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Kernstalion 59: The graveyard
🕑 Added 2021-04-01 07:45:16 +0000 UTCWe searched around, and for the next hour, all we did was move from vegetation to vegetation as I absorbed the life energy inside.
When my health bar finally moved back to full, I sighed in relief. Scabs were peeling from my arms, drifting away, and as I flexed my shoulders and back I felt a horrible itch on it. I tried scratching it off but couldn't reach the middle. In the end, I had to rub my back against the cliff until the itch was gone. I left behind a dark, brown patch of skin crusts.
I waved with my arms, gently floating beside the startlingly purple cliff of porous stone-like material. Having no pain was soothing, and I absently stared at the cliff's porous surface as I enjoyed it.
Miniscule yellow specs, like those in the cave, moved around inside. Taking a closer look, I realized that the things I had thought were spores were tiny crustaceans. The crustaceans moved towards the scabs I had left, and I watched for a while as they ate from it as if it was some fabulous banquet.
A soft harumph drew me back to reality.
"I'm ready," I said, turning to Laurel, who was watching me curiously. She seemed to want to say something, but in the end, she just swam down.
Looking down the purple reef, I saw that the water turned clearer the deeper we went, the colors turning even more vibrant.
As we swam, the image of Sandra's body getting eaten by the Chaos Beast played through my mind. What would this have done to Sandra's mind? Eliandra, I corrected myself, and somehow it felt so final. There was no way she could ever go back now, back to being Sandra. I realized this would be happening to me too. Staring at the depths, I worried about what the death of her real body had done to Sa-... Eliandra.
I had to force myself to think of her as Eliandra, something I hadn't needed to do in a while.
Would she have noticed her old body had died? On the one hand, I hoped she didn't, as it meant she was fine. On the other hand, if she hadn't, I would have to tell her. I wasn't looking forward to that.
We swam down for a while longer, deep echoes and the soft tinkling of bubbles the only sounds.
I played through the things that had happened since reaching the Foul Mouth. When I got to the end of the fight, I remembered how Laurel's brother had died, and I cursed myself for being a callous bastard. That's why she was so quiet!
"I am sorry about your brother," I said.
Laurel turned to me with a confused look, then she blinked, and a look of realization wiped away the confusion. She sighed sadly.
"He wasn't my brother but my commander. I only just joined his mercenary outfit a few weeks ago."
Well, that explained her reactions to his death, I thought.
She was quiet a little longer, then spoke again in a soft voice.
"We sometimes call others things like cousin or brother, so we don't have to use any name."
I wondered what had made her so quiet, if not the death of a real brother, but the question would have to wait. We were closing in on the bottom. At least that's what it looked like, because I didn't spot any path going deeper. There wasn't a trace of sand anywhere, and it seemed more like a maze of purple reefs and long, waving orange plants than a seabed.
The water was crystal clear, and with some effort, I drew in some water through my gills. It tasted salty but clean. After a moment, my gills did something, and I felt a trickle flow down my stomach.
That's useful, I thought.
After a moment of drinking in this peculiar way, I turned my attention back to the massive maze. How would we get through this? I was getting lost just looking around.
Beside me, Laurel's eyes became unfocused. After a moment zoned out, she looked around before moving purposefully through one of the many underwater canyons.
I followed after, deciding I very much wanted those maps. As we continued down, a question that had been bothering me for a while kept popping up. I tried suppressing it, as it wasn't of any immediate concern, but it didn't help.
"I have to ask," I finally said, not able to hold myself back anymore. "Why don't you just use fake names? Like Harry, or Jane?"
Laurel looked at me in utter surprise, and then she smiled, the first unrestrained smile I had seen on her. Her rugged face turned younger, and I realized she was actually a bit younger than me. Her muscles, angular face, and rugged look had masked it.
"You don't know why we don't use names outside of the family, do you?" she said.
I snorted. Hadn't that been evident? I shook my head, and she grinned again, and I felt myself be infected by her sudden good mood.
"It's an old custom that dates back to when we, Grablons, still had our own Deity. It's said that names hold power! If you know someone's name, you can use it to cast potent spells that you couldn't without it. The oldest texts we have stated that the reason our Deity left us is that we forgot its name, but most people just take that as an old wives' tale. Anyway, it's one of the few things left of the old ways, and we are all taught from a young age to abide by it. As long as we are in Gramanite, it isn't that hard."
I whistled, about to tell her the elders might be right this time when a shadow passed over the ground below me. I swirled around, my ax raised, then stopped. Redtooth hovered above me, a curious gaze in his six eyes that were all staring at me.
"Hey! How did you find us?" I said, somewhat surprised, and I swam up to him. The Manytooth, as Laurel seemed to call the shark, snorted and drew water into two slits beside the tip of his head.
Did he smell us? What is he, a dog? I thought before remembering an old documentary I had seen about sharks being able to pick up a single drop of blood in… a really big stretch of water. As I remembered, I felt a cold shiver run through me, and I clenched the ax tight as I looked around.
"Are there more of your kind around?" I asked, and I thought I saw amusement around Redtooth's maw. Or I could be mistaken.
"Let's get out of here," I muttered, and Laurel gave me a curious look but followed my example and grabbed the side of Redtooth.
"Alright, can you tell him where to go?" I said, staring at Laurel.
"Will he listen?" She asked, looking at the massive Manytooth.
One of Redtooth's eyes angled back at me, and I got the feeling that he understood what we wanted. Still, to be perfectly sure, I looked straight at him as I spoke.
"She will guide us. Listen to her."
If you've never seen a six-eyed shark roll its eyes at you, I can tell you right now. It's a sight to behold.
"Try now?" I said, hoping the uncertainty wasn't as obvious.
"Go through that passage," Laurel said sharply as if commanding a dog. She pointed at a wide purple path with a few yellow plants along the sides.
Redtooth took off immediately, his long tail flapping as he shot forward, dragging us along as if we were no bother at all.
--
Two hours later, we hovered at the end of the maze and stared out at a dark black sea beyond it.
"You're sure it's that way?" I asked again, hoping to get another answer.
"Yes!" Laurel snapped, but I could see the same thing was troubling her. Inside this maze, we could easily hide, and we hadn't seen anything larger than an arm-sized fish. There was no telling what was in the darkness that lay beyond it.
"Fine, let's get this over with," I said, nudging Redtooth to continue forward.
Within a few minutes, a dark blue surrounded us, oppressive and gloomy. Neither of us spoke, and I could even feel the tension in Redtooth's body. Minutes ticked by, and the sounds from the reef disappeared in the distance until only the occasional deep rumbling, like a landslide, disturbed the creepy peace of the depths.
An hour later, we were all so high-strung and tense that I wouldn't be surprised if we all screamed in terror if anything happened. Redtooth included.
Another two hours later, the tension had changed to boredom.
"How much farther," I grunted and heard Laurel sigh at my repeated question.
A deafening roar came from somewhere in the distance, and all of us froze. After a few moments with nothing further happening, Redtooth recommenced swimming, but the boredom had turned back to tension. I got a quick look from Laurel, and she put a finger to her lips. I nodded.
We continued like this for a long time, and we had to stop twice when a massive shape swam above us. Each time, I felt Redtooth fidget as if he was ready to flee. I wasn't sure if he saw the gigantic six-armed thing that swam above us, a dozen tentacles stretched out behind it, but I was glad he stayed put.
--
"We are almost at the graveyard," Laurel whispered. It was the first thing either of us had said in hours, and we both looked around immediately. There wasn't any roaring, vast water displacements, or anything else creepy.
"Graveyard?" I whispered back, wondering what kind of graveyard she meant.
"Don't ask me. It just says graveyard on the map," Laurel responded.
"Wait, you haven't been-" I stopped mid-sentence. What was wrong with me? She had made it obvious that she hadn't been here.
I looked around, slightly fearful. As I felt the clenching in my stomach, it suddenly hit me. This was what Rathica had meant after I came back from Ulderion's realm! When our connection was gone, I didn't get the benefit of her fearlessness.
Shit, that means I told Desero the truth?
I hoped this wasn't going to cause some shitload of problems later on.
We continued on slowly, and after some time, I began spotting forms in the distance. Angular and unmoving, I recognized the shapes immediately.
It's a ship graveyard!
I perked up as I realized something. Ships meant wood, and wood meant I could create a body for a vengeful spirit—a massive body.
After a few minutes, the wrecks were close enough for Laurel to see them.
"Oh, it's just shipwrecks. Too bad. I'd hoped we would find some special monster bones," Laurel sighed, but I barely heard her.
My eyes were on the nearest ship, a massive piece of rotting wood. I released Redtooth, and with a few flaps, I reached its side. This thing had been a massive, thick-bellied merchant ship with three masts. It was made of individual boards and planks and nothing like the single seamless Foul Mouth. Swimming beside it, I looked up and inspected the ship’s sides. There weren't any barnacles, or fungus, or anything else growing there, but when I pressed my finger in the wood, it went right through. A cloud of powdered wood spread from my finger and slowly wafted down to the bottom.
I swam up and across the rail, pressing against all the wood I came across, but all had the same results. When I reached the back, I looked back along my trail of small finger holes and cursed.
Dammit, there has to be something not rotten down here? I thought. I turned to Laurel, who was looking at me in wonder and beckoned her closer.
When she was treading water in front of me, I waved around the ships. "We need to find some wood that hasn't rotten yet, preferably a big piece."
"What? Why?"
"Because I'm going to make our transportation," I said.
Laurel looked at me for a while, then around and up before shaking her head. "It's safer to move along the bottom than on some raft on the surface. "
"Who said I was going to make a raft?" I replied, a grin forming on my face. "Just find me some good wood, and I'll show you something cool."
"Well, alright, but let's search the same ship. We have no idea what kind of things are hiding out here," she finally said.
--
I slammed my hand into the mainmast, causing a muted thud as my hand passed almost straight through it. A large cloud of rotten wood particles floated up, and I glared at them angrily.
"Let's just give up," Laurel said. She swam at the bow of the ship, slowly pulverizing a piece of wood she had torn off.
"One more," I said, and I turned to the side of the ship and swam towards it. We had learned not to touch the deck after we had to swim through a massive amount of wood pulp.
I scanned the dark graveyard all around me. Dozens of ships lay scattered everywhere, and I wondered again why they were all assembled here. Laurel had said that there was no information on the map beside the name and no markers for danger. That only meant no danger at this level, though, and peering up in the darkness above, I wondered what kind of monstrous thing was there that had sent so many ships down to Davy Jones' locker. Or whatever name the locals gave it.
My eyes wandered across the many dark shapes when I spotted something different—much smaller and slightly rounder than the others. It had been hidden behind another wreck before. Something about it, not just the rounder angles, made me decide.
"Alright, let's go check that one out, and if there's nothing remotely useful, we're going to have to go by foot...well swim."
Laurel let out a tired sigh before she followed me, while Redtooth just swam above us, seeming partially asleep. Only two of his eyes were open.
Halfway there, I knew we had at least found something different, although if it were useful, we would have to see.
"It's a sentient ship!" Laurel whispered from behind me, and I nodded.
It was dark brown and lying on its side. The hull seemed mostly intact. Only a single hole in the front section showed why it wasn't merrily sailing around the seas anymore. From the roundness and the fact that most of the splints were angled inward, I guessed that something had punched a hole in it.
Swimming to the keel, I hesitated, my hand raised. It looked different from the others. Not older, but in better shape.
Laurel swam next to me and smacked the hull with a loud thud. The wood stayed intact, not even shuddering, and I quickly copied her move. Solid, smooth, and hard, the wood had remained almost the same as before.
I scanned for any sentience but found nothing. There was just a lingering sensation as if there had once been something that had left its mark.
"So, you've found your wood, now what?" Laurel asked.
I blinked as I stared at the seamless wood before me. I had imagined finding an old-style ship, one with planks and loose parts to dismantle and use for my plan.
"Don't tell me we had to do all this for nothing?" Laurel said as she looked at me in disbelief.
"No. But I'd thought we would find a normal ship, not this. Let me examine it. I need to see what I have to work with," I said, swimming up.
"Seriously…" Laurel muttered behind me.
Swimming across the ship, I saw it was only a third of the Foul Mouth's size, with only a single mast and a smaller cabin. There were patterns worked into the prow, and taking a closer look, I saw images of serpents and unreadable runes.
"This is old, really old," Laurel said behind me. She was scrunching her eyes as she looked at the runes, and I could almost see the gears spin her head. "I can't read those runes, but they are some form of ancient elvish. That means that this ship has been here for at least a few thousand years."
I investigated the rest of the ship, finding some gnawed and scattered bones in the single large cabin at the ship's back. Old chests that turned to dust when I touched them lay atop each other in the hull. As I moved through it, I got the eerie feeling that the ship was still alive but empty somehow. As if there was supposed to be something in it, but it was long gone.
When I reached the side, I looked at the hole, my mind spinning in overdrive. It's alive…, I thought, and after a second, I placed my hands near the torso-sized hole and cast Share Lifeforce. I readied myself to withdraw as soon as I felt too much of a drain, and I was glad I did. A massive amount of lifeforce began rushing out of me and into the ship, and I saw my health bar drop ten percent in a second. Withdrawing my hands, I saw the hole had shrunk slightly. Making a quick estimate, I decided it would probably need two of my full health bars to close the hole. Time-consuming but doable!
"What are you doing? Wasn't that the spell you used to heal yourself?" Laurel asked, hovering behind me.
I nodded, but I wasn't really listening.
It should work, right? I mean, some fish spirit or one of those Manytooth should see it as a good body.
A grin spread across my face as I tried to summon a vengeful spirit into the inert ship. The smile froze, turning to a grimace as a cacophony of screams echoed through my mind. A wave of anger surged around me like a maelstrom. Spirits tried to enter the ship and failed, rebuffed by something.
A muted curse came from Laurel, and then I felt a massive presence draw near. It emitted a cold, murderous aura, and the other spirits fled, their burning anger replaced by fear. Before I could stop the summoning, the massive spirit slammed against whatever was inhibiting the others from entering and crashed through as if it was paper, then everything settled down as a ping came from my status.
I stepped back and blinked a few times as I stared at the ship that was lying still before me. Still on the surface, but not beneath. I could feel a massive presence flow through the wood and adjust itself to what it found.
"What the hell?" Laurel said.
I didn't get a chance to reply because the ship began shivering and creaking. We barely had time to backpedal as it righted itself. The wood darkened until it was black as tar, and the hull morphed. The entire ship elongated and thinned, turning into a sleek vessel. Something happened at the prow, and I hurriedly swam around to get a good look.
The prow was changing, growing, and an adornment rose that resembled a serpent. After a few seconds, it finished, and two eyes stared at me without blinking. Like Barry, the spirit somehow contained its massive anger and fury, and I mostly sensed a bored curiosity.
"Hey there," I muttered.
Hello, little master, came a hissing voice from inside my head.
