Chapter 6: Emily and the Duel

“We need to resume my training, Aria,” Emily said. “There’s no time to lose. If I’m going to win this duel, I’ll need everything you can teach me.”

Aria smiled sympathetically. She attempted to place a hand on Emily’s shoulder, but her arms were still straitjacketed to her front by Richard’s magic. “Emily, are you sure—”

“Of course I’m sure. It’s the only way out of this.”

“But what if you lose?”

Emily bit her lip. “I won’t lose. Aria, do you think the Stoneshell’s fire can get hot enough to melt stone? If I can just figure out how to do that, he’ll be no match for me.”

“Think carefully, Emily,” Aria begged, her stone eyes turning misty. “Captain Richard has years—no, decades—of experience on you. He is a formidable opponent.”

“And that’s why I need to train. Please, Aria.” The Stoneshell had begun to glow orange, and Emily was frantically undoing the laces of her boots.

“I’ll never forgive myself if you marry this man just to protect me,” said Aria.

“And I’d never forgive myself if I let you sink to the bottom of the ocean, like all those statues I saw in the Labyrinthine Pool.” Emily shook the memory out of her mind as she tossed her right boot across the room.

Aria had no reply.

“What are you doing?” asked Talyndra, as Emily pulled the knot in her shirt apart.

“Getting ready for practice,” Emily said, shrugging the shirt off her shoulders. “Fire is hazardous to clothing.”

Talyndra nodded sagely. “It will be an honor and privilege to observe.”

That last word stuck in Emily’s craw as she stood barefoot, barechested, with hands resting on her belt buckle. She could hardly believe she was voluntarily taking off her clothes, again, in front of someone else she barely knew. It helped that Talyndra was naked herself. And it certainly beat the prospect of accidentally burning her clothes again. Especially now that each item could represent the difference between continuing her quest and ... having to marry Richard.

Emily unbuckled her belt. Then, with a deep breath, she let her borrowed trousers fall in a heap about her boots. She quickly stepped out of them and kicked them over to where the rest of her clothes lay, lest she have second thoughts.

“I didn’t know humans grew hair over there,” said Talyndra. “It looks itchy.”

Emily immediately brought both hands in front of her crotch, blushing deeply. “It—uh—you—no. It’s not.”

“Beneath the hair is a fine organ, healthy and strong,” said Talyndra, her eyes traveling appraisingly up and down Emily’s body. “May you birth many strong sons and agile daughters. But not for the pirate captain.”

“Talyndra,” Aria said gently, while Emily blushed even deeper and appeared to be dying of embarrassment, “something I should have told you about humans before is that they don’t like comments, even complimentary ones, on areas of their bodies that are normally covered by clothes.”

Talyndra looked perplexed. “From what you’ve told me, no part of Emily’s body is normally covered by clothes.”

“Not by choice!” Emily snapped. “The sooner we get started, the sooner I can get dressed again. I like being dressed.” While she spoke, Emily gathered up her hair and slipped the hair tie from her wrist onto it, making a tight bun with a few quick maneuvers.

“Quite. Let us begin. Talyndra, you may want to stand back.”

Talyndra obediently sequestered herself in a corner of the cell, sitting cross-legged and observing as Aria guided Emily through her magic practice. Emily was focused and Aria patient, but signs of irritation clouded her face when she attempted to move her trapped arms to demonstrate a particular movement.

Sometime later, their practice was disturbed by the sound of footfalls on the creaky deck. “Captain’s coming!” Talyndra cried, peering through the hold in the door and folding her arms across her chest.

Emily shrieked as she jumped from a very open warrior pose to a huddled crouch, scrambling for her clothes. She managed to retrieve her white shirt and wrap it backward around herself just before Richard stepped through the hole in the door, preserving her decency but showing a lot of leg.

“Ho ho, I do hope I’m not interrupting anything,” Richard said. “What lovely strong legs you have, Emily. I look forward to caressing them. That is ... if you have decided to accept my proposal...?”

“I’ll fight you,” Emily replied flatly. “Name your time and place.”

“Excellent! We will duel tomorrow at sunset, on the Sea Serpent’s main deck. Lirethel rules, with the forfeit being one item of clothing, and the duel ending when the first combatant removes their final item. We will count boots and gloves as single items each. But I see you have already been practicing the forfeit part. If you want to lose so badly, dear Emily, you have only to reconsider my first proposal.”

Emily blushed and stammered, pushing her back further against the wall of the cell and holding the shirt tighter to herself. She could feel the rough wood pricking her backside and had to suppress a pained yelp.

With heavy stone footfalls, Aria stepped between Richard and Emily. “Emily has accepted your proposal to duel, now leave us be. We will speak again when the time comes, but no sooner.”

A heavy, tense silence followed as Richard glared at Aria. “I ... do not appreciate being given orders aboard my ship. Especially by a being I have total control over. Speak to me in that manner again, and I will do much worse than tie your hands together.” A heavy crunch sounded through the cell as Richard made a fist of his right hand.

“‘Twon’t be your ship for long, pirate!” Talyndra said, smirking at Richard. “Or did you forget the terms of your own duel?”

Richard cast a sidelong glance at Talyndra, who held his gaze steadily, secure in her mostly concealed position. “Perhaps that is true,” he said. “I am a man of my word. May the best mage win.”

With that, Richard turned tail and exited the cell through the hole in the door.

Once he was out of sight, Emily relaxed and stepped away from the wall, rubbing her pinched bottom. “Let’s continue, Aria,” she said, allowing the shirt to fall at her feet. She glanced at her wrist, though it had been bare of a watch since before she’d arrived in Thessolan. “I’ve got a little over twenty-four hours to get better at magic than Richard. No pressure.”

“We may have to skip forward a little, in that case,” Aria replied.

“J-just be careful where you aim that stuff,” Talyndra said, already bringing her arms up to shield her face. “Nobody likes the smell of roasted wood elf.”

Emily blushed, then set her mouth in a determined line, kicking her discarded shirt into the corner with her other clothes. “I’m ready to learn, Aria.”

The training lasted for the rest of the day, with a short break to scramble for clothes when the pirate from that morning came to bring them an additional meal. An attempt at making Talyndra assume a degrading position was cut short by a dirty look and a palm of flame from Emily.

“Not disarmin’ the prisoners no more, what’s this place coming to,” he grumbled as he slunk off, leaving Talyndra and Emily to eat in peace.

By the time training was finished for the day, Emily was so exhausted that she immediately collapsed on the threadbare prison mattress and didn’t move again. At Aria’s direction, Talyndra fetched her white shirt from the corner and laid it over her.

“Don’t know why she likes these stiff, fibery things. They’ve none of the silky caress of a good set of goldapple leaves.” Talyndra sighed and sat down on her mattress. “I do miss the feel of the leaves. And the smell of them. And the forest. The sounds of the birds and the animals. Wood elves were not made for the ocean, nor for living in a warped tree carcass such as this. Once Emily wins the duel, I’ll ask her to take this ship right back to shore as fast as the winds will carry it.”

“That is our intention as well,” replied Aria. “We were on our way to Lirethel, which is far inland—we will make port posthaste.”

“Lirethel? Why’d you want to go there?”

“It is a city of great learning, home to Thessolan’s most gifted magical minds. We are hoping to find someone there who might be able to tell us how it was that Emily came to be transported to our world in the middle of her bath, and how she might return to it.”

“And to turn you back!” Emily muttered, her voice slurring with fatigue.

Talyndra raised an eyebrow. “You want to be human again? Interesting. They don’t live very long, humans. No magic in their bones.”

“A life of stone is hardly a life at all, should it last millennia or till the end of time. I want to touch and feel, to swim, jump and skip, without being laden down by every step. I want to cry real tears again, smell the air, and taste good food and drink. And I would also very much like to try on a different outfit.”

“Wish my outfit were ... stuck on ... zzzz...” Emily was fast asleep.

“You and me both, Emily,” said Talyndra, curling into a ball on her mattress and closing her eyes.

The next morning, after breakfast, Aria took Emily through a light training session, mindful not to use up too much of her energy before the fight. Aria emphasized mindfulness and calm, repeating the importance of Emily not letting her emotions dictate the use of her magic.

“You will need to remain at peace and retain a deliberate and analytical mindset no matter what the circumstances,” Aria said.

“Even if Richard has you down to just your boots and the whole pirate crew is whooping and hollering at your fleshy behind!” Talyndra added.

The fire in Emily’s palms immediately went out and she placed her hands between her butt and Talyndra’s gaze.

Aria sighed. “That is precisely the wrong approach. Richard wants you to react like that. That’s why he proposed this style of duel. He is trying to use your shame against you.”

“W-well, I—it’s embarrassing, okay?! Just the thought of all those pirates leering at me...”

“If you remain focused in the early rounds, that may not come to pass. Fight well enough, and Richard will be the only one exposing himself.”

Emily relaxed slightly.

“But you have to be prepared for all eventualities, and that includes a close fight or even one where he gains an initial upper hand. What is your order of loss?”

“Boots, socks, belt, shirt, trousers,” Emily said. “I just wish I had more clothes. A jacket or a hat or something. Maybe three jackets, that would be nice. And a bra and panties, while we’re at it.”

“The Stoneshell also counts,” Aria said. “Of course, should you need to remove that, the duel will truly be over.”

“Knowing my luck, it’ll probably get down to that,” Emily said, looking down at her body. “At least it will be familiar.”

“What’s a bra?” Talyndra asked.

As Emily pulled her makeshift pirate outfit back on, she explained modern ladies’ underwear to her two Thessolanian friends.

“That would be strategically convenient for this duel,” Aria said. “A pity you weren’t transported here while wearing such things.”

Emily pouted, imagining how different her adventures would have felt if she’d arrived in Thessolan with her clothes on. “Tell me about it.”

Lunch was served by the same pirate from before, who had become decidedly taciturn and deferential to the prisoners, even averting his eyes from Talyndra. Emily ate as much of it as her nerves would allow, and the girls passed the rest of the afternoon in conversation, avoiding the topic of the upcoming fight. Emily spoke more of Earth, her friends and family, and Talyndra of her life in the woods. Aria asked many questions of both.

“And that’s when I walked in on my roommate—”

Emily was cut off by the appearance of the usual pirate at the hole in the door. “Beggin’ your pardon, ladies, but the sun will soon be setting.”

Her story instantly forgotten, Emily felt as though she had swallowed a stone. All the nervousness and doubt that she had tried to distance herself from came roaring back, and it took everything she had to thank and dismiss the pirate.

“Are you ready, Emily?” Aria asked.

“Not really,” Emily squeaked, standing up on shaking limbs.

Talyndra enveloped her in a hug. “We believe in you. Come now, let’s go win a ship.”

The feeling of Talyndra’s bare back as Emily returned her hug reminded her that Talyndra would be walking with her and Aria to the deck of the ship. She had sworn to stand and watch the duel, even though she remained completely naked, and Emily could certainly not spare her anything.

“Of course, I’ll watch,” Talyndra had said, suppressing a crack in her voice. “Fight well, and I’ll be the only naked one.”

If Talyndra could do that, Emily could summon up the courage to fight Richard. And the courage to win.

The sun had dipped low on the horizon when the party arrived on the ship’s deck, casting long shadows. Emily led the procession, her gaze steely with resolution. Talyndra walked behind her, covering herself with her arms, and Aria brought up the rear. This did little to stop the scattered crew members from whooping, hollering, and whistling.

But Emily’s focus was on Richard, who stood in the middle of the deck, grinning cockily at her. He had on his full captain’s uniform—boots, trousers, shirt and jacket, and his gloves. There was even a tri-corner hat perched jauntily over his dark locks.

“Aren’t you a little overdressed?” Emily asked, extra-aware of the wind across her bare midriff.

“I don’t believe the terms of our duel specified anything about that,” Richard replied. “But I wouldn’t want to be accused of playing dirty.” With a swift movement, he shrugged off his jacket and lobbed it to one side of the deck.

“That’s still—”

“Enough talk! The sun has already begun to set.” Richard clapped his gloved hands together and two large stone blocks rose from the deck behind him.

“He’s started using magic!” Aria exclaimed. Then she whispered in Emily’s ear, “That means the duel has begun. There’s no going back now. Be careful—Richard will use every underhanded trick in the book to win.”

Emily gulped as Talyndra and Aria stepped away from her to join the spectators. Richard stared at her intently, the stone blocks hovering menacingly behind him. Emily noticed that different-sized pieces of stone were scattered all across the deck, ready and waiting to be wielded by Richard’s magic.

With his gloves and hat, Richard had at least two more rounds than she did, but she could conjure fire out of nothing. Hopefully, that would prove advantageous enough.

The second Emily summoned a fireball into her upturned palm, one of the stone blocks came whizzing for her head. She dove to the side, landing heavily on her shoulder, and the stone crashed into the deck behind her, splintering the wood.

“Round one to Captain Stoneheart!” shouted First Mate Gideon. “Will the loser please observe the forfeit?”

“What?!” Emily exclaimed, rubbing her bruised shoulder.

“The round ends when one combatant falls over!” Aria shouted from the sidelines, failing to hide the distress on her face. “Don’t let him make you lose your footing, Emily!”

Hardly believing how quickly she had lost the first round, Emily sat up on the deck and looked herself over. The boots would have to be the first thing to go, that was the order of loss. Grumbling and avoiding Richard’s smug expression, she undid the laces on her boots and pulled them off. Then, looking at her feet, she decided to take her socks off as well. There would be no point in subjecting herself to another unnecessary fall because of slippery footing.

The pirates whistled appreciatively as Emily tossed her socks and boots to the side and stood up again. She crouched in what she hoped was a sturdy position and pressed her toes against the deck.

“In a hurry to lose it all, hmm?” asked Richard. “If you’d like to resign now, you have only to say the word.”

“Never!” Emily growled, her fists exploding into flames.

The pirate crew cheered raucously.

“As you wish,” Richard said, shrugging. “My crew will certainly appreciate the show.”

Richard crouched low and made a sharp upward-reaching gesture with his right arm. As he did so, the deck beneath Emily’s feet rumbled and shook. There was a great cracking, splintering sound as three large conical stones launched from below deck like rockets, tearing through the wood and tossing Emily up into the air.

Emily screamed and blasted fire in random directions. As she began to descend and the deck rose to meet her, she blasted a concentrated pillar of fire below her. Suddenly, she wasn’t falling, but hanging suspended in midair.

The audience gasped. Emily’s fists were rocket-powered.

Her mind reeling with the possibilities of this discovery, Emily recalled the training she’d done with Aria to summon fire from places other than her hands. With careful focus, she transferred the locus of the Stoneshell’s firepower from her fists to the soles of her feet.

It worked. Emily drew herself up into a standing position, hovering several feet above the deck. She looked down at Richard, who was scrambling to summon a slab of stone from the far end of the deck.

Taking a deep breath in and out, she blasted him with fire from her mouth.

With a surprised cry, Richard jumped out of the way of the pillar of fire and directly into the path of the oncoming stone slab. It connected with his ankles and he cried out and crumpled on the deck.

The pirate crew was deathly silent, but Aria and Talyndra more than made up for it with their enthusiastic cheering. “Yes! Emily! Hooray!”

Talyndra jumped for joy before some low whistles from the pirates made her realize what she was doing, and she demurely returned to a concealed cross-legged position by Aria’s side.

“Round two to Emily Stoneshell Bearer!” shouted Gideon. “Will the loser please observe the forfeit ... Captain, sir.”

Scowling and wincing in pain, Richard climbed back up to his feet. He cast Emily a dirty look as he flung the tri-corner hat from his head. “Beginner’s luck. Let’s see how well it holds when I bring out my real power.”

Emily slowly reduced the power of her fire until she dropped gently to the deck. She could fly! That would make this duel a whole easier. Though it was quite tiring to hold a steady stream of fire beneath her feet, and she hoped she hadn’t wasted too much energy figuring it out.

Richard circled the deck, making elaborate gestures with his hands. Small blocks of stone started rising from all over the place and joining together in long, segmented trails. They moved with snakelike quickness and grace, coming straight for Emily.

Blasts of flame did nothing to deter the stone snakes, and soon one was wrapping itself around Emily’s waist, and another around her ankles. The snakes spun her around until she was dizzy, then pulled her feet out from under her. Before she knew it, she was down on the deck.

“Round three to Captain Stoneheart!”

Emily pouted and undid the buckle of her belt. An enormous cheer rose from the audience but faded once it became clear that Emily was removing only the belt, which she tossed to one side of the deck. It rallied slightly as her trousers slipped a little, catching on the widest part of her hips and exposing the tops of her hip bones.

Richard licked his lips but wasted no time in launching his next attack. Extending his arms out in front of him, he pointed two gloved fists at Emily. With a small pop, they detached from his arms and shot directly at her.

Emily blasted one off-course with a burst of flame, but the other connected with her solar plexus. The force was not great enough to injure her, but it was quite enough to wind her and knock her from her feet.

“Round four to Captain Stoneheart!”

Lying on her back on the deck, Emily groaned deeply, partly in pain and partly because she had been dreading and hoping to avoid what came next. Now that her boots and belt were gone, her shirt had to be next.

“Here, let me help you,” Richard said. She felt the leather-encased fingers of his stone hand pull at the knot between her breasts.

The pirates cheered as the hand undid the knot and flicked away the sides of the shirt, exposing Emily’s breasts to the salty sea air. Emily wanted to die.

“Come now, stand up and complete the forfeit,” Richard said after some minutes had passed with Emily lying motionless on the deck. “Let’s get this over with while there’s still light enough to see your lovely body.”

Eyes shut tight, Emily climbed to her feet and shrugged the shirt off her shoulders, dropping it to the deck. She quickly crossed her arms over her front, but that wasn’t enough to stop the pirates from letting out another loud cheer or to suppress the chill of the wind across her bare torso.

The trousers that barely clung to her hips were now the only item of clothing standing between her and total nudity. Of course, she would still have to lose the Stoneshell before the duel was actually finished, but every lost item of clothing was another blow to her confidence. She would need to release her arms so she could use them to fight ... with every eye on the ship focused solely on her.

If she lost now, then at least ... at least Aria and Talyndra would be okay. She would persuade him not to sell them into slavery. Surely Captain Richard would respect the wishes of ... of his wife.

Emily blinked open her eyes. Immediately, she caught the desperate glances of Aria and Talyndra. “Don’t give up, Emily!” shouted Talyndra, her arms also folded tightly over her chest, as they had been since she arrived on deck. “It’s not over yet!”

Emily glanced from her friends to Richard, who had a detestably smug look on his face. His eyes were glued to her chest, clearly waiting for her arms to drop. Blushing and biting her lip, Emily’s first instinct was to cover up more, to somehow maneuver her arms to hide both breasts. But then she had a second thought. A fiery thought.

At the same instant as she dropped her arms, twin columns of flame burst from Emily’s chest, connecting directly with Richard. He screamed as the flames licked at him and dropped to the floor, rolling around furiously.

“Round five to Emily Stoneshell Bearer!”

That was more like it.

Richard stood up, smoke rising from his torso. He pulled away the charred remains of his shirt, revealing heavily scarred flesh and a bronze band around his left bicep. “Still want to play, eh?”

“Yes,” Emily said, crouching down to pick Richard’s stone hand off the deck. “Let’s continue.”

With a blast of fire, she launched the hand in a high arc which sent it sailing over the edge of the deck.

Richard cursed as he summoned two large stone slabs in front of him. “I rather liked that hand, you know. But I don’t need it.”

One slab blasted towards Emily and then another. With a burst of fire from her feet, she easily cleared both. Emily smiled with satisfaction as they cleared the deck and landed in the water with two successive loud plops. Throughout the fight, Richard had been violently launching pieces of stone off the ship and into the ocean. His supply, while large, could not be infinite.

Emily wondered for a moment why a man with the power to control stone would become a ship captain. Then she launched herself at him, flaming heel first.

Emily’s heel merely grazed Richard’s cheek as she shot passed him, but the glancing impact was enough to knock him onto the deck.

“Round six to Emily Stoneshell Bearer!”

Richard pulled off his boots, revealing two large, hairy feet. He and Emily were both down to their trousers, but he still had his belt. Emily’s were riding perilously low and she had to maintain a wide stance to keep them from falling.

There was a glint in Richard’s eyes as the two surveyed each other, waiting for the other to make a move. Emily deepened her crouch, and Richard circled his forearms rhythmically. Without his shirt, the absence of his hands was painfully obvious, making Emily a little guilty about sending them overboard.

But before she could dwell on that too much, she felt something tighten around her ankles. She glanced down to see a coiling snake of segmented stone drawn tight around her ankles, snapping her legs together. Her trousers lost their tenuous grip on her hips, and she fell on her bare butt.

“Round seven to Captain Stoneheart!”

The cheering from the pirates was deafening. Aria gasped and Talyndra hid her face in her hands. Emily’s cheeks burned with shame. The stone snake released its hold and slithered away across the deck. Richard offered her a mocking stump.

Eyes blurry with tears, Emily took the stump in her hand and allowed Richard to pull her to her feet. He forced her forward, out of the trousers that lay pooled beneath her, and let out a low, appreciative whistle. “Just one more round, my dear,” he whispered in her ear. “One more round, and we can enjoy each other in another way.”

Emily ran from him to the farthest corner of the deck. She stood as far from Richard and the leering audience as she could get, facing away. Once again, she was naked. Only the Stoneshell stood between her and total powerlessness and defeat. This was it. Whatever happened next, she could not fall again.

Gathering up all her strength, Emily turned to face Richard. It took everything she had to position herself in a low crouch, fists raised and ready to fire. The pirates cheered again and Emily tried to ignore them.

While her back was turned, Richard had been assembling something out of stone. A crude humanoid statue made of many stones of different shapes and sizes. now staggered towards Emily, its paw-like hands flailing in front of it.

A blast of fire took the thing’s head off, but it kept advancing.

“Good call!” shouted Richard. “That was an unnecessary detail. It will be much faster now.”

And indeed, the thing was gaining on Emily with surprising speed. She blasted two more jets of fire at it, but both missed. Leaping out of its way at the last moment, Emily stumbled across the deck, just barely keeping her footing.

The thing turned around and came back towards her. At the same time, Richard advanced from the other end of the deck, his eyes wide as saucers, taking in every detail of Emily’s naked body. Strands of hair stood up from her head and fell in her face, and she was covered in sweat. Bruises marked spots on her arms and back where she had fallen on the deck in previous rounds.

Before either the statue or Richard reached her, another blast of flame from the soles of Emily’s feet propelled her into the air. Richard cried out in surprise as he collided with his rock golem, splitting it apart. He lost his balance and fell on the deck.

“Round eight to Emily Stoneshell Bearer!” came the distant voice of Gideon, reaching Emily’s ears from far below. She had flown high above the ship, and for just a moment, she looked out at the expanse of sea around her in wonder. In the distance, she could see the outline of a shore.

Her journey in Thessolan had given her so many incredible, unbelievable experiences, and exposed her to so many things and people she had never even dreamed of. Mild-mannered Emily was becoming a powerful mage. She just wished the exposure didn’t have to be quite so literal all the time.

When she returned to the deck of the ship, Richard had already discarded his belt and was gathering up what remained of his stone. Seeming to have exhausted his more creative attacks, he settled for lobbing giant hunks of rock directly at Emily’s head. These she deflected with blasts of fire or managed to sidestep. She had been fighting for a long time now and felt her coming exhaustion. But the stakes, so keenly felt in the wind that whipped across her bare skin, kept her senses razor-sharp.

Richard was depleting his stone stockade very quickly now. With every intercepting blast of fire, Emily made sure to knock another slab into the ocean. If she could just keep this up for a little longer, and not fall again, she could win!

As Richard ran for another pile of stones, she sent fire blasts at his feet. He yelped in pain, slipped, and fell over.

“Round nine to Emily Stoneshell Bearer!”

Wincing in pain as he regained his footing, Richard scowled at Emily. “A dirty trick, firing at a man’s feet while his back is turned. But I understand. Your lust for me is clearly uncontrollable. And I am only too happy to comply.” With this, Richard forced his trousers down and let them fall at his feet. Underneath, he wore a loose pair of drawers.