Seagulls cried out into the oncoming clouds above the dock of Portsmouth. A faint salty breeze carried the smells of sweaty men walking up and down a docking plank carrying boxes up to the nearby ship. ‘The Stingray’ could be seen painted along the side of the boat in dark blue coloring that almost blended in with the twilight waves rolling the ship up and down in soft bobs.

Despite the constant movement, the men carrying cargo up and down the thick plank took their steps with a measured grace that spoke to their experience. Likewise, a single tall man strode up and down the length of the ship taking one last look at all the ropes tied about the railings. His mind was focused on their departing checks as calloused hands traced the well made knots that could be pulled undone with just the right leverage.

His men finished loading their intended cargo just as the sun finished dipping beneath the western horizon, yet his passengers hadn't yet been seen even as dusk swallowed the port in darkness. Every knot, rope, and plank of wood had been checked and double checked as his men settled into their well worn positions around the boat and waited to set off into the night's cold breeze.

The first people to arrive had been somewhat expected for the captain as a group of large-set men and women walked up the plank with heavy bags on their backs and in both hands. He heard the telltale sounds of metallic armor scraping across one another from within the bags as they settled below deck one by one.

The next set of people was a little bit less battleworn, but no less alarming to the captain as several long necklaces bulged under the varied clothing of a motley group of passengers. No two people looked quite the same as vibrant blue, green, brown, and gray eyes looked up at him when they passed with just as varied differences in their height and build.

But what really set Captain Aaron on edge was the last group to come through. A massive woman clad with the same style of heavy bags like the first group led the procession, followed by a well built old man and a mature looking woman. A thinner man followed behind, as well as a short masked person who barely looked like they broke five feet in height. The masked character only stood out all the more drastically when another figure towered behind them at something approaching seven feet tall and all the more imposing due to the matching mask to the smaller figure. His men were naturally on edge as soon as they caught sight of the masked figures until they disappeared with the rest of the group below deck.

Aaron ran a single hand through his long auburn hair before he called out for his crew to undock the ship. They moved in unison as the crew worked like interlocking cogs of a giant machine, each one completing their assigned tasks in turn to leave the port. He had already signed the dispatch paperwork with the wharfmaster earlier that afternoon, having planned this particular trip with his newest employer for the last two days.

Even still, the captain eyed the hatch his passengers disappeared into warily, only now understanding the full scope of the task set before him. He tore his gaze away from the dangerous allure of self doubt to set his eyes on the horizon, reminding himself of the amount of gold that waited for him at the end of this voyage. It would be treacherous, sure, but every voyage between the warring countries was treacherous these days. He just hoped he hadn't been roped into something even worse than normal.

—

Dei raised herself up on wobbly arms as the plain white tarp strung between the wooden beams to her left and right swung wildly under her weight. She tentatively raised one leg to latch it on to the side of the soft cloth, hooking her foot over its lip while her other leg was raised on its tip-toe, desperately trying to balance. A particularly large swell in the floor of the ship pushed her just a little too far off balance as the tarp swung towards her, knocking her one remaining foot off balance as she suddenly clutched the cloth with all her might. The tarp then swung equally as far in the other direction, pulling her along until Dei was holding on for dear life under the swaying cloth a foot from the floor.

A skeletal hand reached over to grip the rope strings that attached the tarp to one of the wooden beams, slowing the swing of the devilish apparatus until Dei could get her feet under her and awkwardly collapse to the floor. The tall figure reached out with both hands to spread out the cloth as much as he could while Dei scrambled back up to wordlessly take hold of the side of the device once again, ready for round two. Before she could do anything another pair of hands reached out from behind her to grab the meat of her ribcage, and easily lifted her up to twist her into the open hammock.

The old man then reached down with a well practiced hand to grab her by the feet, forcing her body to swing around until her head lay at one end and her feet at the other as Xei loosened his grip on the edges of the cloth, letting it close in on her like a large cocoon. She gripped the side of the hammock with a single boney hand as she drew the cloth downward just enough to make out the rest of the room around her. Matthew and Xei were returning to a small booth set into the wall, ducking under an unoccupied hammock that was set above the booth, much closer to the ceiling than Dei's own bed.

Seated across from the two men Charity was dealing a set of cards into wide shallow bowls set before each of them to prevent the cards from sliding with every passing swell of the ship. To her right on the edge of the booth John had his head in his hands as he looked a particularly sickly shade of green, staring solely at the wooden table in front of him. His mouth barely opened as he addressed a question to the group.

“Don't you think you're coddling her a little bit, both of you?” He looked across the table at the men who were sitting down in front of their own hands of cards. “Not like she's the ruler of death and all, or has probably killed more people than the rest of us combined at this point.”

Xei looked over at Matthew to share a small shrug as his burning eyes emitted a soft orange light over the table. Matthew then spoke for the two of them as Charity finished dealing a hand of five cards each.

“Well, I just think we should be polite to the height challenged budding overlord in our midst.”

John's eyes remained locked to the table as he picked up his cards in a fan in front of him. “Sure, but can’t she just grow taller whenever she wants. Y'know, bone magic and all?”

Dei raised up the slate she had carried with her into the hammock which Charity decided to read aloud for the group, “I don't wanna change.”

John shook his head as he took two beads from his bowl and threw them into a pot at the center of the table. “Yeah, yeah. Our little five foot nothing pint of evil.”

“Um, Dei. Have you been getting shorter over time?” Charity called out to the girl as she exchanged two of the cards from her hand with the deck.

Dei let the small flap of cloth spring up, concealing her from view within the confines of her hammock, so she felt rather than saw as Xei wrote something on the slate he kept on the table.

“Hah, caught her!”

The group at the table laughed together as Dei allowed herself to sink even deeper into the fabric. As Dei allowed her natural sight to be obscured, she felt Fei leave the body to animate a small mouse corpse that was sitting at the top of their bag and a soft scraping crossed the room as Xei reached over to lift the mouse on his palm.

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Dei felt oddly content, well, as content as she ever felt with her un-life as she listened to her friends throw beads into the center of the table in turns. It was curious to think that she actually thought of them as friends by this point, having moved on from acquaintances, to traveling companions, to whatever they were now. It was something that she hadn't been expecting since she had first turned into a shambling corpse, and yet here she was getting free boosts into her sleeping hammock.

There was only one, kinda major problem with that. It was the fact that at the end of the day she still couldn't bring herself to join them. Despite the fact that her alter ego's were all sitting with the group participating in the mild mannered distractions they used to pass the time, Dei was still here. Laying at the bottom of a soft tarp like a corpse in a coffin.

She thought back to that first day when the shard had been forced into her chest as she gasped for air in a prison of stone. She had been alone. So alone.

And then the pain. Her hands, her fingers, her very lungs seemed to burn in her chest.

Well. Dei wanted to sit at that table with the rest of them. She wanted it so bad. But for some reason something invisible was holding her back. The small scared looks that John shot her way every once in a while. The look of need and worship that escaped Charity when she wasn't fully guarding her expression. Even the expectant gaze of Matthew, those few times she ever actually caught his eyes. It was all just too much for a normal person to bear.

And yet she wasn't a normal person. She wanted their friendship, sure, she was still at least partly human. But the thing she really wanted was something else..

She looked within herself, to that void place that sung such a beautiful song, and watched the small motes of green light as they bounced back and forth. There were five of them now. Last she checked, Nathan had been traveling north with two other haggard looking humans as she had commanded him to do a couple days ago. It seemed like he was having some small luck with finding her new followers in the marsh, but she didn't want to leave him that close to the capital.

A motley troop of skeletons followed him, weaving slowly through the deep water as they traveled by night. She realized that the band of them only ever traveled by night now. Whether it was to conduct better ambushes at Nathan's command or to hide the skeletons under the water during the day, she wasn't sure. As she swung the gaze of one of the skeletons in the group to look at Nathan, she saw him swallow awkwardly as her blue glow reflected in his eyes. A moment later she left him to return to the boat, content with merely reminding him that she was always there, watching.

Back to her home of solace, the void. Her immutable form stared out over the nearby motes of fire as they twisted around each other.

‘Now just how many more do i have to get before the next big change?’

That was what she really wanted. That was what she craved. The possibility of becoming something more than what she already was. The possibilities of a shard-bearer.

—

Purple eyes shone down from the top of Xei's shoulder as Fei settled her small body into the crook of his neck. A bit of simple manipulation of the bones below her allowed her head to sit perfectly, facing the rest of the table as she watched everyone playing a game of poker.

‘Now this is the life!’

‘Hmmm, perhaps.’ Xei responded.

‘Perhaps what, you'd prefer to be out there murdering people in the marsh again?’

‘Well, it is a little bit fun. You should have joined in.’

‘You were playing with your food too much! The mud and the flies didn't get stuck in your teeth did they?’

‘Hah, that was almost as bad as the smell on this body when we dragged it out of the sewer! But we all have our role to play, don’t we?’

‘Xei.’

‘Yeah?’

‘Try not to get yourself killed again will you?’

‘I mean, it wasn't so bad. I came back after like a week didn't I?’

‘Sure, but what if you don't come back next time?’

‘Fei. I have a feeling I'll always be able to come back as long as there's one of us left.’

‘Yeah, but-’

‘Nuh-uh, no buts. If that ever happens it's not gonna be either of us that have to deal with it right?’

‘I sure hope not.’

—

Charity shot a quick look towards the only door to the room, somewhat relieved that they had managed to fit five whole hammocks in the tiny space that happened to be this cabin set off from the rest of the crew. She looked over at the twin pairs of orange and purple eyes that colored the table in strange lights. It was nice to see the skeletons acting so freely for once, without hiding behind their masks as they traveled the road day after day.

It was a little bit strange realizing that the purple flame wasn't actually tied to the blue flame in the main body. She had never really seen it move away on its own until today, but Charity was starting to get used to the idea of her skeletal companions and their strange quirks.

Now that she had checked that the door was fully closed though, she opened the conversation she had been meaning to have for a while now.

“So. Anyone know how we're going to kill a shard-bearer?” She looked at Matthew, but John answered first.

“Uh, we're not going to do anything. I think our boney friends are gonna take the credit for that one.”

“Yeah, sure. But after what happened the last time they fought a shard-bearer, you don't think we at least need a plan?”

Charity had shared the events from the throne room with the group shortly after they had been returned to the portside inn to wait until the boat was chartered. Unfortunately, Matthew seemed to be holding his tongue for once since he didn't seem like he was about to share any master plans with the group right now.

“So, I'veI've been thinking.” Charity started. “What if we staged a rebellion?”

“A rebellion?” Matthew finally seemed to be interested in the conversation.

“Yeah, you know. We start a cult in the middle of the country and then use it to attack the capital and surround the shard-bearer.”

“Wouldn't work.” John replied.

Charity stopped dealing cards to glare at the man until he continued explaining.

“Well, the Princedom's are best known for their messenger system right? You really think that we'll be able to keep a massive cult under wraps without tipping them off?”

“And if we spread out the cult across multiple smaller locations?” Charity asked.

“Nope, as soon as one person gets caught the whole messenger system lights up and the country cracks down on us.”

“Who runs the messenger system?” Matthew asked

“The military, and the Lord of Whispers himself at the top of it.”

“Sure, but does he hear every single message sent on the system all at once?” Matthew pressed.

John grew quiet for a moment. “I’m not actually sure.”

“Seems unlikely.” Charity added. “That would be way too much noise for a single person to listen to and make any sense of it.”

“So what? You think we're gonna win over the military that's practically all pledged to the service of our lord?”

“Maybe not the whole military. Who's at the top of the food chain closest to the lord?” Mathew asked.

“The Officers.”

“And?”

“And…the nobles?”

Matthew sat back in his seat as John responded, throwing down his cards into the bowl to signal he was folding that round.

“So you're saying if we win over the nobles we might be able to isolate his network?” Charity asked.

Matthew nodded as Xei laid out a three of a kind Jack cards on the table and the rest of the table quickly threw their cards in for a new hand.

“And just how are we gonna win over the nobles in one of the most notoriously political countries that still exist?” John asked.

“Well, like you said. I think that's gonna be more of a her problem.” Matthew thumbed over at the hammock in the corner as a single set of blue eyes looked out on the group, obviously having been listening to the conversation.

“I still want a cult!” Charity called over to the girl.