Sairek held Varhi for a few moments, patiently allowing the other boy to compose himself. Varhi soon pulled away from him though, shaking his head slowly. “No… I… I can’t be doing this right now…” He said under his breath. “We need to get out of here… Urgently.”
“Are we even going to be able to leave…? The ship looks like it sailed through the Underworld itself.” Nayleen asked.
“She still runs, but she’s hurt badly...” Varhi muttered, glancing towards the steering wheel. “I haven’t gotten a chance to assess the damage properly because of…” He trailed off, gesturing with a shake of his head at Hawkins on the ground, “...but if I were to guess, at least two engines have probably failed. Possibly three... I’m going to have to do work to disable them from running or we’ll be burning fuel fast and it could cause more damage trying to make broken parts run.”
“You can’t do work like this…!” Sairek protested.
Varhi sighed, but shook his head. “Sairek, I haven’t checked the rooms yet, but if we’re lucky, all of our stuff may still be here… If you could, can you go check and see if all of your supplies are there? With all the shaking and battling that had been going on, I doubt there’s anyone else on board. They would have probably come out by now if they were. Even if your stuff is gone, there will be medical supplies somewhere stored on the ship for emergencies. We can always use a sheet for bandages or whatever in the worst case scenario.”
“I—Yes,” Sairek agreed, letting Varhi go to stand up. He glanced down at himself, seeing some of Varhi’s blood had stained the front of his tabard despite trying to avoid it.
“Sairek,” Cyial called out, holding out his staff to him. Sairek walked over quickly, grabbing it from Cyial, before sprinting off.
“Nayleen, go with him just in case.” Varhi told her.
“But...”
“Cyial will check me... right?” Varhi asked, looking at Cyial.
“Yes.” Cyial agreed, then frowned. “This is starting to become a habit though.”
Varhi cracked a weak smile at that.
“‘Kay, boss.” Nayleen submitted, standing up and quickly sprinting off after Sairek to aid him.
Cyial moved, opting to give a wide berth to the deceased man on the floor as he made his way towards Varhi, looking back and forth between the both of them. “...Who is—was he, anyway?”
“A captain… Maybe Avotash’s right-hand-man, I don’t know…” Varhi grumbled, moving to stand himself up as he made his way over to him past Cyial, grabbing the man’s feet and dragging him.
“V-Varhi?” Cyial asked cautiously.
Varhi grunted as he pulled the man’s legs up over the railing. His right arm and side screamed at him to stop and rest but he didn’t. He kept going until over half of the man’s weight was nearly tipped over the edge of the boat. He paused, glancing at the man’s face, then moved a hand to brush his palm over his face downwards to close his eyes. He gave one final grunt, pushing the rest of the man’s weight needed to tip him over the edge and go falling off the side of the boat in a large splash due to the armor, just disappearing over the edge after the foam cleared.
“...What…?” Cyial asked quietly.
“...I don’t need a reminder of what I just had to do…” Varhi growled quietly. “I know what my job is… but dead people… they make me feel sick if I stay around them for too long.” He tried to explain. “...When the battle is over, I stop feeling alive and just feel dead inside. Reminds me too much of myself.”
He sighed and shook his head. “Look, I need to get this boat moving again. I need to at least have us sailing before you take a look at me. No doubt Cyvolta ships are still coming after us and can arrive here within minutes if we’re just parked here.” He explained, walking by Cyial again towards the steering wheel. He maneuvered the lever to withdraw the rope ladder back to the ship, then dropped the sails once again, angling them to catch the most favorable wind for speed. He didn’t care which direction they went at the moment, as long as it was not directly into land and kept them moving ‘away’ from here — from Masirean. When that was done, he moved to pick up his pot lid, putting it back into his satchel, and moving to pick up his greatsword in his left hand, presenting it to Cyial. “...Could you please? I can’t with my arm like this…” He requested.
Cyial nodded, taking the sword carefully in both hands, and moved to place it back in the sheath on Varhi’s back carefully. Varhi moved back towards the pillar that housed the sail, groaning a little as he sat down and leaned against it briefly before pulling his helmet visor off and putting it back into his satchel, then his cape, setting it beside himself, then his gauntlets, before raising his arms up, granting Cyial permission to help pull off his leather armor, which Cyial did carefully, placing the torn and bloodied armor off to the side.
Cyial sucked in a breath through his teeth, observing the two slashes. “You’re still bleeding…”
“...Yeah, I can tell. My body is starting to get cold in those spots and I’m starting to feel woozy now.” Varhi admitted, then dug into his satchel again. “Here, use the rope pieces you used for Sairek’s wounds for my arm when they come back to tie whatever they find together.” Varhi suggested, offering the ropes to Cyial as he pulled them out of the satchel, which the demon took into his own hands and placed them down beside himself as well.
“We… might need more than rope, Varhi. I may have to stitch these… they’re pretty bad. In the meantime though, please lay down on your back and try not to move.” Cyial began, prying off his own gloves. Varhi complied to Cyial’s request. Cyial moved his bare hands onto Varhi’s side, pressing down tightly to apply pressure to slow the bleeding until the others got back. Varhi hissed and growled in obvious pain and discomfort. Cyial moved his tail, wrapping two bundles of coils around Varhi’s right arm to cut off circulation between the bleeding limb to stem the bleeding there too, where he stayed like that until Sairek and Nayleen both came sprinting back.
“It’s there, all of our stuff is there. Even the ethereal... What we had left anyway.” Sairek panted as he slid down in the middle of his sprinting, sliding along the deck of the ship a little as he presented a half-filled flask of ethereal.
Cyial lifted his hands off the wound on the side. “Pour the ethereal nice and good over the wounds please. This will sting, Varhi.”
“I know… This isn’t my first time… This part always sucks.” Varhi groaned.
Cyial glanced towards Nayleen. “Can you give him one of your arrows? It would be best if he had something to bite down on.”
Nayleen wordlessly reached back into her quiver and slid out an arrow, bending down and placing it against Varhi’s teeth as he opened them apart to accept it before clamping down on the arrow between them.
“Ready?” Sairek asked him. Varhi gave an affirmative grunt, so he gingerly began pouring ethereal from the flask over the older boy’s open wounds.
Varhi’s violet eyes widened open in abrupt shock as he bit down hard into the arrow. “NNGH…”
Sairek himself grunted and he splashed a bit of ethereal onto the deck as Varhi’s legs kicked out and smacked him in the shoulder. He had to readjust himself and hold Varhi’s right leg down, while Nayleen moved to hold the left arm and leg down, and Cyial kept the right arm steady to prevent Varhi from thrashing too much. Thankfully after the initial shock, he didn’t squirm very much, though he did groan as Sairek doused his side, then his arm until nothing came out of the flask but a few dribbles, to which he poured the rest onto the royal jewel, which went from a deep orange-red to a sunny-orange, only changing a few hues with the few drops left within the emptied flask.
“Ugh… This really is bad…” Cyial hissed under his breath. “The arm will only need a bandage, and it’s only bleeding a little, but this one is just… Sairek… can you dig into my robe please? I can’t let go of the wound...” Cyial asked.
“What am I looking for?” Sairek asked.
“Wait a second… I’ll guide you.” Cyial replied in a murmur, closing his eyes as he concentrated towards Sairek’s consciousness. Wordless after a brief moment, Sairek moved, reaching into Cyial’s robes to pull out a suture needle and some thread.
“Thanks…” Cyial replied, releasing Varhi’s side with his hands to take the items gingerly in his hands. He weaved the thread through the needle before positioning himself. “It’s been a while since I’ve had to do this… I’m sorry Varhi, this is going to hurt real bad again.”
With the arrow still between his teeth, Varhi only released a muffled huff. His forehead and chest were beginning to perspire.
“Okay, three, two, one…” Cyial cautioned, before pressing the needle into his skin.
Varhi grunted as it pierced into his side, and then released a gurgling muffled cry, starting to thrash again as Cyial pressed the needle further through. He panted for air through his nose as the three struggled to hold him down. Varhi’s body was beginning to perspire with sweat heavily at this point, making it a little bit more tricky. Cyial however worked the needle through the wound quickly, and Varhi’s shouts were short lived, sagging exhausted on the back of the ship, panting through the air in his teeth, eyes clenched shut tightly.
Sairek bit his bottom lip, watching helplessly as one of his friends suffered like this was… gut wrenching. And it also made him angry that it had come down to this in the first place…
He wanted to learn more about the real world… but was the real world really this cruel? Where people would even harm children like them, just to satisfy their own needs…? To follow orders blindly, disregarding any morals in doing so–?
“Grrr...aaa—AAAUHHH!!”
His thoughts were interrupted as Varhi screamed and began to thresh again from Cyial putting the needle to stitch his side again. He must had been holding back before, because this time he was screaming like it was bloody murder into the night, arching his back off the deck which was beginning to not only have a small pool of blood where he lay, but a puddle of sweat as well… only once again finally relaxing when Cyial pulled the needle back through the wound, where the arrow fell out of his mouth, rolling down his chin, and lay on his chest as he heaved hard.
“O-Okay… f-f-forget what I said… th-this part… definitely… worse…!” Varhi gasped.
“Do you need a moment…?” Cyial asked.
“Screw that… Don’t make me have to wait in anticipation, now…” Varhi grunted.
“...Well, at least you still have your attitude.” Nayleen remarked.
“Sorry, that’s never going away…” Varhi smiled weakly, but he could only hold it for a few seconds as he panted again. “Arrow…”
Nayleen reached over and picked the arrow into her fingers, where she examined it breathly, seeing the bite marks over the midsection of it. She sighed, before placing the arrow back between his teeth, where he bit onto it again to keep it there. He took a few inhales of air through his nose before laying his head back down, giving a grunt to Cyial.
The demon gulped, but continued, pushing the needle back in again. Varhi clearly tried to hold it in, a deep guttural sound forming in his chest as his teeth bit hard into the arrow’s shaft, but he soon once again began to hollar in agony and thrash. Sairek reached over, pressing down on Varhi’s torso trying to keep him steady for Cyial, who continued to thread the needle through the gash…
Varhi suffered through this another three more times, though by the end, he was clearly starting to fatigue and become weaker, letting out nothing more than high-pitched groans or gasps in reaction, and his voice had started to become hoarse from all the screaming. Finally though, Cyial pushed the needle through one last time and sighed. “That should do… “Okay Varhi, we’re gonna sit you up.” Cyial instructed, letting go of Varhi’s side momentarily to brace his back with Nayleen’s assistance as they slowly moved to sit him upright. Varhi groaned in discomfort, practically sagging against their hands and arms. He released the arrow from his teeth which fell down onto his lap, knowing the worst of his treatment was over now, finally.
Cyial unwrapped the bandages and rolled them around the boy’s stomach, again with Nayleen helping to keep the bandage steady as the demon continued to wrap the bandage around and around a few times before tearing the end off. Then he repeated it in a quicker fashion to Varhi’s arm, working efficiently and with expertise. Cyial had clearly done this multiple times before. “There… All done.”
“Thanks as always… This is starting to become a bonding moment between us.” Varhi smiled weakly.
“I wish it wasn’t.” Cyial frowned. “I don’t want you to keep getting hurt. It’s always so serious, too…”
“If it’s any consolation, it’s not too bad now that it’s over. I’m sure I’ll be feeling better in no time, especially thanks to you.” Varhi said, leaning back into the brace of the grip the others had on him, taking a moment to rest and recover from the ordeal. After a moment he continued, looking at Nayleen and Sairek. “Besides, you said we got all of our stuff back, so that means I can enjoy proper food again soon enough, right...?”
Sairek shook his head slowly. “No, I’m sorry... It’s been a week. Most of the food has gone bad by this point, I’m afraid.” Varhi frowned at this news. “Some stuff is okay or is non-perishable. We won’t starve. It’ll be better than eating cattails, at least. We got most of our water flasks back, too, but we still need to refill those, most of them are empty...” Sairek paused, looking away thoughtfully for a moment. “I’m probably going to need to take a few hours to reassess our inventory and figure out what we really have. We may be on the water for a while.”
“And I need to reassess the ship’s status… Right now I’m just moving us out of Masirean territory via the sail only, but depending on our inventory and the ship’s status, we should decide our next move for the long term... I don’t think this ship is going to make it very far, but the closest way out of Masirean territory from here is heading towards Kior...”
“Not Ceareste?” Nayleen asked.
Varhi shook his head. “The Cyvolta checkpoint is in the way between here and there—”
“...What checkpoint?” Nayleen questioned.
Varhi scratched the back of his head with his left arm. “It’s an island between Ceareste and Masirean. Think of the islands we were going to go to that are between Malode and Masirean as the checkpoint between there, as an example.” Varhi answered. “However, there’s nothing between Masirean and Kior, the Ceareste one handles that as well since Cyvolta is the closest one between the two points.”
“I think I get it.” Nayleen nodded.
“We’d need to go around it. They’ll be looking to intercept us going to Ceareste and they’d be positioned to do it, too. This ship isn’t designed for combat and if it takes any more damage, we’ll be swimming with the fish before too long. Really West is the only option we can go to... They will be able to block us off going South and we can’t go back East. We have to go West and turn South after we out pace them and leave the border…”
Varhi paused, closing his eyes, his eyebrows creasing as he thought hard about their current predicament. “I think I can get us to travel faster than their ships even like this, but I don’t know how long both the engine and fuel will last. If we escape the border though, we will be able to slowly sail to the mainland leisurely as long as the structure is stabilized, depending on how much food we have left to eat, anyway...” Varhi explained.
“So we should be finally safe at least…?” Cyial asked.
“Hopefully, but let’s save celebrations until we’re actually out of Masirean territory. We still have a lot of work to do… and I’m going to have to be out of commission again for a while in a bit...” Varhi cautioned him.
“Fair...” Cyial agreed, then glanced at his hands, covered in Varhi’s blood.
“Here,” Sairek offered, standing up, and motioning Cyial over with him, which the demon followed. They went over to the side of the deck where Varhi watched Sairek squirt water with his magic over Cyial’s hands to wash them off the blood, and then did the same for his tail before they returned. Cyial shook his hands in an attempt to flick the water off of them and get them dry again before pulling his gloves back on.
“Okay, get me up please… I need to see the engine room…” Varhi grunted, moving to push himself up with his left hand, wincing as his right side protested a bit. Nayleen moved to help guide him, and he was on his two feet again, bracing himself against the pole that housed the ship’s sail. Nayleen bent down to pick up his equipment.
“Could you do me a favor and toss the armor in the basin inside the bathroom of the ship and dump the rest of the stuff into the captain’s room, please?” Varhi asked her, right hand gingerly placed onto his injured side as he braced himself with his left. “I’ll need someone to give the armor a good scrubbing again. Then I’m gonna need to repair it myself when I’m feeling better...”
“You know how to do that, too?” Sairek asked.
“Of course I do.” Varhi looked at Sairek in confusion. “A good mercenary knows how to maintain their gear. Without our gear, we die even easier. Take care of the gear and it will take care of you. Basic mercenary stuff...”
“Fair words to live by.” Nayleen agreed, walking over to also go and collect Varhi’s pot lid near the steering wheel.
“I also need someone to stay up here and make sure we don’t crash into something. It should be open air, but you never know.” Varhi said.
Cyial timidly raised his left hand. “I’ll do it. I can see better at night anyway and the rest of you should get to sleep soon. I just… need to steer, is that right?” He asked.
“Uh-huh. Turn the wheel to the left to go left, turn it right to go right. It will automatically correct to the center if you let go. You’re mostly just going to be standing watching, and it’ll be boring, but it’s an important job nonetheless.” Varhi explained.
“Yeah, I can do that.” Cyial nodded.
“Thanks.” Varhi smiled a little, but it quickly faded. “If you see a threat, another ship or something like that though, come down to the engine room to get us immediately. Steering and starting and slowing the ship is pretty basic, but other functions require inputs from those levers that require more movements than just slowly pulling up or down on the lever. If you need to slow the ship down, just pull the lever down to the bottom towards you.”
Cyial nodded. “Got it.”
Varhi gestured with his head to Sairek and Nayleen to follow him, and they did. Varhi walked slowly, nearly stumbling, as to not agitate his right side too much. He waited for Nayleen to put his gear in the appropriate rooms before he led the way down the stairs slowly, using the wall on his left side to aid in steadying him. He heard their footfalls behind them as they descended down the metal steps, which he descended carefully until reaching the end.
The first bad sign was the fact he couldn’t see anything. The lights were off down here and aside from the light coming from the opening from the stairs above, it was pitch black. Thankfully, there was an emergency lighting system for such failures, so he groped the right side wall on the opposite end of the room until he found a switch and flipped it on with a flick.
...Aaaaand nothing.
“Pits…” Varhi groaned. “Well that’s not a good sign. There should be a torch light somewhere—”
“Balinzer,” Sairek chanted dryly as he held his staff out.
Right. A mage was with him. That could just create magic fire for light…
Sairek moved closer to Varhi to help him find what he was searching for. There were various tools for maintenance on the engine in the back of the engine room, locked in a large shelf, which thankfully had a door to seal it shut so if things ended up shaking like they had been, they wouldn’t fall all over the place. Varhi grunted with effort as he shoved the large door of a shelf open and quickly reached for a cylinder shaped object with his left hand. He gave it a few good shakes using his left arm before he clicked a button and a bright lime light beamed out at the end to wherever he pointed. It was much brighter than Sairek’s spell, at least to the area in focus, while Sairek’s helped illuminate all around their immediate vicinity. Varhi walked back towards the engine room, light scanning the walls as he slowly stopped, his face becoming horrified at the damage.
The engine room was in absolute disarray. Gears were scattered everywhere, there was steam coming from the running engine behind the levers. Thankfully the controls themselves were still fine and intact. Sairek and Nayleen followed him in, looking at the destruction. There were holes and dusk air was seeping through, chilling Varhi’s naked upper half a little. The occasional hard wave splashed misty droplets onto him, but not enough to really begin to put the ship in danger, though it might cause the outermost gears closest to the hall to be soaked by now.
“Well, fuck berries.” Varhi sighed.
“...That’s a new one,” Sairek lamented dryly, “but I am going to assume by your cursing that we’re in a bad way.”
“Not in as much of a bad way as my wallet will be to get all of this fixed.” He growled.
I don’t know if even what we have on us right now would be enough to repair all of the damage.
“This is the heart of the ship, and it’s basically dismantled. We only have two of the four engines running, and one of those is barely hanging on. That’s why there’s steam coming out of it. I’m going to have to turn it off.” Varhi said, stepping up to the set of levers and pulling three of them down. The noise and gears noticeably lowered and slowed down, the pitch of the machinery at work lowering to almost a low rumble. Where before they were practically shouting, Varhi could speak normally and hear himself clearly. It almost felt too foreign to be on this ship when it was running and it being this easy to hear everything else clearly. “I might be able to get the second engine fixed by myself, but I’m gonna need a bit of time.”
“You seriously know how to fix the ship?” Sairek asked.
“Yes... and no. I can do some common stuff but obviously having cannonballs ripping through your hull is going to need more than a couple spare parts lying around and more knowledge than I know.” Varhi confessed. “Engine three and four are damaged beyond what I can do because the cannonballs practically destroyed them. They’re just… gone. They’ll practically have to be constructed from scratch.” Varhi tried to explain, gesturing at the two holes on both sides of the ship with the torchlight.
“Engine two…” Varhi continued pointing at the floor beneath them, “is doing fine. Engine one…” Varhi continued, pointing in front of them at the engine which had been billowing steam before he turned it off, “that’s the main engine and needs repairs. That’s why none of the lights are working. And the emergency ones have just been blown apart, I guess.”
“Main engine?” Nayleen asked.
“Engine one holds half of the speed. The other three engines make up the other half.” Varhi explained.
“So we’re basically at… twenty percent capacity?” Sairek asked, his face beginning to fall.
Varhi shrugged. “Well… yes and no. We’re sure slow right now, I can’t argue with that, but the sail still works, and stacking four engines, even if one is the most powerful one is down, that doesn’t mean you go four times as fast. We’re probably going around ten knots right now, maybe a little less. For reference, even smaller sailboats are lucky to average five. We’re still making speed to out pace anything Masirean has as long as it doesn’t have an engine. Masirean technology isn’t very good, so I’m not worried even if they did have an engine.”
Sairek looked relieved to hear that news, at least.
“So we’re getting away, we’re just not getting away to anywhere any time soon.” Nayleen asked.
“That’s right.” Varhi nodded. “If I can repair the engine at full capacity again, we might go at about twenty knots or so. We’ll still be in the ocean for a couple of days. Of course, the fuel won’t hold forever. We’ll run out eventually, but because I disabled the other engines, that’ll be a while. I assume the tank has been collecting fuel while it’s just been docked. It should have a full fuel tank by now. The fuel will last a little less than three days or so if we burn it like this. We’ll be out of Masirean territory long before then.”
“So unless there’s something we haven’t planned for…” Nayleen began.
“Or the ship begins to sink.” Sairek added.
“Not an impossibility, I’ll be honest.” Varhi nodded. “Thankfully, Jimmy is a careful man. Being able to shut other components of the engine off and working individually rather than a collective unit is a fail-safe he wanted in the design process, just for situations like these where one or more of the engines are compromised and we’re stranded at sea. It means we can keep using some of them even if not all of them are functioning.” He explained, then sighed warily, leaning his weight a bit onto his left arm as reached out, grabbing the support of a wall.
“You’ve been through a lot today, Varhi. Why don’t you take a rest first? You’ve been up for nearly twenty-four hours and just lost a lot of blood...” Sairek suggested to him.
“I can’t afford to rest right now.” Varhi frowned. “The sooner I get the repairs done, the sooner we can get out of here and the less risk there is of something that happens to the boat—and us. We’ll be out in the ocean for a couple days at least. I’ve got time to rest soon… but not right now.”
“Varhi, if you’re tired, your repair job will suffer because of it.” Sairek pressed.
“I know what I’m doing.” Varhi refused, pushing himself upright again and cupping his left hand under his right elbow, as if to rest the injured limb. “In fact, you two can even help me… It would save me a lot of time and work.”
“Uh-oh.” Sairek groaned.
Varhi chuckled. “Don’t be like that, Sairek~ It will give you a good look and understanding of some of the inner workings of Kiorian technology!”
“Ah yes, I’m definitely looking forward to it.” Sairek replied dryly.
“If I knew any better, I would say my attitude is starting to rub off on you.”
“You’re just imagining it. Are you sure you don’t need to rest? You’re starting to say crazy things.” Sairek retorted dryly.
Varhi smirked, but ignored his reply. “First things first before anything though, we need to clean this room up. I need both of you to collect all of it. Mostly the gears, but any nuts and bolts you find, too. Someone should go grab a couple of the empty boxes in the rooms above and bring them down here so it’s easier to organize everything. One box for the gears, another box for everything else.”
“I’ll get ‘em.” Nayleen volunteered immediately and began walking back up the stairs.
Varhi turned back around, examining the engine in more detail with the torchlight, and released a slow exhale.
This was going to take a lot of work...
* * *
An hour later, Sairek sighed, holding up the torch for Varhi as he had been watching the other boy either slide gears into places, replace one gear with a less damaged one, or screw in a nut or bolt here and there on the engine. He was going back and forth, occasionally turning the engine on for a few seconds to see how it ran before turning it off and going back to repairing it.
Sairek couldn’t tell if the repairs were going badly, or if Varhi was just in a lot of pain. Regardless, the expression on Varhi’s face after a little bit wasn’t a pleasant one, and had remained as such the entire time. He supposed the fact the other boy had to use his right arm to try and screw some things in would have given him lots of discomfort, but as he continued to watch, he looked down at Varhi’s side to see that the white linen of the bandage by now had begun to dye red considerably with blood. As Varhi turned around to reach for a gear, Sairek reached down with his hand holding the torch to clasp his arm gently to stop him. “That’s enough, Varhi.”
Varhi looked at him, blinking in confusion. “What do you mean…? I’m not finished yet. There’s still—”
“That’s enough.” Sairek said again. “You need to rest now.”
“I’m not—”
“Don’t make me get the other two and drag you out of here. I will. You’re in no condition to stop us and you know it. And you know they will side with me on this.” Sairek replied, pointing with his staff at Varhi’s wounded side. “You keep losing more blood. Keep this up and you’re going to faint one way or another.”
“But I’m not done yet—!” Varhi growled, grabbing his right side gently.
“Can’t you just put the engine at less than full power? With this much hull damage, surely twenty knots or whatever you said could cause issues anyway.”
Varhi was silent at that as he stared at Sairek.
“...Varhi?”
“Fuck…” The other boy cursed quietly to himself under his breath.
“...!!” Sairek let out a gasp, dropping the torch and his staff on the floor as he quickly bent down to catch Varhi who suddenly began to fall onto his side. Rather than keep him upright, Sairek leaned him down on the floor more gently. “Varhi?” He called out loud to the other boy, but he was given no response. Sairek gingerly glanced at the other boy’s side, seeing more blood was beginning to pool and dye more red at his side, showing that the wound had been reopened, or perhaps opened deeper. “Shit… Why does he never listen??”
Sairek grunted, moving himself to grab underneath Varhi’s armpits to hoist the other boy’s upper body upright, and began to drag him like this slowly towards the stairs. “Cyial! Nayleen!” He called out. He didn’t think Nayleen would hear, she had gone to bed. He didn’t know if Cyial would be able to hear him either because of the sounds of the ship, even as muted in comparison as usual, it would still drown out noise in the distance.
“Cyial! Nayleen!! I need help!” He called out again as he got close to the stairs. He wouldn’t be able to drag Varhi up the stairs alone, nor carry him without risking more damage to the wound. Thankfully he heard thudding footsteps overhead of him, and looked up to see Cyial moving down the stairs with hastened steps.
“I heard you. What happ— Ohh…” Cyial groaned, not pausing in descending the stairs. In the last couple of steps, he actually jumped down over them and landed on the other side, stumbling a bit forwards and bracing himself against the wall to stop his momentum before pushing himself away and bending down to examine Varhi. “Yggdrasil give me strength, I knew he would push himself like this sooner or later…”
“Is it that bad?” Sairek asked, with growing apprehension.
“No, I’m just pissed off. I have to sew up the wound again. Why do patients never listen to someone’s orders...”
“O-Oh.” Sairek never really heard Cyial like this before.
“Come on, I’ll hold his legs.” Cyial sighed, reaching down to grab each of them. Sairek nodded and grabbed the other boy’s arms, and slowly and carefully, they began carrying him up the stairs, going slowly as the stairs were fairly steep, and their curving nature wasn’t helping.
“These definitely weren’t designed with medical in mind…” Sairek grunted.
“Or carrying much of anything, really…” Cyial huffed. “Put him in the Captain’s room. It’s closest, and it was already open when I ran down here.”
“Yeah, I didn’t really think to close it when I was getting the bandages and checking if our stuff was there.” Sairek continued to grunt. “Half way…”
Eventually after a couple more minutes, they managed to get Varhi onto the upper floor, and carry him over to the Captain’s room, which had its own bed which wasn’t a bunk bed, but a double size bed. Perfect to put Varhi onto and have lots of space. Both Prince and demon moved to settle him onto the bed, though Sairek kept Varhi upright so Cyial could undo the bandages around Varhi’s waist to take a look at the wound. “Ah, dammit… The stitches have become undone indeed…”
“That’s what I feared it was. He’d been sitting the entire time but he was turning around a lot or getting up and repositioning himself.” Sairek sighed.
“I ought to tie him to the damn bed so he can’t get up anymore after this.” Cyial grunted, kneeling down. He used the rest of the clean part of the bandage to wipe the blood away as much as he could, before pulling off his gloves and readying the needle and thread again. “Set him down and go find me another set of bandages to use, please. I know Nayleen made us grab a lot in Thalnar. At least he shouldn’t squirm this time if he’s unconscious.”
“Sure…” Sairek said, gently placing Varhi down on the bed. “There needs to be more food and water somewhere on this ship. Jimmy wouldn’t sail with absolutely nothing, surely.” He continued, as he went over to the corner of things he had laid out before when Avotash had basically forced him to.
Cyial sighed. “We’ll have to look later. For now, I need to handle this, then continue steering the ship. And you need to rest, too.”
“You also need to rest.” Sairek deflected.
“I know… I’ve been up for a long time. I'm starting to feel sleepy too, but I can stay up for a few more hours until everyone else has slept first. I’m not as bad as the rest of you all probably are, you’ve all been up for nearly twenty four hours by now.”
Sairek moved to place a fresh roll of bandages to Cyial’s right near Varhi’s head, to which the demon mumbled his thanks, threading the needle and thread into Varhi’s wound again. Like Cyial said, the other boy didn’t even react much, though there were a few muscle twitches and a soft groan of pain that came from him. Despite this, it was clear to Sairek that Cyial was trying to use as much finesse as possible with this, but still also quick, to stop the bleeding as soon as possible.
Without Varhi flailing in pain this time though, Cyial made much quicker work, only taking a couple of minutes. He wiped the blood again with the other bandage one last time, and Sairek moved to slowly sit a limp Varhi upright again so Cyial could roll the fresh bandage around him again and again firmly. When he was done, Sairek set Varhi back down on the bed to let him rest.
”Here.” Sairek offered as Cyial looked down at his bloody hands again. Sairek raised his right hand, concentrating energy into his gloves. “Waert,” he murmured softly, causing a controlled dribbling of water to spray gently on Cyial’s hands to rinse them off.
“Thanks again…” Cyial said, a weariness in his voice. “I hope the ship is fast enough to get away…”
“Well, they haven’t caught up to us yet. I think for the moment we can take a breather. We certainly aren’t in hiding anymore, though. We need to get ready for anything. They know which direction we’re headed.” Sairek said, glancing at Varhi for a moment. “I need to go back downstairs and get my staff. I’ll come back and watch him until I fall asleep.”
“But that’ll be uncomfortable for you. You need proper rest too, Sairek.”
Sairek shook his head. “I’ll just grab one of the sleeping bags and snooze next to the bed. I can tell even that will let me pass out quickly… I’m beat, Cyial. We’ve been walking and running and have been apprehensive all day...”
“Right, I guess we have that stuff now, may as well make use of it. Alright…” Cyial conceded, giving one last, long look at Varhi. “Hopefully he stays down and out for a while… No offense to him, but…” Cyial paused, then shook his head. “No, I’ll save my words for when he’s better. Nevermind. Go get your staff, Sairek. I’ll stay here and prepare the bedding for you.”
“Thanks Cyial.”
Sairek stepped out of the door and walked his way back down to the engine room. He picked up his staff, but decided that he should also drag the boxes of parts and mechanical supplies away from the engine too, so they didn’t slide around or out of the room as well if the ship got particularly bouncy for some reason. After he did that, he took a moment to examine out through one of the holes. Though the sun hadn’t risen yet, the night sky wasn’t total darkness anymore. He could see warm hues from the sky in the east, and the sky was a dark blue. It was probably somewhere between four or five in the morning. He’d probably be asleep until the early afternoon at minimum.
Stepping back upstairs, more than ready for sleep, he relieved his bladder first now that he had the chance to before he stepped into the Captain’s room again. He saw that Cyial hadn’t grabbed the sleeping bag at all. Instead, he had grabbed an entire mattress from one of the beds in a spare room and laid that down on the floor next to the Captain’s bed to which Varhi was unconscious on, complete with a pillow and blankets. “I thought I’d surprise you a little.” Cyial grinned slightly.
Sairek smiled back. “That’s better than what I had planned.”
Cyial moved and wrapped his arms around Sairek tightly in a hug, and Sairek returned the gesture back. They stood in their embrace for a handful of seconds. “We’ll get through it, Cyial.” Sairek said quietly.
Cyial gently nodded against him. “Yeah… We’re almost there. I’ll try to keep track of the time so Varhi has a rough idea of where we are when he wakes up.” He pulled away then, looking Sairek over briefly with a sad smile. “We both must look pretty terrible right now…”
Sairek looked down at himself, at his tabard stained with Varhi’s blood, and miserably caked with dirt. Cyial’s clothes looked no better than his. Hair equally as disheveled which he assumed his own hair was, too. “Well… we’ll deal with that after we wake up, if we’re granted some peace finally.”
“Okay, I should stop keeping you… Try to sleep well, Sairek.”
“Yeah…”
Cyial gave Sairek one last quick hug before walking towards the door, giving him a final glance, then closed the door gently, sealing it shut with the valve. Sairek turned back around, looking at Varhi’s unconscious form. He didn’t have a peaceful expression on his face, even unconscious, the other boy’s face was in a grimace, but there was nothing else they could do for him now, and Sairek himself was at the end of his fatigue. Each passing second made the mattress Cyial lay out for him even harder to resist laying on.
In silence, he disrobed his upper half, putting his shirt and the rest of his accessories that was adjoined to it at the foot of the mattress on the floor, then he kicked off his shoes and snuggled himself under the cover of the blanket. He wasn’t really cold, but the comforting security of the soft fabric was something he needed after so many days without one and he needed it for his peace of mind. He almost felt normal again like this…
...Almost.
He never thought he’d experience a day where he was homesick, but here he was. He was wishing he was back in the safety of his overly large bed back in his room at the castle… but with the other royal jewel in his shirt pocket, he knew that his return to there was probably sooner rather than later at this rate whether that be a good or a bad thing, and he wondered if he would even be able to leave the room any time soon, as he imagined how his father may respond to what he did; no matter what excuse for justifying why.
Such troubled thoughts would have made it impossible to sleep, were he not in such an exhausted state, but despite them, Sairek felt himself quickly drifting into an uneasy but deep sleep in mere moments anyways.
* * *
Sairek managed to wake up multiple times in the next several hours, waking only briefly before rolling over on the mattress and falling back to sleep. On the third time he woke up, Cyial had actually joined him in the bed, and he merely snuggled up against his companion. The added security of his presence made his fourth time falling asleep much easier.
The fourth time he woke up was the last, but even though he felt himself slowly stirring, he didn’t really move for what felt like an hour or so. It was a slow wake up, one where he was comfortable and finally felt safe. He felt the front of his body spooning the smaller demon in front of him, his right arm draped over Cyial and holding him gently and he just wanted to stay like that. Cyial, similarly, was snuggled up against his hold, snoring quietly; and Sairek knew the demon barely made any noise but this was the deepest sleep he heard Cyial be in ever, signaling how tired the demon truly had been.
Though he lay like this for an hour or so, he did gently doze back into a light sleep a couple of times for several minutes both times. However, his bladder was beginning to protest again and he was forced to concede, if at least temporarily, the safety of the mattress bed and blankets. Slowly, he shifted himself away from Cyial without trying to disturb him, shimmying his way out and stepping over the other boy who didn’t even budge from his movements. He once more went to the bathroom and went over to the small sink and poured water from the tap to wash his face, hands and try to fix his hair. It unfortunately didn’t offer any heat though, so all the water was cold.
When he was done, he stepped back into the room, then hesitated as he eyed the bed Varhi had been on to see it was empty. With a frown, he closed the door again and wandered his way downstairs, having a good idea of where the other boy might have gone off to.
Sairek’s guess was correct. With daylight pouring in from the holes in the hull, the engine room was fairly illuminated now. Sairek covered his bare chest with his arms as best as he could at the gusts of fresh air freely flowing down here, especially because his body was still a damp from him quickly washing himself with cold water, but regardless he stepped forward as Varhi was once more kneeled in front of the engine, in the middle of turning a screwdriver to twist in a bolt in the tangled mass of gears that was located in the back. “Just what the Blazes do you think you are doing? You should still be in bed resting.” Sairek scolded.
“Relax, I feel better now. And I’m almost done. I’m just putting in the last finishing touches.” Varhi claimed. He finished screwing the bolt in, having the two boxes Nayleen and Sairek collected parts in on either side of him as he kneeled. He glanced towards Sairek, eyeing him over for a moment. “It’s almost evening, you know. You slept the whole day.”
“I was tired. And you were worse than me. More reason for you to get some more rest.” Sairek chastised.
Varhi smiled at him. “I’ll be a good boy soon—after the engine is fixed.”
“Varhi… What would happen if you passed out again alone down here?” Sairek sighed, but he knew he wasn’t going to get anywhere. Sairek knew that he himself was stubborn, but Varhi was on a whole different level.
Varhi pushed himself slowly and carefully with a grunt. At least Sairek could see that the wound hadn’t reopened. Varhi walked over to him, then past him, going to the back behind the spiraling stairs as he opened a back cabinet, rummaging through supplies before he pulled out a long, large black cylinder with a chrome top about a foot long and four inches thick. “Fancy some dinner?”
Sairek slowly blinked at him.
“Yes? No?” Varhi pressed.
“...What is it?”
“This is a ration from Kior.” Varhi explained, turning the cylinder in his grip so Sairek could get a look at it from all angles, but it was still just a cylinder. “You like mashed potatoes, right? Everyone does.”
“Sure, but… wouldn’t that be rotten by now?” Sairek questioned.
“Nope! Wanna see how it works?”
“You’ve got me curious, I admit.” Sairek agreed.
“Cool.” Varhi replied, reaching back into the cabinet to pull out a small metal… thing, shaped like an L. “This is called an allen key.” He replied, as if reading Sairek’s mind, showing it to him. Then he turned the cylinder upside down. “First, you pull this latch here near the bottom and turn it upside down. Water is in the bottom part of this thing and dried potato flakes in the rest of the container to keep them from spoiling, so the water will rehydrate them and make the dried flakes like mashed potatoes.” Varhi explained, demonstrating as he did just that. Then he pushed the latch back in again after a few seconds.
“Give it a good few seconds of shaking like this,” he continued, shaking the container in his left hand, before resting the cylinder back upright, then turning the top to face Sairek. “There’s three holes you poke this into, then after you do that, you just pull at the ring pull in the middle here, and the food will heat up automatically in a few minutes. You just stick a fork or spoon in and stir. Then pour it out after five minutes. That’s it. You can add butter or milk to it if it’s available… but we don’t have any, so it’ll taste a little bland, but at least spices are in the flakes as well. Oh, and the best part of this little can? No magic is involved.”
“No magic?” Sairek blinked.
“Nope. Just good ‘ol science.” Varhi grinned, handing the allen key and cylinder to Sairek. “Go on, give it a try. My right arm is a bit knackered still to really push the key in that hard, so I’ll need you to do it. Push the longer bit into those three points. You can sit and do it on the floor so it’s easier.”
Sairek followed that advice, sitting cross-legged on the ground with the cylinder inside his legs as he took the key and shoved hard into reach of the three points as deep as the key would allow. Then he hooked his middle finger underneath the ring pull, giving a glance to Varhi for confirmation who nodded. He pulled, peeling the top of the container off to look inside to see that there was, indeed, mashed potatoes inside the cylinder. Varhi reached back into the cabinet, pulling out a fork which he tossed to Sairek, who caught it against his chest, wincing as the utensil poked him a little. Sairek began to stir firmly with the fork, and within two minutes, the can was hot to the touch, with a gentle steam even beginning to billow out of it and into his face whenever he stared directly down into the can. He was still feeling a bit chilled, so he welcomed the heat.
“You’re seriously saying this isn’t magic?” Sairek asked as he continued to stir.
“Yup. It’s called a hot can. Punching the key into the holes releases chemicals that cause the can to heat up to the point that the food inside can be cooked or heated for a few minutes. Notice how spongy it feels?” Varhi asked. Sairek squeezed the can testingly, which caused Varhi to smirk. “That spongy texture helps insulate the can to keep the heat inside for longer.”
Sairek looked down at the can, pausing in his stirring. “Why not just use magic, though? Surely that’s easier to make…?”
“Is it? Magic is renewable but it’s still finite, Sairek. Not to mention, good quality ethereal is an expensive commodity, let alone having to create a catalyst to cast the magic in the first place. All of that just to rehydrate some dried mashed potatoes in a can and reheat? Why do that when some gases and pushing a key into three holes is good enough?” Varhi questioned, to which Sairek had no answer.
“Well, it should be ready now.” Varhi shrugged, reaching back into the cabinet to grab a plate bowl for the Prince and handed it to him. “Just pour it out, make sure to give it a good shake and scrape the edges with the fork to get everything out.”
Sairek turned the cylinder upside down again, shaking it so the contents plopped out onto the plate, eventually scraping the fork inside to get the rest out as Varhi advised. When he finished, he looked down onto the plate to see the steamy pile of mashed potatoes in front of him. It was… something, he supposed, but severely lacking. It wasn’t even made properly with milk or butter, but then again, it wasn’t cattails, or worms, or unseasoned deer for nearly three days straight, and it was done and heated for him in as little as five minutes.
“...This is the kind of food you usually eat, don’t you?” Sairek asked.
“Well, not around these parts. But back in Kior, yeah. These don’t really go bad. They last a very, very long time. That’s the main benefit from them. And it doesn’t taste that bad by itself. You shake it, poke a few holes, wait a couple minutes and it’s ready to eat. If you have other things, you can mix it in with other stuff to make a reasonably decent meal.”
Sairek scooped the fork into the pile of mashed potatoes and blew on what he gathered on the fork gently a few times to cool it before he sunk the utensil into his mouth. His face twisted slightly and he slowly blinked. The taste wasn’t bad. It was just weak and had him wishing he had the real thing more than anything else. There were spices in there, but they weren’t as strong as they could be.
However, he supposed for the purposes of filling one’s stomach if that’s the only thing you cared about, it would work.
“It’ll do.” Sairek sighed, scooping another forkful and cooling that too before plopping it into his mouth and swallowing again soon after. As much as the taste left to be desired, his stomach was at least content with getting something right now. He was more than a little hungry.
Varhi wordlessly walked back to the engine as Sairek ate and the Prince watched the other boy work, shifting his seated position to get a better angle to watch as he tackled the food on his plate with unusual haste, even for him. Varhi didn’t work long, screwing in a few more bolts and setting in a gear, then screwing in a few more bolts again before he stood up and pulled one of the levers slightly, observing how the gears rolled as he stood by at the control panel. He let it go slowly at first before turning it up higher, allowing the engine to work faster, until he pushed the lever as far as it would go, and thus the engine. The increase of the noise emanating throughout the ship more than doubled as the main engine stirred to life. Varhi’s expression twisted into a confident smirk. “Hah, I knew I could fix it. You can feel the wind now, can’t you Sairek?”
At the mention of that, Sairek settled down his now empty plate into his lap and wrapped his arms around himself, hugging his front to try and protect it from the breeze. “A little too much…” He grumbled, though he wasn’t sure Varhi could hear him over the constant clanking of gears. “Who’s steering the ship anyways? Cyial is asleep, so… Nayleen?”
“Got it in one.” He replied, bending down to pick up Sairek’s silverware with his left hand. Sairek pushed himself up onto his feet, dusting his bottom off with his hands. “I admit, this isn’t fuel efficient, but with this we’ll be out of Masirean’s borders before tomorrow morning. I doubt they will pursue us beyond that.”
“Yeah, well, we will have Kior to deal with as well. I don’t think they will appreciate us just blasting through into their borders via the ocean. Unlike Masirean, they have the manpower to keep a tight lip on that. We’ll be noticed quite quickly” Sairek said. “How are we going to be able to convince them?”
“Well, the ship is of Kiorian design, so that might help. It’s also pretty busted. It’s an emergency.” Varhi mused thoughtfully. “Either way, there are things you can do to communicate by boat, via signals and stuff. Don’t worry about it too much. I’ll handle it. They have no reason to sink us down as long as we behave and follow instructions once they eventually intercept our approach.”
“It’s not that I’m worried about. Ceareste and Kior haven’t been on good terms lately. Not anything to go to war over, but…” Sairek trailed off, looking away slightly. “They definitely won’t appreciate what I’ve done and then drag them into this…”
“Ah, I see. Politics, eh?”
“Not really. Kior won’t stop putting people past other countries’ borders. It’s one thing when a civilian sneaks through like Nayleen. It’s another story when the military does it. Especially a group of them, multiple times.” Sairek explained. “Theoretically, I’m doing it back to them. Being the Prince automatically makes me part of the military, though I’m clearly no spy.”
“Hmm. Well, we can’t alter course now. We went slow for so long, they surely have the south border cut off by now to Ceareste. Don’t worry about it, like I said, I’ll handle it. You can even give the jewel to me if you want, and I’ll take the fall for it.” Varhi offered.
Sairek looked away uncomfortably. “I… can’t do that to you... It’s my responsibility. I’m the one who did it. It would be a lie. I don’t think lying would be a good idea.”
Varhi shrugged with his left shoulder. “Come on, let’s get you dressed and see what’s happening above.” He offered, leading the way back to the stairs, depositing the silverware back into the cabinet for now.
“Speaking of clothes… I don’t suppose there’s somewhere to wash them on this ship?” Sairek asked.
“No, sorry. The idea of the ship was designed for quick transport, even with long distances. Honestly, the amount of food and supplies we have here isn’t a lot. It will only hold us for a couple of days. Some of it has been used, too, so there’s even less. That said, it’s the ocean, so there’s tools to fish with and a very basic small kitchen. It’s more of a last resort, or to prepare to eat any perishables on hand first before digging into the ration supply.”
“There’s not even a shower?”
“Nope.”
“Ughh…”
“Oh relax. The more disheveled you look the more believable our story will be!” Varhi snorted. He climbed up the stairs with Sairek tightly behind him. When they made it back up to the upper floor, Sairek quietly entered the captain’s room and dressed in the rest of his clothes, giving another look to Cyial who, despite the increase in noise, still seemed to remain deep in his slumber. Cyial must have either just gotten to bed by the time he woke up, or the demon had been even more tired than he had already been letting on.
Out in the hallway, Varhi just stepped out in the bathroom as he stepped out of the captain’s room. Varhi gestured to him to lead the way to the deck, so he did. Once outside, he took a brief survey around himself. The sky was starting to turn pink as it closed in towards evening, dotted by clouds mostly silhouetted in the sky by the sun’s rays. Nayleen stood at the steering wheel, her now short hair flowing freely in the wind much like Sairek’s cape was when the gusts of wind hit it when he stepped out into the open as he scanned the horizon for anything of note, but there was only just ocean around them.
“Engines fixed!” Varhi announced their arrival as he stepped past Sairek. His voice caused Nayleen to turn around and grin at them. “Hey! Good morn—evening, Sai!” She greeted him. Sairek raised his right hand to return the greeting.
“Everything still good up here?” Varhi asked.
“Uh-huh. Just dodging a couple of things here and there. No trouble so far.” Nayleen reported.
Varhi stepped over to the left side and leaned over the railing, looking down for a moment, then pulled himself back upright. “Yup, that’s about fifteen to twenty knots. We’ll definitely hit the border before the morning at this speed.” He said, walking back over. “Probably about eight hours from now or so.”
Sairek didn’t try to hide his apprehensive look. “I guess I should try to distract myself by taking inventory of what we have, then. ...Are we keeping the boat? If we are, I’m going to have to be careful with what I select. I can’t carry much else with it.”
“You can probably leave the boat here for now. We can always come to pick it up later if we need it.” Varhi said. “Just keep in mind that by now it’s the only lifeboat the ship has left.
Sairek nodded, then glanced back towards Nayleen. “I bet this isn’t how you thought you’d return home, is it?”
She shook her head, then consciously grasped the back of her head. “Man, my parents are gonna be so mad with what I did with my hair.”
Sairek blinked owlishly at her. “I… I think your hair is probably the least of their concerns Nayleen. You’ve snuck out and haven’t been back in… how long?” She shrugged nonchalantly, causing Sairek to release a sigh in response. “Oh well. It’s not like I have the right to criticize…” There was a moment of silence, before he continued again. “Well, I’ll check the inventory now. I hope I don’t wake Cyial up by accident, though.”
“With this noise from the ship I would be surprised if he’s still asleep. If he is, he must have been extremely tired.” Nayleen mused.
Sairek shrugged as he turned around, walking away from them. “He’s usually a light sleeper but he’s pretty heavy this time.” He replied in departure, making his way back inside the ship and towards the captain’s room again. Although probably unnecessary, he tried to open the door into the door room quietly, then shut it back up against behind him.
Cyial was still definitely asleep, but as he tip-toed his way closer, he could see that his sleep was starting to get restless. It wouldn’t be much longer before he awoke. Sairek left him alone though, and made his way towards the pile of items that he had originally put behind the table in the chair he had been bound to and began the long arduous task of sorting items out and removing the spoiled food from the pile. A lot of them were beginning to smell fairly rancid as he worked. Food spoiled much slower inside the pocket dimension of the jewel because it was practically a vacuum in there. Left out on the ship, they were beyond their expiry date for sure.
A lot of items were simple. The sleeping bags, tents they had purchased in Thalnar, the extra camping equipment for Karvadean, all of their flasks and vials, though many were empty by now, Cyial’s supplies of herbs, Fuyiki’s book was even here. He still had the diary from Karvadean in his actual clothes, so thankfully Avotash had no chance of taking that from him. He gave it a couple more looks over while they were camping and trying to survive out of sheer boredom, but there had been no real additional information to glean from it, but he supposed when presenting his case to the council, it would be used as evidence to validate their claims.
However, he didn’t know if presenting this to the council would even do anything. At best it may absolve him of his crime and reason to trespass, thus averting him being the instigator for a war if it came down to that. That’d stop bad public opinion of him and Ceareste and put it on Masirean, sure… but that did open a whole slew of other issues, such as the fact everyone would know of such power that was lying dormant underneath Karvadean. The corruption needed to be stopped though, and it’s not like they could do it alone. Not in Masirean territory with Avotash constantly monitoring the area. If he didn’t know something special was there before, he definitely did now. If Avotash could somehow harness that power, it could lead to a different disaster in itself. The council was created and funded by all four nations to be neutral, but it’s not like they could stop a country from going to war. They were merely an unbiased voice of reason and protectors of Yggdrasil. That was it. They would only act if the corruption threatened the existence of Yggdrasil itself. Even after presenting his case, as far as preventing anyone from trying to obtain the secrets of Karvadean’s mines, they would be back to square one...
“Ugh, what do I do…?” Sairek sighed to himself, mechanically just sorting items by this point. The task of checking inventory and taking stock of what they had had been pushed to the subconscious level as his fears and concerns took the forefront of his thoughts. He wished he never took the stupid royal jewel from Avotash. It didn’t even benefit him. All it did in the end was look bad on him and piss the man off even more. Of course, in the heat of the moment, he hadn’t been thinking. The man tried to take the Ceareste jewel first so he had simply retaliated back and then, unfortunately he realized, succeeded.
Yeah… he could have handled this whole situation a lot better in hindsight… and it was driving him mad. Even after all of this was over, he was dreading having to head back home… and he would have to head back home. His father was going to have an absolute fit with him. No way would he be allowed to leave the castle easily, contract or not.
Sairek was pulled out of his thoughts as he felt arms moving to wrap around him from behind. There was a brief moment of being startled alert but he relaxed, feeling it was Cyial. Seeing that the Prince was no longer drowning in his thoughts, Cyial spoke softly into his left ear. “You were just staring down in the corner for a while…”
“I got lost in my thoughts…” Sairek replied back.
“They must have been pretty bad ones. The look on your face was as if you were horrified.”
“Something like that, yeah.”
Cyial gave him a reassuring squeeze in his arms. “It’ll be okay, Sairek. We’ll make it through it.”
“But after all of this is done... “ Sairek paused, then let out a sad chuckle. “My father is going to be pissed and so disappointed in me.”
“I’ll come visit. I’ll change my schedule to be the one to deliver the ethereal to Marid personally, just to see you.”
“I don’t think he’ll allow me visitors. He probably would think at this point that you guys are a bad influence.” Sairek chuckled weakly again.
“I’ll come see you using Nayleen’s method, then. I’ll get her to teach me her ways.” Cyial joked.
“Oh gosh…” Sairek cracked a faint smile, leaning into the comfort of Cyial’s form. “When they find out about the both of us, it’s going to be even harder…”
Sairek felt Cyial stiffen slightly, but he soon relaxed again, quiet for a moment. “...I guess I don’t like the idea of having to be secretive and hiding it, either. But that may be even more difficult for the both of us than even the whole Karvadean thing…” He murmured.
“It certainly will be. But it’s better to get everything all out of the way at once, I think.” Sairek mumbled. “Public opinion about me is already going to be bad. May as well not drag it out.”
“Before that time comes, can you do me a favor?” Cyial asked.
“What is it?”
“Let me at least be able to be there with you before you break the news to your father… so I can at least show him how devoted I am to you.”
Sairek moved to hold one of Cyial’s hands, which was wrapped around Sairek’s form near his tummy tightly. He nodded slowly in agreement. He gently squeezed Cyial’s hand, and the demon returned the gesture back.
“I’m going to miss you, Cyial…”
“I will miss you too, Sairek… but we will be back together soon enough after all of it is over. I’ll make sure of it. It may not be everyday… It may be down to once a week or something, but if you can’t come visit me, then I’ll just come visit you. I’ll make sure of it. And if I have to sit outside the castle walls and communicate with you telepathically while you are trapped in your bedroom, then that is what I will do.”
Sairek nodded slowly, not trusting his voice right now. He gently turned around slightly, leaning the majority of his weight into Cyial. The comfort of his best friend was just what he needed right now to try and balance the numerous nervous thoughts running around in his head.
“...Can we go back to bed?” Sairek asked quietly.
“Are you sleepy again?” Cyial asked.
Sairek shook his head slowly. “No… But… I think I need to—to rest… right now…”
Cyial nodded his understanding, and shifting their positions, they crawled back over to the makeshift bed on the floor. Though he wasn’t cold, Sairek pulled the blanket over top of them both, because it made him feel just a little bit more safe. He nestled inside of it, pressing himself against Cyial who again, wrapped his arms around Sairek and held him close. The demon could feel Sairek’s form shivering slightly, which concerned him.
“Sairek…” Cyial began, pausing for a moment. “It’s okay to be nervous, just take a little bit to calm down, okay?”
“Y-Yeah…” Sairek whispered, pressing his face into Cyial’s chest. He felt the demon move slightly, and he felt that rubbing Cyial always did against his back to try and calm him down. He didn’t know why Cyial did that, or why he thought it calmed him down… but he recognized the gesture by now and what its purpose was, and that ironically did start helping to calm him down whenever he was embarrassed or upset. “Sorry… I don’t know why… I’m like this suddenly… I just began thinking about what’s happening in the next few hours… and what that could mean in the future… and I—”
“I know…” Cyial interrupted him to stop him from going on a frantic ramble. “You’re beginning to have a nervous breakdown. It’s okay, Sairek. You are under a lot of pressure right now… Just take a while to relax, okay? It’s still many hours before we have to move. So let’s just spend the time we have together, okay?”
“O-Okay…” Sairek sighed, closing his eyes.
* * *
Sairek didn’t know when he fell asleep again. He had been awake for a couple of hours, just resting with Cyial, but eventually he had dozed off into a thankfully, rather peaceful sleep again. He must have been more exhausted mentally than he thought if he had managed to do that. However, when he woke up again, Cyial was not in the bed with him, but it was obvious he was in the room, as was Varhi in fact. Sairek slowly sat up, rubbing his eyes, peeking out from under his knuckles to observe what was happening.
It seemed like Cyial was just doing a routine check on Varhi’s wounds and replacing the bandages, though as Sairek’s vision cleared, he saw the demon wore a frown on his face as he looked at Varhi’s side where he was sliced.
“...I don’t understand…” Cyial said, his voice having an undertone with a growl.
Varhi shrugged. “You keep saying that every time. I told you, I’m stubborn.”
Cyial blinked a few times with a quick shake of his head. “Varhi, it’s not normal. Even healing magic doesn’t work this fast. How—I don’t understand.” He stammered.
Again, Varhi shrugged. “It’s always been like this, as far as I can remember anyway. Everyone has something about them that makes them unique. Maybe mine is just being a glutton for punishment?”
“You studied the human body and its systems, right?”
“Uh-huh.”
“So you should know just as much as I do that you recovering from wounds this quickly is abnormal, Varhi.”
“Well, what do you want me to say?” Varhi asked, his tone sounding annoyed. “It is what it is. I don’t control it. I can’t make myself heal slower just to appease what you find to be a normal speed.”
Cyial frowned. “Is your strength abnormal, too?”
“What does that mean?” Varhi sighed. “I work out all the time, you know. When Jimmy found me, I was pretty thin and frail. Mostly due to malnutrition. I worked hard to bring my body back into shape and more. I’m strong, I know that, but I’m sure there’s people even stronger than I am. I’m not ripped, after all. If I did nothing but jack my muscles up, I wouldn’t be able to stay light on my feet when needed.”
“Nor should you be… That would be bad for your body at our age.” Cyial exhaled in resignation, undoing the bandage around Varhi’s waist and just discarding it away.
Sairek moved to stand up and pace to look at an unobstructed view of Varhi’s side where he’d been sliced pretty badly, and blinked.
The wound wasn’t fully healed still, but it looked like a week’s recovery had been done in little more than a day. The most strange part was the absolute lack of scarring that was occuring. Even most of the bruises Varhi had occurred from before were practically invisible to the naked eye at this point. The discoloration was slight, and Sairek only spotted them because he knew they should be there. At this rate, by tomorrow, all evidence of the damage that had been done save for the slashes would be entirely gone.
Varhi looked at Sairek. “So you think I’m weird too, obviously, given that expression.”
Cyial glanced behind himself to look at Sairek, then turned back to Varhi. “We don’t think you are weird. We think it’s not natural.” Cyial frowned. “Varhi, a wound like that would normally take a few weeks to heal, with good rest and care. You were up and about, repairing the ship for crying out loud.”
“Hey, I went back to bed like a good boy afterwards.”
Cyial rolled his eyes, then glanced back to Sairek. “Do you see what I need to put up with?”
Sairek snorted in amusement, as did Varhi, taking the teasing in good stride. “If he heals that quickly, isn’t it a boon though, Cyial?” Sairek asked.
“I—I mean, it could be? But what if it’s doing some sort of side effect underneath that’s bad?” Cyial asked.
“What do you mean? I’m starting to feel pretty good compared to yesterday.” Varhi questioned.
“Getting beaten to a pulp and having metallic blades piercing through your flesh constantly is anything but good for your health.” Cyial replied dryly.
“Maybe I just have a fast metabolism? You see how much I eat when I have access to food.” Varhi stated.
Cyial opened his mouth to speak, then paused, thinking critically for a moment. His eyebrows creased and he soon frowned. “No, that still doesn’t make sense.”
“...You sure? You looked like you needed to think about that one.” Varhi teased.
“I am sure.”
“Maybe it’s a really fast metabolism I have?”
“No.”
“A really, really fast metabolism?”
“Varhi—”
“A really, really, really fast metabolism?”
“For the love of— It is not your metabolism!” Cyial scoffed, throwing his hands up into the air. “Your metabolism would have to be so fast for that, you’d be starving to death constantly! Maybe it helps a little bit, but there’s something else clearly at play here!”
“Sooo, could you guys tell me what time it is right now?” Sairek asked, causing the other two to look at him.
“It’s late at night.” Cyial answered him. “It’ll be a couple more hours before the sun rises.”
“I slept that long, huh…?” Sairek asked.
“Not like there’s anything else to do on the ship. It has no entertainment or anything. Of course, it wasn’t designed to get to places this slowly, either.” Varhi shrugged. He watched Cyial pull out another clean bandage and began wrapping it around his stomach, though the wound on his arm Sairek noted as he glanced, had already been almost completely healed to the point it didn’t even need one anymore, though it had been a more minor cut in comparison, so that wasn’t that surprising.
“I’ve barely been eating anything.” Sairek sighed, then glanced back at Varhi. “And the food we have on here leaves little to be desired.”
“Oh come on. It works.”
“I mean, I’ve tasted worse, but at least despite being worse, the meals were more hearty.” Sairek responded dryly, moving his form away from the other two and towards the door.
“Where ya goin’?” Varhi asked.
“I said I’m hungry.” Sairek said. “I’m going to go see what else we have.”
* * *
SaireK leaned his arms along the ship’s railing, staring down at the harpoons sticking out of the ship below him while the wind flapped his cape behind his back. He let loose a weary sigh, his gaze turning to his left as he looked at the deck to see stained blood only a few feet away from him -- most of it had been Varhi’s.
Was this his fault? Was what he did result in another man losing their life? Sure, Varhi was acting in self-defense, and the man could have surrendered instead of attacking him, but…
Well, at least he managed to rinse out his tabard clean of Varhi’s blood. It took over an hour, though.
“Still having trouble with your thoughts?” Sairek heard Nayleen ask from the wheel. He twisted his upper halfway and craned his neck to look the rest of the way behind himself to look at her, rather than respond though, he closed his eyes softly and turned himself back around, opening his eyes a moment later to stare in the direction of the ocean once again, his left hand reached up to cup the Cearestian jewel for comfort. It was still recovering, but it was almost there. A pale yellow by now.
He nearly jumped when he felt a hand clasp his shoulder. So absorbed into his thoughts, he didn’t realize Nayleen moved to join beside him. She moved her hand along his back to clasp his other shoulder and pulled him closer so they were side by side, staring out into the ocean. “C’mon, tell me what’s on your mind.” She pressed.
“...Trying to figure out what I should do.” Sairek murmured, barely loud enough to be heard over the ambience of the ship itself. His left hand slid off the jewel, traveling upwards as he leaned his weight forwards, resting his elbows on the railing. His left hand cupped his eyes into his palm as he sighed. “...Or what I can do…” He corrected himself.
Nayleen didn’t say anything, but stood by his side. They were silent for a long moment. Sairek moved his hand from his face, holding the railing with both of his hands with a small shake of his head. Finally, he turned slightly to look in Nayleen’s direction. “You know, you still owe me that explanation.”
“Eh?”
“You and Varhi.” He clarified, tilting his gaze in her direction.
Sairek felt Nayleen’s grip on his shoulder tense slightly. Her hand moved away and returned to her side, quickly withdrawing from him as she frowned with a guilty look.
“Oh, don’t be like that. As if I am in any position to criticize.” Sairek snorted, looking back towards the ocean. "At least your relationship isn't taboo."
“I just wanted him to feel better after all the shit he’s been through.” Nayleen said, then looked at Sairek.
“Well, that was probably half of it.” Sairek commented, his voice neutral.
“He’s good looking, too.” Nayleen admitted. She inhaled deeply.
“Now we’re getting closer.” Sairek said, still neutral.
"Besides, he kept teasing me by keeping his shirt off. Hard to resist that."
"As long as you didn't force him to do anything he didn't want to."
"Of course not. Actually he wanted to go again after the first time. I think it's safe to say he enjoyed it."
"More than once, eh? Now I can understand why Cyial was so frustrated that day."
Nayleen squinted her eyes at him. “You do that surprisingly well, you know. Not a hint of emotion at all.”
Sairek finally allowed himself an amused smirk. “Not to you. You’re too perceptive and know me too well by now for it to work.”
“Well, I’m sure it has fooled most people. It's still stupid you were taught to do something like that though.”
Sairek shrugged. “Varhi had to pretend to have emotions, and I had to pretend to not have them. Ironic, isn’t it?”
Nayleen shrugged as well. “He says he can’t feel them but I am not entirely convinced it is acting some times. Though maybe he's been doing it for some long, some of it might just be instinctual to him. Maybe it might be linked to the amnesia he has?”
Sairek cupped a hand under his chin in thought. “...Never heard of an amnesia that makes you forget how to feel before. Unless… Perhaps there’s a specific trauma he had that is linked to that?” Sairek pondered.
“I thought something similar. I suggested maybe he doesn’t feel, not because he can’t, but because he won’t. It doesn’t explain how he heals thirty times faster than the average person, though.” She said, holding her hands palms up as her shoulders remained tensed in her shrug.
“That part sure has Cyial perplexed… He doesn't stop talking about it every time he gets hurt and he miraculously recovers quickly.” Sairek muttered dryly. “His arm is almost as good as new. It doesn’t even need a bandage anymore.”
“I know. He was flaunting it earlier.” Nayleen frowned.
"I suppose it's a good thing, he'd be dead by now if it wasn't for that, but there has to be some more scientific reason that's logical..." Sairek murmurred thoughtfully.
“I suppose it wasn’t a very deep cut, but that would still take a few days to heal, not just one. There are medical supplies on the ship though, I suppose he probably took those when we weren’t looking?” Nayleen suggested.
“There is?”
“Yeah. Pretty decent stuff, actually. I did some more exploring of the ship when I woke up. There’s a medical room. It’s got a bed like the captain’s room, and some medical supplies in there. Not a lot left, though. They might have used some to treat Avotash after we bailed. Still, it’s got bandages sterilized with herbs, some tonics and some surgery equipment; basically everything to treat the kind of stuff Varhi tends to get.”
“Ah… I get the feeling Jimmy probably bought all of that for Varhi, considering his constant tendency of getting himself hurt.” Sairek drawled.
Nayleen sighed. “Yeah…”
“Well, hopefully this time will be the last time, at least for a while. He’s been in almost constant pain for a month now even considering his fast healing speed if you stop and think about it.” Sairek frowned.
“I sure hope so… I hope we aren’t sailing into something terrible…” Nayleen winced, turning towards Sairek, eyeing the Cearestian jewel. “It’d be best to maybe not advertise that you have the Masirean jewel until absolutely necessary while we are in Kior territory… Considering our position, if someone really wanted to, they could take your jewel and that one, and then they’d have three of the four jewels. And you know better than anyone how strained the relationship between the two countries are, Sairek.”
Sairek’s fingers gripped the railing tighter. “I know.” He groaned. “I know…”
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