Xavier looked past the ghost ship and out on the foaming waters. Off to the left was a patch of pitch blackness that not even random spurts of light could penetrate. “Morden I heard you could go insane in the dark sea. I don’t feel insane.”
“You can but I’ve sailed the dark sea enough times that you won’t get more than 2 levels of insanity. Well, hopefully. I wear warding armor for that purpose,” Morden looked up ahead and kept on steering. He was as tense as a rope about to snap and had fear in his eyes but determination.
Xavier tried to see anything in the waters, but if there was anything there he didn’t see it. “So, the waves don’t look that tall. What’s with that?”
“The waves get bigger the further in you get, I once saw a 30 foot wave and it nearly destroyed my boat.”
“Well I’m going to go see what I can do to help,” Xavier looked back at the deck and there were people shouting and doing the ropes. There were also what looked like bandits strolling around on the deck. “Morden you didn’t say there would be bandits with us.”
“Xavier, When in the dark sea nothing can be trusted. The only thing you can trust is the boat, you fall off the boat and we won’t come back. The insanity has already begun settling upon us. You’re experiencing level one hallucinations,” Morden said, so matter of factly it was hard to believe otherwise.
“I thought we wouldn’t experience insanity,” Xavier said bluntly.
“No. I said we wouldn’t experience insanity above level two. The entire air is filled with magic insanity one is certain and insanity two occurs to those weak of mind.”
Xavier silently went back down onto the deck and to the bow of the ship to watch the ocean’s turmoil. Xavier saw a couple more ghost ships of different kinds, also some of those pure black areas, and far in the distance an island with an eerie glow. The day went was boring except the storm that hit them halfway through the day. The waves were bigger than Xavier could have imagined. Morden said they were normal sized. Xavier went to bed that night watching Abby dance upon the deck yelling gibberish. Xavier knew Abby wasn’t there but it was so lifelike.
The next day Xavier came on board after water came pouring down into the hull. Soaking Xavier since he was right at the entrance. He used his magic to warm and dry his clothes before coming upstairs with the taste of seasalt in his mouth. Looking out he saw a storm raging, with lightning flashing, and thunder crashing, not to mention the waves. Xavier was drenched as soon as he got on deck and shouts were being yelled around by the crew. Morden had his had tied to the steering wheel and was keeping the boat steady.
Xavier nearly slipped while walking towards the stern of the boat where Morden was steering through the storm. He got there but his voice was drowned out by the storm so he just watched. At one point Xavier became so seasick he threw up over the back of the boat. That was when he noticed the red fin tailing the boat from a distance away.
“Morden! There’s a shark!” Xavier yelled.
“I can’t chat right now, just hang out!” Morden yelled back.
Xavier looked back at the fin and saw the nose and eyes breach the surface for a second. White as sun-bleached bone. The white-eyes was gaining distance on the storm tossed ship so Xavier did what he could. He lifted his hand up, pointed with his palm and let the magic circle form. “Inferno’s Beacons” Xavier whispered, charging the spell. The next time the White-eyes breached the water, about 40 meters from the ship, it was hit by a fully-charged 20 magma beam from a high-level magic council captain. The shark was dead in the water before Morden even looked over his shoulder.
The rest of the trip was uneventful besides a poison-jaw spotted at 3:00. Xavier was watching the sky when up ahead he saw the vast blue expanse of clear sky. They had finally reached the Bronze sea. The ship sailed into Palo town where the crew began unloading the goods and repairing the damage in the hull.
“Thanks for the ride, Morden!” Xavier called.
“No problem! Also if you see my friend tell him I send my regards and would like to sail with him sometime. His name is Raven!” Morden called back
Xavier entered the Grand Navy base and looked around. There was a small line and also a receptionist talking to the woman at the front of the line. Xavier went into a separate line meant for visiting folks.
“Name?” The second receptionist asked.
“I go by Xavier Bass, the level 365 magic council captain.” Xavier replied.
“Ah here you are right this way sir. It says you get all priority over any others,” the receptionist read from the clipboard. A couple of huffs and sighs were heard in the line.
Xavier followed her to one of the rooms where one of the 4 navy admirals was waiting. Xavier sat in the chair and waited for him to speak as is polite in formal meetings. Having gone through a scroll he sized Xavier up. “Welcome to the Bronze Sea. I here you are here for trade relationships?”
“I am. Thank you for having me. I hear your group takes in both magic users and non-magic users,” said Xavier in a very polite manner
“That it does, that it does. But now onto business. The newly formed continent of magius wants to establish trading contacts with the War seas?” The captain took a second before continuing, “I suppose you would since our technology is superior to your own. Now then if you want us to join you, weI want you to deal with two things.”
“And what are these two things?” Xavier inquired, glancing around the room. Also noticing the admiral didn’t seem to have any latent magical powers.
“One. We need you to deal with the other magic council captain sent here to establish trade relationships, he was last seen in Redwake. His name is Floyd. And two, we need you to deal with a threat that has arrived in the area. He was last seen at Frostmill. He goes by Raven.”