Castle & Conceit

by Jeremy Dwyer

  Some who drank the waters of the Lujladia Ocean only gained the long distance vision – a power often called “far sight”. Some only gained the ability to curve light – a power often called “light bending.” Some only gained the power to generate light. A smaller number of people, such as Mordecai, gained two (2) of those abilities. It was even rarer for someone to have all three (3), but even that was possible. It all depended on the innate potential of the person, and the intensity of the effect depended on the purity of the waters.

  ~~~

  The light that curved around the mountain awakened the crew of another ship known as the Everlasting Pain. That one was a ghost ship: it was made of real wood and metal and had real sailcloth, but the captain and the crew were spirits, traveling the sea, waiting to carry out their vengeance against murderers.

  ~~~

  Captain Keallach spilled the blood of many travelers in his nearly four (4) decades at sea, and Mordecai believed that the old pirate ought to pay for every last drop of it. Mordecai felt that it would be more than fitting to bring justice in this way: some of the most haunted and troubled souls that the seas had ever seen made up the crew of the Everlasting Pain, and they could put Keallach in his proper place, which was a watery grave, as far as any who knew him were concerned.

  ~~~

  On board the Burning Bones, the lookout shouted from his perch: “Enemy ship from the north!”

  The pirates, and Torin, could all see an approaching ship in the distance, surrounded by a strange blue light. It approached quickly – more quickly than any of the pirates thought to be possible. Moments later, every last one of them was filled with dread – especially Captain Keallach, who recognized the legendary ship, for it had menaced him before. He called out in disgust: “Arr! The Everlasting Pain!” The ghost ship soon overtook them.

  ~~~

  The spirit captain of the ghost ship – Captain Tychon – was hungry for rest, as he himself was tormented by “The Waters of the Endless Poison Sea,” which was the name, given by many sailors, to the punishment for the wicked when they died and left this world. Other sailors – and many who lived on land – simply called the place of afterlife punishment by the name “Maelstrom of Vengeance.” Captain Tychon had been a murderer in his day, striking down many ocean voyagers, in his search for treasure. Yet, he spilled the treasure overboard, because his true motive was to torment others and to delight in their pain and suffering.

  Captain Tychon was doomed to travel the seas and deliver punishments to the vicious pirates that sailed the seas after him. Every time he brought one to justice, his own pain, and that of his crew, would lessen, if for only a little while. It soothed them to take the many wicked pirates to the bottom of the world’s oceans, drowning them and ending their reigns of terror. Tychon now believed that Keallach’s time was at hand, and the crew of the Everlasting Pain was ready to deliver him downward.

  ~~~

  On board the Burning Bones, Captain Keallach saw that he was about to be boarded and probably killed. He had only one real hope, so he drew the vial on the chain hanging around his neck and drank from it the waters of the Zovvin Ocean. He became energized with the powers of the spirits. He spoke both out loud and in his dark soul, as he called to the darkness: “I call out to thee, mighty spirit so cold; who rules all the waters and guides the traveler bold; to ask a favor of the ocean powers of old.”

  A dark and hate-filled voice answered Keallach’s soul – the voice of the water demon named Matatirot, who was now with him and in him – and it spoke into his spirit, saying: “Give another piece of your soul, that I may set you free. Man of flesh, make yourself belong, even more, to me!”

  Captain Keallach had no choice. A pirate’s soul had thirteen (13) parts, or so the legend goes, and he had already traded in seven (7) parts to this demon of the deep, for favors in the past. Keallach was already more than half doomed, and this next trade would sink him further. Keallach answered the demon, speaking both out loud as well as in his soul: “To thee I give a share of mine, my spirit in part, on which to dine.”

  The ghost crew of the Everlasting Pain boarded the Burning Bones, walking through the living crew members and even through the walls, as spirits had the powers to do. Then, they took the wheel of the ship, turned it toward Nivi Tak Island, and set sail at full speed, crashing the Burning Bones into the island.

  The crewmembers of the Burning Bones were thrown from the ship, suffering broken bones, and some of their injuries were quite serious. Keallach himself received minor injuries. The hull of the Burning Bones was seriously damaged and she was no longer seaworthy.

  Keallach was terrified and wondered when and whether his escape would be granted, because he had always received the demon’s favors in the past whenever he traded in a portion of his soul. To pay another portion but receive nothing in return would have been the worst outcome. Of course, Keallach considered that a demon wasn’t necessarily trustworthy, but this did not stop him from expecting a fair deal.

  CHAPTER 21: House of Light

  Torin was also thrown from the Burning Bones, but he was barely even scratched, as he landed on wet sand on Nivi Tak Island. His youthful fitness was to his advantage, and he rose from the sand and ran from the pirates, who were still nursing their wounds. He ran toward the lighthouse and entered, and began climbing up the steps.

  ~~~

  From high up in the lantern room of the lighthouse, Mordecai saw the crash of Keallach’s ship and he was both horrified that the ship was at his island, and then delighted when he decided what to do next.

  Mordecai pointed the lighthouse’s lantern at the pirates, and used his powers from drinking the waters of the Lujladia Ocean to intensify the light and blind the old pirates – temporarily at least. The ability to intensify light came from the ability to bend it: by bending a beam of light back upon itself, the strength of the overlaid light beams added together.

  Mordecai was hoping to burn the pirates to death. However, they were under the protection of the demon Matatirot – unbeknownst to the old lighthouse keeper – so their injuries would heal and he would be unable to kill them, at least for now.

  ~~~

  Mordecai could hear footsteps coming up the staircase. He took a knife that he kept with him and had it ready. The knife was only meant to put a scare into an intruder, but the old man knew he wasn’t strong enough to actually engage in close combat with it. His real defense was keeping his powers of light at the ready, so as to blind any intruder.

  Ever-cautious not to make a friend into an enemy by an unnecessary conflict, Mordecai also kept the door locked and looked through a porthole in the door that looked out onto the staircase. He saw a boy at the top of the stairs, and so he opened a small panel in the door. “Who are you, lad?” Mordecai asked him through the panel.

  Torin – out of breath from the escape – answered the man, saying: “Torin. The pirates, they killed my parents and took me, to find their treasure. Another ship attacked, with ghosts. They crashed the ship into the island. I got away. It was Keallach. He called a demon.”

  Mordecai opened the door to him and said: “Slow down, boy. It sounds like your lucky day, since Keallach is about the worst of them that sail these seas in recent times.”

  Torin continued, catching his breath, trying to recount the story, saying: “I don’t know what’s going to happen. The pirates aren’t dead, are they? They’ll come back, right?”

  Mordecai considered Keallach’s reputation and said: “At some point, they probably will. But I can keep them at bay for now. Wait and watch.”

  Mordecai drank anew of the waters of the Lujladia Ocean from his vial and was energized. He pointed the lantern toward the pirates as they moved about the coast of the island. Mordecai intensified the lantern’s light as he did before. However, this time, the pirates got up and walked out into the waters, and they disappeared into a dark mist.

  At first, Mordecai thought that the pirates might have used the powers
gained from drinking the waters of the Ikkith Tar Ocean. He knew those waters could be used to hide in the darkness, but he also knew that he should be able to see into that same darkness because of the powers of light he gained when he drank the waters of the Lujladia Ocean. Thus, the disappearance of Keallach and his pirate crew was a mystery to the old man.

  “Watch what?” Torin asked.

  “Oh. Don’t worry about it. Those pirates are gone for the time being. I can see far, by the powers of the waters of the Lujladia Ocean. And I can’t see them anymore: they all disappeared into the sea,” Mordecai said.

  ~~~

  Unbeknownst to Mordecai, it was the darkness of a demon that concealed Keallach and his crew. Matatirot took another one thirteenth (1/13) of Keallach’s soul that day, and gave him and his crew an escape as their favor. That put Keallach’s soul at eight thirteenths (8/13) spent. He could only ask for five (5) more favors, and then his soul would belong to Matatirot completely, and have no part of rest and peace in the eternity of the next life, if the legends of pirate’s souls were true.

  ~~~

  “The demon helped them escape. Keallach asked for it,” Torin said.

  Mordecai believed full well in the existence of demons, but he didn’t believe in demons answering to men or helping them in trade: all that he knew that demons did was torment the souls of the doomed in the Maelstrom of Vengeance for eternity. So, Mordecai ignored the boy when he mentioned the calling of a demon.

  “Where are you from?” Mordecai asked him.

  “Javanda,” Torin answered him.

  “You said these pirates killed your parents. Do you know why? Did they have money?” Mordecai asked.

  “No. I helped some professors find a lost city, because they knew what the stars of the sky looked like long ago from the charts made back then. They had me figure out where the stars were at the time,” Torin said.

  “Atrejan! You drink the Atrejan waters! The old pirate wanted you to follow the stars back to the treasures left by the floating city, the city of Droatik, didn’t he?” Mordecai asked.

  “How did you know?” Torin asked him, surprised that this old guy in the lighthouse knew pirate’s treasure stories.

  “Why, Droatik is the most famous city, a city of the sea: they were the rich among the rich. Even the Jenaldej Empire’s been looking for their treasures, and even the city itself. If they think it’s valuable, you better believe it’s valuable. They don’t waste their time chasing fairy stories and myths. It existed, and even one tenth (1/10) of their treasures would be worth trading both your legs for,” Mordecai said, although he admitted to himself that was a bit of an exaggeration. Still, he believed that the treasure was big.

  “Wait? Are you going to make me tell you where the treasure is? Is that why you know so much about it?” Torin asked, now suspecting that he may have escaped one danger only to fall into another.

  “No, boy, no! I don’t want any treasure – everything I need is here. And I sure don’t want any pirates coming here to take it from me, because that treasure’s probably so big you could never keep it a secret that you found it, not even with a shadow guard! Pirates can smell treasure. And they’re not the only ones. Anyway, I can get you home, boy. Plenty of freighter captains pass by here. I’ll just signal one,” Mordecai said to assure him.

  Mordecai knew that the pirates were heartless and bloodthirsty, and the murders of the boy’s parents were just more blood that those pirates stained their souls with but didn’t care about; but the boy lost what he needed most, so the old man felt bad for him.

  “I don’t have any family, so I really don’t have a home. I don’t know where to go, just away from pirates, and their treasure. Unless I can find it and throw it overboard while they watch: maybe they’ll dive in after it and drown,” Torin said, now growing angry again.

  “Don’t turn into one of them, lad. Planning revenge is no way to spend your life. You need something to do, something to grow into, and someone to teach you,” Mordecai said.

  “They’re all I had, and now they’re dead. But, what do you know about what I need or want? You never met me before,” Torin asked, surprised.

  “Lad, what’s done is done, as sad as it is. But you’re still here, and there’s purpose to it, whatever the purpose is. You’re going to have to find it yourself, but you can do better if someone teaches you. You’re too young, just by looking at you, to go it alone. You need an experienced teacher, who can show you the sea, the land, and how to find your way,” Mordecai said to him, knowing something about pain. He himself grew up without parents, and was raised at sea by freighter captains.

  “Teach me what? I used to work in the Javanda shipyards. I can do that work anywhere,” Torin said.

  Mordecai then continued, saying: “You worked in the shipyards? That means you learned a few things. Now you can learn more, and make good pay that you can live on. You can’t stay an apprentice your whole life, boy. Traveling the oceans with a smart captain is the way to learn a lot, and learn it fast. You won’t have time to sit around and be angry or sad – a captain will keep you real busy,” Mordecai said.

  “What makes you think I want to work on a ship?” Torin asked.

  “If you stay here, there’s nothing for you. But if you find that you don’t like working on board a ship, you can just ask to go somewhere else. I think you need to get out and see the world, though,” Mordecai said.

  “I guess I can try it for a while,” Torin said.

  “Just make an honest effort. I was raised at sea, so I won’t lie to you, boy. It’s a tough life, but you’ll eat, you’ll drink, and you’ll get to be an expert in something useful. Maybe you can have your own ship one day. That’s when the money starts coming in, and you can be your own man,” Mordecai said.

  Mordecai turned the lantern to a different area of the ocean waters and flashed the light in the standard lighthouse code of the sea, to signal for a request for transport.

  CHAPTER 22: Charts of Stars

  In the distance, Captain Pradrock, of the Meticulous, saw the flashing light, read its code, and knew what it meant. He set his course for Nivi Tak Island, and went ashore. A boy was waiting there next to the old lighthouse keeper.

  “Good day at sea, Mordecai,” Pradrock said to the old man.

  Captain Pradrock was gray-haired, with a clean shave, and still slightly handsome depending on whom you asked, despite having spent thirty-five (35) of his years at sea, out of his total of fifty (50). He carried a vial on his neck filled with the waters of the Medathero Ocean. It energized his sharp mind many times over, and he was already a master mathematician and navigator to begin with, finding his way at sea and on land with ease and confidence. He used pure logic and mathematics to navigate, based upon the visual positions of stars, rather than being able to hear the stars like the drinkers of the waters of the Atrejan Ocean could. This meant, of course, that he had to rely on the red suns and blue suns, because the yellow suns were not mathematically predictable.

  Pradrock had studied in the famed naval academy of the Jenaldej Empire as a guest, but he was not a citizen. He learned from the best navigators, proved himself their superior, and was offered a commission as a master instructor along with imperial citizenship for his excellence. However, he turned them down, so that he could travel the world’s oceans freely, rather than working by their resource allocation laws, which he considered too restrictive.

  “This is Torin, and he could use a little help. Keallach and his crew killed the boy’s parents,” Mordecai said to him.

  Pradrock looked at the boy and said: “I’m sorry for your loss. I’d rather meet anyone under better circumstances. Still, we all have to make the most and best of what we have, rather than letting our sorrows consume us. Do you know the reason for the killing? Was there something specific he was looking for?”

  “Droatik, and its treasures. They found out about me, that I can hear the stars, because I helped some old professors find a lost city
on the land, using star charts from the past. The city had its own treasures, which Keallach took. When the professors told him about how they found the city, he came and killed my parents and took me out to sea to find even more,” Torin explained.

  “Keallach’s greed knows no boundaries. He is most definitely a pirate. There is not a shred of decency in such a man. It sounds like he didn’t even offer you the chance to spare their lives in trade for your work. Sometimes, I think Keallach just kills for the sake of killing: not because it gets him more treasure, but because he actually has so much hate and distrust in him, fearing that his gains will be stolen by others, who are just as untrustworthy as he is,” Pradrock said.

  “Perhaps you can teach the boy, give him direction. I’m too old. And you’re the best,” Mordecai said to Pradrock.

  Captain Pradrock considered this. Then, he turned to Torin, and asked: “What is it that you want? I can take you back to where you are from, if you have any old friends there, or an attachment to the land. I can take you to Emeth, where you could study, and that might be better, or even best. Or is there somewhere else?”

  “Emeth. That’s where I want to go. I’ve heard of it, and they say it has all the knowledge. That’s where I want to go,” Torin said.

  “Well, not all the knowledge. Some knowledge never made its way there,” Pradrock said to him. And he knew that some knowledge shouldn’t make its way to Emeth: it was too dangerous to be made widely known. Some knowledge was better kept secret – deep secret. And there are some places that Chroniclers of the Oath should never go, or even know about, lest they write about them and reveal too much. During his travels, Pradrock had seen a few things and knew a few secrets which he was inclined to keep quiet about, because the danger they represented was too great.