Yvette couldn’t keep the grin off her lips while she watched Gervas slowly poke at the baking fish. He didn’t glance up for a while, even once he was done he kept himself from looking at her. She knew he noticed, though, because he was doing everything BUT look at her. Even going as far as fiddling with the meager wood they’d scavenged up for the fire. Finally he gave a sigh and glanced up at her. “Yes?” Gervas asked.

“Youuuuu like me,” Yvette said while her grin only got wider.

Gervas gave a soft, exasperated sigh. “Yes, I am quite fond of you. This is true. Anything else?”

“Youuuuu really like me. Youuuu kissed meeeee,” Yvette said, gently rocking back and forth on the rock she was using as a makeshift seat.

“Youuuuu are going to get another sparring session at this rate,” Gervas said with a roll of his eyes, though she could see the corners of his lips twitch as he tried to keep from smiling.

“Dooooon’t care. Got kisses,” Yvette said, still rocking back and forth. “I got a kiss, I got a kiss. Well, two kisses. On top of that, you said you could looooove me,” Yvette said, the grin unmoving from her face, even with the threat of upcoming bruises.

“We also almost got eaten by sirens last night. They could still be out there, you know. You shouldn’t be so calm. You don’t know how large their hunting territory is or what time they become most active,” Gervas said, but she saw the small hints of a smile he was struggling to suppress.

“I’m not too worried,” Yvette said before glancing off over the sea. She could still see the island they had fled in the distance, the one housing the sirens. She’d be happy once they were a further from it. But, for the moment, they were at least far enough from the beach on the small island that they’d be able to see them coming onto the shore before they could sing. Occasionally she could hear soft little notes of music on the air, but it was so distant and faded that if there was any magic in them, she couldn’t feel it. “It’s not like they could really sneak up on us, anyway.”

“Why not?” Gervas asked, glancing up at her with a cocked eye.

“Because we can see the shore from here and I have wards setup further out,” Yvette said. She finally sighed and lowered her eyes. “Okay, so they could, possibly, try a different path. But if they do, you’ll get us out of here. So I’m not too worried. You’ll protect me.”

“Someone has to,” Gervas said, though she finally saw him lose his resolve slightly and a smile formed on his lips. He then pulled one of the fish away from the fire and poked it, before holding it out to her. “Here, eat this. You’ve got a lot of swimming to do today. How’s your cuts feeling?”

“It only hurts when I breathe,” Yvette said with a small grin to match his own before reaching out to take the fish. She glanced down at the bandages on her arms and shoulder. They weren’t soaked through with blood, so compared to some wounds she’d had in the past they couldn’t be too bad. “It’s fine. I’ve had worse.”

“Can you heal them up before we leave?” Gervas asked.

“I probably could, but I’m not sure it’d be smart,” Yvette said before turning away from the island of the sirens and focusing in the opposite direction. The water was filled with dozens of other little islands of varying shapes and sizes rising out from the depths, though most were barren. “I’ll be transforming into a pretty big creature and there’s no telling how long I’ll need to swim for. Conserving my magic might be the best option as I doubt either of us want to be trapped out there in the water when I run out of time. Especially if it turns out anything as bad as those sirens are out there. The cuts aren’t that bad and at least now they’re bandaged.”

Gervas nodded, though he didn’t look pleased by her answer at all.

Yvette slowly leaned in to take a bite of the fish, but paused when she could feel the heat radiating off it. She slowly pulled her mouth back and lightly blew on it. “What’s wrong?” she asked before slowly sliding a little closer to him, inching off her rock and along the ground.

“Just thinking about something you told me once,” Gervas said.

“I’ve said a lot of things to you, which one?” Yvette asked. “Nothing bad, I hope.”

“No, you weren’t the bad one in that case. It really wasn’t fair of me,” Gervas said.

Yvette held up her fish and blew on it a little bit before taking a bite. She let out a light hiss of displeasure at the heat, moving it around in her mouth and trying to cool it off a bit before swallowing. She could feel a little burn on her tongue and now steam was rising out from inside the fish where she had bitten. “Are you beating yourself up over it? Cause there were probably a lot of things you said to me at first that were worth beating yourself up over. You were kind of a jerk. So, which thing in particular?” she asked, inching a little closer.

“I just told you to be a girl all the time, spend all your magic on that,” Gervas said. She started to say something but he held up his hand to stop her. “I know. You told me back then that it took energy, that it would have taken all your energy to do that, leaving you pretty useless as a mage. I’ll be honest, a part of me just thought that was an excuse. But now, well,” he said before looking at her bandaged arms. “You have to do that very thing and because of it, you’re not even able to heal your wounds. I’m sorry. I should have listened more to what you said, rather than just assuming.”

Yvette gave a small nod. “Yeah, probably. You were pretty terrible to me,” she said before taking a small bite of the fish, right on the edge. It wasn’t too hot there at least.

“I know,” Gervas said, a hint of annoyance in his voice, though she suspected it was more towards himself than her.

“Frankly, you drove me off to the point I almost got killed,” Yvette said with a small smile.

“I know,” Gervas said and she could hear the tension in his voice. She knew she shouldn’t, but she had to keep poking just a little.

“Then you almost dragged me back, even cut me off from my magic entirely. Frankly, you treated me like dirt,” Yvette said.

“I know!” Gervas said before whipping his head around to talk to her, but this time she held up her hand for him to be quiet.

“Then you risked everything to help me become myself. You helped me steal the spell I needed to be me, despite the consequences. You risked your life, your reputation, your money, everything and anything you could to help me. You stood by me when nobody else would,” Yvette said. “You were wrong, but you accepted that. You supported me. Nobody else has ever done that like you, nothing more than token acceptance at best.” He opened his mouth to speak but she quickly cut him off. “Even if it was just token acceptance from you at first, it eventually did change. You still helped me and accepted that, at least to me, this was important. So who cares if you were terrible to me at first? Lots of people are terrible to me and they don’t get better. You did. So why beat yourself up over it? I think you’ve more than made up for it by now.” Yvette gave a light shrug. “If you only focus on the things you did wrong or messed up on, you’ll miss out on all the good things you do. Besides, if you make yourself miserable every time you get better, you’ll eventually just stop getting better because it’ll upset you too much.”

Gervas paused for a few moments before sighing and pulling the other fish off the fire, then getting to his feet and stomping the small fire out. “I guess you have some semblance of a point there.”

“Exactly,” Yvette said, puffing out her chest with pride, inching over a little closer while his back was turned. “I’m quite smart, you know.”

“Oh, definitely,” Gervas said quickly. “I’ve been around mages my entire life and you’re definitely one of the smartest.”

Yvette couldn’t help but grin at that compliment before taking another bite of the fish, perfect.

“You manage to come up with new and inventive ways to get yourself hurt, maimed or killed that most of them wouldn’t even have dream of.”

Yvette choked on the fish, coughing and sputtering for a moment before glaring at him. He only smiled at her with a cheeky grin before walking over to sit besides her on the dirt.

“You know, Yvette, if you wanted to sit by me you could have just come over. You don’t have to try and move closer when I’m not looking,” Gervas said with a light chuckle.

“It’s not as fun if you notice,” Yvette said before taking another bite of her fish, before inching just a little closer so she was leaning against his side. “Thanks, though.”

“For what?” Gervas asked. “It’s not that good of fish. Frankly I think I was lucky to catch any.”

“For everything,” Yvette said before resting her head on his shoulder. “You kiiiiissed me.”

Gervas rolled his eyes, though the smile didn’t fade from his lips. “Yes, I did. You were a bit frantic and it was the only way to calm you down.”

“Oh, so if I get upset you’ll kiss me more?” Yvette asked.

“Apparently. I guess I’ll have to accept a life of having to kiss you constantly,” Gervas said with a mock suffering sigh.

“Hey!” Yvette said, glaring at him. “I do NOT get upset that often.”

“You get upset all the time. You’re such a mage,” Gervas said with a smirk.

“And you’re such a man,” Yvette said with a hmph.

“Please, as if you’d know anything about what a man is,” Gervas said.

Yvette couldn’t help it, she started to giggle at that response. “Okay, fine, you win. I can’t come up with anything to beat that.”

“I’ve seen you fight, I’d win every time,” Gervas said. “Hurry up and eat your fish, the sooner we’re out of here, the better. There’s a lot of water to cover and I’d rather never see another siren.”

Yvette nodded, giving a soft content sigh before closing her eyes. She took another small bite of her fish. Even if the wounds hurt and she had to go swimming for a few hours, she didn’t care. As long as she got to be herself and by someone who appreciated it, it was all worth it.

------

Yvette wondered how much longer she’d have to do this for, it felt like she had been swimming for hours. Despite her earlier belief that swimming for such an extended period wouldn’t be so bad, she was quickly regretting it. She could feel Gervas on her back, occasionally directing her and telling her which way to go, at times even pulling out the map to ensure they were going the right way.

On the up side, the dragon turtle form was getting easier to transform into and maintain with every use and it was so incredibly easy to swim in that she barely felt she was exerting any energy when she swam, aside from maintaining the spell. It only took the smallest flick of her legs and she was propelled through the water with such ease. Even with Gervas on her back it felt as simple as could be. If she ever met the dragon turtle the scale came from she’d have to remember to thank him. Right before running away because, to be honest, she really didn’t want to have to meet anymore undersea monsters after her last encounter with one.

“How are you feeling?” Gervas asked.

Yvette glanced up at him, craning her neck a little to do it. Her shell made it harder, but the form was still capable of having such a wide field of view. She then bobbed her head a little bit in a nod.

“I don’t know what that means,” Gervas said.

Yvette rolled her eyes and then quickly wiggled from left to right a few times, causing him to let out a yelp.

“Okay, point taken!” Gervas said, his hands gripping her shell tightly. “If you need a break, shake your head, if you’re okay then nod.”

She gave another nod, propelling herself through the water with another flick of her legs.

“Okay. So, at our current pace, we should hit another large island soon. We’ll stop there, then I want you to spend a bit of time to heal your wounds. We shouldn’t need much more of your magic from there.”

Yvette kept going, though she wished she could ask him why he didn’t think she’d need it. She waited patiently for him to continue and, sure enough, he started again after a few moments.

“Afterwards, we’ll continue by land for a bit. There’s supposed to be a small settlement on the opposite side of that island, not a very long walk if we go straight there. Shorter if we went at this pace, but I’d rather you conserve your magic and focus on healing yourself, rather than cutting a few hours off our travels,” Gervas said.

Yvette bobbed her head out of the water once, nodding along.

“Depending on when we get to the settlement, see about getting some room and board. Then we can leave first thing tomorrow. Tomorrow is going to be the big one, we’ll be going from island to island and there isn’t going to be any settlements according to the map. And we’ll… we’ll…” Gervas trailed off.

Yvette gave a light snort and then bumped herself up in the water a little bit.

“Hold on,” Gervas said and she could hear him pulling out the map again. “That’s odd. I… think I see it, but it’s not marked like that on the map. Did we go off course?”

Yvette rolled her eyes. She really wished she could talk in this form. She moved her tongue around inside her mouth for a moment and wondered if she actually could. In theory there were a lot of forms that a good mage could speak in, though she’d never had much luck in them. But dragon turtles were said to be able to talk to humans, so she supposed it was at least worth a try. She opened her mouth--

And it promptly filled with sea water before Yvette could close it again. She made a mental note to try once they hit land, but she couldn’t help feeling like an idiot after that. She sunk her head back underwater and tried to focus on anything else other than the idiot she just made of herself. At least Gervas couldn’t tell she had done it.

Yvette almost stopped when she noticed movement out of the corner of her eyes. She turned her head towards it, but it was already gone. She rolled her eyes again and continued on, telling herself that it was either a fish or her imagination. But now she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was watching her. Worse, she found her thoughts focusing on her last underwater encounter with something she didn’t notice until it was too late, the leviathan. She started swimming just a little faster, keeping an eye out for anything suspicious.

Yvette didn’t know how long they had traveled across the sea before she could fully make out their destination, but eventually she could make out an island with a rather large volcano rising out from the water.

The dragon turtle form allowed Yvette incredible underwater vision, allowing her to see all the way to the sea bed far below them, where only a tiny bit of light could pierce through the depths enough to illuminate anything. Far below she could see wreckage, galleons and war ships, shattered and broken on the sea floor. It was too far away to make out any details, but she was fairly certain there were bodies there as well. When she swore she saw one move she quickly tried to focus on anything else before her imagination could get away with her. Some of it was even overgrown with moss so there was no way that anything down there was still living.

“Yvette, take us along the beach for a bit, towards the right,” Gervas said suddenly, once they were far closer to the island and she could make out the shore. She did as he said, though she honestly couldn’t imagine what he was looking for. It looked like any other island to her.

However, after a little bit of swimming her pointed her towards the shore. “Take us over there,” Gervas said. She finally realized what he was looking for. On the shoreline was what looked, at least to her, like a collapsed small stone tower. It had likely been so tall it could be seen for miles, but was now toppled over onto the beach and forming more pile of rubble than a marking. Gervas reached into her bag and pulled out the map, looking at it once more before glancing up again. “That’s strange.”

Yvette gave a small nod, slowly lifting her head fully out of the water and peering towards the shore. The island itself was far, far larger than any of the ones they had passed so far, seemingly formed around the small volcano. There didn’t seem to be any smoke rising from it, at least, so she hoped it was inactive.

She gave a small shudder when she found her memories brought back to the vault. Any thoughts of that place now just made her cringe, knowing that her memories had been altered and erased filled her with unease. Worse than that, she didn’t even know if that unease was her own feelings of having her mind so forcefully and violently altered, or if it was caused by the spell that had done the alteration in an effort to make sure she didn’t examine the memories too closely.

Yvette began to feel panic rising in her. What if it really WAS an effort to make her not examine the memories closer? What if other memories had been erased? What if days of her journey were lost or people she knew? What if she had lost friends and family to that spell? Was it the first time her thoughts had been altered? The panic only began to rise with each moment’s focus.

Yvette shook her head, drawing a startled yelp from Gervas and forcing him to grip her shell again. “Careful,” he said quickly.

Yvette tried to apologize, but she really couldn’t yet. However, instead of beaching herself and unshifting, this time she walked up and onto the shore, climbing out from the water and allowing Gervas to hop off her back. She then tried to speak.

When she opened her mouth and let out the words even she struggled to call the sounds she made ‘words’. While it was definitely something that someone might be able to almost call an attempt to speak, they were nowhere near legible for anyone but the most inebriated to even try to decipher. Gervas turned to look at her, concern on his face. “Yvette? Are you okay?”

Yvette sighed, marking that as another failed experiment. Hopefully she’d never need to talk as anything but a human. She started to transform but then paused when she realized something felt wrong. The air felt charged in some way, sending light tingles through her body. Not necessarily bad, but unpleasant. It kind of made her want to turn around and swim away, but she wasn’t sure if it was her imagination or something else.

“Yvette?” Gervas asked again, shaking her from her thoughts. “What’s wrong?”

Yvette shook her head and slowly she ended the spell, her body reverting back to her normal, human form. With it, the tingling feeling stopped. It seemed it was her imagination afterall. She let out a soft sigh before grinning up at him. She was a little damp, but nothing too bad. To her delight, her bandages didn’t come unbound once her form ended, remaining tightly on her body once they appeared. Alas, while the bindings didn’t re-open, the wounds had and were sending fresh aches through her. “Fine. I was seeing if I could talk while in that form.”

“I see. It was…” Gervas struggled for a moment, seemingly trying to find the correct word. He finally sighed and shook his head. “Terrible.”

“Yeah, it was a first try. I’ll get better eventually.” Yvette said with a light chuckle before glancing to the collapsed tower. “So this is it? Sure there are still people here?”

“The tower is on the map,” Gervas said softly. “But the map didn’t show it as a volcano. Unless we traveled almost four times the distance we should have today, it shouldn’t be one.”

Yvette nodded, staring up at it. “Well, it’s not like a volcano can just come out of the…” She trailed off for a moment, staring up at the cliff side. Something about it seemed off. “You say the map didn’t show it?”

“No,” Gervas said, crossing his arms. “It’ll take longer for us to get to the settlement, though. I was hoping we’d be there before noon and could resupply before taking the rest of the day to relax before we continued on. But I’m not even sure we’ll make it there today now.”

Yvette nodded, eyeing a tree that seemed to be partially dangling off the side of the volcano. It hadn’t grown that way, had it? The tree itself looked half dead. She then glanced towards the collapsed tower, it didn’t look very old at all. As if it had only recently collapsed. She reached over to touch her bracer, small dots appearing on it to show the activation of her reagents. She then partially shifted, just her eyes this time, into those of a troll.

Once she could see the world in the colorless way that the troll did, the magic in the air became visible. More importantly it was apparent just how thick the magic was in the air. It wasn’t very strong, but it was all over the place, a clear sign of powerful magic having been done recently. The volcano was practically glowing with it. She quickly ended the spell.

“The volcano wasn’t here before,” Yvette said with a smile.

“What do you mean, it wasn’t here?” Gervas asked. “A volcano doesn’t just--”

“Spring up out of the ground unless a powerful geomancer makes it? No, it doesn’t,” Yvette said, unable to make herself sound anything but giddy. “And yet, there’s a ton of magic in the air. There was some pretty incredible magic going on. It might not even be a volcano, there’s no smoke. This tower fell over recently, too, judging by the looks of it.”

Gervas sighed and gave her a bewildered look. “Why do you sound excited by this?”

“Who WOULDN’T be excited?” Yvette asked. “Someone did a spell of some kind to create a whole mountain! Imagine the magic that took. No, I bet it was a whole group of mages! Just imagine what kind of--”

“It’d be a part of the Mage’s Associating,” Gervas said, cutting her off.

Yvette felt all of her excitement come to a crashing halt, the smile wilting from her lips. “Oh. Right. I… guess something like that would be the Mage’s Association, wouldn’t it?”

“Exactly. If they’re doing some kind of experiment out here, the last thing we want to do is risk you getting caught up in it,” Gervas said before he turned and started walking. “Come on.”

Yvette gave a small nod, walking behind him, though her mood was now deflated. She couldn’t help but glance up at the volcano, possibly just a flat mountain, none the less. What could be the reason for making such a thing? It couldn’t be for defense, the amount of magic that would be needed to make something like that would take time and power. Perhaps there was something underground and it was a byproduct. Or maybe, she thought with regrowing excitement, it wasn’t the Mage’s Association at all. Perhaps it was a dragon or some other powerful magical creature.

Yvette didn’t understand how Gervas couldn’t be at least a little excited, there was no telling what they’d discover when they got to the settlement.