Malvedae is giving him a knowing look as though he expected something like this to happen, which is especially annoying since one) no he did not and two) if he truly had, why did he let it happen. Busy being drilled a new one, and torn in two, by Enoch Gris, Jaiyra decides not to comment on it. Another fight would be very refreshing, but also not necessary when they were now eighteen hundred feet below and counting and the screws of their ship had started to jut out concerningly.
“Have you tried going up?” Enoch Gris asked, as she had the last twelve times. Each time, she became more and more hysterical, and Jaiyra decided she had finally lost it because of it. Maybe she didn’t know she had asked the same thing an annoying amount of times already, or she had lost all reason and just assumed the answer would change within the two minutes of her asking even though none of them made a move towards the control panel.
Sighing his somber sigh, Malvedae to the grace of answering this time, rubbing the Braus Straus shoulders consolingly as he did. Cutting Jaiyra an accusing glance with his all too sharp gaze, he said, “Every time we go up, we go down, Miss Gris.”
Hearing it aloud, Jaiyra couldn’t blame Enoch Gris for losing her marbles. Nothing about the Spyres had made sense so far, but this never ending downward spiral took the cake as the worst puzzle they’d had to face so far.
Upon being shaken a bit more roughly than necessary out of his beauty sleep (what was Jaiyra meant to do? Sleeping beauty was a heavy sleeper), Malvedae had immediately pushed the Rai away from the controls with a glare. Snapping at him to stand as far away from the steering as possible so he wouldn't “fuck anything else up”, the prince proceeded to immediately fuck them over more by attempting to drive the ship up.
They wasted a good five hundred feet before realizing that rather than getting further away, the cluster of metal bits was getting closer. Since Jaiyra’s ears popped first, he took credit for realizing it.
Another five hundred feet were wasted between the prince and the Rai arguing over not driving the ship correctly, each of them fighting to steer upward first, only to finally come to the conclusion that there was no up.
“It’s been nine hours by now,” Malvedae mused, infuriatingly. Enoch had begun to hum off-key again, staring out at the sea around them with a beady eyed expression that made Jaiyra worry she was about to jump at him teeth first any moment now, meaning he couldn’t be addressing her. With that amount of snark in his voice, it was hard to imagine the prince would be speaking to anyone but him. Lullabies his ass, if Daea were good at anything, it was pissing off Rai into the next dimension. Literally. “If we’d stayed up on shore, we would’ve gotten past the storm by this point.”
“If we stayed up there, you’d be sliding around in vomit right about now, your fairest,” Jaiyra mused, far past having given up on respecting the silence between them.
Thinking a bit harder on it, he did feel a pang of guilt for not getting to see such a scene. It would serve the perfect prince right to be slipping and sliding around in something so disgusting right about now. Jaiyra almost had the mind to throw up now and make his dreams a well-earned reality.
As though reading his mind, the prince gave him a flat look. Though Jaiyra supposed he didn’t need to be reading his mind for that. The prince tended to be giving him flat looks constantly since they’d met. “At least we wouldn’t be on the verge of being crushed under thousands and thousands of tons of water.”
Traitorously, the ship creaked in agreement with him, another dent appearing in the wall nearest to Enoch Gris. It was a testament to how far gone she was that she didn’t even acknowledge the development beyond a shrill, cracked cackle.
If not for whatever the prince did before they’d dunked under, they would be long past dead. When he’d first woken up, and was groggy enough to answer his proddings with little more than a poorly aimed scowl, he’d explained it was something they did on these things called submarines on Daeadem. Some luxury vehicle that could take people to the depths of the kingdom to explore old ruins and whatnot. Jaiyra hadn’t been interested in the recreational use of it much, instead, his questions were directed more at how long it would hold before the ship folded in on itself and they were crushed to death.
The prince’s troubled frown was very telling of how long they had left.
“It’s not the worst way to go for you is it? Don’t Daea get submersed when they die anyway,” Jaiyra reasoned. Wrongfully seemingly, since the prince cut him again with another glare.
But it was true. Rai Hela told him. When a Daea had left for their next world, Naeadem or wherever else, their bodies were sunken to the bottom of the water of whatever moon they were born on with precious stones and rocks. Remembering this, suddenly those submarine trips didn’t seem as glorious as luxury and recreation implied.
“I don’t want to be submersed on some random planet in the middle of nowhere, Jaiyra,” the emphasis on his name made Jaiyra frown. It was the same tone the older Rai used to use when telling him off. He’d much rather prefer the prince continue to just use his title, though that was probably the point in him switching. “And I’m sure neither does a Braus Straus, or you yourself.”
Jaiyra shrugged. “Rai’s are supposed to be set off in a ship anyway.”
“And Braus Straus?” Malvedae said, pointedly.
Jaiyra frowned. He couldn’t imagine how they’d factor in cremating while they were underwater. Unless they decided to burn Enoch Gris now?
Glancing towards where the Braus Straus had begun giggling to herself, flexing her fingers together and shooting Jaiyra an all-too-interested look every now and then, he grew more confident with the thought. In her right mind, it was what she would’ve wanted, he was sure.
Malvedae’s flat expression was back on him.
Exasperated, Jaiyra made a crude gesture that the prince scoffed at before trudging back over to the controls he’d previously been banned from. Rather than pushing him away, Malvedae joined him, scanning over the controls as he was, double checking each other for anything they’d missed.
Most pods didn’t come with much as far as sustainability went. Escape vessels were made to last up to a week, giving the riders only a limited amount of time to find a planet to land on. And even then, that wasn’t accounting for whatever danger the crew had to sail through like, say, hundreds of shots raining down on them and a huge monster slamming against the side of it repeatedly for three hours straight. They’d gotten lucky that the Pleiad ship was at least sturdier than most would’ve been. While they may skimp on paying their bounty hunters, it seemed like they didn’t skimp on evacuation vessels.
Rations to last long enough that Jaiyra didn’t have to kill his two bounties immediately for food, a few miscellaneous items like dirty rags from the last cleaning and an old tool box with several hammers missing, and a decent control panel. With the amount of controls, they could easily configure and steering wasn’t hard. Malvedae set up whatever Daea submarine borders needed to be put in place, and Jaiyra could phase them out of big meaty monsters and bring them back together again.
And the ship seemed to be able to calculate how deep into the water they were going, happily reminding them with a flash every couple of minutes just how close to death they were.
Unfortunately, it seemed to struggle with doing actual useful things, like going up instead of down.
“The ship isn’t the problem,” Jaiyra relented eventually, stepping away from the control panel to focus forward on the window ahead, where an Origin-like skeleton floated by. Swallowing down the fact that in a few moments, that could be himself out there, he forced his gaze away to the prince beside him.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Frowning, Malvedae raised his gaze from the panel, eyes narrowing at the scene before them. “Sentient water?”
Jaiyra shivered. “I sure hope the fuck not. I was thinking more like an endless maze?”
“A Spyre inside of a Spyre?”
“Something like that.” Sidestepping the control panel, he moved closer to the view, squinting out at the water surrounding them, and proceeding to hope that it didn’t wink at him. They’d been inside enough monsters for the day.
Clicking of the keys behind him confirmed that Malvedae still hadn’t given up on the pod being the issue, but he lent some thought to Jaiyra’s theory at least. Distractedly, he mused, “And how does one break out of a Spyre?”
No one knew. No one was supposed to be able to. Once you get caught in it you either get spun to death in one of the stupidest cruel jokes the universe has ever played on anybody or you get eaten by an ocean of a planet. There didn’t seem to be much in between for them to squeeze their way out of.
Another concerning crack. Another crazed giggle from Enoch Gris.
“Maybe the problem is that we’re directionless.” There were more meanings than one in that statement, if not clear by the tone, than by the way the prince met his eyes.
Directionless. With no knowledge about escaping the Spyres or what they even were, finding no living life forms so far other than themselves, they really did have no place to turn to, no where to look. All they really had was one another, and even that wasn’t working out, with Jaiyra and Malvedae at each other’s throats as often as they were and Enoch Gris sidelining herself to grimace as they fought. With the way they were going now, it was a surprise their ship hadn’t sunk sooner, down seeming the only way they could go with their lack of direction.
Direction.
“Where would the moons be at now?” Jaiyra asked, assurance settling into his bones.
Malvedae raised an eyebrow. “You think I have some sort of sixth sense because I’m Daea–oh.”
For the record, Jaiyra had entirely believed that Daea had a sixth sense for sensing the moon before Malvedae had acted as though he was stupid for thinking as much. It wasn’t as though Malvedae gave him any proof to think otherwise anyway, with the way he immediately steered the ship forward.
“You’re going away from them, right–”
“I’m not dense,” Malvedae cut him off, though when they met eyes again, he looked far less accusing than they had been before. More relaxed if anything. Despite his alarming next words. “At least, I think this is away.”
Enoch Gris was howling in the opposite direction so Jaiyra elected to trust the Daea’s instincts. He was a moon person after all.
There aren’t any more concerning pops after that, and slowly but surely, the water clears of many of the loose parts and skeletons. The depth counter begins to drop rapidly, from eighteen hundred thousand to ten hundred thousand, but not fast enough to escape another tense silence that settles over them, only occasionally interrupted by Enoch Gris’ deranged humming.
At some point during it, when they’re in the six hundred thousands and Enoch Gris is starting to return to her usual self, which means no more creepy sounds to break the ice, Jaiyra almost wishes they were still sinking with the ship crumpling in on itself.
It wasn’t like him to care that one of his bounties was giving him the silent treatment. To run through everything he’d said earlier in their desperate hour, when he was tense and his words were hot and branding accordingly. This was all transactional to him, at least it was supposed to be, and because of that, he wasn’t supposed to care whether or not the prince had gotten his little feelings hurt or why he shouldn’t be suspicious. Rais were supposed to be suspicious. He wasn’t going to be made to feel bad about something Rais were supposed to do.
The glory and relief of it all was getting to his head. Making him feel all sorts of gooey, mushy emotions that he’d normally never feel otherwise. If he was on his own, he’d feel victorious, arrogant maybe for a few seconds and move on after finding an escape route out of somewhere that seemed impossible to get out of beforehand. Now, unfortunately, those feelings were leaking out of him and spreading like a contagion, nearly convincing him that he needed to say something appreciative towards the stupid prince. To make some sort of truce with him.
They didn’t need a truce. Transactional relationships didn’t need a truce.
Jaiyra lets out a silent breath of relief when Malvedae speaks before he can make an utter fool of himself by saying something more warm and grateful than the snooty prince deserved.
“We need some of the tools that are out there,” the prince pointed out, curtly.
The amount of tools had nearly thinned out entirely, leaving only a flash of silver every now and then in the water when it was hit by the lights of their ship. From what Jaiyra had observed, they left all the good stuff behind. Everything in this area of the water, closer to the surface, was scrap metal, pieces that were light enough to float “up”, or at least, this planet’s version of “up”, which just so happened to become left at some point when the giant wave crossed over the top of it. And even if the scraps in this era were worth anything, he couldn’t see a way they were supposed to get the tools Malvedae was seeing.
Crossing his arms, Jaiyra turned from the window to face the prince directly for the first time since their silent stalemate started. “And what do you want me to do about that? Swim out there and collect a few for your fairest grace?” They had just escaped getting crushed by water and now the prince wanted him to go dive back into danger for a few useless pieces of uranium?
Judging by the prince’s cross look, he probably did want nothing more than for Jaiyra to get crushed under the pressure of such water. In fact, he looked on the verge of completely turning the ship around and taking them back to the pits of the water.
For some reason, Jaiyra didn’t get as much joy from making the prince as angry as he did before.
“I’m just saying,” he tried again, releasing a long breath when Malvedae’s glare didn’t lessen even slightly at his attempt to change the tone of their conversation. “We have no way of retrieving them unless you want to balance something on the front of the pod as we go up.” Malvedae looked as though he was seriously considering the thought. Enough so that Jaiyra was quick to raise placating hands and add, “Which would block our view for no reason. I don’t think any good would come out of collecting a few pieces of scrap metal.”
“This entire ship is a hunk of scrap metal,” Malvedae argued. And, ow.
“Careful, Oink can hear you,” Jaiyra said, in a stage whisper.
Malvedae gave him a bewildered look. “You named the ship.”
Just right then actually. Though Jaiyra supposed it was about time she earned her name. They’d been through a lot together, and, “After everything she’s taken us through, you don’t think she deserves a name?”
Malvedae’s expression only became more confused in response. “You named the ship Oink.”
Jaiyra patted the wall of the ship, consolingly. “There, there, Oink. Royals just don’t appreciate all the hard work the people around them do,” he said, ignoring Malvedae’s scoff and murmured words that sounded a bit like fuck and suck my dick or somewhere in between. “Scrap metal wouldn’t hold together a big, strong, ship like you.”
Jaiyra had very pointedly been saying that to the ship. And yet it was Malvedae who responded, rounding the table and approaching him, stopping just short of being in his space. And then punching the wall Jaiyra had just consoled.
The sound the ship made didn’t sound big or strong at all.
Arching an eyebrow pointedly, Malvedae crossed his arms over his chest and waited patiently. For either Jaiyra to admit to he was wrong (not likely) or an apology, Jaiyra wasn’t certain. But he sure as hell knew the prince wasn’t getting one. Even if the prince was technically right.
Clearing his throat, the Rai turned to face the water with newfound interest. Up ahead, a silver plate was slowly coming into view, getting bigger and bigger each passing second. A promising sight, one they should take advantage of. But the fact of the matter didn’t change that they had no way of taking the thing to the surface with them unless they intended to push it along with them, like a dog rolling its slobbery ball towards its owner for another round of fetch. Jaiyra was no dog. They wouldn’t be balancing the metal upwards on the nose of their ship if he could help it.
If he could help it. After figuring out the puzzle of the moon and the wave of the planet, he wasn’t sure he had any more brain left to spare to figure this one out.
Malvedae had already returned to the control panel, shifting the ship slowly towards the metal by the time Jaiyra snapped his fingers with his revelation.
“We could shoot–”
“We’re in an escape pod, Rai,” Malvedae shot down immediately, in a tone that foretold he had already known what Jaiyra was going to say. But if that were true, why didn’t he shut him down to begin with? Rather than making him look like a dumbass staring forlornly out at the empty-ish ocean, fishing for an answer to their dilemma.
Right. The Daeadem prince hated his guts.
Unfortunately, Jaiyra couldn’t argue with his logic. They were in an escape pod, meaning they had no means of shooting anybody. It was his normal course of action to start blasting as soon as the situation turned south, so Jaiyra instinctively thought up the solution without considering first how dumb it would sound with the ship they were currently on. Escape pods didn’t have weapons attached to them, including Pleiad ones it seemed. Survival took precedence over getting the last bullet in it seemed, even for one of the most ruthless forces in the entire world.
With his idea blown out of the water immediately, Jaiyra could only watch in mild disgust as Malvedae positioned their ship right beneath the piece of metal, blocking the sight of the water entirely in favor of plain steel. Now he couldn’t even watch the sea to distract himself from the awkward silence.
It was another few hours of tension before Enoch Gris broke out of her sorry state long enough to interrupt it with some mindless jabber about how it was all Jaiyra’s fault and how she’d never seen the sea before, wow. The Rai couldn’t even find it in himself to be annoyed with her, no matter the fact that she spoke twenty-million words a minute, or the fact that half of said words were directed at him and his “ugly mug.” At least it wasn’t dead quiet anymore and he couldn’t literally feel the glare of an irritated prince on the side of his face.
A glare that wasn’t as misplaced as he initially believed.
Thinking back on it, Jaiyra had said some pretty nasty things, striking where he knew the prince’s insecurities ran deep. Accusing him of being traitorous or a backstabber probably wasn’t the best move either, nor was bringing up his siblings and their titles. Whenever Jaiyra meant to hit someone, he hit them, striking the worst chords and bruising the most fragile spots. Normally, he didn’t regret it.
Stealing a glance at where the prince stared blankly down at the control panel, a clearly troubled look on his face, he chewed on his bottom lip. Regret was a weak word for what he felt right now.