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The men that reached Daelyn’s hallway were dirty in a way that made your eyes water as the smell of the pirate’s unwashed bodies wafted in after them. These two were not meant to move any cargo, and they only meant to take a quick inventory of anything interesting they found. One room after another they opened the doors, lifting up lids and opening containers with their filthy hands as they went.
Truth be told, they weren’t entrusted with the task because they were good at it. In fact, saying that they were ‘entrusted’ would be inaccurate as well. These two didn’t like swordplay and lacked the stamina to perform any true damage. So instead, they took the first opportunity they saw to slip below deck during the chaos, hoping to secure a few extra coins that they wouldn’t have to share.
As they took stock of each room, tiny feet scuttled in the dark. The sound came from the last room on the right. Both pirates stiffened in disgust.
“Rats!” The taller, lankier one spat. “You know I hate rats, Gideon. You go first.”
The stockier one, Gideon squinted into the dark room, “I don’t like ‘em either! I ain’ goin’ in der wit’ out a light.” He backtracked to the beginning of the hallway to where a single lantern hung on a hook and brought it back. “The las' thing I wants is a big ‘ol rat scuttlin’ over my feet. And tha’ includes you, Tobias, don’t be steppin’ on my feet either.”
Tobias simply scoffed in response.
Inside the room, they saw rows of shelves from floor to ceiling, each shelf large enough to support smaller crates or larger chests.
“Jackpot.” Tobias said gleefully, pulling out one of the trunks and hefting it onto the floor. Flinging the lid open, he noticed documents with official looking insignia on them. What they said, he couldn’t tell. He’d never learned how to read, but he knew an official looking document when he saw one. Without another thought of consideration, he shoved Daelyn’s marriage arrangement to the side and continued digging. “Bah! This one’s a dud. Nothing but paperwork.”
The other man returned to the hall, making his way towards the very back of the ship. He noticed one door they hadn’t tried yet stood at the end. He tested the latch but it didn’t budge. Locked. An odd thing to find amidst the multitude of unlocked doors. Only something expensive would be kept locked up.
“Hey, what's behind this door, do ya think?” He asked.
Tobias came to join him in the hall, and once their lanterns were out of their way, they both took turns throwing their bodies into the door in an attempt to open it. If they were smarter men, they may have found it easier to use the lockpick kit that the lankier one wore around his belt. Since they were not smarter men, they continued to throw their weight against the door so that it splintered away, piece by piece, until there was hardly any door left.
A pained shriek startled the men from inside the room, and they paused in their labor.
“Did ye hear that?” Gideon asked. It was an ill-omen to hear a siren at sea and he was nothing if not superstitious.
But Tobias was not discouraged, and instead licked his lips in excitement. “I think there's someone in there...” He was a lonely man and missed the warmth of a woman, willing or not. He hoped whoever hid within the room had hair the color of spun gold.
They began to pull the broken pieces of wood away until they’d all but clawed their way inside the dark room. They stepped over the mess they’d made to enter into the darkness. The room should’ve had a window, but there didn’t appear to be one. Their bodies blocked out most of the light that the lanterns behind them provided, which made the room appear to be oily instead of wooden. The only shapes they found were their own shadows.
“What is this?” Tobias complained, turning back to the hall for his lantern. “Where's the girl?”
Gideon’s eyes widened at the emptiness of the room, “What if it ain't no girl?” He noticed a lone trunk off to the side. A woman's blouse hung over the edge. “What if it’s haunted?”
“Don’t be stupid. Dead girls don’t need trunks.” Tobias lectured, but even he was confused by the emptiness.
Why had the door been locked if it was unoccupied? How could it be empty when they’d both heard the cry? There were signs that a woman should be there, and yet, they were the only ones in the room.
Gideon made the holy sign above his head and heart, backing out of the room, and away from the spirit that might haunt it.
Tobias shook his head, determined to get to the bottom of the mysterious womanly sound. He held the lantern out in front of himself as if it were a weapon. The light of it seemed to dance on the wall, catching all of the nooks and divots. His eyes squinted at the strange textures. The way the light flickered, it was as if the walls were moving. His curiosity overwhelmed his better senses, and he reached out a finger to touch the shifting wall.
The wall, in turn, exploded to life.
Rats. So many rats had lined the walls and blocked out the window with their black and brown coats. They swarmed the first man who dared touch them. Climbing, biting, and tearing into his flesh. His screams were muffled by their bodies as they climbed over his face and into his mouth, suffocating him. Tobias threw himself back towards the hall in an attempt to escape them, but he was choking and blind to the direction.
From the corner of the room, to the side of the door, Daelyn stepped gracefully out of hiding. Neither men had turned around and seen just how close she’d been to them the whole time.
Still, Gideon hadn't seen her. He’d been in the hall when the rats had launched themselves at his friend. He heard the screams and turned to escape, not even bothering to help the other pirate. But it was too late.
Like a puppeteer pulling their strings, Daelyn twitched her hands in silent command, and the rats abandoned the first man—the now dead man—to flood out of her prison and into the hall, racing after the second pirate.
Gideon made it to the ladder-like stairs, and up two steps before the wave of fur reached him. They crawled up the wood, and then his legs. He tried to kick them off, but for every rat dislodged, another quickly took its place. The pirate shrieked as they covered him in bites. His foot slipped and he crashed back to the ground. The rats swarmed over him, leaving no sign of the man they covered as they ate at his flesh, possessed by a raging hunger that only their mistress could end.
But Daelyn did not want them to stop. It was only the beginning.
On deck the sight was bloodier than the carnage found below. Shouts rang out between the two crews as each side fought tooth and nail. The pirates hadn’t expected to receive much resistance for their efforts, believing that their assault would be a quick one. They planned to slaughter everyone and take what they needed. With their Elemental, they had estimated that the entire ordeal might take them a few hours. It was not going quite how the pirates imagined it would.
The crew of the Caerus continued fighting to survive. Exhaustion painted their faces as they parried and blocked as best they could against the invaders. Very few of them were skilled enough to land any killing blows, and the rest were too focused on defense to survive. Captain Smith hadn't expected to be attacked so close to Etheroz, especially not with land in sight. The Emperor's Navy regularly patrolled the coastline, and few pirate captains dared to take the risk. Unfortunately, Captain Pike was one of those who did dare. His black ship was built for speed, one of the few that could outrun the emperor's battleships with barely a scratch.
Cries of pain accompanied the splatters of blood that landed on the deck. The splash of a body gone overboard was drowned out by the horn that the barrelman blasted from the crows nest for the second time since they’d been boarded. A signal of distress, a plea for help that the empire’s Thrashers would hear even if they were too late to respond to it.
Sweat ran down Leander's temples as his steel met against the sword of a much larger man. His boots gripped the planks, preventing him from sliding back. To the man’s surprise, Leander began pushing him back. The pirate’s nostrils flared as he pulled back, and Leander adjusted his stance. His golden eyes were calculating as the pirate lunged at him with his cutlass. At the last moment, Leander tilted his rapier and caught the blade on his guard, knocking it off course while he lunged forward to pierce the pirate’s throat.
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Blood squirted from the wound as he pulled his blade out. The pirate’s eyes widened in shock as blood filled his mouth. Leander turned away, uninterested in watching the man fall to the ground. He was possibly the only man aboard with any swordsmanship experience, which meant he was the difference that prevented the invaders from gaining any ground. Even so, he’d been delayed and distracted. The fighting had already started by the time he’d arrived. The pirates had pushed more than he thought they would in such a short amount of time, and now he was playing catch-up.
Leander worried for his charge, but the few minutes he’d been gone only proved that he needed to stay focused, or else the crew would likely perish. The only thought that brought him peace was that Daelyn was forcibly safe, locked in the belly of the ship. There hadn’t been time to hide her somewhere else, and there was nowhere else less conspicuous for her to be hidden regardless. The captain’s quarters was the only other door with a lock, and it would be the first place he would expect them to go.
Another man lunged at Leander, and he sidestepped to avoid him. In turn, he hit the man on the back of the head with the pommel of his rapier while the man’s momentum projected him forward.
There wasn't time to worry about Daelyn, though he worried for her just the same, and often. This trip did nothing to ease those worries. He didn't trust Jasper LeMont or the dealings that he dealt in. The man was dangerous for more than just his reputation. He was also greedy, and greed made men do stupid things.
A shout had him whirling around just in time to dodge a blade aimed at his back. A coward’s attack. With a controlled flick of the wrist and expert technique, Leander maneuvered the oncoming blade out of the way, stepping past the point while striking at the man’s neck with the full rotation of his blade. The pirate's eyes bulged in surprise at the speed of the exchange as he fell.
Again and again they came at him, and again and again he maneuvered out and away from their blades. The pirates were fierce, the crew of the Caerus were reaching exhaustion, and Leander was outnumbered. With a few barked commands, six of the invaders organised themselves to surround the swordsman.
Before he knew it, Leander stood in the center of the circle of men. Each with the point of their swords slowly moving closer to him, but not yet attacking.
He wiped the sweat from his brow and readied his blade once again. If they were anything like the ones he’d already slain, they’d likely wait to see where he aimed his point first, and the rest would collapse on him after. His breath was labored, but he refused to let his exhaustion show. He’d force them to decide which amongst them would die so that the rest could make their play, and then he’d stop them too, even without his true potential to aid him.
Leander’s focus was so intent on what was in front of him that he didn’t immediately recognize what joined them from below.
Rats poured up the steps, moving as if they were liquid to pool onto the deck as Daelyn stepped out behind them. Splatters of blood speckled her trousers and blouse from the intruders she’d found below. Her dark hair swirled around her, caught by the sea breeze, almost obscuring the fevered glow of her eyes.
“Witch!“ One of the pirates shouted, pointing at her with a grimy finger.
Every man on deck paused at the shout, curiosity and fear halting their attacks. Witches were dangerous, and their dark pacts forbidden. To make a pact was to court madness, and to be caught as a witch was to face execution. Leander had met most of the men on board over the course of their journey, and none of them harbored any pacts with the umbra. He would certainly have recognized their shadowy presences hiding in the corners.
Leander turned his head just in time to see Daelyn’s head whip to the man who’d shouted in accusation. He stared in horrified amazement as his ward maneuvered her hands, twitching her fingers as if pulling on strings, and the rats she’d brought with her swarmed in tandem. One of the men who surrounded Leander saw his distraction for the opportunity that it was, and struck out. He barely blocked the blow in time, spinning to avoid the swing of a second man who aimed for his head.
His muscles moved without thought, lifetimes of muscle memory staving off his attackers while his mind struggled to understand what was happening. His attention divided between the woman walking knowingly into danger, and the rest of the men on deck, most of which were still coming after him.
Daelyn was not a witch, but she was using magic. Her mother had no gift, which left that of her father. Between the clashing of blades, Leander struggled to decipher how it was possible. The power emanating from her was unlike anything he’d ever seen before.
The pirate who’d called attention to himself screamed in terror as the rats reached him. They crawled up his legs and up his torso. Their tiny teeth began biting chunks out of his flesh. He grabbed at their bodies, flinging what he could away from himself, taking the bits of skin with them. It only enraged them further as they covered his body until no skin could be seen. When he fell to his knees, and then to the ground, the screams stopped. Blood pooled around his twitching form as the rats severed his arteries.
He was just the first of many.
Daelyn’s expression was frozen in cold malice, as she shifted her attention to another pirate.
“Captain, what do we do?!” One of the pirates cried out.
But Captain Pike didn’t answer. His eyes were locked onto the body of the first man that the rats had abandoned, a man who now resembled a giant piece of chewed pork more than he resembled a man. A cold sweat formed along his brow as their captain raised his head to watch the mass of fur sweep over another body, and then another. The screams of his men echoed across the waves as Daelyn moved like a wraith around the deck, working her arms as if she commanded an orchestra.
None of his men could get close enough to stop her before a new wave of rodent bodies rose to meet them. The woman was clearly their master, and they seemed to move as one unit, operating as one mind.
Daelyn’s movements were becoming more fluid as her muscles remembered what it was to stretch outside of her prison walls. The rats were her dancers, the pirates their partners, and she was their conductor. Her mind was locked away, and what remained of her was raw instinct and rage. Those brave enough to challenge her were quickly cut down by sharp teeth and claws.
Another man climbed up onto the rigging to gain a better vantage point, and removed a dagger from his belt. He took aim and threw it at Daelyn’s back. With no sound of warning, she had no way to react or move from the blade’s path.
A flash of steel knocked the dagger out of the air as Leander placed himself between the woman and the pirate.
“Only cowards throw blades.” He growled, pointing the tip of his blade at the pirate.
“And only dead men miss.” The ethereal quality of Daelyn’s voice raised the hairs on Leander’s neck as she whipped around to narrow her eyes on the man.
She moved her arms to her sides, palms facing away from her body. The various swarms of rats around the deck withdrew to instead face the rigging. With a clap, she brought her palms together in front of her body, fingers pointed at the man who dared throw the knife.
He didn’t bother trying to run as all the rats on the ship converged on him like a wave crashing against a cliff face. He fell from the ship, taking a handful of the rats with him over the edge.
“Fall back!” Cries filled the air. “Back to the ship!” Rats continued to swarm as they retreated.
The beasts split apart, separating their mass of bodies to sprint in groups of two and three. They scurried up the men’s bodies, avoiding their stomping feet as best they could. Once they began their climb, they no longer bothered chewing on the unnecessary flesh. Instead, they targeted the necks, chewing through arteries until the men fell.
Although the pirates tried to escape back to their ship, it wasn’t enough. Daelyn wanted them to die. Her rats followed the pirates across the planks until the panicked men shoved the planks into the water. The rats who had made it across continued their work, while those that fell into the sea swam back to the hull of the Caerus, where they climbed their way up the side.
Leander looked down at the bodies that littered the deck. Some of them were their own, but most of them were not. He’d had lifetimes of experience with battle, but as he looked at the young woman who stood at the railing, the woman he thought he’d known, he found a stranger. His heart hammered in his chest with dread as he slowly approached Daelyn.
The air was unnaturally still as the rodents huddled against the ground like a massive shadow at her feet, unmoving. The crew of the Caerus held a collective breath, more afraid of their savior than of their devils. Daelyn’s gaze was transfixed on the other ship which was drifting away from them with the tide. The screams of the men still echoed loudly at whatever carnage her puppets continued to bring upon them.
Leander took a tentative step towards her, one foot at a time, and the rats parted to allow him access. Reaching Daelyn, he gently laid a hand on her shoulder. “You can stop now.”
She remained silent, not even registering his touch.
Fear began to fill his belly, and he said a bit more firmly. “Daelyn, stop.”
He felt the gaze of her guardian rats fall on him, collectively eyeing him with annoyance. Leander’s heartbeat hammered harder at her vacant eyes, the radiating power of her Magebinding that made the air around her burn hotter. He struggled to recall all that he knew of Bloodbinding, and the ways it had mutated in the past. His questions were barely restrained by his mounting fear, fear that her consciousness was gone.
With the eyes of too many rats on him, Leander gently shook her by the shoulder, trying to jar her back to reality.
Finally she reacted. Her head turned slightly to look at him, but her gaze remained unfocused and unseeing.
“Are you—”
“I’m not useless. I can fight.” Daelyn interrupted, as if he hadn’t spoken, like she hadn’t heard anything else he’d said at all.
“No, you’re not useless.” Leander whispered.
She didn’t move as he came closer, placing a hand against her cheek and wiping a drop of blood away. She was burning up as if her body was aflame.
“I bound the rats.” Her voice sounded more like herself again, but with a dreamy quality. “I bound the Eidolon.”
The Eidolon?
Leander grabbed her roughly by the arms, and spun her to face him. “What do you mean you bound the Eidolon?”
She let out an uncharacteristic chuckle, but otherwise didn’t answer. A moment later, her eyes rolled back into her head and her body went slack. Alarmed, he barely caught her in time before she would’ve hit the floor.