Chapter 2:

Violet Dawn (1)

Taccilas stared dumbfounded at the girl in front of him, although the slight rocking of the ship had begun to make it harder for him to focus his sights.

“What do you mean?” He asked with full confidence that he would immediately get an answer.

Mitali’s azure eyes looked onto what she claimed to be her own floor.

Her reply came as softly as the passing wind.

“I am… Not quite sure myself.”

“Oh, well, don’t worry about it then.”

“Hmm?”

“As long as you’re helping, I don’t really care about what you are.”

Her eyes widened at this reply-

“I see, I see…”

-And the next moment, her heart shrunk back down into the abyss.

“Taccilas, I shall go ahead and take you to wherever you would like. Once this task is done, I shall return to this port. Such is my fate.”

Her voice echoed no hatred nor love, no desire nor spite. It was simply completely and utterly hollow, even if comforting.

“Hmm? You don’t sound very enthusiastic about coming back.”

Mitali’s engines roared, like the growls of a dying beast who fought against wind and water and fire and storm to cling onto life, but who had resigned themselves to their fate.

“I am not, but it has already been decided.”

“What has?”

“My fate. I am to be scrapped here.”

This wasn’t news to Taccilas, but at that moment, he clapped his hands as if he had come up with an idea. Still, they remained inside his jacket, thus the sound they produced was weak and clumsy and his appearance was nothing short of ridiculous when he did so.

“Oh, I get it now! Why don’t you escape with me, then?”

He had said it as if it were the most natural thing.

Without a singular shred of hesitation.

As if he were inviting a friend to play-

-Perhaps as if taking a sibling on a journey-

-Or putting a child to bed.

“Escape? I must not, they have already decided the path I must follow.” Mitali’s voice solemnly echoed across the bridge

“They decided?”

“...Yes.”

“I don’t care about what they want. What do you want?”

And just like that, Mitali’s entire being had been thoroughly sent into utter disarray.

Could she escape-

-And would that be that?

Was it really that simple?

Taccilas certainly seemed to believe that was the case.

“...What do I want…?”

Up until she had met the boy no more than five minutes ago, it hadn’t even been a thought that had crossed her mind.

It hadn’t been a privilege she had been bestowed with.

Such a thing, on rare occasions, had been reserved for those that sailed under her wing.

“Escape with me. It’ll be fun!”

Fun.

Fun he had said.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Mitali drew her hands together, as if in prayer, and she began to ponder.

First, the boy had convinced her to sail again, then he also managed to lay within her the idea of escaping.

What was it about him…?

“Perhaps… For a little while.”

And the slightest tinge of a smile decorated her fair face, one dripped in curiosity and awe.

But Taccilas’ smile when hearing her words had been completely different.

It reached from ear to ear, his eyes glowing like the sun.

“Yes?! You won’t regret it! Believe me!” He had explained, his voice boomed all around Mitali and picked her up in a little daze.

“The violet dawn cometh early.” Mitali’s perplexing words had left her in a whisper.

“Huh?”

“Ah, do not worry about it, ‘tis nothing more than something someone once said. More pressingly, there is something we must do…”

And so, the warship that claimed to be a young girl stretched her hand. She didn’t speak a word, and that same smile still covered her face.

Taccilas simply observed, unsure of what to do. “Umm…”

As a reply to Taccilas murmur, Mitali simply started vertically moving her hand.

Up, down, up, down…

Taccilas tilted his head to the side, concerned only with the awkward movement the girl before him executed.

Mitali’s sky-colored eyes dug into Taccilas, as if she were trying to move him with her retinas alone, or maybe move him with her own mind.

“Oh, I get it!” Finally he exclaimed. “You want me to shake your hand!”

Mitali didn’t nod.

She didn’t utter any words.

She didn’t do anything that could’ve possibly conveyed affirmation.

But Taccilas was wholly confident this was what she wanted.

And his smile still shone like the brightest star of the night sky.

“... ‘Tis not quite how I heard it was, but it shall do.” Spoke Mitali.

However, rather than taking his hands out of his pockets, he simply shook Mitali’s hand whilst still keeping his own within his pockets.

So in reality, Mitali was shaking hands with Taccilas’ jacket.

Taccilas quietly laughed, though Mitali wasn’t quite sure what exactly he was laughing at.

But shake their hands they did-

-And a pact had been made.

Taccilas could tell- Mitali’s grasp was gentle, yet uncompromising, like that of a baby who didn’t know anything but their instincts and desires.

“I remember these.” He began. “A friend of mine told me about them.”

“About handshakes? I heard about them from one of my sailors…”

“One of your sailors?”

“Yes…”

“Is there anyone left here? I heard someone earlier, but as soon as I looked for them, they were gone.”

For the first time in the night, Mitali’s eyes completely lit up like a fire had been ignited deep, deep within them.

A fire bathed in moonlight and azure flame.

“Y-You heard someone…? But there’s no way, no one has been aboard ever since I first got here…”

“I’m sure of what I heard.” Said Taccilas confidently.

“Hmm… This, this merits investigation. Yes, yes it does.”

“Do you know who they could be?”

“I have a rather reasonable guess at what their identities might be. We shall look into this. First, however, you must rest, for it is already past midnight.”

Suddenly, Mitali’s demeanor had taken a strange tone.

The hollowness of her voice was dissipating almost unnoticed.

“Sleep? I’ve already slept plenty, I can keep going.”

“Nonsense, one must rest, for battle will always come.”

By now, she had already grabbed Taccilas’ jacket. Seemingly, she was making an effort to take him somewhere.

Now, Taccilas was well aware that his strengths were most certainly not physical. Nonetheless, he was sure that he wouldn’t be overpowered by Mitali. Who looked young and frail with her white hair and uniform, almost resembling the schoolgirls he had seen walk by days before. Even though Mitali was ever so slightly taller, he thought this wouldn’t make enough of a difference for him to be overcome.

Yet even so, he found himself at the bridge’s door before he knew it.

And his face found the floor.

Mitali hadn’t even broken a sweat.

Her image was as pristine as the moment before.

And without any noticeable effort, she had successfully dragged Taccilas all the way to the sleeping quarters,

“Fine, I’ll sleep! I’ll sle-”

And then she hit Taccilas in the forehead.

It had been a single, insignificant flick of her fingers.

But the impact had resonated across the steel hallways, the windows shook as if in fear.

As far as Taccilas went-

-He was out cold.

“So horrendously loud and rackety… This Taccilas, he’s just like them.”

And after dealing onto him an impact severe enough to be fatal on small animals, she picked him up with the same care one might carry a princess with.

The next moment, Mitali had laid him onto a bed.

In that instant, she decided that bed was his.

And no one could change that.

“Fun, huh… No one will notice if this Mitali disappears, even if for a little while.”

The night was still well underway.

The sun showed no signs of surfacing from under the ocean.

And the moon and the stars covered the night sky without a single disturbance in sight.

But for her, dawn had come.