Will got woken up by sea noises, he slowly opened his eyes and moved out from the bed. He turned around, looked behind him, and saw the other side of the bed where Jade should lie. 

His mind again showed him that cruel moment. He quickly put the bad thoughts away, regained himself. He managed to make his way through the crates, and after some struggles, he finally arrived at the main deck. Then he went straight to the captain's cabin. Without waiting, he opened the door and went inside. 

“Have you ever heard about knocking?!" A female voice scolded him when the door closed.

Will's eyes darted at the captain. He saw that she was sitting near her desk, highly focused on reading something. “Sorry, I wanted to… check-" He started saying, but suddenly stopped because the words died in his mouth. 

When the woman recognized his voice, her attitude softened. “Oh, it's you" She let out a deep sigh. “I still can't believe that we were attacked by pirates"

“Something went missing?" He asked and took a few steps forward, and saw that the woman was holding a few pieces of paper in her hands. 

She still didn't look at him. “I don't know yet. That's why, I am checking everything" She said and rustled the pages.

His sight went to Jade who was still lying on the desk. “She didn't wake up?" Will asked quietly.

She removed her eyes from the papers and looked at the lying woman. “She will wake up… Some people from my crew recovered from worse injuries" Amelia told him as she waved her hand.

He went to the desk and got a closer look at his friend. He looked at her face, then he looked lower, his eyes locked on her bandages. After a few moments, Will closed his eyes because he didn't have the strength to watch her in that state.

I should do more… I should protect the two of us… Or at least I should finally master this stupid healing magic! He scolded himself and released his anger by clenching his fists as hard as he could.

Neither Will nor Amelia didn't notice this, but Jade's fingers twitched. Shortly after that, she let out a quiet groan, and slowly opened her eyes.

Will heard a quiet groan in front of him. A cold chill went through his Spine. He opened his eyes, looked forward and when he saw that Jade had opened her eyes, a wide grin appeared on his face.

“Ja- Julie you are awake!" Will shouted happily.

She closed her eyes because of that sudden loud noise.

Will's hands started shaking a little. “Everything alright?" He asked, with eyes still fixating on her face.

She gave him a slow nod. But that was a lie, shortly after she woke up she felt that her pain returned to her. The unpleasant feeling was even stronger than before. And this time the pain attacked not only her hands but also her chest. After that nod, she tried to raise the upper half of her body but was too weak to do so. Seeing her struggles, he helped her, and she slowly got up. Will was sure that she would sit on the desk but to his surprise she stood up, completely ignoring her fresh wound. Maybe dragons have better healing capabilities- A loud grund grasped him out of his train of thought.

Will looked slightly to the left, his eyes locked on the other woman. “I must check a few things, I will return after a while" The captain said, putting her lists on her desk. Will replied to her with a small nod. She glanced at Julie and after that, she stood up and walked towards the door.

When she left, something had changed in Will. He dropped his calm attitude. All of his deep-buried emotions came to the surface. Sadness completely overwhelmed him, resulting in a stream of tears started falling down his cheeks. 

He leaned over to the standing Jade and hugged her. “I am sorry for what has happened to you, it's all my fault" He said with guilt, sobbing. 

Jade was a little surprised by his reaction. She never saw him in that state before. And what's more surprising despite her hatred towards humans she was a little worried about him too. “Don't blame yourself. I am the one with a keen sense of hearing and sight, I could have been more careful, then nothing bad would have happened" She said and after that placed her head on his left shoulder.

She thought about the wave of pirates. And through her body went a wave of fear. Maybe he got wounded too. She thought and broke the hug.

“Are you hurt too?" She asked him in a worried tone. Then she swiftly inspected him from head to toe but didn't find anything.

“I am okay" He said and waved his hand.

Feeling relieved, Jade took one step forward, after doing that she felt a weird sensation near her stomach. Curious, she looked down and noticed a lot of bandages, some of them were soaked with blood. “What did you do? After I… got this… wound" She asked him, still inspecting her wound.

Will wiped away his tears. “I healed you the best I could, then I brought you here…" His voice cracked more and more with each word. “I was worried that…" He stopped, his lips quivering slightly.

“You won't get rid of me that easily" Jade said jokingly, trying to cheer him up. And she was successful because a small smirk appeared on his face.

Jade felt a wave of pain and did a step backward trying to sit but lost her balance in the process, and she started falling towards the desk. 

Will reacted instantly and managed to catch her before she hit her head on the desk edge. “Jade? Are you sure that everything is alright?" He asked, still holding her. 

Her strength came back to her, and she managed to stand up on her own. She tried to ignore the sharp pain in her chest. “I am just a little tired, that's all" Jade reassured him and came up with an idea, she wanted to see if reading his mind would ease the pain.

“Are-" 

“Could you hold my hand?" She asked him and stretched her hand forward.

“Yes?" He said, and without even asking why, grabbed her hand. 

 She closed her eyes and started reading his mind, and it worked because the pain lessened a bit.

As she delved deeper into his memories, she didn't find anything particularly interesting at first. However, she went further and eventually stumbled upon something quite unusual. In one of his memories was a blue dragon that looked exactly like her. And What was more surprising the scaly creature was in a cave that looked exactly like her den! This discovery caused her to lose all of her focus. She snapped back to reality. 

Feeling mentally exhausted, she felt that somebody was holding her by the shoulders, that person also shook her a little. She opened her eyes and saw Will. His face looked like he had just seen something terrifying.

Will felt a little relieved when he saw that she opened her eyes. “Jade, are you alright?" 

“I am fine" She said, reassuring him for the second time.

He slowly took his hands off her shoulders, but his expression didn't change. “Really? Because just a second ago… you were not responding" He said to her with a caring tone, suddenly he paused and then stretched his hands out in front of him. After a while, his hands started slightly glowing. “I can heal you. My healing magic isn't that good but-"

“Nothing is hurting me... I'm just tired" Jade replied. She was really thankful for his willingness, but she was sure that this pain could not be cured by his magic. The only solution for the pain to go away was to transform back. 

Will didn't say anything, only looked at her. Reassured for the second time and satisfied by the answer, his face softened, his hands stopped glowing and he slowly lowered them.

“You need to rest in a proper bed" He said and extended a hand to her. She took his hand. Will held her by the waist and they both walked slowly towards their cabin.

                                                               ***

Jade was turning from side to side on the bed. She wanted to fall asleep, but could not, because her mind was busy thinking about that memory that she saw earlier.

Why did he have a memory of her? Precisely saying that memory, she very well remembered their meeting in a cave, but she clearly remembered that back then she wasn't in her true form. She didn't know why but this memory felt weird, it didn't match the rest of his memories. She had lived over a century, but she hadn't seen something like that before.

Maybe this human is not who he says he is. She thought, switching from side to side. But until now he didn't hurt me. He even helped me a few times…

She didn't want to admit it, but deep down she felt like she had known him for a long time. As if he was familiar to her. But she blamed it on their similar personalities. Her mate was also very helpful and always cared about others before himself.

She looked down, and her eyes stopped at the bandages, she grabbed them trying to get them off. But After she pulled them lightly, a piercing pain attacked her.

“Stupid human body!… So fragile… Weak…" She hissed quietly, defeated by the pain she lay down on her side. Then she moved her hands under her head, cleared her mind, and finally after great struggles, she fell asleep.

                                                                                                                   ***

After securing the last crate, a little exhausted Will went to their bed, but when he saw her absence, worried about her condition, he quickly rushed to find her. He arrived at the upper deck, and saw Jade who was leaning against the side of the ship. Relived that nothing bad had happened, he walked over to her, and leaned against the side of the ship.

“The night is beautiful" he whispered, gazing up at the stars and the calm sea waves.

“You are right…" she weakly smiled, and discreetly checked for any other people. She looked around and saw that they were alone. “You know when... I'm in my true form, I love flying around, especially on nights like this one, the views are amazing… the feeling of-"

Will let out a deep sigh. “Humans can't fly, even mages can't do that"

She looked at the clouds, imagining what would the ship look like from that attitude. 

Both of them were memorized by the star's beautiful reflection in the almost crystal clear water. Jade looked to the right and In the distance, she saw at least a dozen weird-looking shapes and concluded that this was probably the place where they are supposed to reach.

Will cleared his throat. “Can I ask you something?" he asked her, breaking the silence. 

“Sure" She replied with her eyes still fixated on the sea.

“Do you know what dance is?"

She turned her head to him. “No. I never heard of that"

Will thought for a while, he wanted to explain it to her as simply as he possibly could.“It's a thing we humans do to express our feelings" 

She didn't quite get his explanation. “Would you show me how to do it?" She asked, hoping that she would let her search his memories again.

His eyes darted to her. “Of course" He happily said to her, and smiled.

“So what do I need to do?" She asked, staring at him, waiting for his instructions.

“So… first we need to stand closer to each other" He said and moved closer to her. “And we need to do this" He took her hands and after that, he began teaching her. And after a few tries she caught up with the basics.

She realized that they were about to do a spin, and she squeezed his hand tighter. Now or never. She thought and decided to search through his memories. She saw that memory again, she searched further. Will rotated her, she had almost fallen, but he caught her in his arms, he pulled her and they stood up. Shortly after that, She stopped searching his memories because she didn't find anything odd.

She decided to move out of his head, when she opened his eyes she saw his smiling face.

“You liked it?" He asked her.

Shortly after she removed herself out of his head her pain worsened. “Yes…" She said and looked deep into the mage's green eyes. She summoned the picture of her mate. Her Aurelius had the same emerald eyes that matched his gray scales perfectly.

“You know Will, you are like my... mate"

The smile immediately left his face. “Sorry. I didn't mean to"

She put a hand on his shoulder. “Do not apologize" She said. “You two are just very similar…" She paused and started comparing them. “Mostly from the personality, because on the outside…" She snorted. “Oh, and by the way, that dance thing you showed me, looked a bit like what we dragons do, when-"

“I know what you mean" 

So the dragon does something like a dance to flirt with the other dragon. Oh! So she thinks that I… After a few seconds, a risky idea came into his head and he decided without hesitation to go ahead with it.

“So you won't be mad if I do this?" He asked, then he leaned down and without a warning kissed her. The warm of her lips, the warm of her hands. The young mage felt wonderful, finally after all these years he felt... completed. Everything seemed right in place. Will was surprised that she didn't pull back right away but kissed him too, but after a while to his great disappointment, she shoved him away.

Her face was a mixture of surprise and shock. “Will! We shouldn't do a thing like that I-"

“I know…" He said with a little bit of guilt. “But deep inside I feel like I know you much longer…" He confessed to her, looking straight into her eyes. “I feel like I know you all of my life" He said a little louder. “You didn't feel something like that too? " He asked her, hoping that she felt the same as him. 

She let out a deep sigh. “No. I don't" She said emphatically, still slightly angry. “Will, what you are feeling towards me is wrong. I have a mate. I know that he is still there… somewhere… I have a family with him. And besides I am much older than you… You are a wonderful, helpful person, and I am sure that after some time you will find the perfect someone"

And for the next few very long minutes they stood like that in complete silence. 

“I am… going to sleep." Jade said, breaking the silence. She looked at him for the last time and then started walking towards their cabin.

Will just stood in silence, he looked at her, and when she perished from his view, he leaned against the ship and looked at the sea. He decided to relieve herself by banging his fists against the ship's hull.

I'm so… stupid, stupid! Why was I thinking something like this would work? Why did I even decide to do that… His self-scolding was interrupted by a yawn. I need some sleep too… He leaned over and looked at the kingdom. If all goes well, tomorrow I'll finally meet up with you. After more than ten years apart, we'll finally be together again. After all these years, we will be a complete and happy family. He thought as a tear rolled down his cheek.

Will slowly went to their cabin, when he went into the darkness and bumped into the crate for the second time, he got annoyed and created a light with his hand. He went past a few creates and finally arrived at the palace where her makeshift cabin was. 

He moved his sight to the ground and stood a few inches from their bed. “I am terribly sorry for what happened earlier… I just didn't know what got into me" Will said, still watching the wooden planks under his feet. He waited a few moments, but to his great surprise, she didn't say anything, he suspected that she just went asleep, but that suspicion was quickly debunked by a quiet groan.

Will looked up and saw Jade lying on her back with her eyes wide open. 

“Jade… What's going on?" 

She had been acting weird since she woke up. Will thought as he waited for her answer.

“Everything is fine" She replied and turned to the side.

“Don't lie to me! I see that something is wrong" He said in a stern tone. Despite her reassurance, he wanted to take a closer look. He kneeled next to her and got terrified, her face was contorted with pain and on top of that, her whole body was shaking.

She looked deep into his eyes. She didn't have the strength to lie to him anymore. “I can't be in this form anymore…" She grabbed her arms. “Every inch of my body hurts!" She said through clenched teeth.

I knew something was wrong! So her shapeshifting ability works somehow similar to a muscle... If you overdo it, it starts to hurt... 

Something warm touched him, forcing him back to reality.

Will looked down and saw that Jade grabbed his wrist.

“Will, I must change back" She let out a quiet, pleading whisper.

He was just about to tell her to immediately change back, but then a thought flashed through his head. 

What will happen when someone sees her… in her true appearance, what will happen if someone walks here and sees a real dragon.

“You can't do this here" He said, still looking at her shaking body.

He was battling with his thoughts, he wanted to ease with her pain but on the other side, they could get caught. His train of thought was interrupted by Jade who started to have problems with breathing.

“I… must… change… back" She said between shallow breaths.

Will looked behind him, to check for any signs of life, but he didn't hear any other new or weird noises. “I think everyone is asleep, you can safely change back, but before you do that, you must get off the-"

"Bed!" Will hissed quietly, but it was too late, the dragoness turned into her true form. Their bed didn't handle that pressure, it creaked and fell apart with a loud crash.

Maybe no one heard it. Will thought as Jade moved out of the bed making additional noise. 

He stood there in silence and listened. Will completely calmed down because, after a few minutes, nothing had happened. Will could only hear his breathing, and the sound of waves crashing against the ship hull.

“We need to clean this up" Will whispered to her.

The mage started to clean up the mess, but then he heard a gasp. He slowly turned backward, And then his heart stopped beating. 

Will saw a young sailor, with a candle in his hand. The sailor looked at the destroyed bed, then at him, and then at the blue dragon. The man rubbed his eyes a few times and looked again when he confirmed that the dragon was real, he loosened his grip and dropped his light source. His body completely froze, and his face was showing a mix of fear and shock. 

The sailor's candle was extinguished, so Will was surprised why everything was so well lit, and then he realized that he completely forgot about the small ball of light in his left hand. But that was the least important thing now…

Will stood up and walked closer to the terrified man, but the sailor took a step back and opened his mouth.

“There is a dragon on our ship!" The sailor screamed at the top of his lungs, with his eyes fixated on the dragon. 

After alarming the rest of the crew, the man looked back at Will. “Are you insane?! W-why aren't you scared?!" The sailor shouted to him.

“Shut up!" Will hissed at him and with his free hand fired a small fireball at the man.

The man's tunic caught fire, and the sailor panicked and started furiously jumping and patting his clothing to deal with the fire, after a while, he managed to put it down. Thanks to the distraction the sailor didn't see that Jade moved closer to him. He wanted to say something, but he got quickly knocked out by a hit of the dragon's tail in the head.

“We need to get out of here!" Will shouted to Jade and rushed straight ahead to the upper deck of the ship.

They quickly moved past the crates and went to the stairs, they were only a few steps away from the main deck, but then the captain showed up and blocked their way. She took her saber and started swinging her weapon from left to right. Will looked back but saw that a few crew members started coming from below. He looked at the captain and decided to push their way forward.

The mage made a strong wind gust with both of his hands and released it at the captain, the woman lost her balance and got pushed back, when she started to get up, they made their way to the main deck.

After picking up her weapon the woman, without any sight of fear, rushed directly at him, the young mage focused, and before they attacked him with her saber, he created a small lightning bolt, and released it at her, the lightning hit straight into the woman chest, a huge, but not deadly dose of lightning shocked the woman, she clenched her teeth, fell to her knees and dropped her weapon. 

“Curse you mage!" She shouted at him as she got up. She looked at him, then at her weapon, and started bending down to pick it up.

“No!" Will shouted and shot two fireballs, the first missed, but the second one hit her in her right hand.

She hissed because her skin started burning. She started slamming her hand against her clothing to deal with the fire. 

Will looked around and saw that other crew members started making a circle around them, trapping three of them inside. Will and the captain were occupied with each other, Jade on the other hand was furiously wagging her tail from left to right, successfully keeping a safe distance between herself and humans. 

Will looked at the captain, she was rubbing her injured hand, she was watching his hands, but didn't dare to attack him for the second time. Will moved closer to the dragoness and looked at her and then at her wings. “Jade! You can fly! Save yourself!" He shouted to her. He was sure that she heard him, but to his surprise, she didn't escape.

Will was just about to cast another fireball, but before he could react, someone rushed at him from behind and hit him hard on the head. He collapsed to the ground with a heavy thud, Jade saw this and froze, a few sailors took this change and rushed directly at the dragoness, because of her exhaustion and the element of surprise they managed to tackle her to the ground. 

That was the last thing that Will saw before losing consciousness…

                                                                                                             ***

Will had a strange dream again… this time he was sure he was a dragon, next to him was a sapphire one, which looked exactly like the one Will saw a few nights earlier, the dragon looked just like Jade, his head moved on its own, and he looked down the hill, there he saw two smaller dragons, one with green, and the other with blue scales, both of them were happily running around, playing with each other.

After that, the dragon moved his eyes back to the blue one. But when the creature did that everything started to get fuzzy, distant. Will could see a thing, everything was too blurred. 

Suddenly the creature through which Will was seeing started speaking.

“I can't wait for our children to grow up, my dear Jade" 

The memory ended because Will started waking up.

Will woke up with a spinning head, he slowly opened his eyes and saw darkness. He engaged his other senses and found that he was sitting on something, he attempted to move but realized that his feet and hands were tightly bound together. He looked around his surroundings, but all he could see was darkness.

He recalled the last thing that he saw before he lost his conciseness, and in his mind appeared a picture of Jade, tackled to the ground by a few people. A cold shiver ran through his spine.

"Jade! Are you here?!" Will shouted hoarsely.

In response, he heard something metallic a few inches from him.

“Jade, are you here?" The mage repeated, trying to see anything other than the darkness.

Will heard the rustle of something metallic again, and after a few tries he managed to raise his arms above his head and move them forward. Then, using his left hand, he created a ball of light. Seeing that the magic light was too weak, he focused and sent out more energy to it. The source of magical light slowly began to glow brighter until it properly illuminated the space in front of him.

He looked around, and he saw some crates to the right, his eyes moved to the left, and he was finally able to locate the cause of the metallic sounds.

Some to the left, not far from him, Will saw the familiar blue-scaled dragoness, she was lying on her side, every part of her body was chained together. Her head was lying on the ground, Will looked at her snout and saw that it was chained as well. 

Will looked closer at her and saw that she opened her eyes. 

She's alright. He happily thought.  Will looked at her, then at the chains, then he looked down at his hands, human hands… An idea appeared in his head.  Jade could use her shapeshifting to free us!

“Can you turn back into a human?" Will asked her, with a voice full of hope. Jade closed her eyes. Will was still looking at her, waiting for her transformation, but after a few long moments, nothing had happened. 

Suddenly Jade opened her eyes, she started struggling, trying to move her head higher, but the chains didn't allow her. 

After a few short moments, Will understood what alerted her. In the distance, he heard a quiet sound, and with each second, the sound grew louder. Will listened to the sound and realized it was the sound of footsteps. 

“You finally woke up"  A female voice said behind him.

Will shiver when he recognizes that voice. It was the Captain. So the two of them were still on her ship. Trapped like prisoners, their lives were at her mercy.

The woman took a few steps and after a while, she stood in front of him. 

“So, you're a mage…" She paused and glanced behind her. “And your wife is a… dragon," She said slowly, then continued. “Something about you wasn't right from the very beginning"

Will tried to tear off the bounds on his wrists. “We helped you! Release us!" He weakly shouted at her.

“Oh and about that… After that incident, I was wondering how you two managed to defeat an entire pirate ship… But now the answer is obvious" She said as she threw away the extinguished candle.

She looked lower and saw his slightly loosened bounds. “I should tie you up using something stronger," She said to herself. “I know what a mage is capable of" She showed him her right hand covered in a bandage. “I saw it with my own eyes, when I was younger a mage killed my family and destroyed my home!" She shouted with pure hatred in her voice. After a moment, she took a few deep breaths and calmed down.

So that's why, she hates mages that much… But why did a mage do such a thing?  He thought, still looking at her face, and saw a few tears sliding down her cheeks.

Even though he had met this woman less than three days ago, even though she was now his enemy and had him imprisoned. Even though his case wasn't as serious as hers. A large part of Will understood exactly how she must have felt.

 "I'm sorry for your loss... I lost someone-"

“I don't need your pity mage" She said and with one swift motion wiped her tears.

Another idea popped into Will's head. “If you let us out, we'll help you find that mage. Just think about it! After all these years, you'll finally be able to take revenge on him"

She seemed interested in his offer, but then she looked at him, and shook her head in disbelief. 

“Release you?" She snorted. “Do you really think I was born yesterday?!" She asked him.

“We could-"

“Do you really think you can bargain with me?!" She said and started going closer to him.

“Do you really think you can do anything?" After saying that she was so close that Will could feel her breath on his skin.

“You lose… You and your dragon are now… mine" She slowly whispered into his ear.

“What are you planning to do with us?" Will asked, with fear in his voice. 

She faced him. “I should kill both of you," She said without a glimpse of emotion.

“K-Kill us?" he choked out.

“Yes… You two attacked me and my crew…" She let out a disappointing sigh. “But I have my honor, a favor for a favor, so I am going to spare you" 

“We didn't want to hurt anybody! We only wanted to get to the kingdom!" Will said in a slightly raised voice, explaining himself.

“Don't worry you will get here" She reassured him.

“If you are going to spare us… Then what are you going to do with us?" Will said, shifting in his place. 

She fixed her bandage and shrugged. “I'll do what every merchant do with its goods… I will sell you" 

Will opened his eyes wide, didn't believe what he just heard. “You are going to sell us?!" he muttered. “If you do this, you will be making a huge mistake! Did you know who-" 

She struck him in the knee. “No. And I don't care" She said, and then turned around and started making her way to the dragoness.

“Don't you dare touch her!" He barked at her.

The woman stopped, being a little shocked by the mage's outburst. She turned to him with frowned eyes. “I still don't know why you are protecting it… It is a dragon! A TRUE mage would have killed it long ago!" 

Will didn't respond, his sight was shifting between the dragon and the woman.

The captain huffed and went closer to where the dragoness's head was lying. “How are you, dragon? The chains are not too tight?" She asked sarcastically. After saying that, she kneeled and petted the dragoness on the head. 

Jade growled at her and tried to reach her, but the chains were firmly holding her in place.

When the creature stopped fighting with the metal bonds, the captain carefully loosened the chains on her snout.

Will again tried to free himself from the bounds. “Free us! Otherwise-" 

“Otherwise what?" She turned his head and looked at him, only to see him trying to break his bonds again.

She deeply signed in frustration. “Understand it finally! You lost… There's nothing you can do, you may be a mage, maybe even a powerful one… But look at you! You can't even break free from your bonds!"

Will didn't want to admit it but…  He started thinking that maybe she was right. He wanted to come up with a plan, but every option was already tried or impossible to do. His thoughts were interrupted by the clanking of chains. Will looked at Jade who for the second time tried to free herself from the chains.

“Jade stop, it's pointless!" He shouted at her to get her attention. The dragoness stopped and looked at him. 

He let out a deep sigh. “We lost" Will said sadly and closed his eyes.

“I want to burn her face" Jade suddenly blurted out.

Will chuckled a little. “I would do the same" The mage replied to her when he opened his eyes. 

Amelia opened her eyes wide, processing what just happened.

“Did you just understand that dragon?" She asked him, surprised as if she had just found out that he himself was a dragon.

Will blinked a few times, realizing his mistake, but It was too late. His silence only confirmed her theory.

She looked at him, and then at the dragon. “You… can understand them" She whispered, shortly after She shook herself, remembering something.

“I must go for something!" She quickly said and without saying any other word, vanished into the shadows.

After a few minutes of silence, the captain returned with two glass vials. She looked at the vials. Getting a closer look at the liquid inside of them. “I bought it some time ago, and thanks to you two, I can finally use it" 

She went to Will and forcefully opened his mouth, opened one of the vials, and poured it down his throat. 

“What was inside the vial?!" He asked her with anger. 

She turned his back on him.“You will see after a moment" She replied. The woman went to the laying dragon and poured the other vial into its mouth.

That was enough for him. Will warmed up his hands so much that he set them on fire, the fire quickly spread and shortly after that the bounds on his wrist caught on fire too, thanks to the damage done by the fire, will finally be able to release his hands. When his hands were free he quickly extinguished them, but the damage was already done.

He burned his own hands…

But the radiating pain didn't stop him, he stood up and raised his hands and threw a fireball at the captain, and hit her left shoulder, but the woman swiftly put down the fire with just one pat of her hand.

“If you try to do something like that again. I will stab her" The captain said angrily, and then she moved her damaged hand to her waist and took out a dagger.

The mage created a wind gust in the hope of disarming the woman, but he was exhausted, so his spell did absolutely nothing.

She raised one of her eyebrows. “That's it?" She huffed. “You defeated a whole ship filled with pirates, and now you can't even disarm one person" She said with resignation.

Will felt that his strength started slowly leaving him. 

“Don't… hurt… her" he slowly mumbled and lowered his hands.

The woman didn't reply to his request. But when she saw that he was no longer a threat, she calmed down and hid her dagger. 

Everything started spinning. Will went a few steps, but because of the dizziness and the bounds on his legs, he lost his balance and fell to the ground.

He felt more dizzy and with all his might focused on staying awake. He was lying on the floor, drugged, with burned hands, completely exhausted. He was too weak to care for his friend… He was too weak to care even for himself. 

He was completely powerless… In the past he emerged victorious from worse situations, but now he was completely worthless…

Will tried to move, but his body didn't have enough strength to move even an inch. After a few moments his eyes closed on their own. His mind began to drift away, didn't want to focus even on a single thought. He didn't fight with it. 

“Sweet dreams" A female voice said.

Those were the last words that he heard before everything went black…

End of chapter 6