Obey Your Captain

A gurgle had him looking down, his finger going to the babe’s forehead, trailing down between the black, wide eyes.

“Lost the bet, ay?”

Kaliyah huffed as she gathered her books from her trunk. “Yes, Bruce, I did.” She swept past the dwarf, a grin of one who got the cream on his face.

“What’s he ordered?”

“That is none of your concern, dwarf. Leave me be.” She didn’t want to discuss it. None of the crew were privy to her family’s difficulties. Many hadn’t even made the connection of who she was.

A fact she was thoroughly grateful for.

Her father never wanted her on ships. He knew she had innate power, her kind did. Forcing her to the temple of knowledge to control her innate abilities in her tenth year. Control her power, her shifting. She was a young student, but the scholars never paid her any heed. Her power grew, her abilities leant to the destructive power of fire. She relished the power, the control.

Of course she got her own way eventually. She had reasoned with her father that rather than pay for a spellcaster, he could have her. She’d yearned for the open waters. Living close to the dock without stepping foot out of the city would do that to you.

She settled herself at the bow, looking out at the glassy sea that looked beyond inviting compared to what it had the last week.

It wasn’t as peaceful as it was when she studied at night, the crew were busying behind her, climbing the rigging, throwing buckets of defecation over the side and cleaning. Nevertheless, she opened the book and began practising. Her hands moved until a purple ball of flame flickered. It sputtered a little as she tried to keep it perfectly spherical.

Concentrating on the sphere she’d kept steady, she rose to her feet. Sweat sprung on her forehead with the exertion.

She surged her energy forward, the sphere turned into a purple jet of scorching obliteration. If there had been anything in the path of the flame other than the sea… well it would have been no more. She kept it going as long as she could before the fire dwindled back into her palms. Her arms flung up in the air with delight. She had succeeded!

“Were you watching, daddy?” she smiled at the sky, imagining his star twinkling. She hoped he could watch during the daylight.

Crashing her body back to the deck, she rested under the blissfully warm sun, she’d try another spell in five minutes.

“Finished?”

“Just catching my breath, Captain.” She shielded her eyes with her hand to spy him standing by her feet.

He dipped down, seemingly peering at her spellbook. “Show me this.” He tapped a passage.

“I-”

“That is an order, Miss Warren.”

Grinding her teeth, she looked at the passage properly. It was complex. More complex than the spell she’d just mastered.

“I thought you were opposed to me burning your ship?”

“Are you saying you are not capable of controlling your magic?”

“Of course I am! I just have not perfected that spell.”

“I possess a belief you are capable.”

A warmth in her chest she refused to accept blossomed. Peering at the words, she committed them into her mind, swirling them perfectly into the three spheres. If only the mind’s eye was reality.

She opened her eyes to see one sphere. She focused… concentrated with all her might, splitting it in half. She ignored the audience she had acquired in the shape of the captain. Taking a breath, she gravitated her hands, mimicking the shape she wished of the two halves…. For that’s what they were. They fizzled, but remained solid.

Juggling the two balls of fire, she drew her courage to split them again. The spell was for three orbs… not two.

Like the first time, she coursed energy, splitting-

A jet of blue fire erupted from the balls. “Dilettante Sahuagin!” she swore colourfully as the bowsprit erupted in flames. Captain Baron Torlar grasped a bucket by his feet she hadn’t perceived, flinging the saltwater on the flame, extinguishing it instantly. “I cannot apolog-”

“You stated you were not ready. It is I who should have listened.” He bowed his head subtly. “Maybe a water elemental would have been more beneficial.”

Her back heated with the accusation. “I never stated-”

“Your fire lightens the deck. We need more fish. Our barrels are looking sparser than I wish.”

“I didn’t hear an order, Captain.”

“Catch provisions for the ship, Kaliyah. Now.”

A tiny growl rumbled in her throat. Without her knowledge, her eyes flashed to soulless pits of black. It was a fraction of a second, but it was a fraction long enough for the Captain.

“I am not a fisherman,” she grumbled as she snatched up her leather-bound books.

“Alas, you will do whichever job I set for you.”

She huffed, storming past him with her books clutched protectively to her chest. She would not let him beat her. Would not allow his demands to squash her fire. How long did she have left?

She stomped to the stern, snatching the fishing equipment stowed within a wax treated trunk. She climbed down the rope hanging off the bow until she reached the ledge they used for fishing. With the sea so calm, she had no fear sitting six feet from the surface. Maybe it would even be peaceful as it seemed the captain hadn’t sent any other body down with her.

At least she wasn’t scrubbing the deck.

’Focus on happiness and it shall always find you.’

Her blasted father and his wonderful wisdom.

Setting the dried beetle on the sharp hook, she let the twine out into the blue depths.

Her boots clunked against the treated boards of the ship side, dangling above the abyss. It wasn’t so bad being down here. Peace and loneliness had always been something she’d relished in.

After a great deal of patience, a tug let her acknowledge that she’d caught something. Winding the twine around the spool, a plump bass landed on the deck next to her. She chucked it in the bucket before resuming.

The sun was dipping lower in the sky when the call, “Lassy!” came.

“What?”

“Capt’n want ya!”

“Haul my buckets up then!” she called up as she tidied up the rod. She climbed the rope while her buckets were tugged to the main deck. She was quite proud of her bounty.