Private Tales Pointed By The Stars

[Nyxella]

We'll take a look.

And then what? What if they get ambushed? What if no one is even there? What if what they came for is currently burning or sinking to the bottom of the ocean? What if it's a trap?

Nyx relied heavily on the stars to guide her. She liked being able to plan. She was book smart, not street smart. Spontaneity was not something she enjoyed in the slightest. It made her nervous, unlike her calm looking counterpart.

She was quiet as they inched closer and closer until they were side by side with the ship she'd been tracking. She nodded, following his orders as he demanded she stay close. She jumped behind him, landing lightly on her feet, but perhaps taking his orders a little too literally as she stood behind him hiding in his shadows. Was it obvious she was almost afraid to find out whether they were to be ambushed or abandoned?

More importantly, could he tell that the partner he never seemed thrilled to be sent on the mission with was having second thoughts?

She needed this if the proctors were going to let her out to do anything other than tracking ever again.

"Are you ready?" She whispered, leaning out from behind him and nodding towards the door leading to the interior of the ship. "I can go first, just cover me. Captains quarters should be a straight shot to the back, you reckon?"

 

[Edric]

Edric seemed to stop for a moment, giving Nyxella a withering look as she suggested going first. The expression was so dour that one might have suggested she offered to kill the nearest puppy.

After a flickering second Edric just shook his head and stepped in front of her. "Stay behind me."

He reiterated as he did just as she had said and headed straight back towards the Captain's quarters. Along the way a few of the doors lay upon. Most of them revealed empty cabins, some of them neatly stowed away, others a scatter of chaos.

Edric glanced into each room.

There was no sign of life. No sign of battle. No bodies, no blood, not a single ounce of evidence that anyone was still here on this ship. A frown touched his face as they reached the door, and Edric didn't bother with any subtlety.

His leg raised up, and with a swift kick he sundered the look on the door. Splinters of wood went flying, a great crash echoing outward as the Captain's quarters opened up before them.

It was a room that was lavish in comparison to the others. Several bookshelves, an actual bed, and in the middle of it all a desk. Behind it sat a man, or rather, he lay there like a rag. His head lulled, eyes barely catching on the two Dreadlords. A smile touched his lips.

"You're too late."​

He remarked bitterly, and then suddenly an explosion burst through the deck beneath them.

Green flames burst outwards, wood splintered, the whole of the ship burst apart. It exploded, casting flames and fire over to the Dreadlord's own ship. Wrecking, blasting, and tearing apart both vessels before either Dreadlord could stop it.

 

[Nyxella]

The older dreadlord would be the recipient of an angry glare as he stepped in front of Nyx, preventing her from carrying out what she was assigned to do. “Whatever.” She mumbled but obeyed his orders. He was, after all, much more experienced than her.

She followed closely behind, peeking into the rooms as they passed though by his refusal to stop moving she knew they were empty.

“Maybe they jumped ship.” She whispered as she looked into the second to last room. “They could have seen the starfall and known we were close behind. Fuck. I’m so stupid.” Most of her words were directed towards herself rather than her companion.

She flinched at the sound of the door cracking as Edric kicked it in. Surely they wouldn’t be dumb enough to all cram into one tiny room, right? Sticking her head out from behind him at the sound of a voice, she froze in fear.

You’re too late. ​

Immediately following those words, she heard the sounds of the explosion, her ears ringing and her vision distorted shortly after. Everything was green and then it all went white.

Is this what death feels like? She wondered. She couldn’t feel anything, see anything, or hear anything. She only had her thoughts to occupy her. Surely it must be. This is almost...peaceful.

 

[Edric]

Edric yanked Nyxella out of the water.

He pulled her free from the waves and dragged her atop what might have once been the aft section of the ship. Fingers wrapped around the nap of her neck, pulling her so that the floating wood held her weight entirely.

His skin was mangled and scorched.

Half his face melted from heat, eyes scorched and black, hair entirely gone. The explosion had struck him first, casting through and over him like a cascading wave. His reserve had drained itself almost instantly, fighting to keep him alive.

The explosion had torn apart both ships, turning them into little more than wreckage. He had awoken within the sea, floating among a dozen dead men. He'd found Nyxella within the waves, dragging her to the aft of the ship in hope that she might still yet live.

A flicker, a small portion of his power drew into her as he held her neck. Enough, just enough to grant her a little bit of life. "Just once."

Edric said, more to himself than the unconscious girl besides him.

"I'd like things to go my way." His voice was bitter, fingers clinging to the floating wreckage.

 

[Nyxella]

After the explosion, Nyxella remained unconscious as the waves pulled her along. Both her brain and body remained idle. The thoughts faded and the light went from white to black. He took the brunt of the force and yet she lay there, bobbing along with a peaceful look painted on her pale face.

There was no reaction as the older dreadlord got to her, pulling her along by her neck and putting her on the stray piece of wood from one of the ships. It wouldn’t be entirely clear that she wasn’t dead as she lay, though if he could make out the details in front of him he’d be witness to her shallow breathing or more importantly, her eyes.

They darted back and forth under her eyelids, moving as though she were scanning for something. Or rather, someone.

No sooner after her vision had faded to black, she had been able to see them. The stars. They were small but obvious against the black background. No words were exchanged between her and them but it seemed as though they knew what she would have asked them. Where had they gone wrong? Where is their target? Even in death, she was still devoted to the dreadlords.

The stars had shifted. The target moved.

A light began to take over the starry sky and she could hear herself coughing up water.

No! No stop, I haven’t found them yet!

She begged whatever was bringing her back for one more moment. The target was so close.

Her eyes opened as she coughed, water coming out of her mouth and her nose as she shot upright, looking around in a panic. Edric? Her wide eyes met the disfigured man below her. She tried to hide the horrified expression on her face, but it was no use. There was no other reaction she could have given the man whose face was melting off of his skull.

“I-” She coughed, more saltwater coming out of her mouth. “Are you okay?”

 

[Edric]

"I'll be fine." Edric grunted, his voice a rasp.

The fire had done a number on him. Scorching more than his flesh. He could feel it, the aching pain and hurt slowly throbbing through his entire body. The fire that had destroyed both ships had been no ordinary thing of nature, but something else.

More powerful. Magic perhaps, though he had no real idea. "I can heal."

He told her.

"But the only life around us right now is you." The implication there, was left unsaid. He would need to wait until the ocean provided for them. Something which might come sooner rather than later given the bodies floating near them. "We have to get to land."

Edric told her. "And then..."

Then what?

They would still be stranded, without a direction, without...well anything at all.

 

[Nyxella]

The initiate coughed more, water coming out of her mouth and nose. "You don't look fine." Her blunt tone cut through the coughing fit. "How long does it take you to heal from...this?" A pale hand rubbed at her bloodshot eyes, allowing her to get a better, albeit slightly blurry, look at him.

The only life around us right now is you.

Her brow furrowed. "What am I supposed to do? All I can tell you is that their path has changed and unfortunately so has ours. Have you any idea how far we are from land or what direction we are even heading?"

 

[Edric]

They were all extremely fair questions, and had he been the younger of the pair he probably would have asked the very same. "Usually just a few seconds."

Pain lanced throughout him, made only worse by the salt water lapping gently against his wounds. It was a constant state of agony, but it was better than dying. He could heal himself using what was in his reserves, but then he would likely starve and dehydrate.

A problem Nyxella would have to deal with before long.

"Sharks will come soon, I'll heal from them." It was a rather...optimistic viewpoint, but with all the dead now floating around them he knew that it would happen sooner or later. "When I talked to the Captain last we were just a few miles off a set of Islands in the Aina, we might get lucky and wash up there."

At least he hoped so.