Chapter 8: Thread of Fate

Once destiny is knotted on one end,

it can swirl and tangle in random bends.

but the threads shall meet on the other end.

Untarnished silver-blade glinted its deadly sharp edge with the sunlight’s rays. The lady grips it with firmness, but the slight tremble in her hand gave that she doubts herself on using it.

Fionn tentatively took small and slow steps away from the lady piercing him with fearful brown-eyes.

At the corner of his vision, men already watched them warily with their hands holding the hilt of their weapons. Fionn observed before at least eight of the people on deck belong to the lady’s guard. She must be someone really important.

He also noticed his two companions stood to watch him carefully.

He took another step back, where he almost slips on the wet wooden board if he did not manage to hold on the railing beside.

The trick the girl showed before still left a questioned in his thoughts. He had already seen similar magic before, the ‘authority’ to blend things in the surrounding to conceal it. But it felt strange to him as he did not feel any speck or trace of spell in it.

He wondered if she was from Vaettir. ‘Does the sorcerers of the Northern Isles have mastered the mystic arts that they could hide the very presence of magik?’. It was the nation where the ‘Authority of Magik’ originated; land of casters, mages, and sorcerers of the renown might.

“I… I don’t mean to startle you” he raises his hands in the air.

The lady did not stagger from her stance with his words.

He did not put his arms down until the tension from both groups have succumb to a relaxing end. He eases his hands down to his side as the pressure subsided.

Fionn walks slowly beside the railing of the ship, and pointed ahead to the long body covered with white scales. It had its coils in and out of the waves in mesmerizing intervals.

“I was just wondering what that is” he said.

The lady suspiciously glances to where he was pointing, and quickly returns her eyes on him. “Is this the first time you have seen one?” there was a slight accent in her voice.

“Yes. Why?” he asks back, still racking his brain where he had heard the way she enunciated the words, “Is it common around here?”

“In cold oceans, yes” she replied shortly.

Fionn nods and holds the damp steel rail greeting him his hands with prickling icy-coldness in its surface. He continued to watched the glimmering scales dove in and out in the ocean.

“It is called a Leuko Drakon, because of its color” the girl said, “It was just speculated as a dragon but no one has actually seen its head, or one could say because no one dared to”.

“Why? Is it that dangerous?”

“Because”, the lady’s round eyes stared at him without batting a lid. “It is said that those who saw what it actually looks like will be tied to a fate of agony and destiny of broken life”

Fionn did not believed such superstitions nor legends at all, but he nods his head in appreciation for the new tale he just learned, “That is quite terrifying” he bluffs.

The lady chuckles, “You don’t actually believe that do you?”

He tried to control his face neutral. ‘Can she read minds too?’. “I don’t”

“Haven’t you seen any mystical, magical or something unexplainable before?” the girl asked in curiosity.

“I had my share of adventures, and weird creatures, but superstitions are just too unbelievable for me”

There was a moment of pause before the girl replied, “I see that you are the type who would only believe once only seen. Why don’t you try with that one now?” she retorted flippantly as she tips her head in the direction of the dragon.

Fionn felt the ice thawed somewhat between them as he chuckled at her response.

“Ah, I can’t believe I have forgotten my formalities, a late introduction but pleased to meet you, I am Karis Letecia Berg” she opens her right hand in front, “I am actually on a trip to the Northern Isles to meet my father who is waiting there”.

The lady pauses for a moment as if to take in his appearance for the first time. “How about you? You three made quite an entrance boarding the ship”

Now he did not need to find a way to ask who she was or where their group is headed. It also become clear to Fionn that they were being observed now after all. But he did not let his suspicion show an etch to his face, as he took the hand with a smile and firmly shakes it.

‘She is lying’. He could feel the strength beneath her soft hand, ‘more than just a pampered lady’, he thought. Before he could think of anything more, a sudden wave of nausea spun his world in a wild spin.

The faceless girl was again before him, her hand already embedded deep within his chest. Fionn felt the intense agony as the girl squeezes his heart bit by bit.

Then he was suddenly back on the ship on his knees. Before the girl could pull her hand away from his, he grabs brusquely her wrist with a steel grip.

Karis struggled but Fionn did not let go until he saw the huge woman, whom he thought would be the lady’s retainer appears, with her long leg already aim straight to his face.

Before the hit could demolish Fionn’s head, Ajax jumps in time to save him, greatsword already in hand and he blocks the incoming attack with the flat of his blade.

The lady manages to escape from his grasp and quickly wen to behind the huge woman. Fionn could see that most of Karis’ guards have already unsheathe their blade and cautiously advances to them.

Artemia went to the middle, blocking their path. “Let’s all calm down, this must be a misunderstanding”.

But no one was listening.

Before he could get the lance on his back, Fionn was cut short from his action, and so was everyone; the sky turned instantly into a blanket of fiery orange fire as far as he could see. The cold stinging wind left his skin within the next breaths.

The entirety of the curtain of flames cloak everything even the sun beneath a ravaging sky of fire.

The great wings of the god spread in an unimaginable span, a veil or cover of its wrathful blaze of protection. Infernal howls of flame spat time to time within the now ever-burning sky. It was warm like a hearth’s flame even the white-capped peaks of Vaettir’s mountains never melted, and the waters below did not boil—a comforting fire, but Fionn knows it was just as dangerous to those who deign harm.

‘So a god has truly come down’. He had never imagined he would witness the authority of a deity in his life. Even the wicked Emperor of Erysthrina have backed down against the ethereal spirit without a second thought.

‘It burned every Sanguine which dared to dock in its land. The Great Fire shall incinerate anyone who seeks to harm the people of the North’ he remembered Inti’s words.

“Fear not!” the captain of the ship shouted breaking him from his reverie, “Only those of the Red Blood shall perish under the deity’s eyes. We shall all pass these waters and reached the shore unharmed in no time” the man said as if no commotion brewed within his ship.

Fionn realizes Artemia was hauling him up to his feet, he shakes his head and stood on his own. He turns beside him to find the lady was already being escorted below the quarter deck, while her guards kept wary eyes on them.

As they reached the stern of the ship, isolating them from any ears, Artemia cross her arms in her chest and raises a brow, “So did you find something?”

“What?” he asked in bafflement.

Ajax chortled loudly, “You should get some lessons how to properly court a lady” his smile vanished in his next phrase” We almost got caught into a fight again Fionn”

“As much as I wanted to scorn you to think more carefully next time…” she pauses cutting her own words, “Is it your scar again?”

Fionn felt the scar in his chest throb again as if it was alive. He did not dare look at it, but he knew it began to spread again. He nods.

Ajax stood fully as he looks ahead to the island starting to materialize in their view, “I think we should really be careful of them thought”

“Have you seen her spell?” Fionn asked.

“Seen it” Artemia states, “But I have not felt it, which is weird because it does not have any trace of Magik when she used it”

“What are you implying then?” the giant questioned.

It was Fionn who answered, “We should be able to sense any hint of magic considering our gifted senses. But to not be able means it is somewhat an unknown or old Magik”

“Ancient spells” Artemia confirms.

“And those kinds of magic are only use by the Sanguine’s right?” Ajax squints his eyes as if he to see the islands better. “Do you think they are Daemons?”

“I cannot tell for sure” Fionn settled, “But I am sure they have been and still watching everything we do”

“Good thing, you have at least given it thought and did not get infatuated at all”

Fionn now in turn raises a brow at Artemia’s statement, but a powerful wave hit the hull of the ship strongly which brought almost everyone on board to their knees.

If it comes down to it. He did not care if they would have to fight them all. And he won’t hesitate to kill them all including the lady, if they are actually of the Sanguine.

But that thought was gone as Fionn stood and saw a brief view of the three horns that served like a crown in its head, glinting hundred sharp teeth between the jaws that look somewhat like a huge deform rocks.

A single orb of black of sphere at the center of its head gazed at him with such malevolence and wisdom.

Petrified as he was, Fionn forces himself to move his eyes away from the watch of the Leuko Drakon.

It dives back to the deep ocean before he could even blink, hiding its face again within the waters.

But Fionn saw it…

The image of him standing on a mountain of bloody, cold dead bodies. It was terrifying—especially for the part every single lifeless forms had his face.