Chapter 23: Battle of The Ocean and Their Arrival

(The exact day of Maurelle's escape and the consequences behind her movement.)

Ravyn went back to their tower, the covenstead where her mother lies and awaits for Maurelle's return. Ravyn was all but wore an evil smile, she could not help it as her foolish sister followed her demands. Now with her far away, the plan to destroy her existence will be executed fair by her elder sister.

Ravyn planned it all out, to create an atrocious and obnoxious reputation of Maurelle, her sister, to their mother. And poor Maurelle, trusting someone like her.

However, Ravyn only planned to erase Maurelle forever and replace her role. But this happened.

"Sister, you are finally here!" Glinda exclaimed with drama traced in her voice.

Of course, she was pestered by it especially when Glinda came towards her. "Get out of my way, where's mother?"

Glinda hissed. "She's in her chambers, where's Maurelle?"

Ravyn hid the raise of her lips on one side. "She's no longer here." She said and headed to her mother's chambers. Opened the large door and saw her mother facing its back to her.

Gwydion was staring outside her window when she asked, "Where is she, Ravyn? I expect you to bring her here alive and well as I will punish her myself and yet, I do not hear anything but the grumble of this volcano." She said in a wicked tone.

Ravyn cleared her throat. "She's gone, mother."

Her mother turned to face her with evil filled in its eyes. The veins in her neck and face were almost uncovered as anger escalated her core.

"What do you mean she's gone?" She yelled as thunder hit the ground.

Ravyn started to get nervous however, the witch has learned to contain herself and do things her way no matter what.

"The moment I set foot in that land, I knew she was gone. She fled with a traveller man, mother. She escaped your grasp." Ravyn responded.

Gwydion lost her patience and slammed her table. She went robust and ruined the books and bottle spells out of her table.

"How dare she do this to me? After all that I have done to her, all the power I put to her skin and vessel?" Gwydion screamed in an angry tone.

"Mother! Calm down!" Glinda dramatically went to her mother.

Ravyn smirked at her mother's behaviour. Her scheme is working. She slowly step with emphasis and headed to the side of the chamber where there was a shelf of dusty old books of spells.

"It seems to me mother that she did it without regret. That she wants to be free from you, that she wants nothing of the power you give her, and she abhors the strength you fill in her core." Ravyn asserted to her mother.

"What do you mean, Ravyn?"

"Yes, sister, what do you mean?" Glinda asked along with their mother.

"Well, she wouldn't have escaped if she adores this mother, wouldn't she? You even tied her in silver chains as she struggle with all your gifts. Isn't she too troublesome?" The woman said.

Gwydion went silent however, it only made her derange and mad with Ravyn's words. "Where did she go off to with a man?" She asked.

"Who knows. But it will be very far away mother, it's no use looking for her—" she was cut off by her mother.

"Follow her! Let her experience the outside world first, the world of men and when the right time comes. We will head after her and I will show her how cruel life can be." Gwydion said while stroking her magic crystal.

Ravyn widened her eyes as she planned shattered before her eyes. How could her mother still choose Maurelle even after escaping her grasp already? Why? Just why?

"What do you mean, Mother? Why do we have to follow her when you have me! Have us! I am certain we can do better than her!" Ravyn shouted as her heart started to ravage with how her mother, even after all that Maurelle did, still really did choose her.

Glinda had her mouth pressed shut seeing the drama between her sister and her mother. She rolled her eyes expecting to deal with it for a few moments. She could not escape the scene.

"Silence, Ravyn! What will I get out of your weak flesh? The two of you won't ever be enough for the conquering we'll do. You are a bunch of weaklings and I will not let you work with Maurelle's." Gwydion exclaimed and slammed the door close.

Glinda and Ravyn both flinched at the banging sound it left off. Ravyn had to hold on to the table to support herself as the woman held her chest. There was an excruciating pain throbbing inside her. She could not explain the feeling but all she knows is that it happened all because of her sister.

"Sister, are you alright?" Glinda walked towards her and stroked her back. "You need to calm down."

"How can I calm down? Tell me, Glinda! How?" She asked as if pleading. With an airy voice surfacing her breaths.

Glinda couldn't answer.

"It seems that she has left me no choice. That disgrace of a sister, it appears that there is only one way for mother to finally set me on the throne." Ravyn mumbled hoarsely.

"What is it, sister?"

"Oh, you don't have to know." And the other second, she laughed evilly and wickedly. Somehow Glinda followed her and laughed awkwardly. "Silence you, Drama Queen."

And then Glinda was silent. As she looked at the window, she saw how the day would come after Maurelle.

"We'll meet again, sister."

—

"Hold on your walls! Hold on your walls!" Logan shouted as the waves flashed through his face. "We're passing through an even stronger storm! Crew! Hold on your walls!"

As a day passed by, Logan was right. The ocean was never always calm. Maurelle had now realized why he hated the ocean once. It was because of the anger it revenges against the living. The mad waves surged forth with the strong wind and hit their body with massive tension.

That exactly, is what happening to them as we speak. Their boat swayed around the water as if it was playing with it. The superiorly thick smoky clouds rolled in like boulders, ready to crush anything in their

way. The darkness was engulfing and seemed to fully consume any spec of light. The rain-shroud passed by, spitting at them with its Undead tears. The rain whipped down like crystal nails and streaky lightning emblazoned the sky. The sea swells rose and their beard rime froze as the north wind blew and sped them to their doom. Lacerating rain stung their bare arms like ice burn and the sea throbbed grey with woe.

Oh, how madness it was. There were children in that boat and their mothers couldn't do anything but wrapped them around a blanket inside their cabin.

Logan was out there keeping the ship floating as Hermes and the others help them sail across that storm.

All that Maurelle could do was stare into the dark and shallow sky. She is again, trying to calm the ocean sea with her spells. But if she do this, she would most likely faint through their journey.

"Don't do it, Maurelle!" Logan shouted as he stirred the wheel. "We'll pass through this! Just believe!"

She could not hear the man clearly. The storm was too loud for her. "What did you say?"

"I said don't do it!" Logan repeated.

Maurelle still couldn't hear the man. So she assumed the man instructed her to do it. 'Did he say that I should do it? Well, why wouldn't he, he is the captain, after all.'

So what the lady did, she held onto the boat walls and held her stick. She looked at the sky and steadied her hand.

Logan indicated a facepalm seeing Maurelle misunderstood him. He did not want for the crew to look at what Maurelle did or it will reveal her true identity, so he yelled and called the crew's attention.

"Attention crew! Eyes here immediately!"

The crew followed and turned their heads around to him. Maurelle grabbed that chance and did her spell.

The woman wave her wand and said in her head, "May the blood of roar shut you, this storm will sicken you, as I lay this wand of mine, may you seize the day and go away!" She pointed her wand to the sky and the spell was too powerful and strong. Moments pass when the spell hit the sky, the caster loses over her control.

Maurelle's eyes became hazy, her head became fuzzy, and her hearing rang several times. Slowly, the darkness lured her in and she fell deep to slumber and saw the obscurity light. Black.

The last thing she could hear was Logan shouting and it echoed throughout her ears. "Maurelle—"

The next thing she knew, she was on a bed. The soft white sheets she gripped, the pillows below her head, and the sun rays touched her face through the cabin's window. She could hear the serenity in the waves.

'The storm has stopped.'

She heard clattering on the side of her bed, she glance at that noise and saw a woman holding a cloth while soaking it into the water inside a bucket.

"Verra? What happened to me? My head feels heavy." She asked the woman.

Verra gazed at her and her eyes were filled with happiness as she saw that Maurelle was finally awake. She moved her chair towards the lady on the bed and sat beside her.

"You are finally awake. The storm has made you fall ill so it will be best if you stay in bed." Verra said as she placed the cloth on Maurelle's forehead.

Maurelle groaned, her head was getting heavier if she put force in trying to sit up, that's why she decided to lay down for a while.

"Is everybody on board alright? The children are they safe?"

The woman was worried as she was lying in bed, thinking that maybe the people have also been troubled. Verra on the other hand sneered at her.

"Who's the one on the bed? It's you and here you are worrying about other people who you have never even met. You are an odd lady." Verra exclaimed, shaking her head while plastered with a smile on her face.

Maurelle was not pleased with just lying on the bed, she sat up while holding the cloth on her forehead for it to not fall. "The world is full of lives, you don't have to be related by blood to care for them. We are all in equal creation, everyone matters, Verra. Even the evil ones."

Verra was silent. She looked at the woman and smiled. "You are too kind for your own good. The people are alright and kicking, milady. You don't have to worry. Rest tight, the day's long." She uttered and stood up, heading to the door. "I need to go seems like someone is itching to enter."

Maurelle furrowed her brows in confusion. "Who?"

Verra just smiled. "And a reminder, don't be too kind. It kills, milady." She said before leaving.

After a few seconds, there was a man who entered her cabin. Stared at her and crossed its arms. He leaned onto a wall. "How are you feeling?"

"Were you eavesdropping, Logan?" She asked the man.

Logan looked somewhere else. "I wasn't."

"Are you certain?" Maurelle raised her brow. "Well, perhaps my head is heavy but I'm alright."

Logan walked towards her and sat at the chair where Verra was earlier. "It's your fault that you're in this state. I told you to not cast any spells."

"I only did what was right, Logan." Maurelle cleared her throat.

Logan stop and stared at Maurelle. In the short while they've spent with each other, as if time was foul it felt sentimental and long. This woman, who he only knew from the blabber of the people, the woman he placed curiosity and novelty of. Somehow, his insides were falling for the beautiful woman, her overwhelming kindness spread like dust in the water.

He took a deep breath and with his fingers, he fixed the woman's brittles of hair towards the back of its ear.

Maurelle was observing his little movements, she was very cautious of the man. When Logan saw how it made her wary, he retrieved his hands and turn them into a fist.

"Sorry, it's just... You were very beautiful that it made me want to touch your hair—" he stopped when he saw the woman turning very red and smoked were releasing above its head. "I'm sorry!"

"N-no, it's alright. You... You don't have to apologise." She stuttered.

The man says very embarrassing things. Foreign words kept popping in its mouth. She couldn't handle it, but of course, it was because all her life she had only seen herself as one of the evil witch's daughters. With her power, a power that she never wanted, a power that was decided and made for the sole purpose of slaughtering and conquering. She was never called a beautiful woman.

"You don't know how much I am grateful, Logan, that you came into my life. It's as if fate cheated on my mother's creations. You were the cheat, Logan." She mumbled in the softest voice.

"I could always say the same to you, Maurelle. Rather than a cheat, you're a miracle." He responded. "This was my old man's ship, he build this with his kin and my mother was, well, she was kind."

Maurelle saw how Logan became emotional all of a sudden. It pouted and dwell into a sad aura.

"You're lucky they must have really loved you, Logan." She said and gave Logan a smile.

Logan thought that it was contagious so he replied to her with a grin. "They did, huh? They surely did."

"But, Maurelle, why are you running away so bad with your mother? What did she do to you?" Suddenly, Logan raised a question that made Maurelle feel nauseous.

Thinking about it, her mother's name lingers inside her head as it rings through her eardrums. All the terrible memory flashed throughout her subconscious as she began to hear the sneering and wicked laughing of her mother. All the punishment it grant to her when she decided to go against her demands, her selfish and cruel demands. All of it rung to her system, her head was lost in thought when Logan called her name.

"—Maurelle!"

"Oh uh— yes?" She answered and shook her head a little.

"Are you alright? Do you feel sick?" Logan worriedly asked her.

She faked a smile. "Yes! Perfectly fine, what did you ask me again?" She raised her brow.

Logan gulped, he thought Maurelle was having another faint. "I was asking why you had to escape from your mother's grasp."

"Right, you asked that. So, uh—"

When Maurelle was about to utter what she didn't want to, someone from outside their cabin called and yelled for Logan's name.

"Captain Logan! You need to see this!" Was heard from outside.

They looked at each and Logan decided to stand up. "Stay here and rest, I'll be right back." Said Logan while showing his palms and moving them up and down.

Logan hurriedly runs off outside. Maurelle didn't want to miss what was happening that is why even though she felt unpleasant, she forced herself to follow the man.

"What is it, Zergee?" Logan asked as he went towards the man, who was standing at the edge of the ship, looking somewhere on the sea.

"You see, there's a shipwreck," Zergee answered. And he was right, there was a shipwreck, the ship was wrecked and the parts were all smashed up as the planks spread across the water. "These people might have or might not be alive, whatever it is, the front goes beyond us."

Zergee warned about what might have just come in front of them, seeing the shipwreck totally destroyed. Maurelle who just reached outside saw the scene and she widened her eyes.

"Logan!" Maurelle called him.

The crew looked at her and Logan came rushing to her. "I told you to rest and you never listen, do you?"

"That ship and the people, they're alive. We're near." She uttered with a trembling voice, besides her casting spells, Maurelle can see the past and what happened before the tragedy, but can never see a glimpse of her future.

When Logan heard her, he asked, "Near what?"

"Near a massive land," Maurelle replied.

Logan couldn't believe his ears. Even though Maurelle doesn't know it, Logan does and as well as his crew, they all know of the ENCHANTED LAND.

"Zergee, we're near it. That land, we're approaching it." He looked at the man with full of suspense.

"Impossible, Logan. You know how long we have sailed across the vast sea. We have forged to find it so why now?" Zergee asked him.

Hermes only furrowed her brows. "That can't be true."

"It must have been the storm, Logan. The elders kept talking about how the ship has always lost in the sea, we might have gone lucky." Some other man said with a grinning face.

Logan also came to grin. "This is it, folks, let's sail!"

"Aye aye, Captain!" The crew rejoiced.

They started to sail fast with their ship as the people waited outside. Logan sailed the ship onwards while Zergee was holding a telescope, eyeing forward. Maurelle was beside the captain, leaning on his shoulders as per the man's demands. He wanted the woman to rest while feeling the fresh breeze coming from the water.

After a while of sailing, a kid from the ship yelled, "Aye, captain! I'm seeing it! The massive land! It's there!"

Logan waited for Zergee to speak and when he did, "Aye, captain. We're here." He gaze at Logan and smiled.

Logan smiled back and the crew rejoiced.

"Maurelle, finally, freedom in our hands." He uttered as he manoeuvred the wheel.

And in front of them, was a massive land, could it be that there truly is freedom in that land? Or will it be just another nightmare for Logan and Maurelle? What could be ahead of these two?

The answer lies untold. As of now.

To be continued...

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ABYSSCESS