaff by the Harbour Master.

The decks and rigging were swarming with crew, as all hands prepared to dock and unload, and Lavender was just as busy with final preparations. Though thankfully Blakestaff wasn't the type to emerge from his cabin until it was time for him to disembark, so En didn't have to go out of her way to avoid him.

The Sea Witch docked with the slightest of bumps, all lines were secured, and the gangplank was lowered. The hatch to the cargo hold was opened, and several burly men manned the capstan winch, hauling the heavy crates up from the heart of the ship.

With the chaos of the unloading of the cargo, En had managed to avoid Blakestaff when he had disembarked, but he had stayed at the dockside to supervise the unloading. This was something that was completely out of character for Blakestaff. Which could only mean that he fully intended cornering Lavender again before he left, probably about meeting his youngest son for dinner that evening.

This was even more confusing, why on earth did Blakestaff suddenly have such an interest in matchmaking. There was quite a big difference in social status, between the Jade Clan of the Freedom Isles, and the Blakestaff Clan of Vanza Port City, and if nothing else Blakestaff was a stickler about matters of rank and caste. This was the reason he never left his cabin during a voyage, or oversaw the unloading of his cargo, these were matters that he usually considered beneath him.

Lavender had tried to disembark without catching Blakestaff's attention, but he immediately made his way over to meet her, which reinforced her theory that he was targeting En for some unknown reason.

Since the sun was high overhead, and the shadows were nearly non-existent, En couldn't use her stealth skills to perform her usual vanishing trick. Lavender was stuck trying to refuse Blakestaff's invitation, without permanently insulting the infuriating old geezer, and losing them a excellent repeat customer.

Blakestaff obviously didn't believe Lavender's claim earlier that she had a lover. So when En saw her old flame Lawrence arrive from the Jade Crusader's barracks; as the Lieutenant-in-Charge of the armed escort taking the offloaded cargo to the client's warehouse. En grabbed the opportunity as a gift from the powers that be, and ran over to hug him, kissing his cheek, she whispered "Play along" in his ear.

Lawrence bless him, threw his arm across Lavender's shoulders as she introduced him to Blakestaff. En could literally see Blakestaff's attitude freeze back over to his usual standoffish self. As a result, Blakestaff suddenly remembered urgent business, and left in a huff, the rest of his entourage, that had come to meet him at the docks, trailing uncertainly behind in his wake.

Lavender and Lawrence watched Blakestaff leave, and Lawrence slowly removed his arm from around En's shoulder, "Not that I don't enjoy such a enthusiastic welcome from an attractive women, but I'm pretty sure that you and I have only been friends since we split up six years ago. So, what on earth is this about me being your fiancé, En?!"

A smooth voice interrupted them from behind, "I'd also be interested in the answer to that question... and the reason that Master Blakestaff of the Beaulea Merchant Guild, just gave me a dirty look as he got into his carriage." Lavender and Lawrence started guiltily, and turned around slowly to see En's cousin Artimus, and the current Master of Contracts for the Jade Crusaders Guild.

Most of their Empire clients assume that Lavender will eventually be chosen as the next generation head of the Jade Clan, and it's associated guild, since she is the only child of the current Clan Head and Guild Master, and that's how things work in the Empire.

However, they would be very wrong... Artimus' skill with contract magic was much more suitable for a Guild Master, and his crafty personality was likely to manipulate the clan, and it's guild into a position of greater prosperity.

En was quite happy as Protector of the Sea Witch, and would much prefer sailing the southern oceans, than being stuck in a stuffy office somewhere. Especially if she had to suck up to prats worse than Blakestaff to get contracts.

Artimus pointed at Lawrence, "You have work to do escorting Blakestaff's cargo to it's warehouse, and you," Artimus pointed at Lavender, "you need to come with me to the Guild Office, we need to discuss your next job, and your mother's family have been in touch again." En grimaced, "Fine, we'll talk... but we can bloody well do it after I take a bath."

Artimus laughed, "I'll even help you wash your hair, dearest cousin." Lavender grabbed his hand, "Done." Shaking it to seal the deal, before Artimus could change his mind, and retract the offer. En's long thick hair was a pain to wash and dry, and her cousin's element was air like Leonora's. But unlike Leonora, he was unlikely to nag her to be more lady-like, and putting her hair up into some annoyingly fancy style that was currently 'all the rage'.

"Lawrence, finish your escort duty, then bring Tomo to the Drunken Mermaid Tavern. Artie is gonna treat us to dinner, and we can all catch up like old times." Artimus scowled, and pulled his hand away from Lavender's grip.

"Hey, I've got no problem with having a meal together, but why am I the one paying?!" Lavender gave her cousin a steady stare, "Let's see... you're the big shot Master of Contracts for the whole Jade Crusaders Guild, and we're just small potatoes... You're the one bringing in the gold, so we can only bow to your greatness, and leave the tab to you."

Artimus could only laugh at his cousin's logic, and agree to being the sponsor of that evening libations. Since there was no meal among them, that wouldn't also involve a decent amount of alcohol.

So they parted, Lavender and Artimus leaving for the personal residence at the Guild Office, and Lawrence and Tomo to the Warehouse District.