"The ship will set sail in an hour or half, I will bring our luggages over for the crew's inspection." Dakila, dark blue-eyed with graying hair, bent to reach their belongings in a tightly weaved sack beside his companion and carried it over his back, resembling the newly harvested potatoes. "Finish your plate before I'm back." He wiped his trickling cold sweat as he walked behind his dark-haired nephew with a deep set of forest eyes, he reached out the door of the Inn's diner and disappeared in the noise and sea of people.
Euseff stared at the door left behind by his uncle then on his plate and wondered 'How did he do it?' He immediately picked his fork and pulled out the peppers, onions, garlic and anything unusually green from the dish, then wrapped all that remains inside his bread. He chewed hurriedly thinking he can savour his favorite sauce for another time.
"You remember the man seeking that red-haired Vittor Province fugitive?" A brusque-framed man sat beside Euseff asked the Innkeeper passing by their table to arrange the cups and liquors in front of them.
"The one with the bright ring renting room 307?" The Innkeeper inquired, shining the bottles. They were speaking in one of the largest-spoken Galistrician Language across the five continents, it came from a fallen empire founded by the assasinated Galistrician Royals.
Euseff overheard, but he barely listened. He could not care less, such catching-the-outlaws near the harbors is a normal day-to-day encounter, especially to his city of origin near the bigger harbors. Anyone being sought who reached the harbors is already at sea long ago.
"Yes, I heard he commissioned the Blue Tree at Renato and sailed in the deeper of Whispering Seas following that fugitive."
"Deeper the Whispering Seas... wait, The Blue Tree?" The Innkeeper was utterly confused and shocked. "The same Blue Tree ship that sails only on the Whispering Seas without a captain and always comes back to Renato empty?"
"Yes, exactly, but you know what's more mysterious about it? My henchmen told me that a friend of theirs, retired from the Outlaw Hunters Association, the fugitive was not a fugitive. It was rather likely to be a descendant of... uhm... it was close to the word 'Disease from flowers', I forgot the exact word but it's related to some kind of myth I have not heard for a long time..." The Brusque man pondered a moment or two and his eyes lit up as he unknowingly shouted across the diner for everyone to hear. "Ah I got it! The Blight of Roses!"
Euseff was jolted off his seat as everyone else looked over the commotion the brusque man has made and they all similarly thought about the word he just said ever so curiously. The Blight of Roses is part of the dark legends written by the curriculum of the Magistries and religious writs, these legends are often synonymous to evils and being curious to them or just talking about it is a kind of taboo. Some just shrugged off such ideas as they are not pious enough and some people immediately left the diner with a judging look to the brusque man and Euseff, likely akin to disgust or fear.
'Why also me? I don't know this man!' Euseff was alarmed and muttered to himself as he distanced, at least a seat away from the scandalous man.
As if uncaring of such attention, the brusque man continued "Just this daybreak, someone passed by my door and left a note. It said that I must lookout for kid, somewhere 14 or 15 years of age, well-fed, and carrying a puppet. I must tell you I have not received a commission like this discreet before and this vague, my guess is the kid must be of nobility. You know how nobles likes to play with dangerous unworldly games."
"Lower you voice...by the way you are telling me, you are not interested to take this comission?" The Innkeeper toned down his curiosity and left the past topic as quickly as possible.
The brusque man looked at the kid on his right then on the passing people and said in almost a whisper. "I do not intend to attend such affairs, you know how my brother dissappeared. But something is just inching me to take a bit of a look at this commission that I needed to get here to ask you..." He paused, blinking his eye, trying if the Innkeeper got his hint.
"I don't get it." The Innkeeper declared, losing his patience.
The brusque man grumbled inside and whispered, "The boy is red-haired, the fugitive has red hair. Two person being closely sought is less likely any two person at all in such a town does it?" He proudly guessed.
"Such an idiot, just like your brother. You think that you possess your brother's talent don't you, for you being this naive?"
"What do you mean by that?" The brusque man clenched his fist.
"Just as I thought, an idiot. I sell information, you think i'd fall for that and give the answer for free? What a scum."
"Oh for fuck's sake, you said this kind is an equal exchange. You said it yourself." The brusque man argued, his voice rising.
"Are you a kid? If I had not known you, I would believe you really had henchmen and someone really did leave a note on your door. You must have just overheard it and came to me to confirm and sell it to another for a bigger price on your stupid guess." The Innkeeper toned his voice down even deeper while eyeing the one's passing by and the kid beside them who looked more or less interested in their conversation.
"But someone really gave the note on me, I'm not lying!"
The Innkeeper eyed the man up and down and requested, "Give me the note."
The brusque man pulled the small parchment from his pocket, scriptures as dark and clear that Euseff was able to scan by a single glance.
"Fugitive"
"14-15 Years Old"
"Galistrician"
"... Puppet"
Euseff narrowed up to the name of the fugitive when the hand of the holder paused and he slowly met the eyes of the brusque man.
"Tsk, kid, I am telling you now. Mind your eyes and eat your greens." The brusque man warned him and handed the parchment to the Innkeeper. He finally said what was bothering him since earlier but he could not get the correct moment until he get the Innkeeper to talk to him in the back of the diner.
The Innkeeper eyed Euseff and coldly gave him a glass of water as he signaled the brusque man to go on the back of the diner to continue their talk more privately.
Euseff saw the soft bulges of a knife hiding beneath the pants of the brusque man and took his vision away back to his food. He protested inwardly 'Greens are bitter and slimy, who is he calling kid? I'm thirteen!'
As the entrance of the Inn's diner opened, Euseff heard Dakila "We should be aboard now."
In the tinkling sounds of coins, Euseff pulled some shimmering copper coins as shiny as the bottles of liquor and placed it under his glass before they left the Inn.
Spring of the year 3543, Eevrian Eon. Large and small pipes narrowly twisting like entwined snakes decorated the walls and dominantly at the alleys or openings of manholes. Faint cloud of mixed steam and smoke rising behind the coal-powered connected wagons called Orient Express. On the streets, carriages runs through noisy gears and burning of coal oil.
At the harbor town of Mercoria, the old Galistrician-period road bricks were like being bored open from the tattering of easily-crushed newly-discovered cement called 'Asphalt'. On the sides of the road, erected pure remnants of the Galistrician Crafts and Culture – dark bricks naturally colored each house, Inn, the small bayside stores, and the fully furnished Magistry of Calembraon sitting tall in smooth obsidian marble and a tower topped with a symbol embedded with crystalline shells forming an eye. The eye that oversees all creation, the eye that is merciful and forgiving, the eye that knows all truth – the gaze of Bat-hala.
The Magistries are both the house and kingdom of gods, a home connecting the pious, scholars, and magistrate. Extending at the side is the Magistrate of Mercoria and at the back is the Holy Academy of Mercoria. Stood at the gates of the Academy is the image sculpted in limestone of the patron and savior of the poor, Calembraon.
The Faith to Bat-halaon roams far the Colossus Mountains at the west, Bays of Imperia at North, and shores of the Whispering Seas on east and south. Their Doctrine teaches the largest mass among the Five Favored Faiths since the start of the Eevrian Eon.
After Euseff stepped out from the plank bridging to the medium-sized ship, he fell clasping the ground as a cold gale of wind pushed the waves to the shore, almost flipping over the small sails. The plank fell on the raging waters and as if eaten whole that the lightwood could not float back up from the surging current, this was just at the shore, what more at the open sea. Euseff suddenly thought back of the story of the man who sailed The Deeper of Whispering Seas.
Dakila pulled the binding of the sack tightly as it's a bit opened when he fell. Euseff saw a white owl looking interested at the sack and then it looked at him, its eyes red–he saw this bird few more times on their way here. 'Is it following us?', he thought while getting up to his knees and get closer to the bird.
"Shoo!" A crew shooed the bird away clawing over their goods that has fallen down. "This is the first and our last meals if storms befallen upon us." He carressed the jar of vinegar-soaked sardines and gently placed then back inside the wine barrels.
A raspy aged-voice laughed and said, "That's a strange wind, it's like the seas don't want us to set sail." The captain looked far the horizon, cataract invaded his right eye, straight to Whispering Seas and chugged a pint of beer he saved from his fall. "Really strange, Her whispers are always onto something. Too bad I can't hear it."
"Hear it?"
The captain turned his back from the horizon and sought the inquirer, he looked down on a green-eyed boy studying his face as if seeing what future will bestow upon his looks. "Forest Eyes, you're from Vittor?"
"Yes."
The captain curled his lips, forming his yellowing and darkening teeth with some open windows, "You'd charm numerous women, oh how I remember my youth."
Euseff made a face wondering what made the captain say that.
The captain crouched down a little bit on the smaller man and explained, the smell of liquor strengthened, "The Mother caresses the winds and beds the seas, her lullabies are stories sleeping in the winds for millenias and her children flows to every nooks and crannies of the world. Her lullabies were sang long ago until it reaches the correct listener, her stories are truth and her waves are warning. Both has reached us."
'The Mother' Euseff caught on, "You're a believer of The God's Below?" They are one of the Favored Faiths, but not really favored per se.
The captain stood back up and laugh out loud again, "No, never, our Mother hated those bastards, sending her rage through storms all-year-round on their lands. Ah, our Mother really knows how to give entertainment for her children, I should pray to her."
The captain pat his head and brushed off his crews back to his cabin, forgetting about the warning he just said while leaving a trail of beer spots swaying left and right along the rhythm of waves. Euseff wondered more due by his unanswered doubts, but made his mind step back.
Euseff walked to his uncle still wiping his cold sweats, hiding in the secluded corner.
"How did you do it?" Asked his nephew, the boy's face seemed much calmer than earlier.
"The F-First Officer knew someone I know. He didn't ask further, I presented a few Gold Livra Bill and he just discreetly took our luggage along his." He wiped a snot, avoiding eye contact.
Euseff nodded and pulled a yellowish coin from his pocket, "I understand him, I never touched a Gold Livra before." He gently stroked the protruding face of the empress on the eight-edged coin, the highest denomination among Livras which can either be a bill or coin is just a silver with its corresponding unique scriptures plated in thin gold.
Euseff sat beside him, studying the older man hugging his knees and toes playing each other. For some moment, he broke the silence, "You're doing well, you actually sounded like a distinguished gentleman just now. You're not stammering as often. Don't worry, she won't find us there." He rubbed his uncle's head, disheveling it like praising an obedient child.
Dakila looked away the sea, silent, nipping his nails with his teeth as the ship moved farther and farther from the shore.
---
24 days past, the twenty-ninth day before the full moon and new month is to begin.
"Libulan will always show us the way, the goddess is the hand of night, the embrace from our darkest, and vision beyond what sees the eyes. I pray for your benevolence to set peace on our journey today yet again." The man prayed in prostration, speaking in Imperian–a language second to Galistrician for having many users and spoken in the countries surrounding Imperia.
Euseff knew the man, along with most of the passengers, is a believer of the Moons – The Gods Above. They praise different moons every night, tonight is Libulan, the Goddess of Full Moon and end of each month. He heard this faith is most common far east, but were also very welcomed in south, unlike the believers of The Gods Below which is hardly accepted anywhere. Even the unfavored beliefs like one he newly heard 'The Mother of Whispering Seas' suppresses their presence. 'Maybe they really are as everyone speculates', he thought, he has not seen one before.
Euseff and Dakila remained crouched on the small corner when they heard heavy steps towards them, "It should be tonight, three hours or so. Get ready, I prepared you the small dinghy as you requested. The sea's also calm tonight, you should be alright." The First Officer, a stout man with very clean beard smiled kindly at the two of them and handed the night's ration of salt-dried carrots and strips of vinegar-soaked fish. This First Officer helped them throughout their stay, reminding the dangers of their journey as he later found out about Dakila's condition.
"I-I like him." Dakila whispered while looking far as possible.
"You think? He's kind, he's alright." Euseff agreed and crunched the brick of a carrot, he really hated it but the fish is for Dakila.
Near midnight, while the sea reflects the shine of stars and the dim luminence of the gibbous moon, the ship slowed not far from a distance of a near island. Euseff and Dakila was preparing to ride the small boat, carrying the sack on both their hands.
"An utter inconvenience, but this is a helpful advice. Don't look back and just row straight to the shores." The First Officer reminded them in farewell.
Euseff opened his mouth to ask but he held back and just nodded, he knew he just can't ask for answers he is not ready to hear yet.
The First Officer smiled, "You're a smart kid, take care of your uncle and live well."
As they first rowed, Euseff looked up and saw the First Officer shook his head, telling him again not to look back. The captain with his hand in his pockets beside him, no longer holding a beer, but he is staring intently between Euseff and the sack beside him loosely open. Euseff saw through the captain's eyes and immediately pulled the sack's binder tighter, hiding away the wearable red fake hair inside which is blood crimson under the gas lamp. They rowed forward, entering the low faint fog hiding the sea below the boat.
When the boat is no longer visible, the ship pulled back the anchors and continued the journey.
"Good riddance."
"What?" The First Officer asked the captain.
"That boy is dangerous. I warned you to stay away from them on the first day, but you just don't listen. I clearly smelled rot on his older companion over the smell of my beer, I was nearly nausated. Fucking demons, that hollow old man is very dangerous, you can see it in its eyes. I wouldn't even need to wonder what's inside that monster." The captain cursed holding an emblem of sea, a symbol of 'The Mother'. "This was what she whispered and I didn't listen. Forgive me Mother, I have sinned."
"What do you mean?" The First Officer starts showing signs of trembling, he only saw his captain this afraid a few times and all those times were all very dangerous to him which mostly almost near him closer to death's doors.
"I can wrong that for a sentient creation if I had not known that boy might be a Corrupted, a branch of Plagues. He's on top of outlaw's list back in Mercoria. The Empire's Ducal House, the Belnifor Family, along with multiple hidden organizations and nobility are looking for that boy and that puppet. I even received sacks and bunches of Gold Livras when I woke up just this morning for making the escape of those two. It made me not sleep all day. Be careful not to spit a word on this when we're back or we'll be better than dead."
"Wh-what? I don't understand captain, which puppet?"
"That neatly-sewed man he calls uncle."