Fable - Ask The World Unseen

[Arva]

Arva didn't wait. As soon as I-slin and black-hair accepted her help, she ducked back beneath the water and began to push the skiff toward the shore. She directed them away--far away--from Vee-sent's corpse, though. She was unsure of that darkness, and if it had some way of controlling a dead body, then they should be far away from it.

It wasn't long before she was pushing the boat up onto the sand, as far as the waves would allow. Black-hair was the first out, then... holding out a hand to I-slin, though Arva wasn't sure what for. The woman had legs.

Arva herself hesitated. Normally, the waters were safest, but there was something unknown lurking in them now. But to leave the water now would be to expose her greatest vulnerability to I-slin and black-hair. Shifting forms once in a day was already taxing. She'd done it twice--once to her land-walking form, then back to her Kivren form--so this would... be a third. It would hurt. A lot. And she would be weak.

So for the moment, she waited, keeping attuned to the water around her, and watching to see what I-slin and black-hair were planning.

 

[Aisling Weiroon]

Aisling didn't glance at the burning embers of her ship. The decision to let the Rose go up in flames was a necessary one no matter how painful it felt. There wasn't a need to keep watching the evidence of the hell they'd just crawled out of.

Once they hit the shore she took Bastian's hand and limped out of the tiny boat, boots crunching against sand.

Her blonde hair spun as she looked towards the kivren that had just helped them yet again. "Thank you." Aisling collapsed to the sand and let out an exhausted sigh.

"You're hurt," she informed Bastian while staring up at him, "how bad is it?" The corsair had definitely heard a loud snap of some sort when the man was flung against the wall. While her leg hurt and caused a slight limp the injury wasn't serious. She could still fight and forage for food. If Bastian had broken something then they needed to limit his movements until they could get him aboard one of the other ships.

Given the looming night it was only a matter of time until rescue came. Or, so she thought. They'd be able to see the flames of the Bloodied Rose from far off in the distance.

...then again, so would anyone or anything within a few miles of their location.

 

[Bastian]

Bastian grimaced. "Just a cracked rib."

Perhaps broken, it was hard to tell. He'd endured the same pain more than once. It lanced through his side every time he took more than the most shallow breath. He glanced over towards the mermaid for a moment, grimacing, then saying quietly.

"Thanks." It was about the most appreciation he had to offer.

Most would have thought it was because of what she was, a creature, but the truth ran deeper than that. In the slums...help was hard to accept. There was always a price, always a cost that one had to pay. Bastian could remember paying them.

A grimace flickered over his features. "We need to get off the beach."

Bastian urged.

"There's...I have a bad feeling." Arva would feel it too, perhaps Aisling would as well. A cascading darkness, a pulse that seemed to run through the sea even as the Rose burned. It was like a dark tide, slowly roiling through the sea and encroaching upon the island.

Something had taken the crew, twisted them, and that something was still coming.

 

[Arva]

There was something wrong with I-slin's leg, Arva saw now, and black-hair was not breathing quite right. It seemed that she was the most able-bodied of them at the moment.

She was surprised when black-hair looked over at her and spoke. It was a single word, but sounded like part of the same words that I-slin had said a moment before. Even she could not mistake the quiet gratitude with which he spoke it. Arva nodded, the corner of her mouth softly curling in a hint of a smile for just a moment, though she did not lose focus on the sea. It felt wrong. So very wrong.

Black-hair continued to speak, though, and Arva heard the urgency in his voice. It coincided with her own instincts, which were so contrary to everything she was, she didn't dare not heed them.

Get out of the water. Now. Away from it.

Arva's face twisted, and her sharp teeth bit into her lower lip for just a moment, then she gestured for I-slin and black-hair to move further up the shore, away from the water, dread and fear in her eyes. She ducked back below the waves.

Her Kivren form was too large to simply pull herself out of the water and onto the sand, and if any of her was still touching the sea water, her transformation wouldn't begin. She had to launch herself onto the sand, far enough away from the waterline that, at most, part of her tail was still in the sea. She could pull that much of herself out without much effort. But not her full ray-body.

Even so, as she dove as deep as she dared into the sea, then twisted and turned back, building momentum as quickly as she could, she fought the urge to recoil. The water was fouled, and whatever had done so to it was creeping closer.

Please, Kiva, her thoughts frantically reached out to the goddess of the sea, and the mother of all the Kivren. Protect me. Restore your ocean.

Because whatever this was, the feel of it was so utterly not right, Arva doubted it was anything that Kiva had created.

With one final surge of her ray-wings, Arva broke out of the surface of the water. The sight was not too dissimilar to what she'd shown I-slin and black-hair earlier, after she returned to her Kivren form and showed them who she was by soaring over the waves. But this time, she didn't cut back into the surface of the water gracefully. She landed with a thud on the sand, further up the shore.

She was out of the water, at least. Even her long, thin tail that was nearly as long as the rest of her body was tall.

Her lungs burned and heaved for a moment, adjusting from oxygen-derived-from-water to oxygen in the air, and her throat ached at the dryness of it.

Arva trembled, a quiet cry escaping her before she managed to bite it back. She curled in on herself as her ray-body began to morph, parts of it stretching and reforming into legs and a female body, and any excess cracking and crumbling into dry dust that faded away into the sand.

Pain wracked through her. She'd never done this so many times in a single day before, and she lay on the beach, helpless, and hoping that I-slin and black-hair would not prove contrary to her perceptions of them so far.

 

[Aisling Weiroon]

"A cracked rib could be serious if," Aisling didn't get to finish as the man spoke of getting off the shore. She wasn't entirely certain why he was so anxious to be rid of the beach but the urgency in his voice let her know it wasn't a jest. The corsair rose to her feet and eyed the treeline of the island jungle, trying to see a good point of entry.

That was when she felt whatever it was that was out there. The darkness that crept closer. The feeling of utter dread.

By the time she returned to her senses Arva was moving up onto the land in a transformation that appeared to be extraordinarily painful. Aisling moved near the kivren and moved near the woman's head. She crouched down and looped her arms through the opening just under the mer-ray's shoulders. "It's ok," her words were soft.

A grunt escaped her lips when she tried to stand and her glance cut towards Bastian. "We need to help her up towards the island's interior." A nod towards the woman's torso followed, "can you help me carry her?"

There was no explanation for why but Aisling fully believed that time was of the essence. They had to get off that damn beach as quickly as possible.

 

[Bastian]

Bastian stared straight ahead. He was finding it rather difficult to be phased by much of anything after what he'd seen on the Rose, and he couldn't help but let his eyes linger on the ship even as Arva threw herself onto the beach.

He frowned briefly, glancing over towards Aisling who had gone to comfort the mermaid.

Lips thinned for a brief second as he watched his Captain pull the woman up off the ground and drag her onto her 'feet'. For a few seconds the Criminal wondered if it would have been easier to escape on his own, if he should have just left them here.

It would have been simpler at least.

After a second too long however Bastian moved.

Without saying a word he wrapped himself against the woman's other side, ensuring that he did not hit his rib, and then pulled her up. "We have to get further inland."

He said quietly, not seeing the tendrils which seemed to roil through the sea behind them.

 

[Arva]

Arva hissed in pain as I-slin slipped her arm under her shoulder and pulled her up. The woman said something, but Arva didn't catch what it was.

The darkness behind them was becoming overbearing, so heavy that Arva forced herself to push past the pain of her transformation far more quickly than she ever had before. But she was still weak, and while she forced her legs to hold her weight, she still felt relief when black-hair came up on her other side and helped support her.

He said something, his voice still urgent, and Arva cast a glance over her shoulder. A strangled cry left her throat.

It was too dark. The ocean was too dark, and the surface roiled and bubbled now, as if something was forcing its way from the depths and out into the open. There was a strange mist and fog beginning to creep over the sand toward them.

Arva did her best, without words, to urge I-slin and black-hair forward. They needed to get into the trees, as far away from the shore, as soon as they could.

 

[Aisling Weiroon]

The two Anirians helped Arva moved up the sands towards the vegetation ahead. Aisling saw their kivren companion stare back at the sea behind them and she heard the subdued cry from her throat. It was in that instant that the straw-haired corsair decided she wasn't going to look back at the sea.

Just keep pushing forward. Keep moving. No need to panic.

There wasn't any reason to panic. It's not like her entire crew hadn't been slaughtered by who-knows-what. Their ship wasn't up in flames. There wasn't anything bad in the ocean coming to get them. Everything was going to be fine. Aisling just had to stay calm to ensure that Bastian and Arva stayed calm.

It was one of the first things she had learned in officer training. "We're going to be fine." Her words were firm and as honest as she could make them.

After a few moments they arrived into the lush jungle that was centered on this tiny island. Pressing through brush and branches until they came upon a grouping of trees. The canopy would provide solid enough protection against the sunlight in the morning and it was an easily defensible position as their backs could be pressed against the trees while they faced the coast.

"Here will do," she stated while trying to work with her sailor to position Arva down gently. She wasn't sure if the woman could stand on her own yet or not. "We can't stay here forever, when the other ships from the expeditionary force come to investigate they'll need to see that there are survivors on the beachhead."

Aisling knew that they couldn't go back now. She hadn't seen whatever it was that spooked the mer-ray so badly but the feeling in her gut told her that tonight was not the time to go back out to the beach. Still, she knew they couldn't just stay in this little jungle forever.

 

[Bastian]

Bastian didn't get a chance to look back, and he wasn't entirely sure that he would have even if he did. Lips thinned for a brief moment and his expression soured as he tightened his grip on Arva.

They passed through the jungle until Aisling called for a stop, his weight shifting slightly as he put the mermaid down and glanced back towards the way they had come. He half expected more of those creatures to show their faces, though when none came he let himself breath a little.

"What." He began. "In the fuck was that?"

Bastian doubted that Aisling or Arva would have many, if any answers at all. Whatever those creatures had been the twisted abominations had clearly been something utterly foreign. "What were...that was...fuck me."

He swore and rubbed at his face.

"That was the crew." Bastian said quietly, a bit of panic in his voice.

What had he gotten himself into?

 

[Arva]

The language barrier was becoming aggravating, but Arva was grateful for the help making it off the beach and into the cover of the trees. The entire island had fallen strangely silent, though, and it felt like every panting breath each of them took was a sounding beacon, calling the darkness in the sea straight toward them.

When they came to a stop within a copse of trees, Arva leaned back wearily against one as she listened, futilely, to the words that passed between I-slin and black-hair. The pain of her transformation was fading away, leaving just a quiet ache beneath her skin.

She was not comfortable with how far away they were from the beach yet, and she looked around for a moment to get her bearings. The trees were not adequate shelter. They might hide the three from whatever was coming out of the ocean, but they would be little protection against the elements and the blood-sucking insects that inhabited the night.

Arva had been to this island before, though it had been many months. But the place she remembered, deeper in, should be safe. Safer, at least, than this spot.

"I-slin," she said as she pushed away from the tree, moving slowly and cautiously, but without stumbling. Arva stepped away from their current spot, and pointed deeper into the island, then gestured for the two to follow her as she stepped deeper into the tropical forest.

 

[Aisling Weiroon]

"That wasn't the crew," Aisling corrected in a gentle tone.

It had been the crew, at one point, before whatever malady they stood against besieged their ship and transformed them into... whatever those things were. "Not any longer."

She wanted to scream and panic, she could hear the start of it in Bastian's voice. The corsair could see the fatigue on his face as well as the fear Arva had displayed on the beach. Aisling felt it all to and while her rapid breathing betrayed the calm demeanor she was hoping to portray she still had a duty here. Her crew may have been reduced to one but she had to remain steady. A voice of reason to guide her remaining crew, the civilian, and herself to safety.

"W-we just need to stay calm." Aside from the slight wavering of her tone her words mostly reflected the image of a collected commander.

In a hurry she was snapped out of her circling thoughts when the mer-ray called out her name. Once the creature they had found was up on her feet the captain followed, gesturing for Bastian to do the same. She did not know where this mermaid was leading them but surely it was a better place to wait out these horrors than the first clearing the trio had stumbled upon.

Most of her past engagements the Weiroon noble had faced them as fearlessly as would be expected from a seasoned corsair. But for the first time since her junior years in the navy Aisling was encountering a sensation she thought she had abandoned long ago.

She was completely terrified.

 

[Bastian]

Bastian half stumbled as he moved to follow after Aisling and Arva. He grabbed hold of one of the trees for a moment, frowning as he glanced back in the direction of the beach.

In the back of his mind he cursed himself for ever going on this fucking expedition.

After what had happened on his last voyage he had thought this would be good. He had thought that getting away from Vel Anir would have been a good thing. His plan had been to look for opportunity, make a little coin, then get the fuck off wherever seemed pleasant.

Now?

Now he was trapped on an island with his Captain, her pet mermaid, and some horribly fucking monsters the likes of which he'd never even thought existed.

His stomach felt like it had flipped half a dozen times and his fingers ached. The Hell have I found himself in.

Bastian thought to himself as the trio wandered through the forest and eventually reached the base of a large cliff. I's rocky expanse reached up the canopy of the jungle drawing back as they came to a stop. Above them the sky was all but black now, blocking out the mid-day sun which had been enough to burn skin.

Rain began to fall, and Bastian swore he could see a face within the clouds.

The sky seemed to roil and move, tendrils swarming through it.

 

[Arva]

Arva had swum in dark depths of the sea, places that humans would never be able to delve, and into frigid waters that had never seen the light of the sun. She would rather go back to those places then face whatever was in the ocean now.

It was darker beneath the tree canopy than it should have been for this time of day, and when they finally broke through it, Arva could see why. She only glanced upwards at the clouds for a moment, though, enough to see how unnatural they were but without noticing the faint face-like features Bastian had observed.

The way it moved was enough to hasten her further.

She led I-slin and black-hair along the base of the cliff until they reached a crack in it. At first, it didn't seem wide enough for anything, but then Arva turned sideways and vanished into it, her hand beckoning the other two to follow once more before all sight of her vanished into the stone.

It would be a tight squeeze, at points, especially for Bastian, but the falling rain helped to keep anyone from getting truly stuck. Water rushed over their feet by the time they broke through the other side, and into what would normally be a small hidden paradise. It was too dark to see much of it, though, so Arva continued to lead I-slin and black-hair, weaving around vegetation and trees, until they stood before the mouth of a small cave.

She looked over them once, to make sure that they had both made it in one piece, then up at the roiling sky, then ducked inside the cave. It was high enough up that it wouldn't flood, not unless the very sea itself rose to cover the island, and hopefully nothing from that ship had followed too closely behind them. But for now, it would be shelter.

 

[Aisling Weiroon]

Aisling followed behind and sucked in as much air as she could manage. The passageway was so tight that was was worried about whether or not Bastian and herself would get stuck at some point. Rocks with jagged edges rubbed against her clothing and flesh while dirt, unsettled from their passage, began to muddy her body.

Once they had finally reached the end of the path the corsair breathed in a deep rush of oxygen before she allowed a single sigh to escape her lungs.

Right ahead of them was a place that seemed secure. A modest enough cavern that they could hopefully rest within to catch their breath and evaluate their options. Whatever evils were painting the sky and the sea surely couldn't wrest their way into this small place of solace.

"Thank you," she spoke silently to Arva before limping her way into the mouth of the cave. Her gaze avoiding the looming darkness above.

When she had crested the threshold of the cave she tilted her head behind to ensure Bastian had made it through the passage ok. "Are you certain that you're alright?" She'd have to come to terms quite soon with the fact that she had allowed her entire crew to perish. Aisling Weiroon wasn't about to allow her last remaining crew member to come to any sort of harm.

 

[Bastian]

Bastian nodded, his eyes glancing up towards the sky for a brief moment.

"It's just a broken rib, I've had them before." The pain was a familiar one. It hurt with every breath, caused an ache within his lungs, but he knew what it was at least. There had been more than one beating which had resulted in the same.

Even a doctor couldn't have done much for him at this point. All they had ever offered for this injury was a suggestion of bed-rest and not moving around too much.

Hardly options for this sort of day. "Have you ever seen anything like those...things before?"

Bastian did not want to call them the 'Crew' Again, if only because Aisling herself seemed wholly against that. There was an expectation that she would know, or at least have more information. She was a noble after all, not just one from a minor house either, but one of the Great Houses.

She had more education and opportunity than some scholars. If she had no idea then what kind of a chance did he have?

There was a moment of hesitation, then he looked towards Arva. He still couldn't shake the feeling that the mermaid had something to do with all this.

Beyond the cave, beyond the jungle they had fled through, monsters began to crawl upon the island. They were the same twisted creatures that had been aboard the Rose, and yet still more. Some walked on two legs, some on eight. They crawled onto the island, the sky above roiling with tendrils mirrored within the sea.

Unseen by the trio, unknown to them, deep within the caver Arva had lead them to a soft pulse echoed out. A run of red ebbing over an altar that could very easily have been mistaken for a simple stone.

 

[Arva]

It was cool within the cave, and Arva had never explored its depths, but not too deeply in was a spring of cool, fresh water. She knew that I-slin and black-hair would need it. Fresh water was useless to her, though, and while a few days out of the sea would be no hardship, eventually she would have to go back. Risk going back, even if the... monsters were still there.

I-slin and black-hair spoke, and then a moment later, black-hair looked at her. His expression made her want to hide behind I-slin, and she resisted the urge to slink away and curl into the shadows, out of his sight.

She couldn't understand their words, but his expressions were unmistakeable.

Black-hair was angry with her. Afraid of her. She didn't know why.

 

[Aisling Weiroon]

Aisling offered a scowl at Bastian’s dismissal of his injury. If he wanted to brush the thing off then she’d let it slide but in her experience sailors always did this. Understate their injuries out of some misguided sense of pride or so that they wouldn’t be viewed as a burden.

She wasn’t going to hold it against him. There were more pertinent matters to address.

”Never seen anything like… whatever those things were.” The tentacles reminded her of an odd life form they stumbled upon once at sea but the resemblance to their crew and the odd drowning, gurgling, noise they made set them wholly apart.

Right now wasn’t the time to identify precisely what had threatened them. Nor was it the time for the three to be at each other’s throats. The corsair from House Weiroon positioned herself between her crewmate and the mermaid to diffuse the growing tensions she could feel.

After a moment of consideration she offered, ”well, we know of this entrance. We should explore deeper into the cave. Ensure nothing can sneak up on us from within. Or from some alternative opening in the cavern.”

She barely waited for a reply before heading off deeper into the cave.

 

[Bastian]

Bastian opened his mouth to object, but before he could even get out a single word Aisling stepped out and towards the cave. His jaw snapped shut and he frowned, wondering what he'd consigned himself to.

Would be easier to just kill her at this point. You might even survive that way. The Runaway thought to himself bitterly as his fingers flexed at his side.

It was a silly notion, he knew.

Without Aisling he probably wouldn't have made it off that ship. There was safety in numbers, and though none of them knew what those monsters were it was better to face them together than alone. Not the least because the creatures hadn't at all seemed eager to negotiate.

Bastian let out a sigh, motioning for Arva to follow Aisling before falling into step behind the pair of them. His fingers laced around the hilt of his sword the entire time, paranoia steadily climbing as they ventured into the darkness of the cave.

A soft glow illuminated their path as the light faded around them, add glowing vines reaching down from the ceiling. Up ahead a silent thrum seemed to enter the air, the plain stone altar singing a song to the creatures who were now stalking up the beach.

Aisling and Bastian wouldn't hear it, that quiet siren song, but it would echo in Arva's ear.

It was a quiet thing. Barely there. Like the distant rolling of the waves. Yet it was there. Beckoning. Urging her to come forward.

 

[Arva]

Arva bit at her lip nervously, grateful when I-slin stepped between her and black-hair. I-slin's words were lost to her, though, but their meaning was clear enough a moment later when the woman stepped away and headed deeper into the cave.

She watched black-hair warily, not wanting him at her back, but after and awkward moment of stand-off, she sighed and followed I-slin. Arva kept to one side, though, rather than directly behind I-slin, glancing over her shoulder at black-hair every so often. She saw the way his hand lingered at the hilt of his sword, and fear shivered down her spine.

It was a few steps after that when Arva halted, abruptly, in her steps. Her eyes, if Aisling or Bastian saw them, dilated then lids pinched shut, and her shoulders hunched as the sound caught her ears. A quiet whimper escaped her, and she quickly pressed her hands over her ears as she crouched low to the ground.

It was pulling at her, but it felt... wrong.

 

[Aisling Weiroon]

All that Aisling had to do was focus on the task at hand. Surely once they delved deep enough into this cavern they'd find something to protect them. They'd find that there were no other entryways and after waiting on whatever horror was occurring on the shore they'd emerge and find rescuing vessels from Vel Anir anchored off the shore.

She just had to focus. Ignore all of the panic. Nothing else was going to go wrong.

That's what she kept saying to herself as the military issued boots clomped upon the wet stone of the island cave. Each step echoing off the narrow walls whilst Bastian and Arva followed just behind her. The three of them would get out of this mess. They just had to focus.

And then, something else went wrong. Arva buckled over and Aisling Weiroon swiveled in a hurry to see her dilated eyes and the whisper of fear that crept from her lips. "Are you alright?"

Her words called out but she stood off a bit. Unsure precisely what was happening and not daring enough to risk startling the kivren she didn't approached. Instead she stood there and stared down on the other woman, emerald eyes filled with concern. The corsair's shoulders slumped and Aisling held her breath, nervous of what was to come.

"Help her," she gestured to the onyx haired rogue that was still under her command.

 

[Bastian]

"What?" Before he said anything more Bastian bit his tongue for a moment. Lips thinned, and he glanced at Aisling. "How?"

It would have been a lie to say he didn't feel any sympathy towards Arva.

He didn't entirely trust her, but she was a stranger in a stranger land just like they were, and unlike them she was walking with people she did not know. There was something odd about this, something off. He couldn't place it, couldn't say what it was.

Every moment that passed he could feel his nerves fraying. A bit more anxiety dripping into his heart. He felt as though he were back in the warrens. A scared child hiding under the gutters, tucking himself away from all that was frightening.

Slowly the sailor stepped forward, hand coming off his sword. "Hey, it's alright."

His voice dipped a bit as he crouched besides Arva.

Would she jump at him? Attack him? He couldn't help but think so.

"We're alright. Whatever this is. We'll get past it. Others will come to help." He knew that she might not really understand, but he tried to comfort her, show her that he would at least not attack her. Not unless she did so first.

Of course, Bastian did not know that as he spoke the song in Arva's head spoke to her. That it whispered within her tongue, that the thing which had torn apart his crew now called to Arva.

Lead them to us. Bleed them upon the altar. Be safe. Be whole. Be away from them.​

 

[Arva]

Arva didn't hear I-slin speak, nor Bastian, nor did she see him crouch in front of her. She didn't dare pull her hands away from her ears, afraid the words would become louder. Stronger. Harder to resist. Her eyes scrunched closed more tightly, and her torso curled over her bent legs. The voice continued to speak into her mind.

Lead them to us. Bleed them upon the altar. Be safe. Be whole. Be away from them.

She'd been asked to acquire blood in exchange for the restoration of her voice once already. Innocent blood, from someone completely uninvolved. She'd been tempted, had almost given in.

But it wasn't the same as this.

"No," she whispered, and her voice would only sound like a strange short whistle and click to Bastian and Aisling as she spoke in the language the Kivren used beneath the waves. "I will not make a sacrifice to a god I do not know. I am already safe."

The image of Vee-sent, broken and dying on the beach, flashed through her mind. The moment of contact she'd had with this monster's mind as Vee-sent died.

"Your wholeness is warped," she whispered again. "I do not want it."

But still, the words went on, and Arva whimpered, trying to shrink back into the walls of the cave.

 

[Aisling Weiroon]

Briefly she scowled at the sailor in her charge but her expression softened as he attempted to comfort the suffering wretch on the cavefloor. Or at least, he tried to comfort her as best as he knew how. It was better than Aisling could manage in that moment.

Taking in a deep breath she consoled herself and slowly stepped towards the kivren and the Anirian who were crouched on the ground. "Is everything alri-," she ceased her speech and took a sharp step backwards as the mermaid-woman began to click and whistle.

What was happening today? She'd woken up on her ship with a full crew and now everything had just gone to hell.

Gripped by fear the corsair didn't move. Her mind raced with thoughts of how best to proceed. The humanity inside of her demanded she comfort the creature, allow the kivren to know she wasn't alone, they were here to help her. But the more logical part of her mind, the part that the navy had pounded into their thinking, kept suggesting that Aisling end this. Neutralize the threat to keep her remaining crew, even if it was just one man, safe from this potential threat.

These were unfortunate times and she dismissed those grim thoughts. Her humanity won out, at least this time.

In a rush she moved forwards finally and wrapped her arms around the crumpled mer-ray creature. "You're safe."

 

[Bastian]

The voice in Arva's head went silent.

It was a disturbing, echoing silence. As though she had stepped into a cavern with nothing but quiet. Drops of water echoed out, but no voice, no sound, nothing that would stand out. The quiet of it all was as though someone had ripped the sound from the air itself.

Arva would feel Aisling wrap around her in a hug, but Bastian did not make the same motion. Instead he remained squatted in front of her, somewhat appalled that his Captain would go so close.

He frowned a moment, looking away from the two women. "I uhh...yeah."

The Runaway agreed quietly.

For a few seconds he wasn't entirely sure what to do. Hugging wasn't exactly common in the slums of Vel Anir. Getting that close to someone was liable to end in a knifing as it was any form of affection. He was weary, and he couldn't help but feel that odd pit in his stomach.

What the fuck were they missing?

 

[Arva]

Everything went eerily quiet inside her head, and Arva almost thought that if she opened her eyes she would not be in that cave passage with I-slin and black-hair anymore, but instead in a deep underground cavern, cut off from everything else in existence.

With no way to return to the ocean.

It didn't matter how much water she had access to, if it wasn't the ocean, her body would shrivel and dry up, a slow and torturous death.

No. She couldn't die here, not like this, not after coming so far.

Her breath stuttered, throat tightening and heart pounding... and then she felt warmth wrap around her.

Oh, that was right. She wasn't alone.

Trembling, she lowered her hands from her ears, and opened her eyes.

She caught a glimpse of blonde hair out of the corner of her eye, and realized that it was I-slin who had wrapped her arms around her. Black-hair was crouched before her, and she met his brown-eyed gaze, her own eyes wide and stunned, a sad desperation behind them.

Something warm and wet fell down her face a moment later, and she raised a hand, surprised to find water leaking from her eyes.

Oh, she thought, watching the water glisten on her hand. Tears. I think that's what they were called.

She blinked furiously, and her a bluish-blush suffused her face, but she took a deep breath and relaxed, reaching up to gently squeeze I-slin's forearm, attempting to let her know she was all right.