Helianna was knocked out of her thoughts by the rocking of the raft as Sylas helped someone get on, making her shift slightly so she could look. She couldn’t see the woman that he was helping well, but she could tell that they weren’t doing well. The woman was groaning and Sylas had to shove her onto the raft.

  “Sylas. We’ve already got Lesin. We can’t handle another injured person.”

  Not hearing Heliana, Sylas took a few more moments getting the woman onto the raft before flopping into it himself, panting heavily.

  “Are you alright?” he asked the unknown woman.

  “I… I…” she stuttered. “I’m… my arm…”

  “Sylas,” Helianna said louder while trying not to move against the shirt holding her wound.

  “What?” he snapped.

  “There’s only two of us. And we’re injured. There’s only so many we can save. Assuming we can save ourselves. Don’t tire yourself out and get yourself killed.”

  “Why not?!” Sylas demanded. “It’s not like I’ll stay dead!”

  Helianna took a deep breath and instantly regretted it as pain flashed through her. It took a moment to focus again and brace herself for what she had to say.

  “Because I need you. I’ve been stabbed. I don’t know if I’m still bleeding. And I may have broken my arm. Without someone more able-bodied, I’m not sure I’ll survive, much less whoever you’re trying to save. And if we both die, it’s permanent.”

  A cocktail of emotions flashed across Sylas face before he exclaimed, “Dammit!” He exclaimed, still breathing heavily.

  “Can you check if I’m still bleeding?” Helianna asked. Sylas grunted his affirmation and she sat up slowly. Finally forced to acknowledge that she was only covered by her bra, Sylas did his best to keep his face impassive, not wanting to show any reaction to it. He pulled the shirt away, which peeled away stickily. He looked at the wound, trying not to aggravate it further. In his focus on the blood, he failed to notice a slight golden glow emanating from the wound.

  “Well… it’s not dry. It’s not really bleeding much though. I guess it’s congealed? I don’t know if pressure will still help, but we can’t really put this back on I don’t think. It’s completely soaked in blood.”

  “Great.” Helianna shifted and lay on her front uncomfortably, not wanting to aggravate the wound against the hard wood of the ship. I guess try to wash the worst of the blood out? As disgusting as it is, I’ll probably need it to protect against the sun. And can you check the other’s wounds?”

  Sylas sighed heavily, not wanting to take instruction from Helianna, but knew he should. He first turned to the unknown woman as she was closer. Hearing Helianna and Sylas talk had strangely helped the woman calm down and be more coherent. Through some delicate movement from Sylas, both due to injury and not wanting to rock the boat, it took some time. IN the process, he did learn her name at least. Ruusaan.

  She had a number of burns along one side of her body, but that was not her primary injury. She had been leaning against one of the connection points when the runes went haywire. With the excessive magic increasing the area of effect for the runes, the magic had pervaded her arm. It was the worst area burnt, but the primary issue was that the spatial magic had twisted her shoulder into a useless amalgamation of flesh and bone. The only saving grace about the debilitating injury was how little she bled despite how gruesome it looked. Helianna certainly wouldn't be surprised if she was bleeding internally and secretly hoped she was. Helping Ruusaan survive would only hamper their own survival efforts.

  Although even if Ruusaan did die, they’re chances were meager, and she couldn’t help her thoughts from spiraling as Sylas checked over Lesin. They were currently in the ocean, barely even able to see land. She had a vague idea of ocean currents and thought that they’d hopefully get pushed into land, albeit after traveling south for a bit. Regardless, they’d be stuck on a raft with no cover in the blazing heat close to the equator. If they could survive the weather, they had no food or water. And then, if they did make it to land, they would then be stuck in the deadlands of Prakanai, hundreds of miles away from civilization.

  With those realizations, the idea of helping Ruusaan didn’t bother her as much anymore, if only because she didn’t think anything could really make their situation worse. A groan interrupted her thoughts and she shifted over to the source of the noise, Lesin. The careful examination from Sylas had woken him up, but he didn’t move.

  “Lesin?” Sylas asked. Lesin groaned again.

  “What happened?”

  “We got struck by a massive piece of shrapnel due to the ship… exploding.”

  “Huh?”

  “Yeah. I’m not sure what happened.”

  “What… I don’t understand,” he said, his voice slightly slurred.

  Sylas sighed. “How much do you remember?”

  “I… I remember meeting the captain, you two fought some passengers. I… oh yeah, you two fought back when they caught up. We went to the other ship, didn’t we?”

  “We did.”

  “Where…?”

  “We’re on a raft made of the remains of one of the ships. Both sank.” Sylas turned towards the remains of the ships, which were almost completely shattered or underwater by now. Unable to tear their eyes away, they all watched as the ship slowly sank over the next hour, now several hundred yards away. The screams had died down, and they could see several other groups on their own rafts.

  After such a long stretch of silence, it was Lesin who spoke, but his voice was slurred.

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  “Laria, what are you doing here?” he asked, looking at Helianna with a slightly unfocused gaze.

  “Um… my name’s Helianna.”

  “It’s good to see you. I wasn’t sure I was going to make it back this time. They nearly found me.” Sylas and Helianna shared a concerned look.

  “Lesin? What are you talking about?”

  “Don’t mind me honey,” Lesin slurred. “It was just a little scare. I’ll just need to be more careful in the future.”

  “He’s lost it. He must have been hit in the head hard,” Sylas said.

  “We can use this,” Heliann whispered to him. Helianna paused to think carefully about her wording, hoping she was reading the memory that he was reliving correctly. “Hey. Have you talked to your boss about it yet?”

  “Of course. I gave him my report.”

  “What did you tell him?” Helianna noticed Sylas and Ruusaan focused intently on the hallucinatory conversation.

  “Told him they weren’t cooperative. Didn’ wanna hear it. Academy’s figurin’ out who I am.” His words were becoming increasingly slurred, and Helianna desperately thought for any way she could get any useful information. Unable to think of anything subtle that would gain enough information before he passed out again, she asked bluntly.

  “What’s the name of the group you work for again?”

  “I’m gon’ go sleep now. Been long trip,” Lesin slurred as he nodded off. Helianna cursed quietly.

  “That’s… I didn’t realize that was happening. He was just laying here, in silence. I guess he was just slowly losing it? Damn. How hard did he get hit?”

  “No kidding,” Helianna said pensively.

  “What happened to him?” asked Ruusaan, pain clear in her voice.

  “He got nailed by a giant piece of shrapnel from the ship,” Sylas responded. “We all did. I guess he just took it to the head.”

  “Who are you people?” Sylas and Helianna shared a look and it was Helianna who spoke, cutting off Sylas before he could speak.

  “We were passengers aboard the ship that you just attacked. Who are you?”

  “We didn’t attack. We had no clue that was going to happen.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “They said… they said they were simply going to apprehend someone. They said it would be a simple grab, but it was an important one. We didn’t… we didn’t…” she trailed off before sitting bolt upright and screaming out.

  “Alanar! Alanar!” When there was no response, she continued. “Alanar! Gra’tia?! Birina?! Anyone?!” her breath hitched. “Gra’tia… no….”

  She looked out over the water and could see others on their own rafts but they were either unconscious or too far away to hear. Upon no response, she started sobbing, taking the silence as indication of their deaths. Sylas awkwardly patted her on the back.

  “I’m sure some are still alive, they’re just too far away to hear us or something.”

  “Y-yeah. They’re probably just too far away.” She wiped her eyes and looked up, clearly seeing the figures on rafts in the distance, albeit with no discernable movement. “Yeah. That makes sense. They’re still alive. They have to be.” Sylas and Helianna shared another look, Ruusaan unaware of their silent communication.

  With neither of them sure what to say and Ruusaan quietly staring out to the other rafts, they fell into silence. In the fading light of day, Helianna finally actually took a look at Ruusaan. She was short, although her exact height was difficult to determine due to their positions. She was a human with navy blue skin and short dark red hair. Combined with her electric green eyes, it made a striking combination. She was very well built, clearly used to living as a sailor, the observation making Helianna think. She looked young, a couple years younger than Helianna so probably in her late teens. That seemed a fairly precarious living arrangement for a woman her age.

  “Ruusaan?” The woman made an interrogative sound, not actually saying anything. Realizing it wasn’t the right time, Helianna decided to wait.

  “Nevermind.” Ruusaan didn’t respond and they settled into silence once more. Neither Helianna nor Sylas had any idea what to say and Ruusaan’s mind was elsewhere. It wasn’t long before they started falling asleep, their exhausted bodies forcing them into unconsciousness despite the chaos and stress of the situation.

  Ruusaan remained, staring out into the ocean listlessly as her mind raced through various possibilities. She couldn’t help herself from imagining various horrifying ways that her shipmates could have died, be it in the explosion or in the following chaos. She called out their names once more, her unintentional companions stirring slightly from the sound. In the quiet of the night, long after the ship had sunk and the screams had faded, her voice rang out clearly.

  Her desperation started to give in to resignation as she heard no response. She called out again, prompting Sylas to start waking up, complaining about the noise. She didn’t pay him any mind, her attention focused on the darkness. Despite Sylas complaints however, she heard a sound in the distance. A response. It was another female voice and sounded far away, but it was clear. She couldn’t hear what was said, but she knew. It had to be them. It had to be one of her crew. She shook Sylas briefly before frantically paddling with one arm.

  “Help me!” she demanded.

  “What’s going on?” Sylas asked groggily.

  “I heard her. She’s out there! I don’t know which one it is, but I know I heard her.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I heard one of my crewmates! I can’t leave her out there alone!”

  “Yeah…. Yeah... okay,” Sylas reluctantly agreed as he shifted so he could paddle as well. They paddled in silence, Ruusaan’s movements much more frantic and desperate than Sylas’. It didn’t take long for Ruusaan to start flagging. She was severely injured, would have died without Sylas’ intervention, and was now coming down from an adrenaline high. Helianna eventually woke up, the sound of splashing combined with occasionally getting hit by flying water waking her up. After taking a minute to assess the situation, she called out.

  “Ruusaan,” she tried, but Ruusaan didn’t respond. “Ruusaan.”

  “What?” she snapped, her voice clipped.

  “What are you doing?”

  “We’re paddling to one of her crewmates,” Sylas offered. She heard them calling out.

  “I can’t! I can’t leave them alone!” Ruusaan said, her movements desperate despite their weakness.

  “Calm down. Go to sleep.”

  “Go to sleep!? I can’t go to sleep! They’re out there! I heard her!”

  “I understand, but following a voice on water is next to impossible, especially at night where we can’t actually see where they are. We need to wait until day. Besides, you’re injured. You need to rest otherwise you could hurt yourself worse. Given we don’t know the extent of your internal injuries, you could get yourself killed. Do you want to get to her just in time to die?”

  They’ll still be out there in the morning. If they’re still alive by now and coherent enough to shout back, they won’t die overnight. Sleep.” Emotions and logic warred inside Ruusaan for a brief moment, but her emotions won and she spat over the side of the raft.

  “You can sleep if you want to,” she declared with vitriol. “I’m going to keep paddling.”

  Still in pain from her injuries, Ruusaan proceeded to do exactly that for as long as she could. The stress eventually got to her however, and despite her attempts to remain awake and paddling, she slowly slunk down onto the raft, the sloshing of water accompanying her to sleep.