These hands' got blood on them.

He saw desire in her eyes, but it was rapidly restrained, he didn't know exactly why... But it might have to do with the disturbance he was beginning to feel. A hindrance. He needed to get away. He wasn't ready to face anyone... Not if that meant that his plans could be ruined.

He looked into the girl's eyes and told her, "My beautiful, wait for me; I shall come for you when the time is right." He kissed her on the lips very softly. "Farewell," he whispered, and teleported to Caladon, where he'd got some business going on.

 

*A tall man enters a pub in Caladon*

*Coins meet the dirty bar*

"I could do with somthing to grow some hair on my back, keep"

*The tall skinny man returnes a tweed pouch to his inside pocket doing his best to not show his weapon*

"News to be had, Sir?"

*Another coin meets the pile*

 

After landing on the deck, I swooned backwards. I usually didn't cast such powerful spells in this short of a time, especially when only on a diet of bread and smoked meat.

The sky loomed in front of my eyes as I fell flat on my back, breathing heavily. "Damn spice magic... always so damn tiring..."

...

 

I was tired. It had been years since I'd done so much in a single day, let alone an hour, but my body still seemed to be up to it. Apart from my throbbing head, I felt better than ever. I could taste the delightful tang of excitement in my mouth and feel it surging through my blood.

This is what you miss when you go into hiding, I thought. Life loses it's vitality and you get sloppy.

As I looked around, it finally sunk in that the pirate ship was no longer with us. I dimly remembered a gust of wind which had seemed out of place, and something flying out of their ship, but I decided to figure that out later.

The storm seemed to be slacking off somewhat and sailors were hurrying around the deck, tending to fallen comrades and clearing debris. I walked over to where Nikko was being helped up by Eien. She walked off towards the captain who was sitting on a barrel, cleaning his scimitar.

"Well, Nikko," I said. "I probably shouldn't trust you further than I could throw this ship, but you've saved my life, and your face is honest, so I'll take a chance."

I held out my hand towards him.

 

It seemed as if he sensed something wrong. He looked me in the eyes and said, "My beautiful, wait for me; I shall come for you when the time is right." He kissed me very softly. "Farewell", he said and the a bright, purple light filled the lugar and he was gone. I forgot about the familiar voice and barely managed to get my clothes off before dozing off in my bed, exhausted.

 

In the days to come, and over a certainly odd and perilous occurrence that we were to endure, we would remember the conversations that we had had on that ship, and the feelings that had stirred from them.

Such was the state of mind in which we all were while still aboard that even the Captain let himself be, therefore we got to the place that the ancient mariners call "Razor's Pointe".

In spite of our captain's mastery and command, there are things that are beyond our control, things that were foraneous even to me, who had a bond with the element called water, being master and servant at the same time.

And so Nature pushed us away from our objective, Caladon, and our vessel, what remained of it, drifted towards another shore, which the men recognised instantly as Cattan.

"We are saved!" many cried, for it was known that Cattan was the paradise of the wealthy, and surely someone aboard had someone ashore that would be generous enough to patronise the repair of the ship.



But as soon as we set foot on land, we got the feeling that something was wrong. It seemed to me that at the time we used to think that something was wrong all the time; luckily, some of us hadn't lost our nerve, but still, our senses were a bit strained, and finding no humanoid welcome was certainly not becoming.

The men instantly rushed to see the other side of the bay, and I followed them. Nothing had prepared me for what I was to see. I recall someone, Nikko, perhaps, trying to cover my eyes. But my eyes had already captured the photograph, and even when I closed my eyes, the image was still there.



Dead bodies. Apparently unmarked. We could only see a couple of them, but that was enough for us to know that we would find many more.

Nikko and I were both shivering, not with fear of what we had seen, but perhaps because he knew as much as I did that something worse was to come.

"They... The dead..." I whispered, "They are all men... And boys..."

 

I slept for days. I woke up by the sound of what seemed to be something drifting into our ship. I got dressed and half ran out onto the deck.
"'Harr, seems there's been a bit o' a struggle here."
I looked over the railing to see the remains of what must've been a pirate ship.
"The other ship has probably made for Cattan, hopefully it didn't sink on the way. Hmm, I suppose we should go to Cattan. Just to be sure. Or what say ye passengers?"
"I'd rather go straight to Caladon, I'm sure the other ship is just fine."
There was that familiar voice again! And he wanted to go to Caladon. But what if her party had been on that ship? The whole point of this journey was to catch up to them. What would she do in Caladon?
"Uhm... I'd rather go to Cattan. It really is the right thing to do."
The captain considered his two options. Either take the rich man to Caladon as soon as possible, which could bring in some extra cash, or do what he knew was right.
"Well, I'm sorry me good man, but a sailor can't leave another sailor behind, ye know?"
By the end of that sentence, the man had returned to his lugar again, and I returned to mine.

 

I had seen gruesome scenes before, but I had usually been prepared for them and steeled myself for it. Closing my eyes, I took a few deep breaths and counted to ten. I then re-surveyed the massacre.

The first few bodies I came across bore horrific burns and were practicly unrecognizable. Further on another pair had multiple gunshot wounds. I almost fell into a hollow containing a score of bodies which were crawling with maggots. Most of them were missing limbs and evidenced broken bones which led me to believe that they had be killed by explosives.

Other debris littered the beach, broken boats and swords, a rifle, fagments of clothing and persons. Up by the treeline a pair of boots protruded from a bush. I cautiously approached them with my pistol out and dragged them out.

They belonged to a man who was lying on his stomach, with no visible cause of death. Until I rolled him over. I leapt back in shock with a shout and almost shot to corpse as it's twisted features gazed back at me in maniac grin which spoke equal volumes of agony and terror.

Recovering my balance, I cursed to myself. I had only encountered neural gas twice before but I had researched it and knew we were in a great deal of trouble...