“And even less than that, too.” Mako admitted. “I’ll say. But then, why am I here?” He spoke slowly.
“Like it matters.”
As Dolphus walked away, a sound like iron nails scraping against wood greeted his ears, and if he ever bothered to look back, could see Mako trembling with laughter, cold and high.
Then came the venom. It too was cold and cruel.
"Idiot. You don’t know what its like to drown. To be strangled by the very thing that gave you life. To suffer. " His eyes shimmered, turning from its bright green hue to a cold blue. He raised his hand in anger, and the ocean greeted him. Water spat out from beneath the waves, morphing into shapes. Nothing. A nothing. A tool. A fool. A product. An idiot. Agony. Forgotten.
Disposed of. Worthless. Void. Abyss. Alone. They can’t save you. I couldn’t save myself. Lost. Choice. Choose. Decide. Gone. Empty.
“Lost. I am lost.” Mako muttered to himself once again. “A tool. Hollow.” Family. Nothing. You are nothing. He is something. Lost. Monster.
Phantom.
Mako dropped his hand. GIVE. UP.
He let go of the soldier. There was nothing left for you.
His feet started moving. LEAVE.
And he quickly walked away. There is only silence.
Her train of thought about the quality of ghostly ship repairs was interrupted by Mako who suddenly materialised in her and Dolphus’s way. Where did he come from? I I swear there was nobody here just now…
She fixed her now extremely tired gaze at the apparently non-ghostly bandage guy.
A nice piece of grilled meat with salt and pepper next to a warm campfire… a refreshing bath in the hot springs… ten hours of sleep in a hammock under the stars…
She tried actually focusing on what he was saying. Pride… get to your head… the hell is he talking about…?
She didn’t have the time to voice her inquiry though
Ari’s brain was barely able to register the movement of Dolphus’s sword. When did he manage to unsheathe it? His movements were calculated and precise, showing great skill. Was that matchstick of a sword not just for show? He can actually use it?!
But this was nothing in comparison to what was about to come.
Saying that Ari was impressed with his retort would be an understatement. The kid certainly had a spine, and could bite back if he wanted, even if all visual clues, everything about his appearance, said otherwise.
Her eyes lit up as she watched him confidently stand his ground.
This crazy crew sure is full of surprises.
Perhaps she underestimated him in more ways than she originally thought…
Ari went along with Dolphus, throwing looks of surprise mixed with slight hints of respect at him, only to notice him shudder and almost collapse to the ground once more.
Suddenly she realised that she had a strong urge to place her hand on his shoulder and tell him that he did well, but, after a moment of doubt, stopped herself and lowered her hand. Don’t get too attached to any of them. You’ll part ways as soon as you get the opportunity.
That’s it. Enough of this.
She turned around rapidly, her eyes burning with newfound anger, completely blocking Mako’s way towards Dolphus with her body. Instinctively, she unlatched the giant piece of steel she used as a weapon from her belt and swung it around, taking a wide defensive stance, just in time to see the sea water behind the bandaged man twitch and contort into unnatural shapes.
He’s a magic user.
She didn’t have the time to think over the implications of this, and how unlikely her victory was against someone with these abilities. Right now her only objective was not to let the kid get hurt by him.
She did owe him, after all. But it’s not really about that, is it?
“STEP. BACK.” She said, furiously eyeing Mako. “I don’t know what the hell happened to you in your past, and not that I care all that much, but you’re not the only one. Everyone here went through something, so who are you to decide that you had it worse than the others?! What makes you think that your suffering gives you the right to hurt him?! Let go. It’s two on one. You’re outnumbered. You won’t win. So step back.”
I don’t know anything. Consequences on consequences.
My last hope. Suffering evokes suffering. Fool. Petty. Hatred.
“Nothing.” Mako said. His voice. Not his voice. Nothing was his. Borrowed. He was borrowed. A thing. A tool. The water receded. He tasted blood, his mask becoming red with it. Pain flared from within. Too much. He used too much. Always never listened. “Nothing.” He repeated. The fatigue set in, as his vision dimmed. “Angry. Always angry.” Mako. “My world. My death.”
He dropped to his knees, buckling, blood spilling from his mouth. He fell,
as words escaped his throat. “Nothing is worth anything. Pathetic. Fool. Alexis. Leader. Dolphus. Fates. Mariner. Swordsman. Mako. Coward. Ari.
Protector. The Abyss. Worthless. Forgotten. Rightless.”
Mako collapsed. If there is an answer. I don’t hear it. Because now, the world grows dim… His vision slowly faded and failed. "And the only word left is failure."
Dolphus’ knees were threatening to sue if he kept this up.
Turning back towards the scene, he watched Ari retaliate to Mako’s threats only for Mako to collapse on the ground and bespatter the shore with his gore. Despite his enmity towards the bedraggled hunter, Dolphus could not help but lurch forwards, unsure if he should intervene or not.
…Is he okay?
Who am I kidding he’s Mako, nothing about him is okay
After listening to Mako ramble off names and collapse, Dolphus felt the air trapped in his lungs finally escape in a weary sigh. Looking despondently at Ari, he made a gentle motion towards the dropped soldier and slowly turned back towards the Caelin’s Hand.
Better to leave him here for a moment to recover, I suppose. If I tried to have Ari carry him back he might get even more offended that we would dare do such a thing.
The marine realized he’d been left unguarded, he slowly raised his head to covertly look around. Satisfied he was far enough from anyone not incapacitated, he sprang up and sprinted towards the tree line, moving as fast as his legs would take him.
Caeseus was watching the interaction with detached interest. Eyes flicking between Dolphus and Mako throughout their exchange. He looked up and frowned as the Marine made for the trees. “Well, I suppose that is to be expected.”
Ari couldn’t quite understand what the man was saying, his voice grew too weak, and his words were muffled by the wind. She watched him collapse to the ground, causing the sea behind him calm down once more. He was bleeding. Ari had never seen anything like this happen to somebody, and she couldn’t help but feel concerned about Mako’s state.
Is this what magic does to people? Did he die?
Something moved not far from Mako, but she paid no attention to it, too enthralled to look away.
Ari did not seem to notice Dolphus’s gesture. She lowered her weapon and took several steps in mako’s direction, eyes fixed on his bleeding unmoving body.
“Something’s… wrong. He’s hurt… he… needs help.”
She didn’t like Mako, her experience with him so far has been far from pleasant, but she wasn’t about to let him bleed out to death. After all, this was the crew that was going to carry her away from here.
Suddenly, something darted past her, returning her to reality. For a moment she blankly stared at the rapidly fleeing figure, unable to process what was going on. When the fact that it was the captive armada soldier registered in her brain, he was already quite a long way away, and was approaching the trees rapidly.
When is this going to end?
Without much consideration, dropping her metal bat on the ground and letting out a ferocious scream, she bolted after the now slightly less unlucky soldier of the Armada. Was there any chance she could catch up to him before he entered the forest?
“Yeah.” Dolphus grumbled, catching his tone slightly afterwards. The sensation of his skin crawling was throwing his act off balance. “He needs a lot of help.”
The rather apathetic reaction which forced him to stop in his tracks to deliver to Ari was immediately spoiled by a rustling noise which preceded one of the loudest noises Dolphus had ever heard since… well, the squid attack, and the explosion that killed Gregor, and… like half of the traumatic events in his life.
Unfortunately the bank of tendons and cartilage refused to greenlight another loan, and so Dolphus’ jump brought his legs along just fine, resulting in him crashing back down in a disorganized pile. But he was up a moment after, limbs scrambling and sand kicked in all directions, bumbling hard after the assuredly quite distant soldier, trying his best to reach top speed in the loose sand with his thin shoes much less effective at the task than the massive, square boots of Ari were.
But he couldn’t afford to let that soldier get away. He should have killed him in the forest. If he escaped, the secret of his wing would be out there in the world. He had to catch him. He had to.
There was way too much going on right now for Alexis to process at once. First, there was their ghostly companion. Misidentifying Mariner as the captain of the caelin’s hand, she would correct him if it didn’t waste too much time trying to catch up with him. Secondly, Mako and Dolphus were now entering into a verbal confrontation, soon to turn physical. Suppressing the smoke billowing from her hand proved to be quite difficult as she contemplated if Mako would still make a suitable member of the crew after his last few outbursts. And thirdly, she was trying to get a read on their new guest, Ari. So full of secrets—potentially dangerous secrets
Ah, yes, the excuse to blow off some steam she was waiting for.
Alexis inhaled sharply, drawing upon the habits and techniques ingrained in her very soul to summon fire to her aid. No longer suppressing the nearly instinctual use of her magic. Her feet planted upon the ground firmly as she dug her feet through the sand into the correct stance, arm reeling back as the sparks flying from her hand grew more and more, eventually erupting into a ball of red hot flames. And with a forceful push, it flew free of her hand and towards the running soldier, aimed for the center of his back.
“Finally, some action.” Jade muttered as she moved to intercept the would-be escapee. The others were busy doing their own thing, which up until now seemed to be arguing, and she was getting tired of it. Rapier kid - Dolphus - had already returned with quite the new arrival, Ari. Vast, bold, and seemingly well-versed in shipbuilding, Jade had no doubt she would fit right in with this motley crew.
Back to the present, the others had noticed the marine making his bid for freedom. Alexis had let loose a fireball, and Dolphus was apparently attempting to outrun him, which didn’t seem likely to work. Still, Jade did her part - drawing one of her daggers, she quickly sprinted to block his way of escape.
She was fast - she had to be, otherwise you didn’t making a living as a thief in the city for very long.
Karl had turned away from the scene for the last few minutes, having retrieved his dart launcher and cleaned some corrosion from its mechanisms. Then he heard a shout, loud enough to be understood even from the deck of the Caelin’s Hand.
He whipped around, raising his launcher, automatically priming it to fire. He saw a quick movement on the shore: a soldier, wearing a disheveled uniform, dashing away from the group. Even as he pulled the trigger, he saw Alexis’ hands flare with an orange glow as she launched a blast of flame at the escapee.
“This’ll be a good fight,” he muttered.
The Marine involuntarily turned his body as he heard the incoming fireball roar through the air. It impacted on his left shoulder, temporarily filling his vision with bright orange light. In a moment however the flames were gone. He stumbled a step or two, knowing the big woman was most likely closing the gap he took off again. Pushing his muscles to the limit.
His head was focused on only 1 thing, he had to get back and warn the Armada, clearly these were extremely dangerous individuals. This is what he signed up for, not being a glorified tax collector. These were brigands at best. He had to keep the Armada safe from them.
The smell of cooked meat wafted up to his nose. Combined with a great amount of tightness all up his left side. Perhaps he hadn’t gotten as lucky there as he’d thought. He forced himself not to look down at his injuries, knowing that the shock at their extent would mean death at this point. He had to keep going, even if it killed him.
He noticed yet another one of the brigands attempting to cut him off. He quickly scanned and spotted a large rock close to the treeline. He made his path directly for it. He pushed away all thoughts of his discomfort, his lungs gasping for breath, his head aching from all the abuse he’d suffered at his captors hands. Gathering up every bit of energy he could, he sprang up the rock, and leapt from the top towards the now very close treeline.
“Blast!”
Karl dashed towards the gangplank, reloading as he ran. He fired a second dart, though with the motion and range, it was unlikely to hit. He drew his dagger, holstered his crossbow, and picked up the pace, running across the beach in an attempt to catch up to the others pursuing the soldier. He felt an excitement in his body, the thrill of the chase, like a hound hunting a fox. Whether successful or not, a good chase gave him a well-needed dose of adrenaline.
Alexis let out the breath she had been holding in. The fireball had made a direct hit, but it hadn’t been enough to slow the armada soldier. She considered her next course of action for a split second, A curse flying free of her lips. Turning on her heel, she began sprinting full speed towards the Caelin’s hand, arms flaying wildly to get the crew’s attention. “We need this vessel sea worthy Asap, Armada soldiers could be heading this way as we speak!”
Dolphus’ head whipped violently around, darting between the fireball and its source multiple times in quick succession. Were he not so young and limber it would have certainly spelled cramping for him.
However, his mind was far from any potential tightness or pain. The visceral gore of the ruined shoulder was utterly appalling, the material constructing it melting away in an instant and leaving the surrounding area dark and pitted, like a red sponge. But this horror, this vile sight, was nothing compared to the realization that accompanied it.
Not of the innocent soldier about to die either to shock or to Ari’s boot; he had contemplated killing the soldier himself, and at least in Sureheart’s presence relented from his path. No, it was the unbearable revelation that Alexis had thrown the ball of fire.
Alexis had used magic.
His feet skidding to a stop in the sand, Dolphus looked in horror at the fleeing soldier, his mind slowly processing the implications of this revelation. Her application of this acursed thing was a full betrayal of his expectations of her, and yet… There was no one else. She was the one. She was the only one. He HAD to tell her.
What did this mean? Would he have to surrender? Give in to magic, and all the filth it brought? Would he have to openly accept and embrace this most vile thing, this wretched rot that conjured flame and made people walk on water who should probably drown?
Somebody woke up on the wrong side of the beach, goodness.
Dropping to his knees, Dolphus stared at the fleeing figure, his senses boiling down to their minimum, the beats of his heart vibrating his ribcage as the constant metronome guiding his every thought.
“They won’t.”
It was meant less as an observation or even as a response to Alexis, and more the reaction of his already weary and overworked mind, and yet it did not leave his lips until Alexis was running right alongside his seated position.
A lot happened in rapid succession after Ari’s call to action.
An unfamiliar girl with a nimble build and wearing a cloak darted after the soldier. She was much faster than Ari, and was rapidly closing the gap between her and the fleeing man. At the same time, a small, barely noticeable object flew towards him from the direction of the ship. Was it some kind of projectile?
But all this was overshadowed by a large ball or fire hurling directly at the most unlucky soldier in the Armada. Ari couldn’t help but whip her head around, trying to determine where it came from, only to see the woman from before, Alexis, in a wide stance, with smoke coming off of her hands. Ari’s eyes widened in shock mixed with fear.
She’s a magic user as well?!
Running at high speeds while being distracted by something was not a very good idea, which Ari soon found out, as she found herself plummeting face first to the ground. She barely managed to right herself, regaining her pace and set her sights on the soldier once again. She’d need to think over the implications of the fact that the supposed captain of the ship she was going to travel on was a magic user later.
The sight that opened before her eyes was horrific. There was barely anything left of the soldier’s shoulder, and a huge chunk of his body around the wound was charred. With an injury like this, he wouldn’t live for long.
Ari frowned bitterly and bit her lip. She had told herself that she was going to keep him alive, but that prospect now seemed extremely unlikely.
Yet still, despite his horrible injury, he kept running. It only slowed him down for a moment. Ari couldn’t help but marvel at his resilience. Not everyone would be able to keep going after something like that.
For that moment Ari forgot about everything around her. The only thing she could see now was the soldier. If he entered the forest, it would be game over. Locating him there would be near impossible. Her paces became even wider and her body grew closer to the ground, shifting her center of gravity forward. She was now running at her top speed. She wouldn’t be able to keep this up for long, but it had to be enough. Maybe if I catch up to him first, he won’t need to die?
Her body was certainly not going to thank her for this, having already been overstressed by the events of the last two days, but that was a problem for the future Ari.
Meanwhile the current Ari unclipped the long thick chain from her waist, grabbing it by the end, and flailed it around, building up its momentum. This extended her reach greatly. She leaped over the large rock in a big jump and whipped the chain forward.
The Marine hit the ground, hard. He discovered he’d lept right towards a hill. As his legs crumpled beneath him he slid and rolled down the hill. Finally coming to a stop among the trees, he had no reprieve however, he couldn’t wait to get up, scrambling on all fours towards the most dense route he could find. At least that would slow up the big woman, he thought as he squeezed through a narrow gap between the trees.
Despite his best efforts, Karl was unable to match the speed of the others, as they had at least a few minutes head start in the pursuit. He decided to take a diagonal route, aiming for where he assumed the Marine would be on the opposite side of the hillside. After a minute’s mad scramble, he reached the crest of the hill in time to see the Marine scramble to his feet, making for the forest ahead. There was no time for a snap shot, the trees made it difficult, if not impossible, to aim accurately at the fleeing soldier.
As Karl processed this information, he heard a whirring noise as of a flail or whip, but deeper, heavier. Then Ari flew past him, about twenty meters to his left, a chain swinging around her at lethal speed as she seemed to take flight after the Marine. Karl dodged to the side as she sped down the hill in a massive leap, one that seemed to occur in slow motion, as Karl realized the distance she had covered was incredible for anyone.
Ari’s jump over the rock ended in a roll. Using the momentum from it and getting back on her feet, she ran downhill. The marine wasn’t as lucky. He had tumbled down the hill and was crawling towards the tree line, which was now right in front of him. But, him slowing down so much meant that Ari was now catching up to him rapidly, even as her stamina started to decline.
However, it was not fast enough, because she watched him slip through a narrow gap between the trees before she could reach him. She wouldn’t be able to fit through, and going around through the dense bushes would waste too much time. But she didn’t need any of that.
She whipped the chain forward, sending one of its ends flying in between the trees towards the soldier’s back.
The marine was driven flat to the ground by the force of the blow. All at once, he was flooded with pain. from his now broken ribs, his ruined shoulder, his ankle and his head. He felt the air driven from his lungs. Laying on the ground gasping for air, he felt his head start to swim.
He thought of his friend, cut down by these monsters for no reason. He thought of his mother, waiting for a son who would never return. He thought of the girl he’d been planning to marry, she too would be waiting patiently for him to come back. He thought of the countless innocents now in harms way because of his failure.
“No” he forced himself to say. It was barely a grunt, but he forced it out nonetheless. He took a deep breath of air, and put out his good hand to brace himself. As if called to service by the necromantic choirs of the east he rose one final time. Steeling himself for what he must do, he turned to face his attacker.
As he did, she could get her first real look at his face. He was surprisingly young. Perhaps around Dolphus’ age, but of a rougher cast to be sure. His face held no more trace of fear, only grim determination. Up close his body seemed if possible even more broken.
“I am a marine” his words carried clear, but he did not mean them for Ari. As he continued it became clear, it was a mantra he spoke to himself.
“I am a Marine in Her Majesties service.
I will stand my post until my last breath,
I will do my duty, and serve with honour.
I hearby pledge my service to the fleet”
It was the oath he swore at enlistment, he said it again, drawing strength from the words. As recited it he crouched down, grabbing a large stone roughly the size of his head. He held it slightly awkwardly, one hand taking the weight, the other ensuring it didn’t topple. He was ready to fight and die with it.
As Alexis continued on past him, Dolphus’ mind grew in clarity the further she ran, eventually refocusing on the hill just beyond a massive, misshapen rock. That was where Ari had gone, chasing after the wounded soldier, and where everyone else seemed to be heading.
…Where I have to be.
It didn’t matter that he was tired. It didn’t matter that the running was making his head throb again, although it seemed as though Devan took most of that away, perhaps by mistake. And it definitely didn’t matter that his shoes were slowly filling with sand.
He had to be there. To kill him- no, to see him die. Or to see him imprisoned. To be confined deep in the underbelly of the Caelin’s Hand, unable to speak out about the wing, until he died from his injuries or Mariner let him go, far from his natural home, taking months or maybe years to return.
But he didn’t want to see him imprisoned.
And so Dolphus stood, trudging towards that loathsome hill, hoping this fellow had not gotten away…
…And the thought that he might still get away quickly pushed him into a run.
