"We need to resume my training, Aria," Emily said. "There's no time to lose. If I'm going to win this duel, I'll need everything you can teach me."
Aria smiled sympathetically. She attempted to place a hand on Emily's shoulder, but her arms were still straitjacketed to her front by Richard's magic. "Emily, are you sure--"
"Of course I'm sure. It's the only way out of this."
"But what if you lose?"
Emily bit her lip. "I won't lose. Aria, do you think the Stoneshell's fire can get hot enough to melt stone? If I can just figure out how to do that, he'll be no match for me."
"Think carefully, Emily," Aria begged, her stone eyes turning misty. "Captain Richard has years--no, decades--of experience on you. He is a formidable opponent."
"And that's why I need to train. Please, Aria." The Stoneshell had begun to glow orange, and Emily was frantically undoing the laces of her boots.
"I'll never forgive myself if you marry this man just to protect me," said Aria.
"And I'd never forgive myself if I let you sink to the bottom of the ocean, like all those statues I saw in the Labyrinthine Pool." Emily shook the memory out of her mind as she tossed her right boot across the room.
Aria had no reply.
"What are you doing?" asked Talyndra, as Emily pulled the knot in her shirt apart.
"Getting ready for practice," Emily said, shrugging the shirt off her shoulders. "Fire is hazardous to clothing."
Talyndra nodded sagely. "It will be an honor and privilege to observe."
That last word stuck in Emily's craw as she stood barefoot, barechested, with hands resting on her belt buckle. She could hardly believe she was voluntarily taking off her clothes, again, in front of someone else she barely knew. It helped that Talyndra was naked herself. And it certainly beat the prospect of accidentally burning her clothes again. Especially now that each item could represent the difference between continuing her quest and... having to marry Richard.
Emily unbuckled her belt. Then, with a deep breath, she let her borrowed trousers fall in a heap about her boots. She quickly stepped out of them and kicked them over to where the rest of her clothes lay, lest she have second thoughts.
"I didn't know humans grew hair over there," said Talyndra. "It looks itchy."
Emily immediately brought both hands in front of her crotch, blushing deeply. "It--uh--you--no. It's not."
"Beneath the hair is a fine organ, healthy and strong," said Talyndra, her eyes traveling appraisingly up and down Emily's body. "May you birth many strong sons and agile daughters. But not for the pirate captain."
"Talyndra," Aria said gently, while Emily blushed even deeper and appeared to be dying of embarrassment, "something I should have told you about humans before is that they don't like comments, even complimentary ones, on areas of their bodies that are normally covered by clothes."
Talyndra looked perplexed. "From what you've told me, no part of Emily's body is normally covered by clothes."
"Not by choice!" Emily snapped. "The sooner we get started, the sooner I can get dressed again. I like being dressed." While she spoke, Emily gathered up her hair and slipped the hair tie from her wrist onto it, making a tight bun with a few quick maneuvers.
"Quite. Let us begin. Talyndra, you may want to stand back."
Talyndra obediently sequestered herself in a corner of the cell, sitting cross-legged and observing as Aria guided Emily through her magic practice. Emily was focused and Aria patient, but signs of irritation clouded her face when she attempted to move her trapped arms to demonstrate a particular movement.
Sometime later, their practice was disturbed by the sound of footfalls on the creaky deck. "Captain's coming!" Talyndra cried, peering through the hold in the door and folding her arms across her chest.
Emily shrieked as she jumped from a very open warrior pose to a huddled crouch, scrambling for her clothes. She managed to retrieve her white shirt and wrap it backward around herself just before Richard stepped through the hole in the door, preserving her decency but showing a lot of leg.
"Ho ho, I do hope I'm not interrupting anything," Richard said. "What lovely strong legs you have, Emily. I look forward to caressing them. That is... if you have decided to accept my proposal...?"
"I'll fight you," Emily replied flatly. "Name your time and place."
"Excellent! We will duel tomorrow at sunset, on the Sea Serpent's main deck. Lirethel rules, with the forfeit being one item of clothing, and the duel ending when the first combatant removes their final item. We will count boots and gloves as single items each. But I see you have already been practicing the forfeit part. If you want to lose so badly, dear Emily, you have only to reconsider my first proposal."
Emily blushed and stammered, pushing her back further against the wall of the cell and holding the shirt tighter to herself. She could feel the rough wood pricking her backside and had to suppress a pained yelp.
With heavy stone footfalls, Aria stepped between Richard and Emily. "Emily has accepted your proposal to duel, now leave us be. We will speak again when the time comes, but no sooner."
A heavy, tense silence followed as Richard glared at Aria. "I... do not appreciate being given orders aboard my ship. Especially by a being I have total control over. Speak to me in that manner again, and I will do much worse than tie your hands together." A heavy crunch sounded through the cell as Richard made a fist of his right hand.
"'Twon't be your ship for long, pirate!" Talyndra said, smirking at Richard. "Or did you forget the terms of your own duel?"
Richard cast a sidelong glance at Talyndra, who held his gaze steadily, secure in her mostly concealed position. "Perhaps that is true," he said. "I am a man of my word. May the best mage win."
With that, Richard turned tail and exited the cell through the hole in the door.
Once he was out of sight, Emily relaxed and stepped away from the wall, rubbing her pinched bottom. "Let's continue, Aria," she said, allowing the shirt to fall at her feet. She glanced at her wrist, though it had been bare of a watch since before she'd arrived in Thessolan. "I've got a little over twenty-four hours to get better at magic than Richard. No pressure."
"We may have to skip forward a little, in that case," Aria replied.
"J-just be careful where you aim that stuff," Talyndra said, already bringing her arms up to shield her face. "Nobody likes the smell of roasted wood elf."
Emily blushed, then set her mouth in a determined line, kicking her discarded shirt into the corner with her other clothes. "I'm ready to learn, Aria."
