Chapter 8 – Farewell

Lewiht was waiting in a dark alleyway, which he found quite amusing, given that these past few days he had spent an absurd time in alleys. It was already past midnight, and he had been waiting here for quite some time.

Lewiht looked at the stars while he was sitting by the wall. The stars were beautiful—he had never realized how colorful the night sky was. Come to think of it, he never realized life was this colorful. Ever since he ran away, the world seemed to have much sharper colors. Life had become more beautiful now that he had a risk of losing it.

He could see some of the Tears in the sky. He sometimes wondered what the Moon looked like. Before it was almost completely destroyed, of course. It was said that the Moon was whole before the Calamity and that it shined like a beacon in the sky. Lewiht could hardly imagine something like that—even the stars, with their small size, were magnificent. It was hard to imagine something almost the size of their own planet in the sky, shining brightly like a little sun. It must have been a marvelous view.

Now, though, the Moon was no more. Only the Tears of the Moon left, a huge field of giant rocks hanging in the sky, was left. There was a huge chunk in the shape of a crest that was still big enough to at least reflect some light from the sun at night, but it wasn’t significant enough to make any difference. Plus, the Tears were orbiting around that big chunk which obscured the light most of the time.

Lewiht pulled his gaze away with a bitter smile. It was sad to know that he was never going to see the Moon in its full beauty. Then he remembered that he could also never see his mother again. Was she even alive? She was still alive when he left her, if that soldier had helped her, she would be fine, right?

Lewiht felt a somber weight on his chest and rose to his feet to pace the alley. He had to think of something else. Good things. Yeah, he had to think of good things in life. He was still alive, for one. His father was dead finally and if his mother was still alive, she would live peacefully. If she was alive… If…

Lewiht couldn’t bear it, and life came crashing down on him. He fell to his knees and started sobbing. He bit his cloak and screamed, trying to scream away his anger. his sorrow, his worries. In the end, he was just lying on the cold, stone floor with empty eyes.

“Hey!” He heard a voice calling to him. “Hey, Lew, you okay?”

Willard rushed to his side and checked on him.

“Yeah,” Lewiht said, standing up. “Just a bad anxiety attack, that’s all.”

Willard looked at him with worrying eyes. “I’m sorry man, it took me a while to convince my old man.”

“Did you get it, though?”

Willard pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket. “Tomorrow at dusk, to the Archipelago.”

Lewiht grabbed the paper and looked at it. This was a ship ticket with a dock number, destination, and departure time written on it. There was a huge seal on the right side of the paper, which Lewiht recognized as the seal of Willard’s family. Willard’s family wasn’t nobility, but they were a merchant family of renown. They exported beer and ale to the Archipelago and imported wine from there to Kel’daras, which gained them a small fortune.

“Normally,” said Willard, “We don’t require tickets since we don’t ship people. It’s just for you to show it to the captain.”

“How did you convince him?”

“Well. He was really angry at first because I woke him up. Then I said a friend needed a safe passage to Archipelago.”

“Did he know my… situation?”

“Yeah, word travels fast, man. I don’t think there are many people in the city who haven’t heard that Togan Teremon’s brother killed his father.”

“So?”

“He asked if this friend was you. I said no but of course, he didn’t believe it one bit.”

“Then why?” Lewiht asked. “Why is he helping me?”

“You know,” said Willard, and sat down, gesturing Lewiht to also sit. “My father was a pirate once.”

“What?” Lewiht asked, his mouth open. “Really?”

“Yeah, you didn’t know that?”

“Of course not. You never told us.”

“Well, he was. You know the Proclamation right?”

“The Great Pirate Hunt?”

“Yeah, that.”

Lewiht nodded. Around twenty years ago, piracy was running rampant on the shores of Kel’daras, and to fight that, Kel’daras issued a proclamation where they put huge bounties on pirates. The real catch, however, was that they also gave pirates a chance to work for Kel’daras should they surrender. Some pirates accepted that and hunted their own for those sweet bounties. After seeing how vicious Kel’daras was in the hunt with their armadas, however, most pirates had no choice but to accept the offer. Some historians even go as far as to say that The Great Pirate Hunt was on the scale of war, and document it as such. Relord, the man who called himself the Sovereign of Delmorra had also been executed in this era, while even more legendary names such as Dartlias had never been captured.

“So yeah,” said Willard. “My father was a pirate during the hunt who accepted the Proclamation. He cleared his name and started his own business, but… he always had a soft spot for people who decided to write their own destinies. Not all pirates are people who just want to raid and plunder, you know. For some of them, to be a pirate is to be free. Free from the shackles of society, free from everyone’s judgment. I guess you reminded him of his old self or something, I don’t know.”

“Free, huh?” Lewiht gazed at the stars. “I guess you’re right. In a way, I too broke my shackles.”

“Yeah. But you’re not free yet. Not until you get out of this country.”

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“You know, Will. When I said to Ged that he was my best friend, I did it because I knew you wouldn’t mind. I knew you were always the rational one and Ged the emotional one, but I’m still sorry if I made you feel bad. You know I love you both, right?”

Willard smiled. “It’s all good, I wasn’t offended, even if it was true.”

Willard stood up and extended his hand to help Lewiht also stand up. “I think you shouldn’t stay in the same place for too long.” He pulled a coin purse out of his pocket and gave it to Lewiht.

“Will, there’s no n-“

“It’s not much, Lewiht. It won’t harm me, just take it. You’ll need it a lot more than I will.”

Lewiht stood there in silence for a bit but accepted the money in the end. “Thank you, Will.”

They both waited in grim silence, not knowing what to say.

“I guess…” Lewiht broke the silence, “I guess this is farewell. Thank you for everything.”

“You will come back, though, right? Your brother will clear your name and you’ll be back, and we’ll hang out like always.”

Lewiht smiled bitterly. “I thought you were the rational one, Will. I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

Lewiht hugged his friend when he saw he was about to cry. Though, frankly, he was also hugging him because he was about to cry too. “Tell Ged that I’m sorry, okay? And take care of him if he does something stupid. I know he will.”

Willard laughed, with a weepy voice. “I will. You take care of yourself too, got it? Don’t be reckless out there.”

“Well, I can’t promise that, but I’ll try my best.”

Lewiht pulled his hood up and walked towards the street, waving his hand without looking back. “Farewell.”

***

The sun was starting to paint the sky orange. Lewiht was walking through a street now with his hood up. Life had started in these parts of Zylos, people were opening their shops, the sound of carts echoing in the silent streets. His hood was up, but the air was pretty chilly and he wasn’t the only one doing that, so he wasn’t standing out too much.

The smell of fresh bread and bakery filled Lewiht’s nose, and his empty stomach reacted with a loud growl. He hadn’t eaten anything since Ged gave him dinner before the sun even set, and he was hungry now. The ship was going to sail away at dusk, so he still had almost half a day. You know what, Lewiht thought. I’m going to get some bread.

He followed his nose and made his way to the bakery. An old man was busy placing different types of baked goods in the display window—bread, bagels, pastries, buns… Lewiht swallowed his saliva.

“You want sumthin, or are ya gonna stand there all day kid?” He looked at Lewiht and almost dropped a piece of bread. “Holy balls of Azrodan kid, what happened to ya?”

Lewiht forced a smile. “Just got into a fight with some bullies in the school, that’s all.”

“I hope ya beat them.”

“I kind of did, yeah.”

The old guy let out a hearty laugh. “Good for ya, kid! Teach them kids a lesson! Ya new kids are way more rebellious than us. Back in my day we would just give them bullies what they wanted. Usually the launch me mom prepared for me. Sometimes a few coppers.”

“Yeah,” said Lewiht. He was looking at the displayed goods when he quickly thought of something. “Like that Teremon kid. You know, Lord Teremon’s brother. I heard he killed his own father.”

“Yeah,” said the old man, unaware of everything. “Nasty stuff. Heard he cut his father’s head off completely.”

“Really?” Lewiht asked. “I heard he just stabbed him in the throat. I also heard he beat his own mother too.”

“Yeah yeah, poor woman. Seeing ya son stabbing your husband and beating ya. Gonna be hard when she wakes up!”

She’s alive… Thank god she’s alive. Lewiht turned his head to not show he was crying. Of course, the rumors might not be true, since the old man also heard that Lewiht cut his father’s head off, but still… This was more than Lewiht could ever hope for.

“What’s wrong kid?”

“Nothing,” said Lewiht, wiping his tears. “My swollen eye gets teary all the time. How much for two bagels, sir?”

“Four coppers,” said the man. “But ya know what? Ya look like a decent kid. Take two and I’ll give ya one for free. Ya’ll need a full belly beating them bullies!”

“Thank you so much, sir!” Lewiht pulled four coppers from his purse. He had no luxury to turn down offers like this anymore. He thanked the baker and made his way to the harbor, munching on his bagels.

There were a lot of patrols in the harbor and Lewiht had to move with utmost caution to not be seen by them. Still, it wasn’t as hard as he was expecting because most of the soldiers he stumbled upon were too sleepy to do their job properly. They were probably still the patrols from the night shifts since it was still early.

The harbor was full of cargo boxes near the docks—life had already started here. Many workers were busy either loading or unloading cargo. The ocean was full of ships leaving the docks, making way for the arriving ones. It was almost as if this harbor had never slept—everybody was busy with their work and nobody gave him even a glance. He even met eyes with a soldier accidentally when he had turned a sharp corner, but the guy didn’t even care. Either Lewiht’s face was too unrecognizable due to his injuries, or the law enforcers were not well-informed about his crime. Lewiht was glad either way.

He looked at the signs on the docks to find the dock in the ticket, 27th dock. When he did, he found a quite old but sizable ship. Its hull was made with dark wood, or maybe it was darkened over the years, Lewiht couldn’t tell. He could barely read the Lady Luck written on the hull, as it had mostly faded away. It was clear that this was a battleship once, at least a frigate. There were still windows for cannons in the hull, although Lewiht had no idea if the ship had them or not. A Kel’daras flag was hung on top of the main mast—a yellow gantlet holding a sun-like light orb on a red background.

A man approaching the end of his middle ages, maybe sixty at most, was overseeing the crew loading barrels and kegs to the ships. He was wearing a long, dark blue coat with a leather hat. His curly hair and beard were mostly gray and messy. He was peeling off an orange with a knife while calling his crew names when Lewiht approached the guy.

“Are you the captain of Lady Luck?” He asked.

The guy looked at Lewiht up and down, narrowing his eyes. “I am.”

Lewiht didn’t say anything, he just handed the ticket over. The guy crumpled the paper and put it in his pocket.

“Hey,” said Lewiht. “What are you doing?

“Look kid,” said the captain, approaching Lewiht. “I know who you are. I know what you have done. I’ve been told everything. I’m also going to get paid for taking you to the Archipelago.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

“The problem is, the bounty on your head is higher than what was promised to me.”

“By how much?”

“About ten gold. So give me a reason to not hand you over to the enforcers and get the bounty on your head.”

Lewiht frowned. That was too much, he didn’t even have five gold on him right now. He had one other thing, but that was the only thing he had left from his home.

“How do I know you’re not lying?”

“You can’t,” the captain took a huge bite from the orange. “But if you can’t raise the offer, I’ll just turn you in. If you can, you’ll get safe passage to the Archipelago. The choice is yours. Plus, if I lied, I would lie better than ten gold, trust me.”

Shit. Lewiht looked over his shoulder and could see a few soldiers patrolling the docks. He couldn’t go back there. Not after everything he had done.

“What if,” Lewiht asked, “I work for you? Full three months journey to Archipelago, I’ll be a part of your crew. How’s that sound?”

“I don’t know kid,” the captain leaned towards him. “Do you think you’re worth ten gold?”

“I do. At least, I’m a fast learner and I know I can help with the ship. You can decide whether I’m worthy or not. You’re trading back and forth between Kel’daras and Archipelago, no? You can always bring me back to the Kel’daras and hand me over if you don’t like my performance.”

The captain considered his offer for a while. “Well, you certainly know how to negotiate, kid. I accept. Now go carry those sacks over there to the ship.”

“What? Right now?”

The captain nodded.

“But I’m hurt and there are soldiers-“

“Then don’t promise what you can’t deliver, kid. Now, go!”

Lewiht looked at the high stacks of flour sacks and gulped. Maybe he wasn’t going to be as free as Willard made this out to be.