Dmitri could feel his father’s bright blue eyes on him. The gaze felt so heavy, and not just because of his father’s size and strength. It felt like his father was about to strap a large pack on his back. Sometimes Dmitri felt like he could sense his father approaching from that weight, and his gaze always seemed heavier when his father took him out into the sea. The waters glistened like any, but sometimes you could catch a hint of a rainbow in the corners of your eyes or your reflection waving at you. The waters of the Ethereal Seas were said to be full of magic. Mostly, people knew just to stay away from them because they were dangerous. But there were some people that made use of it, like the people of Dmitri’s village, who knew how to fish from it.
“My son, these waters provide for us, but they also take much from us as well. Our people have fished the Ethereal Seas for many generations, so we know part of their secrets. It’s mostly about perception.” Dmitri’s father stopped rowing to pull up a small buoy painted in his father’s yellow. At the end of the rope tied to the buoy was, what looked like, a plain glass globe. There were three Silvers swimming in it, good sized ones too. “That’s a nice pull,” Dmitri’s father mused as he turned the globe slightly, causing the globe to spill its contents into a storage chest built into the back of the small fishing boat.
“You mean it makes people see things?” Dmitri asked. Dmitri took the buoy from where his father left it in the boat and placed it back in the water, being careful about lowering the rope and not letting his hands enter the water as his father had taught him.
“No, but you will learn. It’s in your blood, so you will learn.” Dmitri’s father went silent, deep in thought, he grabbed the oars and began to row again. Dmitri looked closely at his father’s face, noticing a scar across his father’s brow. It seemed to always get really white when he noticed his father thinking deeply about something.
Dmitri’s father was the kind of man people listened to. Dmitri was always so proud of his father when the village would meet about issues. Everyone had even listened to him when he opposed the offer from High Merchant Murdoc to aggressively fish the bigger creatures in the Ethereal Waters. The Merchant Lord offered chests of gold per creature brought in. His father said they would only make the Ethereal Sea angry, giving birth to new, bigger, man-eating monsters and that none of the High Merchant Murdoc’s larger hunting ships would save their lives. Dmitri did hear some grumbling in the back, but everyone had agreed to turn the offer down. The village had what it needed, and it didn’t need chests of gold.
“Our calm sleepy village keeps these waters calm and sleepy. It’s the way of the sea, son. It’s also why we don’t have Ether Mist problems like other villages. We only take what we need to survive, so it doesn’t take much from us. We maintain a balance with it that way.”
Dmitri woke up with a start. Why had he been dreaming about his father he wondered? That had been years ago. The sun was streaming through his window. Was it midday already? “That boy can sleep all day, I swear if I hadn’t birthed him myself, I would never believe he came from his father,” his mother was spreading good vibes for him again, Dmitri let out a sigh. The planks of the door were good enough to hide him, but not enough to shield him from the voices.
“Catherine, that’s what happens when a boy loses his father. You should have remarried right away. Look at him now.” Dmitri could recognize that nasally voice. It always grated on his nerves, even if she could manage to talk about someone nicely it would still be an ear sore.
“Now, Natty, don’t talk about Petra like that. He was such a wonderful man. Nothing and no one can replace him,” her voice became pinched, she was starting to get mad and Aunt Natty would keep pushing until things turned into a screaming match. And entering that space right now would make it very likely he would become the target for the screaming. Dmitri quickly changed into some canvass pants and a shirt and climbed out through his window. Also, it would hurt if they thought he had actually been awake since earlier.
Nothing much had changed with his family’s house since his father died, but the village was something completely different. The village was wild about big boats and using them for inspiration from clothes to decorations. Although, his house was still a traditionally planned plank house. With High Merchant Murdoc’s patronage, there were paved roads, fancy looking shops, and now regular coach stops. This tiny village has turned into a proper Union town. High Lord Murdoc even bestowed a name onto the village, Brensonville, which is after his third son. To be fair, that son did show up one time to present the artificer with a proper workshop as gifted by High Merchant Murdoc. And he dubbed the workshop, Gilly’s Hall, which was rumored to be the name of the cat he had been carrying around with him at the time.
Dmitri headed for the door at the side of the workshop, grabbing some low hanging Berken fruit off of a nearby tree. Dmitri knocked on the door twice and waited. “Who’s there?” a voice responded.
“It’s me, Fedore,” Dmitri said. The door cracked open and a youth about Dmitri’s age peeked out. He had a tan complexion with brown hair and a wide friendly face. “You have my fishing spheres ready?” Dmitri asked.
“Dmitri, do you have my scales ready?” Fedore waved his skinny arms around angrily while still holding his smile in place. Fedore could keep his shopkeeper smile up through a lot of things. “I need the scales from two Silvers by today.”
“I can’t catch fish without the spheres, especially properly made ones.”
“I’d be happy to get the practice making them if you could get me the proper ingredients,” Fedore stopped talking and grimaced, “here’s what I made from what I had left.” He pulled out a plain brown sack with round bulges in it.
Dmitri looked into the bag and had to suppress a flash of anger, “these are not my colors, Fedore. These are my father’s yellows.”
Fedore sighed, “Sorry about that. My dad saw me working on them, and when I left for a minute he had finished them. So you got some master crafted spheres, be happy.” Fedore tried to close the door, but Dmitri caught it.
“It’s going to throw my technique off, Fedore.”
“Just deal with it, Dmitri. And that was your father’s colors, so it shouldn’t throw you off that much,” Fedore said. With that Fedore pushed Dmitri’s hand away and slammed the door.
Dmitri looked at the closed door a moment. What did Fedore know about him or his father anyway? Dmitri ran to the old town road a short distance away. It ran the perimeter of the town and avoided the crowd and bustle of the people that crowded the main street through town. Upon reaching the northern Palm tree, bent just like a banana, Dmitri turned north for a short hike through the hills bordering town. The sparsely placed fruit trees offered enough shade from the sun until Dmitri reached the spot he was looking for.
A small stream emptied into the Ethereal Sea down a gentle slope. Short bright green blades of grass grew at the edges of the stream until it flowed upon an iridescent patch of sand, blending in with the sea water. The water here was calm, and the waves only gently lapped at the shore. There was also a large palm growing next to the stream before it opened to the shore. It had different fruits on different days. Dmitri hadn’t noticed a pattern to it, but it was close enough to the sea to not be normal, but he had found the fruit safe to eat.
Off in the water were three blue-green buoys, Dmitri’s chosen color. He pulled on a pair of sea beast hide boots he had purchased a year ago, which he kept under the tree. He waded into the water, the waves gently flowing around his boots. He grabbed the buoy and pulled the rope. The current always pulled the spheres out, but the buoys would eventually drift into a set place, Dmitri fully expected it by now. In the sphere was one Copper, good enough for lunch Dmitri thought. The second one only had a small shelled pincher beast in it. Dmitri poured the pincher out. He wasn’t interested in sea beasts because only the big ones were worth something. The last one was his last hope for the Silvers.
Dmitri had the third one on a longer rope. He pulled the buoy onto the beach. After testing the rope, it felt heavier than before. But maybe it was just the longer rope being pulled by the tide. It’s just better to calm down. Dmitri took a breath to steady himself. Confidence always serves better than fear and nerves. At least that’s what his father had taught him as a boy. Dmitri pulled at the rope. He wasn’t sure if it was anticipation or something else, but he didn’t remember the rope being this long as he continued to pull. At last the sphere popped to the surface, pushing water out of the way as he pulled it in. Dmitri grabbed the sphere in both hands and there were two fish a Silver and a Gold in it. He caught a Gold.
Golds had always been a sign of good fortune before the village turned to Beast Hunting to earn the High Merchant’s gold and favor. He carried the sphere back near the shore a distance so that he wouldn’t accidentally release the Gold back into the Sea. Dmitri poured the Silvers into his fish bucket by the tree and left the Gold in. This was something special. Dmitri’s father had talked about having seen a Gold once as a child. His father had said it was a gift from the Ethereal Sea, and that his grandfather had eaten it. Dmitri’s great grandfather recovered from the Failing Breath, a Mist sickness, and later saved a whole longboat of fishermen, 10 men, from sinking into the sea. What good fortune could be waiting for him, Dmitri thought. Could he end up a hero too?
“Hello there Local,” a voice came from Dmitri. In his surprise at hearing a voice where he never expected anyone to see him, Dmitri dropped the sphere. The sphere bounced from his hands as he jumped, rolled away and shattered on a rock by the stream, releasing the Gold. Dmitri watched the Gold swim away down the stream. Dmitri could only reach his hand out in the direction the Gold had swum and dropped to his knees.
“I’m sorry,” said the voice, “I didn’t mean to lose you your lunch.” The person walked out in front of him. Her, Dmitri decided, looks were soft, and she had long white hair gathered into a ponytail and a silvery circlet on her brow. She wore a flowing silver robe, which hid her figure. Her features weren’t unpleasant, but she wouldn’t put any of the village girls to shame. “I followed this stream here, I knew it would lead me to a perfect place.” Dmitri still couldn’t get his thoughts together. He had just lost a treasure that no one would find anymore. Maybe even High Merchant Murdoc would have paid good money for it.
“I see you are speechless,” she smiled. “My name is Sherran. I’m told it’s an old Empire name.” She held out her hand to Dmitri to help him up. Dmitri numbly took her hand, and Sherran pulled him to his feet. She’s strong Dmitri thought. “These calm Ethereal Waves are perfect to rejuvenate myself in. You see, I am a mage and I need to bathe in calm Ethereal water occasionally to keep my magical strength up.” She smiled again when Dmitri did not answer and began walking towards the water.
Dmitri snapped to attention, “wait, are you serious?” The girl kept walking, putting a bare foot into the water. Dmitri ran and threw his arms around her. “Stop, you could die. You can’t touch this water unprotected.”
The girl laughed, a deep and resounding laugh, “I know what I’m doing.” She let the robe slip, revealing her bare shoulders and let it continue to fall. Dmitri could only stare, his blood beginning to pound through his veins. But something was not quite right to Dmitri as the robe fell into the water, revealing canvass shorts under the robe and a completely flat, masculine chest.
“You’re a man,” Dmitri stammered. “I thought…” Dmitri let go and backed away from Sherran, his mouth twisting up, not being able to decide what to say next.
“Silly boy, I have attained power and true beauty,” Sherran didn’t seem to notice or care that Dmitri was slowly backing away. Then Dmitri froze. A blue, barely visible mist began to rise from the water and wrap around Sherran’s body. It faintly glowed for a moment and solidified into a new robe. “And I’m renewed,” Sherran said as he let out a small satisfied sigh and smiled. “That was refreshing, boy. Here, take this as a token of my appreciation for letting me use your beach,” and Sherran held out his hand.
Dmitri looked at his hand, “but there’s nothing there.” Dmitri looked at Sherran’s face and he was just smiling.
“Look again,” Sherran said. Dmitri looked, starting to feel annoyed, and there was an envelope in his hand now. “I do some work off shore. I’d be happy to have you around, and the pay is good. That envelope will get you to where I work.” Dmitri took the envelope and carefully looked it over. It was white and about as long and wide as his hand. It didn't seem special.
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Dmitri looked up to ask Sherran what was inside the envelope, but he was gone. “Sherran, what’s in this envelope?” Dmitri called, but there was only silence. Sherran seemed to have just disappeared in the same way he just appeared. And the Gold he had caught was still gone.
That strange… man had cost him his chance to be a legend for generations in his village. Dmitri had been practicing traditional sphere fishing for years to help make ends meet for him and his mother, and it was finally about to pay off. Dmitri walked over to the palm and sat down hard, knocking the bucket with the silvers over, sending the fish flopping into the surf. “What else could go wrong…” Dmitri muttered to himself.
Dmitri sat for a few minutes, using the palm to support his back. Sometimes Dmitri enjoyed sitting and meditating to the steady flow of his calm stretch of beach, but right now he just needed to just forget the tragedy that had befallen him. The day started bad, then he went to a complainer who messed up his buoys, lost a future as a village hero, met a stranger that bathed in Ethereal Water, and lost the Silvers he needed. “Well, at least I still have the Copper to eat,” Dmitri said.
Dmitri had set up his camp site at his beach as soon as he found it. He brought buckets for fishing first, a small pack with survival tools, like flint and a steel knife. The knife was especially useful for striking a flame, scaling and gutting fish, and carving wood. Dmitri liked to carve wood, but the carvings never turned out the way he wanted them too, which was usually a shaved down broken stick. Dmitri gathered up some fallen leaves and branches nearby and built a small fire. After scraping the scales off and gutting the Copper, he placed it over the fire to roast.
Dmitri grabbed the new spheres, now the only ones he had that weren’t tarnished by foul luck, and walked to the shore line. The water was still gently lapping at the shore. Whatever Sherran had done didn’t seem to have affected the balance of his beach. As was custom he held a sphere in both hands, picturing the fish swimming in it. The spheres were a piece of mechanical magic, where they are set to capture and release by the holder’s will. Artificers are craftsmen, just like carpenters and masons, they build things with a function. Spheres capture and release fish. Dmitri pictured Silvers, Coppers, Slates, and even a Gold, now that he knew what one looked like. Dmitri picked up the buoy with his left hand and casually tossed out the sphere, and almost immediately it began pulling on the rope. Dmitri then threw the buoy underhanded a short distance away from him, just enough not to be splashed. He repeated the process three more times leaving short distances between the buoys.
The bright yellow buoys really stood out. His own blue-green hid well in the shore here. Dmitri had enough trouble being the son of the previous village leader who had stood in the way of progress. Fishing where no one knew about it was great because he could get some discreet money without having to deal with the stigma against sphere fishing. The village became a sea hunter village, fishing was generally banned because every able bodied sailor is needed for the hunt. It’s better for the village to think of him as a bum they tolerate then a seditious holdout. Not that he would be welcomed on a hunting vessel.
Dmitri’s father always knew what to do. His father had an answer for any problem, which is one of the reasons everyone had looked up to him. Surviving was good enough for Dmitri. Leading people would be such a bother, there’s so much more freedom in just taking care of yourself.
After eating the Copper Dmitri slept through the afternoon. The horizon was a deep red, fading into the deep hues of the night. One of the hunting boats must have been successful. The horizon always bled with the sea beasts, but it seemed more like it was out of blood lust than sadness or anything. The Ethereal Sea fed on the blood of men and beasts, giving birth to more beasts and more opportunities for gold. It might mean death to fall into even calm waters, but gold could buy you luxury, status, and even happiness.
Dmitri stared out at the buoys. One of the middle ones was slightly wiggling, but the others were still. He managed to catch something. Maybe today wouldn’t be a total waste after all, Dmitri thought. Dmitri was still in his boots, so he waded right into the surf and began pulling on the rope. Maybe he had managed to catch the Gold again. It might still be hanging around. Dmitri might still have that future as a village legend if I go back with a Gold in my hands. The top of the sphere popped to the surface like a bubble as Dmitri pulled. He eagerly grabbed at the top of the sphere and pulled it up. Inside was a blue fish. Dmitri had never seen or heard of a Blue before, but, logically, it must be a Blue. The old artificer must know something about it. He’s the one that knows how to use what seemed like random things to create something useful. Dmitri looped his belt through the top of the fishing sphere, put out his small fire, and headed back to town.
From a distance Dmitri could tell the town was energized. There must have been a large beast pulled in, and in that case, there would be some rowdy celebrating going on for days. From a distance it looked like two ships were docked. If they used two ships it must have been a large haul. Dmitri kept to the outskirts of town, not wanting to run into any drunks especially because they often liked to show how great they were by pushing the village bum around.
Dmitri reached the artificer workshop in no time, managing not to see a single person. He had expected to see some revelers scattered about everywhere. Dmitri knocked at the side door and waited for Fedore to appear. He almost never left the workshop since he was always working on crafting something. The door creaked open and a hand grabbed Dmitri by the shoulder. It was Fedore’s father, Yoseph.
“Son, you have them, don’t you. I’m sorry I gave you those things, I should have just left the past as the past,” Yoseph said. His face was scrunched up, his eyes were blood shot, and he was completely unfocused. “Just give it to me, I’ll take them and try to keep them off your trail. Your father was my good friend, I owe him.”
“What are you talking about?” Dmitri asked, but Yoseph spun him around, yanked the sphere off of his belt, breaking the clasp. “What’s going on?”
“You caught the Guardian, son,” Yoseph’s eyes were bright. Dmitri couldn’t tell if he was mad, angry, or something, maybe even scared. “That is the guardian in your sphere… but why is it so small?”
“This Blue is something important?” Dmitri asked as he freed himself from Yoseph’s grasp. “I’ve never heard of any guardian.”
“This is the Guardian. It has been protecting our village for generations. The Guardian has protected and kept our people safe from sea beasts and Ethereal Mists. It’s a village secret, but this must be why things went bad…” Yoseph was mostly talking to himself. What happened here?
“There was a large beast, Dmitri,” Yoseph continued, “and it destroyed the Sea Breeze, while the other two boats barely managed to escape.” A sea beast took down one of the High Merchant’s hunter ships, Dmitri could hardly believe something so large could be taken down by a beast. The High Merchant’s ships were practically floating fortresses. The beast must have been huge. “People want blood out there, and there’s a lot of talk going around that you are the cause of this, that you brought such misfortune. There are even some saying your father is using you as a conduit for revenge.”
“That’s just crazy. I was sitting on a beach napping and carving all day. I haven’t done anything,” but it didn’t even seem like Yoseph could hear Dmitri. This was getting scary, and Dmitri noticed that he could hear shouting coming from the village center. This is absolutely unreal, Dmitri thought. I need to get out of here.
Dmitri started backing away from Yoseph, “yes, that’s right, get out of here. You need to run now.” Dmitri didn’t need to stop and think about it, he dropped his pack and ran off into the dark, away from town.
Dmitri ran until he felt a safe distance from the village. He couldn’t hear anything, except the wind and birds. His legs were burning, his lungs were hurt, and his mind was racing. Dmitri took a deep breath and attempted to calm himself down. Everything was just wrong. For a brief moment, everything was going to be perfect Dmitri had though when he saw the Gold, but now everything was becoming so bizarre. Yoseph had a strange look in his eye, it was like he was changing right there at that moment. But why would that happen? How could his whole world be suddenly turned upside-down like this?
Standing around in the dark wouldn’t get him anywhere, and he had heard that there were some predators that could be dangerous to a single person at night. It’s just Dmitri had never been outside of the village much before except to fish in the Ethereal Sea. He should still be able to collect his few supplies by his beach. He’d just grab what he can and make his way to another populated area. Probably it would be best to just follow the coast south until he found another village or town where he could continue his life fishing.
The walk south to his beach was uneventful, except for Dmitri dropping to a crouch at every noise he heard. The red sky, the angry yells he heard, and Yoseph’s reaction had Dmitri ready to run and hide. Dmitri’s whole life had been so peaceful, except for when his father dropped into the sea one day and the resulting backlash from the village becoming a hunter village when his father had championed staying a small, quiet fishing village. Dmitri came across the stream before he knew it, and looked downstream. There were no lights and he didn’t see any movement. Although, Dmitri noticed there was something shining faintly on the ground, next to the palm, which caught his attention. Dmitri walked over to the palm, trying to watch every direction as he went, until he tripped and landed with a thud.
Dmitri’s palm landed on the object and he instantly felt a warm sense of peace spread into his body, despite the pain from the trip. Whatever this was, he felt much better now holding this… ball. Dmitri felt warmer and reassured. Things were going to be ok, he could feel it like a light radiating inside of his chest. Even though Dmitri felt lighter, as he picked himself up to get a look at the object, he knocked over his survival pouch, dropping an envelope in front of his face. Well, maybe I have a better option here, Dmitri thought. But before opening this letter, what was this thing making him feel better?
Dmitri’s eyes widened when he turned his head to see the object, and the good feeling was gone. The shiny thing on the ground was a sphere, and swimming inside of the sphere was the Blue, or what Yoseph called the guardian. How, in the divine realms, did it get here? Dmitri had never seen a Blue before, and the rope latch was broken on the sphere. This had to be the same one. And it’s back here, where he had caught it, if he had actually caught it.
Dmitri walked over to the shore, and released the Blue into the stream right before it emptied into the sea. The Blue swam in a small circle, keeping an eye on Dmitri. It felt like the fish was watching him. Then it suddenly sped off out into the sea. That should be one less thing to worry about.
Dmitri walked back to the palm, picked up his survival bag, and looped it into his belt. He hadn’t seen many envelopes before, but his father believed he should have a basic education. Dmitri’s father would often said education makes a man whole, so that he will always know he doesn’t know everything. Dmitri had learned to read, write, and some other boring academic stuff that had nothing to do with fishing, sailing, or eating in general.
The envelope was unremarkably plain and very white. It had no seal keeping it closed, so Dmitri just flipped the envelope back open, but before he could reach inside he heard a whistling sound. It was faintly familiar, but alarmingly loud. Whatever that was it could bring people around to see what it was. Dmitri looked around, starting to feel his chest tighten. Nothing seemed odd and there were no creatures or people around. But there was a rapid movement just beyond his vision in the sea. Bobbing up and down was a yellow buoy. Dmitri’s father’s buoys would start to whistle when a panicked creature would thrash around in it, it would bring a fisherman to it, so the man could pull up the sphere and capture whatever was caught.
Dmitri grabbed his boots and rushed to the buoy. He grabbed the rope and began to haul the rope in as fast as he could. That whistling sound needed to be stopped before it brought unwanted attention. As the sphere popped up, Dmitri could see a fish was swimming in circles, thrashing the sphere side to side. When Dmitri grabbed the sphere and looked inside, it was the Blue. What’s wrong with this fish? Hopefully, it’s learned to avoid spheres now, Dmitri thought as he poured the fish back into the sea. Dmitri sighed and threw the buoy and sphere into the sand up on the beach. He didn’t need that again. And then the next buoy began to whistle. What is going on? He waded over to the next buoy as fast as he could without splashing the water everywhere. Dmitri needed to silence the buoy, but didn’t need to catch Ethereal Sickness in the process. Dmitri pulled in the sphere, and thrashing in circles in the sphere was the Blue.
“OK, fish. I hope you’ve learned to avoid these things now. I’m starting to think you’re passing into the spheres on purpose. Although, they’re made to not be seen, so…” Dmitri felt embarrassed talking to the Blue and dumped it. “Leave me alone now, you’re free.” Dmitri turned to head back to shore, took one step, and the last buoy began whistling, louder than the other two had. That fish must have wanted him caught. He shuffled to the last buoy and began the process again. The Blue was circling in the sphere, it seemed frantic to Dmitri. “This is the last buoy out here,” Dmitri said to the sphere. The fish was thrashing around in the sphere, the fish seemed afraid to him.
“You want to stay with me, is that what’s going on?” Dmitri asked, while feeling incredibly stupid. It’s just a fish. But then the Blue stopped and swam to meet his eyes. It had strikingly blue eyes. Dmitri just looked into those eyes for a moment and sighed, “fine, but what the heck am I going to do for a fish… or what is a fish going to do for me?” This is just ridiculous. Dmitri waded back to the beach and walked to the palm. Dmitri cut the sphere from the rope leaving a bit of length left to tie the sphere around his neck. He might look like the second coming of Vandaar the Fish Prophet, bit it would have to do for now.
Now for that envelope, Dmitri thought. He pulled it out of the pouch at his belt. The letter had writing on the front now. For a friendly visit, feed me. Feed it… like food? What does an envelope eat anyways…? Dmitri opened the envelope, but it was empty.
The wind had died down, and it seemed warmer than before. Actually, it was starting to seem brighter too, even though it wasn’t even close to midnight yet. “There he is, just like I said, he’s even wearing a fishing sphere,” Fedore said with his arm stretched out, that merchant smile on his face and some bruises. He really could keep that smile up through a lot, Dmitri thought as his body froze in place. Fedore was at the top of the rise behind him with Frederick Heftig, the officially appointed mayor and first supporter of High Merchant Murdoc, and about a dozen village huntsmen dressed in their canvass hunt uniforms with torches and harpoons.
“Get me the guardian, we don’t need the other,” Frederick said. He waved his hand at the man closest to him. The huntsman seemed to move slowly while throwing his harpoon at Dmitri, but Dmitri couldn’t dodge or even react. A flash of pain exploded through Dmitri’s shoulder as the harpoon tore through him and nailing Dmitri to the palm.
Blood was trickling down Dmitri’s arm. He couldn’t tear his eyes from the harpoon piercing though his shoulder and the ribbons of red making their way down his arm and torso. Dmitri’s vision slowly became swallowed in blackness, but he could make out the red, it was starting to pool into the envelope, which was locked and crumpled in his grasp. It’s getting ruined and Dmitri hadn’t figured out what it was yet.