Keegan jerked awake as cold water doused his entire body. He gasped and shook from the chill that was biting into his bones.
"He's finally awake."
"Yeah, he looks pretty shaken up though."
"Of course. He was the closest to the blast. He's probably still in shock."
Distant voices spoke around him. He tried placing the voices in his head, but he wasn't capable of doing so. His entire brain was scrambled.
"Wake up, Keegan." A pat on his cheek drew his out of his thoughts. His eyes were already open, but he wasn't able to make out anything. His entire vision was blurred.
"Ugh..." He groaned. He pushed away the hand that was on his cheek and tried to get to his feet. "Fort Indigo." The memories flowed through his mind. "That damn bastard, Cinnan." His vision slowly cleared up. "I'll kill him for good ths time."
He looked around him. Amamiya was by his side, looking at him with worried eyes. Dreyfus and Amasu were also there. All three of his captains were present.
"Where are we?" He asked. His voice was rough and his throat was scratchy.
"We don't know. We've tried leaving several times, but we always en up back here." Amamiya gestured at the two doors that were placed on opposite sides of the room. "We walk out through that door, but walk back in through the other. There's no way out."
Keegan frowned as he thought about the situation. Spellcraft was at play somewhere.
With the help of Amamiya, Keegan got to his feet. She led him to the door on the right. Just as she was about to open it, he stopped her.
"Let me try something first." He held his hand just before the door. His palm glowed a deep purple as it began interacting with the door. The sound of splintering wood sounded through the room.
Although it seemed as though the wood would break at any moment, there was no physical change to the door. This continued for a few moments before Keegan recalled his energy.
"The whole room's been charmed. The doors in particular have some pretty strong enchantments. Probable a high tier application of Runecraft." The faces of all the captains turned grim at the mention of Runecraft.
Runecraft, the sister branch of Spellcraft. Runecraft was a simple, yet complicated field of study in magic. All it entailed was the art of charming a person, object, or place. Runecraft could be used to enhance a person or object, or bewitch a person or object.
Right now, who ever held them hostage had employed the use of Runecraft to seal them in this room. Unless they could forcefully overwhelm the Rune, there was no other choice but to wait until their captors let the out.
"Can't we bust out of here?" Dreyfus asked, his golden brows furrowed as he stood with clenched fists.
"Nope. We're locked in. Not even I can do a single thing about that." Keegan didn't seem all that worried. If they couldn't get out until later, then that was fine for him. He would need to rest so he could be at full strength to beat up whoever captured them and return to Fort Indigo.
Amamiya helped him back to one of the cots in the room where he sat down. "Let's all take a rest."
The four of them sat down and started talking. At first, they tried to make heads and tails of what happened after the explosion, but none of them knew. All they remembered was waking up in this room one by one. When they noticed that they weren't getting anywhere, they changed topics.
Their discussion slowly moved from important matters to making fun of each other.
"There was that time when we were sailing in the Southern Seas. The waves were so violent that Keegan had to use a displacement spell to regain his balance! I thought he would vomit his entire stomach!" Amamiya laughed so hard she had to hold her belly. Tears formed in the corners of her eyes as she tried to regain her composure. Amasu and Dreyfus laughed quietly to themselves too.
"By the way, when are you two going to tie the knot?" Dreyfus' fluent words flowed out over our laughter. Amamiya and Keegan instantly froze when his words settled. The atmosphere reduced to a deathly chill and the two who were under the spotlight refused to connect gazes.
Indeed, Keegan Croode and Amamiya Vraken were having an affair. They had been entangled for over two years now, yet they had been delaying on making things official.
Before either of them could retort, a loud bellow rang out through the room,
"Hohoho! Little Keegan is in an affair?!" The room shook as laughter ran out. Everyone got to their feet as the trembling grew stronger and stronger with each passing second. The walls and doors began to melt away, like wax under an intense heat. This continued until they were left in a blank space. By this time, all four of them stood with their backs to each other, watching all directions like hawks.
"Ah, there's no need to be scared, little ones. If I wanted to kill you, you would all be dead by now." The voice spoke. "Rather, you should all be grateful. You all would have died back in the explosion if not for me."
"This voice..." Keegan's brows were furrowed in confusion. The voice speaking sounded incredibly familiar, but he had no idea who it belonged to.
"Alright, please steel yourselves. I will begin transporting you one by one." With that, a turbulent wave of magical energy washed over them. Each of their faces paled when they felt the energy. It felt like they were being suffocated by a force far beyond them.
The first one to go was Amasu. His body broke down into tiny light fragments. The process started off slowly, up until he was being carried off in a swirling whirlwind of white light.
Next was Dreyfus. He tried to resist it as much as he could. He manipulated gravity to weigh the light fragments down, but it was as though they weren't there. He too was soon carried off by the white fragments.
Keegan and Amamiya stood side by side. Although they wanted to try and fight back against the waves of magical energy, they both knew it was futile.
Fragments of light started floating up from Amamiya's nose first. Keegan held onto her hand while a deep longing was shown in his eyes.
"I'll wait for you to find me." She whispered as the whirlwind of white fragments came for her. She disappeared with that last sentence, leaving Keegan standing alone in the darkness.
"Come out, you damn bastard! Fight me like a man!" Keegan roared out into the surrounding darkness.
"Hahahaha..." A deep chuckle reverberated through the darkness. The waves of magical energy became active once again at the sound of the deep chuckle. "We will meet again soon enough, little one."
With that, the whirlwind of light fragments came for the last person in the darkness. Keegan vanished in a bright whirlwind on light fragments.
***
Two people stood in the middle of a room. The door and single window of the room were tightly sealed with a rune. A whirlwind of magical energy swirled in the middle of the room, but due to the effects of the seal, none of the magical energy leaked out. A large swirling portal hung in the ceiling of the room. Faint traces of white magical fragments fluttered around the portal.
"They're coming. Prepare yourself." The older man spoke. His gray hair and slightly hunched back gave out his real age. He was the one maintaining the spell that required all the rampant magical energy that was currently swirling in the room.
Soon after he spoke, the portal shook, becoming much more active. A large amount of magical white fragments poured out of the portal at once. The fragments settled down, forming various figures of humans.
When the fragments were properly aligned, the blinding white faded away, leaving four astonished and confused individuals standing before the old man and the youth that was beside him.
Keegan came to his senses slowly. He could feel four familiar auras surrounding him, and one other unfamiliar aura. He instinctively lunged towards the unfamiliar presence, his hand reaching for his sword that was strapped to his waist.
All this happened in an instant, and before anyone could react, Keegan was already upon the unknown youth that possessed the unfamiliar aura.
The elderly man who had controlled the portal that brought the four of them there just smirked and watched on. He could have stopped Keegan if he wanted, but he decided not to.
Just as Keegan's blade was about to connect with the youth's shoulder, the youth vanished in place, reappearing at a different area of the room.
"Enough!" The elderly man spoke up. By this time, Keegan's vision had cleared up completely. He turned back to the elderly man who bore a familiar aura hesitantly. He watched as the man turned to face him before calling out in a completely shocked and flawed voice.
"Iianu?!" The shock was thick in his voice and was also plastered all over his face.
"Haha! Little Keegan is all grown up." The man smiled. The wrinkles on his face each told a story that contained smiles. "Did you miss me?"
"B-but you're dead. I buried you!"
"Ah, my child, you do not understand life if you think it was that easy to get rid of me." The elder grinned while making his way over to Keegan. "That is a story for another time, little one. I believe now is the time you reflect on 'your' death."
It was then that Keegan realized that he had sensed other familiar auras around him. He turned to meet the bearers of such presences, but was given another shock of his life.
"Amamiya?" Keegan hesitantly approached his lover. "Is that you...?"
"What are you saying? Of course it is me!" Amamiya's flustered voice replied. She frowned as soon as she spoke, noticing the difference in her voice.
"God... That's really you?" Keegan broke into a fit of giggles like a child before composing himself. He then looked to the other captains that served under him. With a single glance he could see that Dreyfus was in the same condition as him. Amasu... Well, Amasu was also in the same condition, but...
Dreyfus observed the changes with wide eyes and a slack jaw. He slowly turned to Amasu but his slack jaw was sealed shut the moment he laid eyes on Amasu.
"Amasu... Is that you?" Dreyfus called out. He couldn't believe his eyes. Amasu was still himself, but there was only one difference. His enchanted cloak was gone, exposing his face for the first time to Dreyfus and Amamiya; and boy, did they get an eyeful.
"It's me. What my face looks like doesn't matter." Amasu answered coldly. The first thing he had noticed when they arrived here was that the familiar warmth that surrounded his face at all times was gone. Without it, he felt exposed to the world. If anyone else saw him right now, he wouldn't hesitate to pluck out that person's eyeballs, but as it was his circle of closest comrades, he was willing to let it slide.
"Wow... Just wow..." Amamiya was stunned. Dreyfus just stared blankly while Keegan observed their reactions. He wasn't surprised by Amasu's face at all as he had already seen it before, but the way Amamiya seemed to look mesmerized by it was getting on his nerves.
Amasu was... beautiful, if put simply. His face was so stunning that there wasn't a proper word to classify his own tier of beauty. It was almost godly.
"Hey, eyes over here." Keegan snapped his fingers before Amamiya and Dreyfus' eyes, bringing them back out of their trance.
That was the downside to Amasu's beauty. He was so beautiful that it was a curse. That was why he had always worn that cloak over his head - to conceal his true looks. Amasu was cursed by one of his now-dead admirers who fell in love, or rather, fell in lust, with him because of his good looks. He had turned her down, not knowing she was a rather excellent enchantress.
She had charmed his face, turning his good looks into a curse that captured the souls of anyone unfortunate enough to become entranced by his beauty.
"Alright, little ones. That's enough dilly dallying around. If I may, I shall take you children to a proper residence so I can explain what is going on." The elder smiled at them the way one would smile at clueless babies.
The four pirates nodded at him, still wondering what was going on.