To Drown a Witch

6

Nomi was learning to love the feel of the water and the air. Not in the way she loved the land and the forests - but she was learning to trust it. 

The water and air, she had come to realize, were much like her. They sought freedom and relished in it. The air loved to brush itself against human. Out on the open sea, it found joy in ruffling her hair. It was easy to befriend once she knew it's language. The sea, even though her ancestors, the sirens, had come from its depths, was weary of her in a way she didn't quite understand. It reached in every wave and crash but retreated when she reached back. She felt its bottomless depths with her magic, but did not understand what it feared in her.

The sea knows more than the sky and the land, the book inserted. It feels more. Sees more. After all, it was the birthplace of magic.

Another cryptic message from the mind reading book, Nomi thought back, still adjusting herself to communicating in this way. How old is it? The seas? 

I do not know, the book replied, a rare answer. She has existed far longer than you and I and shall continue to exist long after we leave.

We leave?

"Ship in the distance." Emil called from the crows nest. 

"What flag do they fly?"

It was silent for a tense moment before he said, "That of Queen Ada Victoria. It's the royal navy."

August cursed. "All hand on deck. We try to avoid a fight if we can, but prepare for the worst. Emil, I want you to keep an eye on it. If it starts coming towards us, tell me. Alex and Arthur, I want you below deck. Ready the cannons in case it comes to it, but pray to the sea that it doesn't. Kalil and Nomi, drop all the sails. We need as much speed as we can get if were going to out maneuver them."

Everyone turned to the stations, but Nomi was dumbstruck.

"We're avoiding a fight?" She called to Kalil once she regained herself and made her way to the rigging. "I thought August would jump at the chance to loot an imperial ship?"

Kalil didn't look up from where he was working but replied. "No one can afford to pick a fight with the imperial navy. Even If we do take out one ship, which would be unlikely considering their sheer numbers, they would still come after us. Fighting one ship is like starting a war with the queen and she is a grauda."

Nomi didn't understand the Arnin word but the intention behind it was clear. Nomi felt the same way. After all, the witch hunting queen had made herself hated amongst Pryhans and Arnins alike after she over-threw their kings and queens and "united" the continent. Pryhans, Arnins, and witches.

Nomi was two for three.

She got to work, letting down the sails.

"Hey, Kalil," she called. He didn't reply, but she knew he heard her. "I think that's the most you've ever spoken to me."

He shot her a glare.

She smiled back.

"They see us, Captain," Emil called down. "And they're coming fast."

Nomi knew she had to do it, but she still stalled at the thought. Pretending to be lost in tying the rigging, she called to the wind, meeting its magic with her. She asked, never took, but asked it to help her. It danced for a moment, stopped, danced again, and then it was gone.

"They slowed," Emil called, a bit shocked. 

"What?" August yelled.

"Their winds died, Captain. They're coming, but the winds against them."