*THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNK*
Uuugh… Headache.
I reflexively close my eyes against the brutal sunlight streaming into the room. Didn’t know I could physically ache either to such a degree and in so many places.
*THUNK THUNK*
My bandaged arm itches something fierce too.
*THUNK THUNK THUNK*
Might just lay here for a while… Complaints aside, it’s pretty comfy.
The occasional heavy feet don’t stop, instead, I also hear heavy things being dragged around too.
In the past, I wasn’t such a heavy sleeper until… Hmm, dunno if reincarnating applies to this particular situation.
----------------------------------------
*BOOOM* A sound like a clap of thunder rattles the entire ship.
The hell was that!? Now I'm wide awake. I guess the storm continued? Strange... Didn't it stop raining?
I stubbornly lie there for a little while longer.
Eventually, after several minutes and rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I again marvel at the smoothness of her skin.
I haven’t really had a chance to sit back and contemplate all of this. It’s felt like just one thing to the next for the past while, with no stopping.
In truth, I don’t feel quite as uncomfortable as I originally thought I might… Mostly feel bad about whatever happened to this girl.
I guess the scroll wasn’t kidding around about not being powerful enough to form a new “vessel”. Being an unanchored soul projection sounded far worse though… Heck could have ended up as a baby. That’d have been awful.
Definitely something weird going on with her blood though, I’ve only ever heard of blue blood in horseshoe crabs. Carcinogenesis. All things shall be crabs, or so my biology friend used to say. Strange stuff.
At any rate. At least my utter lack of knowledge from other people's perspective on how to ‘girl’ is defensible. She had a full-time maid.
*THUNK*
Think I could stand to try and learn a bit more about her at least though, perhaps try to live by her memory.
Clambering off the bed… My still exhausted body yells at me to just keep laying there. My stomach and bladder say to do otherwise though.
Sheesh. I forgot to even take my boots off.
Dragging myself over the washroom, I peek my head inside. Checker patterned slate tiles. Most everything else in here is ceramic though. Looks almost like a modern bathroom… If tiny. It’s barely a meter wide and twice as long. Nearly half of it is taken up by a shower.
I glance into the silver mirror for a moment. Honestly, I still look like a bit of a mess. Deep shadows under those beautiful purple eyes, skin still that oddly pale tone… Wait, that might be the blue blood?
At any rate. I splash some water onto my face from the tap and call it good enough for now. I take a small sip from it, tasting the water… Strange that it has almost no taste at all.
After finishing up in the washroom I march over to the backpack.
Honestly, I’m really curious why the damn thing is so heavy.
Popping open the main section of the backpack, I start pulling things out carefully and laying them out on the bed.
A great deal of it is various clothes, it seems no occasion was forgotten either. There’s literally a dress for a ball in there.
I put the diary aside that I haphazardly tossed in there… And another book I find tucked in there, looks like a guidebook of sorts? I’ll look at that later too.
After going through that stuff, I uncover five extremely heavy metal cases, and a metal tube.
The cases appear to be made from some sort of strange alloy, not unlike steel… But subtly different. Heavier for one, and much lighter in tone. Shiny. Notably not painted. Does it not rust?
Time for some unboxing!
Picking one at random, I fumble around with the latch for a bit.
After finally pulling it open, I’m welcomed by the sight of writing supplies wrapped in thick waxy covers. Very useful. It even has a ballpoint pen by the looks of it! Seems I misjudged where tech might lie… That’s a relatively modern invention.
Moving on to the second one, I pull it open with a bit less difficulty.
Inside is revealed a very strange-looking device… It looks like a single piece of metallic machinery with a thin pipe on the top, and a sort of fluid vessel at the bottom, with an outlet on the side stoppered with a cork.
I have no idea what this thing is for.
On to the next box after putting it away.
One sniff and it’s pretty obvious what’s in here. A somewhat rich aroma of some sort of flower fills the air as I pull it open, revealing carefully packed bottles of perfume and some sort of kit for paint. Oh, that makes sense. There’s also a hairbrush and a literal set of combs in there as well as a hand mirror, and scissors. Not sure how exactly it was packed this tight, but here we are.
I close this one too.
And on to the fourth one… Try as I might, it doesn’t seem to want to open, so I put it aside for now.
The very last one contains what is immediately clear: it is some sort of medkit, tightly packed with clean white cloth and several bottles of unfamiliar substances. Picking one at random and looking closely, it looks vaguely like it might be adhesive. Especially considering how viscous it seems to be… Pretty basic all things considered, though I’m not sure about the rest of the chemicals. And… A toothbrush. I was NOT expecting that.
Alright, enough of that for now.
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The rest of the bag contains a few other items of remark, in particular a rather heavy bag of coins.
Looks like gold. Moving to push my glasses- Oh right… I hold up a coin close to my face and look at the relatively detailed image of some bearded monarch and a meaningless date.
The other side appears to depict an island chain… And a unique number. That’s interesting. Seems like some effort to deal with counterfeit perhaps?
My stomach grumbles. Nooooo I’m not done yet.
After putting that away too, the last object of interest is truly unusual.
After rooting through the bottom of the pack I turn up what looks like a solitary piece of jewelry, in the form of a thin silver wrist band. Holding it however, it’s immediately obvious that there is a subtle warmth to it… And squinting my eyes at it, a soft golden glow, barely visible in the sunlight. It’s almost entirely unadorned apart from a small crest in the shape of an odd looking bird.
Neat! I almost drop it from excitement.
Pretty obviously magic, even to my untrained eye. It’s fairly feminine looking… Looks like it’ll fit my teensy wrists though. If I had to guess it looks specially made for her. Why was it just haphazardly left in there, maybe tossed in as an afterthought… Or maybe the first thing that went in there. Hmm.
Well, only one way to find out what it does!
I slip it onto my left wrist and wait a moment while staring at it.
Seconds pass and it becomes pretty clear that whatever it does is not obvious.
I take it off and put it away for now… I’ll puzzle that thing out later.
Finally, the metal tube. Opening it… Metal pegs, Rope, Canvas, and… A small hammer made from that odd bluish metal. Oh, I see. It’s a tent of some sort… And some other stuff. Seems lighter than it should be. Tents are usually rather heavy.
My stomach gurgles at me in defiant anger.
Ugh. Right. Can’t ignore physical needs forever.
Glancing down at my rumpled-looking clothes… I’m not sure I particularly care right now.
Now, I need foooooood.
Seems that Marry forgot to pack that. Perhaps that was what she was out in the town for?
Sigh. Now I really hope she’s alright.
I massage the bridge of my nose as I feel the beginnings of a headache forming.
Walking over to the door, and fumbling with the latch I peek my head out.
A bored-looking knight who is being seen for the first time without armour leans against the opposite wall.
I try to give him a half smile, that probably looks about as awkward as I feel.
He’s wearing a light tan coloured tunic and short brown boots. He still has his sword staff, which appears to have been folded in half to stow nicely on his back.
He crosses his arms. “Took you a while to get up I see.” He mutters.
He glances at my clothes briefly but says nothing.
“Captain Rafael figured it would be better to have me stand around waiting for you to get up instead of a ship officer.” He seems slightly unimpressed, given the very slight frown.
“I agreed, and after a night like that, you deserved some rest. Considering…”
I can’t help but interrupt, “While I appreciate being allowed to sleep in… Could we please get something to eat?”
He gives a slight nod and turns to lead the way through the hall.
“Sorry for making you wait on me.” I quietly say. “You know the way around here too?”
“Been up a couple of hours. Had time to look around a bit. Anticipated you sleeping in.”
He leads me down a short hall past the meeting room and a fair distance towards the center of the ship. Then on into a larger open room that looks like a dining hall with an attached kitchen.
The room is lightly decorated with various bits of salvage from other ships by the look. Driftwood with names on them… Possibly dedications to lost crew? The floor here is mostly shiny reddish brown deck boards.
There’s almost nobody in the room apart from a couple of crewmen quietly talking and having a drink. Evidently on some sort of break.
I instantly feel the eyes of the crewmen on me and Roland. Makes me feel oddly uncomfortable.
Glancing back to the lone cook, as is indicated by his heavy apron is… a rather heavy set fellow with wide shoulders. His face is also somewhat wide, but clean shaven with friendly dark blue eyes. He also has short cropped brown hair. He looks to be in his mid twenties at most.
Glancing at the cook, he does a bit of a nervous adjusting of his apron, apparently waiting for me to say something.
Right, I've been looking around and staring a lot…
I probably shouldn’t ask for anything specific and just have whatever he has available.
I try to give him a reassuring smile. “What’s for breakfast?”
Roland quietly takes a seat at a low table.
The man stammers out a short bit, “Can make a few things in short order… Most of what I made earlier is gone.” I can see the metaphorical gears turning in his head. He nods his head looking pretty self satisfied and starts rummaging under the counter.
Dropping a large frying pan onto the range, he walks off towards the door behind his counter, he opens it, and quickly steps inside- but not before I feel a waft of strong cold.
So the boat has a freezer or at the very least a fridge of sorts. Hmmm.
A few moments later he steps back out again carrying a single large pale blue egg about the size of a fist in one hand, and some vegetables I’ve never seen before tucked under his arm.
He takes a moment to set everything down and pauses to fiddle with something under the counter. I hear some clicking and after a moment the range quickly starts glowing a steady red, apparently reaching sufficient heat to do so in seconds… Handy. No smoke either.
“Ah... I didn't quite catch your name,” I remark.
He pauses for a moment as if he briefly forgot his own name. “Owen, my l-lady?” He stumbles over the last bit.
Seems a tad shy. My brain hurts trying to suss out the precise source of his nervousness.
He pauses for a second, and with a practiced gesture, he breaks the large egg open with one hand on the edge of the frying pan. Simultaneously he begins filling up the frying pan with the vegetables from his other arm.
He takes a moment to add a few wonderful smelling herbs from beneath his counter too. My nose picks up some unfamiliar scents that remind me of citrus fruit, and a hint of another herb that reminds me of thyme.
He takes no more than a few minutes cooking it, and now he’s just showing off, as he flips the egg in one motion of the pan. At this point he’s got a satisfied grin on his face as he methodically puts together a steaming omelette that smells absolutely delightful.
Then… In another swift motion, he scoops the whole thing up and carefully puts it onto a shiny copper plate.
My stomach has been somewhat painfully complaining this entire time, whilst I salivate over the food. He hands me a glass of water just before I walk off.
Carrying the plate over to sit across from Roland, I start digging into the meal with cutlery I grabbed on the way over. Glad they’re not something unusual.
I briefly note that the pair of sailors left at some point.
The food tastes like absolute bliss. If I only eat like this I think I could put up with just about anything.
I try to slow down but I’m also very hungry.
Roland waits a short while for me to eat a bit more before speaking and finally breaks his stoic silence.
“So, I have some good, and some bad news that I’ve learned this morning.” He pauses.
“Bad first, please.” I slow down to actually savour the food.
“I learned that the Magister won’t be able to come along. He’s nowhere to be found. In addition, only a few more of the crew have trickled in from hiding around the town. It seems none of the other knights from the castle have turned up either.” He frowns a bit while saying this, making a clear effort to keep his thoughts on it out of it.
“And the good?”
“The Windseeker sank an enemy ship lurking around the harbour with a lightning bolt this morning.”
“Oh that… That’s what woke me up.” I mutter to myself.
That sounds like a mage… I wonder if she can teach me?
“You slept through the cannon fire but not the lightning then?” He says with a light chuckle.
Oh. That takes heavy sleeper to an entirely new level. I think I might have to be very careful in the future.
I just shrug at Roland while he starts laughing a bit harder. Embarrassed, I go back to eating my food just to get away from eye contact.
Regaining his composure as he continues. “That’s it as far as news goes though." He pauses again. “We should be underway soon enough.”