[EOE] (314) 5.10. Fishing for Slayers

Vin spent the rest of the afternoon answering questions from Paul and Eleanor, before the two of them decided they needed to take some time to digest everything. They weren’t all that happy to hear that they’d need to spend another night on the water with the warana, but seeing as they were reliant on Vin and his team to make it back to Terra, there wasn’t much they could do about it. Vin left the two of them to their own devices as he found his friends on one of the many pads. Shia was currently devouring a fish like the living-blender her teeth were, while Scule and Lumel watched on with horror.

“Are you… eating the bones?” Lumel asked, looking positively sick to her stomach.

“Yeah, they’re pretty small,” Shia said, crunching down on the bones before swallowing. “I thought pulmon diets were filled with fish as well?”

“Yes, but we debone them first!” she said, looking appalled.

“Well, not all of us grew up in a giant palace,” Shia smirked, before tossing another full fish into her mouth and crunching away.

“That's… that’s not a fancy rich person thing,” Scule muttered, unable to tear his eyes off the gory display of Shia eating.

“The missing Earthers aren’t happy about it, but I told them how they were going to have to wait until tomorrow,” Vin explained, taking a seat beside his friends and eyeing up the small pile of fish in between them all. “What’s with the fish?”

“The warana were kind enough to give us dinner,” Scule said, staring at the fish that were larger than he was. “Like we thought, they don’t exactly ‘cook’ in this fragment. Definitely another primitive people.”

“There’s nothing wrong with eating raw fish, but tossing it on the floor first is… a tad unsanitary,” Lumel said, looking like she was going out of her way to try not to be rude. “My people have a number of raw fish dishes. But I’ll admit I don’t know how to prepare them.”

“Earth does as well, it’s called ‘sushi.’ Though same here, never made it myself before,” Vin admitted, picking up one of the fish and wrinkling his nose at the smell. “I mean, we could try cooking it, I guess? I’ve got both Create Flame and my fire-knife. Surely it can’t be that hard to cook a fish.”

“The citadel didn’t really do ‘fish,’” Scule admitted, not looking all that excited by the idea. “I vote the next person we add to the party knows how to actually cook.”

“Regardless of the cooking problem, we spoke to the Fishers,” Shia said, swallowing her latest mouthful and fixing Vin with a serious look. “Tud introduced us to some friends of theirs and their pads, and we got a group willing to help us snag Alka once you locate her.”

“That’s great news! So why do you look like there’s a ‘but’ coming?”

“Because there is,” she said, glancing around to ensure none of the warana were too close before changing to her native language. “Tud told them what you said about Alka, and in exchange for their help, they’re demanding we share the secret to her being undying. I tried to explain that it wasn’t something that could be replicated, but they seem to think we’re lying. I managed to convince them we need to rescue Alka first in order to teach them her skill, but I have a feeling they’re not going to be all that happy if we ‘refuse’ to share with them.”

“They’re not the brightest coins in the coin purse, if you catch my drift,” Scule added.

“So what, once they help us get Alka we’re going to have to fight our way out of here?” Vin asked, turning to glance over his shoulder at the pair of level one Earthers they were responsible for. “That would be one thing if it was just us, but Paul and Eleanor aren’t exactly ready for combat. You sure there isn’t anything else they want? And we can’t just retrieve her on our own?”

“Not that I can think of. Even if we pinpoint her location, getting to her and rescuing her from the monster that deep underwater is going to be incredibly difficult. And no, the ‘undying skill’ is all they want,” Shia shrugged. “Right, Lumel?”

“Yes, she did her best, but they really honed in on that,” Lumel nodded. “I think we should split up after all. I’m not going to be able to warp Alka out of here anyway, so I should take the two Earthers and head back to Terra while it’s still safe. I hate leaving you guys to deal with this, but the last thing you need is having the missing Earthers dragging you guys back while you’re trying to run.”

“That’s probably for the best,” Vin sighed, giving her a quick smile. “Thanks, Lumel. At the very least, Paul and Eleanor will be happy to hear they’re heading back to the others tonight. I’ll be sure to explain that they need to do whatever you tell them.”

“Well that just leaves us with one tiny problem,” Scule said, throwing his hands up. “How in the hells do you expect us to escape from a fragment of sailors when we can neither out-sail nor out-swim them?”

“Scule’s got a good point,” Shia said, tapping her chin. “Depending on how close Alka is to the fragment border, we might be in trouble.”

“I can’t say I like the idea of just accepting their help and running…” Vin said, grinning as the perfect idea came to him. “...but I might have something in mind.”

-----

Lumel left not long after with Paul and Eleanor in tow, and Vin and his team had a rather restless night on one of the many pads. They took turns sitting watch just in case, but nothing too eventful happened during the night. Come morning, Tud and his fellow Fishers led them back to their pads they’d spoken on yesterday, and they broke off from the gathering. Their force consisted of three separate pads all connected to form one large ship, filled with a total of ten warana. Four Fishers and Six Sailors from the looks of things.

“Where is undying friend?” Tud asked, staring at Vin expectantly.

“Let’s find out,” Vin muttered, closing his eyes and adjusting Sense Magic to cover the entire fragment. Holding his breath, he cast the spell, feeling his mana blast out of him in a massive pulse. After a few seconds, it snapped back, and he let out a sigh of relief at the limited reading he received. It seemed this fragment was in fact rather primitive, as other than a few clusters of magical plants growing at the sea-bed, which his focus was more than enough to take in and decipher, the only other hit he was getting was a cluster of artifacts that had to be Alka.

If his plan worked they wouldn’t need his divine boon active, but it was always nice to have a back up.

“She’s this direction!” Vin said, directing Tud, who in turn directed the Sailors. “Keep going until I tell you.”

Vin could only hope that the monster dragging Alka around wasn’t interested in moving much now that it had an unbreakable chew toy it was trying to crack through, as it was going to take them a little bit to sail over to her location. Since the attack the day prior, the monster had only moved about half a mile away, so all he could do was pray as they skipped across the surface. If it continued to move, chasing it around could take all day.

“Remember, you give us undying skill in exchange for finding your friend,” Tud remarked, continuing to stare at Vin as they sailed.

“We’ll tell you exactly how she got the way she is,” Vin nodded. He still wasn’t a huge fan of angering the new race of people they’d only just met, but he’d spent a large chunk of the night trying to come up with his own solution to their current problem, and came to the same conclusion Shia had. Without the warana’s help, they just didn’t have any good way to get to and retrieve Alka. And with them stubbornly refusing to listen to their explanation that Alka’s ‘undying’ ability was unique to her, they really didn’t have any other options available to them.

It wasn’t long before they made it to Alka’s location, and Vin called for the Sailors to stop the pads as he cast his spell again with a shorter range, getting another hit. “She’s down there, about a quarter mile below the surface,” he explained, pointing directly at the source of his magic readings. “If you can just get one of her arms free, she should be able to handle the rest. Also, she’ll probably need help getting back up here. I don’t think she can really swim all that well.”

“We will bring back,” Tud said, before leaping into the water alongside the other three Fishers. Vin gave them a few seconds to get far enough away before diving straight into the plan they’d cooked up last night. He motioned for Scule to get started, and the petian nodded as he hopped off Vin’s shoulder before walking over toward the opposite edge of the pads.

“You guys mind if I do some work while we wait?” Scule asked, looking up at the closest warana as he pulled a few pieces of alchemical equipment out of his cape. “Your guys looked pretty competent, so I doubt it’s going to take them long to go down there and bring our undying friend back.”

“What is work?” one of the Sailors asked, staring at the arrangement of tubes and glassware.

“Why, I’m glad you asked!” Scule said. “I’m a poison expert. I make and use all sorts of poisons. Super deadly ones, the kind that will kill you in seconds if you breathe them in.” As he spoke, he mixed two vials together, causing them to start sparking and spitting out of his container.

“Maybe now not best time,” one of the Sailors said nervously, its eyes locked on the miniature light show as it took a step back. At this point, all of the Sailors’ eyes were on Scule and his work, leaving Vin and Shia free to enact their part of the plan.

“I get that you’re concerned, but seriously, there’s no need for that!” Scule laughed, causing the sparks to stop and the mixture to begin bubbling rapidly. “Don’t worry, I’m a professional. I do this kind of thing all the-”

The bubbling vial exploded, sending a dense, green smog billowing out in all directions. It was only enough to cover one of the three pads, and the two Sailors on that one quickly leapt over to the other pads, eyeing up the smoke with horror.

“Oh Gods, Scule!” Shia gasped, pointing with her staff. “Vin, we have to help him!”

“Stay back everyone, it’s dangerous!” Vin shouted, making a show of taking a deep breath before jumping headfirst into the smog with Shia at his side. They quickly made it to Scule, who was slowly dripping another liquid into his open container that was still billowing out smoke.

“Did you guys do it?” he hissed, aiming the smoke away from their faces. Thankfully, Scule had the reagents capable of making an incredibly weak irritant, something that would be an issue to a regular human back on Earth, but almost completely irrelevant to anyone with bonus points in vigor or endurance.

“Oh yeah, now we just need Alka!” Shia said, spotting Reginald as he ran in under the smoke. “Reginald, your part done?”

The rat saluted with his tail, squeaking excitedly.

“Let’s hope they’re as good as they claimed,” Scule said, continuing to drip the two vials together. “I can’t exactly keep this up all day.”

To buy themselves time, Vin and Shia pretended to cough loudly and shout at one another, as if hunting for Scule as they walked around on the pad. Vin wasn’t sure how long that was going to work for, but luckily, the Fishers did in fact prove to be just as capable as they claimed. Vin heard four splashes erupted out of the water, and a few bodies landing on the lily pad.

“Alka, into the fog, now! We have to go!” he shouted blindly, making sure to speak in proper English so the warana wouldn’t understand.

There was a startled croak and another splash, and Vin could easily imagine Alka turning and hurling the Fisher who had carried her up back into the water without hesitation at his shout. Before he could think about how blindly following such instructions might be a problem, the Slayer suddenly appeared in the smoke, rocking their pad as she landed.

“Do you guys have any idea how long you left me down there?” she demanded.

“Talk later! Kinda busy!” Vin said, running into position and casting before the Fishers could figure out what was going on. “Create Air!”

As he blasted a heavy stream of air into their sail and their pad took off from the others, he heard a few more confused cries as the warana realized a certain rat had chewed through their sticky algae used to connect the pads to one another.

“Get them!” he heard Tun’s voice shout, followed immediately by the sound of two Sailors breathing their hardest into the sails of the two remaining pads. By this point, Scule had stopped the irritating smoke and the wind had cleared away what remained, which meant they all got a front row seat to witness the two Sailors huff and puff as hard as they could.

Into two sails that absolutely refused to inflate with air.

“What are you doing?!” Tud shouted, staring at their Sailors as they rotated and two new ones attempted to breathe into the sails as well, also failing to do anything.

“We try, but… breath does not reach!” one of the Sailors said, struggling with its words.

While the warana shouted at one another and began fighting, Vin and his friends let out whooping cheers as they skimmed away across the surface of the water, heading to the edge of the fragment and hopefully dry land. While they laughed and relaxed, Alka looked around, water still dripping off her armor.

“...What the hell is going on?!”