Overachiever

The rest of the journey is peaceful, and before long you’re pulling into the docks. Victor is there to greet you as you disembark, his eyes full of surprise as he looks at the captured prison ship. His surprise is greater when he sees Melora, smiling widely with her healed eyes sparkling in the sun.

He rushes over, completely ignoring you to stand in front of Melora. “Mel, your eyes…”

Melora hugs him, laughing. “I can see, Victor! And you can thank our new companion, Cassie for that.”

Cassie, bouncing with excitement, waves at Victor. “Hiya! I’m Cassie! Ooh, you’re a panther man, cool! Melora said you’re the leader here, you should meet my mom!”

You rest a hand on the excitable little chameleon girl’s shoulder. “Slow down, Cassie, this is a big deal. He’s basically her big brother, remember?”

Cassie nods, biting her lip to keep quiet. Victor smiles, looking into Melora’s eyes, then turns towards you. “And Nicholas. I’m guessing you’ve had a hand in this as well.”

You shrug. “Cassie did the healing. I did very little.”

Victor offers a hand to Cassie, and they shake. “Then I thank you, Cassie. I am in your debt.”

He looks back to you. “And don’t say you did very little. You captured a flagship, and brought the crew?”

You chuckle. “Well, Melora guided us to them. I don’t think they expected to be attacked, and I would expect it’ll get harder. But yes.”

As you’re speaking, Captain Ben walks up with Bella at his side. He has his arm around her shoulders, and she’s leaning against him as they walk. Both of them are smiling.

You nod as they approach. “Victor, this is Bella. In addition to being Cassie’s adoptive mother, she’s also the leader of a refugee village. I brought her along to see if we can all work together.”

Victor looks between everyone, then laughs, shaking his head. “You’re something else, Nicholas. You show up, and within a few weeks you’ve tripled our numbers, captured a powerful ship, and forged an alliance. If I didn’t know better, I’d say that the Order would be crumbling in a month or two.”

You shrug. “It’s in the blood, I guess. Honestly, I got lucky. The easy part is over, though. One of the mages escaped, so I’d expect some retaliation at some point.”

Victor nods. “Something to think about. Well, no use standing on the dock discussing it, let’s go sit, and we can go over what happens now.”