A sailor stood atop the watch tower of the ship, looking through a little spyglass. He searched for any sign of rocks or obstacles that may prove to be a danger to the ship. The stars above shone down on him with their dazzling glow of riveting galaxies in the far beyond within the abyss, as the moon hung within invisible clouds. A faint layer of mist coated the sea, giving it an eerie slowness.
As he watched, he quickly moved the spyglass back to a specific point. He swore he could've seen what had been a ship trailing behind them in the mist. But when he looked again, there was nothing there. Confused, he lowered the spyglass and put out his candle, then looked again. Still, nothing.
For a moment he kept looking, but eventually, he shrugged and decided it must've been his imagination. Soon his shift would be over, and he could get some rest. He was surely just tired.
But his trailing thoughts came to a swift end, as a glint of steel flashed through the night, crossing past him before he could even recognize what had happened. He dropped his spyglass, his eyes bulging as he clutched at his throat, blood flooding his mouth and leaking from his lips as it gushed from his severed throat. The sailor stumbled back, hitting the rail before tumbling over the edge, crashing down over the ropes, ripping one loose from it's poorly done tie. He dropped to the deck with a crunch as blood splattered across the wood, and the sail that came loose began to flick in the wind, shifting.
Then came the bell, ringing an alarm.
Darius woke to this bell, sitting upright in his cot. He looked around the dark room, taking a moment to recognize what was happening. As he stood, confused, something suddenly crashed into the ship, sending paintings flying off the walls as objects flew across the room and the ship tipped. Darius slammed into the wall, now awake. He grit his teeth in frustration. It didn't take him long to assume what was happening. They were under attack. That wasn't a wave, that was something crashing into the hull.
Darius quickly grabbed his cloak and threw it over his shoulder as he grabbed his satchel, throwing it on as he slammed open the door. Out on the deck, there was shouting and confusion.
Darius's eyes searched the deck, and set upon a corpse laying sprawled out on the wood boards, blood soaked into the planks. His expression contorted into rage as he watched sailors grabbing random objects to use as weapons as they looked around confused and others attempted to tie down the loose sail. To his right, a short span of the deck had been splintered apart. The damage wasn't bad, but it was still there, though the ship that caused it had seemed to of slipped back into the dark.
"D!" Came Walker's voice. Darius turned to see the old man running to him, leaning on walls and rails as the ship rocked and water crashed over the deck, spraying them and tugging off Darius's hood.
"D! Is it-?"
"Get your boys below deck, Waller." Darius said blankly, not meeting his eyes. But the man had looked straight at Darius's face, and his eyes widened. Darius's eyes flashed with ever changing colors like refracting prisms of glass.
The man said nothing, instead, he began hollering at his men, all the while glancing back at Darius who turned towards the center of the deck where he walked. He looked out over the water as sailors ran past him, telling him to get below deck and saying he was crazy. But he ignored them as a dark ship loomed out from the haze, rushing at their own as dark masked figures clung to it's ropes and rails, staring blankly at him.
Darius's eyes narrowed as he watched three men jump from the rails, landing upon their ship. They quickly rushed at him, daggers glinting in the moonlight. To the normal eye, they would be nothing but blurs, but Darius could see them clearly, even in the night. He swiftly stepped aside as one of them thrust their dagger. He grabbed their wrist and wrenched it down as his knee came up to meet their elbow, snapping their arm in half as the assassin dropped their dagger. He then spun on his heel, landing a powerful kick on the man, shattering his skull and sending him crashing into the deck face first, splitting the wood. Then came the other two.
These two were smarter. They came at him in unison, one wielding a katana, the other two daggers. The first rushed him while the other spun around behind Darius, who swiftly clutched the fist of the first as he swung his sword. Darius twisted their fist, which snapped, then used their own blade and plunged it through his heart. The other alread was upon Darius, daggers rushing for his throat, and as they came, Darius dropped the first and ducked low, avoiding the blades as the assassin's heel rushed at his head, but Darius leaned forward and their heel crashed to the deck, where Darius's fist crashed into their knee. Their leg folded in backwards and they crumpled as Darius's foot crashed down on their skull, crushing it.
With the three corpses at Darius's feet, he turned cold eyes back to the Black Rose ship, where more assassins watched from the dark. Darius walked up to the rail of the ship, planting his blood covered foot on it as he glared at them.
"Can you never leave me be?!" He roared over the crashing waves. "Why must you haunt me like accursed specters?! Is the Nameless so soft that he fears a child?!"
Of course, the assassins only slinked about their deck, giving no response. Darius looked over his should. He could see Waller watching, his head poking out from the trap door that led below deck. He would have preferred if Waller didn't see, but there wasn't much of a choice.
Darius turned back to the dark ship, ripping off his cloak, letting it fly off into the waves. He held out his arms as his eyes glowed, trails of energy flowing from their edges as what seemed to be glass spread down his arms, their prismatic shimmer sending waves of light cascading over the deck.
His arms had now turned entirely to glass, as a helmet came to cover his head with thin slits for eyes and thin, shimmering horns that curved up from his brow like a crest, while pointed claws extended from his fingertips.
The assassin's began to move about their vessel in a rush now as their own bell rang out. They raised bows, knocking back arrows to shoot at Darius, but as they flew, the crashed into an invisible barrier with a ding, bouncing off and into the water as a shimmering glow flew around Waller's ship.
Darius tilted his head as he raised a hand into the air above his head.
"Go and tell the Nameless that I do not belong to him, and that when I return to Seimeir, his head will come to roll at my feet!" He roared, a massive blade of prismatic glass extended from his arm, brining it down onto the Black Rose ship. Flashing particles flew as a shockwave blasted outwards, splitting the waves as it severed their ship in two.
Darius watched as the assassins scrambled, falling into the waves while others attempted to jump to Waller's ship, but Darius snapped his hand, and the barrier suddenly solidified, transforming and condensing into countless glass spears that shot out, plunging into every assassin in sight, straigh through their skulls.
Darius let his hand fall as he glared down at the sinking ship while corpses sank and rose in the dark waves. In a flash of light, the glass about his body shattered, the shards drifting through the air before fading to nothing as he returned to normal, the wind tugging at his shirt.
Darius removed his foot from the rail and turned his back to newly made graves, facing Waller who now stood, grabbing onto the mast as he stared at Darius in awe.
"I'll be damned!" The man shouted as a smile spread wide over his lips and he let out a laugh. "You're a goddamn mage!"
Darius stared blankly at the man as the wind rushed past his ears and waves splashed over the ship. The rest of the crew began to emerge from below deck.
'Why are they celebrating…' Darius thought darkly as he clenched his fists.
"A goddamn mage..! The thirteenth mage! On my ship of all ships! By god!" Waller shouted, still chuckling to himself in disbelief as the crew cheered.
"Why are you all cheering?!" Darius roared. The wind and even the waves seemed to silence when he spoke. He glared darkly at all of them. "You are all cursed. The Nameless's forces will hunt you down. You will all be killed. Your throats will be slit and you will be no more than corpses. They know who you are. And now you are all a target. So why are you celebrating?"
The crew was silent now, but Waller only continued to laugh. Darius stomped over to the man and grasped his collar, pulling him close.
"You are going to die!" He roared in the man's face.
"Remember what I said before, kid?" The man spoke then, still smiling. "We've already lived to the fullest, kid. This spectacle, this was worth more than our own lives. With this, we have no concern about death. Not that we did before. What do our deaths matter when we got to see hope? Someone standing up to the Nameless. You are change of tides, kid. You are a pillar. And I am certain we will not be the last to see that brilliant light. In fact, I'm certain all of the world will. And even the gods will tremble in their prison."
Darius lowered his head as he lowered his fist, tears welling in his eyes. He'd done it again. He'd cursed the innocent to be damned. They were all gonna die. Because of him. But.. how could they be so okay with it? Did they not want to live?
Waller put his hand on Darius's shoulder. "Don't worry about it kid. You've done nothing wrong. If we die, don't let it drag ya down. I'd rather you use our deaths to propel you forward, to motivate you. You'll be the one to overthrow that damn demon, kid. I know it. My crew knows it. So hold your damn head up."
Darius lifted his head, meeting the man's eyes.
"Thanks, D. That spectacle was even greater than that of the stars."
"It's Darius."
"Hm?"
"My name. It's Darius.. the thirteenth mage."