“Seems like a calm night. I don’t like calm nights.”

Charry smiled despite himself. Anton’s grumbling had become so familiar these days that not hearing it felt weird. It also helped counterbalance Rupert’s cheery disposition.

Ever since the three of them had decided to ask for redeployment in the nascent Revolutionary Navy, his tall friend had been exuberantly happy. Charry had vaguely known Rupert came from a family of fishermen, but to see him steer a ship was a thing of beauty. That alone wouldn’t have been enough to convince the dwarf to leave firm ground, but he had received a message of some sort from his family under Garva’s mountains, and that had put him in such a morose mood that Charry only needed to prod him a bit to get him to agree.

“We have the kid to keep an eye on things. He might not be capable of constant monitoring, but I’m quite sure we are the safest ship on the sea right now. No one else has a personal Diviner at their beck and call.” He replied, not taking his eyes off the map on which he had scribbled the latest information.

Even if David never managed to go deeper than a hundred feet, just knowing that there weren’t sea mines laying in wait for them was more than enough to pay for the additional mouth on board. Add to that the constant scouting of all the Scales on their path, and it was a no-brainer.

“I have to admit, I was surprised when you volunteered us to be the first ones with a Diviner aboard, given how whiny and spoiled they are known to be and how losing one would be a death sentence on our career, but the kid is better than I expected,” Rupert said from his position at the helm.

“He is. I heard horror stories from the other captains about Diviners needing to be cajoled and begged for more specific information. You’d think they wouldn’t need sucking up to do their jobs, but they are in such request that they have discretionary power over what to prioritize. I couldn’t let the best Diviner in the division pass us by. Especially after I got the go-ahead from the Council.” Charry wasn’t anyone in the grand scheme of things, but he had served well during the initial phase of the conquest. He had shown his ability to adapt to any change in circumstance, which led General Dortmund to personally ask him to switch to the Navy in the first place, but his ace in the sleeve wasn’t any of that.

He had connections all over the Revolution’s apparatus. Not with enough pull to be given a high rank for himself, not unless he wanted to risk scrutiny from Lady Amelia, but once in a while, these connections allowed him to get ahead of the others.

Getting David Longs as his personal Diviner was such a prize that he still wondered how he landed the kid. And yet, Archmage Franklin had acquiesced at his request, giving her stamp of approval with a mysterious smile.

Predictably, the moment he relaxed a bit and started feeling good about himself, the calm was shattered.

A bloodcurdling scream echoed through the ship, rousing every sleeping sailor and sending Charry running back into its bowels. “Stay here and prepare to defend the bridge!” He ordered his two friends, who immediately set to barricading the area.

This wouldn’t be the first night-time assault the Wavebreaker was on the receiving end of. It wouldn’t be the last if Charry had anything to say about it.

Charry sprinted down the narrow corridors, the echoing scream still bouncing off the walls, fueling his urgency. His boots thudded against the deck as the ship roused to life with the frantic shouts of sailors thrown out of their hammocks.

Charry was a veteran of many battles. He had killed men out of mercy to end their pain. He had seen grown knights beg for mercy. Never had he heard anything like this scream. It was raw, tortured, soul-breaking.

The door was already flung open when he finally reached David’s cabin. Two sailors were struggling to hold the thrashing teenager down, vomit and saliva pooling around him as he convulsed uncontrollably.

“What the hell is going on?” Charry barked, cutting through the chaos.

One of the sailors, whose face was bone white and eyes wide with confusion, had the presence of mind to answer. “We don’t know, Captain! We just found him like this! He was screaming, and his eyes rolled back—"

David’s body jerked violently, cutting the words short as the boy let out another scream, his back arching painfully. Charry winced at the sound, his mind racing for answers. The kid wasn’t just panicking. This was something far worse. Something was happening to him.

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“Hold him steady,” Charry commanded, stepping closer. He watched as David thrashed again, his fingers scraping the wooden floor in agony. His eyes were unfocused, clouded with something Charry couldn’t quite place. Was he scrying something he shouldn’t have? Had he encountered a new type of warding meant to harm farseers?

Fuck, I knew this was too good. We couldn’t be the only ones to figure out this stuff forever.

“Get Portia—” he started, but before he could finish, the feeble light of the room’s lantern flared violently, blinding everyone. For a moment, it was as if the entire room was bathed in searing, white Light.

Then it was gone.

Charry blinked, his vision still swimming with spots. When his sight cleared, David had stopped moving. The two sailors holding him looked at each other in bewilderment as the boy slowly pushed himself up onto his elbows. His eyes were clearer now, sharp and alert—nothing like the dazed panic from just moments before.

“Captain,” David rasped, his voice hoarse, “we need to get away from here.”

Charry’s confusion deepened. “What are you talking about?”

David sat up fully, wiping the sweat and vomit from his chin with the back of his hand. “There’s a terrible monster chasing us. I’m sure of it. It saw me, with too many eyes and too many mouths and… We need to arm the ship’s cannons and make for the port. I have never seen anything like it, and it’s coming for us.”

Charry stared at the boy, caught between disbelief and concern. David looked fragile, his face pale and drawn, but there was no hesitation in his voice. He was speaking with the authority of someone who knew.

Charry didn’t wait for more explanations. He spun on his heel, barking orders to the sailors who had come armed, ready to fend off an attack. “You heard him! Patrol the deck and arm the cannons. Prepare to turn back. Move now!”

The crew, already tense from the scream, rushed to obey. The two sailors who had been holding David stepped back, uncertain now that the crisis seemed to be over. Charry dismissed them with a wave of his hand, leaving him alone with the boy.

For a long moment, the only sound was the soft creaking as the ship swayed in the water. David sat still on the floor, his chest rising and falling rapidly as he tried to regain control.

Charry watched him carefully. Whatever had just happened wasn’t normal, even for a Diviner. He knew enough about magic to recognize when someone was in over their head, and David looked like he had just glimpsed something far beyond what he was prepared for.

Reaching into his belt, Charry pulled out a flask of watered-down rum and handed it to the boy. “Here. Rinse your mouth.”

David took it without question, his hands trembling slightly as he unscrewed the cap and took a swig. He swished the liquid around, then spat it into a nearby bucket, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. His shirt was soaked with sweat and bile, and he pulled it off, tossing it aside with a weak grunt of disgust.

Charry gave him a moment to compose himself, leaning against the doorframe as he waited. The boy had clearly been through a lot, and whatever it was had shaken him to the core. Luckily, he didn’t seem broken. The Light had been too brief to be a Blessing, which was his initial explanation for its appearance, but it had obviously done something to protect the kid.

Something, or more likely someone, had intervened in his favor, chasing out whatever was driving him mad.

There was only one man he knew was capable of such a feat. Charry’s mind rebelled at the explanation since last he knew, the Grand Marshal was supposed to be hundreds of miles away, on the path to Hassel. And yet, he was also certain it had been him.

I have never understood religious fervor, but this might be the closest I ever come to it.

When David finally looked up his eyes were clearer but still haunted. “I’m sorry,” he muttered, his voice raw. “I didn’t mean to lose control like that. It overwhelmed and attacked me in ways I wasn’t prepared for.”

Charry waved the apology away. “Don’t worry about that right now. Just tell me what you saw.”

David hesitated, glancing down at his hands. His fingers were raw and bloody. “I told you I was having trouble going deep underwater enough to secure the route. I’ve been trying to find a good way to do that, and reading Lady Jean’s writings, I think I did.” He hesitated then, clenching his hands to keep them still, “At first, I managed to bypass all the limitations that held me back. I saw everything. But then I got greedy.”

By the way his lips pursed, Charry was sure the kid didn’t want to add anything else, but unfortunately, the situation didn’t allow for any coddling. “What did you see?” He repeated.

David sighed, but nodded, “Beyond the third Scale on our route, where four ships of pirates were hiding behind pretty decent wards, there was a blank zone. I’m not saying that I couldn’t go through it like the deep waters with the other spell. No, I just couldn’t perceive it. This put me on high alert since I knew another island was supposed to be there.”

The kid grabbed Charry’s flask again and swallowed another mouthful. “There was no resistance. Once I overcame the urge to look away, I was in. There was a creature there, larger than any other I had seen before. Monstrous. Magnificent. It saw me. I don’t know how or why, but it looked directly at me with a thousand thousand eyes. And then it caught me.”

David fell silent at that, and Charry couldn’t find it in him to urge him again. He gave the kid a few seconds to gather himself.

“It showed me things I don’t think I’m capable of describing… But more than that, it started rising from the depths. I think I roused its interest. I was sure I was dead, but just as it breached the waters, I felt an incredible warmth come over me. It freed me from its grip and pulled me back in my body, healing me. I think it was the Grand Marshal.”

Charry placed a hand on the kid’s shoulder in support while his mind was going a mile a minute. It was good to have confirmation that he wasn’t just a religious zealot, but he was more worried about the possibility of a monster out of the legends coming their way.

“How quickly do you think it will be here?”

David gulped the last of the rum, wiping his mouth with a hand, “If we’re lucky, an hour. The last thing I saw was it wiping the island with the pirates out of existence.”

Fuck. Ok, yeah, I don’t think we can kill that. We’ll try, of course. The Wavebreaker won’t sink without giving it a black eye. But I need to structure this fight to last as long as possible. If the Grand Marshal was able to save the kid, he might help us out, too.

Standing up from his crouch, Charry steeled his features. He had a ship to Captain.