Lost at Sea Bk. 02 Ch. 26

Nudity was different from sexuality, and both were different from intimacy. They'd been braided together in her head for so long that it was hard for her to think about them as separate things, but it had become obvious to her that they were very different. She'd recently discovered that under the right circumstances, she was surprisingly comfortable with nudity, and greatly enjoyed seeing displays of sexuality. Intimacy was the biggest hangup now. Seeing it on display made her feel like she was intruding on something private.

While they'd been arguing, Janie had barely noticed that they were all standing around naked. As soon as they embraced, Janie felt like she should look away. Thinking about it opened up dozens of new questions in her mind, but before she could pursue any of them, Tonya started talking again.

"You're the only one who gets to call me a brat," Tonya said, pointing her small finger at Caine's face like a weapon.

"I'll try not to abuse the privilege," Caine said.

"Where'd all that come from anyway?" Tonya asked. "Dumping a bucket on someone is something I'd do, but not you."

"Things have been tense lately," Caine said with a shrug. "I wanted to lighten the mood." He let out a self-effacive chuckle. "Obviously not something I'm good at."

"I'll teach you," Tonya said, burying her face in his chest again.

Caine squeezed her tighter. "Sounds like a threat."

The two of them, wet and naked, embracing in the steam, looked at each other with fierce affection. In spite of the anxious knot in her chest from feeling like she was watching something private, Janie thought they looked beautiful. Something nagged at her though, distracting her from the tableau.

Steam?

Hadn't it been cooler earlier?

Why was there steam?

"Um," she said, drawing Caine and Tonya's attention. She gestured around. "Why is it so hot in here?"

The pair suddenly realized how warm and thick the air was.

"What the fuck?" Tonya said, swiveling her head to look all around. She let go of Caine and walked around the room, holding her hands out like divining rods. "It's like the hot spring in here."

"It was cool when we started," Caine added, sounding suspicious.

"Yeah, it felt great," Tonya said. "What happened?"

Janie started thinking, trying to remember what the air had looked and felt like when they first came in, and when it changed. It had to have been gradual. They would have noticed if all the steam had been sudden. She gasped in sudden worry, yanked the door open and ran out of the room, oblivious to the display of bouncing flesh she put on.

"Damn," Tonya said, suddenly distracted as she leered after Janie's pert behind.

"Behave," Caine said, giving her a gentle push towards the door.

Tonya stopped abruptly and gave Caine a playfully defiant look. "Brats don't behave."

Caine gave her a steady look and started reaching for the bucket. Tonya let out a small yelp and ran out of the room after Janie. Caine chuckled to himself and followed.

They found her in the stairwell, carefully moving to the ground floor. She stopped half way, holding her hands out in front of her and smelling the air. Then she descended fully, clearly confused. She looked around, then came back up the stairs to meet Caine and Tonya in the doorway to Will's bedroom. "I thought there might be a fire downstairs."

"Scary thought," Caine said. "I don't really want to be steamed like an oyster."

Tonya waved her hands around. "The air's nice and cool out here." She trotted back to the washroom and shook her head in confusion. "It's only warm in here. What the hell is going on?"

Caine's face pinched in thought and he eyed Tonya suspiciously. He sat down on the edge of Will's bed and took a slow, centering breath. "Give me a bit, I want to check something," he said. He closed his eyes and went very still.

Janie stood quietly, watching him with curiosity. Tonya got bored after seconds and started fiddling with things on Will's dresser, glancing back at Caine frequently.

After a minute or so Caine opened his eyes again. "Makes no fucking sense."

"What?" Tonya asked, flopping down onto the bed next to him.

"It was us," Caine said. "Well, you really. I think."

"What?!" Tonya asked, wide eyed. "I didn't do anything!"

"Not on purpose," Caine said. "You did something though."

"How? When?" Tonya demanded.

"I don't know," Caine said.

"Then how do you know it was me?" Tonya asked, growing more upset.

Caine tapped his chest. "I'm drained. Not too much. I didn't even notice when it happened, but I can tell now that I've checked. The last time that happened was when you blew up the baths. And before that in Bella's room."

"I thought that only happens when I cum?" Tonya said, shaking her head in confusion.

Janie pursed her lips and fought down the rise of embarrassment and discomfort at Tonya's lewd words. She exhaled and focused on the meaning behind them. "So if I am understanding this correctly, Caine, you possess some kind of... mystic reservoir, and Tonya is connected to it, and sometimes uses it without realizing what she is doing?"

"That's the short of it," Caine nodded. "Whatever Bella's ritual did, it connected us in a way we haven't really figured out."

"So she's using you as a font?" Janie wondered out loud.

"Something like that," Caine said, turning his hands upward in confusion.

"I didn't know people could be fonts," Janie said with a slightly horrified shake of her head. Based on her understanding of how magical energies worked, the whole idea seemed impossible.

Tonya's shoulders slumped. "Well, at least I didn't blow up this time," she said dejectedly.

Caine put his arm around her shoulders. "Don't beat yourself up. Not blowing up is progress."

Tonya was dejected but nodded in begrudging agreement. Then her face twisted up in confusion and annoyance. "So why'd I make a bunch of steam?"

"I... suspect you made heat," Janie offered.

"I didn't mean to make heat!" Tonya groused. "Wait! Heat's one of the things to look for so you know if your ward is bad, or if you're doing a ritual too fast."

"Yes, that's correct," Janie nodded. "Magic never wants to be contained. When called up, it tries to dissipate. When it cannot dissipate, it tries to become something else. Like heart or sound. Wards are used to contain magical energies so that they don't release before they can be used for their intended purpose."

"I wasn't using a ward though! I wasn't even trying to do magic," Tonya said in frustration.

"Natural magic isn't unheard of," Janie said.

"Even if I did do something without meaning to, it shouldn't have been able to make all that steam!" Tonya protested. "I couldn't even do that if I had a full ritual and a ward. I'm just not that strong."

"You couldn't blow up a hot spring on purpose either, but you still did," Caine reminded her..

"You're never going to let that go, are you?" Tonya groused.

Caine smirked and bumped her shoulder with his arm. "Nope."

Janie tapped her lip with her finger and paced as she thought. Tonya's eyes followed her lavisciously. Caine's didn't. Janie was too focused to notice either one. "As I understand it, most people who are capable of channeling magical energies aren't able to do so quickly. It's both a natural limitation, and a practiced one. A slow ritual is generally a safe ritual," Janie explained. "Most people who try to channel energy without a ritual can't contain it at all. It becomes a small burst of sound or light, or a spark, or a bit of force that feels like a breeze, things like that. Not dangerous at all, really. Wards are for containment, so they allow people to build up energy over time. With a ward to hold more energy, and a ritual to focus it into a specific effect when the energy is released, magic can be quite powerful. It only becomes a problem when large amounts of uncontrolled energy are released at once, like when a practitioner fails to properly perform a ritual, or when a ward fails." Janie stopped pacing and turned to face Tonya and Caine. "To turn water into steam on this scale would require a fair amount of dissipating energy, and still doesn't account for what it was intended for in the first place."

"You're talking about an evocation reaction!" Tonya translated. "One of Bella's first lessons was about why bad wards are worse than no wards." her eyes went wide. "I'm an evoker now?"

Janie mimed weighing something in her hands. "I think there is a difference between accidentally causing an evocation reaction, and being a genuine evoker." She sighed and sat down on the other side of Tonya. "I wish I knew more about this."

"We gotta fix the mirror," Tonya said a bit frantically. "I need to talk to Bella."

"Kaduska's working on finding a mirror that will fit in the frame," Caine said. "Until then, you just have to be careful."

"And practice!" Tonya said.

Caine and Janie shared a worried look over Tonya's head.

"This place is a crumbling firetrap. It is not a good place for experiments with uncontrolled magic," Caine said gently.

"And evocation is strictly outlawed by the Magistrate," Janie added. "Accidents happen, but deliberately attempting evocation is... treated harshly."

"But this time I only made steam," Tonya whined. "That's not dangerous. It's only dangerous when I cum! The other day we managed to fuck without me blowing up!"

Janie's cheeks reddened and Caine looked a bit pained. "We weren't..." he sighed and glanced at Janie apologetically. "When you... finished, I wasn't touching you. I was careful about that."

"You weren't?" Tonya asked.

Caine raised a teasing eyebrow. "You don't remember me taking cover under the table?"

Janie made a small noise that could have been embarrassment, or stifled laughter.

"It was a big fucking orgasm, so I was a little distracted," Tonya said with a small glare. "I noticed afterward. I just thought you were just making fun of me."

"Well, I was doing that too," Caine smirked. Then he looked down at himself and tapped his chest again. "Come to think of it, you couldn't finish until after I was refilled. It was like that in the baths too. I had been feeling tired. When we..." Caine glanced at Janie for a moment, trying to take care with his words. "When we were together, it slowly replenished me. Then when you finished, it was like you sucked everything back out of me all at once."

Tonya looked horrified and dejected. "And then boom."

"Right," Caine continued. "So I was careful last night, and didn't touch you at the end. Seems like it worked."

"No boom," Tonya smiled, then frowned. "So now I can only cum when you do it, and you can't touch me when it happens? That's bullshit!"

Janie's confusion overrode her embarrassment, and she held up a hand. "Wait. Earlier. You said your reservoir of energy was replenished by..." she gestured awkwardly between Tonya and Caine.

"Yeah," Caine said.

Janie rubbed her eyes in confusion. "It doesn't make sense."

"Makes sense to me," Tonya said. "Fucking is how I do all my magic. Bella too."

"That's... not what my reservoir is," Caine said. "Or where it comes from."

"Energy's energy, right," Tonya shrugged.

"Not really," Janie said, pursing her lips for a moment. "For wards, usually yes, but most rituals are designed for a particular kind of energy."

Caine nodded in understanding. "Waterwheels and windmills do similar things, but they aren't interchangeable."

"Exactly," Janie agreed. "So Tonya shouldn't be able to transfer her... type of energy to you. Not unless your reservoir is actually some kind of conversion and containment ward."

"I don't think so," Caine said.

Janie's brows were knitted in thought as she tried to remember all the relevant details of her ward theory classes from years ago. "In that case, Tonya shouldn't be able to replenish you without a complex ritual that would turn one type of energy into another, and you'd also need some kind of transfer conduit.

"Well that's how it started!" Tonya said excitedly. "Bella used the mirrors to transfer energy from all of us to her ritual. Maybe me and Caine just stayed that way? Now I fill up his magic bucket when he fucks me."

Janie rubbed her face with her hands, as much to clear her head as to ignore Tonya's colorful phrasing. "But why only you two?"

"Dunno," Tonya shrugged again. She realized Caine was staring at her like she was growing a second head. "What?"

Caine looked more confused than Janie. "You think it's actually you refilling my energy?"

"I thought we figured that out already?" Tonya asked like what she'd said was obvious.

"I was thinking of it like a leak. Whatever happened caused you to start draining me. When we're in contact with each other it plugs the leak so I can replenish myself." Caine shook his head.

Tonya giggled. "Real deep contact."

Caine just stared at her flatly.

She snickered. "I like it when you plug the leak."

"Are you finished?" Caine asked.

Tonya nodded.

Caine continued. "The point is, it should be impossible for me to pull energy from you and turn it into something I can store, so it never occurred to me that might be what's happening." He scratched his head and looked down at his hands and chest.

Janie felt like she was starting to understand what was going on. "The way you describe it really does sound like a transfer ward."

Tonya shook her head. "It goes both ways though. Transfer wards don't do that, right? When I blow up, it yanks all the energy back out of him."

"You're right. The flow is only supposed to go one way. When energy travels back to its source, it means the transfer failed," Janie said as confusion took over again.

"And there's the part about turning sex energy into whatever energy is in Caine's magic bucket," Tonya added. "Transfer wards don't do that either."

"My magic bucket?" Caine asked, sounding pained.

"It's your fault I have buckets on the brain," Tonya said blythely.

"Maybe I can ask one of the Archivists about this," Janie suggested.

"You're not going anywhere," Caine reminded her. "Price on your head, remember?"

Janie threw her hands up in frustration. "We really do need Bella."

"That's a problem for later," Caine said standing up. "Right now, we're all wet and naked, and Tonya's the only one who's actually had her bath."

"You two go ahead," Janie said. It had been a long day already, and between the stress of thinking the lighthouse was on fire, and the frustration of not being able to figure out what was going on with Caine and Tonya's bizarre connection, she was exhausted. She was also acutely aware that they'd all been naked for more than an hour now. She wasn't sure how much more she could take.

"Nope," Tonya said, taking her hand and starting to pull her back towards the tub. "Caine still has to teach me how to help with your back. We've been naked for a while now. You can't get embarrassed anymore."

"I beg to differ," Janie said half-heartedly. In spite of her protests, she let herself be pulled back to the steamy washroom.

_________________________________

The top of the ridge was mostly barren. The sea spray and warm weather had tossed a cloak of mist over the southern ridgeline. During the day it was probably refreshing, but now that evening was starting to settle the breeze and mist sent a shiver over Jack's skin. It wasn't really thick enough to obscure her vision, but it did make everything hazy at a distance. Towards the far end of the curve she made out a lone, ruined structure. It's roof had clearly collapsed. Other than that partially ruined building, there was nothing up here. Just a few scraggly trees and patches of dark red wildflowers. Jack had expected people to live up here. The view was beautiful. She was baffled by why anyone would live in a hole in the side of a cliff when the top of the ridge was wide enough to build on? On the other side of the curve, there were trees. That's where she and Will had come from when they made their way out of the jungle. It seemed like far more work to lower logs down into the cove than to drag them around the top of the ridge.

There was a well worn pathway leading from the last set of stairs out of the shantytown to where the worn walkway disappeared down the other side of the ridge. Walking across the narrow strip of land took less than a minute. There was no lift on the ocean side of the ridge, just a trailhead marked by a pair of knee-high standing stones. Far below, past the long trail of stairs and switchbacks, she could see the strip of beach against the lapping ocean, and the copse of trees that separated it from the ridge, but again she saw no homes. No buildings of any kind. For as far as she could see, the coast was pristine and untouched by civilization.

The island was mostly surrounded by a reef. She wasn't a sailor, but she knew reefs meant good fishing. This place was naturally defended, rich with resources. It made no sense that the only inhabitants were a bunch of shady pirates in a hidden cove.

She rested her hand on one of the standing stones marking the trailhead. It was carved like the faces above the docks. These ones were nesting eagles. She'd studied enough of Akula art to know it when she saw it. It made sense. This was exactly the sort of place the Akula looked for when they migrated. The stone carving was old, but not ancient. The Akula always settled next to water. They built elaborate floating docks, networks of rafts, shipyards and fisheries. Their homes were often on stilts, rising straight out of the water. If they had been here long enough to carve house sized faced into the edge of the cove, and the stones on top of the highest part of the island, they had certainly been here long enough to build homes. Where had they gone?

She wandered towards the ruined building, trying to give her mind something else to think about other than her conflicting feelings about Will and wild guesses about Akula relics. Between the misty ocean spray and the glare of the setting sun, it was hard to make out anything but the shape of it in the distance. It wasn't until she got closer that she realized it had been burned. Scorch marks streaked upward from the first floor windows. The exterior of the second story was almost completely black. What was left of the shingled roof looked like charcoal. It seemed to Jack like an inn from an Imperial city had been transported to the top of this island crest, and then set ablaze. There was something about it that made Jack feel like she was looking at a monument to tragedy. Everything about it seemed lonely, sad, and ruined.

"I feckin' hate her, Katie," Jack heard someone slur from nearby.

Jack's expression twisted in discomfort as she recognized who was talking. Unless there was another foul mouthed woman with a Casterly brogue here, that was Candy.

"Dammit Will," Jack muttered. She knew it wasn't really fair to blame odd coincidences on Will's curse. If anyone was actually to blame, it was herself. Whatever the case, she knew better than to believe in coincidences when Will said the curse was acting up.

"It's always the same shite," Candy's voice continued as Jack tried to figure out where it was coming from. "Oh, ye got troubles? I'm so sorry tae hear that." the voice said, sounding like she was mockingly impersonating someone else "Come work fer me, I'll make it all better!"

Jack followed the sound around the building until she saw that it wasn't just part of the roof that had collapsed. The far corner of the building had caved in. Through the remaining half of a ruined bay window, she could see a dining room. The corner walls had fallen, but the ceiling still jutted out covering most of the room below like a canopy. A partially charred table and old weathered chairs still stood, as well as a large fireplace that looked like it was now doing most of the work of holding up the uncollapsed wall.