The first thing Kane did when he opened his eyes was feel at the cold wood floor beneath him.
Yep. Still here.
Tal slowly entered the room, frowning when he saw Kane supine on the floor. “What are you doing down there?” he asked, breaking the silence of the cabin. His voice sounded rougher than usual.
Kane rubbed the fog from his brain and the blood from his face as fast as he could, then reached for the leather strap he’d used to fasten his ankle to the table leg. Of course he’d prepared himself for Freddy’s shenanigans, taking measures so that the Shade wouldn’t be able to dangle him off the side of the ship again. He sighed in relief as he took off the strap, rubbing the imprint on his skin away. “Reading.”
The first mate fixed him with a caustically judgmental look; he seemed to be in no short supply of them, now that Kane thought about it. Upon closer inspection, Kane noticed the two walking sticks Tal held, one under each hand, his arms trembling as he held himself upright.
Slowly, Tal made his way to a seat on the table, falling into it with a grunt. Kane got to his feet and collected his items, preparing to leave, but as he passed Tal, he heard the words “Wait. Sit a while.”
Kane froze. Wary but intrigued, he backtracked, sitting down beside the first mate.
Tal looked Kane up and down, noting the folded map at the top of his stack of items. The room was now illuminated by the diffused light of morning reaching in through the windows. “You feel fine?”
Kane nodded. He felt as fine as he could considering the non-sleep he’d managed to get. Again, it was as if he’d fallen asleep, hashed things out with Freddy for a few minutes, and woken up, no more rested than someone who hadn’t slept at all. Kane wondered if he would ever have a peaceful night’s sleep in Limbo.
“Hm.” Tal folded his hands. “Must be nice.”
Kane furrowed his brow. “Come on, man. It’s not my fault you ate that weird-ass fish.”
“But you helped catch it, no?”
Kane slammed a fist on the table, surprising both Tal and himself. He wasn’t about to play the blame game — especially not after he hadn’t had a moment of relaxation since last night on the deck with Esau. “I was the one who was dragged out to sea by Esau, and I was the one who landed the finishing blow on the torrafin when Esau had essentially sealed my fate. If you take issue with me doing what I had to to survive — even if I don’t yet know exactly what that was — then take it up with upper fucking management.”
He got up to leave once again, but paused mid-step as he heard Tal whirl around and make a movement behind him. A hand was outstretched. Almost as if he was trying to hold Kane in place.
“Did you just… try to—”
“Force of habit.” Tal turned back around in his seat with great effort, his eyes downcast as he faced away from Kane. He took a moment to catch his breath. “I apologize. I’ve had my powers for… for a long time. Without them…” he gestured to himself, as if it all went without saying.
Since the crew had lost their powers, Tal had seemingly gone through the worst of it. He seemed to even be unable to walk without them.
If he was honest, Kane didn’t feel that much sympathy for the man. Of course, losing what you had always had must have felt terrible. But at least Tal had had the opportunity to defy gravity and even become its master. And that was all without mentioning his position on board, which Kane found himself mildly envious of. “You’re still the first mate of the ship. And you’re still the most cool-headed of the crew.”
Tal seemed to hunch over a bit, becoming a bit smaller in his hoodie, as if he didn’t want Kane to see all of him.“Do you still believe that after yesterday?”
Kane winced, thinking back to Tal’s toddler-like tantrum after the revelation. Touché. Again, he went to sit back down. All Kane could do was manage his temper and perhaps figure out what Tal wanted from him.
Because Tal did want something from him.
The first mate reached forwards carefully, sliding the map along the table towards him. “It’s nearly lunchtime. Goes without saying there’s no food to be seen inside the galley chest.” He rubbed at his jaw as his eyes danced over it, shadows from the grilles of the window stretching long over the table and up his pale skin in tall black lines. “I’m guessing you stayed up. Studying?”
“Yep.” Kane was mildly surprised no one had come to check on him till now. Mildly.
Tal gestured to his own nose, indicating that Kane still had a little something there. He twisted his lips sardonically. “You do realize that learning magic kills you, right?”
Kane didn’t quite buy it. He rubbed at his face some more, trying to clear away all the blood smears. “What makes you say that?”
The first mate shook his head. “I came aboard not too long after Lucian. He’d already had the opportunity to delve into magic well-and-truly by that point. But I still remember the nosebleeds, migraines, cramps and psychotic breaks he’d get as he continued to learn. It was as if his body couldn’t quite contain it. His gray matter leaking out of his nose…” Tal’s eyes unfocused, jaw tight as he stared out the window, looking shaken. Disturbance wasn’t a good look on him.
He then turned to Kane with a dull smile, a sudden change in demeanor, eerily similar to how Lucian switched it up sometimes. “But you’ll probably be fine,” he goaded with a gentle shove.
Kane bit his lip, glancing down at the folded map. “Can we change the subject?”
“I was just about to.” He reached into his hoodie pocket and pulled out the jar of antidote. “How did you know this was what would save us?”
Huh? Kane patted his own pockets. “Did you grab this from me while I was asleep?”
Tal held the jar up to his eye, staring at the white powder through the glass. In the light, the man’s irises twinkled a lively gray-blue. Kane had never paid close enough attention to Tal to notice his eye color. As if Kane’s attention had bent around the man until now.
“Try again. Lucian reached into your pocket while you two were in the Log Room. Your brain must have been really addled at that point; he wasn’t even trying to hide it…” He tapped the glass with a fingernail, the sound rhythmic like a snare drum. “Lucian researched it after his nap. He could find no info on it in the books. He then tested its properties. And, wouldn’t you know it, it behaves a lot like salt. Dissolves in water. But it tastes acrid like lemon. And smells like sulfur gas.”
He placed the jar down on the table and flicked it towards Kane, who caught it in his palm. “We don’t know what it is. And I doubt you do, either. Yet you fed it to us, and it saved our lives.”
Tal leaned in, gently biting his thumb as he watched Kane squirm under his gaze. “Why?”
Kane considered this for a second. What exactly was Tal getting at, here? Did he simply not believe the possibility that Kane had been willing to save them despite all the goodwill they lacked with him? Again, Kane had been operating on the logic: If these guys are fucked, then I’m well and truly fucked.
He shook the jar between two fingers, the substance within fluttering about. It reminded him of snowfall in New York; yet, the bottle was warm to the touch. “I saw the antidote earlier. I made an educated guess. I connected the dots. That’s it.”
Tal leaned back in his chair, shoving both hands into his hoodie pocket. “So you didn’t poison us and then regret doing so, and proceed to undo what you did with the antidote ready? Or perhaps you weren’t satisfied with the fact that you didn’t manage to take out Lucian, too?”
Kane was incredulous, but Tal didn’t allow him a chance to protest.
Stolen novel; please report.
He reached into his hoodie, but towards his neck this time, grabbing at something draped around it, something Kane had never seen before. The necklace glinted silver in the late morning light. Tal’s expression flashed with desperation, with frustration, with pain and with panic as his voice crescendoed, as he rubbed his thumb along the silver links, tugging it absentmindedly.
“I fished you out of the water, Kane. But that doesn’t mean I trust you, nor does it mean I have any idea where you came from. You could be a spy, a demon, or the damn devil himself. I have no clue what your motives are, what your powers are, or if you have any of either at all. All I’m saying is, I won’t let you jeopardize our chances at survival, or ruin our shot at getting to the center.”
Kane didn’t want to admit it, but Tal’s logic admittedly did make a bit of sense to him. While everyone had been dismissive of Kane when he’d first arrived, they had frankly been too dismissive. No one had seemed wary about where he’d come from, because apparently, fishing an unconscious person up from out of the blood sea was the norm around here. But it seemed that Tal had had this on his mind the entire time, and had had no reason to bring it up until they’d all been poisoned and conveniently lost their powers.
Kane understood. Although he wasn’t going to fight about this, he wasn’t going to be a pushover, either. Bending at the knee was all in the past.
He unclenched his clenched fist, letting out a big exhale. “Who knows? You might be right. Maybe I’m a sleeper agent who was sent here to assassinate you all, once all my memories return. Maybe I have some crazy ability that blows all yours out of the water, one that’ll allow me to commandeer this vessel and paint it red outside and in.
“But maybe, whether that’s the case or not, your best bet is to stay cordial and keep an eye on me. Whether I’m a highly-trained assassin or just some clueless dolt, you may as well help me retrieve my memories faster so you can either kill me before I’m too powerful, or potentially make a new ally before we face whatever this shitshow of a hellscape has in store for us.”
Kane shrugged, pocketing the jar and collecting his items. He got to his feet, returning his sharp gaze to Tal one more time before he exited for real. “There’s nothing I can really do at the moment to ease your anxieties about me. All we can do is stay the course and hope for the best. And you’ve been doing that ever since before I got here.”
—
A half hour later, Kane was surprised to see Saul and Esau hoisting up the anchor on the bow of the ship.
He’d never taken the time to appreciate that part of the Tawsupp (Kane liked that name most); he’d never even come up here. It was a magnificent thing, its wooden planks worn by salt and sea, its dark, twisted ropes splayed about in the air in a confusing tangle, and with a robust figurehead to boot.
The figurehead was a strong-looking bearded man with a toga-looking garment that stopped just beneath his muscular torso, a gold crown settled on top of his head of curly hair. He held a massive trident above his head, above the waves, the weapon just as blue as the rest of his bronze body; it seemed to wick the red bloodwater away like nothing, as if forbidden itself from getting dirty.
Under the cloud-covered red sky and beneath the ambient midday heat, the two men were hard at work. Esau was totally silent, his face cast downwards. Saul, however, seemed to be in another one of those odd good moods. Both of them were pushing some sort of strange, wheel-like contraption at the bow: a thick wooden pole with long spokes sticking out.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Kane jogged up to the pair. “Where we going?”
Saul smirked — he seemed to utterly refuse to smile with teeth. The swordsman had ditched the shirt and jacket, the sun causing the sweat on his torso to glisten as if in imitation of the figurehead’s glory. “I’unno,” he said with a strained but proud expression.
“What do you mean you don’t know? Did Lucian give a command I missed?”
The swordsman continued to push the capstan, speaking between breaths. “I mean… Lucian, he wants us to keep going… in the same direction…”
Kane placed his hands on his hips, looking around for the captain, but the man wasn’t on deck just yet. “Is this a good idea?” he asked, although he already knew the answer.
“None of them are good ideas, really… But we have no food and don’t want to starve… This might just be the least-worst one… Just know this one is thanks to you.”
Thanks to me? What did that mean? What was he going to be blamed for now?
Kane didn’t want anyone to take any rash actions just yet. He didn’t quite have the map figured out yet, but he felt that if he could understand it, he could help Lucian figure out what exactly had gone wrong.
He took one glance at Esau, who was wearing one of Lucian’s white tunics. The man looked sort of miserable, like he was warring with the thoughts in his head, but saying nothing. This could be handled later — but first, Kane had to find Lucian.
So he jogged back towards the stern, reaching into his pocket and pulling out the unfolded map to give to him. As soon as he reached the door, it opened right up, revealing the captain in all his splendor.
The man had washed himself up since the night before, his clothes and hat neat and clean on his sturdy form, and although he likely hadn’t gotten that much sleep, his attitude seemed to have transformed entirely.
Before Kane could say anything, Lucian grabbed his arm without missing a beat, dragging him to the wheel. Tal made his way after the pair, but they left him in the dust, especially since he’d sacrificed one walking stick to hold a tome close to his body. In any case, Kane had never seen Lucian this excited.
The captain sat him down on a barrel and dragged one in for him to sit on himself. He pulled out his pocket watch, glanced at it briefly, then snapped it shut and tucked it away. “You can’t read the map yet, right?”
Kane shook his head, wanting to get a word in edgewise. “Why are Esau and Sau—“
“Not the time for questions. Now’s the time for action!” With some sort of sick elation, he clapped Kane’s right hand, and held them both between them, as if they were going to arm wrestle. “Actually, scratch that. May as well tell you what we’re getting into here. Y’know, in case things go bad.”
In the corner of his eye, Kane caught Tal finally catching up to them. The book he was holding looked just like the one Kane had been able to read a line of earlier.
“Alright. Yesterday, you told me you don’t like the secrets we keep very much. And I can understand that. Typically we’re just too busy fighting off existential dread and existential horrors to clarify everything that’s happening down here at any given point. But the existential dread is gone for this morning, and the existential horrors are likely somewhere beneath us but for the moment, dormant.” Lucian’s hazel eyes were bright with energy, nearly seeming to glitter in the light. “Tal and I have discussed a bit, and we feel like it’s time to let you in on a little something.”
Had Tal gone and snitched on Kane? It wouldn’t be a surprise. It seemed like that was the job of the first mate — go investigate the man who saved them with a fluke, and keep him under close watch. But if that was the case, why did Lucian seem so happy? What did he have planned for Kane?
“So, here’s one secret I can let you in on after doing a bit of reading myself. Magic is all around is, like gas in the air. Ambient, and unfortunately, mostly idle. However, the more time you spend down here, the more you pick it up. I don’t think there was much of it back up on Earth, so that’s why our sixth sense gets awakened down here. And of course, like all fluids… not that magic is a fluid, but in effect, it acts just like one… it flows. And us, humans, we can direct the flow.”
He squeezed Kane tighter to keep the latter’s clammy hand from slipping out of his grasp. “Here’s what’s going to happen. I… I will give you a metric shitton of magic. It will flow from me to you. And then, you will try to read the map.”
Kane’s stomach churned. Although he was nervous, he wasn’t necessarily surprised. “What makes you think that will work? Have you done this before?”
Lucian lightly shrugged one shoulder, as if faking innocence. “Nope. We’re banking on an insomniac’s delirium. Listen, it’s our best bet. You just have to try your best to handle it. I’ll do all the work. Either way, we stay the course.”
“Handle it…” Kane thought about that. “You’re really working hard to make it sound like this could kill me.”
“Yes, yes, very easily, probably. I imagine it would actually be sort of pretty. Like a balloon, filled past what it was ever meant to contain… pop!” Lucian released Kane’s hand for just a second to make the gesture of a firework. “Doesn’t that sound cool? Well, you wouldn’t be here or see it, but—”
Kane pressed a finger to Lucian’s mouth to get him to shut up. Not only was it a petty form of revenge from when Lucian had done it, but Kane actually needed a second to consider all this.
It was a terrible idea on paper and likely in practice. But these madlads actually had him considering it.
Putting his life — afterlife? — on the line, in order to see if they could give him enough magic to be able to guide them to safety? It was an intriguing, and oddly appealing, proposition.
If all this worked, Kane just might gain a massive jumpstart in magic. He’d be able to read the map, and potentially do more, like learn spells and do whatever the hell Lucian had done with his amulet earlier to kill the kraken. And that — that power — was what Kane craved more than anything.
He might even get closer to regaining his memories. To understanding why he was here in the first place.
And if it didn’t work… Well, Kane from Earth would say, “Well at least it’s over.” However, the Kane of today wasn’t really a fan of the idea of it all ending here. He’d gotten the second chance he hadn’t known he’d wanted. Throwing it away would be spitting in his own face, an insult to everything about him, an insult to everyone in his life that he was trying to get back to.
Was he trying to even get back? Like Saul was? Would anyone be waiting for him if he did?
All questions he’d never have answered if he died here today. With all the conviction of an erstwhile adrenaline junkie back at it again, he concluded that the task at hand was simple.
Just don’t die.
Kane looked at Tal, who looked uneasy but somehow… hopeful? An odd expression on an aloof pessimist.
He then turned to the mildly annoyed captain, leaning in as he continued to hold his finger to his lips.
“Promise me one thing, Lucian.
“Don’t hold back.”