Zahra clutched the Callisto’s railing and emptied the remnants of her stomach into the sea for the second time that morning.

This illness had held her in its clutches since shortly after they’d departed San Island. It had prevented her from being of service to Cailu in his fight against the Defiled the day prior and obstructed her ability to sleep. Every time she tried to rest in the cabins below, claustrophobia and nausea struck her, forcing her back on deck.

She’d never felt like this before, and nothing seemed to help. Cailu had called it ‘seasickness.’ Zahra didn’t know she could catch a malady from the sea. Was it terminal? She’d been too afraid to ask. Walking in Naeemah’s footsteps was an honor; a task the queen had personally bestowed upon her. To fail at her first test of will would be an embarrassment.

“Still not feeling well?” Kirti’s husky voice emerged from her right.

Zahra started, her ears standing straight on end. She hadn’t heard the [Witch Doctor]’s approach. Though the pounding in her ears wasn’t doing her any favors. “No,” Zahra admitted, slowly sipping the ocean-tinted air through her nostrils. Breathing too fast made the vertigo worse.

“This part can take some getting used to.” Kirti rested her elbows against the railing and stared across the expansive ocean. “I was like you the first time I rode on a ship. Ichi Island’s women are made for seas of sand, not water.”

Zahra tilted her head and chanced a look at her newest companion. “So, then, this ‘seasickness,’” she hesitated, then sighed. It would be better to know. “It is not fatal?”

Kirti raised her brow, and she grinned. “No, child. Not unless it throws you over this rail.”

“Why didn’t I feel like this on Portia’s boat?”

“For me, it was the inability to see land.” Kirti gestured wide with her arms. “Not on this side, not on that side. No shadows on the horizon or outlines in the distance. The water consumes us whole.”

Now that she mentioned it, the moment Zahra had lost track of Ichi Island, Ni’s dark outline had come into view, and she’d focused on it for the duration of their journey. She nodded. “The… the waves were much gentler, too.”

Kirti laughed; a sound that struck between nails raking metal and a hollow cackle. It made Zahra flinch. “Precious girl. You truly haven’t traveled far from home, have you?”

“I couldn’t leave my mother alone,” Zahra admitted, looking away from Kirti’s taunting expression.

“Ah. But now you have.”

“Mm.” Her reasoning was no one’s burden but her own.

Kirti reached for Zahra’s chin and clasped it between her thumb and forefinger. She gently turned Zahra’s head until their eyes locked. As Kirti’s orange gaze searched hers, a chill ran the length of Zahra’s spine and curled her toes.

“You feared your sister,” Kirti murmured.

Zahra felt far more vulnerable beneath the woman’s gaze than she was comfortable with. Lady Naeemah had warned her about Kirti’s uncanny ability to read others, but this was not what she expected. “Many people feared my sister.”

“Yours wasn’t a fear for yourself.” Kirti released her chin and touched her shoulder.

Zahra shifted uncomfortably. For so many years leaving Ishani alone made her anxious. Even if it was a brief trip to the market, Zahra prepared herself to find Sanrai’s spear through their mother’s chest on her return. Because of this, she didn’t have friends or dreams of her own outside of keeping Ishani safe.

“You are a blank slate,” Kirti noted, the mirth in her expression sobering as she dropped her arm.

“What do you—hgnh!” Zahra clapped a hand over her mouth and turned back to the railing.

“Here. Drink this.” Kirti pulled a bottle free from her [Cat Pack]. A clear liquid swirled inside, specked with shimmering blue flakes. “Yǔ xī keeps a few on board for her new crew.” She lowered her voice. “She doesn’t like to share, so this is our little secret.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Zahra narrowed her eyes and swallowed against the threat in her throat. Stealing, from the captain especially, could only harm her fragile reputation.

Kirti shrugged. “I’ll return it if your virtue keeps you from feeling well.”

No matter how much Zahra wanted to protest, staying sick would not help her Party should they face another Defiled. She couldn’t speak, plan, think, or sleep like this. She was of no use to anyone in this state.

Zahra swiped the bottle from Kirti’s hand and uncorked it, sipping its contents in measured gulps. It tasted curiously spicy, warming her tongue, throat, and chest as it made its way down. The gurgling in her midsection settled for the first time in two days. She took a cautious breath of salty air, letting it hover in her lungs before exhaling. The vertigo began to fade.

“Better?” Kirti asked.

“Yes. Thank you.” Zahra passed her the empty bottle.

“You really are like Nae,” Kirti said, accepting the glass and flicking her tail. “Always thinking of others before yourself.”

“My life is best utilized in the service of others.” Zahra straightened her back, finally feeling more herself.

“That’s not how your sister saw it.”

“Sanrai and I shared very few ideologies.”

“You both believed that Ichi Island needed to change,” Kirti said. “A view I also shared.”

“Is that why you left Ichi Island in the first place? Lady Naeemah said you three had been together for quite some time.”

“I found them in Nyarlothep.” Kirti’s ears flickered forward in thought, though her face was carefully neutral.

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“If Nae told you so much about me, did she not mention my dissatisfaction with Magni?” A smile twitched at Kirti’s mouth.

“She did. However, you don’t seem the type to run away from a challenge.”

“Oh? You don’t believe her, then?”

“I don’t believe that you’re telling the whole story.”

Kirti let her smile grow. “Perceptive of you. However, why does my story concern you?”

“Because we are a Party now, and I wish to understand your motives.” Zahra clasped her hands together over the railing, watching the rise and fall of the waves as they struck the sides of the ship. “I wish to understand you.”

Kirti withdrew a glowing stone from her [Cat Pack]. Its light was intense even in the sunlight, the sparkle shimmering from within was as bright as a star. “There is much I wish to learn of our world and the pieces that hold it together. Many dark texts in tomes deemed ‘blasphemous’ have aided my search.” She turned the rock this way and that, studying its smooth surface as she spoke. “For instance, what exactly is this Essence?”

“You’ve also called it a soul, haven’t you?” Zahra had witnessed Cannoli’s outbreaks and frustrations with the [Witch Doctor]. But she’d personally found Saoirse’s Decrees vague and difficult to interpret, no matter how many times Ishani recited them.

“I have. As have the few scrawlings and notes I’ve found in Nyarlothep’s vast libraries.” She balanced the stone precariously over her knuckles, rolling it from one finger to the next. “Tell me, if I drop this into the sea, would it prevent Ichi Island from receiving a new man?”

Zahra gaped. “Kirti, to interrupt such a cycle—”

“Would do what, exactly? And who would find out?” Kirti snickered. “Have I truly trapped Magni’s soul in this plane?”

Nausea that had nothing to do with seasickness twisted Zahra’s stomach into knots. This woman was playing at powers only a goddess should wield.

Kirti clamped her hand into a fist and positioned the stone over her thumb. She flicked it straight up into the air, and it spun in place. Zahra reached out and snatched it without thinking. Her breaths came in rasps as she stared at Kirti, clutching the shimmering rock against her chest.

“Are you certain you wish to understand me, child?” Kirti asked, her voice drifting just above the sound of the ocean against the boat.

Zahra didn’t know what to say. Her hand shook around what was very possibly Magni’s soul.

Kirti held her arm out, palm open and raised. “Give him here.” When Zahra didn’t move, she laughed. “Don’t take the burden of this choice onto yourself. It is mine to make.”

Zahra stood frozen in place. She couldn’t just let Kirti throw Magni into the ocean. Not if what she said was true. It didn’t matter his tyrannical reign—no one deserved to spend eternity trapped at the bottom of the sea. “No.”

Kirti rolled her eyes and snapped her fingers. The stone vanished from Zahra’s hand and reappeared in Kirti’s. She replaced it in her [Cat Pack] and then glared at Zahra. “Think carefully before asking questions you do not wish to hear the answers to.”

“Please don’t throw—” Zahra began.

“It’s out of your control, Zahra. Familiarize yourself with that feeling.” Kirti turned and sauntered away. “Get sleep. You will need it,” she called without looking back.

This was Zahra’s new companion. Her new Party member.

Naeemah had been right to fear Kirti.

[https://i.imgur.com/qbpbbD1.png]