Their Mr Entrepreneur was bought for twenty HDM crystals, with two more if they returned to Singapore without incident.

The Captain, going by the singular name of Sukarno, was a crafty, middle-aged fellow formerly from Indonesia. Taking advantage of Singapore's offer of open immigration for Mages with useful talents, the Water-Transmuter found his way to the city and now operated a small trawler with a dozen NoMs for a crew prowling the coastal waters for shrimp and squid. The ship itself appeared weather-beaten and well-seasoned but was also well maintained by the prideful Captain, insistent that he routinely inspected every nook and cranny for both mechanical and arcane failure.

The mechanism of the ship itself was of much fascination to Gwen, who'd never seen trawlers in action, even in her old world. Two arms extended from either side of the eighty-footer ship with an assortment of accessories dangled from the arms, possessed of everything from Daylight Glyphs for attracting squid to nylon-mesh for trawling prawn.

"You're looking for an island called Abang, in the Riau chain, about sixty kilometres outside Shielding coverage from Batam," Captain Sukarno recapped after pocketing ten of the HDM crystals, the other half delivered upon their safe return. "It's a Black Zone, so we'll have to cut in and out real quick."

He turned to Gwen with mixed feelings of interest and scepticism.

"A bit dangerous for a chiobu like you. You look too tender, going to get gobbled up."

"What if we run into Mermen outside the Barrier?" Gwen asked.

"Not much chance of that. If we kena, you guys take care of it, okay? We not exactly following maritime protocol where we go, so I take only trusted crew of kaki. Don't expect help from the Navy if we get sunk."

The party assured the Captain his customers would behave.

They boarded at the end of the pier, drawing curious eyes from the other ships' crews. Gwen, in particular, caught the eyes of strangers wherever she ventured. It was hard to miss a six-foot, leggy Eurasian in a green retro-dress, even in a sea of staked ships and knotted sails.

"You should change into something that won't take on water," Sukarno suggested as his crew emerged to greet the group of Mages, bowing deeply, not daring to meet their eyes as they announced their names. Sukarno pointed to the last NoM in the row of indistinct dark bodies. "This is Arnav, my First Mate."

A skinny Indian who looked in his thirties waved at them, staring straight down at his feet.

"Hi, I am Gwen. These are my companions, Paul, Taj, Jonas, and this is my father, Morye."

In response, Arnav ducked and bowed in quick succession, greeting each of them before moving off, still staring intently at the ground, to work the riggings.

"Sorry, lah. The men don't deal with Mages much. Normally its just me, and they know me."

"It's okay." Gwen watched the crew, six NoMs working the boat's cranks and levers as they began to drift from the dock. It was queer that the seamen seemed to be avoiding them entirely, not even looking towards them, or herself, with curiosity.

The trawler pulled from its mooring silently. Once cleared of its attachments and lines, Sukarno fired up the mana-engine, issuing twin jets of water from the ship's aft as the propulsion began to spearhead the vessel out towards the sheltered egg of the Singapore Strait.

When the boat penetrated the first layer of the Fortress Cities' Shielding Stations, the air turned cool, crisp and salty.

"What a difference," Gwen noted to her companions. "Wonder why it's so hot in the city?"

"It's the Shielding Resonators," Sukarno shouted back. "Singapore is a very safe city. We have a three-layer barrier! The Batam Islands, the artificial islands of the strait, and the main station on Sentosa. As a result, our city very humid in summer."

"Singapore is the safest frontier region in the southern hemisphere," Jonas affirmed Sukarno's commentary. "Almost as expensive to live in as a tier 1 city too, especially near the CBD and the Clementi hills."

The artificial islands they passed soon transformed from commercial to industrial, then to lonesome installations build for military utility. Freight ships formed a line throughout the strait from shore to sea, creating a veritable bulwark of freight and cargo.

Their journey to Abang should take six hours.
On the fourth hour, the ship cleared the final safety buffer of the city.

"Everyone! Arnav! Keep an eye peeled for Mermen!" Sukarno barked at his crew, then politely asked Gwen and her party to be vigilant as well.
Thankfully, the final two hours of their journey proved uneventful save for a few curious incidents with local marine-life that came to inspect the fishing trawler. With tact, Gwen dissuaded the fauna with her Lightning Bolts.

"Whoa! Quasi-element! Nice!" Sukarno exclaimed happily.

"Thanks." Gwen flashed the Captain a toothy grin, making Sukarno smirk appreciatively. When the wind soon picked up, and the spray became too much. As one, the party retreated into the cabin from which Sukarno steered the vessel.

Sukarno offered her a newspaper that he'd picked up at the port authority, bold with Sydney-centric headlines in dark lettering.

"Hey, you guys from Australia, hor? Aiya, sorry about Sydney lah, it sounded like a real tragedy. I hope all your family are safe."

The men took the paper and gave the headlines a browse, their jaws firmly clenched as they read the latest body-count. When Jonas turned onto page four, he paused to steal a forlorn look toward Gwen.

"What's up?" Gwen noticed the sudden tension in the air.

Jonas folded the paper and passed it over.

She opened the tabloid spread and read silently to herself.

"Sydney - Seven days after the Sydney Incident, Magister Henry Kilroy is entombed in a ceremony attended by colleagues, presided over by his apprentices - the Paladin Gunther von Shultz and the renowned sorceress Alesia de Botton who is still recovering from her injuries."

There was a full-colour page attached, showing Alesia in a wheelchair beside Gunther. Together with other prominent Magisters, the group carried a casket through St Andrews Cathedral, where presumably her Master's empty sarcophagus would be symbolically interred.

To her understanding, the symbolic ceremony was usually reserved only for noble members of the Mageocracy. To be inhumed and remembered in a place of public worship was a great honour, one that spoke loudly of the opinions the rulers of the Mageocracy held for Henry Kilroy.

"In remembrance of the Late Magister Kilroy, Lord Gunther gave a eulogy to an audience of prominent figures, citing Lord Kilroy's contribution to establishing the Tower System, his gallantry in the Saurian War and the ongoing Coral Sea Conflict, and his immutable contribution to the prosperity Sydney had enjoyed before the incident. In closing, Lord Gunther has promised to continue the legacy of his Master, dedicating his life to reconstructing Sydney and restoring it to glory and beyond. This news is met with no surprise, as both Melbourn and Brisbane Towers had voted to move Lord Gunther into the position of Master..."

Gwen scanned through the article, founding a particular quote extracted for a bleed-out by the reporter.

"To my Master's loved ones who are unable to be here today, wherever you maybe be, however far you are from Sydney, our hearts are with you."

It was an innocuous line, but Gwen knew that her Master had no other family left and that Gunther had intended it for herself. With shaking hands, she clutched the paper and felt an indescribable pang wringing her heart.

"You okay?" Jonas' voice was kind and reassuring.

"Yeah." Gwen looked ahead at the spray striking the panes of the cabin. "I am fine."

The Island fast approached.

The party changed into a long-sleeved skinsuit constructed from a breathable and pliable material in the final hour. The gunmetal bodysuit was of standard military issue, and so left an excessive length of Gwen's ankles exposed, giving the professional attire the unexpected, mirthful appearance of jeggings. The amphibious hiking boots they had acquired from the Brisbane Tower's quartermaster likewise had a low ankle line, which further ensured that a few centimetres of her flesh were left unprotected. Over her skinsuit, she wore a set of combat-meshes that hid her figure, its pouches loaded with Healing, Antidote, and Cure Disease potions.

When Morye emerged, Gwen was surprised to see that her father's musculature was as sculpted as the military men's, with nary an ounce of extra fat on his torso. With his preference for slightly loose shirts and casual wear, she'd always imagined Morye with an endearing little beer belly and a muffin top.

"Wow, this is much better than what my division used to ration," Morye noted with pleasure, pulling at the stretchy fabric on his thigh. "The suit is Elementally attuned too? Very nice."

"What'd you used to wear?"

"Un-enchanted Cotton." Morye wore vest and pants over the skinsuit.

When her father put on pants, Gwen felt herself becoming conscious of the skin-tight suit. She had the mesh on top, but maybe she should also cover her bottom? That would impede her movement though, making her a prime target for branches, bushes and insects.

The Island came into view with about a quarter of an hour left to their journey. Even from a distance, they could see that Abang was verdant with wildlife, with canopies that reached twenty to thirty meters, stretching well above the Island's base. Many of the archipelagos in the strait grew from volcanic eruptions, implying that its greenery hid caverns, hills, sheer drops, and even vertical cliffs.

"We'll be mooring in an inlet at the south of the island, there should be a pebble-beach there," Sukarno explained. "You have two nights, three days. Come Sunday, high tide; I go back to the mainland, that okay hor?"

In theory, three days was ample time. The Island was small enough to be circumvented on foot in a day on paper, and an hour if they flew.

Jonas materialised a Message Device the size of his arm— this far out from the Divination Tower nodes, they had to bring a portable device.

"We'll keep in contact as best as we can."

"Of course," Captain Sukarno inclined his head in acknowledgement, pulling the military-issue communicator towards him and inspecting it. "O course, just remember I also need to consider the safety of the crew."

"Agreed." Jonas turned to Paul. "Let's get moving."

Paul drew a few Glyphs over the party. "Mass Water Walk."

While Paul worked his Transmutations buffs, the trawler moved into the inlet, setting anchor a hundred meters or so from the shore. The weighty anchor struck the bottom with a thunk, stirring the white sand below, sending up a cloud of silt and silica. When the chain became taut, Sukarno indicated that the party was free to proceed.

For Gwen, water striding felt as though skipping to and fro from a series of trampolines. The Invocation created a layer of hydrophobic mana around the caster's lower body, lifting them from the liquid and propelling them from footfall to footfall.

Gwen almost lost her footing a few times, but the others caught her before she could strike the water and transform into a bedraggled spectacle. By the time they had reached shore, she was sure that Sukarno and the crew were blue with lark at her comical incompetence.

A quick count at the beach and the party was at the tree-line.
The immediate vegetation was taller than they had anticipated now that they were face to face with its verdurous growth. The palms themselves reached dozens of metres, with girth as thick as a man's torso. Deeper into the canopy, sunlight became a rare luxury.

"Alright! Form up!" Jonas commanded the party. "Gear check!"

Gwen stood to attention while the Major fixed her combat straps and double-checked the bandoleers. Morye he left well alone, the Magus making it self-evident that he did not desire to be manhandled, citing that he would suit up in his lavish Salt Armour if it came to it.

"Alright, buff up!"

"Mass Bark Skin."
"Mass Resistance."
"Mass Aid."
"Mass Dark Vision." The Transmuter and Cleric of the party gave the group a once-over.
"Enhance the Constitution."
"Protection from Poison"
Gwen was singled out for a few extra buffs from both Paul and Taj, who likewise buffed themselves.

The party then formed into marching order. Taj lead with his Earthen Mage armour moulded around him like a suit of half-plate. He was followed by Gwen, who was a staple DPS output with Elemental Lightning, especially when supplemented by her Void. The middle was held down by Morye, who could help Gwen with his Abjuration and hold his own. Their fourth and fifth man was Jonas, followed by Paul, who was responsible for leaving behind trail markings for orientating his translocation spells.

"Detect Magic!" Gwen incanted, her eyes taking on the soft glow of Divination.

She scanned the immediate distance in front of her up to thirty meters or so, finding a miasma of mana permeating the dense foliage like a stream of multi-coloured pendants.

"It's too dense. I can't see the trees for the forest." Gwen dispelled her Detection spell, after which she rested her eyes to flush the mana from her pupils.

"No helping it then. Just be vigilant." Taj took the first step, swinging a machete enchanted with Keenness into the flora.

As they penetrated the rainforest, Gwen spotted exotic fauna darting into cover as they moved through the dense tropical jungle. A curious pair of white-beaked birds of paradise, wary of their invasive entry into their home, began to follow them, chirping and screeching every time Taj took his blade to the vines and trellises that barred their way.

Gwen couldn't help but notice that some of the vines too, bled a strange, red substance instead of the white ichor normal to the strangler-creepers, attracting great hosts of insects such as ping-headed ants with jaws as wide as their bodies and orange-jacketed wasps that greedily dived into the crystallising carmine residue.

"Four degrees to your right,' Paul corrected their vector, aided by his triangulation beacons. Taj adjusted his position and shifted the direction of their progress. In his hand, Paul held an enchanted compass that resisted obfuscation sorcery, keeping a true north heedless of illusion or enchantment.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Their progress slowed as the loose groves of palm became dense coppices of white jasmine and moon orchid. Taj became more cautious as he hacked through the leafage, wary of falling crawlies and slithering things with many legs skittering away as they crashed through the foliage.

"Good grief, what's that smell!" Gwen uttered, unexpectedly assailed by a scent of horrid decay a few hours into their trek.

"Something rotten, from the smell of it, carrion?" Taj pulled apart a thicket of vines. "I think I see something."

They had arrived at a small clearing, where an enormous bulb towered towards the dim light of the canopy. Its flower was already in full bloom, revealing a fleshy hood of purple-pink that wrapped around a colossal ochre phallus towering up to three meters.

"It smells like… shit, actual shit." Taj marvelled. "Christ, what in the world?"

"Alright, form up, don't move. Eyes open. We'll check for hostiles and move around it." Jonas commanded. "Gwen?"

"Detect Magic!"

The jungle itself was verdant with rampant motes of elemental water and earth. When she looked towards the flower, she noticed that the corpse-flower seemed to be coalescing dark, shadowy mana specks at its base.

"I sense… Negative Energy at its core." Gwen felt on the verge of a personal eureka. "To think Negative Energy existed in nature!"

"Life and death is a balance, that is the way of the natural world." Jonas scanned the jungle with his eyes. "If I recall, this is a death-flower, a Titan Arum, a carnivorous creature that feeds by attracting insects with its stench of decay-"

"Hold up." Gwen motioned for the group to stay still. "I see something coming."

"Warding Bond." Taj incanted softly, suffusing the party with a mute, earthen shimmer. Gwen recognised it as an Abjuration spell which shared damage between the caster and its targets, giving the entire party the ability to resist harm both magical and mundane.

In the next moment, a slithering, crawling stream of elemental earth, tinged with specks of negative mana, roved from the canopies down towards the flower's vivid display of dusky elements.

In the eyes of the others, they saw a giant centipede a meter in length, as thick as Gwen's thighs, meandering past the small clearing and toward the stem of the Titan Arum. Like twin sets of perfectly synched piano keys in motion, its legs latched onto the base.

"A victim?" Gwen asked.

To their surprise, the centipede wasn't trying to climb the flower. Instead, it was attempting to borrow straight through the base toward the nectar of necrotic energy.

"Smart bugger." Paul grimaced. "Looks like a predator to me."

Gwen meanwhile, couldn't take her eyes off the coalesced core of Negative Energy. She recalled her growth in Lightning Affinity after Caliban took in Wanka. Could this also mean that she could supplement her Void element's affinity by consuming natural flora and fauna?

"I need that thing," Gwen announced to the group. "Can I get some cover fire if things go south?"

Morye looked up with annoyance but said nothing.

"What're you thinking of?"

"Absorbing both flower and monster" Gwen confessed, though in a manner that misled their understanding of her methodology. "Caliban needs to eat live prey to mature."

The men saw the disgusted looks on each other's faces.

"Alright, go ahead." Taj double-checked his warding bond and gave the go-ahead.

Opportunities for gaining resources for one's craft seldom appeared in mundane life. It was only through haphazard brushes with boons and banes that a Mage grew, rapidly gaining unique abilities by testing oneself against the Wildlands' chaotic flora and fauna.

"Cali!" Gwen whispered, kneeling close toward the ground to release Caliban discretely. To her surprise, it wasn't the spider form that appeared, but its usual serpentine likeness. Did Caliban adjust its appearance for the occasion? She wondered. Mentally commanding Caliban to transform on the ship hadn't helped.

Silently, the slithering Caliban meandered through the tall grass, moving ever closer to the centipede busy at work. When it came within range, it turned its faceless mien towards Gwen imploringly.

"Want a hand?"

Gwen suppressed as much of the Invocation as she could before releasing it as a muffled blow just above the centipede's many eyes.

"Lighting Bolt!"

A dull thud echoed across the immediate space of the clearing. A bolt of Lightning materialised from her fingertips, flashing across the distance between Gwen and the centipede before striking it squarely on the head, momentarily stunning it.

"SHAA!"

A pair of flesh hooks launched from Caliban's maw, taking the centipede by the rear. Twitching wildly, it dragged the still paralysed creature towards its jaws. With a sucking sound akin to slurping ramen, Caliban drew the many-legged morsel into its lamprey's maw, effortlessly sliding its meter-long body into its bottomless gullet. Before its final demise, however, the centipede whipped around and bit Caliban's head. There was a crunch as the mandibles penetrated, followed by a soft empathic whimper from Gwen as her flesh throbbed.

The party winced as the last of the giant centipede's tendrils disappeared.

Taking a deep breath, Gwen then pointed Caliban to the base of the plant. In place of the now-deceased centipede, Caliban latched itself onto the thick stem and began to secrete a dark substance which instantly melted the fibrous plating of the Arum.

In a moment it broke through into the pool of feral scented briny liquid, spilling it over the forest floor. A wave of nauseating scent exploded over the party like the world itself just farted wetly.

"Bloody oath, my eyes are watering." Morye covered his nose and mouth. "I can taste it. Why, Gwen. Can't you train like a normal Mage?"

The other three men were silent, bearing the singular assault of the exquisite stench with voiceless fortitude.

"Control Wind!" Morye incanted, making the air displace about them, sending the stench up on high.

Gwen meanwhile, seemed entirely unaffected. She was watching through her mana-infused vision, Caliban's dark mass of Void-matter draining away the tenebrous motes of negative energy. With a final punt, Caliban punched through the base of the towering flower, collapsing the stalk.

"Caliban!" Gwen hissed, and the creature de-materialised, returning to its pocket dimension. Her complexion paled for a moment until she was positively ghostly— and then the moment passed, and she could once again sense her limbs.

The party watched the Titan Arum crash against the forest floor.

"Okay, let's keep going," Jonas commanded, wary of any attention they'd have drawn. "Paul?"

"Six O'clock."

The group plunged again into the thick green sea, hacking and hewing through a green barrier that seemed never-ending.

"Hows our orienteering?" Jonas asked their Translocation specialist.

"Beacons active, all sound. No tampering," Paul returned after a moment's concentration.

The day waned as the group's slow progress continued. A few more encounters with ambitious local fauna resulted in some hairy moments of thrilling combat, though Jonas' healing touch ensured that the group remained in tip-top form.

By nightfall, the group estimated that it had made an ingress of about ten kilometres toward the centre of the Island, at which point the towering Bayan trees began to make their presence known. With any luck, they should penetrate the region where the Dryads made their home the next day.

As most of the creatures on the Island preferred nocturnal activity, it became too dangerous to move through the uncertain shadows cast by Dancing Lights and Daylight, which both dazzled the eyes and made discerning fauna from foliage impossible.

Gwen produced their shelter, the Portable Habitat, and placed an HDM crystal into the slot at its base.

She invoked the glyph of activation, at which point the habitat quickly grew into a portal that shimmered in the middle of the forest, invisible and shielded except to registered members of her party.

Gwen stepped into the shelter to find a large, multi-bedroomed bungalow formed from aluminium and glass in the Bauhaus style, sitting in an area that was grey and mute. Disturbingly, there lacked a sense of finiteness about the space, even gazing past the confines of the bungalow's white fence gave her an uncomfortable feeling of being lost in a place of grey-nothingness.

"I think it's obvious that you shouldn't be wandering out into the ethereal world." Jonas proceeded past Gwen. "Give me the Decanter of Endless Water. I'll get the showers and the kitchen set up."

"There are showers?" Gwen could feel the humidity congealing like stick brine between herself and the skinsuit. The breathing fabric made her feel like she was wearing a film of warm water.

"Well, it only produces so much at once." he grinned as Gwen gushed at the thought of a cold shower under fresh water. "I'd recommend you use your own Conjuration cantrips if you're going to be in there for long. We need to fill up our supplies and make dinner as well, you know."

"I am just happy there's an actual shower." Gwen pushed past the door, the alien anxiety of the grey-void forgotten. "What's for chow?"
"Noodles, I'd imagine. Pasta and the like. Storage Ring Pot Luck?"

Gwen had the most extensive storage space and was thus the proverbial mule for their party.

To her body, the cool "house" made a jarring difference. One minute, she was trekking through a Black Zone jungle, then suddenly, they were in a safe pocket-space with working stoves, showers, and actual beds. She couldn't imagine what it would have been like if they had to find shelter in the trees, as her High-school Field Trip had done. Was this the difference between adventuring with professionals, and adventuring with poorly equipped amateurs?

After a cold shower, she found Jonas humorously attired in an apron, serving bowls of aromatic Bolognese.

"Pepper?" Jonas enquired.

"Parmesan too, please." Gwen indulged herself.

At night, the military men's snoring was like rolling thunder, softly vibrating the windows of the bungalow. Gwen was glad that her doors were stout oak, but even so, it hardly suppressed the diesel generators running in unison.

An alarm sounded at what must be six or so in the morning, signifying the pocket dimension would soon end and its inhabitants ejected. A quick breakfast of cereal and ration ensued, and then the member once again equipped themselves for the dense jungle.

Taj volunteered to venture outside first, but Gwen convinced them to substitute Ariel instead. When the little marten reported no immediate alarm nor danger, the rest of the crew followed.

True to the quartermaster's words, the clearing they'd cut had almost grown back entirely in the time that they'd been asleep.

"How're the beacons?" Jonas asked Paul.

The Translocation specialist drew a few sigils in the air.

"A few left, enough for us to triangulate our way back. The missing glyphs start about three kilometres back, extending to the five-kilometre marker."

"Alright, let's get going."

Their progress became impeded an hour later when Taj halted at an unexpected clearing. It was an unusual sight, the blue sky above catching them all unexpectedly and stunning their Dark Vision buffs. They'd been hacking through the densest part of the jungle yet when Taj's machete struck a tree, only to find the offending branches hollow and empty.

"Huh?" He stumbled forward as his weighted blow fell short, stepping unexpectedly into a clearing. It was decidedly an abnormal formation, for the thick foliage just gave way as though they'd crossed over an invisible threshold.

When the rest of the party joined the bewildered Taj, they saw an awful amount of carcasses lying on the path ahead.

Birds seemed to be the mainstay of the collected boneyard, scattering through the fallen logs and stripped branches devoid of leafy green matter. Shells of large insects filled the spaces where the dead birds' white bones languished, forming mounds of chitinous shells, creating a grisly game of guess the fauna.

"Gwen."

"On it. Detect Magic!"

Gwen made a mental note to learn more specific Detection Divinations as she turned her eyes upon the unnaturally cleared space. Above the ground were scattered motes of elemental air. Below, was a solid mass of roving elemental earth, so thick and voluminous as to be a carpet of ochre shifting to and fro.

"Incoming!" she called out. "Out of the clearing now! They're below us!"

As though answering her behest, a soldier ant emerged head first, a three-inch-long length of obsidian mandibles slicing the air hungrily as it burst through the carrion. Another broke out a split second later, followed by a dozen, a hundred, possibly a thousand innumerable heads of various shapes and sizes, all expertly armed with scythe-like jaws both large and small.

The party reacted immediately, turning about and making for the assumed detour.

"Eight O'clock! Then 5 O'clock after two hundred meters!" Paul commanded. Jonas materialised another Keen-enchanted machete, opening a path ahead.

"Shield of Faith!"

The half-dome barrier of positive energy wasn't as effective against physical attacks as plain-old Mage Armour, but it would have to do.
"Shit, how the hell are ants moving so fast?"

By now the ants were a flood of chittering hunger. When Gwen took another gander in-between the motion of her pumping legs, she noted that they were the same pin-headed critters they had previously seen, only now they were a roving tide of terror.

A handful of the ants fell onto Taj from above, landing on his Mage Armour. The group heard a sizzling sound as the stink of oxidising Earthen mana filled the air. To their woe, the needle on their heads sprayed a corrosive, milky liquid that wore away magical protection.

"Shiva's wrath!" Taj shook off the offending insect by dispelling and re-summoning the Mage Armour. "Can we go any faster?"

"Too much jungle!" Jonas called out from up ahead.

"We have to fight them! Shit! Arrgh!" Paul shouted as his hand brushed against a tree haphazardly. "Fuck!"

Whatever Paul had grasped with a wayward hand in the heat of the moment had secreted a substance that removed a layer of skin from his hand.

"Healing Word!" Jonas restored his Translocation Mage a second later.

As for Gwen, her repertoire of spells flashed across her mind. To her chagrin, none of her Invoations had sufficient AOE potential to clear millions of minuscule insects at once, that was one of the fundamental fallacies of the Lightning Element.

"Caliban!"

A slithering serpent slipped from a dark tear in thin air.

"Drop and roll!"

Caliban dived into the tidal wave of ants and began to roll like a child amongst the sea spray. Now almost a meter and a half in length, it carved a path through the ants. Curiously, the swarm seemed to know instinctively that the Void-filled Caliban wasn't food, and so parted from the slithering thing as though it was Void-Moses parting the ant sea.

Just as Gwen felt her chest fill with hope, a writhing sphere of ants, taking advantage of the height offered by the foliage, began to rain upon them, blooming into vicious sacks of acid and venom as they landed suicidally on the Mage's Shields. With the shimmering of their expanded Mana Shields, the Mage's progress became even slower, becoming impeded by the flickering of one another's projected, semi-spherical buffers as they tried to escape the swarm.

"We have to fight this out!" Jonas commanded them. "Watch for friendly fire, AOE at will. Taj! Explosive Warding Glyph! Maximum range centred on you!"

"Cover me!"

"Got it!" Gwen's shrill voice pierced through the male voices. "Deploying Shield!"

Gritting her teeth, she manifested a dark shield of obsidian Void as Jonas began to draw the repulsion Glyph. The dusky barrier flickered into being with a hiss, consuming all it touched. When the swarm of ants ran into its base, their bodies sizzled like white-hot metal quenched in bubbling fat.

Gwen's face immediately turned a shade of white. Not even the buffer energy left by Almudj was enough to mitigate the drain caused by hundreds of thousands of minuscule insects marching like kamikaze lemmings towards certain doom.

"Shit!" Jonas shot Gwen a bolt of positive energy, restoring some colour to her complexion. "Taj! How long?"

"Five Seconds!"

"Don't bother— I'll take care of this." In the chaos of their frenetic actions, her father's voice pierced the chaos.

"Empowered Transmute Salt!"

The group felt a surge of elemental water gather beside them like a gravity well, their skin instantly becoming dry as their hair grew encrusted with crystalline strings of white-pink Elemental Salt. Morye gathered the spell-force in his hand and struck the ground beneath them, transmuting all within a radius of thirty or so meters into a world of rosy pinkness.

In the next moment, a sudden frost consumed the forest. All moisture, both flora and fauna, became fuel for the growth of saline snow.
The ants too, burst into crumbling masses of desiccated shells, a veritable river of black sand mixing in with the white.

Morye, his face a little paler for the effort, pulled his arm from the pillar of salt that had formed where he stood; his clothes, combat mesh, hair, and exposed skin were all covered with his innate element.

"Should have just done that first thing," Morye noted casually as the others shook themselves from the unforeseen circumstance of their escape from imminent doom. "Gwen, don't do that Shield. It's the stupidest thing a Void Mage can do. You just lost life invoking it, AND lost life absorbing those ants."

"I had to protect our Healer," Gwen replied sulkily. If Morye could have resolved the problem, he should have just done so in the first place. Why the delay, why the running? Why the endangerment if he had a solution up his sleeve all along?

"You live and learn." Morye shrugged. "By the way, I think we're going to have company."

The once verdant jungle, now a world of snow sculptures, was beginning to crumble around them.

"Which direction?" Jonas wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth. Whatever his intentions, Morye had saved them from a pyrrhic victory, and that was commendable in itself.

Morye tapped his nose. "I smell perfume."

There was a distinct sound of distorting wood, a sort of bizarre onomatopoeia, a groan that was at once the rapid growth of wood as well as the splintering of its fibres. Gwen had heard it many times before in the Grot, playing in the backdrop of her conversations and lesson with Henry as Sufina tended to her grove.

An island pine that had survived the salt-apocalypse parted to reveal a giantess clad in yellow and bronze, her face a vision of loin-tingling allure. A full head of autumn tresses fell like a scintillating waterfall from her head, framing exquisite, leafy brows that defined a pair of burnishing eyes sparkling like emeralds.

"Oh," Jonas muttered. "Oh, dear."

"Woa," Paul mouthed, his mouth becoming a perfect O.

Taj brushed the ants from his body and made ready to finish that Glyph of Warding.

Gwen felt her spine tingle with expectation and anticipation, a flood of passions flushing her cheeks. How should she engage the Dryad? Gwen wondered. Should she immediately mention Sufina and demand access to the Grot? Should they perhaps parley with it and negotiate the terms of their passage? She had given this moment days of speculation, but now that they had found themselves a three-meter tall goddess of exquisite wood with bolted-on breasts, Gwen discovered that she had lost all words.

"Hey there, lovely."

A husky voice sounded beside them, full of confidence and without a smidgen of hesitation. The party turned to see Morye as they had never seen him before, upright, tall, at-ease, his face chilled and handsome, his hair slicked back and flawless. When he smiled, there was an aura of vitality and self-assurance, elegant and confident.

"Hello there," the leaves rustled as the giantess spoke, her eyes gleaming as she looked down and saw Morye grinning at her. "Are you humans lost?"

"Lost and found." Morye made a subtle flourish as he bowed. Much to the party's consternation, he approached the Dryad without so much as manifesting a suit of Salt Armour. "But I could just as easily lose myself in your arms."

Gwen felt a glob of vomit forcing its way up her throat and into her mouth.

The Dryad seemed taken aback by Morye's candidness. "What can I do for you?"

"Ah, the things we could do would make the bush blush." Morye smoothly replied without breaking eye contact. "But for now, we would like to find a certain Mistress Sufina, though as for myself, I would be delighted to make your acquaintance while my companions did their duty."

Gwen wondered if Dryads could cringe because she was already sweltering with nausea.

"Oh, you're the Mistress' friends?" The Dryad's eyes lit up, casting a luminous glow on her face. "Come this way then, hee hee hee, let me show you the way to the Grot. We'll have so much fun, I am sure."

The woods parted as the Dryad moved, opening a path for the party to follow.

Gwen forced the sputum down her throat and gathered her wits about her. She turned to see the others, Paul, Taj, and Jonas, looking towards Morye with faces full of admiration and worship.
She couldn't help but bite her lips in frustration.
Men! What had she expected?


When the giantess reached a second clearing, it became evident to the party that a calamity had stuck the grove. Considering the prevalence of exotic orchids Gwen and company had seen on their way in, they had been expecting to find a resplendent paradise, the very apex of nature's crowning beauty. Instead, they found a ruined wasteland that was only now beginning to recover. Old roots and branches that had once formed into chairs and tables were charred and shrivelled, black and burnt and mangled. The Grot's dappled pavilion, with its leaves and branches overhead, was all but in tatters; the earth now stank of rot, the soil ankle-deep in soot and decomposing mush.

"This is an… interesting Grot you have." Her father studied their hostess with scepticism. The man likely doubted the Dryad's intelligence, through Gwen felt that wasn't an undesirable quality in a nymph.

Beside them, the wood-sprite turned a stain darker. Gwen hadn't realised that dryads could blush, she imagined one needed flesh and blood for that.

When the Dryad spoke, her voice was bitter and tragic. "Sufi's guests, uncouth, mortal louts the lot of them. I had invited them to tea out of the kindness of my own heart, and this is how they repaid me— by burning my lovelies."

"Brutes!" Morye agreed with the verdurous goddess. "Let me find a way to make it up to you."

Gwen meanwhile, had cold sweat oozing past the fabric of her skin-suit. Yue! It had to be Yue. She was sorry for the Dryad's loss, but also thankful, for the garden's distressed state meant her friends had made contact with Sufina and so must be alright.

"Mistress of the Wood, may I ask where is Sufina now?" Gwen stepped into the clearing, imploring with Demi-human with a face full of hope. To her surprise, the giantess turned her sculpted face toward Gwen and leaned in closer.

"Mmm… what is that scent?" The Dryad came closer and closer until her nose was almost touching Gwen's. The woodland being was enormous, her head nearly the length of Gwen's torso, carved out from wood as though a grandmaster had taken his skills to a colossal trunk. Her lashes, tiny blades of grass, fluttered lovingly, drawing attention to two smouldering orbs of viridescence that seemed to possess infinite depth. It was an alluring but alien expression, for the woman's eyes had depthless pupils. "Your face…"

Gwen felt her skin crawl as the creature stalked about her, causing Taj and the others to ready their guards and half-incant spells under their breath. She too was prepared to let loose her Void-Shield or clad herself in Void-skin if the wood-woman were fancy a sudden assault.

"How curious," the giantess muttered to herself. The Dryad carefully placed a tendril under Gwen's sculpted chin and lifted her face so that her eyes could fully purchase the dimensions of Gwen's appearance. "You remind me of Sufina's contractor, and yet... you're not?"

"We are… related," Gwen answered obscurely. "Can you direct us to see Sufina now? The matter is urgent."

The Dryad reared back, almost striking Gwen with her flailing vines. Gwen staggered back, mildly alarmed by the woodland lady's exhibitionism. Moving with the sound of lifting timber on a summer morning; the nymph peered towards the group's men with a gesture filled with promise.

"Maybe they'd like to stay for tea while you made your visit? My sisters and I are starved for company."

When she spoke, a dozen more Dryads of different shapes and sizes appeared at the edge of the clearing, each sprouting garlands and trellises of vibrant hair that filled the grove with colour.

Where the men hadn't seemed so smitten before, now they were reddening with swelling anticipation. Even Jonas seemed to hold his breath as a red-headed Dryad made her acquaintance known by running a hand of white-pine down the length of her washboard abdomen.

"Maybe they will." Gwen turned to face their hostess with an expression several degrees colder, muttering under her breath. "Are there mortals like me with Sufi?"

"There are." the Dryad didn't look pleased as she recounted an unpleasant story of uncultured savages ravaging her grove. "There was a little maniac of fire, a dainty midget healer, and a very strapping native, which Sufi cruelly denied us. I figure she must be wringing him dry right now."

Gwen turned to the party to ask for an escort, but the grinning fools that greeted her made her sigh deeply. Maybe it was the military life, but Taj, Jonas and Paul seemed especially vulnerable to the charms of the opposite sex, notably when they resembled pin-ups that she'd sometimes see in the dorms. The fact that the dryads were fully compliant, eager even, with a master carver's perfection, stripped the disciplined men of their senses.

Her father especially demonstrated an enviable ability to hold three to four conversations, flittering between compliment and flattery with the ease of a river eel sliding over mossy stones.

Gwen had told them not to initiate combat under any circumstances. Still, she hadn't anticipated that the Dryads were completely friendly or harmless, or that the men could initiate extra-curriculum contact.
Should she tell them off, or should she let them be? She wondered, painfully aware of her junior status. Surely with Sufina as the 'Madam' of the Grot, the men would be safe, if a little worse for wear— having survived the strange hazards of the island, there are worse fates than picking wood splinters from one's tender regions.

"I am going to find Sufina!" she called out to them. "You lot should be perfectly safe here."

"Want me to come with?" Jonas tore himself away from the redhead with the painful expression of immense self-sacrifice. By now the lesser Dryads had grown furniture to cater for the men, twisting branches and roots to form divans, chairs and tables, creating linen from beds of emerald moss and jade turf. The flourishing transformation proffered the clearing with an eclectic air, making Gwen's nose wrinkle.

Gwen sighed. That Jonas poised a rhetorical question told Gwen that perhaps it was time for her to take a hike in the woods. There must not have been much privacy for men to perform maintenance on the ship.

Then there was the real reason— that Sufi's Grot was a place only she could venture. She neither wanted the men to see nor for them enter a haven that was sacred to her Master, a private sanctuary ventured only by Alesia, Gunther, and herself.

Wistfully, the Dryad opened a path through the jungle and told Gwen to follow it until she reached a Bayan tree that had a clearing all to itself. Gwen followed the dark road of fecund soil, sensing her shoes sink into the rich loam with each step. After a few minutes, she came to a clearing, though there was nothing open about the space occupied by the singularly immense Bayan tree.

The familiar creaking of warping wood greeted Gwen's entrance.
A branch dipped from up on high and began to lower itself.
From its tip, Gwen could see a familiar female figure striding forth on a pair of svelt stalks that ended in needlepoints tapered to a wasp's waist, adorned with modest bosoms of smooth blonde wood.

It was Sufina, but the Dryad was also not Sufina. Something that made Sufina her Master's companion had grown ambivalent in his absence. The warmth, the humanity, the little gestures of whimsy, was now absent.

"Greetings, Gwen," Sufina uttered, the stifled emotion in her voice punctuated with a slight tremor, as though she was having trouble recollecting the past. "Your Master is no longer among us."

"I know." Gwen felt her throat tighten, eyes little warmer for the effort. She could feel the tremorous grief she'd left buried for a week rising from the dead and kicking apart the box she'd shut them in. "Sufina…"

"Would you like to see him?" The Dryad interjected.

At the wood woman's behest, Gwen felt as though a cat had snatched her tongue and fled with her words. "Master's remains… are here?"

"Yes." Sufina motioned for the entrance to the Grot. "Come."

Gwen wordlessly followed her erstwhile family member until she reached the entrance to the Grot. It was no longer the familiar sight of a portal artistically woven into elegant designs. The entry was now a dark hole caught between two slabs of sinuous roots, its degraded state an apt metaphor for their present circumstances.

The pair passed over the threshold and made their way deep within until they reached the heart tree, the place where Gwen had laid down Henry to be healed by Sufina's natural vitality. That was the last time she had seen her Master, and he rested in its centre now, just as she had left him, only pale, still and unmoving.

"Oh—" Her body turned rigid and unyielding as her eyes fell upon the harrowing sight. "Oh— O Gods."

As though moving through molasses, Gwen shimmied towards her Master's cadaver. One step, then another, then the rest of the distance in quick succession. Her hand immediately fell to his jugular, her other hand hovering just over his nose. Despairingly, there was nothing. The coldness of his flesh struck like eldritch frost.

"Master..." Her chest was heaving out of control, her heart struck by such arrhythmia that she could hardly draw another breath. Then something escaped from her throat, a long wail that echoed across the hollow chamber of the heart tree, now empty of its Master and occupant.

A sobbing mess, the inconsolable girl fell upon the chest of the unmoving man, all her dammed up grief abruptly unleashed. Beside her, Sufina watched, her face as calm as a billabong that mirrored the still sky.

"I have preserved him, in so far as my magic allows. He will exist in gentle repose so long as my Grot exists," she informed Gwen, placing a hand on the shoulder of the grieving girl. "I'll take you to see your friends now, would you like to leave a few words? I think he would have liked that. He had always liked your way with words."

Half ruined with tears, Gwen looked up at the Sprite that had once laughed and indulged her with the delight of a child. Sufina's tone was distant and aloof, as befitting a powerful magical being. Creatures such as Dryads knew want, lust, greed, desire, hate and like, but their empathy were traits honed for predation. Unlike their Demi-human cousins, the Elves and Dwarves or even the Orcs, they did not possess the capacity for what scholars called the Human Condition.

A few words?

What words could she leave Henry now? Her Master was no more; there was no more 'Henry' here than Sufina was the Sprite she had known for the last twelve months. If she were to leave words, it would not be for herself or Henry, but for Sufina, whose intact intellect would recall, and mayhap even one day understand the lament enough to protect Henry's remains for centuries to come.

What could she say? What was Henry to her and Sufi? What words were fitting for a man who singularly changed their lives, whose constant affirmation and support aided her in her darkest hour? What would resonate with Sufina's alien heart?

Perhaps there was something.

Gwen couldn't recall the recital in its entirety, but she couldn't think of a better way to commemorate their bond.

"O Captain, my Captain…' Gwen began, fossicking through her memory for the words. After the initial stutter, the words came to her.

_"O, Captain! My Captain! Our fearful trip is done,_
 _The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won,_
 _For you, bouquets and ribboned wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding,_
 _For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;_
 _My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still,_
 _My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will,_

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

 _The ship is anchored safe and sound, its voyage closed and done,_ _From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;_ _Exult O shores— and ring O bells!_ _But I with mournful tread,_ _Walk the deck my Captain lies,_ _Fallen cold and dead."_

The sentiments of Whitman far exceeded her circumstances, but it was all Gwen could eulogise. Henry had been her Captain, and he had given his life in their defence. She was his torchbearer now, like those that came after Lincoln, but where would she start? How would she even begin to live up to her Master's hopes? For now, all that crossed her mind was wrapping her fingers around Sobel's white neck.

"O, Captain…" Sufina appeared to be digesting the words. "My Captain... Fallen cold and dead..."

The wood-nymph allowed the words to roll off whatever dryads used for a tongue. Gwen observed the doll-like woman as she repeated the words, each time engendering a shiver.

"I will let Gunther and Alesia know, Master." She returned her attention to the reposed Master of Sydney. "Us siblings will come and visit you, all three of us, in the future."

"Come." When Sufina spoke again, her voice no longer had that burred feeling of apathy. "It's time to meet your friends."

Gwen found Elvia and Whetu in a walled garden, engaged in sullen boredom.

Whetu looked as though he was bored out of his mind. The poor Kiwi Abjurer was building himself a precarious house of punamu cards.

Elvia, golden and resplendent as always, had been well preserved. She was still wearing her competition uniform from the attack on Rosebay, though it looked to have been laundered since. The diminutive girl was playing catch with what appeared to be a flower-sprite of some kind, tossing a ball of positive energy to and fro as the creature skipped across the lawn.

"EVEE! Oh, my dear Evee!" Gwen sprinted from the entrance at a deadbolt, responding to feelings she had not realised were so acute and advanced.

Elvia's face formed the expectant expression of agog surprise as Gwen tackled her from the ottoman stool and pushed her onto the lawn, burying Elvia's face between her bosom.

"Gwenmmph!" Elvia cried out, wrapping her arms around Gwen's waist, squeezing with all her might. "Oooivemiffedyew!"

"Ke kee!" The little Sprite that had been playing with Elvia fled into the tangles of her hair.

"Oh, I've missed you too!" Gwen pulled herself away to kissed Elvia thrice on the forehead, opposing herself to avoid a dearer target. She felt strangely complete and was about to give Elvia another hug when someone beside them coughed.

"Hello." Whetu waved at her.

"G'day," Gwen nodded back, for her hands were busy.

Elvia writhed in Gwen's arms, her head still buried against her. The petite girl's face grew thoroughly flushed as it pressed against her friend. "Gwennie! I— I can't breathe!"

Gwen relented, panting slighting for having exhausted her bottled up emotions. Between the extreme grief of her Master and the explicit joy of seeing Elvia, she was emotionally exhausted.

"Where's Yue?" Gwen asked, looking around. "Is she alright?"

"She's on another level," Sufina answered from behind. "Your pyro friend was beyond maddening."

"Oh?" Yue's rage did not require any stretch of the imagination. "Sorry, Sufina."

"Gwen," Whetu interrupted Gwen's conversation, retracting his house of punamu. "Does you been here mean we're getting out?"

"I'd presumed so." Gwen turned to Sufina. "Can we leave, Sufina?"

"You have a ship?"

"We do."

"Good, get your pyromaniac away from my Grot." Sufina spat with a scowl.

At her behest, the reconvened party then descended a flight of stairs interlaced from the Bayan tree's roots. As the tunnel burrowed downward, they could hear a dull thud striking the earth at irregular intervals. Elvia made an awkward expression when Gwen asked what was causing the horrid racket, because 'it' was probably Yue.

"I am cooling off your friend's temper." According to the Dryad, Yue did not like that Sufina kept them 'incarcerated' in the Grot's safety. In her own words, given time, she could surely burn "A six-lane highway" through the greenery to the sea.

Though Sufina had to admit that Yue presented a reasonable goal— given that the island had no megafauna, consisting mostly of poisonous and carnivorous inspects and plants, she could hardly allow the madcap psychopath such liberty to wreak havoc. When told that she would not be allowed to do as she pleased, the Battlemage challenged Sufina to a duel, insisting that Sufina was trying to trap them.

Sufina obliged, bones were broken and then mended.

Therefore, it was under these circumstances that Gwen and Elvia found their friend, her attire in shambles, scorched here and there and bleeding from several places, battling a gnarly Root Elemental in an underground arena.

The summoned creature was an interactive dummy, ceasing its offence whenever Yue exhausted herself and resuming its offensive as soon as she recovered. For seven days and nights they had squared off, Yue drawing as much mana as she could from meditative sleep, Sufina's nourishing mead, and the cache of mana crystals she had in her small Storage Ring.

With smugness, Sufina explained that the Root Elemental was, in fact, a part of the Bayan heart-tree, and was thus immortal while within the confines of the Grot. Tired of her bickering, she had set Yue up to blow off her bottled rage accumulated from Debora's betrayal, trading precious mana for silence.

When Yue saw Gwen appear at the threshold of the arena-like cavern, she sizzled off her spell and bolted toward them at full belt, still energetic after a week of ceaseless combat. Her eyes though, betrayed her frayed nerves, for they were two panda-rings of puffy flesh.

"Gwen! You're alright! You're okay! You're safe!" Yue shrieked across the arena, diving headfirst into Gwen's arms. Taking both of her friends, Gwen invited Elvia to join a long-desired huddle.

"I know this might not be the right time…" Yue pulled herself away after she ran out of breath. "But where is—"

"Debora's dead," Gwen announced immediately, reading her friend's one-track mind.

"Dead? How?"

"Digested slowly, by Caliban."

Yue pumped her fist in the air. "Hell, yes! I wish I could have watched. How about Elizabeth? The Void Mage? The Mermen?"

"Not good. Sydney is an ongoing concern."

Beside her, Elvia's eyes were as large as blue-bells in full-bloom.

"Gwennie... Caliban a—ate Debbie?" Elvia spluttered, her complexion turning pale as a sheet. "Like, bones and all?"

"It's a little more complicated than that." Gwen went on to explain to the frantic Elvia. "There's a sordid tale to be told for sure, but we'll have plenty of time on the way back. For now, let's get out of here."

"What, we can 'leave' now?" Yue turned to Sufina with a catty expression.

"Gwen has a ship, and a whole party of Senior Mages." Sufina returned Yue's catty expression with a resting bitch-face of her own. "Now get out of my Grot!"

Yue turned to wave to the Elemental that she'd been sparring with for a week. "... I guess this is goodbye, Woodie."

To their surprise, the Elemental waved back.

"Woodie was originally made by Henry to be your sparring partner, Gwen," Sufina explained to the girls. "At least someone got some use out of it."

At the mention of her Master, the jubilation of the moment was murdered and left for dead. In silence, the four of them returned to the upper level of the Grot, bypassing the Heart-tree and its treasured body of Henry Kilroy.

Then, without warning, the dappled light of day dazzled their eyes.

Elvia had acclimatised to living underground for the last seven days. When they emerged again into the sunlight, she clasped Gwen's hand and squeezed nervously, afraid that something awaited them in the woods. Meanwhile, Yue fell to her knees in triumph.

"Yess! FUCKING natural light! Blessed open air! We're finally out!"

Whetu as well seemed stunned by the unexpected deliverance. "Boy, I am happy to be out. Imagine that, a life without Hungi Feasts! Without root beer! Without Feijoa Cider! Nothing but Golden Mead..."

Watching the grinning Maori, Gwen wondered if Whetu felt homesick for Auckland Tower after all their wayward adventures fighting competition matches, surviving a city-destroying conspiracy, and then surviving tropical island full of century-old cougars.

After giving Elvia another pat to ensure that her blondie was really there in the flesh, she turned once more to Sufina, who had watched the girls with a complicated expression. Sensing a strange inspiration, she tapped into her Astral Body and felt for Almujd's Essence deep within her animus. Drawing on instinct, she gathered the emerald energy and compressed it into a ball, willing it to coalescence.

"I still have some of that life-force you loved so much," Gwen offered the prize to Sufina. "Thanks for taking care of my friends."

Sufina eyed the viridescent Essence; a wet pink tongue darting between her lips hinted at her desire.

"Thanks," Sufina absorbed the mote with her finger.

"Do you want to keep exploring the outside world?" Gwen metaphorically tested the lukewarm waters with her toes. "I think our Master would have liked that."

"I can't be moved that easily." Sufina's eyes moved from the girls towards Gwen, facing two shimmering orbs of emerald on amber. "I refused to be contracted to another Mage, not after Henry."

"Is it because of elemental compatibility?" Gwen asked. To have Sufina as an ally would surely be an incredible boon.

"Irrelevant." Sufina raised a hand and grew a small flower from her palm. She allowed it to bud and bloom, before depositing it in Gwen's hair, behind her ear. Gwen noticed Sufina herself had the same flower on her opposite ear. From afar, they must look like fraternal twins, one flesh and blood, the other a delicate wooden replica. "Gwen, when Henry died, and our contract absolved, I lost a part of myself. It was a part of the spell, I know, but it had been a part of me for so long. You should know that I am still in possession of almost three decades worth of shared memories. But—"

Sufina's attention turned toward the middle distance.

"I don't feel it, Gwen. I want to cherish those memories, but they're someone else's now. What Henry had provided for me, the emotions and the feelings, they're gone. The 'Sufi' you knew has been unmade."

"Sufina..." Gwen moved to touch her hand, but the Dryad drew away.

"I need to stay here," Sufina announced to the open air, almost as a declaration. "If I am away from him, my memories will fade faster."

Gwen ignored Sufina's earlier rejection and embraced her doppelgänger, feeling Sufina's recalcitrant body press against her own.

"Okay," Gwen said, for once lost for words.

"You may visit." Sufina watched Gwen retract her embrace without particular emotion. "I would like to see Gunther and Alesia, I think. I did watch them grow from mewling children to adults, after all."

"I'll let them know, and we'll come together in the future," Gwen agreed. "So, this is goodbye?"

"For now." Sufina turned back to her Grot. "The others will open the way for you."

Gwen watched Dryad stalk back into the darkness of the Grot. The portal shimmered for a moment, then faded, revealing nought but the exposed roots of an enormous Banyan tree. She spun to address the others, who'd been watching them.

Elvia appeared frail but in good cheer, her blonde hair plastered to her face by the jungle's humidity. A little Sprite-thing poked from her hair and watched Gwen with luminous eyes.

Yue was sweaty but felicitous. Her body was rightly battered, but the girl was happier than she looked.

Whetu looked like himself, but skinnier and more mellow than Gwen had recalled. There was a hungry look in his eye that suggested he couldn't wait to be feasting on something other than Dryad milk.

"Shall we?" She motioned for the far clearing. "Home awaits."

The reformed party found Taj, Paul and Jonas not far from the path that led back into the clearing. She hoped that in the several hours she'd been gone, the men had not engaged in haphazard coitus with the wood nymphs.

Nonetheless, they had been fed berries and mead made by the ladies of the woods, playing house with the doll-like damsels. More than anything, it was a strangely comical sight: three military men, sitting rigidly upright, surrounded by a plethora of flowering ladies with laughter like tingling bells and trilling birds, asking them questions about the outside world.

"Hey, guys! We're back!"

Jonas bolted upright as though he'd been caught doing something dirty red-handed.

"Oh, thank God you're here!" He moved from the table, the red-headed dyad still hanging onto his arm. "Any longer and they'll be putting us to pasture."

The other two men stood as well, trying their best to shake off their admirers.

"Yue!" Paul snapped a smart salute, which was returned by Yue expertly.

"Good to see you guys, I am happy you all came to pick me up."

"Elvia."

"Hi everyone, I am very thankful for your efforts to retrieve us."

"Don't mention it."

Gwen scanned their surroundings.

"Where's Morye?"

The men whistle innocuously.

"He went off with the giantess - the elder dryad… somewhere."

Gwen had expected as much, but to think that her father was somewhere right now being put to stud.

Unbidden, she took hold of her Evee to dispel the horrid vision of her father.

"Eek!" Elvia yelped as Gwen caught the mind-scrubber in her arms and squeezed her shoulders.

"Kee! Kiki!" A vaguely humanoid Sprite tried to repel Gwen by striking her with a leafy burst of Positive Energy.

"What is that thing?" Gwen spluttered, batting away Evee's leafy protector.

Elvia looked sheepish.

"I contracted it." She whispered under her breath, barely audible, her face as a red as a beet.

"You contracted what?" Gwen pawed her chest-mesh for the Cure Disease potion. Hopefully, it would be enough to cleanse Elvia of whatever she had picked up in the woods. "Don't worry, a shot of this and it's going to be A-okay."

The group stared at Gwen dumbly.

"She contracted a Spirit, Gwen." Yue pointed out loudly.

Gwen's brows furrowed, realisation dawned. "Oh, a contractual Spirit! Like Alesia's Crimson Caracal?"

"Yes!" Elvia quickly raised her hand in the affirmative to avoid further misunderstanding.

"Ki-ki!" The Sprite raised its head in defiance.

Gwen awkwardly laughed with them before turning back to the matter at hand. "So, anyone knows where Morye is?"

"Morye, as in your dad?" Yue raised a sceptical brow. "What's a useless no-good old man like him doing here?"

"Plenty, trust me," Gwen replied with a heavenward roll of her eyes.

"So what's the plan?" Jonas pulled his arm from between the wooden vice that was the redhead's hills and valleys. "I am sorry, Miss. We have to go."

"Stay!" The junior Dryad seemed to be capable of only simple speech. "Play with us! Feel good!"

Gwen had half-expected a "We love you long-time," from the Dryad, but chose to ignore the raunchy display. Instead, she pointed to the only path leading away from the Grot.

"That's our way out. Let's skedaddle before its overgrown again."

"Agreed," the others replied.

The group checked their gear and politely asked the dryads to leave them alone. Whetu especially had to fight them off bodily with a few punamu barriers. The sun was now reaching a low orbit, but with any luck, they could be halfway out by nightfall and reach the beach first thing in the morning.

"Tell Morye we're heading for the ship," Gwen informed one of the blonde dolls still trying to convince Paul to stay.

The Dryad ignored her.
Gwen dismissed the snub and moved toward the trail.
Soon, they would be out on the beach.
From the beach, they would retreat to the City of Singapore.
Then, one freight ship later, they would be home.


Morye held himself against a branch to brace his frail and exhausted lower body, now possessing the rigidity of wet spaghetti. He grinned with satisfaction, for though there was now a part of himself that was a bruised, doughy mess, the affair was a big tick off the bucket list. In his mind, and indistinct amount of time had passed in Dryads' Grot. Wiping the nectar from his lips, he touched his chin gingerly. There was the bristly spikiness of a five-o-clock shadow rubbing his palm like coarse sandpaper.

For how long had he ploughed the land to seed the crops? He hadn't felt this drained since meeting Helena back in their university days.

Here and there in the grove, flowery Dryads still milling about languishingly. A few of them drifted Morye's way, but even the mighty Morye felt too sluggish to keep on trucking after such a marathon. Though he looked hale, Morye knew he was running on empty, riding on fumes, squeezed out like a desiccated cucumber.

"Where's everyone?" he asked a red-head with lovely eyes and a vacant expression.

"Gone!" the nymph-girl lamented, her eyes predatorily scanning over Morye's lower body. "Play?"

"Er… not right now. Where did my party go?"

"They went that way. You sure?"

More cursed under his breath. The others must have abandoned him. The nerve! He would now have to catch up and hope that the boat remained anchored when he arrived.

"Enhance Constitution! Enhance Agility! Expeditious Retreat!" He activated some self-buffs and fled where the Dryad had indicated. It was going to be an uneasy trek with little light, for the sun looked about as exhausted as he was back in the Grot.

Behind him, the woods parted.

"Where art thou going?!" a shrill, feminine voice called out, not too dissimilar from the milk-curdling pitch a Helena always effected. A verdurous dryad, glossy with effort and gloriously alluring, crashed into the clearing, heaving voluptuously. "There's life in you yet, dearie!"

Suddenly, the fatigue of his aching muscles no longer mattered.
Like a shot stag drunk on adrenaline, Morye bolted.

Deep within the Banyan Grot, Sufina returned to her heart tree, where she had grown an elaborate sarcophagus for her former companion. She watched stoically as the roots wove themselves into place, crossing over and melding into a single block of stout ironwood that grew around Henry's body.

"O Captain, My Captain..." Sufina allowed her voice to fill the general air, hearing its tremor reverberate across the uncertain space of her Grot.
Not so long ago, the place had been full of human voices.
There was first Gunther, debating loudly with Henry and seeking advice. There was Alesia, pretending to be young and coy even though she was thirty years old, trying to get out of trouble. Then came Gwen, forever eager for knowledge and the next spell, speaking in that strange way of hers and asking questions that came out of the blue.

Now— there was nothing; there would be no visitors for the foreseeable future. For the first time in a long time, she would be alone. Alone in the deep dark, with nothing but a cadaver-memento.

Slowly, with great care, she raised Henry's body onto a wooden dais.

There was an unobtrusive "tink" as something fell onto the floor.

Sufina willed a tendril to retrieve the object for closer inspection.

It was a shimmering scale about a thumbnail in size, scintillating with a mid-shower rainbow's vibrant hues. Sufina had seen it before; it belonged to the girl, and through it, the girl-Mage had channelled the primordial mana of creation itself.

It was spent, though a seed of life remained, awaiting revitalisation.

Instinctively, Sufina placed the scale upon her left breast, allowing the woodgrain dermis there to open and swallow the relic, sending it to rest beside her creature core. As her life force worked to nourish the object, she could feel a slight tingle, informing her that her vital energies had begun cultivating its severed connection.

It was a strange, indescribable feeling, one that the Dryad no longer could adequately process— but the sentiment lingered, and somewhere within her anima, she recognised the heartwarming sensation.

It was the feeling, of no longer being alone.

Paul contacted Sukarno before they broke free from the tree-line.
The Captain answered the Message happily, ecstatic that the party were returning so soon. Unlike the landing party, he had little means to fend away curious creatures that may lurk in the shallow bay. After all, these islands were said to be inhabited by man-eating wood Nymphs. He knew for sure that should any fishermen be lured by the bathing nymphs onto the island would never be seen again.

When the party broke out from the tree line, Sukarno was further surprised to see that it had grown. Now they were joined by a small blonde girl, who looked refreshingly adorable, a giant Polynesian with facial tattoos, and a Chinese girl with an outrageous figure.

For a moment Sukarno had to wonder if the party had kidnapped some young Nymphs from the island. He had heard that the upper echelons' fabulously wealthy men and women had exotic tastes. No matter how exquisite or vivacious Human girls could be, those with money always turned to stranger thrills.

When the returning party came closer to the boat, it became evident that the returnees were sorceresses.

"Hoi! I am happy to see that you are all safe!"

Sukarno did a quick headcount as the Mage known as Paul cast Water Walk on the party and escorted them across the shallows towards the boat.

Gwen, their "Leader", embarked first, hoisting herself dextrously over the gunwale. "Good evening, Captain. I am afraid we have a few extra passengers."

"That no problem. Everybody safe; that's what's important." His eyes scanned the party.

"Huh, where is your father? He okay?"

"I am sure he's fine." Gwen looked behind her, where the jungle was growing back with visible progress. "When can we go?"

"You want to leave now? Or we wait for him?"

"Is there a problem with travelling at night?"

Sukarno shrugged.

The girl measured her fingers against the setting sun. As taught by Surkano, she deduced that they had two more hours of daylight, then one more in the blue-hour before the sun sunk into the sea.

"Given him until we change, after that, we start the engines. If Morye doesn't show, it means he's chosen to live life as a seed-stud with the Dryads."

"O that sounds like an enviable way to die lah," Sukarno chuckled, his suggesting grin split ear to ear. "Okay, we wait a bit more."

Sukarno envisioned the island populated with little Morye-saplings and couldn't help but laugh. For the girl, however, the revelation was of such exquisite revulsion that she gagged.

Though their return trek had been uneventful, it wasn't a walk in the park. As Gwen's party crashed through the regrown woods, they became soaked with dirt, pollen and sap while bushwacking through the hot, humid, and physically fatiguing jungle.

Yue and Elvia were doubly exhausted by the five-hour march, their uniforms and school-boots hardly suited to trekking through the primordial forest. When Elvia sunk into knee-deep loam for the fifth time and became fast-stuck, Whetu decided to carry her on his back, a task that Gwen envied.

Their party invited insects as well, such as a leech the size of Elvia's arm that had sent Elvia screaming for cover, only to run into more blood-sucking worms as large as her leg. Other strange fauna such as a butterfly blue as eyes made a bee-line straight for Elvia to coddle Kiki with its meter-long pin-needle proboscis.

In hindsight, now that Gwen thought about it. Elvia's Positive Energy aura made her a walking insect lure.

Thankfully, Surkano's ship had a shower.

Subtlely, Gwen informed the others of her intention for a hearty cleanse, then they set to work. Feeling a little guilty for always having first dibs, she asked the men if they wanted to wash first, passing over her Decanter of Endless Water. To her disappointment, Whetu took her up on her insincere offer.

As they waited, Gwen gathered Elvia and Yue at the trawler's aft, where the trio faced the blue yonder and related the tale of what had happened between Debora, Faceless, and herself.

"Fuck me!" Yue articulately conveyed her feelings of shock and dismay. "A god damn shapeshifter tried to put the moves on you? While we were at your Grandpa's?"

"Oh Gwennie, I am so sorry," Elvia cuddled her, though not too intimately as they were all filthy.

"It's okay, Evee. I survived. It's over, at least for now," Gwen sighed with relief. "Elizabeth is somewhere. Master is gone. Gunther has taken over the Tower in Sydney. The city is rebuilding. I think we can all lay low for a while and focus on this refugee business."

"You reckon the Serpent ate Sobel?" Elvia asked.

Gwen shook her head.

"She lost all that life force she'd been collecting though, stolen from two million people, not including the Mermen, so I'd say she's going to be out of action for a while. That is unless her Void magic completely differs from mine."

"What's the refugee thing you're talking about?" Yue asked, curious as to what happens when a city is made inhospitable.

"According to Richard, we'll get assigned to tier 1 or tier 2 cities, depending on our talents." Gwen chewed her lower lip uneasily. She wasn't sure either. Could it mean that Yue, Elvia, and herself wouldn't be able to stay together? Then again, she could appeal to Gunther or the Tower to intervene. It was good having friends in high places.

The broader issue wasn't Yue or Evia, but their families. Gwen doubted the Tower would be so generous as to cater for two entire households, much less provide for Yue's mother, who was an NoM. Elvia's family likewise, probably had their plans. Maybe they could take this opportunity to return to Europe, a place their patriarch had dreamed of returning since losing their land and migrating to Australia. As for Whetu, he was probably returning home to his Master in Auckland.

"Hmm." Yue tapped her fingers on the warm metal planking. "I think I'll stay with Alesia. How badly did you say she was wounded?"

"Bad, though she's recovering just fine," Gwen assured her friend. "The Medical Mages say she should be back to normal after a year or so. It's more so her sundered Astral-body that needs time. It was badly damaged when Alesia took on her Djinn form. Physically, she's probably going to be fine in a few weeks."

"That's good to hear." Yue breathed out. "I'd have to tell Mum and Dad, although I think that works out. Dad's just a regular Joe, and Mum's an NoM so I doubt they'd even send us away. There'd be no profit in it. What city would want a nobody and an NoM?"

"Let's hope so," Gwen replied. If Yue's family could stay in Australia, she could probably pull some favours and have them well looked after. If nothing else, they can remain with Surya and be safe while the city recovered.

"I don't want to go to Europe," Elvia said suddenly, likely realising that the chance that her family would take up the opportunity was high. To Gwen's knowledge, a family the tier of the Lindholms would be welcome anywhere, at least as refugees. Her family would have to scrape by and bury their heads in work for a few years— but after a decade or so, they could re-attain the same life they had in Australia— only in a tier 1 city, mayhap even in ancestral Austria.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it," Gwen said confidently, squeezing Elvia's reddening cheeks. "At the very worst, you can stick with me. We'll take rooms in the Tower and us three can start a cabal. We'll be the three Sorceresses of Sydney!"

"You don't think they'll send you somewhere?" Yue questioned.

"I'll stick with Gunther and Alesia, I think." Gwen nodded to assuage Yue's paranoia. Just as the words left her lips though, Gwen felt the skin-tingling, hair-raising premonition of Divination, indicating something unpleasant was about to happen.

"Taj?"
"On it, what do you sense?"

Gwen scanned their surroundings, checking for danger.

CRASH!

The tree-line on the opposite shore burst out in an explosion of cascading salt.

Morye came springing out at full pelt, a white blur stomping across the beach. Behind him, a giantess, emerald with lascivious beauty, came striding forth in all her nubile glory like a primal fertility goddess.

"Morye, where art thou going?" the Dryad reached out, tendrils whipping across the air.

"Salt Shard!" Morye spun and let loose a hail of jagged shards, cutting her ribbons to shreds. The salt Mage ran onto the water without stopping, his footfalls turning the seawater into chunks of bobbing crystals. Using these as a platform, he ran straight across the shallows toward them.
The Dyad stopped at the edge of the shallows., for the island was the extent of her domain.

Meanwhile, the crew was in an uproar, taking pictures and pointing wildly, marvelling at the enormity of the Dryad's voluptuous display. The sunset, the seawater, the salt and the Dryad— there would be tall tales to tell at the bar for sure.

Morye landed onto the trawler's foredeck with a flourish, the Mage Armour cascading from his body to reveal tattered attire that looked as though it had been ravaged.

"O God, that smarts!" he hissed as the salt worked their way into his wounds. Morye's back looked as though pulled through a sandpaper wringer. "Jonas, give me a Healing Word! I think she took some of my flesh as souvenirs. Arrgh! Thsssss!"

As Elvia had been closest to Morye, the kind healer opened up with a Cure Wounds. Gwen could see that her friend's spell was more potent than before now that the plant-Sprite's Positive Energy supplemented her casting. With Elvia's tender touch of restoration in place, Morye's skin began to heal rapidly. Gwen's father calmed his nerves and turned to look upon the angelic little nurse with eyes full of benevolent thankfulness, giving her a glinting grin of confidence.

"I could be wounded a thousand times over if someone like you there for me at home," He said to Elvia with solemn eyes, the mind-numbing pain of the last few seconds evaporating from his mind like the wounds on his body. "Dearest, may I have your name?"

"Void Bolt!"

A bolt of eldritch energy, darker than black, zinged past Morye's face with a smell of rot and decay, shaving off a millimetre of skin from his cheek. It all happened so fast that his Mage Shield sprung up a split-second too late. When the blood began to ooze, Morye realised that he could no longer feel that particular inch of his face.

"Don't," Gwen said to her father sternly, like a master admonishing a nasty dog. "Just. No."

Elvia stuck out her tongue and healed Morye's facial wound.
Morye appeared alternatively furious and guilty at once; he wanted to admonish Gwen for daring to endanger him with a void spell. By now, he had to have realised that this lovely young thing must be one of his daughter's dear friends— the very object of their rescue. Gwen herself almost immediately regretted the impulsive assault, though her face remained highly indignant.

"Don't do Void," Morye reproached Gwen sternly, his eyes darting away to avert her critical gaze. "It's not good for your health."

Gwen's hazel orbs traversed from her bloody father to Elvia, whose face was scarlet from cheek to cheek, to the dryad sex-goddess who was still loudly pining for Morye, jumping up and down to entice his return.

"Wow, Mr Song, you are a piece of work," Yue commented.

"Watch your mouth, Ms Bai, lest I tell your father," Morye snubbed her back, then added a few more empty admonishments. "Or I tell your mother."

Yue's eyes narrowed dangerously; the air grew hotter.

Gwen took both Yue and Elvia by the arm and pulled them down toward the lower deck. Maybe it was best to keep these two upstarts away from one another. If they kept at it, the boat would probably never make it back to Singapore.

Above, Sukarno gave the order to set sail; the mana engine thrummed to life, and the ship began to move.

Once Whetu returned to the upper deck, it was the girls' turn to shower. As close as their friendship professed to be, they weren't close enough to share a communal shower in a cramped cubical. Gwen went first, stripping off her skin suit and packing away her stinking gear.

When the girls emerged finally from the cabin with their new summer attires, the men's eyes lit up.

"I want a daughter," Paul said seriously to his friends. "I think I am beginning to understand the happiness of being a father."

Jonas nodded but knew that his dream was likely going to be unrequited. He had told himself that he should give up on Alesia many times, but every time he closed his eyes, she was there, burning his resolve to cinders.

The girls did not mind the men's benevolent attention, smiling, laughing and joking as the ship broke through the water with the cool, briny breeze of the sea washing away the forest's mildew.

The trawler made it about thirty minutes away from the island when a sudden sea-sprout erupted from the otherwise calm ocean, showering the unsuspecting crew with fishy water. The boat skidded to a halt with a violent lurch, dipping a little when a massive Merman leapt onboard with a scowl.

The bedraggled crew looked upon the Merman incredulously. They were outside the Shield Barrier, that was true, and they were only a small-sized ship, but they had a full complement of Mages! The sheer force their small vessel possessed could Purge an island, much less deal with a Merman raid.

Expecting the Mages would resolve the matter, Surkano's crew turned to look at Gwen and her friends, now drenched from head to toe and bedraggled with bits of seaweed. Only a moment prior, the girls had been inspirited with visions of Singapore and branded goods in the craft market— the next moment they had arrived at a fish stall.

"Hurr! Hur!" The Merman brandished a coral trident. The bestiary said that though magical creatures could naturally sense mana, only those with high cunning and intelligence levels could truly hone their detection skills. This specimen that looked as though someone had migrated a barracuda onto a bipedal body was likely not the intelligent subtype.

Three Senior Combat-Mages, one Salt Magus, four junior Mages, and Captain Sukarno, turned to face the haughty Merman with sympathetic grins.

The creatures' eyes lit up when it saw Gwen and the girls, for Mermen liked their flesh tender and youthful. Its bulbous eyes moved over the group as its lips curled to reveal rows of dagger-like teeth.

"Hur hur!" It called out.

Two more Mermen just like it emerged from the sea and leapt onto the decking with wet slaps from their finned feet. It turned to regard Gwen with as arrogant an expression as "seafood" could muster.

"How do you usually deal with this?" Jonas asked Sukarno.

"I chase them off lah, or give them some crystals, and they leave us alone." The Captain cut the feed to the mana engine. "Maybe it thinks we're out fishing?"

Gwen brushed her dark hair away from her face, revealing glowing, electric eyes that glowed in the dusk of day. Beside her, Yue was already steaming, the seawater evaporating from her body. Whetu stepped forward, but Jonas halted the punamu Abjurer. The girls needed to blow off steam, and one should never refuse martyred sashimi.

"Ariel!" Gwen called out, her mind buzzing with possibilities. "Keep it still. I need to test something."

A bolt of lightning that transformed into a massive mongoose tackled the Merman before it could react. From its teeth and claws, jolts of paralysing lightning penetrated the creature's slimy scales and nailed it to the floor, sending electrical sparks skittering over the deck.

The other two Mermen roared in defiance, hopping mad that instead of a gift in fish or crystals, these sailors would dare attack them.

Yue, who'd been steaming with pent-up fury since a moment ago, exploded with gouts of orange-red flames that flash-dried her maxidress.

"Scorching Rays!" With a practised hand, Yue manifested four intense beams of flame in an instant. A burst of pink steam-exploded over the iron decking as one Merman exploded into gibs of roasted flesh. The other had time to scream before it sizzled.

Meanwhile, Ariel had the first Merman pinned down in its jaws and was slowing crushing the fish by clamping its sinuous neck.

"Hur? Hur! Hur?" The fish huffed distressingly. Likely, imminent death wasn't what it had expected. From the looks of its fishy expression, it seemed to be suggesting that the meeting was an honest mistake and that it had only intended to buy some fish from the lovely humans.

Gwen turned to Morye.

"How close do I need to get?"
Morye shrugged.
Gwen clicked her tongue and stepped within melee distance of the Merman. From up on high, she could see its beady eyes rolling in its sockets, begging for mercy. The Void sorceress wrinkled her nose and banished her sympathy.

"Do it."

The thing's spinal fluid spray into Ariel's mouth. Her mongoose whined. Fish wasn't its favourite— it preferred snakes. Beside the grimacing mongoose, Gwen had her Detect magic activated, carefully observing the Merman. She noted that its core ceased to be a dense cluster of Elemental Water at the moment of its death. Instead, the mana drained away into the general atmosphere. With her limited Divination, she couldn't sense the "Essence", but she could see a few minute motes of elemental water drifting her way. Beneath her soaked dress, her Kirin Amulet grew warm for the span of two breaths; then it was once again dormant.

"Is it dead?" Elvia asked, still a safe distance away.

Gwen extended a hand toward the creature and materialised a bowie knife. She inexpertly butchered the body to the chagrin of her spectators, digging and hacking away until she found her expectant prize.

"Woa, a Core!" Captain Sukarno triumphantly exalted when Gwen lifted the bloody thing, smeared with the clear slime of fishy entrails, into the open air.

Gwen herself grew silent and contemplative, her mind suddenly full of purpose. Her father had been right; the killing of creatures at close range allowed for the influence of the Kirin amulet to take effect. If such was the case, she could arguably be the most effective Core-harvesting adventurer in Oceania.

"What's the damage for the core?" Gwen felt her mood lighten as she examined the Creature Core.

"Oh, Soldier level Core? Fifty LDMs to a single HDM? I know a guy who will buy for a good price," Sukarno happily replied. "You very lucky, Miss Song. Very lucky."

The creature core passed from hand to hand, sans Morye, with each of the Mages marvelling at Gwen's good fortune.

"Dinner's on me tonight!" Gwen announced. "Seafood! To the city! To Singapore! Tonight, it's my shout!"

It took a further six hours to return to Singapore, where Jurong Port would open come morning.

The team spent the night anchored in the safety of the harbour, the thrum of Singapore's many Shielding Stations upon their back, watching the stars and catching up on old times, enjoying the soothing atmosphere of the open sea before it heated up, transformed by the detestable, humid haze.

When the day broke, the company sailed into Jurong Port without further incident, safely docking where they had left two days ago. To avoid trouble with the city's infamously hardcore military Mages, Gwen and friends had to take Elvia, Yue and Whetu to be registered.

When the Customs Officials at the Jurong began to ask uncomfortable questions, Jonas stepped in. He presented himself as an officer of the Frontier Military of Sydney and a senior member of the Tower's Recon unit. Paul and Taj likewise presented their credentials, suggesting that the Singapore Tower would verify these girls' identities through Long-Ranged Messages.

Thankfully, Yue, Whetu and Elvia had kept their student cards on them, and with another hour wasted going back and forth on bureaucracy, they finally receive temporary passes for Yue and Elvia.

Captain Sukarno stayed with them a while to ensure that everything was alright before leaving with his extra twelve HDMs, shaking the men's hands happily and giving Gwen and friends a brief benediction with both hands in prayer. To save them time, he even bought Gwen's Merman Core, which he'd stated that he would keep as a souvenir from their exciting little adventure together.

Just as they were about to leave the Jurong Customs area, one of the officers stopped them to confirm if they were leaving Singapore soon.

"We'll be leaving as early as tomorrow, officer." Gwen flashed a smile at the man. "There's nothing to worry. We're just going to head to one of your famous seafood restaurants, maybe book a dock-side motel, then we'll be out of your hair, I promise."

"That's no problem," replied the middle-aged Senior Sergeant. "I can recommend some restaurants, all the seafood goes through Customs as well, as you know."

The two made jovial banter as Gwen took down the address for a 'recommended' place to eat Seafood without suffering the tourist tax.

"Staying in the city is very expensive," he continued. "We have hostels for temporary travellers like yourself that is very cheap. If you want, I can get you a card."

"Ah, that would be wonderful.' Gwen leaned against the counter. "We're poor as it is, lah!"

"Ha!" The Sergeant laughed. "Okay! I get you the address, wait here."

True to his word, the officer returned with a business card.

"Follow the direction; it's very close to here. Very convenient. Tell the office I send you. My name is Liu. Enjoy your stay in Singapore! I hope you like Chilli Crab!"

As the group left the Customs area, they drew curious looks from all over. They could only hope that they resembled a group of father-daughter travellers, seeing as they were three teenage girls and five middle-aged military men.

Outside, the day struck high-noon.

"Well, where to?" the men inquired as they had no particular plans for the city.

"We might go shopping - after we send some Messages from the Post Office," Gwen declared, flashing her ring and its cargo of crystals. "Somehow I don't think shopping is going to be feasible in Sydney anymore."

The Messages would be for Gunther, Alesia, as well as Elvia and Yue's parents. She had to contact her grandfather too to tell Surya to look after Yue's mother and father.

"Want us to escort you?" Jonas asked; though the very thought of following the girls through the shopping district likely turned the soldier's stomach. The military men were perfectly willing to follow the girls into an uninhabitable jungle, but to follow the girls into clothing stores was too much. "Maybe take Whetu?"

"How safe do you suppose the city is?" Gwen asked.

"The safest, so long as you stick to the CBD and the Bay Sands area," Jonas replied.

"Then we'll be fine. Meet up at the restaurant?"

"Sure, I'll go confirm our manifest. We'll see you guys soon."

"If you don't mind, I'll hang with the blokes," Whetu insisted. "Not one for window shopping meself, nuffin fits."

"You look good in a tight shirt," Yue remarked.

Whetu laughed nervously. "Sorry, no shopping" He added thoughtfully.

"I'll see you guys tomorrow at the terminal then," Morye said suddenly, drawn their eyes.

"Where are you going?" Gwen asked reflexively.

"Do you want to know?" Morye grinned at his daughter knowingly.

"Erh… no," Gwen confessed. "Don't commit a crime or anything. Singapore is a lawful city."

"I'll be fine. I've been here before. Merely curious as to how the city has changed." Morye dismissed her warning with a wave of his hand.

With their plans for the afternoon settled, the members went their separate ways. Gwen turned excitedly to her friends and found them looking apprehensive and unsure.

"Gwen, are we going to be okay?" Elvia asked. "We don't know anything about the city!"

"Yeah." Yue looked strangely nervous as well. Unlike her experienced self, both of the girls had never travelled alone. "How do we know what to catch and where to go?"

"Hee." Gwen turned to her friends. "Just you watch, I know the perfect place."

Half an hour and two LDMs later, they were staring at an open bay filled with constructions still in progress.

"What is this place?" Yue asked sceptically. "What are we doing here?"

"Gwen." Elvia shivered at the sight of gargantuan construction Golems pounding away. "I am starving. Where are we? Where are all the shops?"

Her destination was Marina South.
The year was 2003.
Gwen suddenly recalled that the Marina Bay Sand compound opened in 2010. "OH MY GOD." She facepalmed. "I am an idiot."

Their taxi was thankfully fifty meters away and making a U-turn.

"Taxi!" Gwen called out, praying that she wasn't wrong a second time. "To Clarke Quay!!"