Chapter 6 - Anticipation

On a bed of flowers lies a child with dark hair filled with streaks of white, accompanied by other children. They were all pale with dark hair and circles around their eyes, their faces looked like skulls with how thin they were and they looked like corpses as they slept, thin to the bone and covered with mud.

Yet one by one they woke up to the smell of food that delighted their small noses, forcing their unfocused and almost lifelessly dull eyes open just so they could flock to the smell they'd wish to be their final meal. The normal man would gag at the sight, yet a tall boy with long, jet black hair, walked towards them with his simple, cold demeanor. In his hands, he held a singular bottle of a strange fluid. In another, he held a basket filled with warm food.

He looked down on them with a saddened expression before lifting the bottle of strange liquid above his head and emptying its contents over the children.

One after another, the children begin to cough uncontrollably. Some try to scream only for their dried unused throats to stop them. Others shudder in pain, and the rest kept coughing. Uncontrollably, relentlessly, and horribly, coughing. Until eventually, once again, they lose consciousness.

Then, once all of them had slept, the man had knelt down and placed a piece of food in each of their mouths, carrying them on his back as he walks back to nowhere.

Jackson stands at the edge of the boat, his hair grey and his eyes lucid as he looks out to sea, watching the waves rock their boat while he recalls thing from the past. The bard's usual happy demeanor was replaced with a bittersweet visage for the longest while as men walk behind him.

"Jackson, if you gaze at the sea for another second it'll fall in love with you!" A voice teases him, patting him on the back before leaning on the edge with him.

"Well, well, Maurice. Have you come to bother me again?" Jackson's hair stays the same grey it aways has as he speaks with a playful yet tired tone

"Am I not allowed to talk to my fellow crewmates now? I didn't know our chief bard was too big for someone as simple as me." The man teases, his gold dyed hair rustles with the strong gusts of wind that came as he puts his big arms on Jackson's shoulder.

"Yes, your type is too out of my league to even speak to, I'm sure even the sea you so comfortably called out shares the sentiment." Jackson says, shooting a bittersweet smile as he watched a whale breach the surface of Maurice's side of the edge, splashing on to him the cold salty water that felt like knaves on his skin as it went back into the ocean.

Jackson lets out a hearty laugh before turning around and sitting on the ship.

"Maybe the sea really did fall for me." Jackson says with a smile on his face while his lucid eyes, black as coal look towards the foggy horizon to see the silhouette of a large cluster of islands

"We're getting close to the island, aren't we?" Maurice says as he looks with a grimaced expression

"This time around it seems like she'll finally go… Did anyone say who would keep her corpse?" Jackson asks, the smile on his face fading as his eyes shift down to the waves at sea.

"What's your impression been of that new recruit?" Maurice brings up after taking a long breath.

"You should know already. She'll succeed, but she'll break, break to such an irreparable state one day that she'd only become a detriment."

A silence follows his statement, the floor boards under them creak with the waves

"I wish that changes after she goes through 'that'." Jackson continues, heaving a sigh as he leans back, lifting his legs a little to look at the sky.

The pure white clouds that bested the softness of cotton was generous enough to cover the sun and nothing more, leaving the vast and elegant blue of space, a blue deeper than lapis lazuli. Distracted, Jackson doesn't notice Maurice grabbing him by the foot and throwing him overboard.

"Norris would hate to see you so out of it! You can have the liberty of letting the sea that loves you so much wake you up!" Maurice says, getting hit at the side of the head by a seagull that flew too low

"HAHAHAH! Serves you right you gold loving hussy!" Jackson retorts as he catches the falling bird, swimming to the rope that had been dropped down for him by a crewmate.

Holding the wet seagull in his hands, Jackson walks to the very bottom deck of the ship, whistling a simple tune and turning his hair black once he heard the unfamiliar footsteps, he had become acquainted with over the past few days.

"And what business may our precious new recruit have here in the lowermost deck of our fair ship?" Jackson says, turning the corner, evading Danica who was about to bump into him, letting her trip on her own feet.

"I should be asking the same to you, Mister Bard." Danica says, with a slightly annoyed yet also tired voice.

"Vanier seems to be drilling a new lesson in to you today, isn't he?" Jackson says, lifting her up with a single hand, letting her brush off the dirt on her clothing before she talked.

"'Practical testing is the best way of learning', were his words. Before ending our lesson and handing me a piece of paper and throwing me back into his damned flower patch before I could ready myself." Danica responds, touching her cheek and rubbing her somewhat sunken eyes.

"His flowers are quite enamoring, in my opinion, I've not a clue why you would dislike them so." Jackson says, petting the seagull while he shook his head.

"They're the biggest risk to my life, more than anything. What do you mean they're 'quite enamoring'?" Danica asked with disbelief in her voice, stepping back as a book falls out of her satchel.

The book had a unique title, similar to the ones used in spell books and the sort, its withering form told of the fact that texts to more than one pantheon of gods had their dedication in it.

A single look and Jackson had known what it was, but cared not explain nor showed that he knew anything about it.

Maybe it was his sick sense of humor at that very moment that kept him from speaking, or rather a secret that he had needed to keep under such tight lips it could crush diamond.

"Vanier gave you that book?" Jackson asks with curiosity as he picked it up for her. The tips of his fingers started to tingle as he touched the crumbling, black leather cover of the eerie spell book that had rotted the floor below it.

Jackson wonders for a second how Danica could be so oblivious to such a sacrilegious book given her current status. He questions his impression of her, thinking over if she truly was just a fool with good luck.

"Yes, he was holding on to it for a while during the first few days of our lessons. One day he just tossed it to me and ordered me to read it. 'Cover to cover by the end of the week.' Were his words." Her voice filled with annoyance as she talked, getting bothered in the middle of her rant by a yawn.

"Funny, the last time I saw you, you had more energy than a bumblebee… So has Vanier been teaching you well?" Jackson asks, running his eyes up and down her languid figure. Her clothes are unkempt and her eyes are sunken. The hair on her head had become unruly with the salt from the wind, and her demeanor had changed so incredibly much it surprised him.

"As much as I hate to admit it, he has. He works me like a slave but his methods are so unique sometimes I don't even notice my own growth." Danica says, pulling a folded piece of paper in her pocket. The neat handwriting reminded her of the orders written down for her back in Aramus.

"Though his tirades have haunted my dreams at times whenever I failed to understand his more complex lessons." Danica says as she held on to her satchel and stepped back, remembering she had something she needed to do.

"Do well then. I should remind you that the actual mission has yet to begin! Put all those lessons he's drilled into your head to good use."

Before Jackson could even turn, Danica calls back to him. She grabs his coat before beginning to speak

"Mister bard, some company would be nice. I'm sure your seagull can agree with me that you have nothing better to do at the moment, correct?" Danica says, letting on a convincing tone as she takes the bird into her hands while she blocks Jackson's path.

"And what do I have to gain if I do accompany you?" Jackson asks, crossing his arms with a smile on his face.

"Was it not you who implied we should get to know each other more? And, as my closest senior, you should be most knowledgeable of my progression, correct?" Danica retorts, convincing Jackson to join her to the trap door at the end of the long hall.

Climbing down the door, the both of them are met with a floor on the ship held together by mere magic. Creating an almost invisible level that they could freely walk on which revealed the depths of the sea to them.

Schools of fish passed by under their feet and bigger creatures lingered in the mirky depths that permeated throughout the deeper waters. The sea was riddled with life, most of which Danica was unfamiliar with. For she only ever knew of the small fish she ate, burned from her failed attempts to cook, which paled in comparison the large groups of salmon that passed by.

Then, something shimmered like a star past the darkness that enveloped the ocean. Its light caught Danica's eye, and with another look at her note, keeping it away, she fell through the floor into the ocean without a word.

Jackson was startled at the happening, catching the seagull that almost fell on its head as it remained where Danica had stood.

Looking down below the transparent floor, Jackson sees a bright searing flame that illuminated the sea like a lantern, slowly falling down to the very bottom before getting tugged in the direction the boat was headed as if she was connected by a tether.

Jackson watched as Danica tried to navigate through the darkness, slowly driving the ship to a halt as she pulled it in her direction, pushing it into the ocean as she got closer to her objective.

Like a light shining in the middle of the darkness. A sense of respite in the endless pressure of the world around her, slowly getting closer and closer towards her as she began to hold her hand outwards, chanting spells under her breath as pillars of bubbles slowly began to rise from the sea floor.

Curiously, Jackson immersed himself in his observation as he watched Snakes of fire that kept its light even under the cold, suffocating, darkness of the sea, wrapping around that shimmering like chains. It formed a cage of fire around it and bathed the ocean in light, revealing the sand at the bottom of the sea and the creatures that resided within it with a magnificent yellowish light.

Runes form rings around the cage of fire, encompassing the entire cage as it slowly began to revolve around it, getting closer and closer with each revolution; faster and faster with each rotation, eating away at the sea, forming a tower of bubbles as the water began to boil faster and faster.

Jackson could feel the heat even through the barrier around him, watching with beads of sweat slowly starting to drip down from his face as he gradually lost sight of Danica in the boiling hot water that cooked the fish that failed to swim away from the heat.

Jackson's heart slowly began to pound as his eyes started to shimmer and his hair began to turn grey. He could hear the raucous voices and footsteps of his crewmates above him as he watched the sea slowly feel with a blinding light that rivaled that of the sun's.

Eventually, the gentle light that had long faded into a blinding and brilliant light that had made the cold dark ocean into an ephemeral beacon of light. The heat this light radiated made Jackson, who was even under the protection of the ship squint and tear up from its blinding nature.

Yet, this light slowly shrunk in on itself, taking away all the heat from the water as it did. Reaching the ship, Jackson felt the air instantly feel like death had entered the room as the cold made his breaths misty as they left his mouth. He saw Danica, glowing like a lantern in the middle of the sea that felt darker than before, holding on to a pearl that fit in her palm, glowing with the same radiance that had filled the sea earlier, making the water around it boil as Danica lowered her hand and looked towards the ship. She noticed Jackson holding the Seagull in his hands, standing up as he looked at Danica with a sense of concern.

Danica looked towards him with a tired expression, her hair floating up towards the surface as she held on to the pearl. She heaved a sigh, watching the bubbles float upwards before she blinked, opening her eyes to find herself next to Jackson.

Hastily, Jackson turns his hair black before Danica could see her, standing up with the seagull still in his hands as he observed the girl in front of her, who was illuminated only by the pearl that glowed in her hands like a candle. Her hair was brunette, her eyes were dark like coal, her short stature did not change the elegance and deific nature of her aura.

Yet he also took to observe the pearl in her hands, glowing a pale amber and distorting the air around it, vibrating continuously with a rhythm as if it was singing.

"A siren's forge? Grace be the gods Vanier's making you a weapon?!" Jackson's surprise lit his face up, stepping forward towards her.

At that time, Danica could only think about how different he was from the rest of the members she had met. They were stoic, gentle yet infeasible in power, wise, more so than any man Danica had ever met. Jackson was loud, animated, and had his heart and soul on like a crown and brooch. He was bright; he was human.

Danica watched him as he rambled, and Jackson soon caught on, taking out a needle from his pocket, hidden by a veil of darkness, Danica couldn't notice as Jackson plunged it into her neck, injecting something inside her and incapacitating her.

Jackson watched Danica collapse to the ground as the seagull flies out of his hands, perching on Danica's back as she slept on the floor. Jackson whispered something into her ear and she turned into sand, floating to the ceiling and seeping through the cracks until Jackson was left alone in the darkness, colder than ice as he took a moment to think.

On the deck, Jackson sees the ship covered in a veil of smoke from the sea as Norris shouts orders from the wheel while the men operated in the fog. Jackson walked around the mist, shouting Vanier's name as he avoided the men that seemingly appeared out of nowhere from the thick veil of fog.

Soon, Norris steers the ship out of the fog just before Jackson bumps head on with Vanier, stumbling back as he began to speak.

"The girl, she saw my hair." Jacksons says hastily before Vanier could even ask anything

"Were you able to make her take the medication." Vanier asked as he dragged Jackson by the arm to the back of the ship, passing by Norris and calling him to join them.

"Then is the situation handled?" Vanier asked as Norris catches up to them.

"I've sent her back to the room but she's yet to wake up, I don't know her condition." Jackson replies.

"Ensure you have a sacrifice if the situation is dire. Shall I contact-" Norris says before getting cut off

"Not yet. If he comes the child would be thrown back to whatever hell she was living in before. I cannot let that happen." Jackson retorts

"You are jeopardizing the mission this way! Ensure this situation is under control lest you want that girl dead. I thought you cared for the people of that island? How could you be so careless!" Norris lashes out

"It was my mistake, I'm sorry, but I'm sure she didn't see me properly. Her eyes still had clarity before I put her to sleep. But she's keeping her company right now!" Jackson says with sincerity and panic in his tone.

"I will go see the girl. Norris, I'm trusting you to take charge. Jackson, if I was you, I'd practice my vitality spells. Even if it was just an accident, you know the rules." Vanier says before hastily walking down to their room.

As Vanier opens the door, he sees Danica laying on the bed, petting a seagull with one hand and rubbing her fingers against the etchings of the pearl with her other hand.

Danica notices the door open and turns her head. Vanier sees her eyes have bags under them and her hair is covered in a thin layer of dust. He walked towards her with a steady expression and raised his hand forward.

"The forge." Vanier says, as he observed every minute detail in Danica's demeanor.

Danica hands over the pearl, hesitating for a moment before beginning to speak, "Is something wrong?" she asks Vanier before letting the bird in her hands fly on to the nightstand.

"You enveloped the surface in a cloud of smoke, and later we'll be having rain thanks to you." Vanier says, observing the pearl in his hands before sitting down on the side of the bed.

"I see, I'm sorry, I was careless and neglected to raze a barrier before heading down. Though the spell in the book you gave me said it was supposed to prevent it anyhow so I continued." Danica replies, bowing her head and looking Vanier straight in the eyes as she spoke.

"Such benefits would only apply if you were worshipper. Since we do not abide by any religion or faction of thought, it should be a given to disregard such paragraphs." Vanier replies, glancing at Danica's neck which had seemingly already healed.

"Aside from that your performance seems exceptional. The forge you were able to create is better than I had expected from you." Vanier says

"Yes, I could've churned out something better, however, had I not decided to take the bird with me. Forgive my insolence for not reporting to you immediately as well, I had expended more energy than I had anticipated." Danica adds before fidgeting with her hands.

Vanier stays silent for a moment before heaving a breath and speaking "If you were so conscious about the animal, next time place a protection spell on it lest you want it cooked alive. We'll be reaching shore in a few days' time. Practice moving around in some of them; I'm sure you're not used to wearing some of them."

"Why the need for them anyway? Can't I just wear what's comfortable?" Danica asks

"It is their people's culture. The clothes you wear represent the intentions you have, and we are here for peace and to aid them. Thus we wear the appropriate garments their culture dictates, carefully changing parts to make it more tasteful without making us look hostile. In simpler terms, if we were to follow their cultural garments exactly, you would rather wish to be thrown off the ship and be forced to swim back to Aramus. Believe me, I was the one who instigated changing the garments in the first place." Vanier says with trauma in his eyes before standing up and walking out the door, waving goodbye as he closes it.

Danica, once again was left alone. Watching the door close on her as the light from the windows shines down on her like water, painted by the stained glass to a gentler color as she sat there to linger in her own thoughts. A little more and she could've heard her own heartbeat, listening instead to the rhythm of her own breaths as she closed her eyes and heaved a sigh.

Forgetting about the seagull on her nightstand until it caws, scaring Danica out of her skin as she screamed.