Young Writers Society

Twenty minutes later, the pirates sat in one group on the deck and the house boaters sat in their own small group closed off from them. Spider leaned against the mast, dipping her sea biscuit in the bowl of beans to soften it. Several of the other pirates were watching the small group and trying not to laugh as the group attempted to eat their sea biscuits without softening them, completely unsuccessful. Finally, after several minutes of frustrated noises, Hack took pity on them and said, "You have to dip them first."

"Huh?" Paimon said around her sea biscuit, having stuffed the whole thing in her mouth. She tried to chomp down on it again, without success.

"It's sea biscuit," Hack repeated. "It's hard because it lasts longer and it's cheaper to make. You're supposed to soak it in something to soften it up before eating it, like water or beans."

Their entire group froze, as if all collectively making the connection of "Oh, that's what the beans are for." The entire group, Spider noticed, except Belxibis, who had no problem biting into the bread with his sharp teeth.

The injured one hesitated for a long moment, before he said, "uh... thanks," to Hack. Hack turned away from them again, shrugging slightly.

"It was getting too painful to watch," Mar chimed up.

"I was waiting for one of them to break a tooth," Kniss said stonily, and from the tone, it was hard to tell if she was sorry at the idea of breaking a tooth or sorry Hack had stopped them from it. Spider smirked slightly, then took a bite of her sea biscuit, softened from the bowl of beans.

Valno's mouth spread into a wide smile when his eyes landed on Belxibis eating his biscuit with ease, and Spider knew the look of awe and recklessness enough on him to know what was coming. Kniss did too, because with no change in facial expression, she held out her hand and said, "Valno, give me your sea biscuit."

"What, why?" He said, moving his hand away from hers.

"You know why. Give it." She extended her arm farther and he sighed and handed it over, muttering a nearly inaudible, "I wanted to try though" under his breath.

Geida, who'd been watching the house boaters with an intense glare and in a fit of silence, suddenly broke it to say matter-of-factly to Valno, "You're an idiot."

"I prefer the term 'adventurer'."

"In what world are those two terms synonymous?" Hack wondered aloud.

"A risk-taker?"

"That doesn't cancel out the idiot part," Geida muttered under her breath, lifting her bowl to her lips to drink what was left of her beans.

"Gross!" Marble exclaimed, and she stared at him without batting an eye as she drained the entire thing.

"Oh, I see!" Paimon chirped as she mimicked Geida, following suit and starting to drink the beans in her bowl.

"Paimon," the sad, wounded man beside her muttered in what sounded like disappointment.

Geida had not been pleased to be attacked by whatever monster Paimon seemed to control, and she seemed to consider throwing her bowl at her as she watched Paimon copy her. Valno's eyes widened as he looked between the two, and he grinned. He glanced at Kniss then chugged his beans down before she could reach out and snatch them from him.

"Valno," Kniss muttered in an almost identical tone of disappointment. He looked up from licking the inside of his bowl.

"Hmm?"

"Have some self respect," Kniss said tiredly.

"Must've left that in my other suit," Valno said with a growing smirk. Paimon openly laughed at that.

"Don't encourage him," Hack said from beside her.

"You guys discourage having humor?" Paimon asked. "That explains a lot, actually."

Geida glared at her and did throw the bowl this time. On reflex, Belxibis reached over the sad man's lap and snatched the bowl out of the air just before it hit Paimon in the face.

"Hey!" Paimon exclaimed. "What did you do that for?!"

Geida looked at her coolly and said, "Oh, you didn't find it funny?" Marble snorted. Valno seemed to consider throwing his own bowl, just to cause chaos, and Spider reached over without a word and plucked it from his hands.

"Is this about the golem?" Paimon asked. "I really am sorry about that. It's just that we thought you were going to kill us, and hey! Turns out you were. I was aiming for the door; didn't mean to bruise your beautiful head."

"My beautiful head?" Geida repeated, then reached over and took Valno's bowl from Spider before throwing it at her as well. Belxibis was too focused on his sea biscuit, and this one hit her square in the face. Spider smiled a bit, and covered it with her bowl of beans.

Paimon's face tensed up for a moment as the bowl fell off her face and into her lap, but when she opened her eyes and looked back to Geida, she smiled.

"Hope this makes us even!" she said, rubbing her nose.

Kniss tilted her head. "Even, you say? I'm struggling to remember, didn't you try to kill our captain? You want to get even?" Spider subtly kicked her, and Kniss turned around to glare at her.

"The key word," Paimon said, raising her finger like she was making a very important point. "Is tried. And then changed our minds."

"You didn't change your minds," Mar said matter-of-factly. "You just stopped before you got yourselves killed."

"So technically," Hack piped in from beside Paimon, "we changed them for you."

Paimon pursed her lips in thought for a moment, humming.

"But we let you change them," she said finally, a stupid grin returning to her face.

The unsteady woman spoke up. Spider saw now that she was blind. "We weren't planning on killing anyone. We were just trying to escape back to the house, which seemed like the only option at the time."

Valno set his chin on his hand and grinned. "You thought you could fight your way past fully armed pirates?" He asked, voice filled with a childish fascination. He seemed genuinely and completely amused by the idea.

"Well, I did," Paimon said. "Then we got on deck and you melted my brother."

"We weren't looking to become prisoners..." the mopey curly hair boy added, and it seemed like he cut the sentence short, like he wanted to add an "again" to it. Spider doubted he realized he gave her information to use on them later, if needed.

All the pirates stiffened at the mention of magic, and though Valno still seemed to find it funny, Spider knew that he knew well enough to not broach the topic of magic— or anti-magic necklaces— in front of strangers. The only indication that anyone seemed to know anything was that several coincidentally looked down at their bowls at the same time.

Spider glanced back at the sad boy, who was toying with his own beans and sea biscuit. She didn't care if he didn't want the food they offered, but if he started to complain about a meal Marble had thrown together in thirty minutes on leftover stolen goods and hardly any sleep in a day, she'd begin to have a problem. The annoying one's complaining was enough to cover their entire crew combined.

He had stopped playing with his food for a moment, only to turn to the young dragon who was curled up by his leg. Out of all of them, besides Belxibis, the dragon was the one who intrigued her the most. He held out the sea biscuit to the dragon, who gingerly sniffed it, and then stuck his snout back under his wing.

He cleared his throat. "Uh, I was wondering if there was meat on board."

"What's wrong with the food?" Kniss interrogated. Spider could tell from her clipped tone that Kniss was already at the end of her rope.

"Oh, not for me... For Iv— for my dragon."

After a moment of silence, Kniss repeated, "What's wrong with the food?"

"My dragon can only eat meat," he said, like it was the only thing that made sense.

"There are dead bodies downstairs!" Valno said helpfully.

"You mean the ones covered in bluecough?" Paimon said. "Don't think that's a good idea."

Valno shrugged. "You said meat," he said nonchalantly.

"That's disgusting," Geida muttered.

"You're disgusting," Valno said, and Geida narrowed her eyes at him.

"Those are people," the wounded man next to Paimon said. It was then that Spider noticed the winged cat in his lap.

"Were," Valno corrected, as if that made it any better. Then, he smiled. "Can't your dragon try to catch fish?"

"I suggested that too. He's... too injured to hunt right now." The boy pet the young dragon's head absentmindedly.

"Well, if worst comes to worst," Valno said very seriously, "There's always the two cats."

"You're such a weirdo," Geida muttered, shoving his head to the side.

"I'm not saying I would eat the cats!" He argued. "That's over the line! But animals eat animals all the time, don't they?" He shrugged.

"They're sentient!" The blind girl blurted out, horrified.

Valno tilted his head. "Huh. Well I guess that would make a bit of a difference."

"Just a bit?" Marble wondered aloud.

"No one is eating the cats," Belxibis stated firmly, as if to dispel the anxiety.

Immediately, Valno said, "But in a hypothetical situation—"

Spider interrupted him. "Valno, no arguing with a captain," she said calmly. Valno immediately fell silent.

The sad boy stood up suddenly. "He is not our captain." He glanced around the group, then picked up the dragon and stormed off.

There was a small silence that followed as the boy started to stalk towards the stairs.

"Railyn," Belxibis called gently after him, but he was gone.

There was a moment of awkward silence, then Valno said, "Spider, what if I—"

"Don't," Kniss said immediately.

"But what if—"

"Shut up, Valno."

He sighed irritatedly, then did a bad imitation of Railyn and said, "You're not my captain!" He grinned at his own joke, and seemed to find the fact that no one else was laughing even more amusing.

"You're so stupid," Geida remarked.

"I try," he sighed happily, laying back onto the deck.

"Valno," Spider said, "go after him and help him find meat for the dragon."

"Aww," he said, "but I just laid down!"

Geida flicked him on the head. "Get up, stupid." He glared at her and rubbed his head.

"Fine, fine, I'm up." He stood, and chased after Railyn.

"So," Belxibis said slowly, breaking the intense silence. "How do you want us to use our magic to help you all get through the eternal storm if our magic is blocked?"

Spider tilted her head and made eye contact with him. A small smile passed over her lips, and she said coolly, "Don't worry. You'll be able to use your magic when we want you to."

"When you want us to?" the wounded man beside Paimon asked.

"So does that mean I won't be able to...?" The blind woman spoke up, but didn't finish her sentence. She seemed to slouch in defeat, and Belxibis reached over, resting his hand on her shoulder.

"See," the wounded man finished for her. "She needs her magic to see."

Spider watched her carefully, then said, "She'll have to deal without it then."

Paimon started angrily, "You can't be serious."

At that moment, Valno and Railyn returned, the dragon trailing behind and chomping on a large fish.

"It was on ice," Valno explained, talking loudly with no regard to the conversation that had been going on before him. While Valno could be hard to control sometimes, that was a trait she'd always respected. He without fail always managed to read the room and seamlessly steer the conversation towards— or away from— whatever he wanted, and even though he hadn't known what was happening, he'd sensed the tenseness in his crew and stepped in. He sat down back in his place.

Marble took advantage of Valno's distraction and said suddenly, "Did people introduce themselves when I was below deck, or has that just not happened yet?"

"Nope! Nobody's introduced themselves— yet," Valno replied, flashing a wide grin.

Valno stood up rapidly at the opportunity to introduce himself, so fast that he nearly toppled over, and said, "What's sailing! I—" He was cut off by the thump of himself being yanked down to the ground by Geida, who'd grabbed one of his ankles and pulled. "Ow!" He complained loudly, and she flicked him on the head.

"First mate first, you idiot!" She said, and he pushed himself up, rubbing his head.

"That's no reason to hit me!" He exclaimed, yanking her down to a lying position and trying to hit her.

"She has a head injury!" Gibs said, exasperated, and Kniss stood without a word and grabbed Valno by the back of his shirt to drag him off of Geida. After dumping him back on the ground a few feet away, Kniss stood back up.

"My name is Idra Kniss. You will call me Kniss, and nothing else. I am the quarter master of this crew, and everyone answers to me second to the captain, so if you need something and can't find her," she gestured at Spider, "then I'm the person to look for."

"So how do we get to use first names?" Paimon asked. "Buy you a drink?"

"I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or genuinely stupid," Kniss said calmly, then provided no other answer besides sitting down again and saying, "Hack."

Hack hesitated, then stood awkwardly, as if he weren't quite sure if he should actually stand or not. "Uh... I'm Hack Jetter," he began, "and I'm the sailing master."

"Master of the sailing, I am the sailing master," Paimon imitated quietly in a deep voice, and Hack sent a weird look her way.

"So I guess I'm like the third in line for the throne," he said. "You can ask questions if you have them, but please don't make me repeat my answers, because I won't." With that, he sat down abruptly, and Marble stood up, absent-mindedly undoing his bun and redoing it to capture some of the hairs that had fallen out.

"I'm next up, I suppose," he began. "I'm the boatswain, and if you don't know what that is, ask Hack, but uh, don't ask him twice, apparently." He gave a small smile, and Valno laughed. "I'm also the temporary cook." After a pause, he added, "Oh, my name is Marble Davey, but most people call me Mar."

Paimon raised her hand and didn't wait to be called on to talk. "What about Marmar?"

"No," Marble said, his smile freezing slightly though he didn't glance at her.

"Spidey calls you Marmar!" She said, and he sent a rare cold glare at her.

"Captain Spider," he began carefully, "can call me whatever she wants. You," he emphasized, "cannot." Then, he smiled again at the rest of their group and sat back down.

On the ground, Valno murmured, "Spidey," then grinned and whispered, "Spidey" again. Geida thumped him on the head again as she began to stand up, and he shoved at her legs. She kicked him lightly.

"Geida Pill, gun master," she said nonchalantly. "I enjoy most things except getting attacked by golems—" she shot a glare at the group— "and I'd call myself experienced in basic weapons."

"She's killed tons of people!" Valno chimed in cheerfully.

"How many is tons?" Railyn asked in a small voice, and Valno replied reassuringly, "At least dozens." This did not seem to reassure him, because he fell silent again with a faintly green look on his face.

At that moment, a lean woman with short, brown hair rose up from the fringes of the group, giving Valno a narrow-eyed look.

"Zefra Finney," she said sternly, as if to cut Valno off from more commentary. "Carpenter. If anything breaks, I'm the one to fix it."

It was then that Gibs stood up as well, beside Zefra, who promptly sat back down. The two seemed eager to get through the rest of the introductions.

"Doctor Gibbot," she said, giving a quick look that swept across the group. "You can call me Doctor Gibs."

Paimon's lips twisted and parted as if to make a quip, but upon a glare from the wounded man sitting beside her, she snapped her mouth shut.

A grin slowly spread across Valno's face, and Geida muttered, "Oh gods."

"Shut it! It's my turn to talk!" He said smugly before he rose to stand in his spot.

The rest of the pirate crew let out a faint groan in unison. He held a hand up. "Silence peasants, the all-powerful pirate is speaking!"

"All-powerful?" Hack echoed doubtfully, then smiled faintly when Valno shoved him with his foot.

"I'm Valno Helmer, the fearless, jaw-droppingly gorgeous rigger of this ship," he continued, grinning.

"Don't kid yourself," Marble laughed. "Sit down Val, come on."

"Oh, I'm not kidding," Valno said reassuringly.

"Yeah, you're just lying to yourself," Geida sighed in fake sympathy. Valno kicked her, and she growled, "Quit it!"

"It's my turn to talk!" He emphasized, then looked back up again. "Single and ready to mingle, indescribably hot and could probably be bought, swinging across decks and ready for—"

"Shut up," Geida groaned.

"Not good enough?" He asked. "In battle I'm a beast and I'm amazing in the—"

Spider stood suddenly, cutting him off. "Valno. The rigger. And now he's going to shut up and sit down— right?"

Valno squinted his eyes, took a small breath, and said, "Yes, captain." He sat down, his ecstatic energy at the prospect of new people slightly dimmed. Spider watched him, unsure of whether she had called him out too publicly, or if because she was the captain, the comment had deflated him more. She moved her eyes away from him. She'd check on him later, but for now, there was the group to deal with.

"I'm Captain Spider Monkey," she said shortly. "Captain, Captain Spider, Captain Spi, whatever variation you come up with is fine. I run everything and I'll be the one giving the order to kill you if you do something stupid, so please don't."

She turned slightly and looked at Belxibis. She gestured her arm towards them, then sat down again, a cryptic smile on her face. "Now— your crew.”

Belxibis glanced around at his companions, and Paimon was the only one who made eye contact with him. He gave her a nod as if to indicate she could go first. Paimon smiled proudly and hopped to her feet.

"I have many names," she said, strutting around the deck while holding her elbows behind her back. "Paimon. Paimon Fel. Ms. Fel. Felon. Doctor Fel Jr., the cool one. As for my work, we don't really have roles, do we?" She glanced around at her companions.

"If I had to say what I do, I'd say I'm our supplier. That's my house you've got floating behind us. Also, if you want sunweed, buckflower, peoda seeds, let me know."

Spider noticed Hack leaning forward at that, and she made a mental note to talk with him later, but before she could think about it, Valno said, "Cool."

"Don't you dare," Geida said, pushing him, and he stuck his tongue out at her.

"Shut up," Marble said, "they're talking."

The injured man looked between them uncertainly, and Marble nodded. Valno sighed and set his chin on his hand, turning his full attention to the man.

"Elidy var...um... Elidyr Adonis," the boy with the winged cat said quietly, then cringed. "Yes, from those Adonises..." He cleared his throat. "Eli to my friends. Not to you. And this," he added, gesturing to the cat, "is Lady. Be nice, she can understand you." He sighed and leaned back slightly. "Battle healer and captain, though you don't have to call me either of those things. Paimon's the doctor; I'm the one who does the magical healing."

Valno raised his hand. "If we can't call you Eli, we just call you Elijah?"

Elidyr blinked. "Elidyr."

"Elidys," Valno corrected.

"Actually, it's Elliot," Paimon said casually, and Elidyr shot her a look.

Valno glanced at her and gave a confused smile. "Yeah, I already said that. Elin."

"Adonis," Marble interrupted. "What type of royalty are you?"

"Not anything valid on this ship," Kniss interrupted and Geida snickered.

"Alright," Spider interrupted, "leave the injured boy alone." They fell silent, and Elidyr seemed to contemplate correcting her, then decided against it. Spider smiled coolly. "Next?"

After a look with his dragon, the curly haired boy got to his feet, like he was making a speech. He glanced around at all of them, and cowered slightly, but a touch against his dragon's back and he cleared his throat. "My name's Railyn, and this is Ivern, my, uh... dragon—"

"How'd you get a dragon?" Valno asked suddenly, staring at Ivern intently.

"Uhh, that's a long—"

"Can I—"

"Don't touch the dragon," Geida whacked his head, and he dodged out of her range.

"Well, can I—"

"No, Valno, you cannot have a dragon. Now, shush." Spider commanded. The amount of chaos that kid would be if he had his hands on a dragon... Spider shoved that thought out of her mind. She directed her attention back to Belxibis. "Continue. Hopefully without interruption this time."

Belxibis slowly got to his feet, picking up the small brown tabby cat that had been hidden in his lap. With a small bow of his head to Spider, he simply said: "I'm Belxibis. If you prefer, you could call me Bel. This is Tabby."

At that, he nodded to the feline curling up in his arms.

"Captain Belxibis," Spider corrected smoothly, looking at her crew. "Don't drop the title— got it?"

They all nodded, watching Belxibis, who seemed extremely uncomfortable. He sighed and nodded in resignation. Spider smiled slightly, but hid it behind a cough. She nodded for him to continue. He watched her hesitantly, then started again. "I used to help people find rare magical items. Now I'm traveling with them," he said with a weak smile, nodding in reference to his companions. At that, he returned to sitting, keeping the cat steady in his arms on the way down. After setting the cat back in his lap, he leaned over to the blind woman, gently touching her shoulder, and whispering something to her.

The woman nodded and rose, drawing herself up to her full, diminutive height. Her pale face turned slightly pink under the crew’s focused attention.

“Tyri Vidal. Spellcaster and primal sense user… Ah. Well. Usually. My magic doesn’t seem to be working at the moment—“ She paused, and her expression showed only a hint of her distress before she smoothed it over with a pleasant smile. “So pardon any clumsiness.”

“I’m also a historian, with a good grasp of most of Synilas’ languages. Lovely to meet you all.”

If the courtesy was supposed to be mocking, it didn’t show in her expression. She ran her clouded gaze over the crew as if by reflex, then took her seat again.

"She's blind," Valno stated in a loud whisper to Geida, and she thumped him behind his head.

"Clearly, now shut it," she retorted.

"You two are bad at whispering," Marble put in, and both of them turned to glare at him.

"Alright," Spider said, interrupting the conversation to stand. "Now that introductions are done— everyone needs sleep. I'll keep first watch. Valno, you've got the graveyard shift."

He groaned. "But—"

"No arguing," Spider said back. "You've got several hours until then, so I suggest you sleep. Most of us haven't in over a day."

"I'm not tired," Valno began to argue, then cut himself off with a yawn. Geida watched him, amused, but didn't say anything, just ruffled his hair a little.

"Sleep," Spider repeated, then turned to Belxibis' crew. "We haven't assigned rooms yet, but there should be plenty for people to sleep in pairs. Kniss, divide up rooms and pairs."

Kniss nodded in agreement, then stood. "Follow me," she said, and Spider's crew stood to follow. Belxibis' group stood slightly slower. Spider watched for a second, then turned without a word and walked to the upper deck. She grabbed the lower ropes and twisted her way up into the air easily, climbing quickly and efficiently up to the crow's nest. She leaned against the mast behind her, her eyes taking in the water all around them with calm serenity.

Below, she heard people making their way down the stairs, but she ignored them, keeping her eyes on the darkened waters. She stayed still and sturdy, never wavering, steady on the rocking ship, her eyes scanning for any threats. She sighed slightly, seeing nothing but empty ocean. It was going to be a long night.

Railyn followed the procession as they marched their way below deck, single file. Railyn found himself behind Paimon and ahead of Bel, with Ivern walking next to him. He didn't dare look back to make conversation or to say.. something. Anything. He felt horrible after walking off like he did, but he still couldn't get himself to meet the man eye to eye. He spent the entire time after just thinking of ways to talk to Bel, how to start off that conversation, at least until Ivern nudged him and everyone was drilling holes into him, waiting for an introduction. 

He didn't even really listen to that various conversations and introductions that happened, besides the guy who helped him get food for Ivern, Valno. He seemed... interesting, to say the least. 

Railyn wasn't a horrible person for calling Bel out, right? He wasn't their captain. They weren't a pirate crew, for one, so having a captain is absurd, but Bel wasn't their leader, either. They were just a group who came together out of circumstance and a stupid prophecy -- which Railyn didn't even know how to start with that-- and they have just been stumbling their way through towns and fights and talks, all the way onto this stupid ship where they're at now. 

"Railyn." His name brought him out of his own mind, and he was face to face with Kniss, who was staring at him with impatience etched all over her face. He opened his mouth to respond, but no answers came out. She threw her eyeline to the door on his right. "This is your room. Since you have your dragon, you'll be rooming alone." She turned and added. "Next time, pay attention. I do not repeat myself."

Railyn, too stunned to say anything, just stepped into his allotted corner of the ship. Before he latched the door shut, he caught a glance at Belxibis, who was too busy helping Elidyr along to notice him. Railyn sighed and shut the door, barring it closed with a small latch. 

He slumped against the door and crumpled to the floor, the events of the past hour finally collected themselves and stampeded their way to the forefront of his mind. He felt as though he had aged years within minutes, and all he felt now was just exhaustion. 

He was tired.

He felt the familiar cold yet warming nudge against his hand on the wooden floor, and he absentmindedly scratched Ivern's chin. Maybe he had said that previous thought aloud, or maybe Ivern had just gleaned Railyn's mood from his physicality. 

Railyn groaned. If only he could hear Ivern again, like he did during Nua. Ever since Ivern had awoken from his fight with Bel, Railyn couldn't hear anything from the young dragon. At first, he thought that perhaps Ivern just needed his space from Railyn after those events --Railyn wouldn't have blamed him, as he too needed his space from everyone after what happened, and he still hasn't even talked to Bel since. Plus Railyn counted himself partially responsible for his wounds. Ivern protected him. Ivern almost died because of him.

Well, him and Belxibis. 

Railyn shoved that dirty thought into a deep, dark hole to let it rot. 

He fell to the floor besides Ivern, staring into his dull crimson eyes. "Why won't you talk to me?" Ivern blinked slowly, his thin tongue flicking out to lick one of his eyes. Railyn let out a frustrated moan and cupped Ivern's face in his hands, bringing his forehead to the dragon's snout. "If I could just talk to you. If I could just hear you again."

He didn't know where that thought would have lead. If he could hear Ivern, then... what? Then what?! He didn't even know, but he knew well that it would be far better than the isolation his mind was suffocating him with that current moment. 

Ivern whined, a high and sobering sound that reverberated through Railyn's ears and mind, and nudged him with his cool snout. 

Railyn sighed and buried his head under Ivern's wings. The warmth reminded him of the steam vents that webbed through his small home back in Yse. Every night as he would collapse in his sorry excuse for a sleeping arrangement and the steam vents would sear the fibers on the back of his shirt as some steam manage to escape the pipes. Eventually, the heat would win out over his exhaustion and he would take off his work clothes and pass out. In time, that heat became what he looked forward to, out of everything in the day. 

Those were simpler times. 

A part of him wished so dearly to transport himself back to those days, in that stuffy town that loved to isolate its citizens from the rest of the world and work them half to death, in that stuffy room to lay in that stuffy bed for one day and pretend things weren't the way they were.

But, of course, that wasn't his life. His life, currently, well, it was stuck in a ship that wasn't even theirs after draining themselves to try and cross the ocean in a house, stuck in a ship overrun by pirates who are really wanting them to be dead. As much as he thought Yse was a prison, it was nothing compared to his situation right now. No matter how he spun the scenarios in his head, there was no way for them to get off this ship. That house, as well as it sailed for those five days, was one step from succumbing to the depths of those waters. Like it or not, this ship was the natural next step in their journey. 

Railyn adjusted his body to curl up within Ivern's wing as the dragon made himself comfortable on the floor, preparing to sleep. Railyn felt something dig into his side, and he fished into his pants pocket. He found the culprit, and took it out, inspecting it under the dying flame in his room. 

It was the half of Ryun's gift Railyn had taken with him from Yse what felt like ages ago. Honestly, he didn't even know he still had that. He thought that Mythica's goons had for sure taken it from him back in Nua, and they definitely did not have enough time to grab their belongings before duking it out with Mythica or half the port sinking into the ocean. 

It was like fate that it still resided in his pocket. A small reminder of the life before this chaotic nonsense, and even before his problems at Yse. It was the last fragment of his first friend. 

Railyn examined the small toy. It had been cracked nearly perfectly in half, and he had the metal portion. It was a delicately crafted piece of machinery hidden within a toy for kids. It contained several different metal domes with circle caveats dotted around their surfaces. As it spun (or, well, used to), the metallic domes would spin around each other, revealing hidden images within. Railyn and Ryun used to pretend it had landscapes of what Yse might hide outside of its earthen walls. 

Now he realized it just held disappointment and danger. 

Railyn, deflated, stuck the toy on the floor next to him. Under Ivern's warmth and safety, Railyn eventually shed his clothes and dozed off, his vision stuck on Ryun's last gift to him. 





The first thing he saw were bright flashes of red against the flush darkness. They sunk down against his vision, or perhaps he rose up into the constant waves of crimson and void. The waves stagnated and elongated, and became clearer. The red shifted and curled around itself, and he felt himself moving along with it. 

Railyn felt himself bob to the surface of a crimson sea, surging out against the bloody waves. He looked around, searching for something this world would never give him. Instead of solace, he saw the crescent moon shining stark whiteness over the endless sea of death and blood. 

A crescent wave splattered across the moon, bathing it in the same crimson color of the ocean, and it spread like the vines that grew between the mines of Yse, and it covered the moon completely within moments. For a brief moment, everything burned bright underneath the harsh crimson sun, but even a tainted light does not last forever. 

Pitch black tentacles crawled from the center of the sun and slithered its way towards the edge. The ends thinned out and formed into sharp claws that wrapped their deadly ends around the sun. The claws spiraled around the sun and cradled it like a child's marble. 

Then something started climbing out of the center mass of tentacle claws, grabbing onto the slithering mass and bathed in the shadow from what was left of the sun's light. As the figure got further out and closer to Railyn. 

Then it looked up, burning orange eyes searing into his mind. 

Massive claws burst forth from the ocean on either side of him, and they sliced through the waves towards him. Before they are able to reach him, something pulled him down beneath the waves, and everything becomes pitch blackness. Emptiness. Nothing. 

A flash of brightness. It came into focus. It was the River. But this time it was not the River he remembered. It was a river of fire and flame, ravenous for something it was devoid of. 

Life.

And that life was in the river. Ivern. He was struggling, trying to escape the maw of flames. Railyn could not move, even though he tried. 

Ivern tried to scream. Maybe he wanted to scream for Railyn to help, or scream to get away from something. But, as he opened his maw, it was ripped open, swallowing everything whole. 

The void rang against Railyn's senses, battering his sense of self with nothingness. 

Suddenly, something appeared from the void. The face of... an owl. It screeched.

Railyn jumped up, startling Ivern and slamming his back against the door. He gasped for breath. He felt chills run down his back and sweat drip off his chin. For a moment, he didn't know where he was, and he had the overwhelming sensation of unbearable loneliness. Then his awareness came flooding back in, and he could make out Ivern's outline in the dying light of the candle he forgot to extinguish before he fell asleep. He could feel Ivern's deep, rumbling breathes vibrate the floor, and he felt some comfort from that. At least one of them was able to go back to sleep. 

Rubbing his back, Railyn managed to ease himself back onto the wall by the door. He struggled to remember the details of what woke him, but the emotion that evoked was still deep in his mind. Fear, dread. He couldn't admit to himself of what.

He had to do something, anything, to get his mind off of the nightmare. Wriggling his legs free from underneath Ivern's tail, Railyn unlatched the door and stepped outside into the small hallway. 

It was pitch black outside his assigned room, completely quiet except for the occasional snore and the sloshing of the waves against the hull of the ship. Railyn's eyes couldn't adjust to the pitch black, so he thought of fire, just a small amount, and he imagined him cradling that fire in his hand. No matter what, the fire would not leave his hand, would not escape his fingers. As he finished that last thought, light flared to life in front of him. He squinted as his eyes adjusted to the stark difference in light. As he was able to see the hallway better, he focused on his hand for a moment. The fire flickered and moved just like a normal candle would. He pondered the light. It felt a tad warm to him, but other than that it wasn't any different than before he summoned it. It wasn't like an actual fire, he thought as he passed his other hand across the flame. It didn't hurt him. Perhaps, deep down, he wouldn't allow it to hurt him even if he wanted to.

He meandered down the hallway, lurching slightly against the ship's own lurching. The flickering light danced along with him. He wondered if it had a mind of its own. He knew so little of magic, it wouldn't surprise him. Well, it would certainly surprise him, but it wouldn't shock him. He didn't know where he was go, or even where he wanted to go. If he could, he would go back to Yse. It was the closest thing to a home he had left.

As he worked his way up to the deck, he shivered against the cold night air. Back in Nua, seeing Paimon with her parents sent a chill down Railyn's spine that he couldn't really comprehend until now. He didn't remember his parents. He never knew them. He didn't have a family. In fact, he didn't even have friends after Ryun was taken from his life. Perhaps that was why he so willingly jumped into this sense of adventure. He didn't really have time to think on it, or on much of anything until they went out to sea. Ever since the fight at Nua Port, and the struggle with Bel, Railyn felt like he didn't have time to do anything but think. Whether it was thinking about, well, Bel, or Ivern, or his own problems, Railyn didn't know if he had spent so much time in his own mind, well, ever. It was overwhelming. If Railyn could describe his journey on the water, it would probably be overwhelming. He didn't even know how to swim! (something that Paimon had given him flack over at least once at that point. It probably wouldn't be the last, either)

"Hey!"

Railyn's thoughts vanished and suddenly the world swooshed back in, and he was dangerously close to the edge of the ship, over a flimsy rope railing. He gasped, stepping back. The cold air met his lungs greedily and stole his ability to take in a breath.

"I know we held you prisoner for a bit, but you don't gotta throw yourself overboard for that." Railyn turned to the voice, and saw Valno leaning against some netting, smiling to himself. His teeth were the only thing Railyn could see clearly as they reflected the moon's light. Railyn tried to speak, but nothing came out. Valno didn't seem to mind him not responding, and chuckled at his own joke. He gestured to the edge. "You're not actually going to jump, right?"

Railyn managed to get a breath out. "I--"

"If you do jump, can I have your dragon?"

Railyn stepped back, suddenly losing feeling in his arms and legs. The night around him warped, and he could feel only a tingling sensation where his fingers were supposed to be. They were still there, right? Railyn stumbled his way to a barrel and collapsed onto it.

"Whoa, whoa, you okay?" Valno jogged over there. "You look pale. Although I don't know if that's what you usually look like." Valno glanced around, trying to find something to do with his hands. "I'm-- okay, I'm going to get you some water."

As Valno disappeared, Railyn felt himself being able to breathe a bit better. It still hurt, and it felt like he was stabbing himself with each inhale, but at least he was able to get something in.

Valno appeared shortly after with a mug. "Here," he said, and shoved the mug into Railyn's still tingling hands. Shivering, Railyn managed to bring it up to his lips and drunk deeply from the mug. The cold water shocked him, and he started coughing. Eventually, the coughing stopped, and he took another swig of the water.

He glanced up to Valno staring at him with a half smile on his face. "Thank you," he managed to whisper out.

"No problem." Valno glanced at the horizon. "Soooo, we gonna talk about you almost jumping off the ship? Or is that a morning thing?"

Railyn sighed. "I was not trying to." At Valno's bemused gaze, he added, "I swear. I was just thinking."

"And you thought your way out of your room and on deck?" Railyn opened his mouth, but he couldn't find a way to directly discount that. In a way, he did do that. Well, in a way. "Must have been quite a thought, to get you up here without getting dressed."

Railyn glanced down, and, true to Valno's statement, Railyn was in his rather revealing undergarments. He gasped and covered himself up with his hands. Valno let out a chuckle at that. "Don't worry, I didn't see anything. You must be cold, though." No wonder it was cold outside. Valno left and came back with a small wool blanket. "Here."

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it." Valno pulled a stool near Railyn and plopped down on it, glancing at Railyn as he did so. Neither of them spoke for a bit. Valno turned to look at the sails, then off to the left somewhere, then back to Railyn, his legs bobbing. It was like he was waiting for Railyn to speak. Railyn, in turn, didn't even know what to say, or how to start. He wasn't really prepared to speak to anyone right now, especially someone like Valno. He was... a lot to deal with. The tension between them settled like a thick fog.

Valno cleared his throat. "So..."

Railyn sighed. "I--"

"I--" Valno stopped, and chuckled. "You start."

Where to start, though? Inwardly, Railyn sighed. "I-- I wasn't trying to jump off." He didn't think he was prepared to have that conversation; the thought of going in the water and not making it out terrified him.

"Well, that's good." Valno stared at him expectantly, like he was urging him to "go on!"

"I had a nightmare." Railyn sputtered out. He didn't know why it was so difficult saying that out loud. "I just needed to think." To breathe.

"What was the nightmare about? Oh, you know what, I shouldn't ask that. It's none of my business." Valno scooted his body around on the stool. How that man had all that energy, Railyn would never understand. "You know, when my head is buzzing too much, like there's too many thoughts in it and not enough time to think all of them, I find only one place on the ship can help me out." Valno looked at Railyn with excited eyes. Railyn stared back at him. Perhaps he was wanting Railyn to ask him where it was, or share some sort of excitement with him. Railyn was too tired for that. But, he figured it would be best to not ignore him.

"And where is that?"

Valno's eyes lit up. "I'll show you." He held out a hand to help Railyn up, and Railyn took it. Suddenly, Valno was already off, and he was half-leading, half-pulling Railyn to the other end of the ship. They stopped at the bottom of the crow's nest (or at least that's what Railyn thought that was --he had no idea what half the terms of a ship were, and he didn't know if he could trust Paimon's word as she spouted them out at him all the time while they were on the house. Railyn was trying to catch his breath as Valno stared up at the wooden structure.

Valno focused his attention on Railyn. His eyes were a beacon of energy and excitement, and for a moment, Railyn could swear he felt Valno's excitement flood over him. It was a rush, Railyn had to admit. He only barely felt his leg complain in protest to all of this movement. Railyn stared up at the crow's nest, and then at Valno. Suddenly his leg felt a lot more noticeable. "Valno--"

"Huh?" Valno glanced back to his eyes.

Railyn stumbled over his words. "I, just, I don't know if I can climb up there."

"Nah, you got this!" Valno led his hand over to the ladder. "I'll go after you, I'll make sure you don't fall."

Railyn glanced at the climb and back to Valno. He nodded and mentally tried to encourage himself mentally. Okay, he said, and climbed up the first railing, using his non-injured leg. Okay, this was easy, he thought. You can do this. He lurched up a railing, and stepped his injured leg onto the wooden peg. Tensing his muscle reminded him of the gashes that adorned them. He could feel the gashes opening up again, trickling blood down his leg. He glanced down, just to make sure that there was no blood dripping on to the wood. He noticed Valno looking up at him. He gave a thumbs up. "You can do this! I'll be right behind you."

Railyn felt blood rushing to somewhere other than his leg, suddenly embarrassed. He turned his attention back to the space above him, instead of the man gawking at him below him. He steadied his injured leg on the wooden peg and let his weight shift on it. The leg buckled under him and he almost fell off the slight height above the floor he was on. He felt a hand steadying him and holding him up. Railyn looked down and muttered something about his leg, but nothing comprehensible came out. Valno nodded at him encouragingly. Railyn focused his attention on climbing when he realized that Valno had his hand on, well, Railyn's backside. Valno pushed him up as he switched legs and he was able to kind of use his two arms and his good leg to scramble his way to the crow's nest.

He stumbled and slumped against the edge of the nest, sighing in relief. Valno appeared up there a moment after. Railyn looked at him as he gazed out at the night sea. "Can you feel the breeze? It just... feels different here. Like I can actually think. Like I can actually--"

Breathe.

"Yeah."

"Oh." Railyn didn't realize he said that out loud. But, it did feel different, like the air was fresher up there. He let the wind flow through his outstretched hands, and he closed his eyes. He felt his thoughts flow out of his mind just like wind twirling around his fingers, and all was fine. All was fine.

He felt something touch his hand, and he opened his eyes to Valno staring at him excitedly. Valno tapped his fingers. "Come here, look at the view."

Railyn obliged him, and huddled over next to Valno, who rest his head on the railing of the crow's nest. "Best view on the ship, don't you think?" Valno asked, glancing at Railyn.

He nodded. "It's pretty good."

Railyn felt something next to his hand on the wood, and he was acutely aware of Valno's hand near his. Every sensation, the wind on the back of his neck, the sound of the waves sloshing below, the scent of salt in the air, was heightened, like he could pick it out of his own mind and examine it. But all he was focused on was the hand excruciatingly close to his. A part of him just wanted to grab it, another was wanting him to do something, but a much larger part of him was just frozen on what to do, so he ignored it and focused on the horizon. The moon was shining over the water, a large dew drop dripped its light onto the waves. It felt like they were in a whole different world. Perhaps they could be there forever.

But the moment was ruined by Railyn himself, as he stifled a yawn. Valno chuckled awkwardly. "You should get back to sleep. I imagine it's going to be a rough morning for you and your friends."

Railyn glanced down for the first time since they got up there. Valno sighed. "It's easier going down than going up... if you don't look down."

Railyn nodded at that. The whole moments after that were a bit of a blur until Railyn was back in his room. Ivern glanced up at the commotion, tilting his head for a moment before fitting it back under his wing.

Railyn was feeling a whole bunch of things right now, but he was very fortunate in that it wasn't the things that kept him up before. Sleep tugged at his eyes and he couldn't think much before it won over and he drifted back off, with no nightmares this time.

Sand swept around his bare feet, clinging to his bare skin like a protective layer against the winds and the raging heat. A cloudy figure stood close beside him, towering over him by a few feet, and his hand clung to their white cloak like a wad in his tightly wound fist.

He inched in closer to the person - a man, he thought. A human man. Perhaps, the one who raised him?

"200 Gildar," the man said. And that was when he noticed a figure in front of them, like a distant fog, blending into the sand. The sun shone like a halo behind their head, blinding against the pale, cloudless sky.

The voice that responded sounded faint, but in his chest he felt a clanging bell.

The man pried Bel's small hand away from the cloak, and in that moment Bel realized that was his safety net.

Now it was gone.

The sound of waves lapping against the side of the ship was like a lullaby. With every other wave the ship would sway one direction, and the whole room would creak with the swell.

There were things built in place that kept furniture from screeching across the floor at every opposing angle. Tables and beds were mounted to the floor, and small items had drawers that locked, or drawer-like shelves. Most beds were substituted with hammocks that could sway with the the ship, and any bed that did exist had four low walls to keep people from rolling out in their sleep.

Bel had gone with Eli for the night, and they'd been assigned the only other room apart from the captain's quarters that had a real bed. The bed was designated for Eli, who both Paimon and Gibs insisted still needed looking after. They agreed that Eli's condition had improved, but they insisted that someone should look after him overnight. With Railyn disappearing before that conversation was even had and Tyri still struggling with her magic, Bel was quick to volunteer. He felt like it was the least he could do.

As a result, he found himself waking up frequently anytime Eli moved - which, in honesty, wasn't that often. Half the time it ended up being the creak of the ship playing tricks on his ears.

But this time as Bel's eyes fluttered open, he actually heard Eli stirring.

He sat up quickly from his mat on the floor, peering over the side of Eli's bed to make sure he was alright. A strange feeling lingered in his chest that he couldn't describe, but he shook his head, brushing it off.

Lady had gotten up beside Eli and started stretching out her wings, pointing them up straight in the air as she arched her back. Meanwhile, Eli slowly rolled his head to the side.

Bel wanted to give Eli a moment to come to consciousness before pestering him with questions, and since Eli didn't sound or look like he was in notable pain or needed help, Bel decided to start rolling up his sleeping mat and blankets, tucking them away under the bed into their previous home.

In doing so, Tabby revealed himself by poking his head out from under the bed and brushing his face against Bel's hand affectionately. Bel smiled lightly and scratched behind Tabby's ears, which made him start to purr loudly.

"....Bel?" Eli asked, sounding very tired. He didn't sound very rested at all.

"Oh, hey," Bel said softly, trying not to be too loud. He quickly scooped Tabby up into his arms, letting the little cat climb up his chest and up to his shoulder. By now, Tabby had learned which shoulder was off-limits.

"How are you feeling?" Bel asked.

Eli groaned. "Like crap," he said, pushing up onto one elbow. "You?"

Bel hummed, reaching up to Tabby to continue petting him.

"A little tired," he said. "But alright."

If Eli was asking about how Bel felt physically, that was the honest answer, so he kept it at that for the moment. Eli was still waking up.

Bel decided to sit down by the foot of the bed, feeling too lazy to grab a chair. He leaned on the frame and Tabby hopped down into his lap, curiosly staring down at Bel's tail. Not wanting to have his tail attacked by a cat, he curled it in the opposite direction, out of reach.

"Are you hungry?" Bel asked Eli, glancing back over to him.

Eli blinked at him, then smiled shyly. "Starving."

"Marble should be making breakfast," Bel said. "I heard some footsteps maybe an hour ago, but fell back asleep. Do you want me to go check if anything's ready?"

He flopped back down onto the bed, startling Lady. "Please."

Bel laughed lightly, though it was a tired laugh, and short-lived.

"Alright, then," he said, picking up Tabby once more. "You get to babysit Tabby, then."

He once again got to his feet and lifted Tabby over Eli, gently placing Tabby on Eli's chest. Tabby turned to Bel, reaching out with his head towards Bel's receding hands like he didn't want to be left alone, but Bel pulled away.

"I'll be back," he said, and it was an assurance to both Tabby and Eli. "Don't do anything too crazy while I'm gone. Paimon and Dr.Gibs say you're still basically on bedrest until you can stand without swaying. Granted, I think that's a bit of an unfair stipulation since we're aboard a ship, but, doctor's orders."

"Ha, hilarious," Eli muttered, throwing an arm over his eyes. "Don't think I'll be moving yet. There's a cat on my chest."

"Exactly," Bel said with a smile, watching as Tabby made himself comfortable, curling up and starting to purr.

He turned to the door and stepped into the hall, quietly shutting the door behind him. Daylight leaked through the cabin windows, but Bel didn't know how long that sun had been up. He hoped they hadn't slept in too long, because he had a feeling that could irk the pirate crew that was reluctantly hosting them.

The hall was empty, but Bel found himself assaulted with a confusing combination of smells. One, the unpleasant odor of rotting corpses. That one was distant enough from their room that it wasn't overwhelming, but it still lingered in the air. Two, the smell of sea salt and musky, moldy floorboards, and the seemingly permanent dampness of the walkways.

Thirdly, was the faint scent of something savory. It smelled hearty, and oily, and like it probably had too much salt.

Of all the smells, that was probably the least unpleasant, so Bel decided to consider it something to look forward to. He followed it.

The smell led him down the hall to the right, passing a few other rooms before he saw an open door, where the scent drew its source. Upon poking his head in, he saw that it was a small kitchen, and Marble was stirring a very large pot of what he presumed to be some kind of soup or stew.

The room was a little steamy from the heat, and Marble was waving a rag around in the air to clear some away from his face before he grabbed a lid and covered the pot, setting a spoon to the side. The pot had been set on a table, and Bel could only assume that Marble had finished it recently, since it didn't look like he was actively cooking anymore.

"Hey," Bel said from the doorway, drawing Marble's attention.

Marble turned to meet his eyes, and upon seeing Bel, flashed a freckled smile.

"Hey, if it isn't the captain himself!" Marble said, waving a hand towards him to welcome him in.

Bel found himself getting a little calloused to the title of captain after all of yesterday's tension, but he couldn't find the energy in him to fight it anymore. He nodded to Marble with what was, at best, a weak smile, and walked into the kitchen, eyeing the various knives, spoons, and other cooking utensils mounted on the walls.

"If I'm not intruding," Bel said. "I was wondering if I could get a bowl for Eli. He finally seems to have an appetite, which is good."

"Oh, Eli. The guy with all the uh..." Marble gestured to himself, up and down with one head, implying the existence of many wounds. "Yeah. Looks like he went through something fierce. Good to hear he's coming back around, though. Food is the best medicine."

Bel nodded, stopping at the edge of the table and peering into the pot. It looked more like a soup than a stew, and he could see pieces of meat and vegetables floating around in the thick, yellow-orange broth.

"Oh! Right," Marble said suddenly, smacking his forehead as he whirled around and started digging through a cabinet drawer. He pulled out two bowls and two spoons, spinning back around to Bel with his hands extended towards him. "Go and fill on up!"

"Thanks," Bel said with a grateful smile, watching as Marble ripped the lid away, like he was eager for Bel to serve himself.

Bel glanced at Marble, then down at the pot, then back at Marble. Marble seemed to be watching him expectantly, and Bel wasn't sure why. It was just soup.

He set one bowl down and picked up the ladle Marble had hung off the pot's handle and scooped into one bowl, then the next, slipping the spoons in each for easy carrying. Just as he reached for both the bowls to turn to leave, Marble interrupted.

"Wait!" Marble said. "You have to taste it first."

Bel blinked.

"I need to know if it's good. I can never trust Idra's opinion. She's always so picky and gives bad reviews just to mess with me half the time anyway," Marble explained. "Just a little taste test, please."

Bel pursed his lips and shrugged, picking up one of the bowls. He took a spoonful of soup and chewed on a vegetable, letting it ruminate in his mouth a moment.

"Tastes good to me," he said with another little shrug. "Tastes like it'll be filling."

Marble's eyes squinted into a mischeivious smile, and he rubbed his hands together.

"Perfect. Okay. You can go now," he said.

"Thanks for the soup," Bel said, picking up a bowl in each hand and making note that the left one was his.

"Thanks for eating it," Marble replied.

Bel let out a little laugh as he turned around.

"Anytime," he said as he stepped back out into the hall, finding his way back to his room.

When he got to the door, he briefly balanced both bowls on one arm, up against his chest so that he could turn the doorknob and push the door open. Catching the door with his foot, he returned the bowls to each hand and dipped his head into the room, looking to Eli, who hadn't moved from where he left him.

"I come bearing soup," he announced. "You'll need to sit up for this."

"I don't wanna move," Eli grumbled, not moving an inch. Tabby's tail twitched, but he hadn't moved either. "But that does smell good."

Bel closed the door behind him with his foot, and walked over to the little desk, setting the bowls down.

"Can't move, don't want to move, or need help moving?" Bel asked as he turned back around to Eli, standing beside the bed and looking down at him.

"I can move," was the soft response, slightly indignant. "I think... I just don't want to. Freaking hurts, still." Eli started muttering something in what was obviously a different language--probably High Asturian or something, if Bel was hearing it right. Not that he understood anything other than 'Mythica' there.

Bel let out a quiet sigh. There wasn't much he could do to relieve Eli of his pain, and there wasn't much he could do to help, besides move Eli around when needed and make sure he got food and had his basic needs met. He wished he could've been there, when Eli had gotten caught, so Eli hadn't been stuck on his own. If only I hadn't been so stupid, he thought, [/i]sneaking out and leaving him. I didn't have to play the hero.[/i]

"Well," Bel said quietly. "Let's start with sitting up. I'll help this time."

He reached down and picked up Tabby - who by now seemed a little fed up with being moved around after just getting comfortable. When Bel set Tabby down on the bed, Tabby let out an annoyed hiss and hopped off the bed, scurrying back under the bed where he couldn't be fussed with anymore.

"Uh, do I have to?"

"Eli," Bel said. "It's kind of hard to eat soup while lying down. Unless you really want me to tilt your head up and feed it to you."

Eli lifted his arm and grimaced at Bel. "No thanks. Been there, done that. Would really rather not do so again, Bel."

"I know," Bel said softly. "Here, let me grab something to prop you up."

He reached back under the bed, remembering the blankets he'd slept with and that there were some other spare things under there as well. He found a feather pillow and a thick quilt, and wrapped the quilt around the pillow to add extra padding. Then he placed it just above Eli's head, and leaned down, carefully sliding his arm behind Eli's shoulders and back to help him up. Slowly, he lifted him, and helped pull him closer so that his back could lean against the blanketed pillow. Eli grunted and grimaced the entire time.

"There," Bel said, pulling away. "Now your reward is soup."

He was quick this time to go grab it, because he really did want Eli to feel that it was worth the trouble - and it was. Eli needed to eat as well as rest if he was ever going to heal up and regain his full strength.

He sat on the edge of the bed and held out Eli's bowl, closer to Eli's lap so he wouldn't have to stretch his arms out very far.

"Eat," he said. And it wasn't an order, but more of an announcement.

Eli, almost begrudgingly, lifted up his bowl and grabbed his spoon, starting to feed himself still with the pained expression stuck on his face. Bel knew it wasn't enjoyable for him, but there was only so much he could do, so he just sat by and started eating his own soup.

The two of them ate in silence, and the only sound heard over the constant swell of the waves outside was the clinking of their metal spoons against their bowls.

Bel finished his soup first, and though he still felt hungry once it was all gone, he decided to wait and let it sit for a few minutes to see if the hunger would fade. He didn't want to take more than his fair share, and he knew there were at least a dozen other people who needed to be fed. He could also imagine that each meal had to be measured out at sea, with limited resources.

He decided to sit in the quiet that followed, waiting patiently for Eli to finish. As he stared off into the room idly, he felt a nudge at his ankles. Glancing down, he saw it was Tabby again, butting his head against Bel's legs. Bel, not wanting to manhandle him again, simply reached down and scratched behind Tabby's ears before setting his hands back in his lap. That seemed to be all Tabby wanted, because once Bel pulled away, Tabby receded back under the shelter of the bed.

Lady, however, who had formerly been snuggled up beside Eli, wandered up to him, placing her head on Bel's thigh, looking up at him expectantly for attention.

Bel looked down at her with a faint grin and started scratching under her chin.

"Really, Lady?" Eli asked, sounding amused. "Is this because I've been mostly unconscious lately?"

"Is Lady not allowed to have other friends?" Bel asked, looking over to Eli with a teasing smile.

Eli snorted. "She can do whatever she wants."

Bel watched as Eli lowered his bowl into his lap for a moment before turning to look down at Lady. He gave her another little smile and brought both of his hands under her neck, massaging her loose skin and fur.

"As she should," Bel said quietly.

There was a lull of silence that followed as Bel continued to pet and massage Lady's neck, and she started to purr, eventually flopping on her back with her belly up to him, swishing her tail back and forth on the bed.

Bel found his mind wandering, trying to filter through yesterday's events. There was a lot that was out of their control. They had to cooperate with the pirates or otherwise face the fates that the sea had to offer, or worse, die at the hands of pirates. It didn't seem that the pirates were eager to be murderous, and Spider seemed to want to keep them there, if only for selfish reasons, but it was difficult to put much trust in their fragile alliance.

That, and it seemed that they traded one problem for a handful of others. They weren't stranded on the seas anymore, but Tyri couldn't see or use her magic, and now they were being dragged into a quest to find a lost ship, which may or may not still even exist above-water. Railyn still wasn't talking to him, Ivern was avoiding him, Eli was still hurting, and if Bel was being honest, that was only scratching the surface.

There was still bluecough, and the bodies on the ship, and the countless bluecough deaths he'd seen only in three weeks. He still thought about Lettie, and her family, and Serion being razed to the ground. He still thought about how useless all of their efforts had been in stopping the spread and helping the sick, and how everything they ever did only culminated in him being turned into a mindless weapon against his friends... if he could even call them that. He didn't know if they considered him anything at all but an obligatory piece of baggage that came with a prophecy none of them asked for, that none of them even knew anything about.

If he gathered anything from recent events, Bel would say he didn't feel destined for anything but destruction. Why else would the prophecy give him these powers?

Maybe he just needed to accept it. As long as he had no control over himself when he "went orange," he was going to hurt people again, and again, and there were no guarantees that his friends would be any exception.

A strange feeling stirred in Bel's chest that felt heavy, exposed, and helpless, and he didn't know why it felt so familiar.

He sat with is for a moment, still idly petting Lady, until Tabby jumped up on the other side of him, flopping on his back, belly-up. He must've gotten jealous.

Bel used one hand to pet each cat, now having both of them cuddling and curling up against him.

"Never thought I'd be so popular with cats," he commented quietly.

Eli chuckled. "Neither did I."

"Did you not like cats before Lady?" Bel asked, glancing up at him.

He shrugged, eyes on Lady still sitting beside Bel. "Never really thought about it before."

Bel hummed, looking down at Lady as well. Her eyes were closed and she seemed happy to be petted. She was simply enjoying the attention, it seemed.

"How long have you had her?" Bel asked.

Eli blinked, surprised. "I met her near Nila as I was crossing the border," he said softly, closing his eyes. "She was hurt, pretty badly...so I healed her. She hasn't really left me since." He sighed and opened his eyes, focusing on Bel. "That was several months ago."

"Well, I'm glad you healed her," Bel said softly. "She's a good companion. I'm glad I've gotten to meet her too."

"Me, too," he muttered, leaning more heavily back against the pillows. "Me, too, Bel."

Bel hummed softly, letting another small lull of silence pass before speaking again.

"You were traveling for a while, right? Before we all met?" he asked.

"Yeah," Eli sighed, glancing over. "I was. My parents, uh...basically kicked me out after my stint in the military. Told me to go find myself or something."

Bel looked to Eli, his expression softening.

"Was that hard? Leaving home?" he asked.

He shrugged. "Not really. Had to do so for military training, so I wasn't that surprised. I'm not a first-born."

"Ah. Right," Bel said, glancing down at the cats again. "So, how long ago was it since they kicked you out?"

"About a year, I think?" Eli frowned. "It took a while to get out of Asturia and the capitol."

"I can imagine," Bel commented. "I haven't been there in a while, but it's very busy. Easy to get lost... not that you had problems navigating your home."

He looked up to Eli with a slight smile.

"I'm sure it helps when you can read signs," he said.

Eli snorted, then gave Bel a sharp look. "You can't read?"

"Oh," Bel said with a little laugh. "Sorry, yeah. I thought it was common knowledge already."

"In case you haven't noticed," Eli said, a little self-deprecatingly, "I've been mostly unconscious lately."

"Ah," Bel said, suppressing a smirk. "That explains so much."

He rolled his eyes. "Mmh, it does, doesn't it?"

Bel lost the very short battle and let himself smile, nodding his head as he pressed his lips together. But the smile faded quickly, and he let out a short sigh.

"I know it's been really hard," Bel said, looking over to Eli. "And that in and of itself is an understatement. I know everyone keeps checking in with how you're doing in your physical recovery... but how are you holding up otherwise?"

Eli frowned, tilting his head. "What do you mean? Mentally?"

Bel could sense that Eli understood the question, and probably just didn't want to answer.

"I mean, you don't have to answer if you don't feel comfortable talking about it," Bel added, ignoring Eli's question. "I get it if you don't. I just wanted to ask, and give you the opportunity to. And because I care, too. I know we haven't known each other for very long, but I still do."

"I feel like shit," Eli snapped, looking away. "Does that answer the question?"

"I mean, that's a start," Bel said gently. "And completely warranted."

He grunted, still looking away from Bel and basically boring a hole in the wall with his eyes.

"You know I'm not judging you for feeling like shit, right?" Bel asked. "It's okay for you to say it. It's not complaining."

Eli exhaled heavily and then relaxed slowly. "I'm sorry, Bel. I shouldn't take it out on you." He sighed and glanced over. "I'm a military healer... We're not exactly known for our decent bedside manner, you know."

"But you're the one in the bed, Eli," Bel commented.

"We don't make good patients, either." Eli offered him a crooked smile.

"I've noticed," Bel said with a small smile in return.

"I'm sorry for being such a crappy patient," he added, smile fading.

"I think you should save that apology for Paimon and Dr. Gibs more than me," Bel said. "I'm just here to keep an eye out and grab them if anything goes wrong."

He snorted. "I'll keep that in mind."

Bel nodded, pausing in the cat-petting to readjust his hands since the cats had started moving again.

"I'm sure that, having been in the military and all," he said. "This isn't your first time being a patient."

He lifted one shoulder in a shrug. "Unfortunately not, no."

"And I imagine this isn't your first time getting hurt... away from home?" he asked.

"No," Eli muttered, sagging slightly. "I've spent little time at home since joining the military, Bel. So...most of my injuries occured...in the line of duty, I suppose."

"Being in the Asturian military sounds like hell," Bel commented. "I'm sorry you had to endure it."

"It's worse if you don't volunteer for it," he said, shrinking in on himself. "My home country does not have a good reputation for a reason."

"Has it felt better, then, to be away from it these past few months? At least... until all of this happened?" Bel asked.

Eli glanced over again and nodded. "Yeah," he said, smiling slightly. "Much better. At least I don't have to see the slaves anymore."

Bel nodded slowly. While he didn't know too much about Asturia, he was aware that the country had been built on the backs of slaves. He tried to peel back the nuance of what Eli was saying, knowing that Eli was in no place to bring about any change, he imagined that came with a lot of guilt. He let another small silence pass.

He could tell Eli didn't really like being pitied, but he hoped he wouldn't despise encouragement, especially if it was honest.

"You know, Eli," Bel said. "I know I don't know your family personally, but I find it very impressive that you somehow managed to not end up like them. It sounds like you got dealt a really terrible lot in life, but you've got a good heart. That's really commendable. At least, to me."

He flushed slightly, lips parting before he cleared his throat. "T-Thanks, Bel... That means...a lot to me."

Bel offered a small smile, shrugging. "Hey, someone might as well say it," he said.

He returned his attention back to Lady and Tabby. The two of them were both starting to crawl into his lap, like they were fighting over who got the most space. He lifted his hands away, deciding to let them battle it out instead of interfering.

"Okaaaay," he said quietly, more to himself before looking back to Eli.

"Are you still hungry?" Bel asked.

Eli jerked his head, shaking it. "No, I'm fine."

"Alright," Bel said. "If you get hungry again, though, just let me know. I don't mind getting you seconds."

"Okay," he muttered, nodding slowly. "I think I might go back to sleep..."

"Want me to help you lie back down?" Bel offered.

"Please?"

Bel nodded in response, turning to look down at the two cats cuddling in his lap. Lady seemed to get the cue without him saying anything, and she - though a little begrudgingly - hopped out of his lap and fluttered to perch on the end of the bed. Tabby, however, looked up at him with wide eyes, unfazed.

"I know you're going to hate me for this," he said to the cat. "But I'm going to have to move you again."

Tabby only blinked, wiggling but not moving off of him.

Bel sighed, reached out his hands to Tabby, and before he could grab him, Tabby spazzed erratically, leaping off his lap and running across the room, hiding under the desk.

Well, at least he could get up now.

Bel sat up with a small grunt and moved to the head of the bed again, gently lifting Eli off of the pillow propping him up, and lying him down with a pillow under his head instead. He had to be careful not to strain his injured shoulder, which made his movements slow, but he managed to get Eli comfortable without any trouble.

After pulling the blanket back over Eli's shoulders, he pulled away and glanced over at the window. Now the morning sun was shining through in its full brightness, and he could see the little specks of dust floating in the air.

"If you need anything, just say so," Bel said, turning to look back at Eli. "I'll just be at the desk. I think Paimon should be...."

But mid-way through his sentence, he realized Eli had already fallen back asleep.

With a sigh, Bel turned back around to the window, looking out at the waves. He really hoped Eli was able to recover more before they hit the storm because frankly, he wasn't sure if they were going to make it through that. But then again, he hadn't known if they'd make it through everything else, and they were still there.

I guess that counts for something.

"Oh my name is Jack o'Lumber, what a jolly jack am I, and I'll swing my jolly axe until the day I jolly die!" Paimon sang as she dragged her mop across the deck. After five swipes, she dipped it into saltwater and repeated the process. The newly mopped boards gleamed in the late afternoon sun, and Paimon sang her way across the ship with a saltwater trail.

"What kind of song is that?" Bel asked, swinging a mop a few meters away.

The handle of Paimon's mop ground into the floorboards, and she stopped suddenly. "Dunno. Learned it from some lumberjacks."

Bel raised an eyebrow, leaning on his mop. "Lumberjacks?"

"Try to keep pace, you two," Kniss called from the upper deck. "Singing may be annoying, but not swabbing the deck like you're supposed to be doing is even more so."

Bel picked the mop back up and kept moving. Paimon could hear him starting to hum the lumberjack song under his breath.

Paimon launched back into the song herself, untroubled by only knowing one verse. Around the ship, the rest of the crew was hard at work as well. The sails had been let down for the time being, and Marble dangled from a rig at the side of the ship, patching holes with pitch on the outside. Over her head was Valno, climbing back on the rope that was tying Spider's pirate ship to Paimon's family home.

Valno dropped to the deck, his belt jangling with items and his hands spread wide. "Ta-da," he said. "I got more stuff!"

Paimon put her head down and pushed the mop heavy into the deck. The pirates could take what they wanted, she supposed. Her parents had taken their belongings with them when they'd lent Paimon the house. "Less weight you'll have to carry," Azazel had explained, his arms full of staves. "Less chance the house will burn down, too."

They'd left under cover of night, and Paimon was too busy surviving to think about what was happening. Whatever was going on back home, she wasn't able to do anything about it. Best to get busy surviving, so she wouldn't have to think about it. Her house bobbed in the waves, looking impossibly small.

"They're really not that good at it, are they?" Paimon heard a voice that by now, was a very familiar source of contempt. She looked back to the upper deck where Kniss was, only to see that Spider had joined her.

"You'll have to do better than that," the captain called, looking pointedly at Paimon. "Otherwise, I might just get bored of you."

Paimon gritted her teeth and stared straight at Spider, then opened her hand to let her mop fall and clatter to the deck. She could see Spider and Kniss exchange looks.

"You know, work like this isn't really suited to us," Paimon said, gesturing to her tools. "We've spent the last few weeks breaking in and out and into every city in Synua, and paving into the ground anyone who tried to stop us."

In one leap, Spider was soaring from the railing, blotting out the sun. She landed heavy into a crouch right in front of Paimon, and when she rose to full height, their eyes were aligned. "And now you're on my ship, swabbing my decks," she said simply. "Which you should get back to."

Out of the corner of her eye, Paimon saw Bel turning away and hunching over slightly so as to not be seen, quietly swabbing twice as quickly as before.

Direct confrontation wouldn't help, Paimon knew that much. Every time she was faced with a problem, it was a whole city, or a whole country stacked against her. But even now, faced with a single pirate who could take away their magic, Paimon was just as powerless as before. But she was used to that powerlessness, all twenty-four years of it.

She shrugged and bent down to pick up the mop. "I was just taking a break. Trying to start a little conversation around here, too, get to know each other a bit! Our fun fact is that we bust heads on a regular basis, Bel especially."

For a second, Paimon thought she saw Bel stop swabbing, and look off into the distance. Still, in the next second, Valno was bringing a tide of noise into her senses.

"So, you use that golem thing to fight?" he asked. "That's cool. I mean, not as cool now that it's gone," he added with a grin, "but it sounds cool."

"Thanks," Paimon said flatly. "But I mean, it's not just me. We've all got our ways of taking people on. Honestly, most times it doesn't even get that far. I just have to flex a little, Bel shows his teeth, and boom! Problems solve themselves."

Spider's eyes narrowed. "Oh, is that so?"

"It is so," said Paimon, feeling giddy to return the earlier smugness. "Seriously, once we get going, it's scary. Like big-orange-tiefling-running-at-you-with-huge-claws scary."

"Shut your mouth," Spider snapped. "I'll have none of your discrimination when you're aboard my ship."

Paimon blinked. "What?" She glanced at Valno, who had raised his hands and stepped back. His head tilted in a slight frown, like he was studying her in a new light. Paimon looked back at Spider. "Wait, what?"

Spider was glaring at her with an intensity Paimon hadn't seen before, not even when she'd wanted to kill them. This, it dawned on her, was solid rage. Real rage, not just petty annoyance.

"Wait, wait wait," Paimon said, waving her hands. "You mean the tiefling bit, don't you? Look, I know you're not big on humor, but in Synua we call that a joke. Besides, Bel's my friend! I don't buy into all that stuff they say about tieflings."

"Then why joke about it?" Spider asked.

"Because it's stupid! And the best way through anything that stupid is to joke about it! Bel knows that, he doesn't mind."

Spider's eyes slid to Bel, who had been quickly mopping the same spot for a while. Paimon noticed now that he was leaning on one foot, his head down and turned away from her.

"Have you ever asked?" Spider said, her voice dropping to a soft murmur.

Paimon's grip tightened around the mop. "You don't even know us. You think you can just threaten to kill us and then tell us how to act around our friends? Hey! I'm talking to you!"

Spider was walking away from her, across the deck. She placed her hands on Bel's shoulders and waited until he glanced up at her. She held his gaze for a second before slowly turning him to face Paimon.

Spider let go of one shoulder, stepped to the side, and glanced at Paimon. "Bel, do you enjoy being called scary?" she said softly. "Being identified by your claws, or your fangs, as if you're more a beast than person?" She sounded truly disgusted with the way Paimon had described him.

Though Bel was now facing Paimon, she noticed that he wasn't meeting her eyes. He stared at the deck, with his eyebrows knit tightly together. He slowly pulled his shoulder away from Spider's touch.

"It's not that I like it," he said lowly. "I'm just used to it."

Bel's eyes flicked up to Paimon, and in that second of eye contact, Paimon found herself looking for anger, for surprise, for confusion, and found none of it. All she saw in Bel was resignation. Resignation to her. Suddenly, the sway of the ship beneath her feet was gigantic, upending Paimon in a giant wave.

"You know I didn't mean it, right?" she said, moving towards Bel. "Hey, Bellybuddy. Listen, I didn't-- I don't mean it. You know that, right?"

Spider glanced to the side, and Kniss was stepping between them, holding the mop bucket. "Report below decks to Doctor Gibs," Kniss said, grabbing the handle of Paimon's mop.

"I don't mean it," Paimon said, as Kniss pried the mop from her hands. Her voice had fallen to a whisper. "I don't."

Kniss shoved the mop and bucket into Valno's hands, and he grumbled but got to work. Kniss moved away towards the mast. Spider lingered for a moment before walking away after Kniss, leaving Bel and Paimon standing opposite one another. For a second, Bel opened his mouth, but then shut it tightly. He looked straight at Paimon, and it felt like she was melting into tar. Her voice had died away, and her trembling mouth closed now, drawn into a hard line.

Paimon turned and walked away, heading below decks. She could feel Bel's gaze on her back as she went, but then heard a splash of his mop into water as he went back to swabbing.

Walking down the hall beneath the deck, Paimon was assailed with smells of the mold stuck to the corners, the faint rot of corpseflesh, and the saltwater soaked into the wood. Her own footsteps seemed jarring to her, as if she were haunting her own body. In the space of -- what, thirty seconds? -- her world had been stretched and pulled over her head until it was suffocating. She knew the pirate captain disliked her, but seeing Bel take her side -- no, it wasn't her side. Spider had been the one asking how Bel felt. The only one out of all them to do so.

"Dammit," Paimon said. She pursed her lips and biting them together, trying to walk fast enough to escape the storm in her head.

Her frantic pace took her quickly to the galley, which was at the end of the hall, towards the storerooms at the bottom of the ship. When she entered the door, the tang of mustard obliterated every other smell. Paimon almost gagged where she stood before Gibs ushered her in.

"Don't let the smell out," Gibs said, shutting the door behind her. "If it reaches the deck, Spider won't let me hear the end of it."

"No problem," said Paimon, plugging her nose. "What're you doing in here, anyway?" The room was filled with barrels with their lids popped open, revealing roots, powders, and biscuits. On an oddly short central table was a pot steaming atop a flat disc-shaped rock.

"Making hybroth," Gibs said. She raised an eyebrow. "I thought you were a doctor."

"I am," Paimon said indignantly, and made the mistake of inhaling too deeply. She started hacking, and doubled over, moaning until the burning sensation stopped. "My potions just don't smell this bad, ever," she said once she could speak again.

"I'm sure they don't," Gibs replied curtly, "but when we're on a wooden ship, warmweed's safer than open flame."

Paimon looked over the pot. Floating in the mixture was a large spoon filled with of damp, wavy roots. At the edges of the spoon, the mixture boiled and let off rancid steam, as the roots seemed to leap around, curling up as their juices leaked away. "Just like noodles," she noted.

Gibs grabbed another pot from beneath the table and slammed it on another flat rock. The table that had seemed oddly short to Paimon was a perfectly reasonable height for the ship's doctor. "Here, I'll show you how to use it," she said. "Trickier than it looks, it is."

Gibs measured out twenty roots from a bowl on the table. Taking the bundle in her hands, she deftly cracked them in half, and a fresh, acrid scent engaged Paimon's nostrils. "It's the tinctures within the root," Gibs explained. "Lets them make their own heat."

Gibs filled the pot with water and put the roots in a spoon, swirling them gently in the mixture. When it began to simmer, she ordered, "Add the rest now."

Paimon grabbed the riander root and pell leaves . For some reason, being around a doctor other than her mother made her even tenser. She slowly doled them into the pot, being careful not to crowd the ingredients too close to each other. This earned a small grunt of approval from Gibs, and when Paimon smiled up at her, the dwarf doctor nodded. "Good. Keep stirring with the spoon, and take it out if steam gets to billowing."

"For sure," Paimon said, and Gibs returned to her own pot. For a while, they stirred in silence, with Paimon focusing on the motion of the potion. She remembered when she'd play among the rocks with Seir, finding a tide pool and shoving her arm into it, flailing it in a circle until the whole surface was spinning. If she went fast enough, a whirlpool opened up in the center, a hole to the bottom of the sea that swirled like an unblinking eye. Seir would shout and giggle, and Paimon would feel as strong as a sea squall. His laugh crackled through her like static electricity.

Paimon's grip on the spoon tightened. Even after admitting guilt, that pain would remain. Well, it's not as though apologizing could bring Seir back. It wasn't about that. It was about moving forward. But what was she moving forward towards? The prophecy, the prophecy. She'd left her family once again, all for the sake of...saving the world? She really couldn't remember.

The moment Seir's golem had melted into the salty air, Paimon felt their prophecy vanish with it. The curse that had followed her for twelve years vanished. And now, everything felt hazy. If she'd moved on from her guilt and their prophecy, was there anything good left? At this rate, probably not. She could travel this whole world and still be a closed-minded fool.

She glanced over at Gibs, who seemed at peace in the midst of her work.

Paimon cleared her throat. "Hey, Doc. You're a dwarf, right?"

Gibs stopped for a beat, then looked up. Her face held a forceful lack of emotion. "Yes, I am."

Paimon's mind went blank. "How is that for you?" she stammered.

Gibs blinked. Then she blinked again. Eventually, she said, "Pass the warmweed, please."

Paimon nodded quickly and handed her a bundle of roots, then vigorously went back to watching the pot. Her cheeks burned with embarrassment as they returned to stirring in silence.

"Not bad," Gibs said.

Paimon looked up. "Um?"

"Being a dwarf, it's. Not bad." Gibs was still stirring.

"Ah," Paimon stuttered. "Well, that's good to hear."

"It's different, though," Gibs added suddenly. "Different things happening in different places. I get asked different questions."

"Like what?"

"Like how being a dwarf is."

Paimon felt steam rising from her face as well as from the pot. "Sorry," she said. "Forget I said anything."

Gibs glanced at her, then down at the bowl of warmweed between them. "This warmweed and I come from the same place, you know. Up north in the Asturian highlands, this thing grows like, well, a weed."

Paimon nodded, confused.

"Warmweed is what the humans call it, because they can't stand how it gets into their crops. The dwarves call it huun-itsal. Life root. It keeps our soil warm in the deep winter, lets us grow our food. For that, we owe it everything."

Steam began to billow up from Gibs's pot, and she lifted her spoon out. "But in the rest of the world, it's just a weed that chokes what they want to grow. So they call it an annoyance. It really only depends on where you live."

Gibs looked up to the ceiling. "Being a dwarf, well, it feels like that. Location-dependent. I get different looks in every city I go too, and not all of them are kind. Not all of them trust me to do my work well, or with the right intentions. That's probably why I'm a ship doctor. Like a weed that drifts on the sea."

Paimon pursed her lips together, trying to find something to say. "You're not a weed," she finally said.

Gibs chuckled, but it seemed directed inward instead of at Paimon. "I know that. I've rambled on too much, this potion's already done." She pulled the spoon out and discarded the warmweed in a small metal bin.

"Put your weed in there when you're done," she said. "Give the potion about ten minutes, then you can let it cool." She walked to the door.

"Good work, doctor," Paimon blurted out, not knowing where it came from.

Gibs nodded, not meeting Paimon's eyes. "Yes, good work." Paimon had no idea if she was repeating the sentiment or returning it. Gibs exited the door and shut it behind her, leaving Paimon in a room full of steam where it hurt to breathe deeply, or think.



Paimon sat on the floor of her room, ignoring the growls of her stomach. She couldn't bring herself to eat dinner with everyone else, not now. Besides, the smell of warmweed did horrors for the appetite.

Why think of herself right now, anyway? Wouldn't any good daughter be thinking of her parents right now, how they were fighting against the Synua Guard with impossible odds in the hometown she'd abandoned twice now?

But considering how the pirates were threatening their lives, it wasn't as if the prophecy was going much better. And now the rune sphere had vanished, also because of those pirates. And it was those pirates who kept lording over her, driving her apart from her friends.

"Damn it," she said, pounding the floor. "Damn this, damn it all."

The last eighteen days had been exhausting. It had all begun with one bad day, hadn't it? At first, she'd wanted to just smoke it away, or even use something stronger. But now the five of them were responsible for the entire world, and it seemed like the world was against them. Nothing had ever come easy for her, not even when a magic prophecy said it was supposed to.

Paimon wrapped her arms around her knees and breathed in. The last time she'd felt like this was the time she ran away from home. When the guilt and desperation had bunched up in her shoulders and sprouted wings, she had done everything she could to escape the feeling of guilt.

But even then, guilt had pursued her with a runic spiral. She couldn't outrun it, couldn't earn her way free, and couldn't become miserable enough on her own to make it vanish, no matter how dire things got. Paimon pictured Bel's face again in her mind. She had looked for anger because that was what she'd expected of him. Get angry, and get scary. But there was just the resignation, like this was nothing new for him. Her words were a knife sliding into a wound with its exact shape. Though the world was crashing around them, she had still hurt Bel.

"It's got nothing to do with the world," she said to the empty room. "I'm just a racist."

It didn't feel relieving to say. It still burned hot in her ears, and she wanted it out by any means possible. She just had to figure that out before she hurt Bel again. He wasn't a weed, he was her friend. Was being a tiefling friend different from just being her friend? She didn't call the others her human friends. Maybe that was part of it, though. Like Gibs said, it was different.

A knock at the door broke her train of thought. It was timid, and she heard Bel's muffled voice.

"Paimon?"

Paimon snapped her body into a rigid shape and slowly moved toward the door. When she opened it, Bel was looking down at her with the same resignation in his eyes.

"Spider told me to get you," he said solemnly, his voice low. "The house is starting to sink, and she's going to cut the line."

Paimon had already opened her mouth to say something, but closed it slowly. "House sinking. Cool," she said, nodding.

"Do you want to go up before they...?" Bel trailed off, glancing over his shoulder towards the stairs that led up to the deck.

Paimon bit her tongue and looked down. "Yeah."

As she followed Bel up the stairs to the deck, Paimon found herself looking at his back. It was something she'd seen in battle, holding off their enemies who left wounds that Paimon herself had helped treat. It wasn't scary, not to her, not when she knew Bel. But then, what if he wasn't on their side? Paimon had laughed off the possibility right up until Mythica had waved her glove. If Bel wasn't on their side, would she be afraid of him because he was against them? Or was it because he was a tiefling?

The heaviness of it all made Paimon want to laugh. She desperately wanted to tell a joke, anything to push away this awful fear nested in her heart. Still, she kept silent as they emerged into the golden hues of the sunset.

The house was floating off of the stern of the ship, and Paimon could see that it was sinking. Water lapped over the porch, seeping through the door and probably ruining that doormat that her mother loved so much. The iron flowers in the windowsill were wet with the spray. The rope tying it to the ship was slack to the mast, and Spider stood where it was tied, ready to cast it off.

Paimon glanced at Bel. The sunset had cast him in an orange glow, only now Paimon was seeing the sadness in the lines of his face.

"I'm sorry."

Paimon realized she hadn't said anything. Bel turned to her and continued, "I'm sorry about your house."

"No," Paimon said. "That's not--" That's not how this should go, she thought. What do you have to apologize for? Of course it's easy for someone to apologize for something that isn't their fault, I mean, because when it is, it's--

"It's fine," she said finally. "It gave me what I needed. Gave us a week of seafaring, too."

"I know," Bel said softly, staring at the sinking house. "But it was also your home, at least, growing up. And I'm sure it held memories."

It did, Paimon admitted to herself. She'd spent six years running to any place but this house, but this house was still where it all ended up. Even now, she could still feel her mother and father holding her close, collapsed together on their kitchen floor. No matter how many people she'd helped in her journey, it had still taken their arms to feel like she'd been forgiven. But to do that, she'd also needed to face Seir again.

It took me twelve years to properly apologize to my brother, she thought, staring at Bel. The least I can do is break that record now.

As she opened her mouth to speak, her voice felt heavy, as if she were dragging it out of her throat as her tongue rotated forward. "I'm," she began, and searched Bel's face for an answer, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-- no, I should've asked. I'm sorry I hurt you."

Bel didn't turn to look at her right away, and instead kept his gaze on the house until the windows dipped to the waterline.

"Sorry," Bel said quietly. "I'm just... not used to people apologizing."

"I've been getting pretty good at it lately," Paimon said, scratching the back of her head. She tried to smile, but it didn't feel right. "I just don't know what I can do to make it up to you."

"I do forgive you, though," Bel said. "I think... maybe not advertising me as a 'big scary tiefling' is a start."

Paimon nodded. Sure, it was a start. She'd never get the chance to make things right with Seir, but she could do this for Bel.

She cleared her throat. "So, um. Did you get that often in Synua? From people that weren't me."

"Well, normally, I'd get worse," Bel said, looking away. "But it's normal for most people to be wary of me and keep their distance unless they know who I am or are there for business. And most people aren't bold enough to say what they think of me to my face. But I hear it in whispers. I've overheard enough that I get the idea."

Paimon's ribs felt twisted, crushing her organs together. "That's awful," she said. "I'm so sorry."

"Even the people I do business with only respect me for getting them what they need," Bel went on, his voice only loud enough for the two of them to hear. "And a lot of them are really curious. If I had a Gildar for every time someone asked to touch my horns or just tried to touch them without even asking I wouldn't need to be in the smuggling business anymore."

Paimon chuckled, but she could hear the pain in Bel's voice as he cracked the joke. The humor was a bandage, thinly pasted over a wound deep enough to swallow the cloth whole. In her travels, she'd gotten plenty of frosty welcomes, but with Bel, she could see it was different, an inextractable thread that ran through every relationship he had.

"And don't get me started on how many kids and even adults have grabbed my tail like I'm some kind of dog," Bel muttered.

"That's terrible," Paimon said, which felt weak. She wanted to say more, but she couldn't collect the words.

"When--" Bel started to say, but cleared his throat. "Um. When we met, back in Serion, was I the first tiefling you'd ever met?"

Paimon nodded. "Yeah."

Bel nodded back, and there was a small silence that passed between them before Bel spoke again.

"Were you ever scared of me?" Bel asked.

Paimon looked Bel straight in the eye. "When I met you, you were getting your horns stuck in a tree trying to rescue a cat who got down by himself. I literally could not have been less scared of you."

Bel smiled weakly and broke eye contact.

"I... yeah," he said faintly. "That wasn't my proudest moment. Sometimes I don't think through my uh, horns potentially getting caught on things. Like tree branches."

"Yep," Paimon said, and laughed again. "Ever since I met you, you've always put us before yourself. I mean, we'd only just met and you were like that! You're the one who made this all feel like a team instead of some wandering quest."

She paused. "I was never afraid of you, Bel. You're my friend, and I love you. But I think I was afraid, after all. Afraid of the tiefling."

Bel turned his face to her, meeting her eyes once again, but this time with a greater intensity.

"But I am a tiefling," he said. "I can't separate myself from that. I could walk into a city and hide things about who I am. Like my name, or my profession, or my history. I could change the way I dress, or the way I talk. But I'll never be able to change the fact that I am a tiefling. And that's the person everyone's always afraid of. It's me."

"It is you," Paimon agreed, frustrated with her struggle for words. "And you shouldn't have to change anything about it. I'm the one who has to change here."

"Then I want to ask you again," he said firmly, though she could see his adam's apple bob up and down, like he was swallowing down his emotions. "Are you still afraid of me?"

Paimon looked at his face. It was a tiefling face, that much was obvious. She had seen a lot of emotions pass through it, heard its voice telling her that there were people to save, that they would be okay. It was a tiefling heart, Bel's heart, that beat in his chest, that swelled up and encompassed everyone they met, shielding them from harm. And there, she felt safe.

"I don't think I am," she said. "You feel safe to me."

At that, something in Bel's countenance softened, and whatever emotion he'd pushed down started flooding to the surface. His shoulders sagged, tears sprung at the corners of his eyes, and he pressed his lips together tightly, quickly looking away. Paimon moved towards him slowly, tentatively holding her hands out to see if he'd pull away, and when he didn't, she closed her arms around his back and drew him in.

"I don't want to hurt you," Bel said, his voice muffled and shaky. "I don't want to hurt anyone."

"You won't," Paimon said, and believed it too. "You won't."

"But I already have," Bel whispered, lowering his head to her shoulder.

"That was Mythica and her weird glove," Paimon reminded him. "Besides, we know how she'll try to control you now. Soon as she whips that thing out again -- pow! I hit her with the sling, end of story. You don't have to worry about her, not when you've got us around."

Bel didn't reply, but hugged her a little tighter.

"Cutting the line!" Spider called from atop the mast.

Bel pulled away like a wave from shore, rapidly rubbing his eyes and standing a little straighter, looking from Paimon to the house and the rope that tethered it to the ship. Paimon saw the rope slacken and slither into the water as the ship drifted away, leaving a little corrugated roof poking out of the sea behind them.

"I'll be here for you too," Bel said quietly, and out of the corner of her eye she saw him hesitantly reach out his hand before taking hers and giving it a little squeeze.

The sun vanished beneath the waves, taking the house with it.

In the past week, the remaining crew of Captain Spider and the group, through Bel's careful leadership, had gained an alliance with each other. However uneasy as it was, the two groups had fallen into a rhythm of sorts. Elidyr rested, Spider's crew ran the ship, and the rest learned the ropes. Day by day. they followed the sane routine, with the only difference being that Elidyr had recovered well enough to no longer be bedridden. Out of all of them, ironically, Elidyr had the most knowledge on how to sail a ship. So, he fit in quite well, only lagging behind the experienced crew slightly as he was still very much in the recovery process from being tortured. But, all in all, the rhythm went along smoothly. Everyone worked to see the ship reach its destination – wherever that may be.

And Railyn continued avoiding Belxibis.

At this point, he was ruining out of reasons to be not where Belxibis was at any given moment and excuses as to why he was avoiding him. He couldn't even explain it to himself anymore. It was just a feeling that rose from his gut anytime he locked eyes with Belxibis: horrid jitters that made him queasy and filled his head with too many thoughts that resulted in nothing but confusion and pain. And so, Railyn avoided Belxibis at any chance he could, which also meant he poured his energy into side projects aboard the ship, for which there were plenty. It kept him busy, and kept him from having nightmares over and over again. Well, the same nightmare. If he went to sleep exhausted, he could sleep through the night without a night terror. If he was unable to, he would rather pace the deck until he was exhausted once more than actually sit through the same terrible dream over and over again. Valno often took the twilight shift, so he and Railyn could catch up and get to know each other better.

Despite Valno's... chaotic personality, he was quite calming to Railyn. It was like Railyn could forget any horrific details of his night because Valno always had something going on with him, and no matter how small said thing was, it always included a story.

Railyn still hadn't decided if Valno was a habitual liar by nature or if he really did view the world that way. Everything about ratio was so bombastic that Railyn could barely keep up with him. He doubted anyone could keep up with him. the boy was so exciting... Something about him was just so exhilarating, Railyn felt compelled by him anytime he saw him. Railyn didn't quite have words to describe him, but that was okay. He didn't really speak to as one of Spider's crew and he didn't feel like sharing with the others. The only one who he really wanted to talk about Valno to was Ivern, who could read his thoughts anyway.

Well, could.

They had been moving to a rhythm, but that rhythm had been unexpectedly destroyed by none other than Ivern. It happened just the night before, right before they had their break for supper. Railyn had kept to himself for the most part at that point in the day as he was wiped from the grueling work that was included in getting ship to sail, and sail properly. He had knelt and sat in a darkened corner towards the front of the ship, where most of the rest of the dual crew were sitting, with bowls of watered-down stew in their hands. It was a chilly night last night and that continued to this night, but a few of them had commented that they liked seeing the stars at night while they ate. The truth was that the stench of death still seeped through the wood below deck if they stayed there long enough. So, they endured the cold while they ate.

Ivern stomped over to him and plopped his head down warily by Railyn's side. A dragon had plenty to do on a ship, it seemed like, just as much as an experienced sailor. Ivern glanced at Railyn through the corner of his eye and huffed. Railyn couldn't help but chuckle and he scratched the who side of Ivern’s chin. Ivern had been growing immensely within the past week. It seemed like it wouldn't stop, and he was only growing faster. Too much longer, and he might not be able to fit below deck-- unless they opened up the cargo bay doors. At that moment, Railyn realized he didn't really know how large dragons got.

"Large.'' Ivern’s voice resonated within Railyn's mind like a town bell. It was odd, because his voice, even though it was not spoken out loud, had gotten noticeably deeper since the battle at Nua Port. "And dragons do not stop growing when we reach a certain age like most other species." That also surprised Railyn. How big did dragons get then? Neither of them had seen another dragon before, so he had no frame of reference.

"Speaking of that..." Ivan said, and while his voice did it change in Railyn’s mind but Railyn felt something change. Usually Ivern kept his emotions out of Railyn's mind, as it usually overwhelmed him, but Railyn as able to tell something was off.

"What's wrong? "Railyn asked, and Ivern shifted his head away from him. "There's something wrong." It was not a question. Ivern rumbled out a sigh.

"I did not wish for this, but this is the way that things must be."

"I don't like how that was said." Railyn began.

"Neither do I, but please, allow me to say this."

Railyn shut up.

"I have never met another dragon, and I feel them in my dreams, calling to me. I think it is not normal for me to be raised alone. I must go find other dragons, and it is food is scarcer as we leave the coastline. It pains me to say this, but it is getting more and more difficult for me to justify staying here."

Railyn gingerly placed his bowl of shallow, warm stew down to his right. His hand was shaking. He clasped it shut with his other hand. It took him a moment to calm himself enough to collect his thoughts. He steeled his mind, no wanting to let Ivern feel his thoughts or emotions, and not wanting to feel Ivern’s gentle mind touch. It felt too much for him, and he would break.

He said, in a low whisper, “What about me?" Ivern pushed his large snout into Railyn’s clasped hands. His forked tongue flicked in between Railyn's fingers, forcing his hands apart. Railyn couldn't help himself; he absentmindedly grazed his hands over Ivern's scales. Ivern pushed through Railyn's measly mental block. "Oh, My Beloved. You and I are forever intertwined. I will never leave you. But I cannot ignore reality as much as you can your companions."

Railyn looked at Ivern, tears stinging his eyes and blurring his vision. "What do I do...." without you, he desperately waited to add, but he felt that Ivern deduced that anyway.

"You will do as you have been. These people here, they are becoming your family. "Ivern stretched out, relaxing his wings from his body. "You have been holding off on a very important discussion."
Railyn didnt need Ivem to finish his train of thought. He couldn't get himself to say erythmg aloud, but he wanted to male sure that he would get this conversation dealt with.

"Good.'' Ivern rose to his feet, stretching out his back much like Lady would do, and took a single glance back to Railyn before he spread his wings and launched off the ship, rocking it back and forth. Railyn stood up and followed Ivern's silhouette in the sky, watching his form blot out the stars in the night sky, less and less as he traveled further away. Railyn tracked him as long as he could until he could no longer see him. He still stood there, at the edge of the ship, not allowing himself to touch the railing.

He didn't know how long had passed before he could no longer feel Ivern's mind touch, his non-physical presence that existed on the edges of Railyn's thoughts. It had not been there with him for long --only since Nua Port-- but Railyn felt every bit of its absence, almost like he had lost an invisible limb he hadn't realized he was relying on. The weight of what had just occurred had finally settled in like a rock in his stomach. Railyn felt dizzy, and he had to hold on to the railing of the ship to keep himself from falling. He had become accustomed to the, sometimes extreme, movements of the ship, but this feeling brought him back to his first time in the ocean. He was drowning, and there was nobody there to save him this time. He was all alone.

"Railyn?" A masculine voice tenderly reached out to him. He looked up, his vision blurry. For a moment, he thought it was Belxibis who reached out to him. The thought terrified him; he wasn't ready to speak to Bel, not yet. He knew Bel probably realized that, but the man couldn't help himself. He had to help when he saw someone in need. Railyn blinked several times, letting the tears vacate his eyes. No, it wasn’t Bel. It was Elidyr. His brunette hair had been cut short as it had matted while he was recovering and he no longer wore the robes he had donned up to his torture. He must have found some kind of fancy clothing left behind by the boat's previous captain. The owner of those clothes were stockier and, well, healthier than Elidyr, so the several various belts across his waist couldnt keep it from ballooning out in places where it wouldn’t if he was heathy. It kind of looked like Elidyr was wearing bedsheets and was poorly attempting to conceal that fact.

Railyn looked past Elidyr. The rest of the crews had basically all finished eating and some had started the chores afterward. A couple of them, including Valno, were staring up at the night sky. Perhaps they were still looking out for Ivern, waiting for him to return with his catch of the day. Belxibis' eyes were on him, though. Railyn avoided that conversion and instead turned back to Elidyr, who raised an eyebrow. "Are you back with us?"

"What?" Railyn did not understand what Eli was saying.

"You hooked like you were dead asleep on your feet. It’s obvious your mind was elsewhere." Elidyr glanced up. "Ivern?"

Railyn nodded, his mouth too dry to say anything.

Elidyr bowed his head in response. "I don't need to have the bond that you have with Ivern to not feel his presence on my mind anymore."

"He's gone,” Railyn managed out. Saying those words aloud placed weight on the situation that Railyn didn't want there. It made it real. Far, far too real. His hands shook once again, and he no longer felt like he was aboard the ship. Instead, he felt the crushing force of being trapped under the mines of Yse, his home. It was an all too familiar feeling, one that he never wanted to feel again. Trapped. Alone. Isolated. No one to help him. No way out.

A gentle touch on his shoulder dragged him out of it. Elidyr smiled warmly at him. "Let's take a walk."

Railyn scrambled to his feet, and followed Elidyr down the stairs to the belly of the ship, with one last look to the rest of the group. He didn't understand why, but he felt guilty, like everyone who gave him looks as he followed were judging his every move, and decided that he could do no right. It was something he needed to shake, but without Ivern’s guiding voice reassuring him. He was completely lost on how to do that. Just like Belxibis, that was a task for another day. For now, he focused on not tripping down the ship stairs while walking behind Elidyr, who still stepped down as if every step physically pained him. Perhaps they still did, or perhaps Elidyr was being overly cautious because his body was still so fragile.

As they stepped door to the crew quarters, Elidyr turned to Railyn. "How about we take a break in my room?” He asked between drawing breaths. Any color that was previously in his face had been drained completely. Railyn nodded. They passed by a few doors and swinging lanterns before they reached Elidyr’s designated room. He had been given one of the more bearable rooms, away from the rotting bluecough corpses and with a bed that wasn’t as stiff as the wood around it. Elidyr opened the door and walked in first. Railyn followed. They both took the sane positions they did when Railyn looked after Eli while he was recovering, with Elidyr sitting on the bed instead of laying down. The room was bare of any belongings that indicated someone like Elidyr was inhabiting the room. Besides the bed, a chest, a pot and a cup or two, the room was bare.

Elidyr leaned his heed back onto the wall and breathed out a sign of relief, like some kind of pressure had been taken off of him. He opened his eyes and smiled at Railyn. "I'm still not able to keep up with everyone completely. I can fake it for most of the day, but when it gets to around supper time, I struggle." Railyn nodded vacantly, vaguely paying attention to Elidyr, but his train of thought was focused on nothing in particular.

Elidyr cleared his throat and Railyn glanced up. "So..."

"So," Railyn repeated. He did not want to think about Ivern, but he had to, to get over it and because Elidyr needed to know what happened and why. This was one thing that Railyn couldn't keep as a secret. no matter how easier that could have been for him.

"I've noticed that you have been spending a lot of time-" oh no, Railyn thought. He figured they were going to talk about Ivern. He was not wanting to talk about Belxibis. He did promise Ivern he would speak to Bel, but he didn't promise anything with talking about Belxis.- "with Valno recently.”

"...Huh?" That took Railyn off guard. Out of everything they could have talked about, he was most definitely not prepared to talk about Valno of all people. Elidyr flashed a soft, almost knowing smile. "I said, I saw you hanging out with Valno a lot lately."

"What... How-"Railyn stammered. Elidyr pointed to a dark corner, where the shadow resting in that corner opened her eyes and meowed. Railyn had almost forgotten that Lady was there, with them, on the boat. She stretched out her paws onto Eli’s knee, digging her nails in, Elidyr hissed and swatted her away, muttering no doubt some kind of obscenity under his breath.

Elidyr looked at Railyn. "Just because I was in bedrest doesn't mean I'm missing out on any good drama." Railyn felt his face run hot with embarrassment. He knew not why, but he did not enjoy Eli's words. It was as if some kind of shared secret had been spilt. But that was ridiculous. Railyn and Valno had not broken any rules, and it was foolish to think no one knew they talked to each other and got along. So, why then, did he feel the way he did?

Elidyr shifted his back into a different position and sighed. "So, want to tell me what's going between you two?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

Was there something going on between Railyn and Valno? What did that even entail?

"I just... can't sleep a lot and Valno usually takes the night shifts so we talk. Or, he talks mostly and I listen."

Lady chirped before finding herself a comfortable spot on the foot of the bed. Elidyr nodded." Yes, I’ve heard that Valno started volunteering to take the night shifts. I couldnt possibly think of a reason why."

Railyn stared at him, dumbfounded. He had wondered why Valno was always up at night when he had that same nightmare that never failed to shock him awake. He had just guessed Valno wasn't much of a sleeper, at his boundless amounts of energy made Railyn think he had enough sleep, more than Railyn, that's for sure. But, just thinking about the possibility that Valno took those shifts for the opportunity just to see Raillyn.. Railyn leaned back into his chair. He didn't know how to feel about that information. How should he feel? His stomach felt odd, and he realized he left his stew back above deck. It wasn't a feeling of vertigo, just a feeling of nervousness or excitement. It didn’t necessarily feel bad... did Railyn like that Value as looking forward to seeing him? Was he not also looking forward to seeing Valno? To relieve him of his nightmares?

"You’ve been quiet." Elidyr commented.

Railyn frowned. "I've been thinking. I don't know what to say..."

"You don't have to tell me anything." Eli offered. "Although, if I could offer some advice..." Railyn nodded "I think you may like him."

That certainly wasn't what Railyn was expecting. He had never had feelings for anyone before, not like this. He had mainly kept to himself in the mines of Yse, especially after he had lost Ryun. He opened his mouth to speak, and the words came slowly. "I... don't know. I just like being around him. It makes the rough times a little less rough.”

Elidyr nodded knowingly. "You don't need to explain it to me. But, if you have troubles explaining it to yourself, I can always help. I've had my experiences with those things." Railyn shot him a confused look. "Not every man craves the love of a woman."

Railyn had never heard of that before. All the boys he grew up with in the orphanage had all found the girl of their dreams, or they disappeared before they had that choice. Maybe it was an Austrian royalty way of thinking. Élidyr seemed normal enough.
Well, as normal as their group could be. Railyn wanted to say thank you or something explaining what was going on in his head, but nothing would come out, so he just nodded.

Elidyr clapped his hands. "Good. that's all."

"Did you not out to talk about Ivern?"

"Nope."

"Or Belxibis?"

Elidyr chuckled. "Oh, no no. That is something you need to do on your own. And you needed your mind focused on something else." He sighed. "Oh, and I was curious." He pushed himself off of the wall.. "I'm sure Kniss is not happy we’re in here. Gossiping, instead of assisting with the after supper chores." He rested his hands on his knees. "Go on, I 'll goin you in a moment."

With that, Railyn felt like he was dismissed. The conversation was over, and it only left Railyn with more questions, and questions as things he didn't even think about until Elidyr brought them up. Eli was right about one thing, though: he had stopped thinking about Ivern, if just for a moment. The conversation about him and Valno shifted his priorities, and now, when thinking about Ivern, he was able to do so without breaking down. He more so felt numb than anything other feeling.

The nighttime chores went by without any more hitches. Seabirds had feasted on Railyn’s stew while he was gone, so he had no food to return to. Why seabirds were this far from the coast Railyn couldn't explain why. Neither could any of the actual pirates, who were far more knowledgeable about those type of things.

Railyn was stuck on cleaning crew with Marble. Once he had finished with that, he was exhausted. Maybe not physically, but he didn't want to think or feel any more. As he walked down the steep steps below deck, he was hoping he was too exhausted to have nightmares.

A few hours later, and Railyn spared awake, gasping for air. Even as the details of the dream drained from his mind, he rubbed his face and groaned. Slipping his boots on and swinging his outer coat over his underclothes, Railyn stepped out of his room and took the now familiar route to the deck. He didn't know if he was looking forward to the possibility of Valvo being up there or not, but he needed to feel the open air.

As he stepped onto the deck, he noticed a dark silhouette leaning against the railing. As Railyn stepped closer, the silhouette heard his thuds against the wood. It wasn't until Railyn got within a close enough distance that he could differentiate who it was that the silhouette turned to face him.

It was Belxibis. Railyn took a involuntary step back.

Bel spoke first. "Hey, Railyn. Can we talk?"

The waves crashing against the hull felt like they were shouting in the silence that followed.

A week had passed, and Belxibis and Railyn had barely exchanged three words.

Until now.

"Hey, Bel." Railyn's voice barely lifted above the waves below.

This was needed.

Belxibis knew that Railyn had a lot to process. The last month had flipped the whole boy's world upside-down. Railyn had escaped Yse, been exposed to a world outside of it for the first time, and thrown into the company of strangers a part of a prophecy none of them understood. Then he ran for his life from Belxibis in the heat of battle, was tossed into the ocean to escape an army, and was captured by pirates.

To say that was a lot was an understatement.

But if they were going to remain together - if they really were becoming a team, and this was bigger than Yse's freedom, the bluecough pandemic, and Nua Port being held under siege - they couldn't keep avoiding the issue.

Railyn was scared of him. He had every right to be after what happened. Belxibis had been manipulated at that moment in ways beyond his control, but if they never took steps to mend things, he could only see things getting worse.

They were a team. Or, at least, they were becoming one. It was starting to sink in, now, that none of this was temporary. This wasn't something either of them could just brush under the rug.

The fate of the world and the prophecy aside - Belxibis knew Railyn needed it. Even if it was uncomfortable.

Belxibis wasn't exactly looking forward to the conversation either. But he was going to have it anyway.

Bel tilted his head, gesturing with a loose motion of his hand for Railyn to join him by the railing, looking out at the ocean.

After a moment, Railyn stepped forward. Belxibis didn't know if it was hesitation on his part or just pondering his next step. Either was reasonable. The curly-haired boy gripped the railing with two tight fists, leaning his weight away from Bel.

The ship rocked beneath them. Ever since they'd been sailing towards the everlasting storm, the air at night had gotten colder. The cold bit through Belxibis's clothes, but he'd been growing used to it.

Belxibis rested both his hands on the rail and rested his weight on it, watching Railyn out of the corner of his eye.

It didn't make sense to dance around it.

"I know you've been avoiding me," Belxibis said.

He paused. He had a feeling he'd have to be the one to say things outright.

"But we can't keep avoiding interaction forever," Belxibis said. "Are you willing to talk about what happened in Nua Port?"

Because that was what this was all about. It wasn't like Railyn had been dealthly afraid of him before.

"What is there to talk about?" Railyn laughed hollowly, and it dwindled into nothingness.

Bel huffed lightly through his nose. He guessed he should've expected as much.

"I was used as a weapon and could have killed you," Belxibis said, each word feeling heavy like weights falling down into the sea. It should've been a relief to finally voice it. But all he felt was shame.

"If there was anything I could have done differently... I would have done it," Belxibis said. "I know it doesn't change how terrifying it was for you, and I understand it will take time to rebuild trust. But I hope that you know I would never do anything to hurt you. Not... not while I'm myself. Not while I'm under my own control."

"...Stop." Railyn whispered. Belxibis wasn't sure if he heard him right until Railyn shook his head and repeated it. "Stop. Please. Nothing you're saying is something I haven't already told myself to shake this feeling."

Belxibis watched Railyn.

"What feeling?" he asked softly.

"I-- I see you... in my nightmares. It's not you, but it is." Railyn rubbed his face. "I want to move on... or forget, or something. But I can't. Every time I sleep, I'm reminded of it. Of you."

Belxibis knew it wasn't that personal. But something about that cut deep into an already-open wound like it was a confirmation of all his greatest fears, and a confirmation of what he already thought everyone believed about him, deep down.

He wanted to believe he wasn't just some monster. But he had been, to Railyn.

"Are you still afraid of me?" Belxibis asked. Even though he felt he knew the answer.

"Yes... no," Railyn shuddered out. "Sometimes I see you, but sometimes I see... the same thing in my nightmares. And it's becoming difficult to tell what's real and what's... not."

"What did you think of me before Nua Port?" Belxibis asked. "And what happened with Mythica."

A chuckle escaped Railyn. "That was a long time ago."

"It was about two weeks ago," Belxibis said.

"Is it bad that I have trouble remembering what happened before Nua Port?" Railyn sighed out a half-hearted chuckle.

"I don't think it has to be labeled as bad," Belxibis said. "It just is. Your whole life dramatically changed in a matter of weeks. Things are different, now."

"I think -- I remember looking up to you. It's no wonder why Spider looked to you as our leader. Even when we didn't... label things, you did what needed to be done." Railyn smothered his face in his hands. "Now, though. If I look at you too long, I feel my nightmares itching to come forward. Sometimes they feel like they could swallow me whole."

"Have you talked to anyone about them?" Belxibis asked. "...The nightmares?"

"Ivern." Railyn sucked in a breath. "Sometimes I tell Valno when I can't sleep. Mainly he talks."

Belxibis noticed Ivern hadn't returned yet.

"Does that help at all?" Belxibis asked.

"Valno takes my mind off the nightmares."

"Ah," Belxibis said.

So they didn't really talk about his nightmares. It was more that it was a helpful distraction.

"And... avoiding me," Belxibis said. "Has that helped?"

Railyn said nothing for an extended amount of time. "No."

"I can't claim to know what it'll look like for you to recover, after everything that happened," Belxibis said. "But I do wonder if avoiding me less might help. To have more... positive, or at least neutral interactions. To counteract the one that keeps clinging to your memory."

He knew it was possible that could only make things worse if Railyn only ever saw the clawed, orange-eyed demon chasing him when he looked at Bel. But how was that ever going to change if he didn't at least try to see something different?

Belxibis didn't think there was anything he could do to prove himself. He didn't even believe proving himself was necessary. But maybe there was something inside Railyn that needed to be convinced again that Belxibis was trustworthy.

"I don't know what to say. I know what you may want me to say, or what Ivern may have wanted me to say, or even what I think I should say. I just..." Railyn paused. "I'll try."

Belxibis nodded.

That was all any of them could do: try.

"I know you don't seem to want any apologies," Belxibis said, looking down into the water. "So I won't voice them. But I just want you to know that even if our fates weren't irrevocably intertwined by some powerful prophecy... I'm going to protect you. And all of us. No matter what."

There was another stretch of silence between them, filled only by the wind and the waves.

Eventually, Railyn hummed faintly, the sound carried away from him.

"Can we... just stay here, in silence?" Railyn finally spoke. "For a bit? I'm not ready to go back to sleep."

Belxibis finally allowed himself to relax his posture and he leaned down, folding his arms over the railing.

Railyn didn't seem ready to talk about this. Maybe it was that he wasn't ready to talk about it with Belxibis, or maybe he just didn't have language yet to put how he felt to words.

Belxibis could understand that.

The pain was so recent. To expect him to be able to articulate everything a week later wasn't only unrealistic, it was unfair.

Even Belxibis didn't know if he was ready to be honest with Railyn about how he felt about it all.

The guilt still hung around his neck like a yoke of stone. If he fell into the ocean, he wondered if it would pull him under. As long as he was above the waves, he was just waiting for the day it'd choke him.

"Sure," Belxibis said softly.

And so they stood in silence.

Belxibis didn't keep track of how much time had passed. He simply let his eyes travel back and forth over the horizon.

Belxibis didn't know how he'd imagine this conversation going. He'd gone in with very little expectations at all, and now that he looked back, he realized it was probably for the best. They'd exchanged more words than they had in a week, and at least Railyn had been able to express some things honestly.

That was a start. And a start was good enough.

Hopefully, with time, Railyn would come around.

At least, that was where Belxibis hoped things would go. But he found himself doubting if that would ever be possible.

All his life, no one ever seemed to "come around." They came to a conclusion of what he was like before they even met him and they stuck to him.

Railyn said he'd looked up to him. But had that actually been true?

Doubt swirled in his stomach as the silence dragged on, and eventually, Railyn pulled away from the railing.

"I'm getting tired," Railyn said quietly. "I think I'll go to sleep now."

"Goodnight," Belxibis said, watching as Railyn turned to leave. He could still see how Railyn favored his weight on one leg more than the other - the imprints from Nua Port had yet to fade.

And the scars would remain forever.

He turned away, beginning to pace the length of the port side as he rubbed at his shoulder.

He still couldn't remember what happened.

Sighing, Belxibis kept his head up as he walked. He was still on watch. Suddenly, behind him, he heard a thump and turned around to see that Captain Spider had swung down from one of the ropes to land a few feet away from him. He hadn't even known she was up there.

He could only assume she'd seen and heard all of that.

"Oh. Spider," he said with a small, wearied smile.

She walked forward, eyes trained on the sea as she came to stand next to him and leaned against the railing. "Bel," she acknowledged.

Bel wandered over to her but stayed standing, his hands in his pockets.

"Can't sleep?" he asked. She gave a slight smile.

"Can you?"

So her answer was no, then.

"I probably won't be able to for a while," he said. But it felt like a partial truth.

He was exhausted. But he'd been exhausted for weeks, now. Ever since this journey began.

Spider's eyes trailed from the dark water to look at him. It was hard to tell what she was thinking, or if she was thinking about anything other than the slight breeze in the air. It was hard to tell anything about her, really. Being around her made Bel feel awkward somehow, like he was a step behind on something he was expected to know.

"There's showers brewing," she said, looking back at the water. "You can smell it in the air."

"The storm?" Bel asked.

Spider shook her head. "We're close," she said, "but not that close." She leaned forward, the stone on her choker hanging as she extended an arm and pointed into the distance. "The sea's unsettled," she said. "There, in the distance. The waves."

Following her finger, Belxibis could see the pattern of the waves in the distance dancing, more erratic.

He was still learning about the ocean, but he nodded. He'd been trying to soak in everything he was learning over the past week, and the sooner he grasped it, the sooner he could be of use on Spider's ship and be less of a burden to her and her crew.

"Can you tell how rough it'll be?" Bel asked.

Spider tilted her head, watching the waves. "Depends on the wind," she said. "The air is more humid than normal, even though there isn't much heat. It'll be quite a downpour, but whether it'll be destructive or not is a different question."

"Maybe it'll be for the best," Bel said. "To go through a smaller storm before we face the one that never ends."

Spider made a face that suggested she found what he said amusing, but all she did was stand up straight again and say, "Maybe."

"Do you really think it'll work?" Bel asked, finally joining her and leaning on the rail beside her. "Us... helping you face the storm?"

Spider stared silently at the endless expansion of darkness before them. She seemed lost in her own thoughts, before she said, "I don't know."

For once, it felt like Spider was actually being honest, without any quips or quick remarks to dodge the question.

Bel hummed.

"What's out there, anyway?" he asked. "What's in the storm that you're willing to risk going back in there?"

Spider stayed silent, eyes trained in front of her. "You know that feeling--the one where people are staring at you, and they're expecting the worst. And you don't believe them at first, but then you find out what you're capable of, and instead of feeling powerful, getting to feel the thing everyone else experiences when they feel that way, you feel like somehow, you've proven them right?" Her voice was quiet, contemplative.

Belxibis blinked.

Spider completely avoided his question.

And he couldn't help but feel like she wasn't even talking about herself. There was something about her words that felt genuine, but still intentional. She wasn't just being vulnerable for the sake of being vulnerable. She was asking about him.

So she had overheard the conversation.

He couldn't help but feel like she'd asked a question she already knew the answer to.

"Yes," he said, just as quiet.

And before she could take the reins again, he asked gently: "What do you feel like you've proven right?"

Spider glanced at him, seeming to exit some sort of trance. "What do you mean?"

"I assumed you know the feeling too," he said.

Spider watched him, before it seemed to click. She smiled wryly, a small hint of regret on her face. "That I'm dangerous," she said. "Uncontrollable."

Belxibis knew that feeling all too well.

"Why?" he asked. "Just because you're a pirate?"

Spider let out a puff of air, her smile spreading as she turned away to hide her face. Bel realized with a start that she'd laughed, or a small version of one at least. Had he ever seen her do that?

"Captain," she said softly, "being a pirate is the least dangerous thing about me."

"And what's the most?"

She turned back to glance at him. "Let's hope you never know."

Belxibis studied her for a moment. He offered her a small, sad smile.

"Likewise."

She watched him with a level of understanding, though her facial expression gave away little.

Bel broke eye contact first, looking down at his hands. He flexed his fingers, feeling the memory of the bony claws that broke through his skin.

"Do you believe that about yourself?" he asked quietly. "That you're uncontrollable?"

And though he was asking about her, he felt she knew he was also talking about himself.

"Yes," she said honestly. "But I have found ways to control that too."

As Belxibis stared down at his hands, something clicked.

He finally looked back up at her, and he noticed she was absentmindedly playing with her necklace, rubbing the pendant between her fingers as she stared out over the ocean.

Control.

The whole time they'd been on the ship, their magic had been suppressed by something. It was kept under control. They'd all suspected it was because of something the pirates had brought on board since they didn't experience a disconnect with their magic until their appearance.

But what if the reason for an object of that power wasn't just to take away other people's magic?

What if Spider was using it to suppress her own?

"Your necklace," he said. "Is that what it does?"

Spider pulled her hand away from her necklace sharply as if she hadn't realized what she was doing.

"I'm not going to do anything about it," Bel said quickly. "I just... figured it out."

"You haven't figured out anything," Spider said coolly. "It's a token of home, nothing more."

Right.

"Well," Belxibis said slowly. "It's a nice token."

A beat.

"I've never had much of a home," Bel said.

It stayed silent for a long moment, before Spider said, "Home is overrated. Family is what matters."

"True," Bel said. And he looked over at Spider.

He certainly wasn't going to say it out loud, but... Spider felt like family. And it was a strange thought, especially with how little history they had. Maybe it was more accurate to say that somewhere in his gut he believed that they'd become family. And he couldn't say why.

"That's your crew for you," Bel said. "Right?"

Spider tilted her head, and he couldn't tell if it was an acknowledgment or not. "It's your crew for you," she replied, and it wasn't a question.

Belxibis smiled slightly.

"Yeah."

She nodded, falling silent as she stared at the water. Below them, the waves crashed against the side of the ship lightly, as if the ocean wanted to play.

"For the record," he said. "I don't know how useful my magic will be in a storm. But I'll do whatever I can to make sure everyone makes it through this time. For my crew and yours."

Spider said nothing at first, eyes unclear and distant. "The chaos magic of the eternal storm will not be like anything you've ever seen. It feels nearly sentient." She paused for a moment, before she added carefully, "Malicious."

"Then we'll just have to tame it together," Bel said. "And if we can't tame it, well..."

No one had told Spider about the prophecy, and Bel still didn't think it made them immune to the consequences of going into a sentient storm. But if the prophecy was true...

"We won't let it win. We're with you, Spider."

Spider gave another small, dry smile, though she still seemed preoccupied. "Yes," she said. "You are."