All was quiet off the shores of Minerva.

The last of the Gravitas sailors had climbed aboard, their Minervan captives tallied and tabulated onto the Captain’s registry. As their squadron of ships sat moored to the shoreline, the final preparations were being made for departure.

One the sailors leant against the railings of his vessel, sucking on a small stick of sugarcane. He looked out onto the dark Minervan forest, the lifeless village they’d pillaged for captives just hours prior blending into the rest of the environment as the sky darkened and as the defining features of the houses dissolved in the uniformity of twilight.

Even though the flavour had long since faded from the stick barely longer than his index finger, the man knew full well he’d take his own sweet time savouring whatever was left of what had gobbled up half of his monthly paycheck. He knew it was irresponsible, sure, and that his mates who spent their money more wisely were able to afford new uniforms or even could send the money back to the Rocky Islands. But he didn’t care.

He heard as the whimpers of the Minervans faded away into the background as the other sailors ushered them below deck, cramming them into tight rooms where they’d be held for days on end. Only when they docked in a port further west would they be liberated from the stuffy, uncomfortably warm and nauseating holding chambers- freed into a life of indentured servitude to the Gravitas.

It wasn’t pretty, he admitted. But he didn’t care.

“Been a long day, huh?”

The man turned around, seeing as another joined him in leaning against the railing.

“Yeah. About par for the course.”

“Right. You heard that Gravitas took down the second of those titans?”

“Whoa. Really?”

“Yeah, Captain says he wants to send some of us out west to Merkez.”

“Sweet,” the man replied, sucking out nothing but air as he ‘savoured’ the dry woodiness of the piece of sugarcane. It was like he was eating a part of the ship.

…

“You got any plans?” the other sailor asked.

“For what?”

“For when we get to Merkez.”

The man sucked a little bit more on the piece of sugarcane.

“Nah.”

“Okay.”

The man, now wholly determined he’d gotten his money’s worth, pulled the stick from his mouth. He went on to wipe it against his stained purple overcoat, already muddied by a patchwork assortment of coloured blots from all sorts of sources.

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“I’m heading down.”

“Aight. See you.”

The man turned away from the railing, leaving his mate behind as he followed the train of captives heading below deck.

The other sailor turned back to the Minervan forest, noticing, somehow that it wasn’t as dark as it was before.

Strange. Maybe it was just his eyes adjusting to the night.

But then there was a glimmer, a little star of light just above the fringes of the trees, twinkling in the dimness.

“Oh, sh- Captain!”

The little glimmer burst into a brilliant rain of light, sending forth a golden avatar that rose well above the treetop canopies. Its knightly form glistening in a bold challenge to the fading light of the afternoon, the sailor saw as it drew forth a lance- aiming it right at their ship.

Thung!

The ship split wide open as the column of iridescence slammed into its hull- disappearing into a mist of golden dust nearly as quickly as it had pierced the ship.

Wood burst into flames and smouldering splinters were sent like shrapnel in all directions, setting fire to the sails and blotting out the sky with thick smoke that obscured the ships further north.

The Soleans began scaling the walls of the ship, clawing their way up the sides of the vessel with ethereal claws, making their way onto the deck and engaging in a frantic brawl with the sailors as they tried to escape the ambush.

Some of the sailors fought on in foolish valiance, brandishing the blades they had on hand to resist the advance of the innumerable Solean soldiers. Others capitulated, collapsing and curling up on the floor in pathetic surrender as they cowered at the prospect of death. Others still, like the sailor that first saw the glimmer, lay smouldering, their bodies charred as they drifted away with the current.

“Come back! Please!”

Some onboard desperately cried out, grabbing desperately onto the ship’s railings as they stood at the very front of its bow- some even clamouring onto the bowsprit in their fear.

“Please!”

Their horrified screams and frantic motions almost undetectable to the eyes and ears of the ships rapidly making their way north, away from the ambush. Almost.

The Solean battalion made quick work of the disorganised crew, slaughtering whatever remained before turning to salvage what could be found from the bodies that littered the ship’s deck.

The men that clamoured atop the bowsprit soon fell lifelessly into the inter-Minervan waters, the light in their eyes being the last from the Gravitas that would grace this particular Minervan island for the next few years.

With the ship still rapidly sinking, the Soleans then rushed to get to the rooms below, bursting open doors with spears of light as they raced against the surge of the waves.

Below deck, the man dug his nails into the planks of the floor as he reeled against the pain of the sizzling heat, its power still lingering in the blackened and burnt half of his body. His breathing laboured and eyes watering, he slid along the floor as the very room around him turned, his collection of dried sugarcane pieces set ablaze and tumbling into the waters below as a result.

He heaved as he flopped about on the shifting floor, his good arm desperately pressing itself against the floor to find some- any kind of purchase. Beyond the walls, he heard the cries of children and the wails of the wounded, soon followed by the rumbling of several tens of pairs of boots stomping their way down.

Eventually, he slipped from his quarters, following the rest of the debris in soaking up the sea water as the two halves of the ship continued to drift further apart. The gap between them was stained by blood and ash, as though the vessel itself was bleeding.

As he treaded the cold water, feeling as its salt stabbed at his burns- driving nails through his limbs and up his spine and through to his very head, he saw as the Soleans dragged captive after captive as they evacuated the sinking ship. Binding them in chains, ropes, all sorts. Carting them off like cattle, leaving whomever they didn’t have the time for to the maw of the ship as it sank further into the sea.

And that was all he saw before the blinding lights took him too.