'I seriously hate this!!'
Claudina looked irritably around her. She kept on snapping at people. And she didn't know why. It definitely wasn't seasickness as she drowned another bottle of medicine. Her Holy magic wasn't offsetting any of the metal fear so it wasn't an enemy attack.
Her head was spinning while she was boarding the ship 'the Anchor.' Twice she lost her balance and had to lean on to Sylvester.
Now she sat at the deck by the mast. It was furthest place from the ship rails. She curled into a ball and tried to ignore the unusual fear of the ocean. She never liked the sea because of it. A sense of foreboding always followed her when she looks at a large water body.
"Hey! Are you alright?" She angrily peeked out. Sullivan was smiling down at her. "You are like this the moment we set sail. You are awfully flushed." Before she could answer she had an unfortunate glimpse of the sea. Another jolt spread through her spine. She immediately buried her head back in the fatal crouch. She could hear her heart beating wildly.
She scrunched her face. 'I hate the sea!!!'
The trip to the Whirlwind Reefs islands was uneventful expect for Claudina shaking and annoyed with everything. For the whole three weeks she shook uncontrollably the sense of dread increasing. The saints thought she was cold so they gave her their cloaks. She had reluctantly accepted them but she never once told them about her fear of the sea.
As soon as they landed on the islands' harbor she was the first to get down. Speed walking while holding her breath she clambered down the ship and raced off to the entrance of the harbor.
'If they need me, they can find me.'
She walked away from the harbor and into the village. Far away from the detestable sea.
Claudina had walked so fast that she bumped in to someone dressed in black cape and hood. "Sorry," she said as she hurried. Suddenly a hand grabbed her preventing from leaving. She turned around in mild anger. "Is something the matter?" she asked the stranger.
The person in the cape tightened their grip. She rolled her eyes down where the person's gloved hand had firmly held her in place. Her gaze turned icy. With a swift movement she pulled her hand causing the person to stagger forward.
"You…"
She recognized the person was male. "You dare to act like this?!"
"What? You are the one who held an unknown young woman's hand in broad daylight." She whirled around and left the man standing in the middle of the street.
She tsked under her breath. Now she had a headache!
Pressing her hand in her head she searched for an apothecary nearby. Finding none she settled to rest in a tavern until someone came looking for her.
She settled for a decent looking one. Entering she gave a quick survey of her surroundings. It was mostly empty with two men sitting in a dark corner smoking. The other round tables were empty. On each table was a long necked jar with a candle stuck inside. Another man was up at the bar. The bearded tavern owner nodded at her. A taxidermy boar head was hanging from one of the walls. Under it was a dusty bronze plaque. She walked inside and sat down on an unoccupied chair in front of the bar.
"Ginger ale with milk, no ice." The owner raised his brow but said nothing and proceeded to give her the drink. She drank it as soon as he placed it in front of her. She could feel the headache subsiding.
She ordered another one this time with ice.
Halfway through it the man in the bar left paying for his drinks. As he was paying she saw that three of his fingers including his thumb were missing. There was no callous nor any scars. His clothes were too dirty to be considered middle class. The injuries on his hand are too unusual to be considered an accident. There was no grinding mill here to cause something like that. As he passed her, Claudina sneaked a glimpse of the man's face. It was malnourished with a stubble growing out of his weak chin. A bandage was haphazardly covering his left eye. The uncovered eye was devoid of light.
Her Holy magic tingled on her palm. This man was in the verge of despair.
'Rather it was has been reacting for awhile now. I thought about it first but this place is weird. While I was walking, the atmosphere of the village is different compared to the city harbor. There is a certain stiffness. No children on sight, both men and women carried weapons and a very small amount of girls.' "Excuse me do you mind telling me what's wrong with the town?"
The owner stopped polishing the glass he was holding. He frowned. "Missy you aren't from these areas?"
"No. I am a travelling with a few friends. We stopped here to wait for the next ship to take us to our destination."
"Then I'll give you a piece of advice as a native. You need to leave as fast as you can."
"Why?" The man looked uncomfortable. Claudina reached into her cloak and produced a canvas bag. Counting out five gold coins she skidded them across the bar counter.
The owner fidgeted before swiping the coins under his apron. He looked across the room and dropped his voice to a whisper "There was an attack in the islands."
"Pirates?"
"Do you think mere pirates can do this?" He raised his sleeves up to show a bandaged arm. He unwrapped it to reveal deep festering cuts. Dark red veins pulsed around the edges while something black with fresh blood moved up and down from the cuts. It looked alive.
Claudina looked at the wound.
Unbeknownst to the man she could clearly see the residue of demonic magic. The residue curled around his arm in thick black smoke.
'Why wasn't the temple informed of this?' "How did this happen? It closely resembles a…demonic wound. I am not sure."
"It is!"
"I recall that Chronostis had a saint. Didn't the lord of the islands send a message requesting for help?"
The man sneered. "If the lord cared for us, he wouldn't have summoned a demon in the first place!"
"Pardon?"
The man looked around cautiously before beckoning Claudina to come closer. She went and he whispered in her ear. "The entire town knows that the lord is a coward so he never informed Chronostis or any other Nation about it. He would rather we suffer then he loses all his money!"
Both of them leaned back. The man went back to his polishing while Claudina was left over to ponder over. "Is there more?"
The man was startled. "Well…that depends…" he said scratching his beard. Once or twice he glanced at the canvas bag. Signing she opened it again and pulled out two coins. The man seemed hesitant before taking them. "Keep it between you and me but the village chief sent word to one of the Nations for help. Missy prior to your visit this island village was constantly attacked."
He leaned on one of his arms on the bar counter. "Houses were lit up every night. Children were possessed and danced to their deaths on their parents' corpses, women taken from their homes and led in the jungle; the men had their body parts taken. Harold that was here lost his wife and daughters. I myself lost me leg."
"Hmm." She placed her hand on her chin.
'So we are supposed to meet the lord, huh? It's not necessary for us. This problem was solved when the demon ate the island lord after it got bored. The demon died on the spot after consuming the lord.'
The owner had finished bandaging his arm when he looked up to find no one was there. Beside the half drunk ale was a gold coin to pay for the drinks.
Claudina left the tavern with both her bad mood and headache gone. She stretched out her arms and began walking hoping to meet one of the saints.
Luck must have been shining on her as she spotted something white in the distance. She squinted her eyes and realized it was Oriane looking side to side her bob cut white hair swaying in the motion.
"Oriane!" she called out. Surprised, Oriane turned around and broke into the same grateful smile. They both met in the middle. "There you are! I was looking everywhere," she whispered. "We couldn't find you anywhere after you got down."
"I had some business to attend." Two things that she realized after spending whatever sane period of time she had while sailing in the ship was that Oriane never spoke above a whisper.
"It's alright. Let's go now. Everyone one is waiting for us." The other being that Oriane was completely charmed by Claudina.
She led her to an inn made of wood and bricks. It looked relatively new with tightly shut shutters and windows.
Climbing up two flights of stairs Oriane opened the third door.
Everyone was waiting for her.
Like the inn the room smelled of burnish with same brown shutters. The room contained two beds with mattress and grey covers. A vanity table had its mirror covered with a cloth. Seeing how there were no belongings on the wooden floor she guessed they already put away their things in the cupboard. A sturdy table was set up beside a open window. There were two chairs as well both of them being used by Sylvester and Sullivan. Anatole leaned on the table with his arms crossed. Shulia had been bickering with Sullivan.
They noticed that she returned. "Miss Fairy came back! I thought you left me!" Sullivan pouted.
"Huh! I was supposed to leave?!" Claudina exclaimed putting her hand on her heart. "Oh dear I had no idea!" She now placed the back of the other hand on her head looking every bit of woman who was denied to see her lover. "If only you told me before hand I would have ran away towards the sunset!"
"Eh?" A comical look of pure surprise crossed Sullivan's features
"Puhahahaha! Servers you right, oldie!"
"What were you all talking about though?"
"Claudina we were just discussing when we should meet that person. You see that person commissioned Gaiarit for a demon sealing."
"Yes, yes. We are here to help the lord of the island," she waved her hand.
Oriane flinched before turning to Sylvester "How does…?"
"I didn't tell her! I was with Anatole and you all the time on the trip!"
"Then how did you?"
"A little birdie told me~"
She went over to the vanity table. She pulled off the cloth covering the mirror with a swish. She checked her appearance. Everything was proper and in place.
Satisfied she turned to look at the saints' stupefied faces.
"When are we leaving for the next island?"
"We are helping the lord," Anatole said. "We'll leave afterwards."
"Do we have to? I mean it isn't part of the mission now is it?"
"As a Saint we have to help other," Shulia said. "It is our duty."
"It is our duty~" Claudina mocked. "Pft! What a righteous barbarian! Truly Lord Gaia can't fall any further than this."
"Hey you wanna die!" Shulia yelled. She had already unsheathed her sword. "I was tolerating your nonsense for a long time now but now I'm gonna kill you!" Claudina looked unimpressed. "You can try," she scoffed.
Shulia saw red. Giving a rage induced war cry she ran to Claudina with her sword. The others gasped. She had almost reached her when another sword blocked Shulia's attack. Anatole was in front of Claudina in an instant. "Cool your head."
"Get out of my way Anatole! I'm gonna kill he-" She was knocked out by Oriane. Shulia slumped against Anatole. "I will carry her to bed." He nodded putting his sword back.
He turned to Claudina. "Watch your tongue."
She scoffed "Tell her to watch her temper."
Anatole clenched his hand into fists. "I suppose you wish to only stick to the directive."
"Yes." 'He's no fun. There is reaction out off him. What a boring man!'
"It's important to help the lord though."
"This place isn't a major trading spot. Most merchants simply pass this place. Besides in the future the problem was solved by itself in a few years. Just leave it."
"So we should let innocent people die until then? This is not the duty of a saint. Our gods will be saddened with their deaths. This makes us on different than those traitors."
"Let me ask you this then can you take the burden of when the gods are killed? The longer we wait the more they will produce ways to kill our oh so beloved gods."
"What then? There will be no god for you to worship but," she added a mocking cheery tone, "look on the bright side! There will also be no gods who will be sad! Since they are all dead!" She laughed in her high pitched way.
Anatole raised his hand and nearly slapped her but his other hand stopped his hand. "Anatole!" Sylvester stood up.
With difficulty he lowered his hand. "Then what do you suggest we do?"
"I go by myself to the northern kingdom and you lot can take care of the lord."
"You are the furthest thing from a saintess. It disgusts me that the future position of the Saint of time will be wench like you."
"Thank you~"
'I feel a sense of Deja vu. I think Claudina did the same thing before we got along...'