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Valdys swiftly directed Ulric on how to best hold Caylais in front of him and steer his mana flow through her. He cleared his throat. 'I'm sorry for making you feel uncomfortable.' he said softly into the feline's ear.

Caylais gave a quick nod while her heart pounded as she stood with her back against his front. 'It's all right, don't worry about me. We have to try this.'

He wrapped his arms around her upper body and pressed his paws against her stomach with some hesitation. She tensed for a moment, then took a deep breath to relax and focus on her abilities. 'I'm ready.'

Ulric directed a little of his mana through his arms and into his paws, and the sensation of warmth and the pounding of her heart increased against his chest. 'How's this?'

Caylais almost gasped at the strength of his mana entering her body, even if it was only this much to begin with. It made his presence even more real than it already was, and she thought she understood just how close his girls were to him.

Water sprayed through the cave from the sea vulture trashing its tentacles around. 'Can you handle this?' asked Valdys and glanced quickly back at the creature.

Caylais concentrated on her own flow of mana mixing with his and steering the new flow, and nodded. 'Yes. I can handle more.' she said, and her heart skipped a beat at the next surge from the strangest demon she'd ever met. Another moment was needed to stabilise the flow. It was not enough yet according to her estimation. 'More.'

She gasped at the next surge of mana induced heat rushing through her whole body.

'Are you all right?' asked Valdys while the sea vulture flailed harder.

Caylais nodded quickly. 'I still need more.'

'Hurry!' said Elzbieta. 'It's coming further inside!'

Ulric released more mana, sending electrical surges through Caylais's body along with the heat. She puffed as she tried to breath normally but nodded at Valdys when she looked worried. 'More. I need about half more mana.'

Valdys nodded at Ulric and he slowly increased his flow. 'Tell me when it's too much.'

Caylais nodded quickly again and concentrated hard on keeping the wild new power inside her under control. She never imagined this much mana at her disposal and she needed to control the thrill of the moment before losing herself to both that and the sudden arousal when she felt one with his embrace holding her tight against his strong body. The question whether this was also caused by his mana would have to wait until later. She squinted at the sea vulture creeping closer and its tentacles lashing at the water close to them. 'Out of the way.' she breathed and built up the most powerful charge of lightning inside her, imagining she could explode at any moment.

Her eyes lit up and sparkled bright. She pressed back harder against Ulric, stretched out her hands to the sea vulture, and let out a roar together with a storm of bright blue lightning from her arm.

The creature trashed and lashed out in every direction, spewing water everywhere as the lightning enveloped it. The cave rapidly filled with the thick smell and smoke of grilled fish and the others quickly held their noses. Tentacles whipped and lashed out in every direction until the sea vulture sagged and its limp tentacles fell into the water.

Caylais ceased her lightning and slumped back in Ulric's embrace, her body exhausted and tingling all over from the amount of power it released. He sat down carefully on a rock behind him and pulled her on his lap. 'You all right?'

She smiled a little as she looked up tired at him, and barely nodded. 'I'm fine but drained.' she breathed, and snuggled against him before she could stop herself, but she didn't want to pull back and just grabbed the opportunity to experience it to the fullest.

Joris moved closer while keeping his eyes on the dead monster. 'Damn, that was surely something. When I tell them of what you just did, they'll definitely let you enter Red Cove.'

Iphigenia giggled as she watched Caylais sleep in Ulric's arms with a smile on her face. 'I think she might even have never felt as good as she does now.'

Ulric chuckled. 'Then all this has brought forth at least one good thing.'

Joris rang his ship's bell once to wake up the party when they neared the end of their voyage. 'Time to wake up! We're nearing Red Cove.'

Everyone yawned and stretched, and gazed at the part island, part fortress a little distance up ahead. The rock cliffs and stone walls rose up straight from the water, with the wall topping off everything as it went around the island, interspersed by thick towers. The entry into the cove was flanked by two of those towers and a glimpse of the red flora was visible further inside around the original bay, and a big wooden bridge spanned the gap near the top of the towers, high enough for tall ships to pass underneath. But what dominated the view even more than the height of it, were the two large towers rising above all of that.

'It used to be a normal island but the pirate rulers grew it into a large fortress over the generations.' said Joris. 'There's still some of the old island on the inside but the outside is mainly impenetrable fortress. Many admirals have tried to lay siege or conquer the fortress, none have succeeded. The many wrecks at the bottom are evidence of that.'

'I can see how that would be difficult indeed.' said Ulric.

'I think we're in for an interesting time there.' said Iphigenia.

'In my old world, people love the romantic idea of pirates, but I doubt it'll be anything like the reality here.'

As they passed the entrance to the cove, Ulric noticed the activity behind the narrow windows up high and caught glimpses of many cannons. 'Heavily armed.'

Elzbieta looked up at the men atop the bridge who kept an eye down at the boat. 'Looks like they're well prepared indeed for fighting off anyone trying to attack them from the sea.'

Joris steered his boat to a pier with several more smaller boats while the others watched the fleet of ships moored to other piers spread all over the cove. 'This many could even give a modern navy a run for their money.' said Ulric. 'And these are all under the control of the lady of the pirates?'

'Yep.' said Joris. 'They are all independent, but when she calls upon them, they obey.'

'Hey! Short! What happened to you!?' called out a canine from the end of the pier.

'Sea vulture attack! But these here killed the thing!'

The canine laughed. 'As if!'

Joris guided the boat alongside the pier and threw a rope at the canine, who tied it to a post, then gestured with a nod of his head to the stack of tentacle pieces on deck. 'Still doubt my word?'

The canine's jaw dropped. 'Seriously?'

Joris grinned wide. 'Thanks to these new visitors, who would like permission to enter Red Cove.'

The canine looked over the strange party and the feline. 'I'd say you qualify to step on land here with this feat. Welcome to Red Cove.'

Joris smiled at the party after they disembarked. 'Thanks for saving my boat back there. And me.' he said and gestured at the tentacles. 'See me later for your share on the sale of this and the remains they'll fetch from the cave.'

Iphigenia glanced at Caylais and Ulric. 'Don't worry about that. We have enough means of our own. Use the money for your boat.'

Joris raised his eyebrows. 'Are you sure? It's quite a bit of money.'

Iphigenia nodded. 'Just don't tell exactly how we defeated that thing. We don't want everyone bothering us for our services.'

He chuckled. 'I understand, but they'll want your services when they hear you killed such a monster regardless.'

'It'll make it still less spectacular.'

Joris nodded. 'Come see me whenever you need anything. I owe you a big favour.' he said, and went up the pier to join the canine and arrange for his cargo to be unloaded.

Iphigenia turned to Caylais. 'What are your plans?'

She looked up at the buildings. 'See if I can find work around here that doesn't involve going out to sea first. They care less about species here so I should be able to find something I can do.'

'Good luck then.'

Caylais smiled. 'Thank you. Good luck to you all as well.' she said and her heart pounded once more when her gaze lingered on Ulric and the memories of his embrace resurfaced. She cleared her throat, nodded at everyone, and went up the pier.

Ulric looked at Valdys. 'Can you locate the next piece now?'

Valdys took out the artefact and laid it on the palm of her hand, and after a moment it spun slowly around. 'It's here, but as you can see, no precise location.'

He looked at his girls. 'Then we'll have to rely on old-fashioned legwork and find out first which ship came from Fiskural and if it had the artefact on board.'

'So, a tour of the piers and hope we see something familiar?' asked Elzbieta, and Ulric nodded.

'Isn't that the ship we saw at the harbour a while ago?' asked Conchim after some time walking past the piers, and casually gestured at one of the larger ships at the pier.

The others looked closer and Elzbieta nodded. 'Wind Borne. I remember the name.' she said and the party moved closer to take a good look at the carrack while few people were going about the ship. It didn't look like it was going anywhere when there was no sign of loading or unloading activity.

'Impressed?'

They turned towards a dark skinned woman in tight clothing but with enough frills down her dress shirt to cover her most explicit curves, wearing a red jacket and red hat with wide brim and black briefs with tall boots. She looked up at the stern. 'My ship's one of the finest you'll find here.'

'So you're the captain, correct?' said Iphigenia.

The woman pulled down her hat and her long, black braid swayed forward as she bowed briefly. 'Rigmora, captain of the mighty Wind Borne.' She looked over the strange group of women and the hooded canine. 'Interested in signing up to serve?'

'We're just looking around for now to see what opportunities we have to make some money.' said Iphigenia and looked at the ship again. 'We thought we'd seen her in Fiskural recently.'

'Ay, she was. When there's important business to attend to, she and I are at the forefront.'

Iphigenia looked up casually. 'Oh, like escorting important people, or, could it be something special, seeing how Fiskural is mostly trade? You'd want a good fighting ship for transporting valuables, whether it's single piece of art or a huge pile of coins.'

Rigmora grinned slightly. 'Indeed. Even if it was a small chest, it deserved just as much protection because it was for Sharktail.'

'It would be an honour to be part of the crew of such a magnificent ship.' said Elzbieta. 'But we'll still have to think it over to see if we're capable.'

Rigmora nodded. 'Not many elves within our kind and less who actually go out to sea. If you think you can handle it, I'd like to see what you can do on mine.'

Elzbieta gave her a smile. 'I'll certainly keep it in mind.'

A shout from the ship grabbed their attention, and the next moment a man flew over the side and landed in the water. A muscular demon with greenish skin and slight lizard shaped head looked down at the involuntary swimmer. 'Go work at the pig farm, you useless sea snail! And be glad I didn't toss you overboard in the middle of the sea!'

Rigmora curled up a corner of her mouth. 'My first officer. He's very strict when it comes to the skills to work on my ship.' He noticed his captain and called out to her, and she excused herself.

The girls and Ulric exchanged glances. 'That narrows down our search.' said Ulric over the link. 'Sharktail.'

Iphigenia looked up at the two large towers above them. 'Let's find out where she stays and where she keeps her valuables.'

Sharktail laughed and leaned back in her chair covered with pelts. 'I know that piece of stone is worth much more than what you offer, dog.'

Tarrence flared up inside at the remark but didn't stir a muscle. He'd expected an insult or two from her kind from the moment he saw her decorated blonde pony tail with shark teeth. Flashy types like her he had met plenty of, and they all liked to run their mouth as much as they liked to show off how terribly awesome they professed to be. 'It belongs to my client. Be grateful I offer you any sum of money as a gesture of good will.'

The captain of Red Cove smirked at him. 'What makes you think whoever it belongs to is a concern of mine? The only thing that counts is that I have it, and if someone wants it from me, it'll cost them.'

Tarrence contemplated killing her on the spot for a moment, but while he could slip away through the shadows, his team could not. Leaving them to fight the collection of scum on this island fortress would come back to haunt him. That he was sure of even if they didn't survive. There was also the fact that he didn't know where she kept the artefact and he'd have no time to search. He stood up without haste. 'I will confer with my client. Take my advice and take their next offer.'

Sharktail smirked at her small victory as she watched him leave her working chambers. 'I'll have them take my offer, lousy fleabag.' she said softly.

The party took the first street that was a little wider than most, passing noisy crowds drinking, eating, gambling, lazing about, and the occasional brawl they were warned about that often enough ended up fatal for at least one person. The attention they drew from the crowd was expected. Although there were all sorts of species going around, Conchim presence was unique and Elzbieta and Valdys were a minority around here. They were glad everyone was smart enough not to engage out here in the open because even the dumbest pirate could sense that the strange party wouldn't walk around Red Cove if they were casual tourists. Especially when most of them were very attractive women. But that might be the advantage that daylight gave them. Night-time would likely be different.

The street twisted upwards to the centre of the island and a little later the party looked up at the nearest of the two large towers, heavily fortified with iron gates and a thick wall around it. 'I do believe this would be the safest place to stay during an attack on the island.' said Valdys. 'And I doubt very much any enemy could come this far in the first place.' She glanced at the others. 'And I have some doubt whether we could go inside ourselves.' she added through the link.

'Hey! You there!'

They all turned to a pirate coming their way, wearing a dark red wide brimmed hat with too many black feathers in it. His thin and long goatee dangled almost as much as the feathers. Ulric growled softly. 'Are we in trouble already?'

The pirate walked up to them. 'You're Quaint, correct?'

Iphigenia raised an eyebrow. 'How do you know that?'

The man grinned knowingly. 'Certain words travel fast here. Especially about little deeds by a rare group of such mixed species that saved our precious postman.'

'We can imagine.' Iphigenia said. 'Yes, we are Quaint.'

'I am Oglevie, head of what you might call security for Sharktail.' he said and gestured at the open gate of the tower. 'I have a little proposition for you, understanding you were looking for work here.'

The suddenly amused girls and Ulric looked at one another. 'We're listening.' said Iphigenia.

'That's not something we can accomplish on our own.' said Tarrence to the mark written on the table in his room and continued before the other side could say what he already knew his supervisor Kullek would say. 'But I'm sure I can enlist the help of a person who's interested in taking down those pirates robbing him from his profit. He owes us anyway and he can muster up the force we need.'

The silence lasted a few breaths. 'All right.' said Kullek. 'Make one more offer, then do what you have to do to find and take back that piece of the ring.'

Tarrence wiped the mark to cut the link and looked at the others. 'I'll talk to Sharktail one more time tomorrow, then we head for Tortoise Bay to recruit our asset.'

Muni grumbled as he leaned back in his chair. 'Why not simply rush in and take it?'

'Because we don't know where it exactly is, Sharktail is not a woman who tells what she doesn't want to tell, and the sheer numbers at her disposal. Even you won't last against the number of pirates who are fiercely loyal to her.'

The feline demon nodded with a grumble in reluctant agreement.

The meeting room close to the gate was large enough for thirty to forty people, and Oglevie laid down his hat at the table close to the door. 'Sit.' he said and gestured at a servant to fetch something to drink, then sat down. He looked the party over one more time. 'You're quite unique. I've never seen a party of your size with each a different species.' He turned to Conchim. 'Especially one with a harpy.'

'It happened along the way.' said Iphigenia. 'Nothing we planned.'

Oglevie watched Ulric from the corner of his eye. 'I also never heard of a sentient bloodwolf.'

Ulric looked him in the eyes. 'Let's just say my parents were just as surprised at that.'

The pirate was wise enough to nod and leave it at that. There were enough people walking around Red Cove who fell outside the usual way of things. Demons were involved one way or another. 'When I heard how you saved Joris and his boat from the sea vulture, and that you weren't the usual band of people interested in coming here, I knew I had to have a talk with you. Luckily you were already here when I wanted to send someone to find you.'

The servant returned with wine and beer and poured everyone the drink of their choice.

Oglevie took a gulp from the wine to show it wasn't poisoned or anything, and put down his mug. 'Tell me, what brings you here?'

Iphigenia straightened a little. 'Work, simply said.'

He smiled slightly as he looked at her. 'I'm pretty sure you could find work at other places, judging from what Joris told me.'

'Except as you said, our party is rather unique, and that brings odd and suspicious looks with it. After a while of only receiving the worst jobs, one becomes tired enough to think about more lucrative opportunities, even when they're not as wholesome.'

The pirate took another gulp of his wine and nodded. 'There are more who turned to Red Cove for that reason.' Another smile grew on his face. 'Let me tell you what I have in mind.'