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I.
"The captain pressed forward even as the fog set in."
"This was around the islands you saw?" interrupted a man drenched in shadows, sitting in the corner of the captain's quarters. Light from the windows didn't reach him, only that of his lit pipe occasionally illuminated his sharp eyes.
"Don't interrupt, Conas," said a man seen all too well. The man closest to the storyteller. Conas huffed, but the man bathed in light from the open aft window gestured.
Loius Phores continued the tale of his missing Captain.
The tale that could end his career.
The ship beneath his feet rocked with the gentle waves of Westport.
"We continued forth, though visibility was naught, save for inches in front of the Primor. Captain Decas-"
"Aias Decas, the missing without leave," said the first man, in sunlight. "For the record." he smiled at Loius, but there was no light in his eyes. The recordkeeper's stylus scratched against their paper in the corner of the room closest to the window. The smiling man nodded and Loius started once more.
"Captain Decas posted an additional watch, both in the masts and at bow, port, and starboard. He bade us dim the lights to see further in the murk of the fog and thus we sailed in the darkening world.
"It was silent then, for a good while. Captain Decas had warned the newer of the crew of the unknowns as we explored beyond The Sleeping Islands. I will admit, I had my own doubts as to the tales of impossible navigation and the lack of mapping beyond the islands. As we sailed west, Captain Decas had every sailor keep record of our location in addition to the navigators. The Primor's mission is to explore and document, and that the captain did well.
"But the fog stopped all accurate mapping.
"We recorded speed and kept course as well we could through the dim sun battling through the thick blanket of mist about us. I would trust our maps to be the most accurate possible, given the conditions, but I would not trust the maps.
"Days passed into weeks as we sailed the fog. Still, the Captain kept his watch. Seamen and officers alike were weary of the work. All were tired, but Captain Decas showed no weakness nor resolve to turn or slow. The Primor would not waver in its duty-
"Stick to the facts, please." said the man in shadows. The "please" was no softener to the order. It was no request.
"The log will show fourteen days were sailed under fog before we first struck land,' continued Loius.
"The first island was naught but a lily-pad, greenery floating on the surface of the sea. The captain was not disappointed though. We celebrated that night, every man an extra ration of drink and the officers dined with dessert in this very room. During third shift that evening, we struck land in truth.
"The logs of the men will corroborate that the Primor saw and passed many such small islands of greenery floating in the sea. The fog was thicker than ever, and there was rumor that the seamen spoke stories of horror in their quarters, brewing fear and concern of mutiny. Those concerns did not abate as the call of landfall woke all aboard.
"I don't believe Captain Decas had slept that night. He was first to appear on deck, fully uniformed. I appeared as soon as I could. When I appeared on deck, the captain was assigning his orders for his leave and preparing the away team to make land."
"He would leave his ship during the night?" said the man in sunshine.
"Now you interrupt," laughed the man in shadows. His laugh cracked with the half-note of a cough. It was a laugh of arrogance, not joy.
"To speak the truth, the fog had gotten so thick that day and night meant little to us at this point. Were the timing of the captain and the quartermaster off, we would have no certainty to the day or time.
"I was not selected for the first away team. I captained the Primor in Captain Decas's absence. There is little to say of my time alone at the helm of the Primor. The ship's crew and officers are first class. My vision of the island we anchored at was limited by the fog, but I was struck but the lack of shore. We anchored so close as to almost drop a ladder from the deck to the green land below. The captain still took the first boat with his team to safely visit the island.
"The only item of note in my time alone leading the Primor was the true oddity of the fish caught by the crew as we waited. They were of a variety and species I could only-"
"We don't care about the local seafood," said the man in shadow. The man in sunlight nodded.
"Captain Decas left the Primor with an away team of six. Four days after he departed, the captain returned with two men missing."
II.
the stylus of the recordkeeper scratched furiously at the paper in his hand.
The man in shadow inhaled his pipe deeply, the glow of the embers held within illuminated his face brighter than it had yet. Loius could almost discern the man's features. When he spoke a plume of smoke obscured any such hope.
"Your captain returns with two missing, and what does his first mate, currently in command of the vessel do?"
The day was so bright outside. the sun shining through a clear sky, bouncing off the surface of the port bay and into the captain's quarters of the Primor. Loius only saw the shadow in the corner though. He only saw the darkness of the fog, emulated in the smoke of the pipe. He saw the death before him.
"I absconded command, as is the duty of my post. I logged the notes of my conversation with the captain, and I noted my own thoughts. I then reviewed the captain's log to corroborate any information with the information he told me."
The man in sunlight spoke then before the Conas could: "And this information was?"
"On the second night, after a thorough journey into the deeps of the island before the Primor, crewman Yeoth went missing. Every man spoke of a splash, rising from gaps in the island floor, a scream, and then silence.
"Lanterns were lit and a search commenced, but at the near loss of lieutenant Hatten, Captain Decas halted the manhunt, opting instead to organize the group into a unit of five. They continued their search for hours but ultimately could not find Yeoth.
"Both the captain's and lieutenant’s logs describe the scene almost exactly. The logic of the captain was sound at the time.
"The lieutenant perished on the night of their return. The log speaks only of another splash in the night. It is presumed that Hatten woke in the night to relieve himself and walked into another hole of the island."
"And what do you presume?" said Conas.
"The watch of the night described Hatten leaving camp to relieve himself, yes, but he heard more than a splash. The man described to me the sound of water shifting, a sound of a fish hopping or the wind moving the water, but there was no wind and there had been no fish. This sound was followed by a muffled cry and only then a true splash of Hatten falling into the depths beneath the island."
the man in the sunlight nodded. "You joined the next away team?"
"Captain Decas was not slow in organizing another mission on land. There would be a single party of eight, with myself as second in command, should we split into foursomes. we were armed, and we were supplied for more than a week's stay on the island."
There was finally silence in the room, as much silence as a ship ever offers. The boards beneath their feet groaned as the water of the bay gently lapped against the sides of the vessel. The cries of gulls remained constant in the air, drowned only by the briefest whooshes of the wind. Neither man asked Loius a question. Even the recordkeeper's stylus paused in the brief moment of gap in the testimony.
All waited to hear more.
All save for Loius. He had begun to like his new captain on the voyage. It had been his first aboard the Primor.
It may be his last.
His captain was missing. Loius was not at this inquest merely to answer question. He was here to determine the fate of his career. The fate of his life. Etishventus, the navy of Ali, did not like unanswered questions, such as a captain missing without leave, and a newly minted first mate returning with a flagship sans six men beside.
With a breath from Loius, the room's inhabitants seemed to inhale in unison. The young first mate continued his story.
III.
"The row to the land was short, my three crew were in the second boat, while the captain and his three manned the first. Though we rowed for mere minutes, the Primor was nearly lost in the fog by the time we made land. The lanterns, lit high on the masts and at each castle of the vessel, were the only way to truly see that the shadow within the fog was indeed our home.
"As we made land, Captain Decas ordered we stow our boats high ashore. It was easier work than I presumed to pull the boats up onto the land. Indeed, the land itself seemed to give way under my own weight, sinking slightly into the sea as I walked ashore. Under the weight of the boat and four men working, the land practically gave itself fully to a thin layer of water, allowing us to skim the boat as high up as deemed fit by captain Decas.
"'One seventh the supply to remain here lads,' said the captain. 'The rest upon our backs!' he smiled as he spoke, the light of the lanterns in our hands cut the fog and reflected off of his bright eyes. There is, I doubt, no better captain for the Primor. None in the navy have his thirst for the unknown. 'Weapons at the ready, and watch for potholes to the deep.' he said. 'Eyes on the shadows as well. Listen to the water lads and be not betrayed by comfort.'
"I doubt we could be betrayed by such an emotion. Nothing was comfortable about the land where we walked. It was green, leafy almost, like the thick pads of detritus atop a bog, if only those lived with the green of springtime. There were potholes everywhere, gaps between the land that opened to the darkest waters I've ever seen. It was as if each gap held a glance down to the seabed miles below. There was no gradual fall. If one sank here, they sank until the end.
"Captain Decas led, his party of three following closely behind. I was to not let their lanterns out of sight in the deep fog, but give enough room so as to separate our groups. The Captain did not illuminate me to his reasoning here, but I followed that far away, and my men stayed with me. We walked with weapons drawn. Lexip, a seaman in my party even carried a spear fashioned by himself and the carpenter. The rest of us sufficed with our swords and knives.
"We were attacked that first night.
"Captain Decas required we build separate camps, within sight of each other but not together. It was during my watch that I heard a splash. Knowing the tales of the first mission, I cried out, waking my men. It was because of this that we arrived to see what horror plagued us.
"Captain Decas had already awoke to the sound of the splash. My men and I had nearly closed the distance to the captain's camp when we heard the cry. We made it through the damned fog, and I saw the captain holding onto a sailor half submerged. A pothole had opened up beneath the man and sucked him down face first. The captain held onto his legs, but all was not ok. The captain was straining himself. He was not holding onto the man. He was pulling him, with all his might. And he was losing.
"I rushed to his aid, dropping my unsheathed sword to the side and grabbing the man's leg to help pull. It was as if the Etish himself were below the depths pulling this man deeper and deeper. The crew around us grabbed our waists and pulled the captain and I, and still, we could not loose this man. We were losing him.
"That is when I saw the eyes. two orbs seemed to glow beneath the dark pool of water. It was only as the lanterns dimmed or had been moved that I saw the reflection within these eyes rather than the water's surface.
"They were not the sailor's eyes, but of another, looking upwards at me as it fought Captain Decas and I in this twisted tug of war to pull our man beneath the water. Our man who had stopped kicking, who had stopped fighting. Our man who had already drowned."
Again, a silence. the silence of a ship. The gentle water against the sides of the vessel sounded no different than before, but it felt different. There was a menace to the water.
"The eyes beneath the water looked no different than those of any other man. They looked exactly as yours do to me now Conas, enshrouded in darkness, lit only for moments before disappearing. They faded into the blackness of the sea beneath our feet and with a final pull, we lost our man. His legs slipped through my arms, and it was only Etish above who saved our captain from falling in behind the sailor. He refused to let go.
"After that incident, I took Captain Decas aside. The men reluctantly split into their separate camps, but none slept. I assume all listened as we talked.
"'Those are the monsters that took Yeoth and Hatten,' said the captain. 'I have only the faintest clue what they may be.’ I asked him to tell me, to inform me more of our mission, whatever he knew, but he did not. 'I only fill your head with dreams and terrors if you hear the theories I seek to prove,' he said. 'I thought the smaller parties would dissuade the native populus, but I think I was wrong.'
"He grabbed me by the shoulders then. 'Loius, you are a good man, and a great first mate. I've enjoyed your company and leadership aboard my vessel. I need you to lead her once more.' 'Sir?' was all that I could reply. 'Three sleeping men and a watch was enough to stir the people below. There is no number few enough to evade their detection. We'll be hounded every day and night if we continue.'
"I asked him what he proposed. 'I will continue alone. With the supplies we've carried, I will survive much longer than a week if need be. Though, wait only a fortnight for my return, much longer than that and our men will wont for mutiny. They do not understand the fog about us. They don't see it as the blessing it is. You've seen the logs, trust yourself and the Primor and sail east after that fortnight.'
"' Without you sir?' I said. It was not becoming, I know, but as you cannot believe this story, I could not believe Captain Decas's orders. 'Of course you shall sail without me, son. Leave a boat for me to return to the Primor as you return, and stay wary of the water on your way back. You follow orders as a good mate does. Follow this one.'
"The captain let go of me then, he returned to his men, and I returned to mine. It was not long before we had left enough of our supplies with the captain and the five men remaining began our return to shore."
IV.
"Was there incident on your return journey?" said the man in the sunlight.
"We heard three splashes, and Brutu said he saw a woman's head one of the potholes watching him, but none saw her, and I could do nothing but note the apparent sighting in my log, but I saw nothing."
"And you waited the fortnight?"
"We left the first boat for captain Decas to return, and then I settled the crew in for their long wait. I won't bore you with the accounts of fishing and the birds strange, though benign, which we saw fly about the fog. My log will show, and I will state that we remained a full week beyond the captain’s wishes."
"Yet he did not return," said Conas. A statement.
A cry of a sailor came through the open window, but Loius could not discern what was said.
"He did not, sir," said Loius. "We waited as long as I could, even after putting the additional week to a vote of the men, I could not ask for another. I believe Captain Decas was lost. Now that I return home, I cede the Primor to Etishventus and humbly ask for my next orders."
"You do not wish to keep command of the vessel?" asked Conas.
"Command was only lent to me. It was never mine to keep."
The man in the sunshine smiled, but his face dropped all happiness as a knock came at the door. he shot a dark glance to the guard at the door, but the man did nothing as the door opened.
"I believe it is against the policy of the Etishventus to bar a captain from his quarters," said captain Aias Decas as he walked into the room.
The man in the sunlight stood, and Loius stood just behind him. Conas remained seated.
"Sit gentlemen, sit," said the captain.
A man came in behind him carrying a bag, one that had carried the provisions for the away team, but now strained at it seems.
"Right there, son," gestured the captain and the sailor sat the bag at the feet of the man in sunshine.
"For you, Becker, enough gold to pay for my time away."
the man in the sunshine, Becker, though Loius had never gotten his name, opened the bag and saw the treasure within.
"It will make it to the navy, rest assured. Now you may leave my ship."
Becker looked at the captain, his nostrils flared with anger, bated.
"Make it so, Becker," said Conas, standing finally.
"Sir?"
"Leave." said the man in shadows, as he stepped into the sunlight for the first time. Loius saw that he wore the livery of both the priesthood and the navy.
Becker left with the recordkeeper and the guard.
Loius stood in the silent room once more, sound of the bay about them both deafening and mute. His captain and the man Conas were the only two still in the room. The treasure filled bag sat unnoticed in the center.
"You bring news?" said Conas.
Captain Decas reached into his jacket, salt-stained and covered in nearly a month's worth of grime, and removed a small object, covered in cloth ripped from his shirt.
The cloth seemed to warp the light about the captain's hand, pulling it inward, like Loius were viewing it through a lens of sorts.
The effect grew as Aias Decas uncovered a strip of leather. The whole room seemed to turn inward, focused only on this one sliver of blackness.
"It is only a sliver of the true weapon," said Aias, "but the land beyond must have the rest."
Conas reached towards the object before pulling his hand back. "This...." he started, unable to finish his sentence.
"This was a part of a weapon that nearly felled a god,' finished Decas.
Loius looked at his captain's eyes.
He knew the Primor would sail westward again soon.
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Max
I need a full novel of this please and thank you.