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Polarity Light
Chapter Twenty Two - Red Pennants of War

Chapter Twenty Two - Red Pennants of War

Waves, gently washing- that soft sound of wood through water that completely surrounded them. More than the creaking of the masts, his silent breaths- that noise. In the darkness deep below the sunlight busyness, there was time to think…

Catured. Imprisoned, but at least he was imprisoned with Iri. That made it infinitely more bearable… it wasn’t like the crew’d had a choice: as far as Siqxhe could tell, there was only one cell. Siqxhe glanced at the many bruises he’d gotten in the process of getting captured- a few on his knees, one on his arms. His whole body ached- a night in the cold would do that to a person… he wondered what Tuotsu’o thought of their sudden disappearance, and felt bad they hadn’t been able to properly repay her…

Here, though, those concerns were far beyond his mind. In this dark cell… He glanced over to Iri, who seemed to be taking it much better than he was. “What did you do anyways? When you ran out…” He hadn’t asked. Hadn’t wanted to ask- there were worse things than not knowing. Hopelessness… he had hope, though.

“A note. I gave someone a note.” Iri’s eyes beamed with an almost-excitement. “They don’t know the truth of my strength. I hid it from them, until the moment is right and we can both escape.” Anticipation-

Siqxhe moved a bit closer, glancing around to see if anyone was in hearing range. “What did it say?” Footsteps, and he immediately silenced himself as someone walked into the space before their cells. Two burly men, and a promise.

There was nowhere to run. “The captain wants to see you.” They opened the cell door, but for all their apparent confidence they still carried a long dagger each. Insurance against anything they might try… it wasn’t necessary, though- Siqxhe and Iri followed meekly behind, confident in their knowledge that, at the very least, there was hope-

The ship wasn’t very big. They’d seen that from the outside and once when they’d been thrown down into the darkness, but it became all the more obvious as the two sailors led them through the single hall. There wasn’t much- just a few rooms, the bottom dedicated almost entirely to the storage of cargo… There was so little, here, and the crew was large- larger than a ship of this size should have. Perfect for going around and marauding, but any decently trained doctor would know this was the sort of environment where disease wasn’t ever more than a few inches around the corner.

They were led past that, though, thankfully up onto the deck and over into a neat little room which was cramped with all sorts of things he wouldn’t have expected to see on a ship, stone figures, a dangling chandelier made wrought from scrap. A bed, neatly made, and a fine mahogany table that had been marred when they’d bolted it to the floor.

A nice room, and sitting in the center of that room, looking at them with cold eyes, dark expressions and the faintest possibility of desire- greed for money, or whatever marauders wanted. The captain of the vessel, that Paqaboōfan woman they’d been presented before not too long ago, but long ago enough that it felt like forever… She didn’t walk over to them, and they weren’t allowed to sit. “So… my little treasures are finally awake… and the angel, this creature of steel-jewels…” She motioned, and after a brief hesitation Iri dutifully walked forward so the captain could inspect her. “Beautiful… so. Where did you find her?”

“Xhyolok. The highlands beneath the shadow of God.” He stressed the last word just a bit, causing some of the sailors to twitch with discomfort. Speaking of God in actuality- beyond the very act of religion… it was a bit vindictive, but certainly amusing, if only just by a bit. He saw no reason to lie, at least…

“You were there, then-” Siqxhe realized then that the news must have spread a lot further than he’d ever thought it would have. Now he was the one fearing… “The Nola were involved in the fall of that stronghold- can’t remember its name, but you’re Nola… I don’t suppose you happened to be one of the attackers?”

“I was a doctor there. Trained in the university in Abōeo.” At the subtle sense of surprise on the captain's face he knew he’d said something unexpected. Then again, he wouldn’t really expect an Abōeo-trained doctor to be digging around in a graveyard at night either…

They knew about the Nola involvement though. The word had twisted itself, mouth to mouth across a continent and an ocean, and now it was Nolabo attacks the Sakaxhy… nothing good was going to come of that. “...how do you use it? It seems to follow you well enough, but instructions would be helpful.”

“Instructions?” Iri laughed her tinling laugh, which earned her a slap that probably wasn’t painful to her, but was certainly painful to the captain. “You won’t be able to control me as easily as that.”

The captain was furious, now- burning gazes, locked with Iri’s and every so often looking over to glare at Siqxhe. “I won’t tolerate disobedience. She will learn, even if I have to break her. I’ve broken others before.” Siqxhe, terrifyingly, understood. There was a cruel light in the Paqaboōfan woman’s eyes, something that spoke volumes more than they’d heard. This was a cruel person.

Iri just laughed, and when she spoke again it was weighed with seventy years beneath the eye of the Eternity Falling, seventy years spent shattering- “Try. You won’t be able to do anything. Anything at all.” For a moment it looked as if the captain was going to stab Iri and be done with it, and then probably stab him too-

Siqxhe stepped up, eyes as hard as he could get them. “Invite the wrath of God down on yourself. Go ahead- I’ve seen it, and it isn’t pretty.” He hadn’t, obviously- even beside Iri he’d never seen the legendary power of God, never seen what the legends spoke of- entire mountains destroyed in seconds, oceans made to boil, impossibilities he hadn’t believed before he’d actually been there. “God knows her- knows what she is, and woe be to anyone who tries to destroy her.”

The two sailors behind him muttered some sort of ward against evil, and Siqxhe almost found himself laughing. He’d managed to intimidate them at least… the captain, however, just looked at them with narrow eyes, calculating. “...she was found beneath the shadow, that orange-darkness. What are you going to do? Make my ship rot?” Siqxhe blinked in surprise- she must have been there, seen that. He could tell, now, the subtle cues. This was a woman who’d traveled the world…

Iri glanced over to him, deep eyes echoing, burning bright with… fear? It didn’t make sense, but was almost sure. Something had scared her- “The Eternity Falling is not a force to be played with… know what you face, captain.”

“Humans and liars. Throw them back in the brig.” The captain turned away from them, motioning for the sailors to haul them back out of the room, back through dark hallways and the places of disease, back into that metal box and the sound of the waves, slicing cleanly beside the ship with silent persistence. The power of wind, pushing them onwards, carrying them on its breath to the arms of Tasadir.

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Iri sat in the corner, looking for all the world despondent. “...I remember the Eternity Falling. Back before these seven days- I remember their first death.”

Siqxhe frowned, crawling closer. This was a story he was sure he didn’t want to miss out on. “What do you mean their first death?”

“Before time. Something went wrong, we were sleeping- sleepers on the stars, adrift in the darkness forever. So long… we crashed into the moon. The first death. I wonder if it felt for them what I felt like now… knowledgless. Broken.”

“They’re whole again, though.”

“Whole enough to destroy…” Her, was the unspoken conclusion to that sentence. Destroy Iri’s mind, destroy the planet if they didn’t get Polarity Light. He’d let himself be convinced by that argument, but even so, something felt wrong. There was something that just wasn’t right about it- he couldn’t place it, though. “Whole enough to make me fear.”

“They won’t find you. You’re hidden, right?”

“Only so long as I’m broken… one day, they’ll find me… and I can only hope you’ll be there to spare me.” Iri sighed, shivering- iridescent facets quivering, and Siqxhe was left wondering for the future. Wondering if an excuse had ever been needed in the first place, wondering about darkness. Darkness, a fire…

Quiet places. That hill, muddy but also clear of everything. Moon-brightness, as empty as forever… wishing, and the dying of so many people. He’d caused it. Just by existing…

Just by, darkness and memories of the dying. He remembered the darkness...

………

Siqxhe woke to three sailors dragging him out of the cell and through the hallways despite his weak complaints and the promise he’d be able to stand. There was a intense terror in his chest, born from just not knowing-

Were they going back to the captain? The endless sea below said differently, its quiet noises against the side of the ship ever so present. Immense waves, lapping on the shores of a place without shores- hope in his mind, slowly eroding it as they were dragged up the latter, Iri following close behind. He couldn’t think of many reasons they’d bring him out of the cell until they’d reached Tasadir.

The sailors threw him roughly to the deck in front of the captain, who- surprisingly- offered a hand to help him up. “...I see five on from the mists. They’re coming in fast.”

A man beside her nodded, pointing towards a map that’d been laid out over a small wooden table. The sea breeze sent it fluttering up every now and again, but they’d managed to keep it thoroughly down… it wasn’t a usual thing for a map to be brought out into the elements like this. “We’re almost at Port New Laylāku. I can see the fleet on the horizon- they’re actually coming our way.”

“So the question isn’t if we can make it to New Laylāku in time… it's if we can make it to the fleet in time. That might be doable.” The captain turned away from the navigator and his map, looking at Siqxhe for the first time since he’d arrived on the deck. “So, you made it… here. I need you to stand next to the railing and look like a good hostage.”

“Hostage?”

“I don’t know how, but you have half the Port Conquest contingent chasing you. Five warships, heavily armed, the sort of thing that would smash my ship to smithereens and then smash it some more. As long as you’re on the ship, they won’t fire.” The captain had Iri stand there too, wrestled into position by a few of the crewmembers.

A call from the crow’s nest, then- “A message! Captain, they’ve raised flags!”

The captain muttered some curse or another in her native language, then smiled. “We can use this! Read out what they’re saying, and I’ll have the messenger send it back.” Siqxhe glanced over at Iri for a second, but she was just looking out towards the sails on the horizon, massive ships that in their power carried the entirety of their hope. She didn’t even look behind them to the other set of sails-

The Sakaxhy fleet. Time was running out, and the captain was playing to stall.

In the distance, land came into view. They’d sailed northwest through the islands at a leisurely pace, slipping just between some of the disparate, southern isles and had ended up in the Sakaxhy controlled land. He tried to understand the significance of that… saw the waships behind him, before him. The Nola were in Sakaxhy waters.

“...They say to halt and prepare for boarding. They see the hostages.”

The captain cursed, quickly motioning for them to do everything but that. At the moment they needed as much distance between themselves and the Nola warships… “Message them back! Tell them we can see the New Laylāku contingent not far away. Hopefully that’ll deter them.”

A tense few minutes then- “They’ve repeated the message! It’s a threat now. They won’t stand for Sakaxhy impressment, they say.” Far in the distance, a single cannon boomed, the cannonball itself splashing into the water just off the side of the ship. They were finding range.

Finally Iri glanced back at Siqxhe. “This is the moment. This was the hope-” and then cold arms were grasping onto him and they were falling off the side of the ship and into the water below. It was a sudden shock, hitting the water, cold flowing through him and rising… it wasn’t that bad. Bearable at the very least- not the frigid water of near-Xhyolok, it reminded him far more of the waters off Nolabo…

As they surfaced, they heard a general clamor on the ship’s deck, the sort of bustle that was born from a ship at war. Flags raised, a single red pennant- across the waters, he could see long red pennants flying over the Nola vessels.

Long red pennants over the Sakaxhy vessels…

Cannons boomed.

Immense sound, and the whole world seemed to shake- In this far away, the sound of a Nola broadside was just… all encompassing. Five ships unloaded their cannon into the Paqaboōfan vessel, and most missing but a decent number hit. Immense sound, the cracking of wood.

They dying of men- a mast tumbled into the water, but still it struggled onwards. Everything grew strangely muted as they swam toward the Nola vessels. Only the immense roil of cannonfire- continuing, on and on- the sound of war. Siqxhe glanced up from his swimming, looking towards the Nola vessels. Surely they didn’t need that much cannonfire for a single ship.

He saw the Sakaxhy fleet maneuvering deftly around their ship, shielding it-

Heard the cannons roar…

Fire, grouting out over the ocean, and billowing smoke. The whole world shuddered as the Sakaxhy fleet, nigh on twice the size of the Nola fleet, took arms and fired. For a long moment Siqxhe wondered if they were going to force the Nola to flee, but the Nola did not run. They were the best mariners in the world and they knew it- the force of their cannons pounding with deft accuracy through the smoke, fire on the water.

Death, and the promise of war in truth. It was a naval battle confrontation the likes of which hadn’t been seen since the end of the Cerulean Wars. Fire on the water…

Eventually it was the Sakaxhy that were forced to flee to the safety of their coastal batteries, letting the Nola ships pick them up in peace. Nobody asked him any questions, though it was obvious they’d been expecting some sort of nobleman… Iri, on the other hand, took a decent amount of explaining.

Siqxhe left Iri too that, quickly moving about the deck and tending to the wounded as he could. There really wasn’t anyone on the ship that had more than a basic understanding of medical practice, and his ministrations were a welcome bonus. It was bright on the deck, a light that he remembered- the open skies. Sails… they’d made it out. Free!

As they returned to Port Conquest, battered and bearing the red pennants of war, the whole world seemed to hold its breath...