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JULES
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Jules cleared his head. I’ll compartmentalize for now. Focus on the task at hand, then return to it later. When there’s…time.
“First, a brief history lesson. The Sound was Wrath’s weapon in his real world, before he was sent to Hell. It’s infused with his fury and will, and has since been used as a weapon by all of his incarnations. It is always divided into three pieces—”
“Why three?” A vein popped on Kaizen’s forehead. “Right, go on…”
“Not every version of Wrath has retrieved all three. Some have been trapped, some have died, some ignored it altogether.” Kaizen stopped, and Jules felt like he could speak again.
“How did they die?”
“The Sound can kill you.” Jules would have dropped the Vessel had he held it. He feared death again. “Not so much kill you, as Wrath overtakes your soul… But, uh, then you perish in Hell. For, forever.” Kaizen scratched his head. Jules’ eyes might have left their sockets. “Or until someone breaks this never-ending Cycle.” Kaizen pointed the Sound at Jules. "Am I right!?"
“Right…Sounds safe to use.”
“Now’s not the time for terrible puns. Be serious." Jules rolled his eyes. Wasn't my intent… "The Sound will bolster your control over Wrath, and your Spirit Integration with Rukia and me.”
“How does wielding his weapon help me control Wrath better? Seems like it’d give him an advantage."
“By mastering the Sound, you are mastering Wrath’s will. When you’ve assimilated all three pieces of it… Well, safe to say that he’ll never possess you again. Unless you want him to.”
“...Right. Which I'd never do…But if I did, why would I want to do that again?”
Rukia and Kaizen looked at each other and ignored him.
“Right,” Kaizen said. “So start off Integrating me into the Sound, then we will proceed to Integrating me into your body.”
Why Integrate him into me? This training is for the Sound, so what advantage would that have?
“When we Integrate, can I use your knowledge and skills of the Sound?” Kaizen smiled for the first time. Jules frowned. “So then, if Wrath takes me over, he can use his knowledge and skills?”
Kaizen nodded. "Now you're thinking."
“So… Could I one day learn how to make it rain blood?”
“From a lacerated sky?” Kaizen asked.
“Bleeding its horror!?” Rukia perked up with a smile.
“Creating my—Well, yeah, something like that,” Kaizen said.
“When I tried Integrating you into an object, Wrath took it over. So what about Integrating you into me? Seems like a greater risk there.”
“Absolutely. If you let Wrath in instead of me, he’ll probably kill your friends.”
Jules recoiled in shock. “Why the hell would he do that!?”
Kaizen paused.
“They are your liability—well, his—and you forced him into a contract to save them. He’s known to hold grudges.”
But can he kill Kat?
“So why risk it?”
“I’d love to hear other options, Jules.”
“I’ve got one,” Rukia said. “Throw me a ball—”
“Am I ready for this, Kaizen?” They ignored her.
“You're becoming a fast learner. Yes, I think you are ready, which is why I brought it up.” Yeah, but also if I don’t learn it…
Jules scratched the heptagram. The clock is ticking.
Kaizen handed Jules the Sound and walked him through the entire process. Jules powered up the Sound and began his meditation cycles.
“Right. Now, overlap my soul on its imprint.”
Jules lined them up for a perfect match on his first try. He pressed Kaizen down into the Sound, but felt Wrath’s wavelengths nearby, and immediately pulled away.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“Why did you quit?”
“I felt him… I figured better safe than sorry.”
“That’s fine, let’s try—”
“Quiet.” Rukia shot up and sniffed the air. “Those Pirates. Close. The breeze pushed their scent downwind—I’m sorry I just noticed it.”
Jules disengaged the Sound before any spies could see it action. He sheathed it in his belt and crammed Kaizen back in Rukia’s Shaman Beads. Sorry, Kaizen. She might be able to see you.
Maddie approached him from the hillside. It was just the four of them now, two Arcanics and their Familiars. Maddie clasped some silver object in her hands, and Salty Pete rested on her shoulder.
“Hello again, Wrath,” Maddie said with a wry grin.
“Ahoy."
“You’ve given me quite a few scares over the last week.”
“SQUAWK! SCARES!”
“Did you lead them to us again?” Jules' eyes darted around. He didn’t dare turn his head and focus away from her. I’m all alone. Kat should be in the Shrine by now.
“Well now, that hurts my feelings, Wrath. I didn’t rat you out.”
“RAAAT! WRAAATH!”
“Are you sure Salty Pete here didn’t say it for you?”
Maddie’s eyes narrowed. “When I say I didn’t, Jules, I mean I didn’t. I mean Salty Pete here didn’t. I mean Thorn didn’t, Auggie didn’t. I even mean that John’s forbidden from telling it to a fuckin' Mermaid, if it's the only way she'd sleep with him. Is that clear?”
You really remind me of someone right now.
“Then color me confused. They were onto us a day after our departure.”
“The Spider caught you in his web. You were careless, apparently. I simply reported that I saw you in Siren’s Cove, and that you’d escaped—after our time limit expired.” Jules relaxed, slightly. “You know, I was pretty confused myself, leaving the Cove. Heard a tale that a bunch of Virtues were in town. Capturing the Shrine, chasing down a Sin. Thought to meself—Oi, me cover’s blown and all, until I looked into it and—Hey. Don’t laugh at me, Jules. It’s unseemly right now.”
“I know, I’m sorry, Maddie. Cy convinced those Sailors we were Virtues in Aquilantis. We couldn’t take them with us after running into you all, so we kicked them out. He'd already told them we were hunting down Sins." Jules glanced at Rukia. "But despite all that, I appreciate your silence. Now, is that a trait of yours I can rely on indefinitely, or…”
“...Or at a price, perhaps? Is that what you were going to ask, Jules? You're trying to bribe me?"
“What do you want, Maddie?”
"Oh, I'm not sure anymore.” Maddie walked around Jules in a tight semicircle. What game are you playing? When she’d walked around half the circumference of her imaginary circle, she raised up the silver object in her hand. She inspected it, then sighed. “Damn thing. Tell me, Wrath. Just what the fuck happened in Coralhaven?”
“Just how long have you been following me?” Jules asked. Maddie displayed the object for him to admire: a silver compass. “Mm. Pretty.”
“I suppose I owe you for giving me this gift. It’s the Vessel from Siren's Cove, a compass that has pointed to you since I first received it.” You mean stole it.
“Are you alone? Truly alone, I mean.” Anxiety crept in.
“It’s just me, you, and our little pets, here. My crew—and just my crew—are nearby." Maddie looked at her fingernails. "They…reluctantly stayed behind.”
"Something tells me rope was involved."
Maddie laughed. “Persuasion was necessary."
“Ah, so the clock’s ticking, then. Funny, everyone keeps reminding me of that.”
“So?”
“Your mates took my friends hostage. Decapitated one.” Maddie looked around them. She seemed nervous to Jules, like she just realized what it meant for Jules to really be alone right now. “It’s OK. They hurt the right one. For us, anyway. I went into the Coralhaven Shrine alone. I—” Was stripped mortal, and feared death for the first time. “—I captured it, but at a great cost. Something about that Shrine specifically enraged Wrath. He took control of me and…" Jules looked up at the darkening clouds. "Well, you saw."
“Right. OK." Maddie clicked her tongue. "Well, I’m honestly not sure if I’m here to kill you or not. I do have enough wisdom to hear you out, and trust my gut feeling, which—”
“So much wisdom, Maddie. And at such a young age." Salty Pete flapped his wings at Jules. "Anyway, that was Wrath that destroyed Coralhaven, not me. I’m looking for a way to tame—”
“The Decimation of Coralhaven. That’s what they’re calling it already. It’s important to know the stakes. You've got a new Bounty, by the way, and I'm still looking for me early retirement."
> [Bounty Increased by ₹2,500,000 for crimes committed in Coralhaven. Total Bounty is now ₹3,270,890.]
Sweet Salvos.
"So, if you fail? To tame it?”
> [Rukia's Bounty Increased by ₹250,000 for crimes committed in Coralhaven. Total Bounty is now ₹500,000.]
What the fuck!? Rukia shouted in his mind. That's all I get!? It was practically all me!! They valued me at half before, but now I'm 90% off like some cheap—
Can it, fox.
> [Pang! Telepathy increased to Level 22.]
Maddie snapped her fingers at him. "Hey, I'm talking to you!"
Jules rubbed his face and cleared his throat. “We are getting stronger as a group. As a…backup plan.”
“I see.” Maddie nodded her head for a while and popped her neck.
“So what now, Maddie? Do we fight? Will you report me to the Iron Maidens? Our forty-eight hours expired a while back."
“QUIET! QUIET!” Salty Pete took flight and circled overhead. Rukia wiggled her butt and dropped low, in a position to leap and swipe him out of the sky.
“Yes, please. I need to think. You are still a Sin, at the end of the day. Friends though we may be…”
Friends, huh? Time to play all my cards, then. Jules reached his hands out to be handcuffed.
“I suppose it is your sworn duty to take me in…”
Maddie perked up. “I’ve signed no contract with Zeke. Yet."
“Ha! You're funny, I don’t remember signing any either, now that you mention it.”
Maddie shifted a shoulder toward him, as if to become a smaller target. She looked him up and down and placed a hand on her cutlass' pommel. “Say it, then. What you’ve been dying to since the Cove."
“Salty Pete, you have been an excellent coverup. Virtue's Familiars can’t speak. But…you’re not a Sin, are you Maddie?”
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83
BONUS CONTENT BELOW
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Books of Salvatica
Excerpts from 'Factions of Salvatica' by B.S. Snelliott
The Church of Salvos
The main religion of all Salvatica, outside of course the savage lands of the pagans in the Verdant Expanse, is, of course, The Church of Salvos. The Church provides spiritual guidance and leadership for all of Salvatica’s citizens, and of course its Prophets predicted The Fateful Night. The Priest on High leads the Church in all of its affairs, from the vibrant and holy city of Solstice Keep in Obsidia.