Chapter 257 – Fallout

Chapter 257 – Fallout

 

The crystal click reverberated across the bloodied sailor cabin, followed by a subtler pulse—years of accumulated Fate released in a single instant. Tension soaked the air, somewhere between static electricity and the soft tingle of magic. Kai couldn’t say if it was an illusion from the adrenaline and enhancing potions, or his higher Favor had increased his sensitivity.

Crack!

Huh?

His eyes fell on the Fate Fulcrum, a hair-thin Y chink cut across the circles of elvish script, letting motes of light escape through the fissure.

How? Was the charge too high? Flynn said it had remained unchanged for a while when he gave it to me, but it did look brighter now…

The ship groaned, making the blood from the bisected pirate ripple. A glass paperweight rolled on the nightstand and thumped on the floor, tripping a quill straight for his eye. Kai moved out of the way, getting his cheek marred with ink. This wasn’t the time to lose himself in theoretical speculation. He stored the cracked silvery disk in his ring—he’d deal with the artifact when their life wasn’t on the line.

“You didn’t tell me he could do that!” Flynn sat on the cot of the cabin, gaping at the gruesome pieces of His Majesty’s handiwork splattered on the floor.

“Meeeow.” The furball sprawled at his feet, eager to claim its reward in belly rubs.

“Hobbes is a yellow beast focused on magic rather than rough brawn.” Kai sent overwhelming praise through their Familiar bond. “Or did you think he was just a pretty coat of fur?”

“So he can just… slice people in half whenever he wants?” Flynn absently leaned to scratch the cat.

“It’s not that easy to cast Space Magic on living beings. Unless they’re distracted…”

“Mew!” Hobbes yawned lazily. Despite his regal poise and pleased purrs, spells on that level took a toll on him.

“C’mon, we need to move.” Kai stood up, trying to chart the best course of action. His heart thumped in his ears, sweaty hands held his sword and wand. The Fulcrum might have been their only hope of salvation, but they were still surrounded by water for hundreds of miles with sea horrors aplenty.

“We… we…” A deeper tremor shook the Intrepid.

What could they do to prepare for the unpredictable? The whims of Fate could take seconds or minutes to show up, and he had never released anywhere close to this amount.

“We must find a safer place,” Flynn concluded with a glance at the frozen corpses. He headed toward the broken door, a veil of Shadow Magic making him undetectable in the dim interior of the ship. “Can you follow me?”

“I— yes.” Kai bobbed his head. Casting a shroud of his own, he trailed the faint swirling of Shadow motes.

They crept through the cramped companionways, down a ladder and past a pirate vainly trying to staunch the three bloody lines on his throat.

Hobbes has been busy.

“Are you sure we should be going deeper?” Kai hissed, tripping on the seam of a floorboard. The stench of blood wafted through the bowels of the vessel, screams of sailors and passengers echoing in the distance.

“Is your skill telling you something?” The shadow whispered back.

“No…” Kai dithered in the corridor. Hallowed Intuition was reduced to a concert of buzzing murmurs by the conflagration of Fate, a side effect he had forgotten about. “…but what if some sea monster sinks the ship?”

“Then we’d probably be dead anyway,” Flynn said with an even tone. “The biggest threat for us is the pirates. You’ve seen how their boss killed the captain. How many beasts can go against that?”

Not many. There might not even be one in this sea.

The Fulcrum couldn’t conjure a leviathan from nothing. Still, Kai couldn’t get the image of getting trapped in a sinking ship to the bottom of the ocean out of his mind.

The Intrepid rocked again; the jolts too frequent to be a coincidence on a calm sea. Was a beast already ramming their hull? Suddenly, ending up in the belly of an abyssal horror didn’t seem much better than getting cut down by pirates. “How do you explain that?”

If Flynn gave any sign, the gesture remained hidden in Shadow. “Let’s find out then,” his friend said after an awkward silence, leading him in a different direction on the same level.

Crystal lamps flickered on the ceiling, powered by the dim arrays of the Intrepid. Kai soon lost track of their position inside the labyrinth of narrow hallways and cabins. Behind a corner, they found the corpses of two veiled raiders and a graying woman skewered on the same spear.

May the spirits guide her soul to rest.

They stopped in front of a door reinforced with steel and runes. Flynn cursed under his breath when two of his lockpicks snapped, only to find out the bolt was already open.

“Here.” He nudged the door a crack to let them inside some sort of storage room and shut it with a clang behind them. “The soundproofing and lock are still working. We should be safe for a bit.”

Unless Lady Luck decides to mess with us.

From the round walls, they should be near the stern. Kai perused the plain crates and barrels with a frown before realizing why they came here: three portholes filtered pale blue light near the ceiling.

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Flynn stood on a chest to look outside. “Merciful spirits…” The cloaking spell fell to show his pale face.

“What is it?”

Please, anything but a sea monster.

Kai shifted his weight to climb on the same crate when the Intrepid tilted. Only a handhold of ice prevented him from kissing the floor. Mindful of any other whims of Fate, he turned to gaze outside. “Well… shit.”

It couldn’t have been more than ten minutes since they escaped the deck, yet the world had drastically morphed. Rolling waves and spotless sky were replaced by dark thundering clouds that turned midday to dusk. The frothing ocean reared meters into the air, choked with Water and twirling Air motes visible in spite of his low affinity.

Well, it could be worse. Maybe…

Kai curbed his thoughts, there was no need to tempt the gods. The mana storm grew every second he watched, blowing the waves to titanic proportions.

“That’s certainly a distraction.” Flynn let out a nervous chuckle. “Those bastards can’t keep their ship tied to ours in this sea.”

“Mhmm…” Kai nodded weakly.

If it doesn’t sink the Intrepid first.

There was no point lamenting his decision to use the Fulcrum. He had exchanged certain death or slavery for a chance at survival. Now he just had to beat the odds.

Should we stay hidden, and hope the pirates leave and the ship survives? If the effects of the Fulcrum aren’t done, a storage room isn’t the best option to react promptly. Though if we run into another raider, Hobbes can’t always save us…

From Flynn’s furrowed brow, he was having the same thoughts.

Neither of them was used to working with somebody else. They should have discussed Water synergies with Lightning long before a psycho pirate came knocking.

“What do you think—”

Clank!

The door bolt snapped open, and the crystals flickered one last time before dimming into empty glassware for good.