“It’s okay, it’s…it’s just a dream. It’s just a dream, and you’ll wake up any second.” Rynnelle repeated this like a mantra. It kept her calm, even if she didn’t believe it herself.
She sat on the main deck of an abandoned ship, balled up with her back against the railing and hands covering her ears. It was a full moon and a clear night, the cloudless sky letting the stars twinkle like jewels amongst the unyielding black. Besides the desperate plea of her voice, the only other noise was the unmistakable sound of splashing water and people screaming.
Rynnelle tried to block it out, but the screams started calling her name, and each voice was familiar. “Don’t do it. You know it’s a dream, this isn’t real. They’re not real.” She bit her lip, and her feet started moving before Rynnelle could stop herself.
She glanced over the side, and the sight started to break Rynnelle’s heart. It was people. Her people. She recognized each face as they tried to climb up the ship’s side, desperately calling her for help.
Even if this was a dream, Rynnelle knew she wouldn’t be able to live with herself if she let her people die.
Silently chastising herself, Rynnelle ran about the deck, throwing ropes, nets, and anything that could float over the railing. When nothing was left to throw, she leaned over the railing and started hauling up whichever hand reached her.
Rynnelle had no idea how many minutes had passed. One moment, she was alone on the ship; the next, there were so many that it threatened to capsize it entirely. The boat was chaotic as people clawed and kicked each other as they scrambled onto the deck. The mass of people slammed Rynnelle against the railing, and a sharp pain erupted in her back, nearly knocking her to her knees.
"Rynnelle!"
Rynnelle's eyes shot open at the voice, "Kaleon?" she turned to look into the water. "Kaleon!" There he was, fighting his way onto the ship by climbing over others. Rynnelle bent over the railing to reach for him. Their fingertips brushed, but someone pulled Kaleon back at the last second. A scream tore from Rynnelle's throat as he tumbled back into the water. She tried to reach after him, only for her screams to grow louder as hands dragged into the water.
The frigid waters chilled Rynnelle to the bone, leeching away strength. She tried to swim back to the boat, but there were too many people. An elbow hit Rynnelle on the cheek, and she went under.
This was it, Rynnelle thought to herself. Dream or not, she was about to drown. She saved who she could at the cost of her safety and life. That’s what her mother had done, and now, just like her mother, she’d die sinking beneath the surf, never to be seen again.
A hand locked around Rynnelle’s wrist, pulling her out of the water like she weighed nothing.
Rynnelle fell to her hands and knees, blades of grass and flowers cushioning her fall. She threw up a putrid mix of bile and saltwater. Almost collapsing from sheer exhaustion.
She hadn’t recognized it at first, but Rynnelle realized she was on Teons Bridge when she looked around. The flowers danced in a cool breeze as the moon radiated its pale light.
A woman stood only a couple of feet away. She was as silent as a ghost with long, gorgeous auburn clouds for her. The woman stared out into the horizon as if not noticing her.
“Mom?” Rynnelle coughed, trying to stand and failing.
The woman turned to face her. Tears swelled in Rynnelle's eyes as the woman’s genuine and warm smile reignited memories she’d thought she had forgotten. The woman opened her mouth to speak, but the words weren’t hers, “C’mon girlie, time ta visit da captain.”
Rynnelle woke up screaming. She felt a set of hands try to grab her, and she flailed her arms until her fist came in contact with something hard.
There was a crunch, and the same voice shouted except nasally said, “Oh, sonuvabitch, she broke me nose!”
“That’s what you get for trying to wake her up like that. Now, get out of the way. Miss Khouri? Miss Khouri, it’s alright,”
Rynnelle tried to escape the voices, but she was lying down. She crashed on a wooden floor and tried to get up, but her legs refused to work. With some effort, she could get her feet under her, only allowing her to pick herself up before her knees buckled, and she fell again. A pair of hands gently caught her before she crashed to the wooden floor for the third time.
“It’s okay, miss. I got ya,” the voice said, trying to keep itself and her calm. Rynnelle recognized both voices, but she couldn’t place where.
Taking a deep breath, Rynnelle relaxed, allowing her eyes to adjust and her mind to clear as she tried to orient herself. To her horror, that just made it worse.
She was in a brig, an old-fashioned one at that, with three wooden walls and rot iron bars making the fourth. They sat her down on a small cot beside a porthole in the wall. Not knowing where she was was concerning, but that wasn’t what sent a frightening chill down Rynnelle’s back.
The room, no, the world was wrong. It was as if the only colors in existence were blistering white, smokey grey, and a perilous inky black that made Rynnelle's skin crawl. Using the cot to steady herself, she looked out the porthole, hoping to see something she could recognize, but finding none. A black sun sat in an otherwise featureless white sky, casting its unnerving dark light onto a landscape Rynnelle could only describe as a ship graveyard.
Rynnelle looked at her hands, horrified to find her skin and clothes were the same monochrome as the rest of the world.
“Miss Khouri?”
Rynnelle stiffened, having forgotten she wasn’t alone. Her mind was still hazy from her nightmare, but she remembered enough to recall who these pirates were and why she was there.
These three were part of the group that cornered her and Silverhand in the pool room. Now, they were standing in a line on the opposite wall, giving her as much space as the room permitted. To Rynnelle’s surprise, they appeared to be the only things possessing any actual color here.
Rynnelle looked at the pirate on the left with a broken nose, watching in shock as it slowly bent back into shape. “What I tell you, Kins?” the pirate laughed. "Knew it wouldn't be long til she loves this pretty mug?"
"You call that pretty?" The words left Rynnelle's mouth before she could stop. All three of the pirates looked to be in their late thirties. The one she'd spoken to was wiry, with pasty skin, and had a beard filled with tiny animal bones.
"Watch it, girlie." The pirate stepped forward and drew his knife, "You on thin ice as it is. Ain't that right, Kins."
"Thin ice," Kins, the pirate on the right, repeated, albeit with less conviction. He had a wild mane of hair, with tattoos all over his face that made it look like the open mouth of a shark.
"Put it away, Tup," The man in the middle stepped forward, jerking the hand with the knife away from Rynnelle, who remained unfazed. "You heard the captain's orders."
Tup jerked his hand away, "C'mon, Wright! At least let me take out her eye!" He looked shrewdly at Rynnelle, "Who knows when she'll try to shoot those lasers again."
Wright was the only relatively normal one of the three men, with his most notable feature being the hard lines cutting a permanent grimace on his face. He got into Tup's face and said, “Put. It. Away. Or do you want to explain to the captain that you were screwing with our chance of going back to normal?”
Tup and Wright stared at each other for a solid three counts before Tup sniffed and backed off. He shot Rynnelle a disgruntled look and said, “I’m keeping my eyes on you.” Tup put away his knife and leaned against the bars with his arms crossed.
Rynnelle took a steadying breath. Maybe it would be a good idea to stop taunting the pirate but screw that guy. Plus, that all but confirmed that Captain Ketema was honoring their deal. For the moment, at least.
To Rynnelle Wright said, “Miss Khouri, Captain Ketemah requests your presence.”
Rynnelle’s brow furrowed slightly at the name, but she nodded, “Show me the way,”
The pirates formed a loose huddle around Rynnelle as they guided her through what she correctly guessed to be an old-fashioned pirate ship.
Positively ancient floorboards creaked under her foot as Rynnelle looked around the ship’s interior. There were barrels and other loose debris scattered about the cabin, as well as evidence that the ship had been in a serious fight right before landing. The pirates took her to a hole in the hull that was big enough for them to walk out without ducking.
Rynnelle lingered in the opening, eyes wide as she looked onto the landscape. The strange light of the dark sun cast malevolent shadows on dozens of old ships impaled by jagged pillars of obsidian and rolling hills of ashen soil.
“Where am I?” Rynnelle asked, her hand absently clutching the ring still strung around her neck.
Tup gave Rynnelle a wild grin, "Welcome to the Night Barrens sweetheart,"
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Wright offered a hand to help her out of the ship, and Rynnelle took it, hiding a wince at the chill that shot up through her hand at the touch. The four traversed the desolate island for several minutes in silence. Rynnelle thought the ground was surprisingly soft and couldn't help but notice how, no matter how hard she looked, there was no trace of the virtual army of men that attacked her family's Manor.
“The ship we just left is called the Hag.” Wright said, breaking the silence, “It’s where you’ll stay until we get where we need to go. We’ll be there too, so if you need anything, let one of us know, and we’ll get it.”
Rynnelle hopped across uneven ground that didn’t bother the pirates in the slightest, “You’ll be there doing what? Standing watch?”
“Something like that,” Wright said as they crossed under a ship skewered by two jagged pieces of obsidian.
“That’s a generous offer,” Rynnelle said dubiously, “But I’m not a fan of random men watching my every waking moment.”
Tup scoffed from behind her, “Oh, believe me, girlie, I’m not a fan of babysitting brats either, but better us than them.”
Rynnelle gave Tup a confused look. He gestured for her to look up, which she did. Rynnelle false confidence broke when she noticed all the eyes on her. Dozens of pirates with stern faces looked down at her from the ruined carcasses of ships and obsidian bluffs. Even if they were the only things with color in this black-and-grey world, it unnerved Rynnelle that it took Tup to point them out before she noticed them.
Distracted by the onlookers, Rynnelle lost her footing on an uneven stone. She tried to catch herself in a patch of obsidian, but before Rynnelle knew it, she was falling forward into a hole. There was a flash of blue, and then a hand reached out to catch Rynnelle by the arm.
Kins pulled Rynnelle away from the hole, "Watch da shadows."
"Thanks." Rynnelle stammered, finding a path along the oddly soft ground.
"What do we have here?" Rynnelle shivered at the sound of the voice. She turned, seeing Kaines' imposing form blocking the path before them. He strode forward, eyes focused on Rynnelle, as he spoke to Wright: "Don't tell me the girl talked you boys into giving her a tour?"
"Captain wants to see her," Wright said as he shifted to put himself in Kaine's line of sight.
Kaine sniffed, made a disgusting sound in his throat, and spit on the ground, not directly on Wright's shoe but close enough to make his point. He said, "Best not to keep him waiting, then." He turned to the side, allowing them to pass but forcing them to walk single-file down the narrow path. His eyes narrowed as Rynnelle passed, but he otherwise said nothing.
They continued forward, Rynnelle willing her mind to ignore the other penetrating gaze of the pirates watching her. Her thoughts drifted to the flash of blue light in the hole as Wright led them up the crest of a hill.
To Rynnelle's surprise, a pavilion for giants sat at the top of the hill. She didn’t know how she hadn’t seen it before because of its massive size. Fifty-foot pillars of gold and silver held up a circular roof of polished alabaster.
The air felt wrong here. It reminded Rynnelle of the ballroom, being thick and carrying an eye-watering smell of decay. There was something else, too, almost smelling sweet, but she couldn't put her finger on what it was.
Rynnelle lingered on the pavilion’s periphery, hesitant to take another step forward. The floor was a solid slab of obsidian but looked glossier than usual. It was like a thin sheet of water covered the floor.
"Enough sight seein', not tryin' to be here any longer than I have to," Tup said as he pushed her forward.
Rynnelle let out a short scream as her feet touched the black stone. Small ripples cascaded over the black under her feet, but that was it. She turned to glare at Tup, ready to call him everything but a child of Hewa, but Rynnelle hesitated. None of them had taken a single step onto the obsidian, and they were staring past here. She followed their gaze, her eyes widening in shock at Ketemah standing in the pavilion's center.
Silently cursing at whatever magic made her miss what should have been in plain view, Rynnelle steeled herself and strode for the pirate captain.
Captain Ketemah stood with his arms crossed behind his back, not turning to face Rynnelle as she approached him. The sweet aroma from earlier slowly overpowered the smell of decay as she did. Rynnelle stood beside Ketemah, about to speak, but she hesitated.
One minute, the captain was standing there looking at nothing, and the next, the sinister-looking Treasure floated above a pedestal of melting black wax. Above them, the sun's dark lights shone down from a circular hole cut in the roof.
"What is with this place!" Rynnelle angrily muttered to herself.
"Your eyes will adjust in time," Ketemah said steadily, still not taking his eyes off the unlit lantern.
Rynnelle stiffened. "You're not saying I'll turn into something like you guys if I stay here long enough, right?" she asked apprehensively, then quickly added, "No offense." Rynnelle bit her lip to stop herself from talking. She had a habit of talking when she was nervous, but now wasn't the time for that. Rynnelle had to focus on staying alive long enough to find a way out of here.
Captain Ketemah sighed through his nose and turned toward her. He said, "None taken," but it was clear something was amiss, "What were you doing on that island?"
Rynnelle blinked, "I lived there?" She said wearily.
"I saw that. I also noticed how it seemed you had an intimate knowledge of the Manor, and yet when I first asked that Lord for the Eclipse Lantern. He had no idea what I was talking about." Ketemah looked at her imperiously, eyes narrows and resting his hand on the hilt of his sword. "So I'll ask again, what were you doing on that island?"
Rynnelle held her ground, her green eyes staring into the amber eyes of the captain before looking at the lantern, "Pirates killed my parents when I was young, leaving me with nothing but a ring belonging to a family that they died before telling me anything about, and a Treasure that I didn't know what to do with. The Manor Lord adopted me, and the first thing I did was hide the lantern. And I never spoke about it again. Not to him or anyone. I...wanted to forget." Rynnelle hung her head and hugged herself as she spoke. The lie was a decent blend of her and Kaleon's life, and she silently prayed to Hewa and whatever other Gods were listening that Ketemah was buying it.
She looked back to Ketemah, who regarded her wearily, "And what is your relationship with Silverhand?"
"There is none," she said matter-of-factly. His ship crash-landed on my island, and we didn't know who he was when he'd first arrived. That was a mistake because it took him all of five minutes to find where I hid the lantern. I'd confronted him right before you and your men attacked." Rynnelle paused, staring intently at Ketemah before adding, "Anything else?"
Ketemah held her gaze for a solid minute before responding, "No." Rynnelle almost sighed in relief, but then Ketemah drew his sword.
Rynnelle stumbled back, nearly tripping over herself to get away as Ketemah slashed the obsidian floor. Black flames erupted from the cut, spreading fast, cutting Rynnelle's path off and forming a firewall around them and the lantern.
She put up a hand to block the radiating heat from hitting her face. “Hey! What’re you doing?”
“Keeping our conversation away from prying eyes,” Ketemah sheathed the sword, and the flame's heat faded. It was still hot, but at least now it was manageable.
Rynnelle looked at him suspiciously, “You say that like you don’t trust your crew.”
Captain Ketemah didn’t immediately respond to her comment, but she did notice the slight twitch of his eye. “During the height of the Zephayne, I stood alongside Kaine and watched our captain, your…grandfather, claim the Eclipse Lantern. If I had known what fate had in store for us back then, I would’ve left this place and quit being a pirate altogether.” Ketemah said wistfully. He paused, shaking his head as if denying the memory from playing out in his mind.
Rynnelle kept a neutral face, but mentioning her-Kaleons grandfather shook her up. Kaleon never talked about his life before meeting her. Going as far as to tell her not to try and use his Chart to find out if he had any aunts, uncles, or grandparents who might have still been alive. Rynnelle respected his wishes, which made Ketemah's mention of Kaleon's family much more enticing. She almost asked outright about him, but the way Ketemah said grandfather made Rynnelle weary, as if she could step into a trap. Caught between the fear of being caught in a lie and curiosity rearing its ugly head, Rynnelle asked, “Why didn’t you?”
“Because I wanted to live,” Captain Ketemah’s voice was barely a whisper, sounding like the hauntings of a spirit, "I contracted Silvyrn when I was about your age."
Rynnelle's eyes widened slightly at the mention of the disease, but she said nothing, watching Ketemah look back at the Eclipse Lantern with a glassy look in his eye.
She realized this was the first time she'd gotten a good look at the Treasure, having been too busy working on not dying to look in the Manor.
It was a quant thing, stylized to look like a silver crescent moon imposed over a golden sun with a gold and silver ring attached on either end.
Honestly, she didn't think it was that impressive, at least not with it being unlit.
"It was different then. During the Zephayne." Captain Ketemah spoke with a haunting quality to his voice, and Rynnelle thought the man might sob at any moment as he continued. "The Yanayin weren't a tribe. They were barely even a people. Every island looked out for itself, every person for themselves. So you can imagine how they treated the people whose magic was killing them."
"I'm sorry," Was the only thing Rynnelle could say. The disease itself was a death sentence, but she knew the real problem was how Yana treated them. Rynnelle hadn't seen much of it herself, largely thanks to her father, but everyone knew the stories. And in Rynnelle's eyes, the tribe has only recently made moves to rectify it. "I love my tribe, my people, and given my family's station, it's easier for me than most to turn a blind eye to our history. If it's some consolation, there's a lot of Yana trying to make what happened to you right. They're trying to find a cure and-"
Ketemah laughed so dark and sharp that Rynnelle had to fight the urge to step back. "There is no cure. That, I can assure you." Ketemah's voice carried a weariness that spanned decades. He looked at her, and that's when Rynnelle saw it—a flash of light behind his cold, brown eyes. Rynnelle knew she was speaking to the man behind the monster he'd eventually become.
"Is that what you were trying to do? Find a cure?" Rynnelle looked toward the lantern, furrowing her brow as a thought came to her mind. "You need me to use the lantern so I can turn everyone with Silvryn into...whatever you are?" It all clicked for her at once. Rynnelle didn't understand the details, sure, but the tangled mess of this situation was starting to straighten itself out.
Ketemah turned and took a step forward, reaching out as if to grab the lantern. His fingers were about to brush against it when his hand stopped, "No, not like me." Ketemah withdrew his hand, looking at it with mixed contempt and disgust. "I remember what it’s like to bask in the sunlight. To let its rays warm my skin. When food didn’t rot between my fingers, and drink didn’t turn to smoke before it passed my lips. No, Miss Khouri, I wouldn’t wish this perversion of life on anybody.” Ketemah slowly closed his hand to a fist.
So much for it straightening out. Rynnelle bit her lip, her eyes drifting to the lantern, studying the intricate carvings etched into its surface. Her eyes drifted to where the midnight sun perfectly overlapped with the hole in the alabaster ceiling. Rynnelle took a deep breath, sighing through her nose. "Captain Ketemah, I can't imagine what you went through, what people with Silvyrn still go through, and you do have my sympathies." Her voice was soft and composed, surprising Ketemah. He looked to Rynnelle, thinking he'd found common ground, only to see her uncompromising glare. "But that's all the sympathy you'll get from me. You killed someone I care about and hurt a lot more to get what you want. So justify it all you want to yourself, but don't try convincing me when you almost destroyed my home. I'm here only because I did what I had to do to protect it." Rynnelle paused, daring Ketemah to try and refute it.
The captain matched her glare, holding his hands behind his back as he stepped toward her. Ketemah held Rynnelle's gaze for three seconds, then nodded. Not taking her eyes off him, she added, "So you don't want to make anyone else like you or try to make a cure, but you said you needed my help. What do you want to do?"
Captain Ketemah looked back at the Eclipse Lantern, "Decades ago, I promised that if the time came, I would accept my fate and die a man. At first, I never thought I'd never give up this power. Then, the lantern was lost, and I was resigned to accepting that it was a promise I may never keep. Last night, when I felt the call of the lantern for the first time in decades. I made a new promise now that I can honor the old one." Ketemah looked back to Rynnelle, the lights in his eyes fading back into darkness, "You want to know what I want to do with the Eclipse Lantern, Miss Khouri? I want to destroy it."