“Well, what was it?” Tobias asked. Hannah glanced out into the hall then turned back to us.

  “Small plants. The crate had a small pot, all protected with bundles of wool. I inspected it. The system said they are Propagations of the Oakenfather.”

  “I read about the Oakenfather,” Elsetha straightened from where she had been sitting near the window. “The noble tree that once grew where Verdantbrook now stands.”

  “Wait, Verdantbrook used to be a tree?” Arlo asked.

  “I don’t know how true the old records are, but it is a big part of the city’s lore.” Elsetha stood, distracted from her seasickness. “The wood elves claim to have been birthed from His branches. The roots are rumored to still thrive below the city.”

  "I’ve heard that name before,” I said, remembering the door shaped like a living, wooden face under the Guildhall. The gem I had touched. “Below the Adventurer’s Guild, when I took the class exam. The door that led to the testing chamber. Helga called him the ‘Oakenfather’.”

  “But what is a propagation?” Hannah asked.

  “When you take a cutting, usually a branch or other section of a plant, and attempt to grow a duplicate from that smaller piece…” Abernathy started to explain. He grew nervous under everyone’s gaze and tapered off. “Sorry, that was a bad explanation.”

  “No, it makes sense.” Hannah replied. “So they are trying to… duplicate the Oakenfather?”

  “Why would pirates target this cargo?” Tobias asked. “What value could it have?”

  “And why would Verdantbrook be shipping away parts of the Oakenfather, if it has such cultural and historical importance to the city?” Arlo chimed in.

  “It seems odd… if propagation was possible, why haven’t they done it before?” I asked, turning to Elsetha. “Do you remember anything else about the Oakenfather?”

  “No, I just read a few small sections in a history book.”

  “It still seems odd—” Tobias started to say, when a chorus of shouts sounded from the deck above.

  “Starboard side! Ship approaching!”

  “There! Pirates!”

  “Damned, their whole ship is black! They’ll be aboard—”

  “Where’d they come from?”

  Numerous voices overlapped at once, too many to make out what they all said. Heavy footfalls sounded on the elevated deck above, joining the stomping feet of the crewmen on the deck outside.

  Lonny’s distinct, deep voice bellowed from near the door that lead to the deck from the hall outside of our room. “Pirates!!”

  “He said to wait a few seconds before coming out, right?” Abernathy asked.

  “To hell with that!” Katarina sprinted past me and out of the room. I lurched forward, suprised, and followed. She was fast, already exiting the doorway to the deck in the half second it took me to run out of the room.

  I hurried to follow, running down the hall. I heard the thumping feet of my party behind, and the first screams of pain from on deck.

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  Jericho nearly ran me down as he ran into the hall. He was crying, blubbering in fear and muttering incoherent words. I pivoted when I saw him and just avoided being knocked over, turning the corner and emerging into a chaotic scene on deck.

  The pirates wore dark clothing, various shades of black, gray and brown. Their faces were covered by a variety of fabrics, making them easy to discern from the crew they were engaged with. A black ship was moored to the side of the Wave’s Mistress, bound by a series of hooked ropes that had been thrown over the side.

  Several dark figures leapt from the other ship, engaging with the crew. I heard clashing steel from the helm atop the raised deck behind, but my eyes locked on Katarina as I stepped out onto the moonlit deck.

  She was a whirling dervish of destruction, swiping a pirate’s feet from under him and dropping an axe kick upon his face with a sickening crunch. She whirled without missing a beat, launching herself ten feet with a small burst of wind and jumping off of the chest of another pirate. The force of the impact sent him flying far overboard.

  Katarina used the force of the jump, flipping through the air and connecting a flying kick with a shorter pirate who was struggling against a crew member that wielded a large cudgel. I watched as her foot connected with the pirate’s head, snapping his neck from the force of the impact. The pirate fell, motionless, to the deck, his head laying at an odd angle.

  I began performing Radiant Winds.

  Arlo ran out of the hall behind, followed by Tobias and the rest of the party.

  “Holy hell,” Arlo breathed, running to a section of planking the pirates had laid across both ships and shoving a crossing swashbuckler into the waves between the ships. He kicked the plank, sending it into the ocean after the man.

  A woman screamed, leaping at Arlo from the ropes above the pirate vessel. An arrow took her in the throat. Her screams turned to gurgles and she landed hard on the deck, grasping at the arrow and wound pumping blood from her neck for a few seconds before laying still.

  “CAPTAIN!!” A voice screamed from the helm. The captain’s broken, mangled body flew from the elevated platform of the helm, crashing into the main deck. The screaming voice was cut off abruptly, and the second wood elf was thrown bodily from the helm. Both corpses lay at odd angles, their blood pooling together on the well-scrubbed wood panels.

  A flash of electrical energy lit up the night sky as a bolt of lightning shot from the helm of the pirate vessel and struck Lonny, who had just finished off a pirate in the rigging high above the deck. Thunder cracked as the lightning tore through the air, hitting Lonny and sending his smoking corpse flying into the central mast. He bounced from the impact and fell thirty feet to the deck. Smoke rose from his body.

  “Mage!” I yelled, finishing the song and sending the orbs of radiant energy in that direction. They flashed as they impacted an invisible barrier of some kind.

  Elsetha was already chanting, moving her hands in intricate movements. Small particles of light began forming around her hand when a massive shadow descended from the deck above.

  Arlo moved quick, intercepting the hulking shape with a shield, deflecting the downward swing of a wicked axe that had been aimed right for Elsetha’s head. She staggered to the side in shock, her spell casting interrupted.

  The hulking figure stood eight feet tall and was obscured by black clothing that covered everything except for a small section of his face around the eyes. His skin looked dry, almost rocky in appearance. He swung the heavy axe in a series of blows that Arlo struggled to deflect as lightning once again cracked through the air, blasting another crew member.

  I began performing Radiant Winds again, looking around to see Katarina flying through the air between the ships. She was going for the mage, traveling like an arrow in flight with her fist extended.

  She struck the same barrier that had halted my attack. The barrier lit up with kinetic energy as she struck, slowing her and crackling with yellow energy. It shoved her back, sent her sliding on the deck of the black boat. One of her arms lay at the wrong angle, dangling uselessly as she stood.

  I finished Radiant Winds, sending the orbs into her arm. She glanced over at me, nodding thanks as she once again leapt for the mage.

  “Who are you?” The massive figure growled, stepping back from Arlo. The two circled each other as Elsetha hurried away, running towards Abernathy and Tobias, who took cover behind an overturned barrel on the side of the deck. “Just give us what we want, there is no need for this.”

  “I don’t know what you want, or why you are here, but no! We’re here to stop you!” Arlo responded, lunging in a forward jab with his short sword. The big man stepped back, swinging his axe in retaliation. Arlo deflected it into the wooden wall of the cabin.

  “Adventurers?” the big man asked, pulling his axe free from the wood. “Hah. Puppets on a string, dancing for those in power.”

  He swung his axe in another series of blows. Arlo barely deflected them.