“That’ll be ten copper each, miss.” This man possessed an aura far greater than any berry merchant Cira had met to date, but this sort of thing was surprising her less by the day on Icarus.

  “Ten copper?!” She exclaimed, “Are you serious?!”

  “These are the freshest berries on Icarus,” The irate shopkeeper replied, “You got a problem, you can shop elsewhere.”

  Cira got excited easily, and Emma as her guide became increasingly nervous with each interaction.

  “You misunderstand, good sir.” And one trademark smirk later, the merchant was baffled, “That is such a bargain, I wouldn’t dream of contesting the price. I mean, do you know how many seeds come on a single strawberry?”

  While Cira’s garden overflowed with life, strawberries were not easy to come by. Most of her berries were the simple round type, so finding a reliable source of exotic produce had Cira over the moon.

  “Er, no…” The merchant slid his basket of berry’s back toward him on the counter. “Out with it. If you’re not a customer, then go away.”

  “I have no qualms sharing this information with you.” Cira pulled a pouch from her waist which contained whatever a gallon of gold was worth in Skyreach tokens. All she knew was the resulting gold converted worked out to about 1.2 gallons—or a heaping basket. “A single strawberry can hold almost two hundred seeds. Please, I’ll take fifty.”

  It was chump change for the mighty sorcerer. Her pantry was already stocked with every meat available at this market, and Cira’s eyes found their next destination the moment the strawberries reached her hand.

  “Thank you for bringing me here, Emma. I’ll have to treat you to lunch again.” Led by the nose, Cira exchanged an ominous glance with a cabbage merchant.

  ___

  A vibrant splatter of blood stained the boardwalk only to be washed away as Tawny cleaved her sword. A riptide of pitch-black cut through the line of swordsmen defending the gate but their paper armor grew soggy, compromising any enchantments etched into it.

  A lone shieldbearer stood tall and tawny thrust a replica of the cursed blade Tidequencher through it. The man cried in terror as watery tentacles wrapped around and tossed him to the side like a dead fish.

  “Pathetic.” Tawny stabbed the blade into the ground and a heavy wave crashed into the gates. They fell off their hinges in splintered pieces and water carried the rubble through as Tawny slowly ascended the steps. Her voice boomed through the air, carried by ambient humidity, Io said. “Is this the only resistance you can offer? Is the profit gained from exploiting this island so little?”

  Tawny didn’t know where Io got all his information, but he had been gone a lot ever since Cira left. She wouldn’t put it past someone that powerful to skulk around the skies so casually. To his credit, this had gone rather smooth so far thanks in no small part to the enchanted sword. Just as he said it would, but there was one final challenge she was still nervous about.

  As she reached the top step, the water and rubble had finally settled. Dark waves washed away, parted in the middle by a lone mage. A towering palace of wood loomed behind him, stretching into the sky. Tawny knew she would not reach it without going through this man.

  His robes were a dirt brown but flowed gently in the wind. He wielded a lively branch whose roots seemed to be reaching out toward her. A single leaf hung from the top shook and glowed with power as he looked Tawny in the eyes.

  “Captain Dreadheart, I take it?” His eyes narrowed like a predator laid in wait. “You will regret coming here. We are not so frail as those witches you’ve been playing with.”

  Shit… shit! This guy is the real deal. If it weren’t for this sword, I wouldn’t even be able to stand. But Cira wouldn’t look scared. I can’t slip up. Hell, Cira wouldn’t even stop walking here. It’s fine. Io said everything would be fine. Just gotta think of something clever to say and my twiddle my sword around.

  “Unfortunately for you, I’m not here to play.” She spun nervous laughter into a derisive chortle and rested the sword on her shoulder. “I’m here to burn that there palace down.”

  “I will never let you.” His staff’s roots shot into the ground as he collapsed into a heap of dirt. Tawny was completely blindsided as vines wrapped around her feet. She tried to step away but couldn’t tear away from the ground. You son of a bitch Io, where’s my barrier?! Why would you do this? This is not the time for tests!

  Anger and fear set in as Tawny realized she had been tricked. Cira had warned her against failing to take personal precautions, and she had utterly flunked.

  “You bastard.” Tawny went to slam her sword down and it stopped with a dull clunk. “What—”

  “Ahahah.” Tawny’s breath caught in her chest at the mage’s laugh at her back. The blade rested against a wooden branch. Above the single leaf, a green bud formed. The mage walked around to the front, vines wrapped around the phony cursed blade. The jeering look on his face was like he was toying with a pest. “Give it up, Dreadheart. If all your empire amounts to his how far that cursed blade gets you, then allow me to show you the end.”

  “Tch.” Imposter or not, Tawny didn’t like being so utterly defeated. She didn’t want to die here pretending to be Cira, sure, but the disrespect was firsthand. “Perhaps I’ll humor you, if you insist.”

  Tendrils of dark water shot out at the mage, swarming around him to form a veritable cage.

  “It’s just one trick after the next with you, isn’t it?” The cage loosened as the streams of water were sucked into the vines which all hardened around her. Tawny felt blood run down her body as thorns poked into her skin. She resisted the urge to scream but luckily her tortured expression was covered in vines. “It’s hard to believe Earth Vein had any trouble with the likes of you.”

  Pedals grew from the bud at the tip of his staff. Pearlescent white with ribbons of vibrant colors. The silken flower was the only thing she could see through the vines now, and she felt her mind start to slow down.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  Her grip loosened around the sword as it was slowly pulled from her hand. She couldn’t see anything beyond the flower, and with each passing second Tawny felt further dissociated from the world. It was like walking into Io’s memory all over again. The thorns grew into a dull pain and eventually slipped away altogether.

  While the flower didn’t lose its luster, all else turned black. Her mind and body was adrift.

  The goal was for Dreadheart to prevail without having to resort to sorcery so as to further distance her identity from that of, say, a witch, but Tawny didn’t think that old man’s sword was up to snuff.

  That’s right… This is all your fault. I will not die here. To hell with your plan!

  And just as Tawny tried to conjure enough fire to kill a hundred sirens—nothing happened.

  What…

  Her eyes went wide as the shining flower continued to bud in her vision. The remaining shreds of Tawn’s mind fired off alarm bells as she realized any mana she tried to channel only made it grow brighter. She couldn’t cast.

  No… It can’t end here.

  “Struggle all you want.” The mage’s laughter echoed in her head, “But your legacy amounts to mere nutrients for my dear Magnolia.”

  Tawny’s head throbbed and the mage’s taunt sent her spinning. She was completely wrapped in vines, incapable of casting, and quickly losing her grip on reality. Much longer, and she would struggle to stay conscious.

  “And as soon as I’m done with you, it’s your friends’ turn.” His voice grew faint. Distant.

  No… Jimbo… His face flashed through Tawny’s mind. That confident smile and fearless laugh. The way he jumped into any fight without a second thought. Not once did he hesitate to stand in front of her when a quarrel broke out, bar fight or otherwise. Not even now that she possessed the power to cook him alive with a wave of the hand.

  I have to stop him.

  “My Magnolia can pull those ships right out of the sky, you know.” The mage seemed intent on lambasting her until she drew her last breath, and Tawny felt that moment wasn’t far off. His voice was far away, but somehow she couldn’t miss it staring into that shining flower. “And I will enjoy every minute of it—hey, what the hell was in that water?”

  Huh…? Tawny didn’t know what he was talking about anymore, and hardly had enough thought left to start accepting death. The flower fell in toward her.

  So, this is how it ends, is it? I guess I wasn’t cut out to be a sorcerer after all.

  It seemed as if the flower would swallow her whole as its pedals fell in on her. They began to curl in over an eternity as Tawny felt her heart thrum slowly in her chest. Waiting for death was excruciation, but she always knew it wouldn’t be pleasant.

  A dark streak ran through the petal from the base where it met the stem. Then another. Soon, the flower was overtaken with black. The pain of a thousand thorns stabbing into her body started to return and Tawny felt warm blood coating her skin.

  Wait… It’s wilting?

  “You bitch!” The mage’s voice no longer echoed and his face was twisted with rage. Tawny watched in slow motion as he approached with a wooden dagger, her mind rapidly falling back into place. “What have you done to my Magnolia?”

  “Enough games.” The blackened vines around her face crumbled to ash as stark red flames filled her vision. The sound of roots ripping from the ground turned to sizzles as Tawny took a step forward to catch the dagger. She went to deflect, but instead it turned to ash in the mage’s hand. And in that moment, he let himself fall off balance after finding no resistance. His face went pale in shock as he stumbled forward, but Tawny’s flaming fist laid in wait to wipe that expression right off. “I told you I was here to burn, did I not?”

  The mage scrambled back on his ass, holding his face in pain before noticing his robes were on fire. His frightened cries as he desperately swatted the flames almost made Tawny laugh after everything she went through, but she held it back.

  No wait… Cira would laugh here.

  “What? You didn’t think to keep any water mages around?” As a longtime resident of the Boreal, Tawny was not quite ashamed to admit she was enjoying putting one of her overlords to such trouble.

  “I am the water mage, you cur!” She had to admit, he was quite versatile. If she had to guess, he probably had light magic under his belt as well. “Why does a pirate wield such mastery over flame?”

  “Oh? I suppose you haven’t seen my other sword?” The water cloaking his staff wore thin as Tawny approached, spinning a sword of aether flame around before leveling it toward his head, “Worldburner, the Infernal Cutlass. Remember its name.”

  Cira will just have to accept this. That was definitely something she would say. I’m doing great.

  Tawny swung down and ten more crimson blades rose from the ground, piercing through his staff like a pincushion. The once willful staff of live wood started to blacken as embers burned from the inside out. Its roots let off one last wriggle before going limp and the entire staff faded to ash.

  “No… My Magnolia!” He let out a gut-wrenching cry infused with enough mana to fell a horse. It echoed through the sky and shook the ground. “You have no idea what you’ve just done.”

  He was pushed from the ground by columns of wood and shimmering water wrapped his body. Unbelievably, his wounds started healing faster than any paladin could manage. The island trembled as he turned his eyes to her. Full of a deep sadness woefully overshadowed by an ocean of rage. Tawny couldn’t stop herself from pausing under his gaze.

  Tawny thought enough fire would take control of the situation, but his overwhelming mana struck fear in her heart. She noticed the wood at their feet no longer burned and his presence seemingly spread throughout the entire palace grounds.

  “Pretty big deal to make over a stick.” Tawny said and instantly regretted it. He took another step forward and she felt her knees grow weak. The wood beneath him started to agitate, as if he were walking through a puddle.

  “You will die today, Dreadheart.” And she believed him. She tried surging her mana, but the scarce domain she threw up had started to shrink under the pressure.

  My fire isn’t hot enough. What can I do? She didn’t have the Infernal Scepter, and her own control over aether flame was lacking, let alone potency. I should have known this wouldn’t be as easy as just burning it all down. Dammit, what would Cira do right now?!

  Pillars of wood rose up across the palace ground and the walls around the courtyard started to shrink. Tawny felt the boardwalk beneath her give way like quicksand. She stabbed her flaming sword into the ground to stop herself, but it seemed to be pulling her in.

  “Worldburner? What a joke. You couldn’t burn a pile of leaves—”

  Tawny fell back as a blinding light tore through her vision. She desperately held out her swords in feeble defense. But as she opened her eyes again, all she saw was a set of legs. They fell over opposite each other into a smoking crater.

  Tawny blinked as she took in the destruction. The nearest building had a hole burned through it and the inferno surrounding her had multiplied. Tawny got up half in a daze and walked over to the massive hole burned into the ground. Nothing from the waist up remained of the fearsome nature mage.

  “No way… Is it over?” Tawny turned around and followed the path of destruction only to find Jimbo at the end of it. He seemed to wave before bringing the ship in to land. “He really did it…”

  The win should really go to Io here for his craftsmanship, but he got no credit in this moment.

  Steam rose up and hissed. A startled Tawny whipped around and watched the flames die down as a surge of water flooded the area. Elos jumped off in a panic and went to hold Tawny up, but didn’t know where to touch as she was covered head to toe in blood.

  “Holy shit, Tawn—er, Captain. Are you okay?” She felt the warm light of holy mana surround her and the pain started to recede. She hadn’t realized how shallow her breath had gotten until just this moment.

  “I’ve been better.” She tried to wipe the blood out of her eyes, but it didn’t work.

  Surrounding her now were all the new holy mages who didn’t care about Shores’ rhetoric or the Final Sky, and together they made short work of the wounds. That said, Tawny was shook. She almost died a couple times and was completely overwhelmed by a mage many times her superior.

  Elos washed the blood off her with magic and tried to put an arm around for support, but she slapped it away.

  “Nevermind me.” Her fists shook, hung down by her side. This was one day she wanted to end. “Just finish your damn jobs so I can burn this place down already."

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