‘Not to mention the occasional drink that gets in their
way.’
  ‘How can one forget?’ Ksid smirked. 
  The “Warlord”, as Nerual preferred to call it, shot
along at great speed. The additional help of natural
energy gave the ship it’s extra boost.
  The sea remained particularly calm. It wasn’t really
know for being a calm sea. Yet water only rippled as the
boat cut through it. There were no rolling waves, despite
the fact that two of the three moons in the sky were
shining to their fullest. 
  ‘That’s peculiar.’ Ksid noted. ‘I’ve never seen an
ocean this calm before.’ 
  ‘Stranger things have happened.’ Enigma said.
  ‘Actually, they haven’t.’
  ‘We’ll just have to wait and see what happens then.’
  Though the sea was still, the wind wasn’t. It continued
to puff at an even rate. This worried not only Ksid, but
the captain as well.
  Power, along with a new found friend, and Terrol with
Iikin had their shift of sleep along with some other
workers about three hours after midnight, and Enigma and
Ksid had theirs shortly before dawn. As soon as they hit
their quarters, they instantly fell asleep. 
*  *  *  
  With only an hour of sleep under their belt’s, Enigma 
and Ksid were awoken, but not because their shift was
over. Instead, they were awoken by what sounded like a
water fall, accompanied by the noise of husky panting. A
feeling of hatred overwhelmed them. 
  ‘It’s the Death Warrior.’ Ksid explained as he jumped
from his hammock. Ksid and Enigma, along with the others
that were sleep, ran out on deck.
  The people at the oars had stopped rowing, and against 
orders, were leaving their posts to observe the 
phenomenon from a better point of view. 
  Enigma’s group met up at the one place. 
  ‘It’s him, isn’t it.’ Sly yelled over the rumble of the
crowd.
  Ksid confirmed it. ‘It explains the calmness of the sea
as well.’ He pointed overhead. 
  A vast cumulonimbus cloud stretched from horizon to
horizon, blotting out the rising of the sun, and the
fading of the moons. It was deathly black, unlike the
usual cumulonimbus colour. Lightning rolled across the
base of the cloud like frogs in a frenzy. But the strange
thing was that the lightning was a bright red. 
  A point directly above the ship began also to form a
speck of red. The bolts of lightning met at this spot.
The bolts gradually quickened, whilst the red speck
progressively widened. 
  Ksid and the group shoved their way to the bow of the
boat, watching the skies for any change. 
  The rumble of the crowd died out until there was only a 
whisper, then finally, total silence. The realisation 
that they were in trouble slowly over took them, and they 
soon were in total panic. 
  People were trampled as the crew sought refuge below
deck. The mass of people criss - crossed from side to
side, entering any hole that lead below, that they could
find. Soon, all that was left were the few stragglers and
the ever calm organisation.
  The former red speck was now very wide. The lightning
bolts weren’t able to reach it’s centre any more,
instead, only reaching it’s circumference. 
  Then the growing red circle ceased to expand. 
  The sound of rushing water was still present, but 
everything else was dead calm - including the wind. A 
husky chuckle came from above. The Death Warriors 
destruction had begun.
  From the very outskirts of the red circle in the
clouds, a thin stream of water came rushing down. The
water slammed into the sea to form a barrier all around
them. This waterfall had them trapped.
  Slowly, the thin pour of water that surrounded them
thickened, closing the gap tighter and tighter. They only
had a few hundred yards each way, and soon this would all
be eaten up. 
  Ksid closed his eyes in deep concentration, holding his
hands out in front of him with a giant crease forming in
the middle of his forehead. He mumbled as he told his
heart what he wanted to do. 
  Another vicious chuckle came from overhead. Enigma felt 
an even great sense of hatred. Then without warning, an 
invisible blow knocked Ksid from his place, into the 
mast. He was knock senseless, but still aware of what was 
happening. 
  Instinctively, Enigma hoisted himself up onto the 
railing, peering above. With anger, he concentrated on 
what he wanted to do. He wanted the Death Warrior 
destroyed. 
  His hands then gave off a light red aura and his head
tingled. With open palms, he clamped his hands together
above his head. A light red beam shot vertically above
him from his glowing paws, to explode with great force in
the direct centre of the gloomy cloud. 
  A piercing shriek rang in their ears as the Death
Warrior howled in the face of his fate. What seemed like
seconds to the rest of the group seemed like hours to
Enigma. His mind never lost concentration. He wouldn’t
have lost concentration even if he wanted to. It wasn’t
really him doing the things that he was doing. He wanted
them to happen, but he never meant them to happen the way
they did. He never knew how to do it in the first place.
It was like the instructions were implanted in his head
from the day that he was born. 
  When the shrieking stopped, so did Enigma. His hands
fell to his side, and the aura disappeared. The cascading
water around them was the next to terminate, leaving only
bubbles floating from the oceans depths. 
  The group looked at Enigma in an absolute state of 
shock. But Enigma hadn’t finished yet. He went straight 
to his Ksid’s side. 
  Ksid sat wearily against the mast, barely able to keep
his eyes open. Again, Enigma knew what he wanted to do,
and instinctively, his hands turned a light green aura.
Ksid began to glow the same colour, as Enigma placed his
hands on his chest. 
  Soon, Ksid’s vital energy was restored, everything
changing back to normal.
  Ksid got back to his feet with a sigh. ‘Thanks for
that.’ he acknowledged. ‘Where’d you learn to do that?’
  ‘I’m not sure.’ Enigma explained. ‘It just happened.’ 
He turned back around to his other friends. They stood
completely still, their eyes distant, their jaws dropped. 
  ‘Snap out of it.’ Ksid told them. They were speechless.     
  ‘Your starting to scare me.’ Enigma admitted. 
  ‘Sorry.’ Terrol apologised. ‘It’s just that we didn’t
expect that from you.’
  ‘Neither did I.’ Enigma chuckled. 
  There were still a few men on deck that didn’t make it
below because of pure fear. They looked upon the new crew
members with wild eyes. 
  ‘What in God’s name happened?’ Nerual asked as he came
out from hiding.
  ‘I saw it all.’ one of the remaining crew members said.
He explained what had happened and gave names to those
who also witnessed it. ‘There witches I tell you. They
shouldn’t be trusted.’
  ‘I agree.’ another said. ‘They could be evil witches 
working with the cult.’
  ‘If we were working with the cult, why would we saved 
your lives?’ Enigma defended.
  ‘It might be some sort of plot to gain our trust, then
to convert us.’ a sailor to the left of them said.
  ‘We must do something.’ the first crew member said to
the captain. ‘Witches can’t be trusted.’
  ‘Now hang on...’ Enigma started, but he was chided by
his aged partner.
  The rest of the crew began to fall in behind their
captain, spreading out to the sides like wings. ‘We must
do something!’ they all shouted. ‘Throw them overboard.’
Hundreds of suggestions were tossed at the captain - each
a different and more harsher method of killing them.
  The captain held his hands up for silence. ‘No.’ he
simply said. ‘We won’t do anything like that. They could
be just trying to protect us. But to be on the safe side,
we’ll lock them up anyway. I wouldn’t won’t to waist
perfectly good lives, especially if they’re good. We
might need them later on. 
  The sailors surrounded the group so they couldn’t get
away. Their hands were bound temporarily with rope, but
they weren’t gagged. 
  They were roughly shoved down to a room on the stern
side of the ship. Their hands were untied on the captains
orders, then they were all filed in. 
  Nerual ordered the men back to work. ‘Sorry about 
this.’ he apologised. ‘There was nothing I can do. If I 
didn’t do something, it would have caused mutiny. I know 
in my heart that you aren’t bad people, or else I 
wouldn’t have originally bought you from Jalaf. Jalaf’s a 
good person, and I’ve always relied on him. I hope you
understand the position I’m in.’
  ‘We understand perfectly.’ Ksid told him.
  Nerual thought of something. ‘Hey, look on the bright
side, at least you won’t have to work.’ Then he shut the
door with the click of the lock sealing them in.
  The room was below deck, and at the very back of the
ship. It was roomy, and was most unlike a cell. There
were a few barred port - holes to let the light in, along
with a few burning lamps hanging off hooks from the
ceiling. There were bunks in the corners, just enough to
accompany the trapped group, and a rectangular table in
the centre with chairs lining it. Apart from these, there
was only a dressing table to one side. The rest of the
room was empty and freezing cold from the early spring 
wind. 
  ‘What now?’ Power asked Ksid.
  ‘Nothing.’ was Ksid’s reply. ‘We just sit here and
watch this trip go by.’ 
  ‘I still can’t believe what you did out there, Enigma.’
Iikin said in awe. 
  ‘It was certainly something that I’d never seen
before.’ Ksid admitted. ‘That was probably the reason why
we took this trip instead of travelling with the horses.’
  ‘You mean we could have travelled in leisure on another 
boat?’ Sly asked.
  ‘Yes. I’m sorry.’
  ‘I thought you got rid of the Death Warrior back in 
that ghost town.’ Ice said.
  ‘The Death Warrior isn’t an individual.’ Ksid 
explained. ‘It’s a species.’
  ‘I got the impression that it was a thing.’ Power sat
down on in a chair near the table. 
  ‘Oh no. It’s a race of beings. Sorry if I gave you the
wrong impression. You see, everything has an equal. With
up you’ve got down, with forward you’ve got backward,
with dog you’ve got cat. Without this opposite, the other
isn’t balanced. For anything to exist, it has to be
balanced. It’s a natural rule. Time won’t allow it. When
I talk about something being equal, we mean that they’re
opposites. 
  ‘There is one opposite to this world. Unfortunately,
I’m led to believe that it’s Thanatos’s world. Everything
in our world is alive, and everything that is sent from
his world are dead. This species was created by Thanatos
himself. They were selected unknowingly, and for nature
to allow them to survive, they had to be opposite
something. The Earth was already balanced. Everything had
an equal, and Earth itself had an equal - but the former
opposite to Earth is unknown. 
  ‘In his world, Thanatos was able to create the same
number of species as on this world, and because he was
the opposite, he was able to create some of the most
deadliest beings ever.’
  ‘So the Death Warrior is the human opposite.’ Enigma
asked.
  ‘I believe so, yes.’
  ‘But wouldn’t there have been an opposite to humans 
before Death Warrior’s came into existence?’
  ‘There was, but they got pushed out of the way. This is
one of Nature’s mysteries. I still don’t know what
happened to this forgotten race.
  ‘So you mean at one stage, we could be faced with an
army of this Death Warrior.’ Power’s eyes sparkled.
  ‘I guess so.’
  They slept the rest of the day out. The sea, Enigma
noticed, had gone back to normal. The black sky had also
regained its composure.
  He didn’t get much sleep that day. His mind
continuously pondered his powers, and how they worked. He
had a knowledge that he never knew he had before. All he
wanted to know was how it got there in the first place. 
  ‘What’s the matter Enigma?’ Ksid asked, peering through
one of the port - holes beside him. 
  ‘What happened out there before?’ Enigma asked. ‘Those
powers I mean.’ 
  ‘I’m not to sure.’ Ksid admitted. ‘I know you have some 
sort of power. Most magic comes from the heart. But yours 
seems to come from some other source. I’ve got no other 
way to explain those auras.’ 
  ‘I’ve got something that might help.’ Ice said. She had
awoken abruptly. 
  ‘What’s that Ice?’
  ‘The whole concept of sorcery interested me. I thought 
that this power would have some great affects on the 
mind. So when you and Enigma were - doing your stuff, so 
to speak, I found great differences in your brain 
operations.’
  ‘What differences?’ Enigma questioned.
  ‘Well, in Ksid’s brain, I noticed intense rage and
anger. His thoughts weren’t clear.’
  ‘I couldn’t help that.’ Ksid explained. ‘That’s the way
the Death Warrior works. Sometimes he’ll enrage your
brain so you can’t think straight. When your brain gets
to a certain non - thinking state, you won’t notice his
thoughts entering yours. He was able to shut off my heart
via my brain - that’s where my powers come from. The blow
knocked me back. It was the smash into the mast that got
my heart started again, but missing a few beats doesn’t
do a man to good.’
  ‘Maybe so.’ Ice concluded. ‘But in Enigma’s case, his
mind was absolutely clear. A way to put it, I guess, is
that he had concentrated concentration. There was no
trace of anger or frustration. The only thing set in his
mind was what he was doing.’
  ‘But how can that be?’ Enigma tried to reason. ‘I was
almost overwhelmed with anger.’
  ‘That must have been what you felt. But it wasn’t what
you thought. Feeling and thought come from two different
places.’
  ‘Feeling comes from the heart.’ Ksid added.
  ‘In conclusion...’ Enigma started.
  ‘There is no conclusion -’ Ksid told him. ‘yet. Give me
a few day’s to think this over.’
  ‘Now, lets try explain the auras.’ Ice suggested. 
  ‘What colour was that aura that time that you
disintegrate all those men?’ Ksid asked.
  ‘Wait a minute.’ Ice interrupted. ‘You mean that this
has happened before?’
  Enigma nodded. ‘We didn’t tell any of you because we
thought it was to early for you to hear about it. The
aura was red.’ he then answered Ksid’s question.
  ‘Did you feel that same tingling sensation in your head
this time around?’
  ‘I did a bit. Not as much as last time, though.’
  Ksid began to pace back and forth, with his hands
clamped behind his back. ‘The only way we’ll be able to
solve this riddle is by experimentation.’ Ksid thought
out loud. ‘Enigma, can you access your powers manually,
or does it just happen?’
  ‘The first few times, it happened against my will, but
the last couple of times, I wanted myself to do them.’
  Ksid pulled a couple of seeds out from an inside pocket 
of his coat. ‘See if you can make these seeds spout.’
  Enigma gave Ksid a confused look, but bothered not to
ask him about it. He looked directly at the seeds and
told himself that he wanted the seeds to sprout. He felt
the tingle in his head that came to him less and less,
and his hands glowed a light, transparent yellow. 
  The seeds in Ksid’s hands began to glow as well. Then a 
light green was only just able to be seen, breaking its 
way through the seed. Slowly, the seeds grew and grew, 
until the plant was a full grown flower sitting in Ksid’s 
palm. The plant stopped glowing as Enigma’s hands stopped 
glowing.
  Ksid them put him through a couple more tests. He told
him to bend a metal spoon in half, and to fill a cup full
of wine. Each time, his hands transformed a light yellow,
and each time, the object turned a light yellow with it.
The tingle was fading rapidly each time.
  ‘That’s enough for that aspect.’ Ksid told him. ‘Lets
try something new.’ A knife appear in his hand out of no
where. With the handle grasped, he ran the blade across
his forearm. Blood poured out of his arm to splattered to
the floor. ‘See if you can heal my arm.’
  Enigma concentrated on the arm. Instead of a yellow
colour, his hands turned a light green. Placing his hands
on Ksid’s arm, the aged man to, went green. He stopped as
the wound healed.
  Ksid examined his arm. ‘Good. I don’t want to do that
to often.’ He then pointed to the cup of wine that was
sitting on the table. ‘Destroy the cup.’
  Without any questions, Enigma focused on the cup. His 
hands turned a light red. The cup was there one second, 
then it exploded the next, waking up the rest of the 
group in the process.
  Power took upon a fighting stance. ‘What’s happening!’
he yelled.
  ‘Nothing much.’ Ksid replied. ‘We’re just doing a few
experiments. Go back to sleep.’
  Enigma’s hands changed back to it’s normal colour. ‘So,
what do you think?’
  ‘I’ll let you know tomorrow.’ Ksid promised. ‘I just 
want to sought some things out, and double check myself 
before I make any verdicts. See if you can rest for now.’
  Reluctantly, Enigma sought his bunk.
*  *  *
  He awoke the next morning to the clicking of the lock
at the door. 
  The captain walked in with a large tray of prepared
food. ‘Breakfast.’ he announced, placing the tray on the
table. ‘We should reach land at about dusk tonight. The
wind has been in our favour.’
  ‘Is there something you can do about those open port -
holes?’ Sly asked the captain. ‘Winter’s only just
finished, and it’s absolutely freezing in the night time,
especially with that moist sea breeze.’
  ‘I’ll get someone to fix it up for you.’ Nerual 
pledged. ‘In the mean time, enjoy your breakfast.’
  They dined on bread, water, and streaming hot soup. The
soup was tasty. 
  In the middle of the feast, a wild eyed sailor came in
with two pieces of glass that had been fitted with
hinges. Quickly, he fit the glass in the port - holes,
then left. 
  The group leaned back in their chairs as they finished. 
  ‘So what did you find out after yesterday?’ Terrol
started off the conversation.
  ‘I’ve hypothesised a few things about Enigma’s powers.’
Ksid told the attentive group.
  ‘Like what?’ Enigma was eager to know.
  ‘Well, I think I know where your powers come from. Ice 
told me that when she examined my mind, my thoughts were 
clouded. But when she examined your mind, it was 
absolutely clear. It’s to my belief that your powers come 
from your brain. It explains why you sometimes have that 
tingling sensation in your head. When a sorcerer like 
myself first starts out, they usually get a tingling 
sensation in their chest area. It also explains why you 
were able to defeat the Death Warrior, and I couldn’t. 
  ‘I haven’t fully been ably to understand why your hands
become surrounded with different colour auras when your
using your powers, but it looks like your powers exit
your body via different shades. I’ve noticed that every
time you want to destroy something, your hands are
surrounded in a glowing red. So the aura colour for your
offensive powers, is red. 
  ‘Then twice, you healed me: once on deck, and once 
inside this cabin. Both times, I went green. So I’ve 
concluded that the aura colour for your healing powers, 
is green.
  ‘Finally, I think that the yellow aura is the colour
for your miscellaneous powers. The next question is how
did you get these powers, and where did they come from?’
  ‘But what evidence suggests that his powers comes from
his mind?’ Iikin questioned the theory. 
  ‘It’s the best I could do. But if anyone else has any
suggestions, please speak now.’ The room remained quiet. 
  The rest of the day went by slowly. Enigma idly played 
with his new found powers, creating things, then 
destroying them again. 
  ‘There’s one rule that you have to abide by when 
working with magic.’ Ksid told Enigma. ‘You are forbidden
to use your powers to heal yourself. Nature won’t allow
it. Not even a God is allowed to do it. You can heal
others but not yourself.’
  Enigma made a stone appear in his hand. ‘Why not?’
  ‘Your body has it’s own repairing systems. If you use 
your powers on your body too many times, your natural 
healing devices get lazy, and rely on the other power 
instead. If you ever lose that power and you get hurt in 
some way, your body can’t cope. So as a precaution, 
nature has enforced that little rule.’
  ‘I’ll remember that.’ Enigma then disintegrated the
rock. 
  The captain had estimated their time of arrival pretty
good. The lands shadow could be seen as the sun began
it’s daily journey to the other side of the world. Enigma
could here the laughing of the sea gulls just outside, as
they flew on to perch on the main sail’s. 
  ‘We’d better get ourselves ready.’ Power advised. There
wasn’t much to pack, but they got themselves ready
nonetheless. 
  The hustle of the crew showed signs that they were
preparing to anchor in at one of the wharfs. 
  ‘We could either break away from this boat sometime in
the middle of the night,’ Ksid offered, ‘or we could just
wait and see what the captain does to us. What do you
think.’
  ‘I say that we get away from this ship as soon as we 
can.’ Iikin answered. ‘There’s no telling what the crew 
want to do to us.’
  ‘So we break away sometime in the night?’
  It was slow, but everyone agreed.
  ‘Where are we going to stay then?’ Terrol asked. ‘The
crew may be out looking for us, and it’d be to dangerous
to stay in town.’
  ‘We’ll seek refuge a little north of the city. We’ll be
able to pick up our horses around this area as well as
the rest of our luggage.’
  ‘Then it’s settled.’ Enigma declared. 
  It took a few hours to pass through customs and to get 
anchored at a vacant wharf. The crew were rowdy on deck, 
with laughter and song. 
  ‘What are they celebrating?’ Sly said with her ear 
cocked out through the porthole towards the sounds above.
  ‘Sailors will celebrate just about anything if there’s
alcohol involved.’ Power explained. ‘They’ll find any
excuse.’
  They waited impatiently, another few hours until the
noisy celebration died down to the noisy snoring of the
exhausted slaves. 
  ‘Slavery is just not what it used to be.’ Enigma
complained. 
  When the time came, they kept their noise to the 
absolute minimum. Ksid placed his hands on the door, then 
turned it into splinters with a great explosion, but with 
the sound like that of a twig snapping. The group pored 
into the hall way outside the door.
  ‘Why did you do that?’ the captain said in a horse 
whisper. He was walking down the hall way with the key in
his hands. ‘If you’d just waited a couple more seconds, I
could have saved myself a door. I was going to let you go
anyway.’
  ‘Oh - sorry.’ Ksid apologised.
  Nerual handed Ksid a sack of money. ‘Here’s your pay. 
Thanks for what you did back there in the middle of the 
sea. Letting you go is my payment back to you. Now get
out of here.’
  Ksid shook the captains hand. They quietly came out on
deck, side stepping the sleeping crew members, then make
their way down the gang plank onto enemy soil.