Chapter 21

  Iv has had her jaw agape for solid 5 minutes. One by one the scars on her dear ship disappear as Velophine uses her magic. It looks so effortless and quick that Iv feels slightly jealous. She wishes she could properly care for her ship, but she never bothered to learn and master nature magic beyond the little bit she can do. Every cut in the wood would take several minutes of concentration. By the end of the day Iv would've been totally drained and the ship would at best be half fixed.

  Normally fairies are able to cast a large variety of nature spells like growing plants, nurturing forests and help fruits ripe faster. They learn to use those spells in their home of Arvofada and then get sent out across the habitable world to grow their own forests. Iv has several friends that are working hard on their forests. Each one resembles the character of their caretaker. Free-spirited fairies grow wild and jungle-like vegetation, calmer ones prefer one massive tree amidst a large glade of flowers.

  Ever since she was a small budding fairy she has always been more interested in crafting things with her hands, not her magic. To be precise, she likes to build more "human" things. Mechanism, contraptions and of course ships. She dreams of building THE ship. A vessel able to traverse the Storm and face any challenge it throws at her. A vessel to rival the Cloudbreaker. For that purpose she had left her home on a human trade ship as a stowaway and gotten to Porto Branco. She had expected building her own ship to be tough, so she immediately built a small cabin in the junkyard and got to work on the Fairy Feather, her first ship. The one Velophine is currently healing.

  Sometimes Iv wonders, what a forest she grows would look like.

  "Alright", Velophine exhales while closing up the last scratch. The fibers in the wood extend and meet with the ones on the other side. It looks like several tiny hands grabbing each other and pulling on one another to close the cut. There is a faint yellowish green glow surrounding the process. "This should be the last one." Velophine looks happy with her work, swipes the sweat of her forehead and stands proud.

  Iv does a quick inspection all over the ship and sees that indeed every scratch has vanished. "All's fixed", she whispers. Her throat is getting a little bit dry and her chest is feeling funny.

  "What do you think, Iv?", Velophine asks. "I hope everything is fixed now-"

  Iv rapidly hurls herself against Velophine's chest and cries loudly. Her tears leave stains of happiness on her shirt as she grabs onto it. "Waahh!", Iv yells, "thank you so much! Thank you for healin' my baby, Velo! Waaah!"

  Velophine is very surprised at the sudden burst of emotions coming from the fairy who is drying her tears on her clothes. She shouts thank yous in between her cries and sniffles.

  "There, there..." Velophine is a little overwhelmed. She carefully places her hand over Iv. "Am happy to be able to help", she says with a smile.

  Iv looks up at her teary-eyed. She looks just like a puppy with those big reflective eyes. "It would've taken me forever to do all of those cuts", Iv stammers while sniffling. "Ya've no idea how happy I am right now. I couldn't bear seein' by ship all hurt!"

  Iv proceeds to let out all her emotions onto Velophine's shirt while she comforts her with careful hand movements.

  After a while Minot returns with an unknown package in his hands. He is wearing a complicated expression of embarrassment, shyness and anticipation. Whatever Minot was doing at the reception, it must've been uncomfortable.

  "Yo, Minot", Iv calls out to him. "Took ya long enough. What's the package in ya hands?"

  Minot looks up at her but takes a while to respond. "Marlon wants me to deliver this thing to the Capital..."

  A devilish grin spreads across Iv's face as she understands the situation. "Awww, so we're gonna see your darlin'?"

  "Shut it, fairy."

  "Hm?" Velophine looks with questions in her eyes.

  "Oh yeah, Velo. Ya don't yet know about-"

  "Not one more word, Iv. Or ya're sleepin' in the bird cage again."

  "Fiiiine."

  Velophine is thoroughly confused at the interaction. But she just lets it be at that. "Ah, Minot?", she asks. "Did you get to weld the scratches on the roof?"

  "Did that this mornin'", he answers. Chuckling he adds: "Idiot didn't even notice the welder was gone."

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  "He didn't see ya, right?", Iv asks.

  "'course not!"

  "If he starts bitchin' about the welder I ain't gonna help you. Now get on, we gotta go."

  "Fine, fine." Minots gets on board. Now that there is another human-sized passenger the ship has gotten a lot more cramped than it already was. Thankfully this is no issue for Iv, but the others might find it awkward.

  The Fairy Feather sets sail. It has left Porto Branco and is headed for the nearest inhabited island that also acts as a hotspot for Hesforian trade and commerce: Gemiflora. It is around halfway to the Capital and connects several surrounding islands with it. Its position makes the flow of trade very efficient. The people in Gemiflora value their trade network and work morale highly. So much so they get regarded as "the busy bees of the Empire". Several guilds, traders, artisans, smiths and farmers work and sell on this island, and every day the central market is packed with people.

  The route has been set and the ship is now travelling on autopilot. It needs to ascend for a while, then it can go straight towards their destination. The path has been cleared of free floating rocks and small islets. Their placements on the route create somewhat of a barrier that forms the road to Gemiflora.

  Iv exits the cabin and stretches herself. A few quiet cracks can be heard. She looks around and sees Minot and Velophine observing their surroundings. Minot is standing near the railing and facing the ever-shrinking Porto Branco in the distance. This is the first in a long time, maybe ever, that Minot is leaving the harbor for an extended period of time.

  Velophine is sitting on a small crate with their rations. She's munching on a fruit while looking at the rocks passing them by. Her thoughts are inscrutable as ever.

  Iv joins the two and wants to break the silence. They have a long trip ahead of them, so might as well kill some time.

  "We'll reach Gemiflora in like two hours or so", she states. "Maybe we'll find some parts to improve the engine 'n sail faster. These long trips are gonna kill me of boredom."

  "Callan's mission payment could probably cover that", Minot ponders. "But dunno if we'll have enough left for other things if we do."

  "Like what?"

  Minot turns around with a smirk. "I've an idea, and I need a good weapon smith for it. Hehe."

  Iv doesn't like what he is implying, but having a decent weapon for dealing with the Atlanteans and other threats in the future would be useful.

  Velophine tilts her head as she looks at Iv, like something seems different about her. Carefully she asks: "Um, Iv?"

  "Ye?"

  "Do you, I don't know... look different than usual?"

  Instead of being worried or surprised, Iv puffs up her chest and puts on a confident, almost arrogant expression. "Hehehe, well, y'see..." She gets closer to Velophine, so she can see her clearly. Iv's skin and hair color is a lot more saturated and bright compared to the days before. Her skin has turned a calm blueish purple and her hair a radiant pink. "It has been a while since I've been in the sun for such a long time. Fairies absorb sunlight and this makes their skin turn bright and pretty." She is positively gleaming as she explains this odd quirk of hers.

  "Ohh, I see!", Velophine replies.

  "Yes, hehe. Bein' always inside the cabin or under the roof of the Rosavento robs me of my natural colors. But now I'll have a lot of time to look as the Deity had intended."

  Minot scoffs in the background. "For a flying chameleon you sure do like to hear yourself talk."

  "Oi!", Iv barks back.

  Velophine giggles at the remark. "Fairies truly are interesting beings." Iv grins and starts posing. "I haven't had much opportunity to research them."

  "You can always start with me", Iv offers. Her self-esteem is through the roof and figuratively leaking out.

  Velophine looks like she has remembered something. "Oh, right! I forgot to ask." The other two look at her questioningly. "Iv, how did you knock that harpoon cannon off the island? You know, when we were fighting the Atlantean."

  "Oh that?", Iv responds sparkling at the attention she is getting. "Even among fairies I am special."

  "That's one way to say it", Minot cackles.

  Iv ignores him in her high spirited monologue. "While other fairies can cast nature magic and all that, I possess truly unique magic." She is performing a dramatic choreography as she explains her magic. After an implied drumroll she reveals her secret: "Steel magic!"

  There is a small moment of silence. The audience is taking in and processing the information.

  "Steel magic?", Velophine asks befuddled.

  "Precisely!", Iv affirms. "Velo, extend your hand!" Velophine does as told and extends her hand. Iv lowers herself like a feather in the wind and gracefully lands on the open palm. For a moment Velophine doesn't react as she waits for Iv's next move. But suddenly, her eyes grow wide and her hand is forced down. She is fighting to keep her hand up. For some reason, the little fairy is weighing heavier than a bar of iron.

  "What the-", Velophine gasps. Without thinking about her choice of words she asks: "How are you so heavy all of a sudden?"

  "Haha, she called you fat", Minot taunts Iv, but she doesn't react to him.

  "Cool, huh? I can freely manipulate my weight with my magic. And not just that! Thanks to physics higher mass means higher kinetic energy. So if I increase my weight while I fly I gain a lot of energy. With enough energy I can break through stone walls and dent iron doors. Muhaha!"

  Velophine is visibly amazed by Iv's unique magic. "But doesn't it hurt?"

  Iv jumps off Velophine's hand and does another pose. "This is where the laws of magic come into play, hehe. You know about the cube law of mana, right?" Velophine thinks for a moment, then nods. "The more mana in an object or livin' being, the higher the magical potential of their spells. Bigger objects require more mana for the same effect as smaller objects. But this means that the same amount of mana in a small object is super highly efficient when they cast spells. You see where I'm gettin' at?"

  Velophine takes a moment to think. Then a light bulb lights up in her mind and she replies: "Any spell you cast is incredibly potent compared to a human mage."

  "Correct!" Iv twirls. "When I dashed into the cannon I used a defensive spell to harden my body. Thanks to the cube law I was as hard as steel. I was literally a flying cannon ball!"

  Velophine applauds the presentation. Her mind is thoroughly blown. Iv adds as a side note that she has a passive spell that increases her defenses quickly if she experiences strong impacts. This protects her from heavy objects falling on her. This specialized set of magical skills is one of the reasons she is even able to work as a ship mechanic.