I recalled the hours before I’d found myself in Cruor. We had boarded Julie’s ship, which had been floating near The Tavern. I didn’t know how long it’d taken to travel from The Tavern to Cruor because I’d been unconscious for much of the time. But something told me that if I made it to The Tavern, I would have a better chance of making it back to The Shade. There were many wanderers who passed by, and if I just listened in to conversations long enough, perhaps I would catch mention of a gate. Perhaps I might even be able to follow them to it, if the right person came along.
But how on earth did I find The Tavern? I hadn’t even the first clue as to which direction to head in. Right now I was just running straight ahead, with no idea where I might end up.
The past weeks merged together in a blur of urgency to solve my mystery. It took a while for it to sink in that I didn’t have that problem anymore. I had time now. I was no longer a ticking time bomb. There was no hunger in my stomach, and I wasn’t affected by the time of day. I doubted that I would even tire of traveling. As much as I wanted to return to my home to check that everyone I loved was all right, time wasn’t the issue it had once been.
And so I kept running, away from the land of the Elders, deeper and deeper into the ocean. By the time the sun set, I still hadn’t come across land. I wondered if I’d taken completely the wrong direction, but the increasing frequency of ships that I spotted sailing toward me gave me hope that there were shores nearby.
As night fell, I spotted the outline of an island far to the east. It was some distance away yet, but at least I’d found it. As I moved toward it, I caught sight of something that arrested me. A ship, perhaps three miles in front of me, also moving toward the island. Even from this distance, something about it struck me as familiar. From its size, shape, and the color of its sails, the closer I got to the vessel, the more certain I became that it was Julie’s ship. Whether it belonged to her father, I wasn’t sure anymore. For all I knew, she didn’t even have a father.
It surprised me that Julie would be headed back toward this area. And from the looks of it, she was intending to arrive at the harbor. The ship was on a direct course toward the shipyard, showing no signs of slowing down. Skimming along the waves beside it, I caught up with the ship. Jumping upward, I soared through the air and landed noiselessly on the deck.
When I cast my eyes around, it was clear that something wasn’t right. The floorboards were stained with blood. There was splintered wood scattered about, the canvas fabric of the lower sails was torn, and a table had been upturned and ripped apart. The trap door leading down to the lower decks had been ripped from its hinges.
What happened here?
There was nobody navigating the ship, yet the vessel continued speeding ahead. I swept my eyes once more over the deck. Thick reins hung down over the bow of the boat and had been fastened to a mast. Whatever sea creatures served as the engine of this ship were leading it forward of their own volition.
I approached the open trapdoor. Descending the narrow staircase, I found myself at the end of a long, dim corridor that connected all the numerous cabins on this lower deck.
“Julie?” I found myself calling, my voice echoing in my ears.
No reply.
I moved further down the corridor, looking into the first room on my left. Like the deck above, this cabin also looked distressed. Bloodstains tainted the floor and walls, and the door was wrecked. It looked like someone had punched a fist through the wood.
The corridor wound to the right. As I turned the corner, my eyes were drawn to the ceiling.
Three naked figures—men?—were hanging from it. I moved closer, gaping up at their starkly pale skin, hairless heads, and emaciated limbs. I couldn’t make out their faces, only the backs of their heads, but as I walked directly underneath them, I caught a glimpse of their hands and feet, stretched out and gripping the walls on either side of them. Gnarled claws extended from their fingers, and their white cuticles were stained with red.
Although nothing could injure me anymore, I felt hesitant to move any closer to them. They were just so… strange. What were they exactly? Apparently yet another species of supernatural creatures to blow my mind. But what were they doing on Julie’s ship? And the blood staining their fingers… could that be Julie’s blood and that of her companions? Perhaps these creatures had hijacked their ship as they’d navigated away from Cruor.
I backed away from the pale creatures clinging to the ceiling, and cleared my throat. “What are you?” I spoke up.
They remained still, silent and barely breathing—as though I hadn’t spoken at all.
I backed further away from them, deciding to abandon my curiosity about them and focus on finding the box I feared Aisha was still trapped in. It was nowhere to be found on this level, so I took the staircase down to the deck beneath.
The last I’d seen of the box had been on the rocks beneath the mountain where I’d encountered Basilius. As a spirit I’d roamed that whole area during the time it had taken me to build up courage to abandon my physical form on the cliffside. I would’ve noticed the box if they’d left it there. So I could only assume that they’d carried it back to their ship. And as it turned out, I was right. Moving from room to room, I discovered the white oblong box in a small storage room near the galley.
I lowered my hands over the lid of the box. They didn’t pass through it, as my form did with other hard objects. Instead, I felt resistance, the same kind of resistance I’d felt while pressing my hands against The Oasis’ invisible barrier. I found myself relishing the illusion of solid contact. The feeling of touching something gave me a sense of grounding. I continued to press my palms down against it for several moments before calling, “Aisha?”