Ivan and Stefan gave each nods of acknowledgement, then set their sights on the beak head, the structure at the very front of the Serenity’s Song that jutted out over the sea. The beak head was very narrow, so it was necessary that one person went in front of the other to ascend it.
Stefan went first. He channeled a small amount of Reserve through his bare feet, allowing him to stick to the beak head in case the waves did not go his way. Looking below at the blue water lapping at the ship’s hull and the white foam on top of it sent a wave of anxiety through his veins. Had he never looked directly at the water from above?
No, no time for such thoughts. Ivan carefully made his way atop the beakhead, being sure to not get too close to Stefan and spook him. While his own Reserve was not as strong as Stefan’s, he had a calmer mind at the moment and was more than ready to help break down the Level 50 Barrier.
Stefan turned his neck, his eyes lacking confidence as they met Ivan’s. The more mature man offered him a smile of reassurance, which prompted Stefan to reciprocate one of his own. Stefan stepped forward, and the ancient purple Barrier was only inches away from the fingers of one of his hands. Stefan stretched his other hand backwards for it to be grasped by one of Ivan’s. The joined hands created a bright ball of light, warping as the intensity of the Reserve transferred from Ivan’s body to Stefan’s increased.
“Ready when you are, Stefan.” Ivan spoke bravely. Stefan nodded, as if the transfer of Reserve also passed on some of Ivan’s confidence to the younger man too. Stefan reached forward, his hand flat against the old Barrier which hadn’t been touched by a human in ages.
At first, nothing happened. The smooth surface of the Barrier remained still, and Stefan’s hand appeared unchanged.
But it was only because the Barrier was so immense that it took a while for the effects to be seen.
Anwen stood eagerly with a pen and notepad in her hands documenting the event on the forecastle with the crew, Rohan, Manisha and Ilias all standing around her. Her heart thumped hard against the inside of her chest as the Barrier suddenly began ripple much like the waves that surrounded it, exuding from the point Stefan’s hand touched it. It was at that point where she realized that such a powerful channeling of Reserve was not chaotic or violent as the previous times where the Reserve level was considerably less potent. In fact, this channeling was peaceful and almost silent despite the sheer volume of Reserve being exerted from the bodies of two of the strongest Terrans alive on their home planet at the time.
“Keep your hand there until it falls down!” Ivan ordered in an exhilarated tone. Anwen kept up with his excitement, writing his words down in her notepad.
History’s being made. And I get to be the one who tells the world about it, Anwen told herself. Initially a bit despondent that she had no role in the actual event, it made her feel slightly better that she would be the one to document it. But not physically taking part still dampened her mood.
Starting from the high, domed top of the Barrier, it began to collapse in much the same way snow and icicles fell from towering branches far, far away in north Yeupis, in its peak winters. But the weather here was moist, almost humid, but not quite as blisteringly hot as south Yeupis at the height of its summer. In all, it took about five minutes for the entire behemoth of a structure to recede below the surface of the Global Ocean.
Just like a great whale breaching the surface of the water, as we’d seen countless times throughout our journey, this Barrier too had to come down, Anwen wrote quickly as Ivan and Stefan quickly returned to the top deck of Serenity’s Song, accompanied by the cheers of everybody who bore witness to the monumental event. The Shimajima had made itself available for entry to foreigners for the first in ages. Us.
“Long live Stefan and Ivan! Long live Stefan and Ivan! Long live Stefan and Ivan!” the southern crew members cried, repeating the mantra as they hoisted the two young northerners into the air. Ivan had never felt such a vibrant energy from anyone before. Not even his fellow Black Shield comrades after their victory at Depot-011.
At the sideline of the crowd, Rohan approached Manisha, merrily holding a bottle of rum in his hand.
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“To us!” he cried, taking a swig out of the pungent-smelling bottle. “And to success!”
He shoved the bottle in front of his navigator. After staring at it for a moment, Manisha took the bottle out of his hand and took a chug out of it as well.
“To us!” she proclaimed, her lips and throat moist with alcohol.
As the celebrations continued, Anwen found herself drawn to the edge of the Serenity, at the stern. Despite the tireless work she had done, creating systems to support the crew and ship, teaching herself a foreign language, and chronicling the journey from the moment they crossed over the Marius Mountains, she felt incredibly left out. All the attention was on the boys, and no one had come to commend her for her duties.
Your work isn’t important when it ain’t in the spotlight. Wait, ain’t? Fuck’s sake, I really am a southerner now.
She folded her notepad, dropping to the floor, burying her head in her arms. She was exhausted and didn’t say a word for a long time.
“Ma told me to look for you, Anwen,” a little boy’s voice spoke, concern imbued in it.
“Huh?” she peered up, met by the face of her brother.
"Where’d you wander off to? Everyone’s been looking for you!”
“S-Sorry, I think I… just got carried away.”
Ilias chuckled, before offering a hand to her.
“So carry yourself back there, silly,” he smiled. “You did this, too, didn't you?”
His own smile, so reminiscent of the rare times Gareth expressed himself in a positive form, encouraged Anwen to form a grin of her own, and she took his hand.
Maybe this big-sister thing isn’t so bad, she thought, as a waiting figure made itself visible to her at the other ship of the ship, with dozens of joyous sailors in the background behind him.
“I-I was gonna look for you, Anwen,” Stefan told her, his arms crossed. “But Ilias decided to do that for me. Thanks, buddy.”
Ilias nodded with a grin, then ran off as his young mind was overwhelmed by the energy in the area.
“Great job back there with Ivan,” Anwen congratulated him with uncharacteristic shyness and humility, the distance between the two teenagers barely a yard. “You made history. I can totally, totally imagine people talking about the two of you down the line.”
“And you think any of that was possible without you?” Stefan put a large, but gentle hand on top of her scalp, whose dark curls had become lighter and dry from the seawater everywhere. “Will anything we do be possible without you?”
Drawn into an agitated state, Anwen struggled to form a sentence, stuttering in her effort to create an intelligible word. But the boy in front of her made it hard. Had he always had such a charismatic air to him? Was he really the same meathead she was able to scare so easily back in Gareth’s base?
"Well, umm... I guess, no--
Stefan grabbed Anwen's hand, holding it for a moment to pull her a little closer to him.
“I’ll help you out, don’t worry.” he flashed a grin, before crouching. He put his head in between her legs and tightly clutched her knees, lifting her up into the air on his shoulders. Yelping with terror at the sudden move, all Anwen could do hold the sides of his head as firmly as possible without hurting him.
“Stop chanting my name!” he cried to the partying sailors, who all whipped their heads at the direction of his booming voice. “This amazing girl on top of me is the real person you should all be celebrating. She’s made it all possible! She’s today’s hero!”
The chants quickly shifted to the young southern-born girl’s name. However not a single one of their utterance resonated with her. It was as if they all did so on Stefan’s orders.
Only Stefan’s feelings mattered to her at that moment, his genuine sentiments of appreciation and gratitude. Atop his shoulders before dozens of bodies below her, she felt like the freest girl ever, all because of him.
Below deck, however, another scene played out. Ivan had snuck away from the roaring crowd. He never liked praise, and especially didn’t appreciate it being given en masse. Waiting for the noise to die out, he chose to hide away from everyone and resurface when Rohan decided to find a suitable landing spot on one of the many islands of the Shimajima. But that was far from the only thing bothering him.
“You hungry, baby?” Bhavana sung as she sat right next to him, holding up a spherical, ochre-colored southern sweet called laddoo up to his mouth. “Nothin’ a bit of food can’t help with.”
“No, I’m not.” he avoided eye contact with her, ironically taking the sweet out of her hand with his mouth and munching on it.
“So then what’s the matter? You were so happy when they took you up in the air and yelled your name, but then you ran down here the moment you got to.” Bhavana said, a hint of a frown on her face. She couldn’t bear to see her handsome northern man so dispirited.
“Fools, they are. All of them.” he growled as he chewed on the piece of laddoo.
“Let ‘em be happy, Ivan. None of them have been out at sea for so long. You can only imagine how long they’ve waited to see land.”
“And I’m not in the same boat?” he scoffed. “It’s so… so infuriating to see them all so giddy. This isn’t the time.”
“Give it to me plainly,” she turned his head toward her face, stroking his cheek with her thumb as she cupped it in her hand. “You trust me, right? I’m ready to listen to you.”
“This… this is only the beginning,” Ivan muttered after some time given to deliberation. “’This toiling, pushing on in these rough conditions together, making things work... it’s all just the easy part. From here on out, this is where the real mission starts. This is where we have to be careful.”