The time spent sailing at sea went by smoothly and the young women took turns at the helm to keep the ship on course. Elsa explained to Honeymaren what she knew about sailing and the young Northuldra took the first turn; meanwhile Elsa explored all the decks without finding much more than what was absolutely necessary for sailing, even the cabin did not have anything other than the basics for a quick rest.

"I don't think the plan is to stay on the boat too long, there are no provisions and there is a shortage of what is needed for sailing." Said Elsa as she left the cabin behind Honeymaren.

"I think so too, it shouldn't be long before we find out why we are here." Said the young brunette.

"I hope we find the reason soon; I feel we should make more use of the time." Said Elsa, stopping beside her companion. "Do you want to swap places?" Added the young queen, putting one hand on the helm, proposing to take control so that her girlfriend could sit down and rest.

"Yes, thank you." Said Honeymaren, and she went to sit by the side of the ship, holding on to a few lines of the mizzenmast.

Shortly after they changed positions a peculiar sound broke the newly found calm of the night, a melodious, seductive song from the voice of some young woman who seemed to be hiding in the darkness of the night.

"Did you hear that?" Asked Honeymaren, getting up and trying to find the origin of that recurring chant.

"Yes, I hear it." Said Elsa in confusion, freezing the helm in position and moving closer to Honeymaren, alert for any surprises that might come.

While the young women stood alert, waiting to find the source of that seductive melody, a second song broke the silence, different in tone and song, but still harmonious and sweet, captivating those who could hear.

"Mermaids." Honeymaren said, clearly tense about the situation, moving from her place and taking Elsa towards the center of the deck, away from the gunwale.

"Mermaids? my mother used to tell us stories about mermaids, if they were mermaids we wouldn't have to fear them, they wouldn't hurt us." Elsa said, slightly confused as Honeymaren looked back and forth and held magic seals she had just conjured up as shields in her hands, as if waiting for an attack.

"Surely they were tales about kings and princes too, and not all of them have been good people in real life." Honeymaren said. Elsa kept thinking after hearing those words, it was true that in recent years some people who appeared to be good had turned out to be bad. "Just as in people there can always be good and bad beings, the situation we are in is very much in line with what I've read of the ambushes of the mermaids." Honeymaren added, still alert to anything.

"You are right." Elsa said, standing back to back with Honeymaren.

After that he girls put themselves in a defensive position to protect each other from the uncertain attack they might be about to face.

"We aren't far from land." Honeymaren said, slightly distracted when in the distance a wide terrain figure, probably a large island, could be seen. The sighting also caught the attention of the young Queen, but the sound of those songs, closer and closer, brought her to her senses.

"We must hold our course and we'll be safe." Said Elsa.

The young women were trying to keep themselves concentrated on repelling any attack, but as those voices came closer and closer their ability to keep alert began to crumble, attracted by the incomprehensibly beautiful song of the sirens.

—¿Elsa? Said Honeymaren, disconcerted as she stopped feeling her girlfriend's back against hers and watched as she began to walk placidly up the stairs while the delicate melodies echoed loudly near the ship.

"¡Elsa!" Shouted the young sorcerer, going after her companion, although the nearer she got to the gunwale the dizzier and sleepy she became.

Gradually the songs increased in number, and when Honeymaren reached Elsa she could see in the water at the side of the ship the owners of the mesmerizing voices who seemed to slowly immerse them in their charm.

Floating in a formation worthy of a well-coupled orchestra the sight that the mermaids gave to the eyes of the young women was almost as hypnotic as their singing. Some of them had a skin and hair color similar to that of humans, in all the variety of their beautiful and unique tones, and some others looked as they had never seen a person before, with colors of complexion and hair as varied as rainbows, light yellows, deep blues, captivating purples, combinations so striking and difficult to ignore that resisting their charm required titanic willpower.

The girls who saved the ship from the relentless forces of the sea were standing just behind the ship's gunwale, prisoners of the seductive aura of mermaids, a little awareness still remained in their being, but connecting two thoughts was a challenge to overcome.

After a few minutes keeping the young women in their trance some of the mermaids broke formation and approached the side of the ship, and then, with an agile movement they jumped onto deck, transforming their tails into legs as they came out of the water and then standing to the side of the couple they had just found.

The rain, calm and constant, was completely obscured by the songs, offering no stimulus that would help the young women think of something else, to free themselves from that magical influence.

The mermaids on board, with nimble movements and bold glances added their hands to the set of stimuli that sought to extinguish in the young couple the little consciousness that remained, trying with their dexterous touch and caress to persuade their minds towards a state of total surrender. Surrounded and subdued by the seductive feeling of that soothing massage, submission seemed almost certain, but one of the mythical maidens of the ocean made a mistake.

What?!, No, never! Honeymaren managed to think, recovering a little from her consciousness when she saw one of the mermaids approaching her face seductively towards Elsa's, clearly with the intention of stealing some of the intimate touch of those lips that the young Queen had only dedicated to her.

In the face of the sudden peak of anger Honeymaren ended up regaining control of herself and a great pulse of energy came out of her in the form of a large and bright explosion that instantly threw overboard some of the mermaids.

"How dare you?!" The young woman said as she quickly conjured magical lassos and tangled the mermaids that were still on board; ankles, arms, legs, waist, the young sorcerer tied the sirens from wherever possible while some tried to escape and others lash out at her, then, in a quick movement and with the help of The Cloak Levitation she rose through the air carrying all of them with her, she turned around over her own axis to generate inertia in the lassos and then let them go, throwing them away into the sea from which they came from, perhaps without doing much damage but making it clear that they should not mess with them, especially with their girlfriend.

The remaining mermaids, still in shock from the rapid turn of events, quickly submerged when they saw the young sorcerer kept her gaze fixed on them, who were floating next to the ship.

Not seeing any more movement from the mermaids the young Northuldra returned to the deck of the ship, descending next to her girlfriend, who lying on the floor still seemed to be in a trance

"I came back... no one touches my Elsa." Honeymaren said softly as she knelt next to the Snow Queen, and taking her in his arms gave her a delicate kiss, hoping the touch of her lips could awaken her.

Seconds after the kiss the blonde girl began to blink, regaining consciousness.

"Oh Honey..." Elsa said with a tender, worried look.

"Don't worry, I fell too." Honeymaren said. "But we won't do it again.

"No, of course not." Elsa said, smiling.

Both young women stared into their eyes for a few seconds when a strong shudder of the ship caused them to glide sharply on deck to hit the main mast, both firmly attached to the other.

"Ow," Elsa said, complaining about the hit as she stood by holding on to the mast ropes, also lifting Honeymaren with her.

"It must be the mermaids, they surely didn't like what happened," Honeymaren said.

"We'll make them regret coming back." Elsa said, then Honeymaren grabbed her by the waist and the cloak took them quickly towards the helm, once there Elsa took control of the ship again.

"I'll go see what's going on." Honeymaren said, rising in the air.

"Be careful." Elsa shouted.

Honeymaren nodded and then flew rapidly toward the bow of the ship, realizing that a hole had appeared at starboard and seemed to gradually enlarge as the water entered faster.

"They have some kind of magic weapon, they've blown a hole in the bow and the water is coming in." Honeymaren said, going back to her partner's side.

Seconds later the mermaids boarded the ship again, this time carrying some armor and combat weapons.

"Can you deal with them? I know I can repair the hole, water has memory." Elsa said, and Honeymaren quickly understood what she meant.

"Of course." Honeymaren said with a challenging look and rising into the air as she made magical gestures, suddenly a great orange flash surged, and then a dozen copies of the young sorcerer scattered across the ship, surrounding the bewildered mermaids.

"Go." The multiple copies said to their girlfriend, and then they began to fight the mermaids as Elsa scurried to the bow.

Honeymaren and its projections collided against the mermaids in combat, both physically and magically, and taking advantage of that commotion Elsa managed to reach the bow, continued to the bowsprit and descended to nimbly position herself in the steamhead, seeking to be as close as possible to the hole in the hull, then she grabbed onto the figurehead and stretched out her body to position her free hand on the hull, as close to the hole as possible.

Water has a memory, the young Snow Queen thought to herself, closing her eyes to focus and channeling her power; soon small drops of water began to gather at the edges of the damaged area, as did the icy vapor of her powers. From the ends towards the center the water that magically gathered began to freeze, faithfully replicating the design of the hull that had disappeared and shortly after the young Queen began to channel her power over the it the hull was repaired with a brilliant section of solid ice firmly fused to the ship's own structure.

"It's done." Elsa said to herself, and then returned to the deck, thinking to quickly return to Honeymaren's side.

Throughout the ship several small battles occurred simultaneously between the mermaids and Honeymaren's projections, some of the attackers had great magic power and their own relics increasing the difficulty of the fight for the young sorcerer. The replication spell was not easy to learn or maintain, fighting using her replicas was difficult even when used in unison, but this time each replica had to fight different rivals differently, the artificial intelligence infused into the replicas had a limit in her combat ability and for the real girl, dividing her conscience to slightly adjust the movements of the replicas was a great mental and spiritual effort, so some of the replicas were falling gradually, taking the numerical advantage more and more towards the mermaids side.

A dozen sirens had six versions of the young Northuldra cornered in the ship's quarter deck, maintaining a line they did not back down from as they fought hand-to-hand against the mermaids that lunged and moved away in great synchronicity, achieving a rain of hits, kicks and thrusts with their weapons to which the sorceress's replicas responded and counterattacked as well as they could, being the last ones remaining and with the real young sorcerer in their midst.

As she climbed back Elsa could see how the confrontation was unfolding in the quarter deck, her first instinct was to run to help her girlfriend, but she restrained herself, thinking that facing the situation in the most intelligent way would be more beneficial. The young woman quickly observed her surroundings, the rigging, the masts, and designed her plan of action without a doubt.

"I have it!" She said quietly to herself.

Climbing nimbly through the rigging Elsa reached the top of the foremast in no time.

"You can do this Elsa." The girl said to calm herself as she stared at the next mast, to which she had to jump to get closer to the mermaids and take them by surprise.

Elsa jumped and held tight as much as she could until she felt safe, then she got up, now being at the highest point of the ship.

"Just one more time." Elsa said, holding firmly to the mast, trying not to see down more than was necessary to calculate her jump, and when she was ready she did it again.

The young woman held on tightly to the rigging of the mizzenmast where she was in now, and standing as close and above the mermaids she unleashed a great freezing blast as powerful as she could, making an effort to let out much of her magic and hitting and freezing all the mermaids instantly, getting trapped in ice right in the position they were in.

The Honeymaren replicas let out a sigh and then disappeared, leaving only the real one, which sat cross-legged on the floor.

"Thank you!" Honeymaren shouted, seeing Elsa still at the top of the mast.

"It was nothing!" Elsa shouted, and then released a nearby line and slid nimbly down to the deck.

"You are amazing." Honeymaren said, smiling when Elsa was a few steps from her.

"You are, you contained them alone." Elsa said, sitting in front of her girlfriend. "Are you all right?" She asked afterwards, caressing his cheek.

"Yes, thank you." Honeymaren said, putting his hand on Elsa's. "Are you? Didn't you try too hard?

"No, don't worry, I'm fine." Elsa said, smiling.

The two exchanged a look of affection and complicity for a few seconds.

"Shall we throw them overboard?" Honeymaren said laughing.

"Yes, when they melt they will be free." Elsa said.

"And by then we'll be far away." Honeymaren added.

After getting some more rest, the young women pushed the mermaids across the deck and threw them into the sea, one by one, until they had the ship back to themselves.

"It's not long before we reach the mainland." Elsa said, shaking her hands to remove the excess of water after throwing the last frozen mermaid overboard. T

"The maelstrom and mermaids were just a warm-up... our last challenge must be in that place, that's why we've stayed here so long." Honeymaren said looking to the shadow that appeared to be the mainland on the horizon.

"I feel the same way... what we're looking for must be there, somewhere... and we're going to find it!" Elsa said excitedly, walking up the stairs to go take the helm.

"I'll stay in the bowsprit, seeing if I can spot the best location to anchor the ship when we reach the ground." Honeymaren said, decidedly as she headed forward.

"Great idea!"

A short time later the wind took hold towards the mainland, filling the sails of the ship and boosting them at high speed.

"Wow! This is exciting." Honeymaren shouted standing at the bowsprit and holding on to the forestays to stabilize herself against the movement of the ship and the ups and downs of the waves.

"Yes, it is!" Elsa shouted, maneuvering the helm excited to be steering the ship in a situation like that.

The cool and agitated wind against their faces, the movement under their feet, the gentle breeze they could feel in their bodies; The electrifying feeling of traveling on a ship with the wind in favor was a wonderful experience for the young couple.

"Elsa!" Honeymaren shouted, in a voice that implied she had something in mind.

"What's the matter?"

"I see something... it would be better if you came for a moment." The young Northuldra said, after those words her companion froze the helm in position and descended to go to the bow with her.

"What's going on?" Elsa asked, standing at the bowsprit as her girlfriend.

"Can you see that?" Honeymaren said, pointing to a spot on the mainland with her hand.

The place indicated by Honeymaren looked like a strange luminous stripe on the large dark mass that was the mainland they were trying to reach, traversing it vertically at one point.

"I can see it, but what is it? what does it mean?"

"I think it's an opening, maybe a big river flowing inland, if this is true we could carefully navigate it, it would save us a lot of time from making our way through what appears to be mountainous terrain.

Elsa kept thinking for a moment before giving an answer.

"If the river is as deep as the fjords it would be possible to navigate it, there is a large peak in the distance, and with the irregular shape of the shadow it is very possible that the terrain is steep... yes, I think trying to move forward with the ship would be the best option." Elsa said.

"Wonderful, I'll guide you as best I can!"

"Alright, we have a plan!"