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Deeds Undone	By : Mike256bit Category: +S through Z > Skies of Arcadia Views: 2748 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Skies of Arcadia, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 3
- 4
All previous notes apply. I apologize for the delay and the
(insofar) lack of NC-17 content. Next chapter, yes.

Chapter Three
"United"

�� Just about
an hour before, Aika and Vyse were still sitting on the fence that girded the
walkway to the tip of Crescent
Island. They'd seen Fina
off without much flourish, reserving words that would make them feel guilty and
sparing none that bade her safe passage. Vyse sort of understood why she wanted
to go; after all, ever since she'd come down from the Great Silver Shrine, she'd
practically been with them since the first moonstone had come down. The initial
thrill she'd gotten from having her own quest was replaced by the exhilaration
of working with the Blue Rogues and, most notably, with a true hero. However,
as the world had begun to regain order, that yearn had come back to her and
ever since the atrocities of Valua, Nasr and Ixa'taka, she'd felt nothing less
than a personal obligation to find out what was happening.
�� Vyse had
very much wanted to go with her, but he recognized that it was probably a place
limited to Silvites and that he would only cause interference. Still, he couldn't
help but think about it as he watched the darkened sky, trying his best to
convince himself that he could see Fina returning already.
�� "When
do you think she'll be back?" Aika asked dreamily, eyes cast upwards.
�� "Probably
not until morning . . . the trip isn't long but who knows what she might find?"
Aika laughed softly, nodding. "That place was always sort of . . .
mystical. I guess it makes sense that it might still hold some answers."
�� "I
guess," she replied faintly, not at all convinced." Vyse broke his
gaze away from the heavens to look at her, squinting a little to make out her
features which were hidden from the moonlight by a scattering of clouds. The
fish were jumping in the pond, trying to snatch low-flying bugs that were
sticking out the end of the season. Eventually, the splashes died down, and the
pair of pirates was once again left to the silence of the night.
�� Aika
sighed, not quite content with the quiet. She spoke carefully, a distant
quality in her inquiry. "Why did you let her go, Vyse?"
�� He grinned
slightly, wondering the same. "I just had to. You saw her. You saw how
much it meant to her. She feels like she has a duty to do this � ever since the
Rains fell, she's wanted to help as many as she could and this is probably the
best way." Vyse slapped her on the back, a winsome smile on his face. "I'd
do the same for you."
�� "Yeah?"
she asked. "Good." She looked away for a moment, reaching up to pluck
Vyse's hand from her back and hold it in her own. "I'm a little scared,"
she confessed, shortly after scooting nearer to him, resting her head on his
shoulder. He wordlessly nodded, covertly scratching his nose as some of her stray
hairs reached up to tickle his skin.
�� "You've
got nothing to fear, Aika. Fina will come back. We'll always be together, you
know?" She looked up, head still nuzzled against him. "I don't think
I'd be very happy if I didn't have both of you," he said quietly.
Absent-mindedly, his fingers tightened around her hand, Aika taking it as a cue
to sit up. Vyse turned to look back to see her demurely staring at him.
�� "What
is it?" he asked. Aika's head tipped to the side a little as she very
slowly leaned in, swallowing back a deep breath. A tad mesmerized, Vyse watched
as she came toward him, eyes closing. His heart began to throb wildly; he could
feel the blood flowing through his
face, brightening his cheeks. He bit back further questions and closed his eyes
as well, using the hint of her sweet breath over his lips as his guide.
�� A faint
boom, unmistakably the sound of unbridled cannon fire, or at the very least
gunpowder, caused the two of them to whip around, staring out towards Nasrad. "What
was that?" Aika asked, flushed.
�� "Sounded
like an explosion," Vyse mused as he finally realized that he had clutched
Aika's hand twice as hard as he intended in order to subdue his trembling. She
eased her fingers from his and hopped down to the ground, walking to the edge
of the island, Vyse following soon after. They listened intently, a smaller,
fainter series of thunder carried on the winds from the Red Moon City. They traded worried glances, their
foiled contact already forgotten, and after using communication reserved only
for childhood friends, they sprinted off, Vyse racing for the hangar while Aika
scrambled to alert the crew.
�� The Vagabond was setting out.

-o-

�� Shortly
after the Delphinus was fully stocked
and the loading crew (minus one) was returning to their homes, Lawrence, Marco and
Drachma were patrolling the cargo bay. The helmsman was finally dry, for the
most part, his hair still a little damp and matted down on his skull. Every now
and then he shook his head around in order to get the wet hairs from his eyes.
He handed a clipboard to Marco as they passed box after box, ordering him to
control the double-check. There were 23 full-sized crates in all, each easily
large enough to hold four grown men. They sat stacked to either side of the
ship's hull, a narrow passage wide enough for them to file through two at a
time. Drachma used his arm to wrench open the boxes one by one, while the young
sailor counted out this and approximated that.
�� "Quite
a purchase, Lawrence,"
Drachma grumbled as they came across a crate of cannon ammunition. "Yea' preparin' for war?" Marco crawled out of the giant
box, flashing them the thumbs up, ticking off some items on his list. Drachma
pushed the wooden panel closed, resealing the cargo with a quick pound from his
heavy arm.
�� "Not
quite," Lawrence
curtly replied as they tallied off gear grease, machine oil, and quite a few apo waxes. "We've just been running low on supplies
after a few run-ins with persistent black pirates."
�� "Heh. Hard to believe anyone has the nerve to attack the Delphinus."
�� Lawrence helped Marco
climb into the next crate with a boost from his foot. "Ow!
You jerk!" Marco cried. "There're cannonballs in here! Damnit, my
head. . ." The helmsman hid a smile, turning back to Drachma as his young
charge counted aloud.
�� "Actually,
Captain Vyse typically finds time to save merchant ships from attack. We're
rarely fired upon, unless we venture to the south where those floating . . .
web-creatures live." Drachma visibly shuddered.
�� "Aye,
disgusting critters." He gave Lawrence
a hard look before his voice dropped, a decided change in the subject demanding
a change in tone. "Boy, ye'suspect foul play,
don't yea'?"
�� "The
fire, I suppose you mean."
�� "Indeed."
�� Lawrence didn't
immediately reply, pausing to help Marco climb down
from a box stacked atop another. They moved on to the last ten, or so, finding
the same collection of greases, waxes, kits and a few emergency provisions. As
the little sailor scrambled up to inspect another crate, Lawrence spoke.
�� "I do.
But I can't say much more than that I fear that explosion might have been
targeted for the Delphinus."
Drachma nodded, cracking his neck to the side once done.
�� "Agreed."
�� Lawrence turned to the
sound of a flare bursting over the ship and quickly walked to a nearby porthole.
The Vagabond was waiting outside,
Vyse and Aika standing impatiently on its deck. Lawrence whistled to Drachma, motioning for
him to follow on his way to the bridge.
�� "Marco,
finish the inventory," he said as the two climbed a nearby ladder.
�� "But I
can't open these boxes without Drachma's arm!" he protested, jumping when
a crowbar was thrown down from above. The helmsman's voice followed:
�� "You
have all night to get it done. Be quick about it." Marco's heart sank as
he trudged toward the fallen crowbar, a dark scowl on his face. The hatch above
him closed and locked, leaving him alone in the echo-chamber of a cargo bay. He
picked up the heavy bar, almost weighing as much as he, and dragged it back to
the remaining handful of crates. The trip down the aisle zapped a lot of his
energy and he almost immediately had to sit down for lack of breath once he
arrived.
�� "Damnit,"
he panted. A few moments later, after the ship had rumbled to life, he got back
to his feet and picked up the dense metal and awkwardly jammed the sharp edge
into the crack between the boards on the edge of the last box. He shifted his
hands so that he could lever the crate open, and after the fourth full-bodied
push, he finally heard the splintering crack of a loosening nail. He forced the
bar in deeper, using his weight to press against the other end until the panel
finally creaked open enough for him to slip his body inside, where he could
then force the wood to move with his legs and back.
�� Nearly
exhausted, he wearily checked the contents before he crawled out of the
container. He wiped his sweating brow; while the heat of Nasr was slipping
away, the exertion was making up for it. Not to mention that the cargo bay was
great at insulating the warmth the baking sun had bestowed upon it. If the bay
doors hadn't been open all day, Marco would have been roasted alive and the
three crates of concussion bombs would have surely detonated.
�� He sank
down and sighed, dropping his clipboard next to him. "There has to be a
better way," he muttered, looking around the poorly-lit bay area. Across
from him on the floor was a curiously smaller crowbar, one that would be much
easier for him to use, he was sure. Eagerly, and unconcerned by its presence,
he crawled over to pick it up, lifting his eyes to the crate before which it
sat. His brow furrowed, seeing the splintered remains of the edge of the box,
already torn by the bite of a crowbar's tooth. He rose to his feet slowly as he
reached out to touch the ajar panel, a gap about an
inch wide suddenly obvious to his adjusting eye.
�� He set the
small crowbar down and with both hands, wrenched the crate door open, looking
into the darkness of what was an empty box. He swore, as one of the Nasrian
workers had surely taken who-knows-what in the way of supplies. Marco turned to
collect his clipboard to try and cross-index what must have been taken when two
tanned arms emerged from the blackness, pulling the younger into the crate with
a muffled scream.

-o-

�� "We're
coming upon Crescent Island," Lawrence
called, Vyse looking up from the map he was studying with the old fisherman.
Torn pieces of yellow parchment were spread across the table, each with a
sprawl of words written across the paper. They marked Valua, Nasr, Ixa'taka and
now Yafutoma, which Vyse had just recently learned had suffered its own
catastrophic event. Mt.
Kasai had suddenly
erupted, sending a spray of water and rock into the air, boulders the size of
small islands raining down and ruining about a fourth of the Yafutoman
prefecture. Drachma, who was fishing some of the rarer breeds near the Dark
Rift, had witnessed the scene from the soft rumble he thought was thunder to
the unholy explosion of stone. Yafutoma was still functioning, thanks in a
large part to the Tenkou navy and the quick thinking of Daigo.
�� The sight
was still haunting, and coupled with the thought of similar events happening
worldwide, Drachma was thrown into a foul mood. "Vyse, this is something
to fear," he muttered. "Who knows what's happened that we don't know
about, aye?"
�� "I'm
starting to wonder," Vyse said acidly, rubbing his head. An aching pain
had quickly developed, this fresh knowledge of destruction doing nothing to
ease the tension. He stepped away from the map and up the Lawrence, deciding to take the wheel and
auger the Delphinus into port. Behind
her, the Claudia and the Vagabond were flanking closely, with
Aika at the helm of the latter. Vyse grinned, knowing that she was all too
eager to take control. Gilder had left command of his ship to his crew so that
he could keep an eye on the now two-person vessel Aika was commanding.
�� The Little Jack was currently being upgraded
in Nasr, but with the wildfire, the completion was pushed back by a day.
Luckily, his ship was spared by the inferno. They had decided to pick it up the
next day when they would also set out for Valua's rebuilt capital.
�� The fleet
slowly closed in on the island, spotlights on to guild them through the midnight
sky. An agitated quiet had overtaken the well lit cabin, with nothing but the
clicks and beeps of machinery to accompany the silent pirates. Lawrence took over the
navigation console as Vyse hit the altimeter and turned a few degrees
starboard, lowering the Delphinus to
just below the island's surface. He jumped, however, when the comm.-tube came
to life with a frantic distress call.
�� "Mayday!"
Domingo cried from the lookout tower. "Mayday! Incoming ships at seven o'clock
high! Two ships! Spell Pirates! They're going after the Vagabond!" Vyse growled, his teeth
tightly clenched as a soft yellow warning light began to spin on his console.
He threw back the lever on the altitude control, the ship rocking up towards
the high sky. He banked the wheel hard to port just in time to witness
cannon-fire erupt from the Claudia.
�� "I don't need this!"
Vyse yelled, ordering Drachma and Lawrence
to battle stations. "Where's Marco?" he demanded, looking back to
Lawrence who was busy sighting up the twelve-inch secondary cannon. "Lawrence?"
�� "Down
in the cargo bay, captain," he looked back to Drachma who was setting up
their Moon Cannon, prepared to blow the engines clear off first ship. It had
already cast a silencing spell on the Vagabond,
leaving Gilder and Aika to rely on conventional weapons.
�� "Lawrence, take the wheel,"
Vyse ordered, running back to take over his station. "They'll need an incremus and they can't cast." Lawrence dutifully took
the wheel as Vyse chanted quietly, fueling one of their magic cannons with the
spell's charge. As the mighty ship
swept down upon the exchange of missiles and torpedoes, Vyse launched his spell
on the Vagabond. The ship flashed
bright red for a moment before returning to its normal color.
�� "Direct
hit," Drachma grumbled. "Now, let's give these spell pirates a taste
of their own medicine." He grinned savagely, preparing two cannons with sylenis. "Preparing to launch!"
he bellowed, striking the console. He stumbled as the cabin shook, however, a
destructive crystalen shell colliding
with the forward hull. Two more shells were coming in fast as the ship dived
toward the noisy battle scene, both decidedly magical. Hissing, Vyse looked
back to his helmsman with teeth tightly clenched.
�� "Evasive
action, damnit! We've got a damaged hull! Any more hits like that and we could
go down!" Lawrence
spun the wheel portside, barrel rolling the ship as the behemoth dropped like a
stone between the Claudia and the Vagabond. The wake of the rushing Delphinus caused both vessels to sway
and keel, but they kept steady against the savage cannon fire. The two shells
passed harmlessly overhead, striking a nearby uninhabited island.
The Claudia unleashed a vicious combination of torpedoes, secondary and
main cannon fire, quickly sending one of the spell ships down, trailing a
column of smoke as it sank below the clouds. The Delphinus circled up and around, creeping up behind the final
pirate ship as it released a second wave of crystalen
shells towards the Vagabond.
�� "Drachma!"
Vyse ordered as he readied the Moonstone cannon.
�� "On
it, captain!" With the last of his magical reserves tapped, Drachma prepared
a final spell shot, closing his eyes as he chanted for blue magic. As the bow
of the ship dropped open like the jaw of a hungry beast, a massive forward
cannon emerging from within, the old salt fired a wevles spell into the open air. The spiral of winds forced the Claudia and the Vagabond to either side of the shot, their sails taken up by the
typhoon. The spell pirate's cannon fire fell between them, disappearing into
Deep Sky.
�� The Delphinus rumbled,
shaking slightly as a purple light, like an aurora, began to twist like a helix
around the giant cannon's barrel. Rings of energy swam up the shaft, collecting
in a growing sphere of magnificent light. The illumination in the cabin dimmed
to almost nothing when Vyse gave the order to fire, a shot of magic powered by
the moons leaving the cannon, arching toward the spell pirate's doomed vessel.
�� The beam
struck the ship from behind, demolishing its engines and the aft decks. The
forward decks bulged as the shaft of light passed through, splitting and cracking
the irons that held the hull together. The entire vessel was blown into
splinters and shrapnel in less than a handful of seconds, fiery debris raining
down from the sky. As the intense blinding light died away, the cabin lights
came back and the cannon retreated to within the massive hull, the bow of the
ship closing its satisfied maw.
�� "Take
escort speed, Lawrence,"
Vyse said after the normal hum of the ship resumed. He and Drachma wordlessly
raced out to the deck of the Delphinus, boots
pounding on diamond-plate steel as she came up between the Claudia and the shaken Vagabond.
Aika and Gilder were already waiting on her deck when Drachma and Vyse emerged.
Each pair ran to their respective rails, hailing each other with short waves.
�� "What
the hell was that?!" Aika screamed, her braided hair having come lose from
the stress of battle. Gilder was panting a little, as well. "They came out
of nowhere!"
�� "We'll
return to the Island to discuss this,"
Vyse yelled back, pointing to their nearby home. The two nodded and ran back
toward their bridge while Drachma did the same. Vyse stood still on the
vibrating deck for just a few moments longer, watching the Vagabond carefully. He gave his strange suspicion a second thought
before he realized he was being ridiculous and returned to the cabin of the Delphinus.

-o-

�� The
reunited pirate troupe emerged from Crescent
Island's underground
cavern, Drachma practically demanding to pay a visit to the tavern. Gilder and
Aika agreed, a hot meal just the ticket to sooth their collective souls. Polly,
seeing them arrive, opened the door even before Vyse had a chance to reach for
the knob, ushering the group into what was already a cabin alive with delicious
scents. Inside, they found Brabham and Izmael enjoying a game of cards, with
Robinson playing kibitz. Well, Izmael was enjoying it � he had a stack of gold
piled high next to him and the same could not be said for the engineer. While
Aika, Gilder and Drachma took a much needed seat, the captain strutted over to
his two favorite builders.
�� "Hey
Vyse," Brabham wheezed, "I know. She still works great, don't she?"
�� "Funny,"
he replied, taking a peek at his horrible hand. "We got a break in the
hull earlier today and, although I had it patched at Nasrad, I ripped it open
when I used to Moonstone cannon." The lanky engineer tossed his cards
down, folding.
�� "Are
you serious?" he asked.
�� "Every
word."
�� "Those
damn-fool Red Mooners don't know what they're doing."
�� Vyse chose
to ignore the comment, and instead got right to the details. "We were hit
by some falling rocks and the cannon was just too much for her. Think you can
patch her up by week's end?" Brabham ran his gloved hand through his beard
while Izmael dealt another round, this time throwing Vyse into the game with
three cards. "Oh, no, I'm not really�"
�� "C'mon,
Captain!" Izmael chuckled. "You look like you need a break anyway.
Five card stud." Vyse shrugged and picked up his hand, glancing back and
forth between the two. Brabham nodded after some thoughtful betting.
�� "I'll
take a look at her, Vyse. The ol' girl was due for
reinforcement, anyway."
�� "Glad
to hear it," Vyse murmured, scratching his chin. He fished around in his
coat pocket for some spare gold, tossing two coins down, taking a card. "I
call." He looked up to see that Aika was now across from him, watching the
game carefully. Gilder and Drachma had slipped into a discussion about pitting
their respective ships against each other and were officially in their own
world where Harpoon Cannon met the maneuverability of the Claudia. Vyse shrugged as the bet came back to him.
�� He paused.
The pot had grown considerably and Brabham was betting at least ten gold. A quick
peek down at his cards told Vyse to fold � there was nothing quite as
depressing as the off suit six, two, jack and nine he held. And it continued
like that: for at least fifteen minutes Vyse was folding after the ante, with
Aika occasionally trying to steal a glance at his cards. She had joined in
shortly after Vyse had and was soon out of pocket money. Dejected, she sat
enviously watching Izmael's pile of coins grow. The builder laughed heartily
after raking in another medium swell of coins, winking at Vyse.
�� "Shouldn't
quit your day job, captain." The pirate shrugged, picking up the newly
dealt cards. Vyse kept quiet, throwing in from a seemingly endless pocket of
coins. Brabham tirelessly raised his cohort, trying desperately to bluff his
way in despite numerous tells. Izmael turned to Vyse with a smoking grin,
expecting the fold. At least the captain was honest player.
�� "I
call," he said plainly, eyes focused on his hand. He collected a card,
studying it carefully.
�� "Oh
ho!" Izmael exclaimed. "He speaks!" He pitched in another
handful of coins, double that Vyse had. "I see that and raise as well."
�� "Blast
it!" Brabham yelled, throwing his cards away. "Fold." Vyse
chuckled quietly to himself and coolly stood.
�� "Just
a second." Vyse stood up and shed his coat, overturning it above the
table. A glittering shower of gold fell from his pockets, cascading across the
wood, a few spilling onto the floor. Aika's eyes literally sparkled as she
watched him shake it, a final piece dropping from the cloth and clinking on the
small mountain. "I raise." He took his final card, and after a quick
glance, folded them up into his palm.
�� Izmael's
confidence, however, could not be shaken. "Is that all you have? Because I
can keep going." Vyse smiled. "What?" He turned to Aika and
grabbed the boomerang from her shoulder. He set it on the table with a crash
before she snatched it back with protest.
�� "No
way!" she cried.
�� "Come
on, Aika, what're you afraid of?"
�� "You're
horrible at cards!" she shouted, hugging her boomerang close to her chest,
her face slightly obscured by its sky-blue edge. "Think again, buddy."
Vyse sighed, reaching down beside him.
�� "Alright,
fine."
�� "Wait,
Vyse, don't do it�"
�� A slender
weapon pieced the top of the table where it seemed to glow in the yellow light.
Izmael rubbed his ear to make sure the ringing he heard wasn't just in his
head. "My sword." The builder watched with a careful study while
Brabham simply whistled. "I should think that this rivals your entire
stack of gold, yeah?" Vyse winked, waving his cards back and forth. "What's
it going to be?"
�� "I'm
in," the builder replied immediately, the gleam on that sword too tempting
to pass up. While Vyse may love his blade, he was playing lousily the whole
night. And if he thought that he could out-bluff Izmael, he was due for a harsh
wake up. The builder threw his cards down, revealing a painful house, kings
full of jacks.
�� Vyse
winced, groaning a little. At that moment, Izmael felt the pang of guilt and
the joy of victory do battle. His sympathy, however, also suddenly kicked in. "Vyse,
I won't really take your sword . . . you can foot me some gold later, or
something."
Vyse shook his head.
�� "No,
no, I'll be taking my sword, anyway." He turned his hand around, revealing
a straight flush to the jack in spades. Izmael's mouth dropped open, his cigar
miraculously clinging to his lip as Vyse stood, pulling the Vorlik blade up
from the table. He sheathed the mighty sword and then grabbed two handfuls of
gold from the pot, just about as much as he'd bet in total.
�� "The
rest is yours, Iz," he said cheerfully, pulling
his jacket back on and pocketing the coins. Even with two handfuls, Aika couldn't
detect the rattle of money. She jumped up, flabbergasted.
�� "Vyse,
how did you do that?" He shrugged, grinning while Izmael shook his head in
wonder. "How did you go from folding hand after hand to that?" Aika re-secured her
boomerang and crossed her arms. Vyse sat back down to a waiting meal while
Gilder and Drachma were nursing empty plates as they'd already consumed theirs.
�� "Sometimes
you get lucky," Vyse said honestly, digging into his cooling dinner. Aika,
not exactly convinced, gave up and did the same while Izmael and Brabham
resumed their friendly game. For some reason, Brabham's luck had turned around.
�� Dinner was
soon over, and all that remained was the talk of the recent pirate attack. "Perhaps
they didn't see the Del," Gilder
suggested, tipping a tumbler of rum toward Aika. She sipped from her own small
glass of liquor, nodding faintly. "I mean, maybe they only saw the Claudia and the Vagabond, which would explain why they were stupid enough to open
fire."
�� "Yeah,
could be," Aika slowly agreed. "But, then again, they didn't turn
tail and run once they spotted her � they fired on the Del, too." She took another swig and
set her glass aside. "Maybe they
had some other motive."
�� "Like
what?" Gilder asked.
�� "Like
distraction," Vyse murmured, his eyes focusing off in the distance. "Maybe
they were just trying to tie us up and ended up giving their lives for it?"
He stood up suddenly, pointing to Gilder. "Have you been on the Claudia? �Do you think you could have been boarded?"
�� "Unlikely,"
he said. "My men said she was clean when they pulled her next to the Vagabond. No stowaways here." Vyse
sat back down, mouth curled in a frown.
�� "Damn,"
he muttered. "I really find it hard to believe that they'd just attack for
the sake of attacking. Especially at night. There's something more here."
He turned to Drachma, who had been silent since he'd finished his meal. "Any
thoughts, cap'n?" He looked up, his single eye
glaring at him.
�� "Sorry,
boy, I've got not one idea. All I can think about is that fire back in Nasrad.
I gets the feeling that yer
ship was the true target, and that these bastards who attacked us may have been
the culprits. Perhaps they were just that cocky." He pulled a flask out
from his shirt, tipping it back. "Maybe this isn't want yea' should be
investing yer time into. Yea've
got bigger problems, I wager."
�� "Maybe
he's right, Vyse," Aika muttered, curious as to what he was drinking. "It
might have simply been a pair of
pirate ships too stupid to know any better." Quietly, Vyse turned this
over in his head. He was a legend, damnit � people feared and respected him,
and everything about that attack, including that it was very sudden, was
declaring organization. To him, it reeked of distraction. Yet, the island was
safe and aside from Fina, no one AWOL.
�� Except the Primrose! he
thought, audibly gasping. "Where's Clara?!" Gilder spat his rum to
the side, coughing as Vyse jumped up again.
�� "What?!"
�� "The Primrose was missing and we didn't sail
with her!" He spun and pointed to Robinson, Izmael and Brabham. "Check
this island twice!" The three
jumped up and scrambled for the door. "Yes sir!" they cried,
disappearing into the night. Aika and Gilder both hopped to their feet while
Drachma slowly rose, his body unable to perform so acrobatically.
�� "I can't
believe we didn't realize it," Aika said distantly. She saw Vyse's face
darken and she laid a reassuring hand on his arm. "Relax. You know she can
fight � if they were hijacked we can find her." Vyse absently nodded as he
went for the door.
�� "Right.
Gilder, we're sailing the Claudia.
She's the fastest one we've got right now." Gilder raced after him,
grabbing him by the arm. Vyse spun, a little bewildered to be halted.
�� "Hold
on, we're sailing tonight?"
�� Aika came
up by his other side. "We need to wait, captain." He took a deep
breath, relaxing against the grip of the pirates by his sides. They released
him once he was still, a temporary moment of panic subdued by rational thought.
�� "You're
right. We don't even have a direction," he said calmly, blowing some hair
from his face. "Let's at least wait until the Island
is searched." He returned to his seat with Aika and Gilder following,
sitting down just as the door opened. Vyse's attention was caught by Robinson
who rushed in ahead of the builder and the engineer. They came it with a body
between them, bruised and a little scratched her, shirt torn and missing a
shoe.
�� "Belle!"
Aika gasped as they placed the unconscious girl on the unoccupied table. She
moaned in her delirium, blood trickling down her forehead from a wound on her
hairline.
�� Vyse turned
to Aika with a nod as they gathered around her. "I can't perform any more
magic today. It's up to you, Aika."
�� "I got
it," she confirmed, clearing her throat with a cough. She gently guided
Drachma and Brabham from her path extending her arms to the side, fingers
turned up. She turned a faint green, passing the glow onto Belle with the
utterance of a sacri spell. The gash
on her head sealed up almost instantly, as the scratches on her arms evaporated
away. She had a bruise on her exposed stomach that slowly melted away, turning
from an ugly purple to her skin's normal ivory.
�� "Why
not Riselem?" Vyse asked, but Aika shook her
head.
�� "Sorry,
I'm out. I used a lot of repair-magic on the Vagabond once that silencing spell wore off." Vyse sighed,
turning to Robinson.
�� "What
did you find?"
�� "Her
lifeboat had just landed when we'd reached the pond. She was the only one
inside, but she's at least alive." Drachma growled a little, clenching his
metal hand. "We saw the boat come in from the west, but it might have just
been swept into the currents."
�� "At
least we have our bearing now," Drachma said gruffly. "We should
investigate after this young'in' becomes conscious,
Vyse."
�� "That
shouldn't take to long," a voice said as the door creaked open once more.
Drachma turned to watch Ilchymis come up, setting a chuck of Velorium down on
the table at which they once dined. Vyse glanced at it curiously before
returning his attention to Belle. The chemist met Aika with a smile, kindly
asking her to step aside as he stretched out his hands to perform the revival
spell.
�� White light
formed overhead, bathing the entire group of onlookers in its resuscitating
glow. Belle shifted noisily, her eyes fluttering softly before she opened them
wide. However, she quickly nodded off, not speaking even two words. Ilchymis
grinned despite this, turning to Izmael and Brabham. "If you wouldn't
mind, could you get her to the crew quarters? She'll need a little rest before
she can talk." They nodded quietly, carefully picking her up and carting
her out the door. Robinson followed, if just because he wanted to feel helpful.
�� The chemist
stepped back and retrieved the Velorium he'd brought in, setting it down in
Belle's place. "Ilchymis," Vyse asked, "what's going on? Did you
see what happened to the Primrose?"
�� "Unfortunately,
no," he said, shaking his head. "I only just now saw them carry the
poor girl in here. I was down in my laboratory with this." He tapped the
metal, earning intrigued noises from both Gilder and Drachma.
�� "That's
quite a chunk of Velorium," Gilder whistled. "Love to have me a gun
made out of that." Drachma chuckled a little. "Oh, not before your
new arm, of course." The old sailor laughed again.
�� "Of course."
�� "Actually,
neither," Ilchymis said simply, placing his hand over the rock roughly the
size of a loaf of stone ground bread. "This is not Velorium."
�� "It
isn't?" both Gilder and Aika asked, a disappointment heard in their
unison.
�� "It
isn't," Ilchymis parroted, asking them to gather and observe as his hand
turned yellow, a glow taking over both his arm and that which he was touching. "Vyse,
I'm not sure what this means," he said quietly, "but watch."
�� The outside
world seems to darken as Ilchymis closed his eyes, the glow from his hand
racing up his arm. By now, the entire side of his body had adopted the strange
radiance, while the pseudo-Velorium began to turn an impossibly-bright white.
Vyse shielded his eyes while Aika had to almost look away from the light.
Suddenly, red cigarette burns began to tear though the shining luminescence,
expanding and eating away at the incandescent shell. The Velorium seemed to
melt away as a blackness previously unfathomed peeked out from underneath.
Soon, the light was overtaken by this sheer darkness, overpowered and defeated.
Vyse's hand dropped from his face as he stared at what sat � no, what hovered �
on the table; a sight he was sure he'd never actually see.
�� "Vyse,
your goggle," Aika whispered, drawing the attention of Gilder and Drachma.
It had become opaque again, but not for the mere second that made him think he
was going crazy. Instead, the blackness lasted for as long as Ilchymis's magic
did, the glass only returning to normal when he lifted his hand off the long,
double-ended spiked crystal that was floating above the grainy table top.
�� The four
turned their heads back down to watch as it slowly rotated, spinning like a
compass needle, until one silvery tip pointed at Vyse. He backed away slightly, the eerie black glow that now took over the table
both bright and flat as the same time. A razor thin line of reflected whiteness
cut along the top, while the crystal itself seemed more like unglazed ceramic.
It was matte, transparent and shimmering all that the same time, both its own
shadow and source of disturbingly shadowy light all at once.
�� "The
black moon crystal," Gilder finally muttered, hypnotized.
�� Vyse nodded
carefully watching as it pointed to him unquestioningly. He was tempted to
reach out; to touch it and pick it up, but was equally convinced that it was
not to be played with. Though, before much else could be done, the door crashed
open once again, making Aika practically scream. Eyes turned as a figure, virtually
soaked in blood and sullied with dirt, tumbled into the tavern and fell unconscious
to the stone floor.

To be Continued.

��
- 3
- 4
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