Chapter 9: A Reverie Interrupted

The salty breeze caressed Jos’s face as she leaned over the quarterdeck railing and took a sip of her rum. Savoring Beltran’s special new recipe, she watched as her crew moved about on the main deck below. In the distance, the shores of the Southsun Islands shone as shapes dividing the sapphire sea from the azure sky. 

This was what she wanted. This was why she had a ship and a crew in the first place. Peace and quiet, away from the insanity of dragons and White Mantle and political insanity. Just the open sea and a mug of rum.

Leaning back with her eyes closed, she let the sun warm her face. “Finally, things are on track the way they’re supposed to be.”

A faint thump reverberated up through the deck. 

Jos knew her ship. From the slightest creak of the riggings to the softest footfall on the deck, she knew where every sound and bump happened. Sometimes things even bumped against the keel. Sometimes, when her crew hadn’t lashed things down properly, cargo even shifted in the hold. And while this did come from the hold, the seas were calm and she’d lashed that crate down herself.

There was also the two crates of rum she’d just picked up, but she’s also personally secured those containers. But the thump wasn’t heavy enough to be one of those shifting and falling over. She opened her eyes and let out a long, deep sigh. And she waited. After nearly a minute without another thump, she closed her eyes again. 

Maybe they’d bumped into a skale or krait. She’d certainly not lose any sleep over that. Then, whatever it was, thumped again. And again. And again. And it continued to happen.

Jos’s eyes snapped open and she jumped to her feet. “What in The Ever-Loving-Pain-in-the-Ass Six is that?”

Crewmates jumped out of her way at the sight of her scowl as she made her way below deck. Even Nexx, who approached her with his mouth open to ask a question, clamped his trap shut and walked the other way. Jos was fully aware that it was her visible anger, and she didn’t care, because the lower she got in the ship, the louder the thumping grew.

Her feet thudded hollowly on the stairwell boards as she descended into the hold. “What the hell is going on down he—”

As the mostly empty cargo area came into view, she found Danni trying desperately to hold onto the large wooden crate. Somehow, even strapped down, the container tipped forward then backward on its own enough to thump on the deck. Even as the container thumped back and forth, Danni bawled and did her best to sooth the crate’s contents with sounds and words as if it were a baby.

The scene itself wouldn’t have been just comical, it would have been hilarious to Jos if it hadn’t just disturbed her long-missed reverie.

“Danni?” Jos grumbled through gritted teeth.

The tiny asura held on to one of the wooden frame pieces of the crate for dear life. She turned and sniffed, wiping her nose on her shoulder. “Er… Hi, Captain!”

“You uh… wanna tell me what’s going on here with my cargo?”

Nexx appeared beside Jos, his head tilted in confusion. “What in the Eternal Alchemy…?”

“My thoughts exactly.” Jos watched the container tip forward and back over and over, trying to figure out some way in which it could do that on its own. The only conclusion she came to was that there was something alive inside it. 

Danni forced a grin. “Well, you see…” 

The crate gave a particularly forceful thump forward, knocking the asura free from her perch. Danni tumbled away and came to rest against one of the support beams.

Jos pointed at the crate. “Who or what am I carrying on my ship?”

Overhead, feet thumped on the main deck. Lots of feet. The captain glanced at the ceiling, but kept her focus on the passenger. Meanwhile, the crate continued to thump back and forth.

Danni’s face flushed and she scrambled to her feet. “Well, um… I can’t exactly say. Um… It’s classified.”

Jos’s head jerked back and her eyes went wide. “Classified? On my Six-cursed ship? Nothing comes on my ship that I don’t know what it is. And if you think—”

Feet pounded behind the captain, and a voice called down. “Captain to the deck!”

The crew of Hiraeth knew better than to give her a call like that unless it was absolutely urgent. Jos stormed up the stairs but stopped half way. She turned back to point at Danni. “We’re not done with this conversation.”

Jos’s gaze shifted to the crate again. It had stopped thumping.

Back up on deck, she found her entire crew leaning over the bow-port railing. She followed their gaze and felt her chest tighten. Just ahead and to port, and barely a league out, a large fog bank was rolling in, fast. A murmur rose up among the crew and grew louder and louder. Her first thought was of back in that alley with that damned sylvari. Her stomach roiled at the idea, but Hiraeth was nowhere near in position. 

While she didn’t know exactly what the fog bank was, she had her suspicions, and it wasn’t something she was interested in tangling with. It was possible that it was a simple fog bank. Fog out on the sea was not unusual, but she’d never seen one appear this suddenly or move this fast. Jos’s gut told her this was far from natural. A dozen things that came to her mind to what it could be. Some she just found annoying, others terrified her. Whatever it was, it was under its own power, which meant intent. And that intent was not part of her plan.

What she needed was to either slip on by or outrun whatever was at the heart of that mist. Both of those options required stealth and timing.

Beside her, Nexx sucked in a breath. “My ears. What is that?”

When Jos spoke, her voice was low and gravelly. “Nexx, lie ahull.”

The First Mate looked back at her. “Captain? Shouldn’t we run? To clarify, we do not know what this phenomenon is yet, but indubitably it is not something we want to tangle with.”

“Just do it. Douse every scrap of yard we got.”

Nexx sucked in a deep lungful of air, but she stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. “And do it quietly.”

Nexx’s face twisted in confusion, but he gave her a curt nod and scampered off. Sailors were a superstitious lot, so it was no surprise that they were already awestruck with something so unusual. But her crew had faced down the strange and terrifying, so she trusted them to step-to when needed.

When Nexx reached the dumbfounded crew, he started tapping them on the shoulders one by one and setting them back to work. Every one of her crew’s faces were pale and stricken. Even Jorg looked unnerved. 

“What is it, Captain?” Danni asked.

Jos scanned every inch of the approaching cloud for any indication of its source. “I’m not sure. Not good though. Any suggestions? Inquest maybe?”

Danni’s soft voice wavered. “Not terribly likely. I’m certain they have the magitech to alter ultralocal weather conditions, but subtlety is not their customary technique.”

“True.”

“Captain?”

“Huh?” Jos kept her gaze locked on the approaching fog, looking for anything that might discern who or what was causing it.

“Why furl the sails? What is your purpose for removing our thrust? Some grand strategic tactic?”

The captain cleared her throat softly and spoke in a whisper, “It’s a feeling. My gut. I don’t know what’s in there, but whatever it is… something tells me we need to wait.” The edge of the fog crept up and swallowed the bow of Hiraeth. Like a wall, the fog swept over the rest of the ship. She glanced down and saw Nexx just a few feet away, watching her.

“For what?”

Jos glanced up and her blood ran cold. A long, thin shadow passed over the ship. Jos knew that shadow. She’d faced them before, on land, at sea… And all of them in Orr.

She waved at Nexx then placed a finger over pursed lips. When she pointed up, she saw the color drain from his face. Jos pointed at the sails and he nodded. Then she made a dome like shape with her hands and he nodded again.

“Captain?” Danni whispered. “What is it?”

As the fog continued to wash over them, the shadow of the cloud’s source appeared faintly. Beyond the edges of Hiraeth’s railings, a hundred feet away at most, the outline of a massive ship came into view. Spikes of bone and tattered bits of flesh were visible even through the thick moisture. And on the main deck, shadows shambled back and forth.

A few Risen coming up from the depths was one thing, but a full bone ship, complete with giant abominations? That was well beyond what her crew could handle. A small voice in the back of her head wondered what they were doing this far north, but right now it didn’t matter. This Risen bone ship was here right now, just a hundred feet away. And so far it looked like they didn’t even know Hiraeth was there.

Jos turned to Nexx and he gave her the thumbs-up. She turned back to the bone ship. Panic urged her to open the sails, but instinct told her it wasn’t time yet. If they unfurled now, the enemy could turn and ram Hiraeth. Even if the bone ship didn’t ram them, the undead tendril could reach out and stab the ship like a massive spear, pinning it in place. Either way, they’d all die. No, they had to be past the bone ship for her plan to work.

A loud, gasping breath to Jos’s left made her heart stutter. She looked down just in time to see Danni’s head lean back and let out a loud sneeze. The asura sniffled and wiped her nose. 

With a terrified look on her face, Danni looked up at Jos and mouthed, “Sorry?”

Jos clenched her jaw. Swallowing hard, she slid her pistol from its holster and leveled it at the enemy vessel. Closing her eyes, she listened.

Deep, gurgling voices murmured through the fog, but one single word rose above it all. A word that sent a chill down Jos’s spine.

“Kill.”

Jos didn’t need to see where the Risen precisely was, the sound of its voice was enough. She squeezed her trigger and the booming echo of her pistol shattered the tense calm. A single gurgle reached her ears followed by a hollow thump of the now-dead risen falling to the bone ship’s deck. 

She looked at Nexx and nodded. 

“NOW!”