Joseph’s eyes hurt.
The entire fight became a blur. The Mage and the Captain were discussing a weird bottle one minute; and the Mage dropped onto the ground like a sack of bricks the next one. His brain was grinding overtime, it felt like it was a junk car trying to overtake Ferrari on a highway.
And just when the ash seemed to settle, human silhouettes appeared near the gates. He tried to shout with all the might his tired throat could share - but there was nothing he could do against the stone tomb he laid buried in. His hands were turning into lead; his legs melted into jelly; his blood turned into blue of lizard’s. The heat grew suffocating with each passing second, his own rash breath sabotaging the efforts to hold onto slivers of awareness.
When the smoke from a bomb dissipated, the relief washed over him like a cold shower he desperately yearned for. The fight seemed to be over, with the enemy fleeing and his crew emerging alive and charging, if carrying a few new scratches on them. They could walk it off anyway.
Ralf pointed somewhere outside his vision and Alchfrid shambled away from the tavern. The quartermaster ran off in the same direction a couple of seconds after, and only the cook remained standing where Joseph could see him.
They didn’t forget about him, right? They weren’t going to leave one of their crew members to succumb slowly to the earth, right? Ralf wouldn’t allow that, would he?
The man in question threw his gaze over to Joe’s side. Joseph’s spirit fired up and he couldn’t help but grin at himself. He wasn’t forgotten yet!
Ralf froze in place for a solid second. Then he turned his head and walked away.
Excuse me?!
“Heeeey!!! Ralf, what the hell?! I need some help over here-” he cried out before his throat exploded and he began coughing violently. Which only made the gloom of his situation sting even stronger.
What indignation!! He was the one who discovered the trails of the operation on that condemned Black Island! He was the one who slayed that Archrhyder and saved - well, helped to save - Rodger and Duncan from a torturous death! He was sorry about Vas and Henry, but look, this is just life, alright?! Someone will be left behind at some point, such is the nature of the world! Any world! And they were going to simply leave him here for maggots to feast?! Just like Henry was left behind on that island, just like…
Just like him who was going to become fertilizer soon.
“Haaa… Ha-ha. Ha.” The remains of strength left his body. A small, grim thought coiled around his consciousness: maybe he deserved it. Maybe it was his fate to see this beautiful new world and disappear within its depths with no legacy of his own to leave behind.
Come to think of it - what was he prior to the Threshold? A human? A drone? A technical lead of a small team bowing to a bigger man for a scrap of change on his piece of plastic? A hunter?
A hunter of what? A hunter of defenceless animals? A hunter of useless papers? Where did he begin on that wheel of life?
He never had a chance to think about that. All of the worries before that day shattered upon ramming a wall of tomorrow. More work, more issues, more deadlines, more things that seemed important in a minute… More holes in his own world that had trouble gathering resources to rebuild.
And if his only chance to figure something out had to be enforced by letting himself be buried underneath a medieval tower, then, he supposed, it wasn’t the worst way to find enlightenment. He had nothing but time and his own mind to flee into.
…Who was he trying to fool there?
“Let me out, assholes!!! Let me out! Please… Someone…”
Damn, he sounded pathetic.
“You sound pathetic.”
“What?!”
The moonlight suddenly stung his eyes. Joseph shut them and tried to sit upright, devouring as much fresh air as his lungs could hold. His body was trembling and he paid a spoon size worth of attention to it, just as he barely acknowledged the fact that debris vanished from his surroundings. The warmth found its way into his limbs once more yet he decided to just sit there, processing what the hell just happened.
Then he heard a loud cough. “If you are done monologuing over the fact that you can see the sky again then I have a message for you.”
The voice sounded vaguely familiar… And that blue robe looked familiar too.
“Zaid?! I… thank you. Sorry, I need some air after being cooked for a hot minute, ha-ha…” The talisman seller only waved away his cheap attempts at reciprocity.
“Thank Ralf when you see him. You better not waste your own time, you don’t have a lot of it. Ralf said you still haven’t answered his question earlier - about the path you want to choose.”
The path… Oh, right. He was supposed to decide whether or not he wanted to pursue his search for a way back home. His actual home that is, not the ‘Morning Star’. He had a problem with choosing back then - and he would rather be damned forever by Gods than say that the decision came easier now. Admittedly, the wild ride with a sudden stop a few moments ago (almost turned into the final destination too) may had added a few more stones on the scales… but Joe was still not sure which exact choice had more weight for him personally. Besides, the tower incident could happen again on any path - and should he move on solo, he might not recover the next time he runs into an enemy like that person in black.
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“I still don’t have an answer.”
“Then you better find one, and quick~” Zaid almost sang that line, suddenly changing his tone from serious to almost cheerful. “Ralf told me that he gives you five minutes to decide - and then another seven to reach the Morning Star should you settle on that.”
The merchant leaned lower towards Joseph, showing him a sinister half-smile, “And two have already passed.”
“Good luck!~” was all Joseph heard behind his back as houses flew by him. The energy once lost had returned from nowhere as if he was chased by Evalyn and her entire ‘Fairlight’ company at this moment. He did not stop to look at a single thing along his path, merely stepping over the obstacles on the road.
The statue of Kon’jar stood in front of him - he curved around it.
Someone’s head rolled across his path - he jumped over it.
Some loud cursing, numerous shots, and thunder of something very heavy crumbling down - he brushed aside all of it.
Someone was desperately calling for help - that caused him to slow down. He glanced to the side and saw a mimic half-covered under a mountain of what he guessed were the remains of a brick building. The mimic was unaware of his presence - he was trashing around in agony, screaming his insides out.
Joseph jerked towards the distressed man - and then stopped. Zaid’s words kept stabbing his head like needles.
You only have around ten minutes to choose.
He forced his legs to carry him away. The desperate cries faded behind nearby ruins.
When he reached an intersection, he halted. Joe turned his head to the left - southwest port laid there, behind the gates. Right where the ‘Morning Star’ was docked. He turned his head to the right - and the northwest gate revealed itself, standing there with minor damage to its body.
If he could fetch some free time out of his pockets like a street magician he would do so without hesitation. The world demanded an answer now - one answer he was still unable to give to anyone. Not even to himself.
There was only one conclusion he could sign with a steady hand. That he hated Ghastly Wail with every string of his soul. But that wasn’t the most important question - he had to run, now. But run where?
He shut his eyes. Then bared them for the starry skies to see.
“Where is my hometown, huh?… Somewhere there, I wonder?…” he whispered. “The space is endless…”
What were the chances of him figuring out the way on his own? Null. He grimaced. If there was anything he did learn during his only night in Ghastly Wail, then it could be only one lesson - he was weak. He had no skills, no tools, no allies, or special abilities to cover his back.
And if he wanted to work his way to somewhere he wished to be, he better not hesitate. It was a gift from the old world - that memory about the corporate grind crashed back down with a force of a hammer. Hesitation is defeat, discipline is power. Knowledge is power. In short, he needed more power.
There was a scream behind his back. He turned around.
A ship was hanging on the horizon. Tall, wide, possessing a form he had never seen, with the image rivalling that of the ‘Morning Star’. But where his ship was more of a box with rounded edges and a smaller box on top, this one had a longer body with an inclination to a shape of a rhombus in the front. In the night, Joseph had a much harder time picking up on individual features, so the only characteristic he could confidently talk about was that this new ship was a hunk of metal that looked like a lean whale; with the size to match.
“The imperials! Move, move!!” More people rushed past him, leaving only ash clouds behind. He paid them no attention - he knew the answer now.
Joseph ran towards the southwest gate. Any feelings of doubt that were scratching at his consciousness were pushed away. The ragged stone of the bridge only guided him forward towards the gaping maw of a cave that led to the port.
He dived right in.
In a battle between a dangerous uncertainty and a dangerous somewhat-certainty, he would rather take the side of something he already had the knowledge of. The ‘Morning Star’, his one and only checkpoint in this new uncertainty. Until he could reliably stand on his own two legs, he chose that ship to be his new home.
He emerged from the cave near port cranes and ginormous hordes of people of various races. Before that, Joe’s imagination never bothered to put a coin towards printing a potential number of living souls that stayed on Ghastly Wail before and during his arrival. Now that he could see it for himself, that number was huge. The K-pop live concert tier of huge. Not like he had been to one, he only remembered how Kate described it…
It was not the time to dive into memories. Carefully navigating his way through the waves of people, Joseph reached the door that led into the dock itself. He barged inside and ran down the stairs.
A friendly - or rather, fiendishly-gloomy face met him near the gunwale of the ship. Ralf paced back and forth, throwing glances towards the entrance periodically. Joseph noticed a big smile blooming on the cook’s face and he couldn’t help it - he let himself smile as well.
“Can’t stay away from me, can ya?”
“Don’t give yourself credit for nothing,” Joseph growled, trying to climb over the gunwale onto the deck of the ‘Morning Star’. Unfortunately, it was the exact moment when his body decided that he needed some rest and his arms happily followed the order. He plummeted down onto the deck like a jag of water, chin first.
Heavy steps approached his useless shell. “A hand in need?”
A friend indeed. “Sure…”
Ralf put him back on his feet and waved his arm to Theo. The helmsman waved back and the ship shuddered, waking up from a day-long slumber. Shivers ran down Joseph’s spine when he realized that it was indeed only one day that had passed since they left their metal leviathan. That day left an impression that Joe could only describe as a ‘horde of horses dancing on his body for a week straight’ with how much his world turned upside down on every second corner of his damned settlement.
Joseph threw one last glance back at the port. He hoped he would never have to return to this soil in the future.
“I feel like I need a day or two of mindless training,” he confessed to Ralf. The big man hummed and said nothing. Joseph continued, “Oh, and by the way, I saw what was apparently an imperial ship outside the island…”
“Big fucking surprise.” Ralf’s brows twitched. “We are not getting off the island without a fight. The whole thing was definitely a trap and now they are locking as in. Xander is readying weapons as we speak, Alchfrid is on standby, I am on standby too. Forget about the break Joseph, the night is not over yet.”
Joe only hugged his rifle tighter. The ‘Morning Star’ charged towards the darkness, carefully avoiding the surrounding walls of a cavern. The exit was nowhere in sight.
“Why don’t we meet them in caves?”
“Because they can siege as forever,” Ralf shrugged. “You have seen one ship. Can you say for sure that there is only one ship?”
“No,” Joseph admitted.
The ship continued sinking down into the darkness, guided only by the lanterns on its sides.