393. Of attacks, futility and some mermen

Cassandra Pendragon

"But there's probably more to the story," Shassa mused, two of her legs scratching her bulbous, shimmering abdomen. A reflex, most likely, since her current vessel wasn't corporeal but made of her will alone. I had merely provide a smidgen of strength. "You wouldn't have opened my cage for something rather simple. What's really on your mind? Do you expect me to teach her that detection magic I mentioned to you? I don't know if she can learn it. You need access to your soul to even glimpse the structure of the spell. I could however create an artefact, like I have offered before." She was referring to our first proper conversation after she had nailed me to an altar and I had killed her downright. Back then she had offered to share her secret on how to figure out if a soul had been touched, marked, charmed or otherwise altered with me. I didn't need it anymore, I could see, and it hadn't been my intention, but it was still worth considering. Wait a second…

"First off," I barked, even though without much fire. She was about as serious with her implied threats as Erya was with her flirting. Which is to say I didn't expect her to really act on it unless she was served an opportunity on a silver platter. Nevertheless, I had to play my part, didn't I? "My home is not an oyster for you to crack. I won't allow a bloody street war to break out. And if you should even toy with the idea of inciting one…" She raised her forelegs.

"I don't, I won't. I…," she paused, her pincers clicking and then she pressed the tiny hairs along her legs against the floor in one fluid motion. "Something," she began, but I had heard it, too. A crash and a low grinding sound, as if a canon had been dropped and the barrel was rolling over the planks. And then the smell hit me. Faint and muted but yet sweet and powerful. Blood and not the superficial I've scratched my knees kind of wound I had inflicted on Arthur. This was much richer, deeper… the scent of someone spilling his very life, a crimson, precious torrent, above our heads. God almighty… who, why? Why now? But that could wait. Where there's blood there's always someone running. My anger flared back up and my wings ignited again, like a dormant beast that had only hidden in the shadows. My tails slashed through the air. He wouldn't get far.

"Shassa," my disembodied, ice cold voice lingered after my body had collapsed into a shower of sparks, "lead them to the wounded. Save whomever you can. I'll join you shortly." And then I was gone, leaving behind a stunned silence. Not even a heartbeat later I manifested above the sails, my silhouette blurred against the bright, searing sun, my tails fanned out like a peacock's and my wings a static, hissing maze behind me. With the scent of sea salt in my nose and the breeze singing in my ears I couldn't smell or hear what was going on below deck, but my gaze never wavered from the entrance, a cold, calming clarity taking hold of my frothing thoughts. Now questions didn't matter and I enjoyed that simplicity. I licked my lips, any second now…

With a thunderous explosion the massive oaken beams were blown apart, cruel, orange flames gnawing at the sad, broken splinters as they showered the entire deck in a cloud of fire and ash. My ebony tresses danced in the raging, sulphuric winds but while I couldn't be touched by the angered elements the few crew members still on deck toppled like paper men, some of them unlucky enough to be hurtling directly towards the waiting, deep blue abyss, their panicked voices filling the air with frenzied screams and desperate pleas. Shit. So much for lying in wait. I bit my tongue but when the first, hazy outline appeared in the gaping, charred maw the doors had turned into I didn't act. Instead I chose to vanish once again. Seven, seven were sliding into the airy void.

Six, I thought as two of my wings wrapped around a flailing man, our bodies already becoming insubstantial again. Too many. A crashing wave of power surged through my mind, time slowed down to a limp, a crawl and finally stuttered to a screeching halt. The pressure crested, the laws of creation unwilling to yield but if they wouldn't bend they'd break. With a final shove I tore the shackles around me asunder and my surroundings froze entirely. The sounds, the smells, even the light died away and the greying world lit up in silver. Better, I mumbled to myself and looked around, letting go of my breathing burden. He could hover above the planks for a while.

I had manifested close to the annihilated doors but I didn't plan on greeting our guests just yet. First I'd make sure the crew wouldn't have to sprout wings of their own and then I'd take a quick peek at the stone chamber and the powder room. I didn't know what was going on but black powder, murder and possibly sabotage could make for a devastating recipe when far above the ground. Probably also close to it, come to think of it. Luckily I had all the time in the world to make sure we wouldn't be blown to smithereens.

I glided through the frozen, mute scene, casually reaching for the hapless souls tumbling past the railing. Moving them was arduous, the force of the time stream an eternal vice I had to overcome but I didn't even have to transform. As unorthodox as it was, time was something I had felt more often, had come in contact with more intimately than the more mundane concepts like fire or water. I had developed a knack, a grasp for it and I didn't need my second skin anymore to protect me from my own mistakes while I clumsily stumbled my way forward.

I still worked up a sweat, metaphorically at least since my body didn't really function normally anymore, while I pushed Sisyphus' boulder up hill, six times over. The monotonous, exhausting task in a lifeless, dull void proved to be enough for my frozen anger so slowly melt, the urge to fight abating with every inch I forced the frozen limbs to move. What was wrong with this world? A day only had about twenty four hours, give or take a few minutes, but yet each and every time the entire span between sun up and sun down was filled with more coincidences than a dice game.

We had just discovered another enigmatic entity that had either developed an interest in my brother or the Purple Worm and now, of all times, a bunch of lunatics acted out? Maybe I had been too harsh on Arthur. As it stood, chances were that Indigorath was the one with the problem. Well, I'd know soon enough. One way or the other.

With a silent grunt I propped the last seaman up against the mast. He'd probably bruise his ribs and maybe break an arm but I had made sure his inertia wouldn't pulverise his spine when time was going to resume. That had to do. Now, for the possibly more explosive problem…

A sharp crack like a pane of glass splintering made me flinch and my ears droop. I felt a tug on my awareness and when I moved my wings I saw spiderweb like fissures appear in the veils of reality. The time stream was still thundering on and even though I could withstand the pressure reality couldn't. I had to hurry or I had to transform to shelter the whole bubble around me against the onslaught but a stunt like that was better saved for more dire times… no pun intended.

With the ones in immediate danger of plummeting to their deaths taken care of I focused on the bowels of the ship, searching for the tell tale shimmer of the convoluted, maze like magical pathways the flying stones needed to convert heat into upwards force. They were easy to spot and for once in my life I was even lucky. I hadn't been sure how to find the black powder storage but the latent fire energy in the volatile substance appeared like a sea of angry but frozen flames in my altered vision. With a bit of effort I might even have been able to spot singular bullets, but the hell like glow from the powder room was unmistakeable. So was the already ignited line someone had drawn to the opened, reinforced steel door and the faint, almost extinguished life candles, still smouldering in the chests of two heavily injured guards, lying in their own blood. 

A thought brought me to their sides, my wings already reaching through the frozen, narrow corridor. I simply divided the trail of black powder and made sure that not a single spark could cross the distance. Then I spared the two soldiers a cursory glance. Clobbered over the head and a dagger to the heart for good measure. Without assistance they die within the minute, judging from the unmoving, crimson streams that gushed from the wounds. It also meant that their assailants had been exceptionally well trained. I could still vividly recall the gracefully display Indigorath's men had greeted us with and to silence them this efficiently had taken skill. Or a spell. Mages were a menace to ordinary soldiers. But why the bashed in skull and the dagger wound, then? One mage and a handful of knights, maybe?

I prepared a message for Viyara so she'd immediately know where to direct our involuntary medics but unfortunately I couldn't do more for the two fallen guards. Their life wasn't in my hands. Either our healers made it here in time or they wouldn't. I had something else to take care of. I frowned, my eyes stinging painfully as I bolstered my vision and checked my surroundings for another hidden present but when I came up empty I didn't hesitate and spread my wings again.

Time resumed just as the first aspiring arsonist sprinted through the blown up door onto the deck, his eyes going wide when a fully grown, armoured man slammed into him with the force of the explosion he had just used to clear the exit. I grinned wolfishly. The ones I had saved who had been padded sturdily enough I had positioned in front of the entrance, effectively turning them into human wrecking balls, thundering down the broad stairs like stones off a sling. Dull thuds followed by choked curses, the sharp snap of broken bones and muffled, hoarse grunts wafted up, only to be carried away by the eastern breeze, unleashed from its temporal prison. 

Like a star incarnate I stood at the top of the stairs leading below deck, the harsh light of eternity chasing off the lingering shadows with every slithering twitch of my wings. Down at the bottom they laid, a chaotic heap of limbs and metal against the dark wood. My breathing projectiles weren't that much worse for wear, their iron plates and the involuntary cushion the fleeing assailants had become more than enough to break their fall. 

Behind me the rest of the unlucky crew were skittering across the planks with a sickening, scraping sound. They were either leaving behind a gruesome trail of skin and blood or were quickly being folded around various protruding beams after only a short moment. Ouch. In hindsight I might have done a slightly better job but at least they were still cursing, crying and complaining, which meant they were alive. Hurting but alive. As for our saboteurs… at least one was still moving, trying to free himself from the suffocating embrace he was stuck in. His companions on the other hand…

The rising smell of blood and sweat filled my lungs as I took a first, graceful step. The stairs remained silent, my featherlight touch not enough to elicit even a single creak. Ozone, heavy and overwhelming, flooded the corridor and the hum of restraint doom crackled in the air, broken only by the sharp, chiming sound of a bell, deep in the bowels of the ship. Even the agonised moans faded away into ragged, fearful breaths and the ominous song of the wind as it whistled through the rigging. Time had resumed but for them it was already up. And they knew it.

My feet lifted off the smouldering, oaken planks and I soared closer inexorably, my approach accompanied by a rising cadence, a distorted choir the wounded on deck were gradually turning into. As adrenaline gave way to pain curses turned into sobs, screams into whimpers and the surging, creepy whispers wafted down the stairs as if heralding my arrival. A plank broke, the seasoned wood finally succumbing to the damage it had sustained and a shower of burning splinters wreathed me in crimson flames. Silver vanished behind a curtain of dark ash but then I moved, my wings parting the obscuring tide of sparks and soot like the sun breaking through the clouds. My tails and wings filled the entire width of the staircase as I came to a halt a single step away from the quivering heap, agitated plumes of smoke shyly coiling around my limbs like an ethereal gown. And then I spoke, my voice quite but irresistible like the rising moon.

"Reveal yourselves. I want to see what lies underneath your masks." I moved my wings, gently disentangling the stunned crew members from their assailants to protect them behind me. Four… creature remained, prostrated on the ground. Three of them were unconscious while the fourth looked at me with wonder and woe, astonishment and fear sparkling in round, yellow eyes.

As the force of my command took hold, drowning out their own will, their orders, their pride like a spring tide the intricate curtain of magic they had hid behind was pulled away. I had seen a shadow of their true appearance the very moment I had laid my eyes upon them, but now… Bruised, rosy flesh transformed into filigree, bluish scales. Horns and miniaturised fins sprouted from their heads, the warm brown of their eyes transformed into scintillating yellow, their hands and feet elongated, webbing sprouting between their fingers and toes. As if a blanket was slowly being pulled away, the human soldiers disappeared and four… mermen took their spot.

They were tall, far taller than me, slender and strong like a humanoid eel with the tang of the sea still rising from them, a salty, alien taste that made me think of the deep, infinite ocean under a starless night. The gills at the side of their necks remained still, unmoving but I heard the slow flow of air as they breathed regularly through their flat, fish like noses. Only one still had his wits about him but under the pressure I exuded he became limp, the surging emotions in his gaze gradually giving way to a content daze as his will crumbled. Holy hell. Apparently there was a whole other world just beyond our grasp. Only because we had chosen to ignore the ocean it didn't necessarily follow that the ocean would return the favour.

For the first time since this debacle had begun I felt antsy, worried, there was no telling what was hidden underneath the eternal waves and while I didn't particularly fear the inhabitants of the deep anymore I still vividly remembered the size of the veiled shadows I had occasionally spotted dancing below the mirrored, emerald surface. Neither did I know if they were a threat, nor could I be sure how strong they were, size wasn't necessarily an indicator for power, but since most of Gaya's visage was covered in water it stood to reason that there were more secrets buried in the ocean than I cared to imagine. Plus… they hadn't been disturbed for aeons. Even Amazeroth's cataclysmic punishment hadn't reached the silent depths. What if they had suddenly developed a taste for the sunlit mountain tops, the verdant forests and the fair meadows of our world? And why had they hidden for years? Assuming they were actually connected to…

The image of the Soul Sigil I had lifted form my brother's mind swirled to the forefront of my thoughts. It had been blurry, eroded by months and months passing by, but now… its outline surely resembled a trident. Which in and of itself wouldn't have been a clue, we weren't on Earth and the symbolism wasn't necessarily the same, but a trident was still the most suitable weapon to fight underwater. Call me paranoid, but if it looked like a fish, smelled like a fish and breathed like a fish it most probably was a fish. Great. Just peachy. And I didn't even know how to swim.

"Up here," I whispered, my voice sailing on currents of power deeper into the ship while I invited Viyara wordlessly to share in my recollections. She could tell the others. "I have them. Stabilise the wounded and get up here. We might have a problem." 

"Might," the dragoness echoed in my thoughts scathingly. "There is no might. Even if the marked pawns back then weren't connected to this lot, we'd still be faced with an alien race who just so happens to have infiltrated Indigorath's crew. Either way, we need to know why. Now."