I walked on water making this my first miracle of the day. Three hundred feet ahead of me, a half-dozen pirate ships blocked a narrow strait between two islands on the route to Cloudshadow Mountain where we would hopefully find some information on how to get the Sword of Night, and destroy the Abyssal Gate.



Above the pirate ships, summoned grey smoke malignancies, air elementals, bound by magic crested in strength and number to a maximum that looked daunting. So the magicians aboard those boats thought they knew my strength.



They unleashed the winds which howled down on my position knocking me to the surface of the waves to bounce across the ocean surface.



Air elementals are flighty, and so instead of finishing me off, they drew back a bit to savor the moment. I could see the gnomish hydrofoil, really more of a raft now that it was not moving, that I had come her with still needed help.



I remembered another miracle. And shaking my finger at the elementals in a scolding way after I prayed, I put my own words to it.



“That’s enough out of you. Chill out, immediately.” The winds roared away leaving the day mercilessly clear.



It made it easy for the archers aboard the pirate ships to plink at me. And idea occured to me.



I pointed at the largest ship, and then I prayed aloud for my third miracle of the day.



“As Elijah dealt with those who respected not his status, so deal with those who block us.”



A gigantic lightning bolt fell from the Heavens, and hit the ship squarely amidships. One of the boats tried to make a fight of it, everyone else ran. So I prayed again remarking about the two groups that insulted Elijah. And I pointed a finger at the remainging fighting ship. It blew to splinters.



Then I turned around, and hiked back to the ship. I scrambled on board, and was brought up short.



Everyone, except the elflord Dlarion, bowed to the ground some going so far as to plunk their full body length on the decking. A discordant chorus of praise and terror reached my ears, and made me sick to the stomach as I realized they were worshipping me.



I might, just might, have an inflated opinion of my own importance, but I was not yet ready to claim status as a deity.



I started jerking people to their feet and yelling at them. For some reason, I was vastly irritated at the whole thing, I’m not sure why. But my harsh words of denial only terrified them more, and when I let go of someone, he fell back to the deck like a sack of cat food.



Turning to Dlarion, I gave him a frustrated look.

“The ordinary people are not used to see many acts of great magic in plain sight. Plus we can feel the Realm of Magic, and your power came not from the verges of it like a mage’s does, but from deep in its dazzling heart.

This is why you should allow me to lead; you understand not this world.”



I ignored his other comment, and looked up into the sky.



“A little help here would be nice.” I said speaking irritably in prayer.



A crack in the sky opened and light, harsh, brilliant, and true stabbed down like a dagger onto the ship.



“Tadeusz works for Me when he can be bothered. I’ve given him a lot of stuff, more than he deserves, but a penny with the Chairman of the Gmome Council’s head embossed on it does not make him the chairman. Frankly, if you knew how much he messed up, you would be embarrassed to be on your knees before him.” The Voice said, and the people on the ship looked up at the crack in the sky, and then at me with these horribly disillusioned eyes. It was quite depressing.



“Thanks, thanks a lot.” I said with heavy sarcasm.



“Anytime you need something, just call.” The Voice said to me alone with a quiet chuckle. I gritted my teeth, having God laugh at you is not one of my favorite things. The the Voice was heard by all again.



“Dlarion, he may be a novice, but I don’t need a longbow, I need a hammer here, and he is my chosen hammer.”



“Yes, Ancient One.” Dlarion said bowing his head in a wonderfully grave and serene manner.



“And just so you know…” And suddenly we all saw Something. Not the bottom of a foot like Moses saw, something reflected and shadowed and distorted appeared in our minds. We all spent the next span of time, I am not sure how long, banging our heads on the decking or weeping for joy or however it took each one of us.



Only the arrival of pirate ships rounding an island brought us from the state of terror and wonder we had been shoved into.



The ship set out for Cloudshadow Mountain a quiet and weirded out crew. We easily outran a few more pirate ships, and docked in the harbor of the island.



Cloudshadow Mountain loomed over us, and into the clouds. A cosmopolitan town of about ten thousand served as the port city to this last island outpost of the Pale Elven Empire.



The wickerwork pier was alive, and the golem that tied us up was as well. The bored port inspector in a thin and worn overcoat was obviously elven like Dlarion, and indeed only a slight paleness separated them. But it seemed enough for the both of them to ignore each other with a prickly intensity.



We disembarked, and the Captain to the surprise of the port official did not immediately cast off. Instead, he said he would hold his ship ready for my needs.



I had wondered why the Creator had shown us such things, and why say such things to me. Perhaps this was part of the answer here.



The status of having a gnomish boat waiting for us got me into the Lord Mayor’s office of the Port City. Unfortunately, he told me that I would have to get on the waiting list of at least half a year in order to examine their archives. No bribe (which he wanted to accept), and no name-dropping would move him. It was not in his hands. Besides, the true scholars on top of the mount did not yield pride of place to anyone.



It seemed to me that the Pale Elves still wanted to say they were masters of the world, and so stupid pride kept them from recognizing their diminished place.



I left his office with my entourage considering ways to break into the library at the top of the mountain. The next client for the governor began speaking before we were out of earshot.



“I simply must have a fast ship to get to the mainland. This is a pressing matter.”



“We are truly sorry, Master Librarian Intended, but the funds are not there to hire such a ship.” The Lord Mayor’s voice soothing voice broke a heart, and uplifted mine.



A scholarly looking pale elf walked out in a huff.



I attempted to stop him. He stepped around me without acknowledging my presence.



“I have a very fast boat.”



He stopped, and I could see the strain in his shoulders as he forced himself to converse with me.



He turned.



“I have a matter of utmost importance. I need a ship, and my government will not provide one for me. I hardly think you, a human can do better.”



The first mate of the gnomes laughed and opined that the Dawn Dancer could not be bested by any ship on any sea let alone one of the tubby elven galleys. We had hooked him.



So he came with us. I won’t inflict his full name on the indigenous scholar that may happen on this scroll buried under some rock on a distant world, but it went on for nearly a minute. We called him “Al”.



“I am a researcher attempting to get my doctorate degree in the Prolific Races from the University.”



“In what field? And what do you mean, Prolific?” I inquired with a feigned politeness.



“Humans, dwarves, goblins, they breed like cockroaches. You understand. But I am doing a research paper on “adventurers”. This is a phenomenon new to the world, only a couple centuries old so the Colonial Elves say. Cultural Anthropology is the field.”



He dropped the big words into his speech like I could not be expected to understand them, and possibly I was one of the few humans on the planet who did. I looked over at the Colonial Elf Dlarion who rolled his eyes, and I felt a sudden sympathy for the poor fellow having these arrogant idiots as neighbours.



“Master Librarian, we need your help to find the Sword of Night, and in return we can offer you two favors. One, we are adventurers, I guess, and two, well I have my doctorate in that same field so maybe I can offer you some help.” I had picked up the degree in a world much like my homeworld where I had the opportunity to be Staying for longer than a week.



His face twisted from denial of help on general principles to interest to shock.



“I do know where it is. I read a book about it just last decade.” He said in a very small voice. And I hoped two things 1)That he kept his attitude quiet for the rest of the trip, and 2) That the sword had not been moved in the last century since the book was published.



“Excellent.” I said with a false heartiness. And we made our way back to the harbor and cast off for the Four Kingdoms of Men south of the Elven Greenwood forrest and south of the Pirate Gulf. We would travel first to the City of the Parasols.



Tadeusz