Seven Seas [ZX-MetalMonster and nikaanuk]

[nikaanuk]

Tori grabbed his arm. "Calm down, you are on a pirate ship, what did you expect, that we will be peacefully sailing towards the horizon?" He let go of him. "You have few days, better practice a lot. You are fightig here for your life." He ran his hand through his hair. "Do you know how to fight?" He added curiously.

None of the men, even him, was a trained warrior but everyone could fight. Without knowing how to cut your enemies throats open, you couldn't survive long.

He understood that the mage is scared maybe, feeling uneasy for sure, but this was the same with himself when he was younger, and no one cared. They told him what to do and after some time he got better. There was no time for soft talks on the ship, there was always a work to be done.

[ZX-MetalMonster]

Elijah was taken off guard when the other man took hold of him and obviously wasn't too happy about it, still he only frowned at the action and didn't argue or yell any more.

 

-"Not in the traditional sense, I can fight off one or two people maybe but that's it without using any of my powers." The mage explained but he was describing what he could do under good conditions, when his attackers were poor fighters also. He felt the need to assure the captain he could look after himself and that he would be useful even if it took saying a few small lies.

 

-"I'm just a bit rusty... I'll be ready in a few days if you need me." He said in the end with a sigh, though he was more confident in this statement than the previous one.

[nikaanuk]

"You should know how to fight. We will give you a cutlass and we'll see how you're doing" Tori looked at the bridge where Luka was staring at him. "I want you to try it at least, not saying you need to do this for the rest of your life" he added before the mage could protest. "We will talk about it later. You can use my cabin, and you're invited for the dinner later" he was now talking quickly, as he knew they need him. "If you want to, you may also join me on the bridge..." he looked at Elijah and smiled. "We are sailing towards the great treasures."

[ZX-MetalMonster]

The mention of treasures made Elijah curious though he didn't care too much about material things, he only nodded lightly in agreement to everything the captain had planed for him. Though he was thankful to have someone he knew didn't mean him harm he wasn't interested in following the other man around.

-"I'm going to start practicing, you don't need me for anything else any way." The mage answered simply but didn't head back inside yet.

[nikaanuk]

Tori looked at the mage one more time before turning his attention to Luka. He was still learnig and the man was always ready to help, Tori was grateful for having him.

They were leaving the calm waters behind and they were going to turn East now, which was always dangerous cause behind a certain point they could meet one of the King's* ships. Tori knew how dangerous it could be, especislly now, when Elijah was not sure about his powers.

 

"We are changing the flag, let's try not to gain too much attention too soon" he ordered and Luka nodded going to the men.

[ZX-MetalMonster]

Elijah made his way back inside, having some trouble finding his way in the new environment at first. Once he was in the room though he remembered something and went back right away. He didn't want to waste more time wandering the ship and since he had no idea where to find a large amount of water he mumbled a few things and managed to draw up a reasonable amount from the ocean under the ship. He was satisfied with himself already for being able to do this with ease but it wasn't even part of what he planed to do for practice. With enough water now levitating after him he retreated inside and at first only cast silly spells to remember a few things and have some fun.

[nikaanuk]

The people stopped their work, when they saw the stranger casting a spell and bringing the water to his hands. The news about him being a real mage was known to everyone in no time. Tori nodded without another word, it was good Elijah made himself known to them without bringing too much attnetion. Who didn't see him, asked about him and soon there were three stories wandering aroung the ship: one stating the new mage was raised from the sea waves and brought on the deck by merminds, the other saying he made a huge whirlpool and the third one saying about how he talked to sea creatures. Tori listeten to them with a smile, remembering partly how he met Elijah yesterday. But this was how you made your story and he knew that it was for their best.

 

Around midday there was a knock to the cabin's door.

[ZX-MetalMonster]

Elijah spent a long while only repeating what he already knew and was satisfied whenever he could perform a spell with ease like many years before. No matter what he did though he had to commit some of his attention to keeping the sphere of water afloat above the palm of his hand and at moments he simply failed at this. More and more water got spilled over time but he didn't pay much attention to this until there was barely anything left levitating and even then he was only annoyed he was running out of substance to experiment with.

 

When there was nothing left he moved on from repeating familiar spells and began attempting magic he could only vaguely remember from books and studies he'd done in the past. He'd never actually pulled off these spells and not remembering how they were suppose to be performed only made it more difficult for him to pull them of.

 

Busy with this the mage didn't notice the knock and only continued with his work.

[nikaanuk]

The man outisde looked at the boatswain and shrugged. He was holding a tray with soup and bread but didn't dare to come in. Luka sighed, hurried towards the door and knocked again, short and hard. If anyone could disturb the mage, it was him.

When Tori joined them in a heartbeat later he frowned and just opened the door, letting them in.

"Do not disturb him" he ordered and walked inside.

The man brought the tray and left it on the table, there were two bowls and four slices of bread for the both of them. Even if they just now left the port, Tori decided to save the food and eat like the rest of the crew. Luka was against it from the start but Tori agreed only on bread and occasionally some fish or meat.

The man looked at the mage again but Luka pushed him outside fast and walked out as well.

[ZX-MetalMonster]

Elijah paused what he'd been doing when he saw the men come in, for a moment he reacted as though he was still on land and would get in trouble if he was caught doing magic. He looked at them obviously a bit startled but eased up soon enough and only seemed unfriendly as usual after that. He considered ignoring them and returning to his practice that had become more fun than work by then. He did want to be on good terms with everyone though so he took a seat on the bed and waited patiently for someone to speak to him instead.

[nikaanuk]

Tori poured some wine into the cup and turned to Tori.

"How is it going?" he asked taking a sip. Then he poured another one and handed it to the mage. "Are you getting somewhere? They are telling crazy stories about you. Did you speak to sea creatures? They say you created the whirlpool" he chuckled and raised his cup. "You are doing well on the deck."

[ZX-MetalMonster]

Elijah grimaced, apparently annoyed with the stories that had sprouted about him and his powers just from the simple spell he'd cast out of necessity on the deck. He took the cup of wine but was unsure if it was a good thing that his captain encouraged him to drink so often. The amount wasn't enough to get him drunk but considering how he normally wouldn't taste alcohol for months he felt odd receiving even that much.

-" If I ever start talking to fish you should replace me because it will be a sure sign I've lost my mind." He commented and wondered if there would even be a sea creature intelligent enough to tell him something useful if he could understand them. "A whirlpool could be useful if I actually could make one... I am recalling some useful things though, it would be easier if I had some material to read from but I think I'm doing well like this too," The mage explained and actually smiled softly at the other man to show he was confident in what he was saying.

[nikaanuk]

Tori grinned at the mention of the fish and he shook his head. "I hope you won't. I don't think I can find another mage. It's not really easy task you know." He raised his cup in a toast. "For the legends, you shouldn't be angry with the people, they are simple, they never saw a mage before" he said drinking the wine. "You hungry?"

[ZX-MetalMonster]

-"I'm not going to say no to food." Elijah said with a small smirk after taking a sip of the wine.

-"You haven't seen a mage before either but though you do have high expectations you're not making up any incredible stories." Elijah protested after a moment but he did understand what his captain was telling him. "I'm not angry at them." He added in the end and decided not to add how he was annoyed instead.

[nikaanuk]

Tori chuckled and actually blushed lightly. "Well, I've heard lots of stories about mages, and I'm waiting to see if they were true. I'm just not making new ones but you'd be surprised what do I believe in."

He gestured towards the table and sat down, pushing the maps aside. He started to eat fast, not having time to enjoy the food. There was nothing to enjoy, really, the cook wasn't the best but he was capable to make their food eatable after weeks on the sea. And that was enough to keep him.

"What can you do now? What do you remember?"

[ZX-MetalMonster]

Elijah smirked when he noticed the light blush on the other man's face and followed his to the table. Despite being obviously older than his captain the mage had put a lot of trust in him so far and was growing fairly dependent of him, it felt good to see the other man could be a bit childish.

-"I can do mostly anything with liquids but I'm still refreshing my memory on how to crystallize them and turn them into useful things. Other than that I'm still a bit unsure of the things I've tried so far, give me a bit more time and I'll be able to show you more." He explained before he started eating.

[nikaanuk]

"Well, you have plenty of it. We are going to sail now for at least next seven days. Then we will need your help in the fight. I won't have you here if you won't put yourself into fight." He added sipping the soup from the bowl. "We can teach you if you like. So you can defend yourself even when you're not using your magic." He reached for bread and teared a piece and put it in his mouth. "But you need to fight, they will respect you if you do. And you need the respect."

[ZX-MetalMonster]

-"I'll fight and learn to use whatever weapon you'd like." This time Elijah didn't try to argue or convince the other man that he didn't need to be taught. It wasn't just to avoid argument either, he'd truly decided to trust and listen to the other on this at least.

-"As for magic, is there something you want me to know. I'm not all powerful so I can't do anything if I just decide to practice a bit but I can at least try."

[nikaanuk]

Tori shrugged. "I don't know about magic. I don't know what is too much for you. Just be able to use your powers when you need to. Trust them so I can trust you, that's all I ask."

 

He said and finished his soup, eating two pieces of potatoes using the rest of his bread. "I'll make sure that Black Cat teaches you. He's the best here, he once worked for the King but left them when they wanted his child." Tori smiled lightly. "Do what he tells you and you'll be good."

 

He looked at the mage and then on the wall. "Do you need anything here? Something you want?"

[ZX-MetalMonster]

Elijah was glad to hear he only needed confidence in himself for the other man to trust him, at least in battle. He wasn't as enthusiastic to find out he would be taught by someone he didn't know though but tried to trust his captain in return and do his best to learn regardless.

 

-"Like I mentioned before it would be good to have some writing to learn new magic from but I don't expect you to provide me that when we're in the middle of the ocean." The mage commented though he knew he probably wasn't right about their placement. "Other than that there isn't really anything I need. I like what you've given me so far."

[nikaanuk]

Tori nodded and ate the rest of the bread, drinking the wine. "I don't know about the books, I barely read. If you want, you can look for books if we find any King's ship, but I don't think they have any." He smiled a little. "I will speak to Cat to make sure he has time for you. And when we finish, I will take you around and show you how the life looks like on the ship. All the shifts and where everything is."

[ZX-MetalMonster]

Elijah nodded lightly and continued to eat, having forgotten about the food, distracted by talk of magic and studies. It excited him that he was allowed to talk so freely about his abilities, that was something he'd never been allowed to do even in the past when magic users weren't hated as much. Being on the ship made him happy as well, though he wouldn't show it and was genuinely annoyed by a few things, he was curious about many things and liked that the other man actually intended to help him understand things better.

-"Is there anything I'm not allowed to do, besides the obvious like murdering someone." The mage asked thinking about this now and considering it an important thing he should know.

[nikaanuk]

"Do not use open fire anywhere on the ship. It can be used only by the cook, the men on the watch and the captain. We have it here but it's in the lantern so if it falls, it won't burn the ship. This is the most important, don't fight with anyone. You can't gamble or play cards on the ship, you can't drink any alcohol in front of people, they can't. You can because you are here with me." Tori licked his fingers and poured more wine to his cup. "Anything else?

[ZX-MetalMonster]

-"No, that's all I want to know for now." Elijah replied and took note of what he shouldn't do. He was sure he wouldn't be tempted to go against what the other man had just told his since he wasn't too fond of fire and didn't like drinking or playing cards very much. He didn't plan to start any fights either but couldn't make any promises regarding that since he knew he wouldn't react calmly if he was threatened.