Two Living Carcasses

Rain. It was raining.

Saeger couldn't bring himself to care, his mind too overwhelmed by the piercing pain on his torso to muster up a reasonable emotional response. He simply couldn't release anything more than a withered breath as the cool substance slid down his nose to his bare chest. Looking across the pit, it seemed that neither could his captain.

"Hey, cap. Tell me something you haven't told anyone." He rasped, voice incredibly weak, especially for the likes of Sae. For a moment, he thought the man restrained by long, unsettling tendrils didn't hear him. But then the pirate's head lifted like the calmest sunrise, the sheet of white fabric swaying with him. It'd have looked like a graceful bride's veil if not for the blood dripping from its corners.

"Give me one reason why I should, kid." He answered, attitude still intact despite their current life-or-death situation.

Still, Saeger tried to reason with him, realizing that it could very well be his last conversation with anybody other than the empty void that came after a man's last breath. "I mean, if we're about to die, might as well get all of it out, you know?"

"I have faith in Faine."

His lips thinned to a straight line, eyes narrowing along with it. He never expected the notorious captain to be so difficult. "I mean, I do too, but isn't that the kind of thing people usually do in these scenarios?"

"You sound like you need it more than I do." Calixto scoffed, but it wasn't condescending. It was... lighthearted. He seemed to have melted with his flooding surroundings, finally embracing for himself the melancholy that Sae too was feeling.

"Well, yeah, but I'm not saying anything if you aren't."

That coaxed out a full-blown laugh from him this time, the sound lifting the newbie's spirits just a tad bit, distracting him from their impending doom.

"And what makes you think I will, newbie?"

"...Don't know, cap. Don't know." He replied with full honesty, gaze following the puddle of crimson that formed beneath him. His hopelessness drained out of him with the rest of his blood, acceptance settling in its place. If he could be a water color painting, immortalized by a set of delicate and skilled hands, he'd choose to be. It sounded peaceful, to be a work of art. And he'd rather think of his situation in that manner rather than confront its unsettling reality.

For a moment, he felt exactly like that, lifeless and beautiful as his arms laid limp beside him. His eyes locked with the heavens, sulking and gray, as if welcoming Saeger to the morbid truth.

He'd have resided to his fate if not for the voice that pierced through the persistent rain.

"There was one time when I was younger, just a little kit, about six.. seven years old. My older sister and I decided to play the classic hide-and-seek."

"Oh yeah, Elva and Eli love playing that." He answered, although he didn't mean to. At the memory of his younger siblings, Saeger found himself frowning, a pang of guilt hitting his chest full force. Rest had been so near, offering him his final waltz, but he couldn't quite accept death's hand yet, so he blinked his eyes open against the multitude of raindrops that fell against them.

"I decided that it'd be a good idea to hide in my oldest brother's room. He was heir to the throne, probably king right now, don't know, don't care. Even back then, everyone was terrified of him. Didn't think my sister would look there..."

The captain snorted in amusement, and Saeger found himself doing the same.

"...Which was a genius move for a six— seven year old kid. But looking back now, I never would've done it."

Sae still couldn't see a single expression form on his captain's face, cloth serving as a border between their visual understanding of each other. He heard it, though, the regret that followed his boss' words.

"Why? What'd you find?" He finally asked, deciding that he wasn't ready to end the conversation quite yet. He had to hold on. Faine would return soon, and he'd prefer to be awake in that case.

"My mother."

That had the teal-headed boy frozen on the spot, eyes widening impossibly full. "Y— your— her carcass?"

"Fuck, my life wasn't that twisted, kid!" The pirate cackled, vacant hand gripping his stomach as he laughed to his heart's content. In a matter of seconds, he had Saeger laughing too, a soft tint of red covering his face from embarrassment. The sound couldn't last though as he flinched in pain, a miserable reminder that he had indeed been stabbed moments ago.

"Shit, sorry. I'm a bit slow. My ma never fails to remind me though."

Calixto nodded in acknowledgment before resuming his story.

"My mother walked in while I was hiding beneath my brother's bed, so did my brother. They were talking. Talking became screaming. Screaming...turned to violence." He explained, voice trailing off to something weaker, something more vulnerable.

"That's sick..."

He didn't have to see him to catch the other's questioning look, the interrogative lift of a brow—if the captain even had brows, not that Sae knew.

"I meant twisted!"

The pirate sighed defeatedly, letting the boy's thoughtless commentary slide. "If only you heard the cruel, vile things he said to her, you'd understand why I left. I realized that the man who was going to rule over my kingdom looked down on his own mother. He didn't see her as an equal. He never saw any of us as equals."

His speaking came to a halt. There was silence. There was rain. And there was a very curious boy looking to his leader with an invested look, despite the vicious injuries that had been inflicted on him.

"He got worse after that. Started beating my sisters, then me. Barely made it out of there alive. I wish I hadn't run away the first chance I got. I wish I hadn't been such a coward, but...I didn't want to stay and find out what would become of Stougon."

The name, as Sae realized a few seconds late, was Calixto's home country.

"Everyone looks up to me for turning my back on my heritage, but.. I don't think they would feel the same if they knew the truth." He confessed, bearing his very soul to his meer traveling companion. If he expected mockery, shame, or disappointment, he wasn't met with it.

There was only Sae who admirably enough was void of the world's sleaze.

"I get that."

"Do you, really?"

The boy nodded. He tried the best to in his weakened state, at least.

"I mean, I might not be a prince, but I am the son of a god."

The answer had the captain's head lifting once again, this time out of sheer astonishment. He was void of the calmness he so effortlessly ingrained with his presence, no longer the calmest sunrise, and rather a burning sunset overtaking the shore. The two of them were far from resembling pirates. In fact, Calixto felt more like a child sharing gossip he had acquired from the local aunties.

"Oh, well, that's a surprise." The captain admitted without much thought, not that it mattered with the conversation they were having. The newbie of all people? Related to a god? He lacked the reverence and the grace, but for some reason, it made him all the more respectable.

Sae laughed humorlessly. "Yeah, everyone in our neighborhood practically knows."

"How'd you come to find out?"

"I've talked to him."

"Him? Your father?" Calixto asked, unable to feel how the raindrops had hardened painfully so, wholly unbothered by how he had to practically scream to be heard by the newbie. The two were in their own world as they shared aspects of their lives so well well-protected by bricked walls.

"Uhuh."

"How.. how did that go?"

"He offered me a path to ascension?" Saeger replied, sounding unsure of the facts of his story.

"Ascension? You mean you had to complete a task?"

"Yeah, at first, I was pretty excited about it. In my head, the tasks would be more like.. retrieving long lost treasure or defeating a beast terrorizing a helpless village, like a pirate. I didn't think it'd be so..." He paused, head racing as he searched for the best possible way to phrase it. "So grim."

"Grim?" The captain repeated, not expecting the word to roll out of the boy's mouth.

"Yeah."

"Why? What was the task?"

"Do you know Oakheart? That small village near the sea where everyone has this weird accent?" Sae asked, head lifted from its resting place as he subconsciously tried to glance at the captain's reaction. To his dismay, there was no readable pair of eyes that looked back at him. Only a damp sheet of fabric that clung to a vague outline of the man's face. If he was cruel, he'd have stared longer to make sense of what lied beneath, but he held too much respect for the former prince, so he threw his head back, resting it against the wall of stone.

"I've been there once or twice for a supply run. What about it?"

"He.. he asked me to drown the entire village."

Calixto's heart skipped a beat and the feeling was in no way romantic. "What the—"

"I turned him down, of course! But he wouldn't leave me alone. He kept reappearing in my dreams, kept saying I was destined for something great." The newbie mumbled, bitterness laced in his voice.

"Then what?"

"Well, I finally told him he could piss off."

Calixto snickered. "Oh? Newbie finally grew a pair?"

"I've always had a pair, ugh! It's not just because of that, though..."

"Oh?"

"He asked me.. he asked me to kill Faine."

There it was again, the terror that left him suffocating. The feeling of unadulterated dread echoed throughout his very being. "What?"

"N— not just Faine. He asked me to kill a list of people, a very specific list of people. But when I heard Faine's name, I realized I wanted nothing to do with my lineage."

"...Huh."

For a while, the rain just pitter-pattered against the stone under their shivering bodies. Their surroundings seemed to have stopped absorbing it, the water levels rising inside the pit.

"It's a shame though. I think my mom expects me to ascend soon. Both of us know that life would be easier for us if I were a minor deity, money would come rolling in easier...I can't. I don't think I ever can. I can't tell her either though. I can't crush her soul, not like that." Saeger admitted, ignoring the growing pool of blood beneath his body.

"You should have more trust for the people around you, kid. I'm sure you're more than used to doing the heavy lifting for everyone, but having a 'lil faith will get you a long way."

"Never expected to hear that from you."

"Yeah, personally wouldn't have gotten where I am now without Rinus and Crane. Don't ever tell them that though."

"Oh yeah, Crane is such a piece of shit."

"Cheers to that, lad."

Sae's eyes widened as he felt water sloshing beneath his calves. The water was rising inside the pit and rather rapidly. He looked up, realizing that it was possible to see anything with how hard the rain was pouring.

"The water's rising.."

"Shit. Fuck. No. Not now." Calixto cursed, once again attempting to struggle against the vines like he first did when he fell. It only seemed to make the the damned thing more persistent as it crawled up his entire arm.

His eyes shot open, realizing that his companion had started scrambling to stand on his feet.

"You need to calm down, kid. It'll be easier to float if you relax."

"You—"

"I'll be fine. I'm a pirate for fuck's sake." He snarled. And although his instincts flared, screaming for him to fight, run, thrash violently for his survival, he did his best to stay calm for his younger subordinate as water reached both of their chests. There was no sign of the rain coming down to a slow, and Calixto wanted to yell, to cry in frustration. But he couldn't, not now.

"Hey, cap?"

"Yeah, kid?" He screamed through the defeaning storm, rain invading his taste buds.

"If we do die, it was an honor serving under you, even though it was mostly just to wash dishes."

If the captain were a stronger man, he'd have called the newbie stupid. They were going to be fine. They were going to make it out alive.

But he himself knew it. Only a miracle could save them in those split seconds as the water reached his chin. Faine's torn shirt had been carried by the wind moments ago, but he couldn't bring himself to care as much as used to.

"Yeah, kid. It was good havin' you on the crew."

"Captain—!"

It was chaotic. Screaming, struggling, and the pain in his arms tightening to the point that his blood flow was put to a stop. Then there was nothing. He accepted the water in his lungs, no longer fighting the suffocation.

The last moments before his death would be peaceful, he realized. For that, Calixto was thankful. He was encased by the essence that made most of the ocean, the only place he could truly call home.

There was silence, then there was light. Calixto's eyes widened in surprise as the violet glow pained his eyes.

And then he felt it, the flames that hugged his skin.