Standing by the guardrails, Liam watched. His arms were crossed over his chest and his eyes fixed on the figure sitting on the deck a small distance away. Ushanti sat with her legs crossed and her eyes closed. Her hands resting on her knees.
From his position, Liam could hear her slow rhythmic breaths. Her figure was still as a statue with the only hint of movement being the rising and falling of her chest.
"What is she doing?" Lad, who stood to his side, asked.
Liam lingered for a beat before he said, "If I had to take a guess. I would say she's trying to meditate"
Lad nodded. Then tilted his head. "But why meditate all of the sudden?"
"We're about to find out" Liam kept his eyes locked onto her figure the entire time. In fact, his own mind was slowly sipping into a semi-focused state as well. His sensitivity to Aether was at an all time high and so he felt it.
A large concentration of Aether bloomed from Ushanti's being as though it were a torch glowing in the darkness. It reminded him a little of the bonfire that once stood at the core of Aragon's domain, The World of Everlasting Flames.
Without him realizing, his fingers tightened against his elbows. He watched on, time flowing like the waters of the ocean that the Conquistador swept past. He didn't know how much time passed but eventually he noticed something.
The beacon of Aether that bloomed from Ushanti shrunk just the slightest bit. And then it shrunk some more and then shrunk further until it was such a small amount that he could just vaguely sense it.
Its movements changed too. Instead of just radiating off her body as it usually did, the Aether flowed in a determined stream. It circulated throughout her entire body. From the head, down her arms and then back up and down to her legs and then back up as well.
The circulation started at a steady pace but soon the tempo increased. From a steady stream it evolved into a raging spinning river that filled each and every crevice of her body.
"Uh Liam?"
"Huh?" Liam turned to Lad whose eyes were fixed over the guardrails and focused on the water below.
Curious, Liam followed his gaze and pointed it to the water. Just in time to notice the surface of the water hit the hull of the ship faster than the distant water. It moved back and forth as though pulled and pushed back by an invisible hand.
His eyes narrowed when the water's movements increased.
'It can't be...' he shot his gaze back to Ushanti and the movement of the Aether in her body was akin to a spinning wheel. 'Don't tell me-'
A bucket load of water fell upon his back. He turned back in time to notice a towering ball of floating water raising over the guardrails. Its surface was slightly disfigured and sludges of water fell off its edges but that didn't slow its ascent one bit.
Liam froze. Lad standing beside him in a similar state.
He watched as the misshapen ball of water rise until it was floating directly over their heads. The water stopped and its surface rippled, the way the surface of a lake does when a pebble is dropping right in its center.
The ripples intensified as though meeting interference. Liam turned his head towards Ushanti in time to see the princess' eyebrows twitch and furrow. Sweat now fell down her temple and the circulation of Aether within her slowed down at a rapid pace.
Liam suddenly had a bad premonition. His head shot back to the water floating above their heads. It was falling apart.
"Shit! Brace!" he leapt for the guardrail, his arm winding down on one of the metal bars just as the water collapsed and splashed on the deck. A wave of water spilled over his body with enough force to push him overboard.
Liam fought against its flow with the help of the guardrail of course.
Luckily, the overflow didn't last long. Before long he let go of the guardrail and slip down until he was sitting on the deck, slightly out of breath. Lad coughed beside him. Liam gave him a brief look and was glad the young man had managed to heed his call.
His eyes trailed back to the Ushari.
Ushanti's eyes slowly pealed open. A hint of fatigue clouded her brown eyes but there was something else as well. She was happy. Before she could speak though her eyes found their soaked forms and thne confusion came to her.
She took a minute to survey the surroundings. She took in the wet deck and then she looked at the trail of water leading over the deck and down the hull.
"What just happened?" she asked.
"That...well..." Lad spat out a mouthful of water. He was pale faced but he tried to force out a smile. "I have no idea"
Liam shrugged when she pointed hergaze at him.
"I'm not a hundred percent sure yet, but I think it had something to do with your Aether circulation" Liam said. He stepped away from the guardrail, Ushanti's questioning gaze following him the entire way. "I tell you everything that happened later but first..." he looked down at his clothes. They clung to his body and still dripped with water. "...let's get changed"
...
Sometime later Liam, Lad and Ushanti were back on the deck...except they weren't at their original spot. After all that area was wet and moist. Instead they sat some area closer to the bow of the ship. They sat among several cargo crates that were tied down tot the ship. Liam leaned onto the side of one such crate.
He gazed up its surface for a second. 'Lad said the crates would have gone overboard if it wasn't for the two Ushari warriors.'
"Who ever is on deck duty next isn't going to be happy" Lad sighed and shook his head.
Liam gave him a look. He peered past him and onto the wet deck.
"I wouldn't be happy cleaning that up too" he said which earned him a laugh from the young sailor.
"Excuse me but I still don't understand what is going on here" Ushanti interjected. She sat across from them. Leaing onto one of the other crates. This one though was, strange. Unlike its cousins it consisted of obsidian metal. It could have been steel or iron or an alloy of some kind, Liam didn't know.
That wasn't the strangest thing though. The surface of the crate was a canvas of runes that pulsed with subtle power. Familiar power.
'They feel a little be similar to what had been in Aragon's den but less complex' he pondered.
Were they suppression runes? Concealment runes perhaps? Liam couldn't put a finger on it but his intuition as well as his past experience suggest as such.
'I wonder what's inside?'
"Hello?" Ushanti's voice pulled him out of his thoughts. He found a delicate ebony hand waving about his face.
"Right..." Liam was pulled out of his thoughts and recounted every thing that happened. "I think it had something to do with your Aether circulation. Your ability so to speak"
"My ability?" Ushanti asked.
"Yeah an ability you know...how people get superpowers and stuff. Shoot fire from their hands, control rock, turn into animals that kind of stuff" Lad chirped in
Ushanti gave him a look. "That sounds unbelievable"
Liam's eyes narrowed before he asked carefully. "Do you guys not have abilities?"
Ushanti shook her head. "Never in all our written history have our people had any abilities so to speak. There have been some special individuals in the past who have controlled an element but they are long gone now"
Liam remained silent then he looked straight into her eyes and said, "Well then, I guess one of those special individuals is you"
Ushanti reeled in shock. "What?"
"I think your Aether circulation earlier is what caused that blob of water to float onto the ship" Liam said.
"And how would you know that?" she asked
Liam shrugged. "I don't really its just a guess right now. But if you keep working on your Aether circulation..."
Liam didn't need to finish for her to understand.
Ushanti released a breath. "So that's the only conclusion then"
"Yep"
"Then I guess there was no need for all the secrecy then" Ushanti muttered as she rose to her feet. "I'll get going then"
She turned to leave when Liam called out.
"Uh hold on a minute" he said and she turned. "I actually have a favour to ask"