Samuel quickly pulled up a chair and sat down in front of Emma, "I just wanted to thank you properly!" She whispered and Samuel shook his head while patting her head. "Sometimes people just need to do the right thing without receiving anything in return!" His reply made a few tears roll down her cheeks.
"Can I sleep here tonight?" Her question stumped Samuel for a few moments, with raised eyebrows and a smile he nodded. "Take comfort in knowing that I will stand guard for you tonight!" His reply made her start blinking with heavy eyelids.
Samuel imagined that the poor girl hadn't had a good nights sleep in weeks. She quickly fell asleep on his bed and Samuel could see the torment she was going through, he knew what pain was like, feeling like you were never good enough and the feeling of failure and shame.
"Night?" He whispered.
"Mmyeees?" The drowzy dragon crawled from a shadow underneath his desk. Samuel couldn't help but smile at the small tounge sticking out of the tiny and tired dragons lip.
"Could you please safeguard her dreams tonight?" His question made Night look at the girl for a few moments. "You do know that..." She started but Samuel interrupted.
"That she might come to know of your existence if you appear in her dreams..." He trailed off for a few moments before looking at her again, "Yes I am, and yes I am sure!"
He answered her question and she nodded before hopping up on the bed and laying on top of Emma who was probably starting to have nightmares before calming down quite quickly. Another one of Night's many different abilities that she had come to learn.
She could jump into peoples shadows and read parts of their mind and learn things about the people from being in there, but she could also jump into your dreams and guard the mind. Guard it from bad dreams or even psychic attacks.
Whatever struggle was occuring quickly faded and Samuel sat in the chair and guarded her the entire night while Night was guarding her mind. When morning finally came Samuel sat there with tired eyes but refusing to back down.
Suddenly his door swung open and Sonya came rushing in, she was probably worried about where her sister had gone, the first thing she saw was her sister sleeping soundly and then Samuel sitting in the chair with his sword partially drawn.
He gently sheated the sword back into place and slowly held a finger over his mouth to indicate silence. Sonya sighed a small breath of relief and walked forward quietly and planted a kiss on top of Samuels hair and a small hug before backing off with a smile on her face while brushing away a singular tear.
She quietly left the room to rejoin the downstairs and it took another two hours before Emma finally woke up, in her drowzy state she slowly sat up on her knees and slowly blinked, she wore a small smile on her face before she started realizing it was a new day.
Seemingly regained some of her previous strength she turned to see Samuel barely awake with his sword resting in his lap. She had had such wonderful dreams and been able to sleep longer than she had been for months.
She looked at her protector and smiled as she slowly got out of the bed, just as she stood next to Samuel the sword started slipping off, but she caught it so it wouldn't make a loud noise. When she looked at Samuel he was sleeping.
He had performed his duty admirably just like he had promised. He looked exhausted enough for Emma to not bother waking him, and with that he slept through most of the day before waking up and realizing it was afternoon already.
The last day and a half he spent mostly resting, because he really needed it considering how hard he had been pushing himself lately, and just like that the day of the new mission had come around the corner.
He was fully geared up and met with Sonya and Erica who also looked ready, "No more winter clothing huh?" He made conversation and Sonya shrugged. "No, but that doesn't mean you get to see us in any skimpy clothing made for bathing!" She replied with a smug smile.
Proud of herself like usual while Erica just chuckled at her silly behaviour, like many times before the trio met up with their mentors at the house of dimensions, where they together took the portal to Port Crevin, where they quickly realized they were not the only ones.
Several other mages were arriving or had already arrived and were standing about chatting. Some were from the college following their mentors just like Samuel and his team, while plenty of others wore the official army mage attire robes.
Combat robes that were standard forest green and designed to hold wands or potions or other utility items at hand. Made for fighting more than any fancy design, not too much unlike the college robes function that could either be long academic robes or more of a fancy suit better suited to fighting.
Bregane didn't waste time chatting as he led their group through the small crowd of mages, many were inspecting them with interest, but no more than they did eachother as well, on the outside however it was quite a bit more interesting.
Several rank and lines of soldiers were marching through the streets in columns as they exited the local magistrate building. The large courtyard had several soldiers assembled and Samuel could even see gryphon knights mounting up or preparing their supplies.
It wasn't until they got to the large cobble bridge that led to the docks that they could see the rest, at least thirty ships lay anchored in the bay with small rowboats that were packed with soldiers were going towards them. Three airships were in the sky as well, and a few gryphon knights that were using the airships as their bases.
There were also a few mages of course flying to their destinations, "Activate your flight spells and follow me!" Bregane informed the group and they all did as he said, together they flew towards the biggest ship of the fleet.
It had several decks and could probably hold up to a thousand men, a great gryphon was embedded on all the sails. It was quite a ship to behold, with several sailors running back and forth. Bregane landed after a small spot cleared and he nodded towards an officer that went to fetch his commander.
A bit of back and forth before Bregane and the other mentors followed the officer into the command room. Leaving the three apprentices out on deck, they did their best not to get in the way of everything going on.
Many sailors and soldiers looked at them, but they held their tounges seeing the robes of the college. After several minutes Bregane came walking back looking a bit annoyed, "Understaffed with mages on the ships my ass!" He muttered to himself.
He looked at the three apprentices with a face that screamed how unhappy he was with whatever decision they had reached, "SO appararently they are understaffed with proper mages on each ship. Therefore we need to split up into groups of three, Samuel you and Tere'he will go to the Justyn." Bregane pointed at the ship when he found it.
"Sonya and I will stay aboard the Tidal Gryphon!" Bregane continued as he mentioned towards the flagship they were on, "Sarmah and Erica will stay on the Seastride!" He pointed towards another ship.
"The fleet will separate and attack from three different parts, but your two ships will be attacking from the same side, whereas we will probably be safer running bait into the bay that was shown."
"A small party will enter the east side of the islands in secret, while our flagship and most of the air support will show itself as a decoy in the middle. While a frontal charge is handled on the west side by the majority of the seaships." Bregane motined towards Samuel and Erica.
Erica couldn't help but sigh, she had hoped to not be part of any frontal assault, but she was determined to give her best. Samuel thought the plan sounded stupid, why split their forces if the pirates were already holed up.
But he kept it to himself, the likelyhood of Bregane already having asked those questions were quite high. A total of 20 ships would be attacking from the west side, hopefully the decoy would work and then the frontal assault would draw them to the west and leaving the eastern sides almost entirely defenseless.
Samuel realized there were many flaws in this plan, but he didn't know all the plans and ideas that were set in place already. He actually hated being kept in the dark about it, he would have preferred to make his own decision.
But alas their group split up and Samuel and Tere'he quickly flew over to their ship the Justyn, where they landed on the main deck where the captain of the ship came to greet them.