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JULES
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“No, it wasn’t her. It was a man.” He pointed out to sea. Liam winced and twitched. “And you better leave now, before he returns.” Liam hugged his son again, this time unencumbered by Cyrus’ frozen body.
“I’m scared, Dad.”
“I know, Jules. I know.” Liam squeezed tighter. “But you three need to leave. I’m not coming with you. I have more ships to sink.”
Jules pulled away from the embrace. “What?”
“I’ve been sabotaging their fleet for an hour. Figured I’d better get you supplies, so I took a break. But I need to finish the job if you’re to get away.”
“Dad, they’ll throw you in jail.” Liam smiled, the way only a parent can smile at a child's blissful ignorance.
“Oh, they’ll do much worse to me, but not for that. No one has seen me. He made sure of that. Part of our deal." Liam nodded towards the sea. What deal? "It’s the Maidens I need to worry about. I’ve been willingly harboring a fugitive for years.”
Jules felt that familiar lump in his throat. I've ruined their lives, Mom and Dad. “Come with us,” Jules pleaded.
“I can’t abandon your mom.” She’s not my…
“What’ll happen to you?”
“I don’t know.” Liam looked away. “I’ve been brave, Jules. I’ve been courageous. For years. But I’ve always been too afraid to read the papers, about the others’ parents. Greed and Sloth…” He looked his son in the eyes again. “But no matter what they do to me, I won’t stop being your dad. We will give them nothing.”
“I know you won’t, but Evelyn knows where we’re headed, too.”
“Oh, Jules.” Liam shook his head, then hung it low. “Your mother, she’s conflicted. I know it’s been tough. The first few days you were born, she was up and down. Some days you were a curse, other days you were the greatest blessing in the world. I have a feeling she’ll bounce back the other direction soon.”
“Dad.” Jules leaned into his anger to hold back tears. "I don't—"
“It was her idea, Jules. The Binding Vow. On one of those days she was up, when she was happy. We knew this day would come.”
“A kill-switch?”
“No. A failsafe. When we’re questioned, we will show them. They’ll know we’re useless in an interrogation chamber.”
“So, then…” Jules buried his face into his dad, one last time. Liam laughed.
“Salvos no, son. The Maidens aren’t so shortsighted. They’ll keep us alive, hoping you’ll be foolish enough to reach out to us. So, if you do,” Liam pulled Jules in for one last hug, “be smart about it. Be smart, Jules. Cy, groan once for yes, twice for no. You caused a ruckus earlier, so do you have Rukia’s collar?”
One grunt.
“Did Evelyn give it to you?”
Another single grunt.
Liam smiled. “Looks like your mother gave you a parting gift as well.” Liam motioned toward the sailboat. “Put that collar on Rukia when you’re safe. Go, now. And Jules—He said you have to seek Patience.”
“Patience, the Virtue? And who said it, the samurai?”
Liam’s eyes glassed over completely. “We’re out of time, Jules.” The way he said that just now, it reminds me of Isolda.
“I know you’re in there somewhere, but—Goodbye, Father.”
Rukia settled into the sailboat, and Jules unfurled the sail. Liam shoved them off and waved goodbye. Jules watched Liam, the docks, and the marina itself shrink away against the backdrop of Coralhaven, and into the forests behind it. The plaza, the bell tower. The Alchemist's alembic tower, the Halberd. Their favorite hunting ground, their home to the southwest. And the Shrine. All faded away with Coralhaven.
Jules loosed the second sail. Cyrus groaned loudly again and tried to thrash about. Rukia barked. Of course. Should be safe enough. Jules shuffled through his friend’s backpack and found a dog collar. Jules knelt down to the panting and tail-wagging fox. He wrapped the collar around her neck and snapped the latch in place—
Light drew in around Rukia’s tufts of crimson fur and eyes. Her features softened up, a little more humanlike than before. Her eyes were more piercing, the irises more ovular and pointed like a cat’s. She sat back on her haunches and saluted Jules with one front paw.
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“Sailor Rukia, reporting for duty, Cap’n!”
A feeling of overwhelming joy overtook Jules, as if he were reunited with a long-lost runaway dog. He felt like he’d known her for eternity, like they’d never been separated. He saluted back. “Private Rukia—Where in Salvos’ name have you been? You’re late to your post.”
She looked straight ahead. “Disposing of enemy forces, Sir! They were going to overrun your family, and they—” Her playful demeanor fell to sadness. “They knew your faces. And names, Sir.”
Sweet Salvos, those puppy dog eyes…
He swooped in and hugged her tightly. Her eyes bulged, and she kicked her hind legs into his chest like a trapped rabbit. She wiggled about side-to-side. “No, no, no—Please, no hugging—"
“I bet it took a while to find me.” Jules ignored her request. “But you’ve been on my tail for a while now, haven’t you?”
Rukia finally slid down and out of the embrace. She raised her own tail. “Yes, I went on quite the adventure.” She stood on her hind legs and dusted herself off and smoothed out her fur. Rukia's voice was squeaky and shrill, but also somewhat harsh. “I’d love to show it to you sometime, but now’s not that time. Storm’s coming and you can’t handle the swells.” Show me?
“How do you know what I can handle? And the weather’s been clear all day.” Out at sea, the sky darkened, and the clouds shifted a little too quickly.
“I have unrestricted access to our Menu. You’re only Level 3 at Sailing—and apparently Level 0 at Meteorology.” Dark clouds now formed around a single point, just a knot out.
“Uh, are those clouds…radiating out from that point?”
“Excellent deduction, Jules.” Rukia inspected the mast's components and mechanics. “Hmm, I’m used to ships, and ships with motors at that, but I think I can figure this little guy out.”
The clouds spread faster now in every direction and would soon block the sun. Cyrus mumbled frantically. Jules leaned his frozen body up so he could see the singularity point.
“Rrrr-nnn rrr-nnn,” Cyrus repeated several times. “RRRR-NNN RRR-NNN!”
“Can’t understand you, Cy. Rukia, can you sail this thing?”
“I was a sailor in at least 471 past lives, and I've almost always been known as The Storm—”
“Great. Brag later. Get us away from those clouds, especially from that center point. The one that’s—”
“You mean the point that’s moving right at us?” Rukia tugged on a rope. The wooden boom swung back and cracked her in the head. "Oof!"
“Don't touch that—But yes. Storm’s either coming straight at us or heading right, so go left.”
“Port it is,” she shouted. Rukia swung the boom to change course. Black mist rose off the ocean’s surface, a half-knot out. Cyrus mumbled and squirmed about more freely now. He thrashed his head toward the mist and slurred his words. Jules gaped at the mist.
“Cy, is that who I think it is?”
“High-nnn duhh-nnn.”
“What would he be doing in Coralhaven!? The Shrine, you think?”
“Who?” Rukia carefully tugged another rope, then leapt back from it. Nothing happened.
“The Flying Dutchman. Davy Jones, he goes by. The Dutchman is the name of his ship—Rukia, he’s an Alter. The Alter Pirate. We can’t fight him, not even…” In my other state.
Rukia huffed and puffed as she loosened ropes and tightened others to accelerate away. Jules ran his thumb over a stolen Ryoku Crystal.
“Cy...I think I know who these belong to.”
“What?” Cyrus asked. Jules handed him one of the crystals. “Oh, I couldn’t see those before, either. I wondered what you stole.”
“I see you can speak again, nice of you to join us. We need to use these—”
Oh Salvos.
The peak of a black mast broke through the water’s surface from below. Black rope and sails followed after, as did two smaller masts with black sails. A pirate’s crest of white skull and bones appeared on the dark mainsail.
“So you stole those from Isolda—from him!?”
“Allegedly.”
“Allegedly!? Jules, I saw you do it!”
"But did you, though?"
"I MEAN YEAH KINDA!!"
The hull breached the surface a quarter-knot out. Salt water gushed from gun ports and cabin windows. As their little sailboat shifted direction, so too did The Flying Dutchman shift its course to maintain a collision.
“Rukia, sail. Cy, we need to move fast. Use the Crystals to power this thing. I don’t know if Rukia can use these, so I’ll use the other one." Jules and Cyrus both lit their eyes and markings—Cyrus his tattoos, Jules his Seal—and invoked their Runes.
> « Air » [₹1,500 // ₹10,000]
“Avast, ye scurvies!” Rukia shouted orders to imaginary men. She danced about the deck like an acrobat. She flipped around and yanked ropes to continually adjust their course. “Ye’ll not catch Rukia, the Stormfront, today, nor any day!”
A hundred feet. No good, more, more!
Fifty feet. Not gonna make it.
Twenty feet. “Brace yourselves!”
Their flimsy sailboat's stern grated against The Dutchman's hull. The sailboat shifted near a 45-degree angle as it grazed along the side. Jules and Cyrus pushed against the black wooden hull. Rukia flew through the air on a rope, as if she could simply kick the massive ship away, and just bounced off of it. A moment later, the boats disconnected, and they rocked back the other way as the boat evened out. Just enough. Rukia almost fell overboard, but grabbed another rope and landed gracefully back on all four feet. The vessels drifted past each other, and Jules looked up at the other's deck.
A younger girl about his age—the only person on the entire ship—leaned against a rail. Dressed in simple pirate garb, she studied the sailboat, then Jules. Their gazes connected until a colorful parrot landed on her shoulder.
“Full speed ahead,” Rukia shouted. “Give her yer all, mateys!” She pinched one eye shut as if she wore an eyepatch. The boys' Runes blasted them forward, away from all the day’s action.
They eventually depleted two of the three Ryoku Crystals, and only then they looked back and sighed with relief.
“Looks like no one is following us. Better keep the last Crystal for another emergency." The Flying Dutchman continued its course away from them.
“Maybe we weren’t his target,” Cyrus said. “They were headed straight for Coralhaven.”
“For Isolda, I bet.”
“What a day.” Cyrus laid down on the deck. With no Ryoku left, the wind would have to put in its fair share of work.
Jules paused to think about his parents. He chewed on his lip. “They’re on their own now, as are we,” he said. “We must continue forward.”
“Aye, Cap’n Jules.” Cyrus looked at Rukia. “So…you’re a talking fox.”
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