“Y-you didn’t tell us everything,” Arwen accused Dai, ignoring the chilling motes of fear and trepidation that she had brought with her from his memories.
Dai looked taken aback. “I didn’t?”
“You never mentioned that orb,” Arwen cocked a suspicious brow.
“What orb?” Dai looked genuinely concerned.
Arwen hesitated, unsure of herself now. “The orb? The one in that woman’s hands?”
“The woman had an orb?”
Arwen nodded emphatically. “Yes!”
Dai paused in thought and then shook his head. “I’m pretty sure she didn’t.”
“What?” Arwen pulled a face. She couldn’t have been imagining it, surely! “She did! What was in her hands, then?”
“In her hands… in her hands…” Dai pondered for a moment before giving up. “I… don’t remember.”
Arwen was sure he wouldn’t have forgotten such a strange object so easily, but her thoughts were interrupted by Cai. “What’s going on?” his tone grew harsher. “Arwen, is he lying to us?”
“Hey, I-” Cain jumped to his brother’s defence, but Arwen cut him off with a raised hand.
“No,” she declared. “He’s telling the truth, I think, but… strangely omitted something I suspect is important.”
“There was no orb!” Dai insisted.
“Hold on, hold on,” Gwyn stepped forward. “Let’s take a step back here. Arwen, what orb are you talking about?”
“I’ll go from the start, shall I?” Arwen relayed the events displayed to her by the Light Gem to her three retainers.
“Strange…” Cai muttered. “And you can’t recall this orb?”
“No!” Dai shook his head. “The last thing I remember is that woman in the cabin before I was suddenly lying on the floor by the helm of my boat. Everything was normal, even the wind was back, and I initially thought I’d passed out or something, but my crew reported the exact same experience and I could tell by the sun that at least an hour had passed since the wind had initially turned against us. Not only that, but all of our supplies were gone!”
“And no sign of this other boat?”
“None.”
Cain turned to his brother. “What if you weren’t robbed? What if you all suffered some sort of shared hallucination and threw all of your supplies overboard?”
“That doesn’t make sense,” Dai rebuked the theory. “Why would we stop at just the trading goods? We still had our crates of food and water for the crew and I… why wasn’t that thrown overboard?”
“If it was pirates,” Cai pointed out. “Why would they leave you the food and water?”
“Maybe they didn’t want to kill him,” Owen shrugged.
“Are we even sure it was pirates?” Gwyn asked. “The only evidence that speaks to that are the missing supplies. Maybe they went missing before the incident? What if the two are unrelated?”
“Even if that were so, it doesn’t explain what we saw.” Dai said.
Arwen sighed. This was getting nowhere. “Alright… none of your crew members took anything from this ship? Anything that could prove it actually existed?”
“None of them mentioned anything, though I never thought to ask.” Dai admitted. “I don’t think they’d fail to mention that, especially once we started doubting anything even happened ourselves before we realised our supplies were stolen.”
“Okay…” Arwen considered. She couldn’t get her head around this, and her own thoughts were terribly distracting her. “I think I need to discuss this with my retainers and… try and see if we can make heads or tails of this.”
“Does that mean you’ll help us?” Cain asked hopefully.
Arwen nodded, though it wasn’t very enthusiastic. “Yes… we will. Meet us at the Wrth y Traeth Inn at around lunchtime.”
On their way back to the inn, Owen sighed deeply. “This is the Dark Entity all over again. How is it you can always accidentally get the weirdest otherworldly ongoings within the Kingdom?”
Arwen ignored Owen’s annoying sarcasm. “At least we won’t be killing anyone… I think.”
“Why?” Cai frowned.
Arwen shrugged. “If they were robbed, it seems the pirates who did so were already dead.”
“But that would mean a bunch of corpses looted the ship,” Gwyn wasn’t quite following. Neither was Arwen, really.
The Princess had no words to offer. “You seem oddly calm about this,” Cai noted. “Like you’ve just accepted it all.”
“I do?” it was Arwen’s turn to frown.
Cai continued speaking as they walked. “Definitely compared to Alaru. You seemed a lot more uncertain of yourself there. Now? You look almost peaceful.”
“I-uh… thanks?” Arwen couldn’t tell if she were being complemented or insulted.
“It’s a good thing,” Cai assured her, shooting her a grin. “I was worried about you, before…”
Arwen returned a false smile and quickly broke her gaze as they continued through Glannau. Cai may have thought he knew what was going through her head, but he was only half right. Arwen may have accepted her task as it stood, but she wasn’t calm. She had simply resigned herself to failure- the only way this could go. Her biggest crutch, her best tool, the mystical artifact forged countless of centuries ago, showed her something absolutely impossible. Without it to guide her way, then how could she even hope to complete her task? She was useless without it.
For the briefest of moments, the Princess was tempted to confess her feelings of inadequacy to her retainers. She wanted to share with someone and, mayhap, even be understood by them… but she kept quiet. She could deal with this all by herself. She had to.
-cut-
Over at the Wrth y Traeth Inn near lunch time, Arwen and her retainers discussed the details of what she saw in Dai’s memories. She reiterated the Light Gem’s vision for the boys, who took a moment to ponder the wild tale while she gazed hopelessly around the common room, already consigned to stare off into space while they did the work.
The Wrth y Traeth Inn had disregarded typical furniture and had instead opted for square pillows to sit on, surrounding a low table that looked as though it was simply part of the floor that was raised a foot or two. Paper lanterns with yellow-blue depictions of the sea and otherworldly sea creatures from common fables swayed gently in the ocean breeze, allowed in by the large slitted wooden ‘windows’ that was typical for the buildings in Glannau. Outside, men passed by with fishing poles and carts, whilst women in lofty dresses hurried around to perform their daily duties. “I’m going to be honest,” Owen said at last. He looked up at Arwen from his cross-legged position on a beige-coloured pillow, forcing her to meet his gaze. “If this wasn’t coming from you directly, I’d be going home and calling this an elaborate prank.”
“I- I don’t even know if it’s real myself…” Arwen faltered. She thought the Light Gem had been accurate every time she used it, but now it showed a reality simply impossible to logic. What if it could be manipulated? What if it could be fooled? Perhaps, if Dai had convinced himself the crewless ship had existed, it’d trick the artifact into showing his crazed imagination as a genuine memory? Could Lye’s creation be so easily wrong, or would it be immune to such deception?
“Let’s break this down,” Gwyn was a lot more engaged than she was. “The strange winds you describe cannot be natural. It behaved too wildly and simply cannot be coincidental. The ship seemed to sail itself aside the Ysbrydfarer and stopped with ease whilst its entire crew had died, completely unaffected by the strange weather. That also is impossible. Whatever had killed the crew did it instantaneously, and based on what you described, Arwen, without anyone realising they were about to die. Finally, there’s the woman Dai had seen with the black orb…”
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“When Dai touched it, I think it forcibly ejected me from his memories,” Arwen explained. “M-… maybe he might have been rendered unconscious by it.”
Gwyn nodded, deep in thought. “And about an hour-ish later, the crew of the Ysbrydfarer wakes up and find their supplies missing, its robbers leaving just enough for them to survive the journey back to Glannau- unnecessarily, too, since their destination was only a few hours away.”
“Seems to me like a shared delusion,” Cai’s tone was aloof. It seemed he also thought the whole ordeal an impossibility.
Owen frowned. “Except they were robbed.”
“I think the black orb has something to do with it,” Gwyn muttered. “But it could also just be a piece of treasure. The fact that Dai had forgotten it strikes me as strange… I don’t think a strange orb in the hands of a dead woman aboard a massacred ship is easy to slip from memory.”
“Sounds like the orb could be an artifice,” Cai leaned in, suddenly interested. “What else has the power to create such a strange scenario?”
Arwen lowered her gaze from the slatted ceiling and spoke up. “I don’t know if it could be… an artifice always requires a wielder, except that everyone aboard the ship was dead. This is impossible, I believe. I don’t think we can solve this.”
“No. It’s not impossible. We can do this,” Gwyn resolutely refused the possibility. “What if the orb was a red herring? Maybe the ship had a hidden compartment with the real pirates, who then robbed the Ysbrydfarer while everyone was unconscious.”
“Doesn’t explain how the Ysbrydfarer’s crew could’ve all simultaneously passed out,” Cai shot down the explanation. “Also, why would the pirates set up such an elaborate scenario with dead bodies over a simple trick?”
“You were certain they were dead?” Owen asked the Princess.
“Dai was,” she affirmed, but wasn’t entirely sure herself. “And he was confident in his mind that he wouldn’t miss finding a pulse.”
“This entire thing makes me uneasy…” Owen said with a casual shrug that belied his words.
It was at this point that Cain and his brother, Dai, arrived at the inn. It took the pair a few moments to spot the group, but when they did, they approached without hesitation. “Come, sit,” Gwyn gestured towards the spare pillows stacked up in the room’s corner. “It’s very comfortable.”
“We brought a map,” Cain was all business, splaying out a rolled-up piece of parchment over the table. “We want to discuss something with you.”
Arwen half-heartedly peered at the map, which displayed the entirety of Loel from The Wastes in the west to the mysterious Island at the End in the east. Up north was Helvetia and its cold environment, whilst Cyfoeth down south was depicted in a more tropical style. “There,” Dai pointed at a little blotch of ink just south of the Island at the End. “It must be where the pirates live, unless they somehow are surviving perpetually at sea.”
Cai and Gwyn frowned at the parchment, whilst Owen seemed a lot less interested. “Could they not be at The Island?” Gwyn asked, referring to the Island at the End just northwards of his finger.
“We’ve been told very strictly to never approach the place,” Dai shrugged. “So, could be possible, I suppose.”
Arwen thought it unlikely. The Island at the End was one of the few places owned exclusively by the Church, and they had wasted no time in erecting thick wooden pikes as a wall that stretched across the entire expanse of the isle, leaving only the shore exposed to public eyes. From what Arwen knew, the Church was highly protective of their territory and were quick to engage in hostilities if interlopers proved slow to leave. Last she heard, they had discovered something there that had provoked this atypical behaviour from the religious superpower, but kept whatever it was close to their chest. “There would be blowback from the Church if we arrived unannounced.” She voiced her concerns on the suggestion.
“What if the pirates are Church members?” Cain proposed with an unhappy expression.
Arwen considered, relieved that she could actually contribute something no one else knew. “The Church is far too prestigious to resort to petty theft. If they needed resources, the Holy Citadel would provide. Unless,” she pursed her lips, “it’s a rogue band of Church members…”
Cai looked at Arwen. “Could you smooth over things if the Church reacts unpleasantly to our visit?”
Arwen’s brows creased. “I do not know. Not even my father can get much out of them. I’d probably just make things worse…”
“Your presence would no doubt help though,” Dai sounded hopeful, despite her hopeless words. “I doubt they would openly attack a Cyfoethian royal unless provoked.”
“Hmm,” Arwen acknowledged him noncommittedly. The relations between Cyfoeth and the Church, much like Helvetia and the latter, was utterly neutral. However, the depths of time obscured a violent history between Cyfoeth and the religious faction. The sins of Elgan Blayney were not easily forgotten, Arwen would assume. And there was little doubt they’d hate her, too.
“There’s also Helvetia to consider,” Cai added a new problem to the idea. The Island at the End traversed the Cyfoeth-Helvetia border, meaning they would have to land somewhere on the southern half of the island in order to stay within Cyfoeth territory. Doubtlessly, Helvetia would have ships patrolling their half of End’s Ocean, which wouldn’t necessarily cross into Cyfoeth’s side. However, the two kingdoms were at war… what if they sailed directly into a seabound invasion force? “Will the Church protect us on neutral ground?”
“Neither kingdom should dare war on their land,” Arwen pondered the logistics of the journey. “It’s the route itself to the Island that I worry for. I… just don’t think it’s a good idea…”
“Let’s get back to those islets,” Gwyn had at some point turned his attention back to the map on the wood table, “If we don’t want to risk pissing off the Church, we should at least take a look at them.”
“Right,” Dai shared Gwyn’s interest on the map, determinedly gazing close. “I’ve never really been there before, but from what I remember of them from afar, they are incredibly rocky and vertical- like jagged spikes more than islands.”
“Are we sure these guys even have a place they live?” Owen butted in. When confused stares met him, he sighed and elaborated. “I don’t know about you, but these pirates, if they exist, are breaking some pretty major rules. Why would they even be tangible in the first place?”
Cain sputtered. “You think? What? That they are intangible and only materialise to attack ships? That sounds like a tale I would tell my daughters.”
“So does what you’re telling us,” Owen retorted, shifting into a more comfortable position on his pillow. “We hardly know what they are, let alone their motives or where they live.”
“I think we should let Arwen decide on our course of action, instead of arguing.” Cai declared, as it became obvious that he was growing impatient.
But Arwen was hardly listening, and tensed up upon hearing her name. “M-me?!”
“Yes,” Dai sighed. “Let’s. I’m sorry, your Teyrn grace.”
“Let’s hear it, Arwen.” Gwyn seemed open to the suggestion.
All eyes fell the Princess, who grew hot with the sudden pressure. She took a moment to work up some saliva in her mouth. Her breathing quickened. What would father do? What would anyone else but her do? Should she just say sorry and give up? Or should she follow what her retainers and the two brothers were suggesting and see what happens? An awkward moment passed as she remained indecisive, before she finally opened her mouth. “We’ll go to the islets first… and then investigate the Island if we come up empty. C-can you arrange that?”
Dai nodded. “I’ll get my crew together- least those brave enough to go back out there.”
Gwyn smiled his approval at the Princess, who found the gesture oddly touching. “How many days will the journey be?” he dived right into the logistics.
This gave the captain pause. “About a day to the islets, I reckon, then about half a day to the Island. Give us around a day to do a proper search of the islets, and we’re looking at around four days total. Just enough to roast wholly under the sun.”
Gwyn considered, rubbing his chin in thought. “Have you the supplies to spare?”
Cain piped up with a heavy breath. “I will arrange it. And I will come along, too.”
Dai shot his brother a startled look. “Eh? What about Maygan and Linnie?”
“I’ll have the wife look after them while we’re gone.”
“How long do you need?” Gwyn asked.
“I can get a crew together by tonight,” Dai answered.
Cain said he would need more time to gather the necessary supplies and make preparations, so the plan was to set sail by tomorrow evening to make use of the favourable winds. Arwen asked whether her group could be of any use, but her question was met with an amused look. “Just enjoy Glannau for now,” Dai said with a smirk. “You’ll wish you were back here once we set sail. I hope none of you get seasick.”
The rest of the day was spent sightseeing in Glannau, exploring its curvy and unique architecture. They watched small canoes supporting two men holding a rope lace net bob around in the calm waves of Pwynt Estuary, rocking slightly as they launched their fishing gear into the water. The next day, she had happened across some fishermen who, like almost everyone, did not initially recognise her in uniform before growing eager to show the Princess the fruits of their labour. Arwen would usually hate their eagerness for her to take an interest in them, for she often shied away from social interaction, but the fishermen’s enthusiasm was refreshing and it helped her take her mind off of things. They spoke respectfully, called her ‘Teyrn’, but had a casual bluntness about them that she liked.
“This one has eggs,” one of the fishermen deftly handled a giant crab the size of her head, flipping it upside down and pointing out its curved abdomen, rife with little globules attached to its underbelly. “The corryn crab makes loads of em, but only a few babies will survive and grow into adults, like her.”
Arwen marvelled at the giant crab, whose carapace was covered in algae and was coloured perfectly for camouflage among the rocky benthos. Corryn crabs were very good to eat, she could personally attest to that, however she had never seen one alive. It was fascinating. “What will you do with it?”
“Throw it back in,” the fisherman shrugged. “Cain tells us to do that with the ones that carry eggs. Says it’ll make sure more crabs are available next year for us.”
“It might be worth keeping,” another fisherman disagreed as he rubbed his bald head. “Glannau’s in a right shit pit with supplies right now. We need all we can get.”
The Princess asked what else they typically caught, eager to keep away her own whirling thoughts, and the fishermen happily obliged. From crabs, to lobsters, fish that were wide and flat, and even an octopus, all was apparently bountiful in Pwynt Estuary. They also showed her something called a colynnu fish, a small sand-coloured thing with dorsal spines poking from its thin body. “Painful fuckers, these are,” they explained to her. “They hide in the beach’s shallow waters. Sometimes we end up stepping on em’ when deploying the nets, and it bloody half hurts for a good while.”
It was getting on in the day, and so Arwen had bid them farewell and made way to the inn for some last-minute preparations. Afterwards, she met up with her three retainers and made way to the docks, where the two brothers awaited by the Ysbrydfarer. Aboard, a flighty and nervous crew scurried around the ship, making final adjustments for the journey ahead.
Dai smiled at Arwen, but he couldn’t hide the fear in his eyes. “Let’s go meet some pirates, yeah?”