Arc 5 Post 16: A Voice from Beyond
A Voice from Beyond
Eight Day of Olweje-hamba (Olweje Descending) 1348 A. L. (After Landfall)
While you have no desire to be entangled in religious strife, having seen enough of that to last you a lifetime and you would certainly not demand of Inge that she go against her conscience the girl seems resolute in helping. As to the dangers posed by these Deep Wardens if they should find the seer and again if he should be forced to give up the name of she who translated the tome... well this is a ship, her oars are ready, her sails swift to fill with wind and carry you to some other town. There is a sort of freedom in that for all the pang of homesickness if brings.
Thus you give your blessing and with it Inge is quick to set about her work, for she had pledged to translate half the book for him before his task and half after. As you wait upon the deck, never straying far from the door in the days to follow you wonder in what quality you have given that blessing, you are not the girl's father, nor brother, you are no kin of hers and yet you act it... In the end you give the tumbling thoughts up as a bad bargain with nothing to gain. You can treat her as you please and there are none to care one way or the other. Who is there to judge you? Tom, the old bastard probably finds it funny behind his mustache, for all he would not show it with a shiver of it.
***
Eleventh Day of Olweje-hamba (Olweje Descending) 1348 A. L. (After Landfall)
The day dawns clear and windy with the sound of the eastern gale in the sails of the Marcella and not for the first time you wonder at the Seer's willingness to leave his home and this time you have the chance to ask Esha, though she has only suspicions. "Some spell or bound spirit, some thing easier to lay outside the walls where there are fewer eyes upon him and his work and..." she hesitates and shakes her head. "I think too much of dark things and do not wish to poison your mind on the man..."
You think to press, then in a moment think the better of it, for in her eyes there is reflected more than any concern for the Oriniluan mage, there is there a memory of a past that is not lightly spoken of. "I shall reserve judgement of him then."
That promise is harder to keep than most as Eriran emerges from the cabin looking very odd indeed, he wrapped about his neck a necklace of bones, not even particularly well polished or stung as those of the Knikut you had met on Noromo, but mismatched and crooked and upon his head is a band of bronze that leaves an empty place on his forehead as though a crown missing a gem.... though in that case it would be a kingly thing to sit in the middle of his forehead.
There is something else about his too, something harder to define, but as present as the sea tang on the air, perhaps the way he holds his chin, more determined as he looks hither and yon, not dropping his gaze when it happens to collide with that of this seaman or that. This stride too is surer and his words also. "Come let us go to the hold, to the place where you have seen this manifestation."
Antonio had made doubly sure that none of the seamen would think to linger below decks and then he leads the way into the darkness of he hold, though it does not stay dark for long as Inge bears a witch lantern in her hand. she sets the thing into the curved side of the ship, a luminous stain above the circle still faintly writ in blood.
The seer looks deeply at the spot, eyes opened wide and distant.... and then another eye opens, dark and bright a once it is like the night filled with starts and it fills the circle of copper on his forehead perfectly. The bones at his neck clatter and for a long moment there is no other sound but that and the harshness of his breathing.... then he screams, the sound torn from his threat harsh and loud as though a red hot poker was being driven down his throat
"No, No, No, No," the sounds warp and twist like worms though the air and Inge rushes to him, seeking to pull him away, or maybe to heal him, though you do not think it is a malady of the flesh that ails him.
Before she can do more than grasp his hand there is a sound like tearing flesh and splintering wood all at once and the side of the ship beneath inge's light opens in a gash... no, you realize as it speaks a mouth, filled as though with nails for teeth and its tongue wiggling seaweed and pale worms of the lightless depths. "Sailor-man?" The words, flowing together like one wave into the next
As suddenly a he had begun Eriran falls silent, then he manages to gasp out. "Water... water..." and with that he collapses. The mouth speaks again, sounds echoing though the hold. "Sailor-man?"
What do you do?
[] Try to answer
-[] Write in
[] Leave it to Antonio
[] Write in
OOC: Believe it or not that seer was lucky... he could have rolled a lot worse.
