Falling asleep on a ship is like nothing you will ever feel anywhere else. You wake up with the sensation of being rocked to sleep as the ocean floats you up and down and salty air clears your breathing. The sounds of the waves crashing against the bottom of the hull keeps you in your deep sleep throughout the night. I woke up feeling fully refreshed this morning. Like everything is new.

Feeling the warmth of Vance beside me was like a dream, I reveled in it, letting my senses indulge in all its bliss. He stirs beside me as I memorize his features, thick raven hair that he has pulled from his hair tie and it drapes down his bare broad shoulders. I brush my hand over it to feel it's smoothness, and he opens his eyes.

"Hi." I say.

He blinks twice and smiles.
"Hi."

We gaze at each other for a few minutes silently until my stomach interrupts the moment with a loud growl. He bursts out laughing.
"Good morning Brianna's stomach."

I giggle at him.
"She says feed me."

He sits up and salutes me.
"We can't have you hungry, you're sassy enough when you're full."

I sit up with him and slap his arm.
"Oh shush."

"I'll have someone bring you something." He looks out the port window noticing the light shining in. "Looks like we slept in. I am pretty sure I'm late for a crew meeting. Will you and your stomach be ok for a few minutes? Or will I find you have eaten the candles on the table upon my return?"

"Oh shut up Vance!" I say through giggles.
He laughs back at me equally.

"Breakfast sounds good."

"I can have someone bring it to you or you can eat in the dining hall."

"Hmmm...I think I'll go eat in the hall, I'd like to explore a bit too and maybe practice my training up on the deck. Would you like to join me for that? You can bring your Lance"

He bursts out laughing again.

"Train? Like combat training?" He gives me an odd look.

"Mmhm!". I reply. He's looking at the wooden roof boards again smiling wide and laughing to himself. "What's so funny?" I scowl at him.

"Hm? Oh nothing, you're just unreal. If I were to picture the woman of my dreams it would be you. And I've already dreamt of you once...."

"You've dreamt of me? Good dreams I hope." He really is crazy over me.

"Very, very good dreams." He replies. He gets up off the bed and finds his pants. "I actually have a meeting with the captain and some crew and it will take quite awhile. We need to talk about the trip back home. It's going to take about a week to get there, we need to figure out the best course to avoid the storms. But if you want to train I suggest the upper deck. It's usually empty." He is fully dressed now. I come to the side of the bed sitting on my knees with my hands in my lap. I sweep my hair to the side thinking about training in my dress and how difficult it will be. I realize he has stopped and is eyeing me up.

"Hey beautiful, are you getting dressed or are you going to walk around half naked? I don't think that's the best idea, you may have every man on this ship pledging their life to you knight or not." He says.

"Yes I'm going to get dressed, but I think the dress I have is a little too big for combat training. Can I borrow some pants and maybe a shirt?" I ask.

He chuckles.
"Alright I'll get someone to bring you something your size. I think Gogo has something." He replies and gives me a long sensual kiss before he goes."I'll See you up there." He says and leaves the room.

I fall back on the bed clutching a pillow daydreaming of him. A few minutes later there is a knock on the door.

"Lady Brianna it's Gogo, I have some clothes for you. Can I come in?" She asks.

I quickly wrap myself in blankets.
"Sure!" I reply. She comes in looking a bit shy and turns away from me while handing me the clothes.
"Thank you Gogo! How was your night?" I ask.
"It was good. I'm a little under the weather today, but nothing another drink can't help." She laughs.
"Ya I'm feeling it a bit too." We pause for a minute before she says her goodbyes and I start putting on my clothes. They fit well, tan colored baggy pants and a tight white long sleeve shirt that came down just above my belly button. The boots she gave me were shin high with straps to wrap around them keeping them secure. There were more ties I wasn't sure what to do with so I put my hair in a high ponytail with one, wrap my waist with another, and wrap my hands with the last two. I was ready, I haven't trained in weeks and needed to practice but this time I'd like to practice with a bit of mana. I take my book and sword with me and head out the door stopping by the kitchen to grab a fresh roll and some dried fish. I make it to the deck and see Gogo there with a few other shipmates standing around a fishing net talking. I walk by them.
"Hey Brianna!" They wave at me as I go by. I smile at them and make my way to the upper deck where Captain Lee is. He is having his morning coffee and tobacco sitting on his barrel while he steers the ship.
"Lady Brianna! What are you up to? you look like you mean business!" He chuckles.

"Hey Lee! It's Training day!" I say as I skip over to the back of the boat. The space is wide enough for me to do a couple handspring and jumps, I should be able to get a good session in.

Captain Lee positions his barrel so he can watch me. By this time there is an audience around me waiting to see the mage with the blade. I focus, letting the only sounds I hear be the ocean and the wind around me. I draw mana and hold up my sword still in its sheath. As I draw more in I unsheathe it, casting my flame to it and it explodes as I pull it out. I hold both in my hands then start to move in my combinations. Slash, hit, kick, double round house. I repeat on the other side of me. I pick up speed spinning the fire blades around me then I stab, picturing my opponent in front of me. I look around for a moment. This would be much better with an actual opponent.

"Bri! Training is far better with an actual opponent you know." I smile at the voice knowing exactly who it is. I can see him coming up the stairs making his way through the crew.

"Come play with me Kit." I taunt twirling my sword. He laughs wholeheartedly at that.

"Now that can be taken in more ways than one." He winks at me. "I'd like to see what you can do without any weapons. Jerdrek was a master at weapons but he specialized in..."

"Hand to hand combat." I finish his sentence. He smiles at me.

"Are you sure about this?".

"Oh I'm very sure!" He replies as he gets into position. I let the flame go, sheath my sword, and hand it to the captain. Everyone seems excited about all of this, and cheers at both of us as we prepare ourselves.

Kit gets into a forward lunge stance bringing up his fists in front of his face. My stance is much different, I lean on my back leg in a reverse lunge rolling my hands in a ball motion before snapping them into fists in front of me. "This is going to be fun" I think to myself.

We circle each other eyeing up our stance trying to sense the others fighting technique. With kit being from another realm across the sea I really had no idea what I was going to be facing. But that was what excited me the most.

Kit lunges forward at me punching a fist straight at my face, I defend with my forearm and he sends another fist towards my stomach. I block pushing his arm downwards and I spin behind him, sending a fist into his side. He grunts and backs up smiling at me. The crowd erupts on oo's.

"Well done Bri." He says shaking it off.

We get into position again. My turn this time. I run forward punching straight at his face but fake it half way and drop low dragging my leg under him to trip him. He jumps it as I skid to a stop. He is already on me, quickly throwing a combination of punch, punch, and uppercut. I block them all but he reversed his last hit unexpectedly uppercutting with his opposite fist it barely clips my jaw. I stumble to the side holding it.
"Ouch Kit!" I laugh at him.

"I can fake it too!" He smirks. "Come on beautiful I know you got better moves than this you're holding back!." He was right, I was really just playing with him, hoping he would show me more of his technique and stance before I get into it.

I crack my knuckles at him and smile. Fists up.
I lunge at him again faster this time and gain enough speed to double roundhouse kick which he blocks both as they push him back towards the boat railing. As I land I spin around to his back and before he can turn I step up onto the railing and I flip over him landing in front of and I hit with a strong punch into his gut. He doubles over and everyone gasps.

He regains himself quickly and begins throwing lefts and rights, I back up dodging his strikes and blocking. He hits my forearm with a backhand, spins and kicks my back sending me forward and I hit the ground and double over my back then up on my feet.
"Got you with that one hey? That flip move you did...well that wasn't anything I've seen before." He laughs.
I put two fingers to my lips and send him a kiss as more of a taunt. I get into position and coax him towards me.

He stomps his back foot, smirks, and springs forward. Throwing quicker punches with the same combinations. I defend and counter with high and low punches. We strike at each other in sync for a few minutes. The crowd is getting excited as we pick up speed. He throws a punch straight ahead at my face. I dodge, grab his arm and pull him forward, knocking him off his stance. I take his arm, spin into his chest so my back is up against him and his arm is over my shoulder, then I flip him over my back throwing him to the ground. He lands hard, but is up before I know it, kicking high, I dodge it doing a backwards handspring, I do two more as he kicks at me before landing on the railing of the ship. We Stand off.
"Well done miss!" Kit says.

"Thank you, you are spectacular yourself." I say bowing and he blushes. Time to take him down. I flip over him landing behind and snap a left and right at him, he turns and blocks, I spin around to his back, his eyes attempt to follow me around but fails, I duck low elbowing the back of his knee, his leg bends as he stumbles forward. I leap up high as he regains his footing Jumping onto his shoulders grabbing his neck with my thighs, I twist around to face him, and pull him down. He somersaults over and I land on top of him kneeling with my fist raised eye level smiling at him. He replies with the same shocked response as Vance did.
"My god!" He's staring at me with wide open eyes and a huge grin." Will you marry me?" He asks. I burst my gut laughing. We hear a voice from behind us.
"I believe I'm first in line for that Kit." I get off Kit and turn to greet Vance.

"You're one lucky son of a bitch Vance." Kit says. "Bri you'll have to teach me a few things one day."

I wink at him. "You'll have to teach some of those combinations and that reverse uppercut, I've never seen that before."

"Anytime!" He says.

"Alright that's enough for you two, It is meeting time! We have some things to talk about. I'll meet you downstairs in the drafting room, Kit." Vance says. He comes to my side and puts an arm around my waist taking me with him. I wasn't used to being a part of the business of knights. Roan always told me to wait in my room for him while he takes care of things. I would never know what the hell is going on.

"Thank you for including me in this Vance. I was never allowed to be a part of "business" at the castle." I say.

"Really? Well how are you supposed to be my mage if you don't know what's going on? Maybe they didn't want you involved because they had other plans for you and that stone of yours." He replies. Which gets me thinking. Maybe Roan and the queen did have an ulterior motive for me. I'm so glad I left when I did.

We walk into the meeting room, the captain is there and a few of Vance's higher ups including Kit, who seems to be glancing at me a little more than he has before. We all sit at a long wooden table with benches on either side. I sit with Vance on one side and Gogo on the other. There are two others, Percy and Sage, Kit is across from Vance and three others on his side, Captain lee, Chris and John. They are all either knights or highly trained individuals that are under Vance's command.

Vance sits up straight and begins the meeting.
"There's a few things we need to talk about, firstly, we have heard from the locals at Khaleda that the Corcoran Pirates have been doing some rounds, they have slaughtered half a fleet of fully pledged knight's and their mages making their way to Emeriss. We need to be watchful and ready for an attack if we get intercepted. Their ships are fast and they are all well armed, we would be overwhelmed in minutes." He says.

"Let's pray to the gods we don't run into any pirates on this trip." Captain Lee says.

"I'll be working with Bri on her mage abilities, if we do have a run in we have a good chance of survival with her here." Vance puts a hand on my thigh. I am not sure if I like being everyone's hope for survival. It's making my stomach turn.

"Great! I'm glad we have a mage on the ship with your skill." Kit says as I try to hide my concern.

"Secondly, Unoilla has joined forces with Ashura." Everyone cheers. "Yes, they have agreed to ally with us under the rule of Seraphis." Everyone cheers again.

That name, my eyes go wide and my heart starts to race. Why are they cheering for this? Seraphis is an evil man, bent on taking over the kingdoms to rule them all himself. I'm starting to feel uneasy about this but I decide not to say anything right now. Kit catches my surprise holding my eyes for a second.

"The tropical storms have finally passed so we won't need to worry about them as long as we stay our course to the northern paths. With all that said, I'd like to wrap things up. I have one more bit of news to tell you. Bri has agreed to pledge with me. I couldn't be more happy." Vance says and everyone cheers louder than before. Kit stands and gives him a hand shake.
"You got a good one! She will be just as good as shiva if not better!" He boasts.

"Thanks Kit." Vance says. "That's all I got everyone, let's get something to eat. I'm starving!"

Everyone gets up and hustles out the door, except for Vance and I. I am still thinking about Seraphis and start to fiddle with my clothes again as I reflect on what Roan had told me about him. But was it a lie? It seems like everything in Lesterose was a lie and the more I think about it the more deceived I feel, it angers me.
"Bri?" My thoughts are interrupted. I look up at Vance, he's searching me as he sits back down beside me.

"So what part of the meeting has your mind running circles? Pirates? Or Seriphus?".He asks.

I continue to fold my pant leg in my fingers. "I know what to do with pirates. But Seriphus....you lead his army don't you?" My eyes focus on the table in front of me.

"Yes. He is not what you think he is Bri. The people of Lesteros have no idea what is going on across the sea or even in their own realm. Seriphus is a good man, he wants what is best for all the realms." He explains.

"I was told he wants to conquer the realms. Is that true?" I ask.

"No, he wants us all to come together against queen Evelyn. Do you know what she is?" He asks.

"No I don't, all I know is that she isn't human anymore and she wants to defend her realm." I reply.

"No, she has made a pact with Thanatos to open the gates of the underworld and allow him to rule all the realms with her by his side. But to do this she had to give part of her soul to him and she needs a powerful source of mana. Which would be your stone!" He replies.

My stomach turns thinking about how close she was to taking it from me. Well, I'm safe now... I hope. But is all of this true?
"How do you know for sure?" I ask.

"My father has pledged to a very powerful mage, she is an Oracle and a prophet. Her abilities enable her to see past, present, and futures. Her visions allow her to see things most can't, even across the sea." He replies.

"I want to meet this mage." I whisper.

"You will, she is waiting for you." He says. " I have one more thing to tell you. I really hope this doesn't change things between us." I look at him suspiciously. "Seriphus is....he his my father." His last words were almost a whisper as he looks at me searching my eyes. No wonder he was so wealthy and everyone holds him in such high regard. No wonder he wants me so badly.

"Your father?! So that's why I'm here...." I'm starting to feel cheated, maybe this was his tactic all along. Get me to side with him so he has the stone in his hands now. How could I be so stupid?

"That's not entirely true." He puts a hand on mine. "I know what you're thinking, yes I was sent to find you, pledge with you, and bring the stone home with me." His honesty was shocking." That was all that was supposed to happen ...but I wasn't expecting someone like you. You've turned my world upside down in just a few days. I'm sorry for not telling you right away. But you would have never come with me if I told you right away ..."

I stare at the knots in the wood on the table. So what I'm thinking is mostly true. My anger is starting to rise. I clench my fists.
"You withheld some very important information from me Vance. I feel so....stupid...I guess I am only worth lies and deceit, I understand why you thought you didn't "deserve" me! And you don't." I swallow hard, still staring at the top of the wood. My heart aches.

"Please Bri! I'm sorry, things have changed so quickly. I really do love you, you have to believe me!" He says begging. His voice is shaking. I look over to him, his face is pale and his eyes are watering. I sigh.

"If I didn't go with you, would you have taken me by force?" I ask. Staring into his eyes.

He closes his eyes.
"Yes..." He barely chokes it out. That was it, I stand up leaving him where he sits and walk out the door before he can say anything else which he doesn't.