Swamped

"Have the cannons been cleaned? The spell might not work right if there's a sizable build-up of other substances. A few specks won't hurt it, but once you get a significant amount..."

"Aye, aye, already on it. Don't know how it works with spells, but keepin' fire powder from gettin' contaminated is real important. The barrels are airtight for just that reason. Got one clean already. You think we need more than one?"

"The more we fire at once, the faster the ship will burn," you reply. You note that the sun is fairly low on the horizon. "So as many as we reasonably can. I'll start the enchantment now; I'll give a signal when you can start loading, so I can enchant all the powder at once. But also... which cannon is ready?"

The sailor points out one of the cannons.

"Good. That will help me track the powder, just in case anything goes wrong."

You put your staff against the deck and close your eyes - not strictly necessary, but it's easier for people to understand that you're doing magic if you make a show of it. And it does help you focus.

You begin by focusing wind ether into speed, and channeling it into the fire powder. You need just a touch of fire to connect it to ignition, rather than simply velocity. Of course, that carries the risk of setting it off early, so you have to focus very carefully.

This would probably be easier with time magic. But your brief exposure to it wasn't enough to teach you how to actually use it, so you'll have to settle for what you can.

"Begin loading," you say, keeping your eyes closed. You need to monitor that little spark of fire ether. Make sure it doesn't go off early. As long as you're focused, it should be fine.

"The sun has set!" someone calls out.

"Ship ahoy!" someone else cries. "It's the Ship of the Dead! For real!"

You're slightly tempted to point out ghosts don't exist, but it's not going to matter soon enough. You can sense the powder being loaded into the other cannons, which have thankfully been cleaned. Everything else is up to the cannoneers.

But then you sense something strange. And large. It's almost certainly the ship... and it's not quite ether. It's similar enough to sense, but it's.... It's not flowing. It's stagnant.

For just a moment, you wonder if the legend could somehow be real. But not more than that. It doesn't even matter right now. What matters is making sure the powder doesn't ignite too soon. You have to wait until it's actually in the air.

Before anyone can fire a shot, though, something disturbing happens.