Fable - Ask The World Unseen

[Arva]

Arva's face scrunched up as I-slin sat on the sand. She thought for a moment more, then looked down and plucked a seashell from the sea. She dumped the water and sand out of it, then set it floating on the water between them.

She pointed at the shell, then at I-slin's ship in the distance. She extended a finger, and stood it up in the little shell-ship, and said, "Vee-sent." At last, she patted her chest and said her own name, then gestured out to the open sea.

Then, moving the shell-ship along the water, she looked up to make sure that I-slin was watching. "Arva," she said again, emphatically, and flung her hand out forcefully in the opposite direction than the shell-ship was moving. "Vee-sent," she said again, just as emphatically, and mimicked a person leaping into the water with her hand, following in the same direction as Arva had motioned herself going.

He will follow me.

 

[Aisling Weiroon]

As best she could the golden-haired Anirian followed along with Arva's explanation. From the gestures and the names being thrown around it was obvious she was trying to tell them something about Vincent and her demeanor insisted that this was important.

"We have to tie Vince down," she said aloud, as much to herself as it was to Bastian.

The exact nature or reason couldn't be communicated but the reality of what would happen to him was made obvious by the mer-woman.

Aisling felt a gnawing in her stomach as she realized what they'd need to do with the young recruit and another reality dawned on her. Juliana should've returned by now. Yes, Aisling hadn't given any such order but she knew her old friend well enough to know that once Scuttle and the enthralled recruit were safely aboard the ship she'd paddle back out to the island to ensure that the man waiting with Aisling, 'hadn't completely fucked everything up.'

When she glanced towards the large brigandine she saw nothing but stillness. No small skiff was paddling out to meet them.

 

[Bastian]

Bastian wasn't an idiot. He'd never attended a minute of school and he couldn't read, but he wasn't a moron. As Arva began to explain the same realization that dawned on Aisling came to him. His eyes widened, and he had to restrain himself from calling Vince a poor stupid bastard.

He also had to resist the urge to stuff more cotton I to his ears.

A frown touched his face as Aisling glanced towards the ship. Something that might have been concern floated across her features, and Bastian took half a step closer to her. "What?"

The Runaway asked with a frown, glancing towards the brigantine.

As both of them looked over the silence of the ship continued. No one moved. Nothing appeared on deck. It was as though every member of the crew had suddenly disappeared. The sails fluttered slightly, shifting as a breeze passed over.

Bastian glanced up the mast, frowning.

"Shouldn't Darian have taken my place in the crows nest?" He asked Aisling quietly.

 

[Arva]

Arva saw the realization cross I-slin's face, and a similar expression on black-hair's face. But then... something shifted. She saw I-slin look over at the ship, and something indiscernible crossed over the woman's face.

Black-hair frowned and spoke softly to I-slin, also watching the ship.

Something was wrong, but Arva didn't know how to ask what.

"I-slin," Arva spoke, waiting until the woman looked back at her, then patted her chest again. "Arva." She gestured towards the ship.

Without waiting for a reply, the Kivren slipped back below the waves. Arva's ray-wings were powerful and swift, and it took just a few minutes to reach the ship, even as far as they were from it.

The taste of blood washed over her, and she recoiled for a moment. She spotted the chain for the ship's anchor, and swam under the ship, looking for the longboat. I-slin wouldn't be able to get back to the ship without it, if no one was coming for her, Arva knew that.

She couldn't quite tell where the blood had come from. There were no corpses that she could see in the water. Quickly, she popped her head above the surface, long enough to figure out how to unhook the longboat from where it was secured to the ship. There were no sounds coming from the ship's deck, and from how many I-slin had implied were aboard... that was not a good sign.

Arva ducked back below the surface, dug her claws into the underside of the longboat, and quickly swam back to where I-slin and black-hair were, pushing the boat along.

 

[Aisling Weiroon]

"Yes, Darian should've taken over the nest long ago."

Her words were equal parts of concern as they were annoyance. They were in the middle of the ocean, there wasn't anything that could've harmed her crew but the alternative was the crew had gone lax in her absence. Or worse, mutinied. Aisling needed to control herself, not just in front of Bastian but especially in front of Arva.

When she heard her name called by the mer-person her head shifted and blonde strands obscured part of her face as she turned to look at the woman in the sea. She nodded, understanding she was referring to herself, and then her mouth dropped as she saw the creature rocket off towards their ship.

As the mer-ray sped off towards the Bloodied Rose Aisling turned her attention towards her new recruit. "I'm not sure what's happening but we'll both need to stay on our guard from here out."

It was hard to tell if, perhaps, Arva or her people had turned on them. It was hard to tell what was going on, to be honest.

Luckily, without much time passing she noticed the skiff that Juliana had used coming back towards the pair. Apparently the woman who called herself Arva had helped them once more. They'd need to get back to their ship, figure out what was going on, and then they could try to communicate with the mer-woman more.

"We'll need to paddle fast towards the ship," her eyes focused on Bastian, "I'll aid you."

It wasn't usual for the captain to take up an oar but timing was crucial now. If Arva helped get them there quicker that'd certainly be welcomed.

 

[Bastian]

Bastian nodded his head in agreement, casting a still weary eye towards the ship and Arva herself.

There was something...off about all of this.

He couldn't quite put his finger on what, though an uneasiness carrying through his stomach as he climbed into the long boat and grabbed hold of the oars. Aisling settled down besides him, and the two of them quickly set about getting back to the Rose.

"I don't like this." He said quietly.

Eyes cast towards the ship in the distance, watching as the sail slowly billowed in the wind. As they came closer and closer the eerie silence upon the Brigantine became more obvious. Bastian looked up at the vessel, fingers flittering away from the oar as they came closer.

He grasped onto the net at the side of the ship, lashing some rope to the side of the ship. He quickly made his way up the side of the Brigantine, drawing himself up onto the deck and letting out a shocked gasp.

Blood covered the deck in great pools, as though there had been some great slaughter. It reminded him of a Butchers shop, though there was not a single carcass or corpse to be found anywhere in sight. "What the fuck."

Bastian exclaimed.

 

[Arva]

When I-slin and black-hair were settled in the boat, Arva once more plunged beneath the water. They didn't need to use their oars, but she had no way to tell them that, so she simply pushed the boat along, making sure to stay out of the way of their paddling.

Once they reached the ship, there wasn't much she could do but wait, and she made anxious circles in the water, still uncertain of where the taste of blood was coming from in the water.

Every so often, she rose above the surface, trying to hear if there was any shout of alarm from I-slin or black-hair.

 

[Aisling Weiroon]

Their boat rocketed through the waves, no doubt due to Arva's assistance, and the closer they got to the brigantine the larger the pit in her stomach grew. She'd seen ghost ships before, vessels abandoned by their crew, but the Rose shouldn't be reminding her of one.

The moment the two Anirians stepped aboard her worst fears became reality.

A high pitched sheen rang out as Aisling drew her cutlass and held it firm. Her free hand pressed outwards towards Bastian. "Stay close. Eyes sharp." They needed to know what had happened here. Nothing she knew of should've been able to board their ship, murder the crew, and made off without alerting the group that was on the island.

They needed to find Juliana or First Mate Lukas or well, any of the crewmembers they had left behind. A careful step pressed forward into the pooling blood and the corsair tried to examine the path towards the lower deck, see if there was anywhere she could walk upon wood instead of blood and human viscera.

She found no such path.

Fear welled up as she debated ordering Bastian back into the skiff. They still had time to simply leave this place, maybe with Arva's help they could get back to the other two ships that were part of the expeditionary force and report what had happened. Come back with a larger team to understand the chaos.

But, no, that wasn't really an option. "We need to get to my quarters at the very least." It was standard procedure for the Anirian Navy. They'd need to take the maps and other state documents with them or see to it that they were destroyed. Standard practices when a ship was overtaken by an enemy force.

 

[Bastian]

Bastian drew his blade, his other hand ripping the Karambit free from the small of his back.

"Aye." Was all he answered as he slowly followed after Aisling.

In a strange way...this felt far more his element than exploring the island. Blood and gore he was used to, death he was used to. Even if it came from a mystery at sea, at least he was walking in a territory he knew better than most.

Slowly the two of them moved back towards the bottom of the ship, treading the down below deck where they were greeted with the sight of piled carcasses and torn flesh.

Members of the crew lay in pieces, thrown onto the ground as though they were little more than trash to be thrown away. Bastian frown slightly, spotting Darian and a few of the others whom he had become friendly with over the last weeks.

The men that he'd almost brought in on his plan.

Fingers tightened on his weapons. "This wasn't done by blades."

It appeared that the crew had been quite literally torn into pieces, and a little under half were still not accounted for.

 

[Arva]

Something was off, Arva realized. Not just on the ship, though it was certainly a problem there. Something in the ocean itself. Or on the island.

She'd been here before. It had always been peaceful. Uninhabitated, even by intelligent creatures like herself. Just wildlife and plants.

Beneath the ocean, she began to slowly circle the area around the ship, slowly spiraling deeper and deeper. Fish, she realized. At first, she'd attributed the lack of fish and sea life to the fact that the ship had just recently set anchor, but they should have returned by now.

The sea was silent, unmoving beneath the wind-swept waves, and she began to carefully scan the ocean floor and the water around her.

 

[Aisling Weiroon]

It was a hard thing to look upon the mangled bodies of men and women who had put their faith in you to lead them. They’d been more than just crew, many of them she counted as friends. Now, she saw their flesh rent in awful ways and their bodies stacked as if they were being stored for something.

”We’re going to uncover what did this.” Her words were filled with venom as her face burned hot with rage.

The anger welling up from her stomach almost distracted her from another key fact. There weren’t enough bodies present. ”Where is the rest of the crew?”

Aisling wasn’t really asking so much as she was wondering. From a quick survey of the corpses she could tell Juliana wasn’t among them. That was good, it meant she may still be alive.

”We make for my quarters, secure the documents I need and grab a lantern. Then we find out where the rest of the crew is.” Her green eyes locked onto Bastian’s with fury still on her face. ”And if we encounter whatever monster did this we kill them.”

Aisling led the way to her space, it wasn’t far from where they had descended but she was careful to avoid the odd organ or chunk of flesh that was messily strewn about. Once they stepped in she grabbed the atlas and official seals, placing them into her satchel. With her free hand she secured a small lantern that had, miraculously, remained in tact and lit it swiftly.

”If things go south we’re setting the ship ablaze.” She focused their luck, maybe it’d help them find some living crew members quickly.

 

[Bastian]

Bastian raised an eyebrow. "Then how the fuck are we supposed to get out of here?"

The island was large enough to house them both, and it had looked like there was even food of a sort, but he didn't exactly like the idea of being stuck in the middle of the Sea. Especially with whatever the hell had done all this damage to their crew.

Lips thinned for a brief moment as he watched Aisling pack up her things, glancing back towards the door and getting an odd...unsettling feeling.

A guttural noise echoed through the hall of the ship.

It was a strange gurgling sound, like a drowning man spitting up water. Bastian instantly turned to face the door fully, fingers tightening on the blade as a loud slam echoed against the door. Another one of those strange groans echoed out a second later.

"Oh what the fuck." Bastian said as it slammed against the door once more.

Meanwhile in the water Arva would see something move. It was a flicker at first, slowly bobbing up and down in the waves near the island. Yet the streams of crimson flowing from it slowly cascades further and further into the sea.

When she drew closer she would see what it was, one of the remaining crew members; Vince, barely alive.

 

[Arva]

Arva caught the taste of blood in the water again, and quickly twisted, following its path. It led back to the island, though closer along the shore to the ship than where she'd attempted to converse with black-hair and I-slin. She hurried through the water, still watching her surroundings, until she came upon the source of it.

Vee-sent.

While it was true that many Kivren lured sailors from their ships, into the depths of the sea, Arva's pod had rarely done so. Only ever if they were actually threatened by them. Otherwise, Kiva and the sea provided all they had need of.

So Arva grabbed hold of Vee-sent, and pulled him toward shore, even as blood continued to gush from the many cuts and gashes across the man's body. She made sure to keep his head above the water, but she knew that even so... he was dying.

Carefully, she pushed the young one onto the sand. Then she covered his eyes with a hand, and began to sing again. Her voice was stronger now that she'd been in the ocean again.

Her song might carry to the ones on the ship, but at this distance, it would have no danger of enthralling them. Only enticing.

Vee-sent, though... this was all she could do for him now.

The sailors lured into the depths never knew that they were drowning, and she granted him that peace now as well. But it came with another benefit... she would, for a brief moment, be able to communicate with him.

Vee-sent was fading quickly, though.

As her voice wove a haunting melody that rippled through the air, she felt the moment when his mind caught with hers. In that small slip of time just before death would take him. His senses had faded away, he was no longer in pain, and she looked across his body to the beach on the other side, almost as if she saw him standing there before her.

I'm sorry, she told him. For singing to you earlier. I was frightened.

Can you tell me what happened when you returned to the ship? What did this to you?

 

[Aisling Weiroon]

Bastian had been an unknown before the start of the day but now Aisling was certain that he was her least favorite member of the crew. Which was a bit of an accomplishment considering they now knew that at least half of the crew had been horribly murdered. "We cannot allow the Bloodied Rose to fall into the hands of our enemies. In a worst case scenario we will go down with the ship, sailor."

That last word was stated with authority and a hint of annoyance. "There are two other ships in our expedition, they'll come to investigate. We won't be stranded forever." For this last part she narrowed her eyes and hissed at him, "get a fucking grip. I need you focused."

Aisling hadn't known what type of man this new sailor had been prior to this assignment but she knew what sort of man she needed him to be now. Unquestioning, selfless, and brave. That was the only way the two of them were going to survive this nightmare and she wasn't about to die because of this powder keg of a recuirt.

The sounds of drowning interrupted her anger and the pair of them looked towards the door that was being bashed upon. It was a terrifying noise and it caused her to stuff the documents into any free pockets or space she had on her to free up her sword hand. She re-drew her cutlass and nodded towards the sailor.

"Open it," she ordered him, "and stick close to the door. I'll stab whatever threat lies beyond the threshold."

In her mind, Aisling was taking on the more dangerous task though whether Bastian saw it that way was yet to be seen.

 

[Bastian]

You can go down with the ship you daft bitch. Bastian thought to himself bitterly, though practically chewed through his tongue as he held back from saying it to her.

Fingers tightened on his weapons for a brief moment and he looked back at her.

Lips thinned, but he nodded. The cutlass in his right hand was slipped back into it's sheath, Bastian keeping the Karambit in his left hand as he slowly stepped towards the door. It might have seemed a curious choice to some, but the weapon was comfortable for him, familiar.

At the same time as Bastian reached for the door Vincent spoke to Arva.

There was a hollowness to him now. An emptiness that hadn't been there before. It wasn't her magic that had done it, it wasn't the song that she had sung or the control that she had taken away from him. It was something else. A dullness that hung from him.

He looked at her as she asked her question.

"Monsters."​

As he spoke the word there was a flash, something behind his eyes. A trail of blood, death, gore. A mind ripped into shreds by it's enthrallment...and something more. An Abyss, a darkness that seemed to stretch eternal. Within it, from it, reached a tendril.

When Bastian opened the door that same tendril greeted him and Aisling. It came not from an Abyss, but from a man, or what had once been a man. In place of arms two tentacles reached out, his face was almost that of a squids, and his eyes were an inky black.

The moment the door opened one of his tendrils reached out, immediately slamming towards the Captain of the Rose and intending to break her bones.

 

[Arva]

Monsters.

Her song should not have done something like this, and as Arva watched Vee-sent, his mind crumpling and fading in a very odd way as the last moments he spent on the ship flickered between them in disjointed imagery.

Then he faded into darkness, and not the kind that death brought.

Something reached out to her from it. Arva lingered for a moment, curious despite the horrors of Vee-sent's memories, but as soon as that tendril brushed against her awareness revulsion pulsed through her, and she slammed shut the connection between her and Vee-sent.

Arva gasped where she sat on the beach, still beneath the waves, next to Vee-sent's body, but as her senses returned to the physical world around her, her proximity to the boy still screamed danger, and before she was even aware of her actions, the Kivren was throwing herself back into the ocean, trying to get as far away from that darkness as she could.

 

[Aisling Weiroon]

You never really knew what someone else was thinking. Whether the thoughts in their head were sinister or understanding or hopeful. But if Aisling was a betting woman, and she liked to think she was, then she would have guessed that Bastian absolutely hated her in the moment.

That was fine. Let him hate her now and thank her later, when they were out of this cursed place and relaxing on a beachhead waiting for an evacuation from one of the other brigantines.

All of those thoughts ceased the moment the door cracked open. The very air in her office space had become tense while she managed to limit her breathing to sharp ragged breaths of anticipation. Almost as soon as the door had given an inch it gave the rest of the mile and Aisling found herself staring down a wretched beast that was flinging two tendrils towards her.

With a dash of luck she managed to parry the first tentacle, cutting a deep gash that spilled an acrid smelling black blood. Unfortunately she only had the one sword and she was facing two objects that sprung at her within a split second.

"Augh," she cried out as her sudden jerk sent the other fleshy object at her thigh. It wrapped around her and squeezed so hard she thought she was going to lose her left leg. In a rapid flurry she brought her blade back around and cleaved straight though the second tendril, spewing the raven colored blood across the entirety of the space.

The once-human creature gurgled and shambled forward throwing the original arm at her from above this time. Aisling's leg felt a sharp pain as she realized her upper thigh was bruised and, from experience, she knew blood vessels had popped from the sudden pressure of the monstrosity before her. The limp leg caused her to fall forwards as she swung her weapon upwards, narrowly missing the creature.

It was from the floor that she could stare up at the tentacled-man's pudgy torso and further along his body she could see the deformed face of a man. Scuttle, she thought briefly before plunging her saber directly into the thing's torso. He slumped over, nearly collapsing on top of the corsair.

Aisling pushed off, the lantern somehow still alit and secured her hand, her blade covered in blood. Just outside the office she could see two more of the shambling horrors. "Need a little help." Green eyes looked towards the man as Aisling panted in exhaustion from the brief exchange.

The lower deck had become the pair's own personal hell.

 

[Bastian]

Bastian didn't need to be told twice. He might have disliked Aisling, he might even have hated her, but he wasn't about to let her get torn apart by a monster.

Not when she could be a fat payday for him.

The Runaway rushed over to Aisling's side. He stepped into her, moving close enough to offer aid if she needed to stand. Fingers tightened around the length of his Karambit. "Stay behind me."

His voice was more a growl than anything else.

There wasn't really much else for him to say.

Desperation flickered through his chest, and Aisling would notice a strange flicker of something around the two of them. It was a haze, a shifting of shadows, a dimming of the light. It seemed to settle into place as the shambling horrors moved forward.

They groaned, their faces twisted and broken, eyes searching. They peered into the Cabin, looking...and then passing over Aisling and Bastian as though they weren't even there.

It was then that the Sailor rushed forward.

In half a breath he closed the distance between himself and the two horrors. His blade struck out first towards one of the creatures. It swiped across one of the tendrils, rending flesh and ripping through muscle in one quick swipe. The creature let out a scream, an echoing cry of pain that resounded through the hull of the ship.

Bastian grabbed the monsters neck, pulling it close and drawing his blade across it's throat. Brackish ichor cascaded over him, the beasts cries turning to a guttural drawl as it met it's fate.

Then the other lashed out at Bastian.

A crack echoed out as the other monster struck him, it's tendril swiping at his ribs and sending him flying into the far wall.

 

[Aisling Weiroon]

A brief flood of relief washed over her as Bastian took point. She half expected him to turn and run in the face of these nightmares. Of course, that relief quickly turned to concern.

Most Anirians might not have thought much of the flicker that suddenly emanated the pair but Aisling had grown up surrounded by magic. We had any child born into one of the great houses of Vel Anir. That was an interesting wrinkle, though she was uncertain if the source of the magic was the strange creatures or her enigmatic recruit.

Aisling’s mouth dropped as she saw the sudden surge of momentum from Bastian and eventually the fall of the first of the creatures.

”Watch out!”

Her cry came too late. The onyx haired man was tossed into the skeleton of the ship like a rag doll, a loud crack she assumed to be bone resounding throughout the cabin. Without delay Aisling surged forward.

Or at least, she tried to surge forward. Her left leg proved to be a hindrance and her sprint was much closer to a sluggish limp. Without thinking she used her right heel to thrust her body forwards, her curved blade barreling down towards the abhorrent beast that had thrown Bastian.

The metal of her saber lodged into the monster’s shoulder and it emitted a gurgled scream of agony. Aisling struggled for a second to retrieve the embedded saber, eventually kicking against the monstrosity with her good leg and winching through the pain in her bad one. She run through his center with the pointy end of her cutlass and once she couldn’t see the metallic part of her weapon she ripped it back and the thing slumped towards the floor.

Despite her heavy breathing and the sweat on her brow the corsair managed to call out, ”are you ok?”

Aisling sheathed her sword an offered a hand to help the sailor up to his feet.

 

[Bastian]

Bastian nodded his head, though truth be told he wasn't entirely sure if he was okay or not. A tingle ran over his flesh where the black ichor had stuck to him, his gaze flickering down as he wiped away some of the blood and grabbed Aislings hand.

He pulled himself up with her help. "I'm alright."

The words felt like a lie. Bastian had been called a monster for most of his life. He was a friend, a killer, but he wasn't like these fucking things. Fingers tightened in his blade and he took in a deep breath. He offered Aisling a single look, one of mixed fear and pure adrenaline.

"We need to get the fuck out of here." Bastian said with a scowl, then added. "Ma'am."

His entire body seemed to be vibrating, and as soon as the Captain have the word Bastian quickly stepped forward.

He knew that he could still move better than Aisling, and he kept himself close to her as they wound through the belly of the ship. No other sound reached them, no more guttural groans, but by the time they reached the top deck a sunny sky had been replaced with cloudy gray.

There was an unnatural haze in the air, a fog that seemed just thin enough to see the Island they had been on not too long ago.

 

[Aisling Weiroon]

Inhale, exhale. Slow breathing was supposed to help when you were in stressful situations. Supposed to center you and calm you and help you think clearly.

It wasn’t fucking working.

”No argument from me, let’s get out of here.” Her words were rushed and a bit frantic. Aisling needed to get that under control, she had to be the one to get them both to safety.

She limped onwards, occasionally favoring her right leg or balancing herself in the odd post or arch on their way towards the steps onto the top deck. Aisling could’ve screamed for joy as they exited and she anticipated sunshine to radiate off her being. Only, the sun never came.

It was foggy and overcast. It had all happened so suddenly that there was no chance it was natural. This must’ve been some sort of hex. ”We need to get to the skiff, paddle out, maybe back to the island.”

Worst case they could paddle in the direction of the other ships of the expeditionary force. The woman of Weiroon forced herself forwards, limping along until she reached the edge. She’d need help down the netting towards the small boat that lapped against the Rose.

 

[Bastian]

"No arguments from me." Bastian instantly bit back.

There wasn't even a second of hesitation as they reached the side of the ship. He glanced around once, then slipped the karambit back into it's sheath and reached out towards Aisling. There was a second of hesitation, then he quickly spoke.

"Sorry, Ma'am." Why was he still playing at being the good soldier? He didn't give a fuck anymore. "This is going to be unbecoming."

Without another word he suddenly scooped Aisling up into his arms and practically tossed her over his shoulder.

It was one quick, smooth motion. Aisling, daughter of one of the Seven Great Houses, a woman who could likely have him executed with just two words was tossed over his shoulder like she was a heavy sack of potatoes.

Before she offered any objection Bastian twisted, grabbing onto the netted side of the Rose and slipping down the ship into the skiff below.

The little boat rocked as they plopped down onto it, Bastian setting Aisling down a second later as he threw himself into the forward seat and desperately grasped at the oars.

 

[Arva]

The water felt defiled. That was the only explanation for it that Arva had. She hadn't noticed it before, but that was before she'd been touched by the darkness, and now it seemed that she sensed it everywhere.

In the water. But especially emanating from the ship.

Arva realized that the ocean was murky now. Even before, as she pushed I-slin and black-hair to the ship, rays of sunlight had cut through the surface to illuminate the water. No more.

She did not want to go back to the ship, but whatever happened, regardless of whether I-slin and black-hair were still alive, she needed to make sure that it wasn't going to contaminate the island. The ocean waters around the island.

So she swam back to the ship, just in time to see the skiff bob under newly-added weight. From a distance, Arva popped up her over the surface of the water to see if it was more of the creatures like Vee-sent had become.

She tipped her head back in relief when she saw it was I-slin and black-hair... and they appeared to be normal. Arva swam up next to the skiff.

"I-slin," she said when she broke the surface of the water, putting a hand on the edge of the boat. With her other hand, Arva gestured at the boat, and then back toward the island, asking if they wanted her help again.

 

[Aisling Weiroon]

One second her boots were firmly stood upon the blood-soaked wood of the boat she commanded and the next she had some brute touching her and flinging her over his shoulder. "What on Arethil do you think you're," her words were cut short by the sudden descent off the ship.

Bastian was so desperate to get off the Rose that he was willing to carry her around like she was some sort of hostage. Like she wasn't his commanding officer much less a member of the Anirian nobility.

She didn't press for any further argument until after she was sat in the small vessel across from him.

"Don't ever do that again." Her words were colder than ice and she likely would've proceeded with her rebuke of the man had another voice not caught the blonde corsair's attention. Aisling turned her head and saw the ocean rippling around a figure. Arva was there, apparently offering to help them.

Before she responded the Anirian looked back at the Bloodied Rose. It was the first proper ship she had been allowed to take command of. Now, it was a graveyard of horrible abominations. She had no idea if her old friend Juliana was still alive, on board somewhere. She had no clue if anyone else had survived and was hiding in some space.

What she did know was that there was stick protocol in Vel Anir. If her reputation and naval career had any hope left after this disaster she'd need to ensure that protocol was followed. Aisling flung the lantern against the highest point of the ship she could reach and the glass burst. Flames started, slowly, spreading through the netting and wood on the outside of the ship. By nightfall it'd be a pyre that'd be visible for a mile.

"Let's head back to the island. Wait for rescue," these words were softer and a finger pointed towards the place so that Arva would know they'd welcome her help.

 

[Bastian]

Bastian grimaced, opening his mouth to speak before he quickly snapped it shut when Arva appeared on the side of the skiff.

The mer-creature spoke his Captain's name, and the odd roiling in his guts seemed to cease for a moment. He had thought at first that she was part of this, that these monsters were related to her...but why not attack them then?

Why not sing that song.

Perhaps this creature wasn't part of this. Maybe she was here on coincidence like them. Bastian felt his stomach twist in knots, but he simply nodded. "Help us, please."

Bastian said as he began to row them back towards the island.

As he moved his arms the Rose began to go up in flames. The fire caught quickly upon the blood soaked deck, rising onto the mast and catching in the sails before the trio got even half-way back to the island. It burned brightly, cutting through the fog even as they landed upon the beach.

Bastian almost immediately scrambled out of the skiff, pulling himself onto the sandy shore and hesitating to offer Aisling a hand.