by Riley Tune
“I did not see that coming,” Vida said as she walked past me and made her way up the ramp to the boat. I decided to follow her lead. “I’ll see you on the ship.” I said to him as he stood from his resting place.
I turned and looked on the ship to where Vida was. I warped beside her and as I appeared there I tried to catch myself. I stumbled. Vida reached out to catch me as I slowly went down.
“Warps, what in Keeper’s name is going on with you?” she said as she looked down at me. I was kneeling now. One knee on the ground and the other supporting my weight. “Nothing. I’m fine,” I said to her. “I probably just need to eat.”
It was a lie, though. While I was hungry, I wasn’t fine at all. I had heard it again. That voice when I warped. The voice of Grimsby Glen. Not only had I heard it, but I could make out what it said as clear as a sunny morning in Thera. It was a whisper of a single word. Etangria.
13
In time, my reaction from the voice in my head had passed. I had even warped a few times on the ship, just to see if I heard anything. Still nothing. I wasn’t sure why but, for that brief moment, he chose to speak to me. I wasn’t even sure what, or who, an Etangria was. I tried my best to push the thoughts out of my head.
We had been on the water for some time now. Vida, was having a hard time adjusting to not being on land. The constant moving of the boat made her sick to her stomach. At any given moment, she was likely to jump up and run to the edge of the ship again.
“It happens to the best of us, girly,” Craydon had said when she first began to get sick.
When she wasn’t sticking her head over the side of the ship, she would sit beside a guard who was moving the massive portion of wood, that he called a paddle, back and forth to help the ship along. At times, it got so bad for Vida, that she even felt like the mere sound of the water moving was making her sick.
I, myself, had begun to miss The Prime Sovereignty already. Moreover, I missed Thera. As the orbs fell, giving the water around us an eerie blue glow, the silence of being out here in the water alone was beginning to make me feel uneasy. Beside the sound of the water moving around us, many on the ship didn’t speak, and I just wasn’t use to such quiet surroundings.
At least I was only uneasy, though. I’m not sure if I was just tough, or I had already emptied my stomach back on the street, but the motions of the ship didn’t seem to bother me. Maybe it was because I was a Warper. For the most part, all we did was move around from one spot to another in a rapid fashion. Perhaps that’s why I was having a better time adjusting to our new means of transport than Vida was.
Even the guards occasionally had to stop their duties to lean over the edge and vomit. The only person who seemed to not be bothered by the motion of the ship, besides me, was Craydon. He stood on the ship, casually tapping his feet and humming a tune. As he continued to move to his own music, he removed a portion of cloth from his pocket and wrapped his hair with it.
He was still chewing on that stick in his mouth and occasionally he would lean over the ship and look into the distance. He would move his head from side to side as he took in deep breaths, as if he was looking, or smelling, for something that the rest of us couldn’t see.
He was an unusual man, but I moved to stand beside him anyway. Something he had said earlier was still playing on my nerves, and I figured now was the best time to ask questions. It wasn’t like he could get away from me.
“You know, that night I saw you and your crazy girlfriend, was the last time I saw Rollins.” He said, as I stood next to him. My brow raised and then a smile formed on my face. “It’s not funny,” Craydon said as he leaned on the ship and removed a leather rope from his pocket that he began to spin in the air.
“I had plans for him and I. That Rollins was a good partner. He didn’t speak, and most of all he didn’t negotiate for a cut of the profits. He was just good, free labor.” Craydon sighed. “He was a cute fellow too. A little young for me, but still.”
I let out a laugh again, and Craydon grimaced at me. Unknown to Craydon, Rollins was actually The Keeper in a different form. Had Craydon known he was walking around with a God at that time, he likely would had tried take on larger deeds of theft.
“I’m sure you and Rollins will cross paths again.” I said as I leaned over the ship and watched the falling blue orbs touch the water and burst. He shrugged as he continued to play with his leather portion of rope.
It was clearly a small piece of rope, but to a certain degree, it looked like a miniature whip.
“I feel like I’m going to regret asking this,” I said as I looked at Craydon. He looked at me waiting for me to finish what I was saying, but I paused. A loud groan caught my attention.
I turned my head to the sound, and watched Vida jump up from her seat and run to another side of the ship and lean her head over again. The sounds that came from her made me feel bad for her. All the same, I decided to stay where I was.
The last time that happened and I tried to help her, she smacked me in the face, and screamed don’t look at me. So, per her request, and for my safety, I decided to stay where I was and out of arm's reach.
I felt a small stab of pain in my stomach, and then thankfully it went away pretty fast. “Ask me what?” Craydon said as he snapped his fingers to get my attention. “Focus boy. I thought you Warpers were good at that.”
I rubbed my stomach for a second and then looked at the whip- like rope in his hand.
“First, what is that?” I asked as I pointed at the rope. Craydon grinned and twirled the rope a little. “This old girl is called Lash.” “Lash?” I repeated.
Craydon nodded. “Indeed.” “What do you use it for?” I asked him. “I fight with it of course.” He stopped moving the rope and then stretched it out. “Actually,” he said as he shrugged his shoulders, “I don’t actually fight with it. I defend myself with it.”
“You sure?” I said as I held back a laugh. “Positive,” Craydon said sternly. “You Warpers are all, doom, gloom, blood, and such. Using daggers, and knives. Well with Lash here, I developed my own form of defending myself.” He stuck his chest out with these last words.
I thought to myself for a moment before I spoke. I wanted to find the best way to ask my question without making it seem like I wanted to just laugh at Craydon. Even if that was exactly what I wanted to do.
“When did you do that?” I asked him. ‘If I remember correctly, you didn’t use it when the guard brought you to Jolin.” “You mean when you and crazy girly attacked me?” he said as he jerked his thumb in Vida’s direction.
“Well I didn’t use it then because, well, I deserved it.” I raised a brow and he held up a finger. “Don’t get me wrong, you both could have gone easier on me, but considering as how I almost got you both killed, I would say that makes us even.”
To my surprise, after his statement, he extended his hand out to me. I thought for a moment and then shook his hand. His hands were very rough. As if they were made out of sand, but I returned the firm shake just the same. “Friends,” he said as he looked at me and shook my hand eagerly. “I wouldn’t say all that.” I said.
“Just, show me how Lash works.” I was more intrigued by this rope form of defense now than I expected. Craydon stepped in front of me. “Okay now, punch me,” he said with a smile.
“Punch you?” I repeated back. He nodded. Well who was I to deny him a request? As instructed, and happier than I should have been, I sent formed a fist, and sent a punch directly to Craydon’s face. In an instant, he stepped to the side , with hair flying, and with speed I didn’t expect, wrapped Lash around my wrist. The next thing I knew I was being flipped over Craydon’s back and landed on the floor of the ship.
My eyes blinked as I tried to grasp what just happened. “Hey” Vida said as she slowly stood up and began to move towards us. I took in a few deep breaths and tried to ignore the pain in my back.
“It’s okay,” I said from the ground
as I began to get up. “He’s showing me something.” Vida stopped walking and just looked at me as I stretched my back and twisted . He may not have had a dagger or throwing knives, but the flip had knocked the air out of me, and my back was still feeling it.
“He’s fine, girly,” Craydon said as he held his hands up, with Lash dangling in the air. She narrowed her eyes at him and mouthed something then sat back down beside the guard. “She’s dangerous,” Craydon said as he eyed me. “From the first time, I saw her I knew, she was trouble.” “You have no idea.” I replied back.
“So, all you do is divert the attacker?” I asked as I reached for Lash. Craydon quickly moved it away from me. “How do you kill them or put them down for a while?” Craydon’s eyes grew wide as if I had just said the unthinkable.
“I don’t,” he replied.
“I’m no Warper. By The Keeper’s name, I’m not even a fighter. What I am is a thief. I don’t stick around long enough to fight or kill people. I get in and get out. If a guard or somebody sees me, I try to take them down as fast as I can with Lash, and then I run as fast as my feet can take me, with as much as I can carry.”
That made sense. Seemed dangerous, but we all have our strengths. Craydon’s just happen to be stealing and running.
“Craydon, earlier you said Forgotten Gods. You believe in more gods than The Keeper?” He shook his head as he folded Lash and put it in his pocket. “Indeed, I do. It’s almost like how I believe in being with more than one partner at a time. Same theory. Now, I don’t go around telling people in The Prime Sovereignty that, but I do.”
“You just don’t see too many people in the Prime Sovereignty that believe in more than one god.” I said to him. Craydon raised a single finger. “That’s why I keep it to myself. People change when your religious beliefs are different than theirs. Trust me, I know.”
He turned and leaned on the edge of the ship and looked out into the water again. “Plus, there are no Bygone in The Prime Sovereignty.” I could feel my face frown as he said this.
“You two seem rather chatty over here,” Vida said as she joined us on our side of the ship. It seemed like it took a lot of energy for her to just speak the words, and her mouth was gaped opened as if she was very tired.
“Yes. He is clearly the nicer one in your relationship,” Craydon said as he winked at her. “Are you feeling better, girly?” he asked.
“I’ll feel better when we get back on land,” Vida groaned as she slumped down and sat with her feet close to her. “Craydon was just telling me about something called Bygone.” I said to her as I looked at Craydon.
“Oh, yeah. The Bygone. The. Not just Bygone, are a religious people of sorts. Extreme bunch. Anyway, I meet a few, liked what they had to say, and so I joined them when I was in Rewling the first time. Good bunch of folks, but as I said, extreme.”
“Extreme?” Vida said from her spot on the ground. She was still curled up in a ball as she allowed her head to rest on the inside of the ship. “That’s right. They branded me and everything,” he said as he turned his wrist upward for us to see.
On the inside of his wrist was a small tattoo of two interlocking circles and with two lines going directly through them from left to right. “That’s the mark of The Bygone?” I asked him as I looked at it closely. “Yep.” “Looks stupid to me,” Vida said. “Galcon men, now those are some nice tattoos.
“Oh, really?” I said as I jerked my head as I looked down at her at her. She reached up and smacked me on my butt and grinned at me. “I only have eyes for you, my love,” she said in her best Cloud impression.
I ignored her. “So, these Bygone, believe in other gods?” Craydon shook his head and placed a fresh twig in his mouth. “They believe in The Keeper, and then three other Gods. I can’t remember their names though.” “You can remember the names of the gods, of a religious group that branded you?” I asked him.
He shook his head. “There was wine, women, and men, at that place. A lot went on that I can’t remember,” Vida snorted and shook her head. Craydon and his religion were closer to the truth than they may have known.
I thought back to the vision that The Keeper showed me before. He showed me himself, and his three friends. When all four of them found what they called the Rift, and eventually became gods.
So how did these Bygone know? Rewling was possibly proving to be the right place to go for answers after all. “Now, that doesn’t seem right.” Craydon said as he jerked up.
“What doesn’t,” I asked him. He pointed off into the distance. “The fog.”
“I thought you said Rewling was just beyond the fog.” Vida said as she, slowly pulled herself up and watched the approaching fog. “I did, and it is. When I made this trip last time, it was just fog,” Craydon said. “Still looks like fog to me,” Vida replied back as she stretched her neck some in the direction of the fog.
“Maybe,” Craydon slowly replied as he moved his head around searching. “It just looked like, for a second I saw something, move.” I looked to him. “Inside the fog?” I asked. He shook his head as he squinted at the fog. It was closer than before now.
The ship began to rock more as the waves of the water grew larger.
I reached inside myself, and took hold of my power, using it to enhance my vision for a few moments. Suddenly the fog became so vivid that it looked like I was standing right in the center of it, and there it was.
Something that looked like it was inside the fog. Moving. No, not moving, swaying. Swaying from side to side. It formed a large silhouette. Then it moved again and this time I saw what was without doubt a face.
A large human- like face, with water flowing down over itself, and that had eyes the size of carriages. On top of the face, where hair would have been on a human, was the source of the flowing water. Water that fell down on a muscular body made out of what was unmistakable skin and stone.
My heart skipped as I gasped and my vision returned to normal. “Don’t go into the fog!” I shouted at the guards propelling us forward. Some of them looked up to me, but the others simply kept moving the boat forward.
“What is it Warps?” Vida asked me as she looked to the fog. Before I could answer our ship was upon the fog, and just as the ship went to pass through it, a massive fist sprung into life and came crashing down on the ship, ripping our vessel apart into two .
Vida, Craydon, and myself grasped the sides of the ship we were previously leaning on and held on as this giant fog beast lifted us out the water. The guards weren’t fast enough to hold on and were sent crashing down into the water and the debris of the ship rained down upon them.
The guards screamed as they fell. The sound of their scared yells followed by them colliding with the water was saddening. There was nothing I could do to save them all. Some guards survived the fall, only to be crushed by more falling debris from the ship. It was pushing them underwater as they struggled for air to breath.
We all looked down at the death below us. “Any ideas, chaps?” Craydon shouted as the fog beast let out a roar and shook us in his hand. I had no ideas, and before I could even try to figure out what to do I heard a sound that sent a shiver over me. Vida began to scream.
14
“Vida,” I screamed as I saw her. She was falling. Falling to the death that awaited her in the water below. I reached inside myself and grasped my power, harder than I ever had before, and tried to warp her back to me, but nothing happened.
I know I could warp people with me if I touched them, but trying to warp Vida without touching her seemed to be beyond my ability. Apparently, it only worked on non- living things.
“I’ll get her,” Craydon said and, just like that, he let go of the ship and began to fall. No, he wasn’t falling, he was diving. While Vida fell with her arms and legs spread out, Craydon looked like a human spear cutting through the air with purpose.
From here the water below looked as if it was closing in on Vida faster that I thought p
ossible, but then again, so was Craydon. “Please, please,” I said to myself as I continued to hang on and watch the two fall. Water began to fall down on me now, too.
The fog beast shook the chunk of ship he was holding and I felt my grip begin to give way. The last time I felt this was, I was hanging on the ledge of a moving carriage in Pradeep, hoping not to fall and hit the ground that was a few feet away. Now, I wished we all were in such a situation.
Closer, and closer Craydon moved through the air as he finally wrapped his arms around Vida and they both cut through the water effortlessly. My grip was almost gone, but I couldn’t turn away .
Chunks of wood scattered the area below me, and so did the bodies, and blood, of many guards. They floated lifelessly, lit slightly by the glow of the orbs falling around them. They couldn’t swim. Most people couldn’t in the Prime Sovereignty. There was no need. Only a select few found it fun to go to the shore and get in the waters, and there weren’t many areas in all the kingdoms that had large bodies of water.
My eyes continued to search the chaos below me. I could feel my heart pounding in my fingertip as they finally gave way and I, too, began to fall. The fog beast screamed once more as I fell.
Rolling over in the air, I looked down, and felt relief wash over me as I exhaled a breath I didn’t even realize I was holding. Craydon, and Vida, were pulling themselves up on a chunk of wood that floated in the water. They were safe.
She, was safe.
The scream from the fog beast came back as I heard its hand pass over me, as it attempted to hit me as I fell. Its loud screams consumed the silence once more, and made my ears hurt.
Fire seemed to flow inside my body. Anger the likes of I hadn’t felt in months, gave me power, as I reached inside myself and touched my own. Still falling, with my dagger in hand now, I removed my cloak and threw it into the wind as I warped directly at the fog beast.
This creature was monstrous. Standing in the water, it seemed as tall as the palace. From the height of it, and they fog surrounding it, I could barely see its face. What I could see was chunks of skin and rock that formed its body and that’s where I warped to.
