The kids born are unaware of the previous lives of the crew. They are born in this belief that they are children of the sea. That in their entire life they are going to live in this fleet that accompanies a giant island on the back of a monster puppeteered by the long-eared kin.
Not knowing the purpose of the journey.
The people of Milostiv had not seen land ever since their escape from the Long Strait. Some had even believed the rumors that the world had ended and the fleet had failed in reaching the eye of the world and blind it.
Such rumors have spread.
And it was hard not to believe it when the hero that they had to accompany was embraced by the roots of the tree growing in the middle of the island.
Sleeping without movement.
Proving light to the dimmed world that they live in.
For years the fleet became a carnivore that leeched on the island that grew the wood that repaired their ships. The sprites that accompany the island gathers on the leaves, creating this light that could be seen from miles away.
The light does not fully shine.
As years passed many of the wisdoms and scholars of the fleet came to realize that they were unable to pinpoint the way. Their tools have become awry and their sails began to falter.
The Elven-kin. The allies had said that the world’s poles have weakened. It was only when they lost the view of the star that they came to realize that they were lost for years in the sea.
Knowing this mistake. They came to realize that they have lost time wandering.
They have not seen land because the world has blinked them away. Throughout the journey, many had realized that the passing ruins, and the remains were once great civilizations that were wiped out. Islands that have turned into salt because of the eye of the world.
How many islands have they seen that had turned into salt?
Creatures that were boiled alive.
Opening these creatures they found traces of toxic gas that paralyzed the lungs of these creatures, suffocating them.
Many of the creatures that they have pulled from the sea showed signs of this toxic gas that killed them. Land or water. They saw death in every mile their fleet traveled.
Islands large lands ripped apart like sheets of paper.
Dormant Volcanoes that have sprouted from the bottom of the ocean, pouring flaming water.
Have you seen a sea of flames?
Mountains of black rocks that melted anything that it touches.
The Sprites feared the fire. The seas who stayed close burst into flames. The fleet circumnavigated the sea of flames. Continuing this seemingly hopeless journey.
Gigantic waves that were masterfully avoided by the skills of their sailors.
The land itself trembled and the endless view of the sea breaks the spirit of even the toughest men.
The Arkshelled Island remained a haven.
A moving land that many choose to stay rather than their rocking ships. Every three days, the ships are free to do their repairs, visit the island, and let them ‘feel’ solid earth.
It was a new community that was made with the purpose of surviving a great end of the world.
Who won at the end?
No one knew.
No one did know.
They said in legends that if the blinder of light perished then the world of men ends.
It did not end.
It could not end when the sunlight on the very cells of the blinder remained the source of strength and power that guides the fleet in a starless sky.
The Blinder was a single lantern in a dark world covered in darkness. A tiny lantern that resists against the cover of the night. It remained steadfast, a singular star that did not go out.
Light flickers.
Hope flickers.
Many had accepted the fate of the fleet.
Many believed that the fight had been lost.
That they are the only ones left in this darkening world.
A song is sung by a bard in a bar in Lundy.
Calling out the sun and hoping that the loud voices of the crew would wake the blinder of light to a wake.
The children that were born without thought of their world.
All they know is the sea.
Curious eyes that are unable to understand.
The last fleet of humans travels the world.
And yet a child wouldn't understand for he sees this world as nothing more than the world they already lived.
The fleet had grown.
Men and women who seek comfort in the darkest of days.
Hoping that the warm embrace of another would repel the fear that they seek.
The darkness screams.
It tempts those who couldn’t bear its silent warning.
Afraid of the dark that might hold it.
Many had come to seek council, asking, is it right to bear a child in a world that might end?
And yet they couldn’t themselves.
They bear children that are clueless. Ignorant of the state of the world and yet they found their innocence hopeful. Like sparks in the dark.
Sparks that made them ashamed of what they have become.
He recalled something from the depths of a memory. He didn’t know who spoke it. But he thought about it while looking at the people he served.
He was the same.
He could forgive a child who is afraid of the dark. And find it tragic when men are afraid of the very light they sought.
The world cries and goes silent.
The one that should have been the one repelling this suffocating darkness refuses to wake up.
Burned lands.
Boiled creatures.
Storms that wreak havoc.
It was overwhelming.
No one would blame anyone for losing hope.
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For losing faith in this goal they try so hard to reach.
In the end, all they could do was live their lives.
What else can a man do other than be faithful to his Lot?
To serve his own God and feed his family.
To be fulfilled.
To be grateful about waking for another day.
Gabrio blinked.
He looked at the child that he had been teaching lately. An eager young child that was fascinated by what he does. She is the daughter of Wiles and Millie.
Wiles had continued his training alongside Millie. He never stopped teaching them and now he was facing their daughter. The little child that he pulled became a somewhat eager child that wanted to become a Doctor. A healer like her father and mother.
Rista, they call her.
She was a child that knew nothing other than they were traveling to save the world. Young and eager, the child had been learning ever since she pulled the hem of his clothing and asked him to read and write when she was five.
After two years the child started to learn medicine. Finding time to read the books inside Gabrio’s cabin while her parents worked in the clinic and provide what they can provide.
Though sometimes her parents wonder if she hated them. She did not. She simply was a learner. And there weren’t many children around her age that made her want to play.
“Sir, when will I learn how to use the scalpel?”
“Until I know that you can be trusted to administer medicine. Hmm, you look pale, I hope that you went to the island to get your sunlight. It is good for you.”
“I did. Mama didn’t want my bones to soften. Mama is fierce.”
“That she is. She has grown quite well.”
Rista looks up, “Sir, you haven’t grown old. Are you an elf?”
“I have the heart of an elf.”
“Oh, so like the rumors said.”
“There are rumors about me?”
“Doctor doesn’t age. Hmm, I want to meet Auntie.”
“She’s busy.”
“Aww, I was hoping that I could. Mama told me that you are married.”
“Did she?”
“Yes. Mama said that Auntie gave you half of her life… isn’t that what marriage is?”
“You are silly.”
She moved her little legs. Her eyes still on the tome that he had lent. Never did once she had lifted her eyes from the tome.
“It is complicated.”
“I don’t understand.”
“When you grow up, child.”
He had not aged much. If anything he felt like his flesh had frozen. Mana had examined him and it seemed that his treeheart had started mutating his body. Turning into a hybrid of what an elf should be. He had consulted the Elven-kin and they could only answer that he was becoming part of them.
The blood that flows in him was elvish.
And many in the fleet had started to suspect that something happened to him while he was away. But it was not a secret that he was hiding. He never did care for it.
“Sir, when will you teach me to mix medicines?”
“We are scarce.”
“But Mama told me that we have a botanical garden on the island.”
“I’m sorry, child. But we can hardly allow you to experiment. You can observe, but right now we don’t have resources.”
Rista lowers the tome. “Doctor, the other kids told me that if the mister dies then we will all starve.”
“Perhaps.”
Rista’s face shivers.
“But you must always have a spark of hope in you, Rista. That is what keeps you going. You have been taught about this unlike the other children. I am surprised that you would show fear.”
“Because I might not become like you, Sir. I want to become a Doctor and treat patients like you do.”
“In a better world.”
“Will there be a better world?”
“As long as our light shines forevermore.”
Gabrio rested his back.
He was about to reach out and smoke his pipe when the little one frowned her small face.
“Doctor said that it’s bad.”
“Okay, little Doctor.”
“Rista, maybe one day you will take over this clinic.”
“I doubt it.”
“Heh, perhaps no one will.”
An uncertain future.
Ten years of nothing.
Ten years of traveling an empty sea and a desolate world.
Something runs.
The little girl looks at the man who burst in, accompanied by Wiles and Millie.
“Robert?”
“Doctor, you need to see this now!”
“Papa?”
“Daughter, stay in the clinic.”
“But I want to know!”
Wiles and Millie calmed the little girl while Gabrio followed Robert to the top deck where he saw a burst of light in the tree.
“What’s happening?”
“He might be waking up.”
“Did we reach the thousand islands?”
“Many think so.”
The light became a pillar that broke through the clouds.
Creating this circle that revealed the skies they haven’t seen in years. The sunlight pierced through and collected itself on the tree. Gabrio stood with Robert, unsure of what was happening.
The companions of the Blinder surely must have arrived already to his side.
Is their journey coming to an end?
And yet they could feel an omen.
Words are spoken directly in their minds.
Like a madman’s speech that could not form properly.
O Lord they lied to us.
I can’t see it.
I can’t see the eye at all.
A soul trespasses.
He strikes without care of consequence.
I cannot see.
The light fades.
The world cries out to me.
Please, let me stop this.
Please, let me get some peace.
And everyone saw a vision that the sunlight could reach.
And they understood why the Blinder of Light slept.
He had used the sun as his own eyes and turned it elsewhere. Illuminating the dark world, and searching for the thing that he needed to blind. Everyone who heard his voice saw the memories of his search.
They saw it.
That awfulness.
The world was so vast and wide.
But from above they were merely traveling one of the oceans of this planet they were in.
So vast.
And from above they saw those who are similar to them.
Carrying their own blinder of light.
Hoping to reach their salvation.
One of them did.
He carried a stronger light than anyone else.
They said that Blinder's not alone.
And now they understood that there isn’t one blinder.
There were many of them that were supposed to meet.
But the world was broken and continents were separated.
At the corner of the world they saw their homeland Aon surrounded by dangerous seas.
And on the bigger continents where one of the many Blinder lives.
He consumed the light and struck a blow at the eye of the world instead of blinding it.
Their Blinder.
Terin Gaspar was simply the one who fought the Baron.
They have their own equals.
The one who struck the blow had doomed them to this world covered in a barrier of clouds.
Everyone who had their hopes ignited became despondent after that.
The Blinder went back to sleep.
The next day, the fleet remained in their struggle to stay alive.
The hope that was fading in Gabrio clung to him.
He didn’t know why.
But the sight of a little girl starved for knowledge, hoping she can become a healer, a mender of wounds, made him put a mask over his face. He could not allow the little girl to look at him as if he is afraid of light..