Northern Sea II

"-Under my name, I, Yidra speaketh to the heavens. Heed my call and bring forth a hammer of light, that I may smite my enemies!"

After the chant a massive bolt of lightening fell from the sky and struck Yidra. The lightening bolt looked as if it was going to burn him and his jawfish mount to cinders but nothing of the sort happened. Instead, the moment the bolt of lightening struck his body the faintly glowing tattoos on his body seemed to absorb it.

The other Molokites had stopped all they were doing and gave Yidra looks full of reverence.

Following which, Yidra reached into the saddle of the jawfish and brought out a bow. He pulled the empty bow and lightening flowed from his hand into it. An arrow made from lightening had formed in the string of the bow!

It was when the arrow appeared that everyone on the boats released that they were all about to die.

Aghora himself hadn't even gotten the chance to do anything, he had just gotten hold of a weapon and approached the side of the ship where the jawfish and their riders were attacking from. He had only come in time to observe the scene of lightening striking someone in the center of the Molokites, someone he had to shield his eyes from only to look into the sea and see a that very man, unharmed and pointing an arrow of lightening at their ship.

The hair on his back stood on its end and for a second he felt his two lives flash in front of his eyes.

The ship split into two! In that second where he felt his life was over a large hole had appeared in the center of the ship, close to where Rohkar would have been standing.

Then there was the loud ear piercing sound of an explosion and Aghora found himself briefly floating in the air before crashing into head first into something and losing consciousness.

Yidra still stood firmly at the sight of sunken ship, most of its cargo and crew members had been compleletly destroyed in that attack but there were quite a few items and people still unharmed. Though all around him the other Molokite warriors where shouting praises he didn't care much, he was thinking about the boat just now.

The merchant ship had nothing worth his attention but he felt like he should have destroyed it, like there was something on the ship, perhaps a person that he as obligated to attack.

This was not the time and place for that, he and his men needed to be on their way and so they left, with Yidra still looking over his shoulder at the destruction he had caused.

---

"Ah! have get up already?, me thinks you soon die."

Aghora heard a deep masculine voice with a funny accent but he was just waking up and was largely still dazed. He felt an itch on his head and instinctively touched it.

'Pain? What-' he squinted and tried to recall what happened last but a mature feminine voice interrupted his thought.

"Han-nechan, yoital terfa im people Noi awakened?", strangely enough, hearing the foreign language made Aghora quickly go from dazed to alert.

He instantly got up from the wooden ground by jumping from the lying down position and he took a hasty glance at his surroundings and noticed he was in the cabin of a large ship, it was night and he was surrounded by about...one, two, three... eight enemies, one of which was a woman, probably the one who just spoke, Maaec and four other members of the Rohkar's crew were also in the cabin, only two of the crew members were conscious and Rohkar was nowhere to be found.

After making this quick observation Aghora readied himself and was about to attack, he planned to go for the woman who had just spoken, Women typically didn't go on sea and this one was wearing some rather luxurious clothing, he planned to take her hostage.

The moment he moved though, another person had also approached the woman. It was a very pale and effeminate looking man with a red cat mask over his face.

As Aghora reached out to grab the woman who was standing not too far from him a series of needle shaped knives were thrown his way. He thought he could easily resist the pain and still wanted to go through with his attempt to take a hostage so he didn't bother trying to dodge the throwing knives.

When he managed to make contact with the woman he suddenly felt like he couldn't move. The parts of his body pierced by the throwing knives filled him with an intense burning sensation, the pain was so much that froze up, but he somehow managed to endure it and he grit his teeth and still tried to grab the woman and again he couldn't move.

In the short period when he had paused because of the pain the masked man had bound him with a kind of short scythe with chains attached. The chains of the weapon wrapped around his body and the blade of the weapon was held close to his neck from the sides.

"Move and I burn to nothing" it was that same deep voice with the funny accent but this was not the time to overthink or laugh, Aghora felt that if he really tired anything right now the masked man would burn him. The assurance he got was that the chains around him felt hot and he could faintly feel them heating up with any small movements he made.

It was now, when Aghora was immobilized that the rest of the cabin was able to catch on with what just happened. The woman herself who had just been attacked had her chest pounding heavily, she was shocked out of her wits but looked at Aghora with eyes full of desire and as for the men in the room, they were all sweating coldly and were staring daggers at Aghora even the masked man next to him was shocked, he never expected that Aghora could move as fast as he did, if he was even a second slower Aghora would be the one controlling the situation now.

The woman sighed and spoke in a relieved tone "Ähhh? Hana where would I fet no-have you? vom ghed Noi person né interesting", Aghora could understand some Zoanese words because of Zamir and since he couldn't move he tried to dialogue with his limited vocabulary and immediatly spoke up.

"I, no do fight. I want talk, have bad talk. I-have Aghora. I name, Aghora." the woman looked into his eyes then at the man next to him and back at Aghora. 

For a moment the room was quiet, Aghora and the masked man next to him where standing on the table in the center of the room there was the only woman in the cabin sitting in front of them and all around the table were men who stood in their seats.

One of the men on the sides of the table quickly spoke up, he was also Zoanese like the woman and like all the other men he wore the kind of clothing one would have under armour.

"Man from Noi, I am called Luli and this is the vessel of Lady Arashiberak the second princess of Domatha. We rescued you from the sea under her instruction. Friend, it is by her grace that you still draw breath." the man spoke in a rushed manner, as if embarrased but his tone still had a hint of condescendence.

"Luli? Friend, I understand the situation...I am called Aghora, tell the princess that I mean no harm and I was confused and I assumed everyone here was an enemy." Aghora's words were polite but he had spoken in a way that suggested he was indifferent, and this caused Luli to smile prompting shouts from the table to translate what Aghora had said.

"Your highness, the Noi countryman says he thought we were all enemies but that he no longer wants to attack" Luli said with a depricating smile and everyone around the table had the urge to laugh, obviously you couldn't attack anyone when you had a blade already at your neck.

Arashiberak couldn't hold herself and giggled softly, while the masked man sneered and held the scythe closer to Aghora's neck.

"Oh, he has a sense of humor? I think I've seen enough I'm interested in him. What is he called? Tell him I fancy him and I want him to work for me...if he's willing." She relaxed further into her seat after speaking and now even had a bored look on her face.

"The lady ehem, wishes for you to work for her. She is asking if you are interested." this reply came in a much more relaxed tone but seeing how the princess looked bored and that the blade at his neck was inching closer he knew he had only one option.

Aghora felt like he could still fight off the masked man but it was better not to take unnecessary risks, this was just the cabin, there were most certainly more men on this ship and he was still at sea. He just gave a sigh, "What can I do except to accept?"

"Your highness, the Noi countryman is called Aghora and he accepts to serve you." immediately after hearing this response Arashiberak's bored expression changed to one of excitement.

She stood up and went to a work desk in the cabin, took paper rolled into a scroll, a brush, some ink and a stamp. Three of the men around the meeting table hurried to her side and helped her carry the items.

They cleared a space over the table and layed down the scroll. Aghora couldn't see what they were doing but he was not yet permitted to move about and had no choice but to wait patiently, though he was curious, having spent some time with Rohkar and at the port in his hometown he learned that people would swear to the name of the goddess before making any kind of contracts.

The patron deity of the Navirans was Daji the advowerer and one of her tenets was honesty, so Navirans did notlie to each other and as for strangers who did not serve the goddess they would use palm reading to check if someone else was being honest. This princess Arashiberak was acting like she didn't have to trust him much, perhaps the Zoanese people had a deity that helped them for things like this.

"Luli, I want to draft a contract so don't twist my words when you translate. Explain the contract first, then tell him that my terms are that: He is to put my safety over his own, He is to obey any of my commands even if it puts his life at risk, He is to ask for my consent before acting of his own will when he is in my presence, but he can speak freely and he is to serve me like this till the day he draws his last breath. In return I will ensure that he will stay sheltered and fed if it within my power and if either one of us were to violate our parts of this agreement the goddess Kendra may take a portion of our souls as she sees fit of her retribution." this time around the princess had spoken in a more domineering voice.

After hearing the translation, Aghora agreed to it quickly. There was nothing he could do, it was either to live as a slave or die but maybe he could just run away later?

Luli went over to Aghora and took out one of the needle shaped throwing knives, and poured the bit of blood on the weapon into a ring sized container.

Aghora didn't see what went on since the princess was working on the contract just out of his field of view but when the contract was completed he instantly knew.

The princess was chanting a prayer and the moment she stopped he felt a slight burning sensation on the back of his right hand, after which the masked man withdrew the blade and chains. 

Aghora first looked at his right hand were he felt the burn and saw a tattoo on his hand, it was an image of three horizontal rectangles. He didn't think much of it and went straight to removing the rest of the throwing knives in his body.

While he was removing the knives from his body he began to think about everything that just happened, he still didn't know much about his status and as far as he knew these people were still enemies.

He looked at the masked man, 'This is the only person in the room that can do anything to me...' the masked man turned around at that instant, as if he had sensed Aghora's intention. He wanted to attack but hesitated and Aghora used this slight bit of hesitation to his advantage.

Aghora launched a kick and directly hit the masked man just below the chest, launching him to the walls of the cabin.

Aghora wanted to jump at him and follow up the attack but he suddenly felt dizzy and fell to the ground.