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Lithian blinked, surprised by the suddenness of the request, but not necessarily by the content. He’d become accustomed to Casseth’s abrupt desires and quick initiative and, while occasionally problematic, he admired his friend’s fervor. Not to mention, in this case, he could hardly blame him. If he had been in Cas’ shoes, how would he have felt, not knowing a thing about a significant portion of his family? Being so…distanced?

Besides, he’d never been one to successfully turn away Casseth’s wishes.

“I…would love to help, Cas, but what about your father? Shouldn’t he know? I…” Lithian hesitated, worrying the tip of his horn with his thumb. “It already seems he has a bit of an…‘opinion’ of me. If something went wrong…”

Lithian let out a breath and shook his head. “I can’t let you go alone, you must know that by now…besides, where would the adventure be in that?” He smiled, though concern peeked through despite his best efforts. “I’ll help you in whatever way I can, and I have a large enough slot of time to spend here on Eowyn, it oughtn’t be too difficult to arrange for another boat ride…”

Lithian flushed, and though a distant sense of foreboding lingered in the back of his mind, he stifled it. He certainly didn’t need to give Casseth’s father any more reasons not to trust him, but how could he say no when Casseth asked like this?

In order to make the most of their time, he and Casseth went back out to the docks later that evening and purchased two tickets for passage to Soudul the following morning. Both wanted to make the most of their time while they had it, considering Lithian’s parents likely wouldn’t have approved of an unannounced trip to the oblivionite continent and Kilian had made it clear he didn’t want Casseth going on any such ‘mission’ to find his relatives. If this was going to be a success, the faster they could get there and make contact, the better.

Their boat was scheduled to leave in the wee hours before dawn — a fact that Casseth bemoaned ceaselessly from the time Lithian met up with him ‘til the time they made it through the ticketing process and onto the ship itself — but Lithian found he didn’t mind. Eowyn was a different beast before the morning hours: cooler, the air crisp and dry but not yet miserable, and even the poorest sections of town looked almost serene, bathed in long shadows and the soft blue highlights of a not-yet-lit sky.

Not to mention, once out to sea, the trials of rising early more than paid for themselves. Dawn on the ocean was a thing to behold, and Lithian found himself breathless as he watched. Purples and mauves bled out, warming into pinks, oranges and reds that rippled over the lip of the distant horizon and stretched out across the lips of the waves like ink.

“Casseth…Casseth, are you seeing this? It’s—” When Lithian turned to look, though, Casseth was not beside him, and he frowned, wondering when the boy had left. Had he been zoned out for that long? Perhaps he’d gone below deck—

No sooner had he thought it, though, than Lithian spotted his friend, and blinked, moving down the starboard side deck and towards where Casseth had retreated, half slumped against the railing.

“Casseth? Are you alright?”

Lithian winced as Casseth spoke, steadying him when he lurched forward, and then frowning as his friend sank to the deck. It seemed a shame that Casseth couldn’t enjoy such a beautiful thing, but most of Lith’s attention was already off of the sunrise the instant his friend had shown signs of distress. Lithian lowered to a crouch beside Casseth and, after a moment’s hesitation, reached out a hand to touch his shoulder.

“Stay near the rail,” he advised gently. “That way, if you must be sick, at least the ocean is near enough to take your breakfast for you…” Adjusting his position slightly, Lithian moved his hand, lips pursed in combined concern and concentration as he drew his hand down his friend’s back, calling up a soft blue glow of magic to his fingers as he went. “I’ve also heard some say that keeping your eyes on the horizon can help…gives the mind a steady vantage point to work with. Something that’s not rocking…”

After a brief pause, Lithian tilted his head, eyeing his friend.

“Would you like me to go below deck? See if I can get you something? Water…bread…anything that might settle your stomach?”

Lithian huffed, immediately shaking his head. “You’re not a bother, Casseth, don’t be ridiculous. I wouldn’t have wanted you to go alone anyway. I’m glad you asked, and I’m happy to be here with you. Besides…” Glancing back out over the rolling ocean, a half smile edged onto his lips, “I’m not the one suffering here. Who knew my element disagreed with you so much, mm? We’ll get you to solid land again soon enough…”

Their trip took the rest of that day and the better part of the next. Even with fair weather, it was waning into night by the time the shores of Soudul came into sight, and Lithian shivered. The dark continent experienced a naturally colder climate, of course, given the geographical location, but it was more than that. Something about the way the mists crawled through the trees; the way the shadows seemed almost alive. Watchful.

It had unnerved him all of the few times he’d ever been there.

Casseth had gone below deck to lie down some time ago — still uncomfortable with the motion sickness brought about by the sea — but Lithian was out again, watching the water. Casseth would be relieved to finally make it to shore. A smile edged into place as Lithian thought on that. It would be good, he thought, to get Cas this chance to meet more of his family. He needed it, after the ordeal with his mother and sister, and perhaps this would give him a chance to expand his web of support.

Lithian frowned, distracted by a ripple of darkness over the ocean. An interruption in the glimmer from the rising moon. Then, he saw them. Lithian breathed out, lips pursing into a thin line as he touched into his magic. Wary. Ready. Tense.

“Captain!” he called out. “Dragons! Four dragons off the port bow!”

Lithian glanced over towards Casseth as soon as he emerged and couldn’t stifle his first instinct to smile, circumstances aside. “I’m fine,” he answered, eyes already back out over the water, surveying their oncoming aggressors.

As the first dragon came in and Casseth fought it off, Lithian moved close to the rail. Focussing his magic, he rocked his weight and with a twisting flick of his wrist and a half pivot to the side with his body, he drew up a narrow, writhing waterspout. The instant a second dragon came in, he stepped back again and snapped his wrists wide, cracking the rope of spiralling water against the creature’s body like a whip. In its momentary distraction, Lith fanned out, letting the whip drop and dropping his hands low, then up — up, up — in a wall of water.

Even as the diabi behind it screeched, wailing its frustrations and then crying out when one of the ship’s guards used the opportunity to bury a javelin in it and turn it to dust, Lithian knew there were too many coming on at once. If they fought them all on the ship…

Frowning, he called out to Casseth over the noise of dragon cry. “We should try to keep as many of the dragons as we can away from the ship — maybe lure them off somehow? Most of the people with us are civilians…”

As he said it, Lithian moved back up to the rail. Eyeing first the nominally tame stretch of ocean before them and then the flock of four remaining diabi fast closing in on them, he debated only a moment before drawing a breath, weaving a funnel of magic around himself, and diving. For three, blissful seconds, Lithian allowed himself to feel, sense, hear, and react only with the ocean. To savor that impact moment when he went from dry to absolutely encased in his element. Then, he drove his magic further, gripped to the very essence of his being, weaving it through himself, and dissolved.

Lithian beamed. Not physically, since he no longer technically had shape, but internally. His very being rippled with energy — endless, formless, powerful — and he stretched out his senses. Testing his awareness like extending a thousand ribbons of thought and feeling, he noted all the details of his surroundings: the shape and nearness of the ocean floor, the bulk of the ship he’d just left, the movement of sea creatures in the proximity, and even the push pull of the tides themselves.

A muted roar from above, followed by a ripple of dust on the surface of the water — presumably all that remained of one of the attacking diabis — pulled Lithian back into awareness, and, dosed with a reminder of why he had taken on this form to begin with, Lithian focused. Gathering his now shapeless form, he narrowed his attention on one of the diabis nearest to the surface, and surged. Like a water sprite bent on destruction, he came up in the form of a twisting mountain of water and wrapped himself around the beast: coating its wings, muzzling its crying snout, and engulfing the whole of its body in water.

Then, heedless of its rampant struggles, Lithian dragged down, and down. Into the ocean, and then beneath the surface. He made a tunnel of current, sucking the massive, flailing dragon down like a small ship caught in a whirlpool. Keeping up the funnel of energy, he dragged it deep and when they reached it, held it on the ocean floor until its struggles ceased. There, as all dragons do at their end, it dissipated into dust.

Meanwhile, a distant part of him noted the large plunk of something familiar hitting the surface. It spun down as it sank, heading rapidly towards the ocean floor. Too large to be the dusty remains of another dragon. A dragon soul, perhaps? But no, it was larger than that as well.

Metalic. Heavy. A weapon.

Casseth's ax.

Lithian swirled, briefly debating taking it back up immediately, but to accomplish that with any finesse, the task would require him returning to a more solid form and swimming it back up to Casseth personally. No sooner had he thought it, than another roar echoed above, loud enough for the sound waves to ripple the surface, and Lithian dismissed the idea for the time being. Cas was fairing plenty well enough on his own with just his magic, and taking on his physical form again would make him more vulnerable and less of an aid on the battlefront. It wasn't often he got the opportunity to fight directly with his element in so much abundance, but Abronaxus forbid he waste the opportunity.

That decided, Lithian spun back upwards — a massive rush of current — broke the surface, and crashed against the next nearest diabi body. Again, he rippled over the beast, coating it like a much unwanted second skin, and this time, he crawled directly down the struggling creature's throat. He filled it: throat, lungs, body to the bursting point, and in seconds, the beast joined its pack mates as nothing more than dust raining down over the ocean's surface.

A quick assessment of the rapid lull in activity told Lithian that most, if not all, of the dragons had been defeated, and he swirled near to the closest pillar of earth jutting up from the ocean floor. There, he relaxed his hold on his magic, crumpling back into his physical body and clinging to the lip of the pillar. Breathing heavily, he pushed his wet hair back from his face with faintly trembling fingers and surveyed the surface. Working in his raw magic form was empowering, but more magically draining than anything else in his arsenal, and it left him exhausted upon release without fail.

Spotting Casseth on a nearby pillar, though, he grinned. “Slippery fingers, Casseth?”