“After we decided which six of us would go and explore the ship, we left camp and went back. There was a small distance between our camp and the ship, maybe a ten minute walk. Now when I say there was a ship made out of bone, let me clarify a little bit what I mean. I’m sure you’ve both seen a human ribcage before right?”
Cobal nodded and he could only assume that Mana did the same, since Eliana continued. “Well, imagine a human ribcage, but very, very large. Like the size of a ship large. Put a massive bone at the center of it and a tattered sail hanging from it and you more or less have the right picture in your mind. Strangely enough, whatever the main cabin was made out of was a strange, dark black wood that none of us recognized. We think there might have been more to it, but truth be told we could never really figure out how this thing was supposed to work. Keep in mind that we were all naive about our surroundings at the time, but we weren’t stupid. We were well prepared, even though we didn’t fully understand what we were getting ourselves into. Our leader, Marvek, was probably the most experienced out of all of us. Even he had never seen anything like this. The wood was definitely wood, he used a chisel to confirm that. It acted like wood would but none of us had ever seen a tree that was that color, so we didn’t know where it hailed from. Some speculated that these trees might grow deeper into the Wildlands but Marvek disagreed. His theory was that this ship came from elsewhere. Either a different continent or even a different world. We weren’t sure which of those two was scarier. Either way, we continued exploring. Marvek found what looked to be a treasure chest made out of the same material as the cabin was. The lock and the hinges were made from a metal, presumably just iron or something, it didn’t look particularly strange. The wood was surprisingly tough but not tough enough that we couldn’t get through it. Inside the chest was a book in a language we didn’t understand, a sealed scroll with no text on it and a necklace with a beautiful blue gemstone. After we were certain that there was nothing else there, we left the eerie shipwreck behind us and went back to camp. There we found the most horrifying sight I’ve ever seen. Everyone who stayed behind at the camp was dead. Scratch marks and bitemarks were all over their bodies and some were even missing. After we got over the initial shock, which admittedly took a while, we realized that the missing people were probably dragged off by whatever creature did this, since there were some blood trails. We tried finding them, but the trails ended eventually. Terrified of whatever this was, we made the decision to turn around. The journey back to Sakrijan felt like a fever dream. We were scared out of our minds that whatever killed our friends was coming to get us next and every strange sound made us even more scared. We eventually made our way back there safely, despite all the dangers. We stayed the night in a local inn and agreed to talk about where to go next in the morning. When the next morning came, Marvek was gone. He brought all of his belongings with him, but he left the ship which we still had in the harbor. The five of us spent two days looking for him, but eventually we gave up and accepted that he had left the area. After talking it over for a bit, we ended up splitting up. We sold the ship to the harbormaster and split the money five ways. That was the last time I saw any of them. I heard that Timor became a librarian many years later, but the others I didn’t even hear any news about. To this day I sometimes wonder where Marvek went, and if he’s still alive. He’d be pretty old by now, but, you know, so am I.” Eliana smiled. “Let’s get out of this water, I’m turning into a shriveled old lady.”
There were small houses next to the inn where you could stay the night. It worked on a sort of honor system where you would stay the night and put the money for it in the offering box. When Cobal looked down into the box he was happy to see that it seemed to be working, since there were quite a few coins down there. He paid for their stay and joined the other two on the porch of their house. Mana sat there with her feet dangling over the edge while Eliana was inside. Cobal sat next to Mana. “This reminds me of the place we stayed at in Ravadier.”
Mana smiled. “I can see that. Different view, but I like the quiet.”
“You’ve preferred the quiet since the day I met you.”
“And long before that.” She let out a sigh. “I hope we find out something more about your brother in Marsolin, we haven’t really made a lot of progress.”
“I wouldn’t say that. We know that he’s involved with these cultists and we know that they might be hiding out near Marsolin. That’s a pretty big jump compared to suspecting the Rilodar King to have kidnapped him.”
“I suppose you’re right. I just hope this doesn’t turn out to be a dead end.”
“I’m sure it’ll be okay. And even if it isn’t, I think there’s a good chance we might be able to find out something from the libraries there. It’s not the worst place to have to start over.”
“That’s true.”
“I know I said I prefer the open seas, but this place isn’t too bad either.” Eliana came walking out the front door and sat down next to Mana, on the opposite side from Cobal. “You can still see the stars from here.”
“Not as well as from the open seas, admittedly,” Cobal replied.
“I’ll have to make do.”
“Eliana?” Mana asked.
“Hmm?”
“Can you tell us a little bit more about your youth? I’ve never heard of sea elves before, and I’m curious to hear about where you grew up and what that was like. It sounds like it was probably very different from my upbringing.”
“Well, you did grow up in a different world, so that makes sense.”
“It’s strange to think about, from my perspective,” Mana continued. “You’ve been alive for such a long time. There’s so much that has changed in my world in even the last hundred years. I can’t imagine what it would be like to live through many times that.”
“Well, a lot of the normal things don’t change. People are still people, everyone’s still trying to live their lives and the sun comes up in the morning and goes down in the evening.”
“Sure, but magic and things like that must have advanced a lot in the time you’ve been alive.”
“You get used to it. Even though a lot can change in a hundred years, it doesn’t change all at once. More often than not, it’s a gradual process. One day someone might come up with a strange new idea, then some others take the idea and run with it until years later it’s a common occurrence.”
Mana thought for a while. “That makes sense I guess.”
“As to my youth, it’s really not that interesting of a story. I was born to a small family, spent my youth in our island village. We lived from what we grew on the island and the fish we caught. We were a small community, even back then. Nowadays I doubt there’s many of us left, I know the village is no longer there.” Eliana fell quiet.
“Maybe we’ll come across some as we continue to travel,” Cobal suggested, realizing the mood was souring.
“I doubt it, but I appreciate the optimism.” Eliana stretched out her legs and laid down on the porch. “I’m tired, I might call it a night early.” She looked at Mana. “What was your youth like?”
Mana looked off into the distance. As Eliana was telling her story before, a tiredness had washed over her face. Cobal saw that she was reaching her limit. He was more aware than most about the way she felt, since she was so kind as to share some of her thoughts with him. But even he didn’t know everything. Mana had talked quite a lot about things that happened in her world that didn’t happen here. What she hadn’t really talked about all that much was her own past. Cobal had thought about this before, and he wasn’t one to push someone else to overshare, so the topic hadn’t really come up in their conversations. He wondered if her youth was something she didn’t want to think back to or if it was something that had become very personal to her now that there was no one here who shared that experience. Cobal could only guess.
“I don’t really like to talk much about my own past. There’s a saying in my world that you should learn from your past so you can avoid repeating past mistakes. I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my past. They’re often small mistakes that don’t feel severe enough to really worry about, but add them all up and you get a pretty miserable picture. There were times that I can look back on and learn a lot from, but there are also many times that I simply do not want to recall. At least not actively.”
A quiet filled the space once more. Mana seemed to be thinking something of importance over and neither Eliana nor Cobal wanted to be the one to pull her out of it. While he waited, Cobal absentmindedly traced his fingers over the planks that made up the little balcony they were sitting on. The air was chilled but not uncomfortably cold. They were once again far away from the bustling capital city of Saphestan, but the quiet was different. It wasn’t different in an uncomfortable way, but it was less familiar. Even though they didn’t spend much time at Dionil’s place, it felt like home. This place wasn’t home. Cobal chuckled to himself. Why was he thinking about home at a time like this, it’s not like they were staying here for more than a day or two. He looked at Eliana who had just shared something very personal with them. Until today, Cobal did have his doubts about traveling with her. Despite being recommended to them by Dionil, she didn’t seem like she would be much help. Now that he knew a little bit more about her, he understood why Dionil sent them to her. Or rather, why he sent her to them. Eliana may be of great use to their cause with her vast knowledge of the region and her previous run-ins with strange magics, but this meeting wasn’t meant for Cobal and Mana. It was meant for Eliana. Cobal’s smile widened. Dionil wasn’t called the woodland sage for nothing. His ways may be unclear at first, but when push comes to shove, he truly was wise beyond his years. Eliana was laying on her back, staring at the stars. Cobal leaned back as well, leaving Mana to be the last one to stay sitting. The stars were pleasant and lit up the sky just enough that the darkness of the forest didn’t scare them. He looked at Eliana who smiled at him. “What are you grinning about?”
“Nothing special, just thinking about old friends.”
Mana laid back in between them. “I think I have a story that I wouldn’t mind sharing with the two of you. But you have to promise not to talk about it to anyone else.” She looked at Eliana.
“I promise.”
She looked at Cobal. “Not even to Kimi or Mirgia,” she said.
“I promise.”
Mana smiled. “Then let me tell you about my youth.”
Opal Kaharis 