Chapter 9:

A vortex the sun couldn't see

Witness the monolithic shadow that rose across the oceans, witness its rise from east to west, from north to south, and see all the winds and tides and currents and clouds seize where they stand and kneel before it and make silence as it heralds the arrival of the great blinder of light.

Ride! Ride into flood and bloodshed! Oh, ye unstoppable armada of the stars, ye unseen carriers of the dark! Blind the Hawk’s eyes! Make them yours and unleash upon this realm a cataclysmic catastrophe like you have for millennia past. And the winds and tides and currents and clouds, let them join upon your terrible symphony. “Rise!” Call upon them! May they join your dreadful and beautiful dance until the Flaming Hawk casts his gaze upon the world again!

Extract from The New Age by Yilison Carrepatche.

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Silence encompassed Mitali’s bridge, even cannonfire and its deafening booms were nothing more than a whisper. Neither Azukima or the pirates could be heard at this distance, for those aboard Mitali, there was only one piece of evidence that battle had occurred, or perhaps it was a multitude, given the numerous injuries the girl with the purple rose had sustained.

Open sea stretched towards the horizon, endless in its all encompassing embrace, the sun scorched it with its midday light.

“How do we change course now?” Asked Taccilas, the white-haired girl still seated before him.

“Realistically, I cannot, ‘tis out of my control.” Exhaled Mitali, blood slipping down her fair cheek.

“Where are we going to end up?”

“‘Tis evident we are heading eastwards, towards land.”

“That’s good, at least.”

“Indeed… If this is not much of a bother, would you mind appeasing the fires near my stern?”

“Of course!”

“There should be a f-”

But then the sky began to change.

Nearing noon, the sky above quickly turned from its characteristic azure into a paler version of itself, as if someone were drowning the very heavens above them and taking life away from it.

The progression was slow at first, barely noticeable, but before long, it had become evident that something was off. The flame that announced the arrival of dawn and sunset was now visible whilst the sun was at its highest point. Various other shades of purples and reds made their appearances as well, not concerned with whether the clocks had allowed their entry onto the stage of clouds and stars.

“Hmm… ‘Tis clear there will be no more need for that, my sailor.” Mitali asserted, her knees showed signs of buckling as she walked towards the upper deck, but they remained strong.

“Huh?” Taccilas didn’t take long to follow her, his broken hands back inside his pockets.

“Curious, very curious, indeed.”

The sky now enjoyed a dark blue on its skin, the fire of dawn only decorating where the sky and the ocean met, the flame being the only thing that divided them.

Mitali looked up, towards the sky and the sun, but the sun was as bright as ever, indistinguishable from how it had been just a few moments prior. An eternal torch to light up the heavens and the land and the ocean, why then? Why was the sky so dark, the lands clouded with night?

“What’s happening?”

The ocean reflected the sky perfectly, with the small specks of light that decorated it all included like the most faithful and truthful painting.

It was still, eerily still.

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The breeze refused to blow and the clouds and waves remained silent, as if frozen in time, or perhaps holding their breath.

“I am not quite sure myself, but you should head back inside… ‘Tis a scent most foul, perhaps an eclipse storm.”

Tides still as a mirror.

Winds serene like the moon.

A solemn sky and a lovely sun that guarded him from afar with the care of a sister.

For a moment, Taccilas thought the view before him was beautiful.

Beautiful like nothing else he had seen before, a view of peace and tranquility. He thought that no matter what anyone did, there would be no way they could possibly disturb the place Mitali and himself now found themselves in.

It was hypnotizing.

“Come back inside.” Insisted Mitali.

And Taccilas did as requested, but never averting his gaze from the picturesque landscape that had appeared before them.

Once he walked inside, Mitali closed the door behind him.

In fact, she closed every single door across her entirety.

“It’s beautiful…”

“‘Tis nothing but the calm before the storm. Go, you must make sure the princess does not suffer any injuries.”

“Hm? Izuchi?”

“Correct, I cannot guarantee her safety during the storm.”

How hard are we going to rock?

“I’ll make sure she stays safe.”

And thus, Taccilas left the bridge, Mitali remaining as the only one with a clear view of what was about to unfold before them.

After a couple of minutes, something began to stir in the water. It began as a circle, not unlike a child running around in the water, the force it dragged barely visible from afar. But then it grew, first as if a bull was chasing an unknown ghost, then as if a train was revolving on itself, never to reach its destination.

Before long, it was as if a small ship was running circles around at full speed, unsure of her own bearing.

Mitali joined her hands behind her back, perhaps like a little girl would, but her hand was bloodied and busted.

This, however, didn’t mean the girl was any less young.

Shortly after, she began singing the little tune Taccilas had bore witness to before.

The waves picked up their pace, Mitali began to feel their pull towards that vortex that had begun to form. The wind, too, howled and whipped her towers and antennas, she could see as it influenced the tides and bent them into its shape like a great artisan that carved the ocean and the sky.

Mitali sang and sang, as if trying to soothe the wind and the clouds, like a mother trying to console an angry child and to whom a lullaby she sings.

A lullaby that could calm even the tallest swells before they crashed down, or perhaps one that tamed even the wildest of storms.

The vortex had grown, it was now as wide as Mitali was long. Her propellers turned as fast as they could and she strained her engines to try to leave its influence, but to no avail. Humble beast of iron and steel that she was, there was little she could do as it kept growing in size, little to do other than watch.

Massive storm clouds had gathered as far as the eye could see, the sun and the stars completely unaware now of what would happen down below. With them, they brought rain. A great stream fell onto Mitali, each droplet as heavy and as fast as a bullet. The ocean had grown truly dark, not a spec of sunlight sneaking between the clouds, but lightning struck the body of water and thanks to their light, Mitali could see what she also felt.

Ocean waves began to rise as tall as her, their force not something she would be so arrogant as to battle, some of them leaking saltwater onto her deck and immediately appeasing any fires that raged within.

Mitali’s purple rose danced with her hairs, white as the clouds had once been, from side to side as Mitali herself struggled to maintain the balance when facing the storm. A wave then hit the bridge and weaved around it, the impact enough to cause Mitali to tumble.

It was clear the waves could now swell beyond Mitali’s own size, and they would continue to get larger, like an unceasing torrent looking to consume and devour and destroy everything in its path, be it nature or be it man.

Suddenly, rain water, or perhaps ocean water, began to form a great spiral where the vortex now was, which had become wide enough to swallow a small island. The spiral of water stretched into the sky like the towers of fire and ash had done not long ago, but this was something different. It carried weight, it bent the winds and transformed them into forces that could whip mountains into submission. Rain began falling sideways, sometimes even falling halfway and then taking sudden turns, as if each drop had its own will.

Lighting crashed and thunder boomed like an unholy cannon was fired, dozens, perhaps hundreds of times every minute. All of them within Mitali’s view, as if heaven itself had declared war upon the ocean and its cohort had unleashed an all mighty attack upon it.

Roars echoed, a series of great rumblings, Mitali wasn’t able to hear them clearly, but she could tell. Something was approaching, from beneath- from the very bottom. There was nothing she could do, it had long been since she last had maintained control of herself, she swayed from side to side, up and down as if she were a child’s toy jerked around by a beast of untold magnitude. A moment after, something scraped against her keel, she could feel that whatever it was, had been at least twice as big as her hull was. The contact was light, barely a scratch did it leave on Mitali, and then it was gone once again.

She once again faced nothing, but the storm.

With its cascades of lightning that lit up sky and ocean alike in the absence of the sun-

With spirals of water that grew into colossal towers as if trying to reach back into the heavens-

With tides and waves that swelled well beyond Mitali’s own reach and then came crashing down with the force commanded by an entire mountain.

This was her enemy.

‘Tis going to be a long day, my sailors.