Augury: Hate’s Creation

[Lunar Blessing]

Sam snaps out of her daydream, a little disoriented. "Yeah, I can do that. You want me to do it now or..."

[AonEne]

1 hour ago, Blessing of Potency said:

Sam snaps out of her daydream, a little disoriented. "Yeah, I can do that. You want me to do it now or..."

“Yes, thank you,” Gati said. “Preferably somewhere without natural predators, and with food and water.” 

[Archer]

Tion was right on Sagitta’s heels. He hesitated as she bounded up the porch steps to her cabin, crouching to reach under the stairs where he had hidden his own things. “Stand back!” he cried as he stepped into the room, his trademark coat under one arm and his rapier in the other, bits of sand flying from it as he gave it a mighty swing at the chest’s lock. Twang! It scratched the metal, but the clasp held firm.

“Pull it out more,” he grunted, stepping around to the back of it. Bracing himself against the bedframe, the god kicked the back of the box’s lid, where its hinges were subtly recessed. After a few pounds, he jammed the rapier in the crack up to its hilt and pulled it up as a lever. Slowly, the damaged wood gave way. With a pop, the hinge screws came loose enough that a few more kicks knocked the lid off entirely. Inside, carefully folded and placed, lay Sagitta’s possessions. On the very top, her sword lay in waiting, wrapped in a leathery material. “Test it, just to be safe. Make sure nothing’s tampered with.”

Tion looked outside one of the building’s windows. It had a lovely view of the surf, and beyond it, the restless waves of the ocean. Dozens of inhabitants were walking towards them on the beach. They had a distinctly relaxed air about them, but their gait was straight and purposeful. They were close enough now that Tion could see the whites of their thin, mindless smiles.

One of the men near the back was moving with greater speed, almost a power-walk. He got Tion’s attention, though it took him a moment to recognize his fellow deity. “Hurry it up,” he said, slamming the door shut. His fingers fumbled with the cords to pull the blinds, as if blocking the line of sight would protect them.

“I don’t mean to alarm you, but-,” the porch steps creaked, announcing the presence of a portly man, “Intensity is here.”

On cue, a soft knocking noise made him jump. Tap, tap, tap. “Hullo. Do you mind if I come in, mm?”

Tion's wide eyes looked to Sagitta, scrambling for a plan, willing to follow her lead.

[+Sorana]

Her sword looked fine. Sagitta smiled when she saw the polished steel and quickly slid it back into it's sheath, leaned over to the chest. The two saddlebags contained her armor, but she couldn't check it now, it would take too much time. Instead she reached for her bag and was delighted to see a bundle of cloths next to it.

"Do you think you can help me carry the armor? Take one of the saddlebags?" she asked Tion and lifted them both out of the chest as well, set them down on the floor.

“Hullo. Do you mind if I come in, mm?” Intensity. She left it to Tion to deal with the god, instead opened her bag and stuffed her own pants into it, changed from the slippers Intensity had given her to her own sturdy shoes. Only then did she look up to see if Tion would agree to carry some of her luggage and found him staring eyes wide at her, doing nothing. It took her a moment to understand that he was waiting for her to come up with a plan, with an idea and she made a clueless gesture with her hands. She didn't even know what the objective was - buy time. She could try to buy them some time.

"Give me a second please?" She shouted and grabbed the hem of the thin tunic. Pulling it over her head she made sure she finished the gesture before she continued to speak. "I'm not fully dressed." Without a pause she reached for her own, and started to dress again. It was a little thicker, better to be worn beneath the padded vest that was still lying in the chest. So that one next.

With one hand she pointed at the wall of the cabin and then made a kicking motion, as if breaking through the wall. She finished her unspoken question with a slight shrug and a gesture towards Tion, leaving the decision to him.

[Archer]

8 hours ago, Sorana said:

With one hand she pointed at the wall of the cabin and then made a kicking motion, as if breaking through the wall. 

Tion nodded, understanding the suggestion. “Good idea, Sorana,” he whispered. “Oops, sorry, wrong wall.”

The god grabbed Sagitta’s second bag and dragged it to the back of the room. “I’ll take whatever you can’t carry,” he murmured, trying not to let his voice carry. To free up his hands, he shrugged on his coat and fastened it at the front. It clashed considerably with his loose brown robes, but there was no time to change.

He poked a finger into the wall, examining its construction. The inside appeared to be a façade of driftwood planks, fitted together in rows, but their organic shaped left a few gaps through which he could see the cabin’s outer wall and the occasional support column. Lacing his fingers through one hole, Tion was able to yank a piece free from the nails that held it in place. He tried to keep his grunts of exertion to a minimum, but the ripping noise of the wood was unavoidable.

Thump, thump, thump. Three more knocks pounded the door, harder this time. “Sagitta T'Sora, I greatly desire to speak with you. Please come out.” The latch on the door shook. An edge of frustration was audible in Intensity’s voice.

Meanwhile, Tion had stripped a few square feet of inner wall. He stepped back to size up the rest of the job. “The outside’s more solid, but we’ll be pushing on them. It should come off easily enough, but it’s going to be loud.”

As if on cue, there was a tremendous sound of cracking glass. Simultaneously, the two windows beside the door exploded into a thousand tiny shards. Luckily, the blinds blocked most of them from flying up to hit the pair of them. “Nevermind!” Tion said, stepping up the wall. He launched a flurry of precision kicks into the wood there. It splintered, letting in cracks of sunlight. Tion slammed his entire body into it, pushing himself through and out of the house. Before Sagitta could follow, he also grabbed the bag he had promised to carry.

Inside, there was a click. The front door swung open smoothly, revealing a very cross Intensity, and behind him, twenty island residents. The god glared at the hole, then at Sagitta. “HMM,” he blared, his voice deep and resonant. A mile back, in the deep water of the sea, lightning struck the waves.

[+Sorana]

Sorana waved at Tion and grinned, glad that his author got the reference.

Sagitta didn't disturb him when he started to rip the wood apart. Instead she stood close to him, her bag and the second saddlebag at her feet, sword fastened to her back and turned around to face the door, instinctively shifted her feet into a fighting stance. They were running from a god. And she didn't even know why. Torn between the urge to walk over to the door and talk to Intensity and follow Tion's lead she hesitated, unsure which god to follow, which one to obey.

In the end the decision was taken from her when Tion fled the hut and left her alone with an angry god. Her feet itched to turn around and run away, the way Intensity stood there made her wish to do nothing but crawl on the floor and beg for his forgiveness, and she lowered her glance, looked away from him. He was a god and he had expressed the wish to talk to her, so that was what she would do. Disobeying a god was no option.

"Hello." she greeted him with a polite bow, completely ignoring the damage Tion had wrecked in the hut. "How may I be of assistance?"

[Archer]

Intensity’s smiled, technically. All traces of his amiable persona were gone. The god’s lips curled back to reveal two rows of perfect white teeth. Each had been carefully filed to a canine point, as sharp as any shark’s. A drop of spittle rolled from the corner of his mouth, slid down his cheek, and dropped into his scraggly beard. “STAY,” he ordered. His words had weight, they shook the walls of the cabin and echoed in the ears of those that heard them.

Zombie-like acolytes clambered through the windows, not caring about the broken glass that cut at their skin. Others pushed through the doorway Intensity stood in, squeezing past him into the room. When one bumped into him, his arm snaked out and grabbed their wrist. His blue-eyed stare was darkening. “WARRIOR SAGITTA OF THE T'SORA NAME, I COMMAND YOU TO KNEEL.”

Behind her, Tion bounced on the heels of his feet, nervous energy coursing through him. “Ignore him, we need to go!” He had drawn his rapier. “It was a mistake coming here.”

Intensity’s head swiveled an inch to the side, switching to bore his eyes into to his fellow god. When he did, the tension in Tion’s body faded away. He sighed contentedly as Intensity dampened a very specific set of memories. His grip of the rapier loosened; the weapon fell to the sand, forgotten.

Intensity pulled the arm he was holding up to his mouth. The man on the other end was still trying to grab at Sagitta. As casually as one munches on a carrot, Intensity chomped down his finger, breaking it clean off in a shower off blood. Outside, Tion shook his head like he had a headache. “Not again, Intensity. We are leaving. Please.”

Thunder rumbled overhead. “NOT THIS TIME, MORTALS.”

[+Sorana]

Sagitta stood frozen when Intensity smiled at her, with this awful smile of his, when he commanded her to kneel, when she looked back at Tion, to find him smiling stupidly, his weapon dropped to the ground. His words, ignore him, we need to go, ignore him, we need to go, echoed in her head, but still when she looked back to Intensity again she found herself on her way to the ground, about to kneel. He was a god.

Her body stilled when he bit into the finger, when he bit it off in a shower off blood. Blood ran down the man's hand but his eyes didn't show any pain and she knew, instinctively knew what Intensity was doing. She had done it herself, had softened the pain to keep fighting, and reduced the blood flowing from a wound. She had rarely done it on purpose, doubted that she would be able to do it like this, so casually, but she had done it. Intensity. Her eyes darted over to the man's face, the sound of breaking bones echoing in her head, she knew that sound, knew the smell of blood that filled the cabin.

Thunder rumbled overhead, but she only vaguel registered that there was a third party, that someoneelse wanted to keep them here, didn't grasp that Tion himself had been adressed a mortal as well. Instead she took in the faces of the zombie-like humans, slowly, slowly understood the truth about this place. Last had asked about strange things going on, about the powers of the gods changing - Intensity was either cruel or insane. She closed her eyes, touched one hand to the ground from her half kneeling position and took a breath, remembered what Price had taught her, remembered what was her goal, why she was fighting in the first place.

Then she moved. Pushing herself up from the ground she used her instinct to propell her body back to it's feet, her free hand reaching out for the saddlebag, throwing it over her shoulder. It took her two long steps to cross the hut and reach Tion. Bend down, pick up his weapon, reach out for his arm and look into his eyes.

"Move." she commanded him, her voice strong, layered with the urge to move to do something. Whatever Intensity had done - if he could take away the man's pain - then she could multiply Tion's fear and urgency. "Flee." She added, wondered if it would work. Then she started to run, attempted to pull Tion with her, in case he didn't snap out of his stupor.

[Archer]

Tion gripped the rapier awkwardly, but held it. The booming hypnosis of Intensity's words was still bouncing around in his head, but Sagitta's touch was like a shot of caffeine. A piercing sense of urgency consumed him for a moment, driving away the lingering effects of the other god's attack. The soldier's tugging snapped him out of his stupor; after a few steps he pulled his arm away and started running on his own. The sand behind the row of cabins they sped past was loose, threatening to trip them up with every step. It would also leave an unmistakable trail for their pursuers to follow. That made him incredibly nervous. 

Behind them, the entire side wall of Sagitta’s beach house flew off with a tremendous bang! Tion looked over his shoulder and shrieked as Intensity stepped out into the daylight, growling inaudible instructions to his followers. Tion changed course, veering towards the jungle. “Need to break line of sight! Make it harder to target us.”

In front of them, a coconut tree started to crack at the base, threatening to tip over, pushed by a suddenly intense wind on its trunk. Tion changed direction again, running roughly parallel to the beachfront through the trees. He moved at speed, crashing through the undergrowth. “Don’t bother being quiet, he’ll still hear us. Besides, there’s only once place we can go. There’s one boat on this island. Big barge, a half-mile in that direction. Can’t miss it.”

A colourful bird of paradise took issue to their stepping through its nesting ground and started squawking. Tion swung at it, wielding his sword like a club. “Is running supposed to hurt this much? Whatever’s in this bag weighs a ton.” The god was still moving, but he slowed from a sprint to a fast jog, Sagitta's magical influence finally wearing off.  

[+Sorana]

Sagitta adjusted her pace to Tion's, silently urging him on to go faster. Her breathing was calm and easy, her instinct strengthening each step she took, allowing her to run like this for hours. And she wasn't even wearing her armour. This wasn't training anymore, and she knew, her body was still weak, not even close to the level of fitness she used to have before. She disliked to rely on her instinct that much, to need it to propell herself forward and keep her breathing calm and easy. But right now, it was neccessary. And that was everything that counted.

"It's not a ton." she told him leisurly while reducing the way the bags she carried herself pressed down on her. "It's about ten kilos. The whole set is around twenty. I can take it, if you want me to."

Her feet hit the soft ground, the earth slowly moving back a little everytime she put her weight on it. She continued into the direction Tion had pointed, focused on her steps, avoiding the trees and the branches lying on the ground. She ignored the birds that flew up into the sky at their approach, didn't use any energy to swing at them like Tion had. It was a waste of time. None of the birds were really dangerous anyway.

She kept her eyes open, tried to listen for dangers, to spot them in the twilight of the woods, but for now there was nothing. It didn't calm her suspicion, instead only left a feeling of dread in her stomach, one that grey with every passing step. A large barge. She had no idea how Tion planned to steer that one anywhere, to man it she had never set foot on a ship before. Problems for later. The thought vanished again and she moved her bags around a little, to make it more comfortable to carry one. One step after the other. They had to arrive at the beach first.

[Archer]

“I suspect you’re cheating,” Tion gasped between breaths as he continued to quickly jog. “You know you don’t get the full benefits of the exercise if you magically lighten the load of your weights.”

They ran for five minutes, but it felt like eternity. The god had just started to cramp when the treeline faded away to spit them back out onto the beach. Amazingly, they were the only ones in sight. Evidently the herd was slow, even over open terrain. His gut told him they wouldn't be far behind, though. In the middle of the sand had been driven a massive wooden spike, tied to which a fair-sized river barge bobbed in the shallow water. “Get her loose,” he grunted, running straight into the water. Its cool embrace relieved some of the tension in his burning thighs.

The bag he carried clattered onto the deck, coming to a stop next to the small mast. One look at it while he clambered aboard told him they didn’t have time to raise the sails; it had been tied down securely while the vessel was out of service. Without it, sailing the ship was really a three-man job: one to row on either side, and one to steer. Fortunately the ship was pointed the right direction.

Tion had jumped to the back – stern, some long-forgotten memory told him – to tie the rudder in place when curiosity struck. “Hey, Sagitta! When you get on, you row that side, I'll do the other. But what’s the name on the front of this thing say? I want to know the name of the ship I'm captaining." 

[+Sorana]

Sagitta didn't bother to reply instead she continued to run. If she were running for some muscle she would agree, but she wasn't. She was running to survive the day. A taste like iron spread in her mouth and she cursed under her breath, but didn't loosen her grip on her muscles. Get on the boat, then she could rest, recover. For now she had to run. Sweat dripped down her back in a steady stream and she was relieved when the trees opened up to a beach.

Tion rushed ahead to the boat and she followed his order, went to the line securing the ship in its place. Her fingers shook when she stopped and suddenly her bags felt as if they were weighing a ton, her instinct gone as soon as she'd stopped moving. Her legs shook so badly, that she nearly fell down next to the pole and only barely managed to stabilize herself against it. Leaning forward, she rested her weight on the pole, cursed her own lack of control of her instinct and then forced her attention back to the knot. It had drawn tight over the time, looked complicated and she pulled it a little this way and that way, but nothing budged.

Loud crashing noises snapped her out of her futile tries to loosen the rope and she looked up to see Intensity's followers clear the line of trees as well. They were slow, but the didn't appear to be tired, their slim, nearly frail bodies moving with a strength she hadn't noticed before. "Negation take you." she hissed at the knot and froze when she realized that the knot secured the rope in a loop. She could simply lift the loop of the pole and they were good to go. She pulled on the rope and for a moment nothing happened, then slowly, far too slowly the boat started to move her way, the rope not fully streched anymore. It was easy to lift it over the pole and she groaned when she forced her tired legs into motion again, over to the boat.

The wodden pier creaked when the first of the horde stepped onto it, their eyes fixed on her while she stumbled along, rope clutched in her hands. She flung up her bags first, needed to get their weight of their shoulders and then jumped up to reach the rail. Her hands missed it by a lot and she landed on her feet again, stumbling forward and only with a lot of luck catching herself against the hull of the boat. She knew they were coming closer, far too close for her taste, but she calmed her toughts and concentrated. It was nothing but a single jump.

Bending her knees she put everything she had into that last movement, her instinct waking up again and easily carrying her up high enough to end up hanging over the rail, legs in the air, hands on the wodden deck in front of her. with a groan she dragged herself up, rolled over and ended up lying on her back, breathing. "What now?" she asked after several heartbeats and turned her head towards Tion.

[Archer]

“We can rest once we’re out of here,” Tion shouted, having to compete with the strengthening wind to be heard. Rudder fixed in place, he made his way to the starboard side of the vessel - which he had dubbed The Sweet Escape in his head. The god hefted an oar over the side into the water, where it clunked into the sandbar below them. He was tempted to wack one of the nearer pursuers with it, but he didn’t have the energy. Instead he just pushed off the bottom of the seabed as hard as he could to get them going.

Behind them, he heard a splash. Someone had jumped in the water. He pitied the poor man who tried to swim in these waves. It was starting to get choppy and would only get worse the further out they went. “You can swim, right?” he asked Sagitta. A quick look around showed they didn’t have any flotation devices to help her if it came to it, just a few secured boxes of rope and rigging, a line of chain, and the benches they sat on in front of the platform with the steering handle. “The trick is to keep your head above water and your limbs moving at all times. Or just hang on to your oar and try not to freeze, if it comes to it!”

Another splash from behind them. The water around them was still infuriatingly shallow, maybe only chest height. The herd wasn’t what scared him though. There was a storm rolling in unnaturally fast. An intense one.

[+Sorana]

Sagitta pushed herself back up, head swimming body protesting the movement. Inwardly she screamed at herself to get her thoughts together and moved over to the oar. Dunking it into the water she pulled, realized that the water offered a strong resistance and that she was barely able to move it. With a groan she grabbed that feeling and mentally threw it away, far away, the oar moving lighter. It was still heavy, but like that she could manage.

Splashes from behind them told her that their pursuers had reached the water and were swimming over to meet them. "I didn't swim in years." she replied honestly, "not after I nearly drowned after taking a close look at a jellyfish." She started to row, watched with a sliver of satisfaction, as their boat moved away from the pier and slowly started to drift out into deeper water. Her eyes darted upwards to the brewing storm and too tired to feel any fear she closed her eyes.

"When that storm hits, we need to store everything, including the oars below. And then use the rudder to turn it, so that the waves hit our front, and not one of our sides." She remembered when she and some friends had rowed out onto some of the lakes around. Waves had always been a lot easier to catch from front than from their side. Dip oar into water, pull.

"My father always said, that a sailing boat is near impossible to tip over." Lift it out, move it over. "Whenever he had to leave and travel to one of his trading partners, he always assured me, that sailing boats are the savest way to go." Dip it into water pull. "He spent so much time travelling- " she continued to speak, lost herself to the memory. It was easier to row when she didn't think about it, when she simply did, never quite letting go of her instinct. "Every time he was away, my mother would light a candle and pray for him to return save and sound." He had stopped when the war had started. Had joined the army and left all the trading business to his wife and daughter. She didn't even know if her mother had taken over the travelling of if her sister stayed behind on her own. She hadn't been home in years. Had been glad to leave them behind, to step into the adventure army, which turned first into a nightmare, then an obligation and in the end into something that simply was.

"I miss them."

[Archer]

The ship was turning slightly as Sagitta's mighty thrusts overpowered Tion's. He redoubled his efforts in an attempt to correct them. Progress was being made, he could no longer touch bottom with his oar. Already, the chilly water had numbed his fingers. Every third stroke or so, the top of a wave crested over the side, spraying foam and icy droplets into his face. The god concentrated on Sagitta's voice. It was oddly comforting to hear her talk about better times so wistfully; it reduced the pain and terror of the moment enough to keep his arms pumping.  

"Must be nice to have a home! Someplace to fall back on when it all goes south. If we make it through this, I promise to take you back to Ta'e'lio. You can check up on-"

"SENSATION!" Tion looked back to see Intensity running up the beach. It was the fastest he'd ever seen the deity move. Between them, the water was littered with bodies floating around the pier. Some were face-down, others splashed idly. None of them were swimming with any skill. Dark clouds coalesced above the island, swirling menacingly. It began to rain. 

"No time to waste, batten down the hatches!" Tion set down his oar and rushed to secure the sails. "I've always wanted to say that."

The ship didn't have much of a below-decks, only a hollow semi-circle beneath the planks, maybe a meter tall at its center. He started shoving cloth through the trap door that led to it. The loose items would be easy enough to stow. It was the mast that worried him. If we make it through this, we're going to need it. Otherwise, we'll drift right back into his clutches. It was at times like these that he wished he had a god to pray to. 

[+Sorana]

"What?" Sagitta turned her head towards him, snapped out of her reverie. She followed his example and set down her oar as well, when she understood what he was trying to do. Prepare for the storm. Scrambling to her feet she turned her head, relieved that they had managed to get some distance between them and the shore. Intensity was standing there, glaring in their direction and she imagined she could feel his fury even at the distance. Rain started to pour down from the sky, light at first but quickly getting stronger.

She shoved the two saddlebags containing her armour down into the semi circle and then grabbed a long piece of rope from her bag, before pushing it down as well. Cutting a piece off, she used it to tie both sides of her oar to a cleat, before hurrying over to the one Tion had used. The ship was starting to rock harder, and she lost her footing half way, face and hands already wet by the sea.

Her body hit the central mast with a dark noise and she groaned, use the moment to tie the rope around it as well. She aimed to half it, but ended up with a longer side and a shorter one. Drawing her knife again she cut off a piece of the longer part and then threw the rest over to Tion "Catch!" she called out and hastened to wrap the other half of it around her waist. Far from comfortable, but if it stopped her from ending up in the ocean it was worth the bruises.

Going down on her knees she first made sure her knife was savely stowed, and then crawled over to the other side. The ship lurched again and for one moment she feared they might topple over, but it simply settled down again. "Never, never ever again." she swore herself when she finally reached Tion's oar and started to secure it as well, clinging to the rail while she did so.

From afar she could hear the rumbling sound of thunder and the wind picked up. A storm. Lifting her head to the sky she uttered the first words of a prayer and then fell silent, looking back to the beach. He was standing there and he had tried to trap them, to imprison them. He was watching while those that served him drowned in the water. She most certainly wouldn't pray to him. Pride shone in her eyes when she lifted her hand and flicked the god a rude gesture. Let him rot on his island, far away from those he might harm.

Edited May 18, 2020 by Sorana

[Archer]

The rope was coarse and painful to hold when Tion caught it. Grimacing, he pulled it around his waist and knotted it in the front. That allowed him to pull himself up the line to hug the mast. “It’s a good thing I don’t get seasick!” he cried, then promptly vomited the contents of his stomach all over the deck. The rushing water quickly sucked the goop away, leaving him a quivering mess on his knees.

“Bleh. There’s a first time for-” he had to stop to choke down a second wave of nausea.  He knew he had stuff for that in his coat, but he couldn’t remember in which pocket the chewing moss was contained. The god watched his rapier bounce back and forth on the foredeck.

Thunder cracked above them. It was midday, yet the sky was dark. Tion looked up, watching as yet another wave crashed into the side of the boat. Then he began to panic, shouting frantically, but his words were lost in the stormy din, pulled from his mouth by the howling wind.

He pointed, waving his arm desperately, eyes fixed on where he had seen his sword, somehow haven fallen off of his belt amidst all the chaos. In a fear-driven moment of resolve, he pushed himself off of the mast and fell forward with the rocking of the boat. The rope snapped taut, stopping him from flying overboard. His legs felt like lead when he scraped his knee on a rail.

Then, there. A flash of metal. He pitched himself to the side just in time to pounce on the rapier, gripping its blade in his hand, feeling no pain. Only relief. Thunder boomed again, somehow even louder than before. He'd had a dream about this, only a few short weeks ago. Or maybe it had been a vision. Alone in the ocean, his powers rendered useless, waiting to die. Now that fear was actualized. At the complete mercy of the elements, Tion, god of Sensation, crawled back to the mast and held on for dear life.

Quote

I think I've exhausted my sailing knowledge. I had to google what a cleat knot was, so good on ya. Anyway, Tion's going to have to ride out the storm like that. Not much else he can do, the poor fellow.

 

[+Sorana]

Quote

I went sailing a few times. Not that I really have a clue what to do in a storm, but I do know what a cleat is

Sagitta finally manged to tie a knot around the oar and looked over her shoulder to Tion. He had been screamed loudly, his voice full of panic and she found him clinging to the mast his rapier in hand. She continued to hold on to the rail while she tried to sort herself, decide what to do now, when a wave hit the side of their boat andwould have flung her into the ocean if not for her rope. Her hands slipped of the wet rail and for a moment she was flying, tethered only by the rope and then hit the deck at a painful angle.

Above her lightning split the sky, casting them in a pale light, only to be followed by thunder that appeared to shake the world. "Tion!" she screamed his name, her voice immediatly drowned out, barely hearable by her own ears. She discarded him, knew he wouldn't be of any use if he panicked and instead set her eyes on the rudder. Move the tip of your boat so that if faces the waves. It had worked on a lake, and even if it didn't work here - she had to try.

Slowly she crawled over to the rudder, the slippery surface of the making it hard to go where she wanted to. Her arms protested after a short while, when she used the rail to move to the back of the ship, but she finally managed to close her hands around the rudder. Pushing against it, she slowly, very slowly managed to turn the boat until it's stern roughly pointed in the direction the waves came from. The shaking of the boat subsided a little, turned more into an up and down, that was scary enough given the height of the waves. She reached out for the rail nearby and using her instinct broke a piece off. Then she blocked the rudder, knew she wouldn't be able to steer the ship through the storm on her own. Not given her current shape and the way her fingers had trouble holding on to anything without support from her instinct.

Wait it out. There wasn't anything else they could do.

[Archer]

Tion didn’t sleep. He wished to. Even his dreams would be better than the feeling of the storm. But his body remained stubbornly awake throughout it all, in a state of semi-consciousness, relinquishing the feelings of all sensations in favour of the sweet bliss of oblivion.

I wonder how long it will rain.

At times like these, his darker side often surfaced to molest his mind. With him gone, his thoughts just bounced around in his skull, repeating in the void like a mantra, jumbling, twisting, until he imagined some semblance of a conversation.  

“I wonder how long I will rein,” echoed back the thought.

This whole trip has been scary. Since the meeting, my breath has been bated.

“Since the meeting, I was baited.”

We never should have come to this coastal bight.

“…the coast will bite.”

You know, I used to like the water.

No response. Outside of his psyche, the elements continued to rage. Then, the tiniest notion reverberated back to him. The thought of a thought.

“What, her?”

His eyes snapped open as the ship crashed into a rocky shoreline, hull exploding into smithereens. 

[+Sorana]

Sagitta felt herself drift away several times, the exhaustion of her body overwhelming. She tried to wrap her body somehow between the rail and the rudder, hoped that the rope would be enough to keep her aboard. Every now and then she was jostled awake by a thunder, by an especially huge wave. Then she drifted off into dreams full of storms, of drowning, of running, of an angry god chasing her all over the continent. At one point she dreamt of her mother, scolding her, telling her she should have done what the god had told her to do.

A loud crash ripped her out of her half-waking, half-sleeping state and she instinctively clung to the rudder only to feel it give way, her arms reaching into nothing. It was enough to get her mind working again and she looked around, oriented herself. They had crashed, the ship was breaking apart, the hull already more or less gone. She drew her knife and cut through the rope tying her to the boat, then she hastened over to the place where they had stored her bags. There was no way she could save her armour, but maybe she was able to reach her bag.

The deck shivvered under feet, started to break into two halves, the storm still raging above. "We need to go!" she shouted to Tion while she reached into the little storage space. Water was moving down below and for a short moment she feared that she wasn't able to save anything, then she saw one strap that had caught itself on a piece of wood. Pulling the bag up, she felt pure relief at the thought of the stone she used to hone her blade and a second set of underware. With some luck, maybe her bar of soap hadn't dissolved completely. She slung the strap over her shoulder, sorted it with the straps of her sword and cursed when a huge part of the remaining deck groaned again, this time accompanied with loud cracking sounds.

She didn't stop to watch the part with the rudder break off, instead took the few missing steps to Tion and towards the shore.

[Archer]

Tion was well ahead of her, having immediately fallen into the water as soon as he cut the rope holding him in place. Luckily, a large rock broke his fall, and, judging by the pain, possibly some ribs. Its surface was smooth and slippery. Seconds later, he was in the crashing waves again, only to be pummeled into yet another rock. And another. The water moved towards the shore and away from it at different times, pulling him around like a sock in a tub for washing clothes that is being churned by a paddle to evenly disperse the soap. The subject matter for a better analogy had yet to be invented, unfortunately.  

And then he tasted dirt. His legs moved of their own accord, crawling, then stumbling away. The sharp points of the gravel-filled beach poked at his feet. Some primal urge inside of him wanted to stack the stones. His survival instincts overruled that, sending him up a short hill to curl into a ball beneath the trunk of a spindly tree. The rain seemed to lessen the further inland he got.

Oh, right. Sagitta. Tion popped his head up to look for the woman. “Oi!” he croaked. A rush of seawater came out of his mouth when he talked. He had to take a moment to spit it all out. “Stop flopping around like a fish and get over here. I found a tree.”

There was at least a dozen trees within line of sight, but he liked this one the best. When he lay down again, its exposed roots seemed to curl around his form like a firm hug.

[+Sorana]

With a curse Sagitta reached the mast, noticed that the shadow she had thought to be Tion, was instead a part of the sail, they hadn't been able to secure in time. She stopped, tried to see him in the water, but there were only the parts and pieces of the hull, the water covered by foam, the wind pushing it with force against the rockes. A shivver ran through the small remaining part of the deck she was holding on to, and then, with a sound as if it was screaming it broke apart as well.

She dropped completely into the ocean, the ice cold water taking her breath away for a moment, her eyes burning from the salt. Darkness all around her she felt as if she was floating, arm flailing wildly around her in a vain attempt to swim to the surface. Some unseen force dragged her around, over the surface of a rock, leaving many tiny cuts on her arms and legs that immediatly started to burn.

Sagitta tried to discern where the surface was, her body urging her to take a deep breath. Darkness, only darkness around her. Darkness and the rocks that suddenly appeared now and then next to her. The clung to one of them, the protest of her arms lost beneath the rising fear and the burning of her lungs. Up, but where was - her sword. It was pulling her down, so up was the other way. Using the rock she pushed with her legs and arms, her instinct adding more force to that single push and she moved, shot through the darkness.

Her head broke through the surface, her hands instinctively clinging to the rock as well, despite the bloody cuts its surface let on them. Everything was better than ending back in the ocean. She gulped down air, shaking and shivvering in the water, heared Tion call out to her from afar. Never quite letting to of the rocks she started to move along them, over them, the water still throwing her this way and that way. Finally she reached the shore line she wiped the water out of her eyes, saw a tree standing only a little bit above her. Bruised and battered she made her way up, stopping every few feet to cough up more salty water she had swallowed. Freezing in the rain and the wind, legs shaking so badly she was barely able to walk in a straight line, she had no idea how long it took her to finally reach the shelter of the tree. Exhausted she dropped to the ground next to him, hugged herself for any resemblance of warmth. Her sword poked into her back in an umfortable angle but she was too tired to care about that. Instead she tried to force herself to keep her eyes open to watch for danger, to remain alert.

Her eyes dropped shut when her body claimed the rest it so absolutely needed.

Edited May 21, 2020 by Sorana

[Archer]

Morning came with the smell of roasting meat. The warmth of a small fire bit through the cool seaside breeze, crackling and sizzling with every drop of fat that fell. Thick smoke billowed up from it, nearly concealing the rabbit Tion was cooking on a make-shift spit. He had piled together a stack of wood that had drifted ashore, pieces of their ship that he was feeding into the flames. Beside it lay whatever else he had been able to salvage that morning: a coil of rope, a metal grate, and several smaller knickknacks.

“Wake up, soldier. It’s almost ready. I’m hoping the seaweed will infuse it with a salty taste, but if not, I’ve got some spices you can dump on it…” The god fiddled with his fire, careful not to burn any parts of the animal. He was smiling, but his eyes were dark and distant, reflecting the dancing flames.

“I owe you an apology.” He went silent for a minute, rotating the rabbit another quarter turn. “I should have known that trip was ill-fated. He didn’t used to be that bad. Really. At least, not to me. He’d always try to get at me a little bit, but it was easy enough to counter. Just a game really. Staves off the boredom.”

“But, things have changed. I’m not as strong as I used to be. So, I’ve decided to be more careful. Not for my sake, but for yours.” The god pulled the stick out of the fire and set it aside to cool. On it, the little rabbit had blackened, though its fur had already been striped, leaving just the stringy red meat. Two nubs of bone were visible protruding out of its forehead, near where its ears had been. “You can have some now, if you want. I need to wait for it to cool. Save your leftovers, we can use them as bait later. Cahayan fish is really quite delicious. Then we need to talk about how we're getting you home.”

[+Sorana]

Her body hurt. Every inch of it hurt, especially her back where her sword was resting at an uncomfortable angle. With a groan she opened her eyes, and looke around, muscles protesting every movement. Slowly she pushed herself up from where she had been lying on the ground, found Tion sitting nearby, preparing breakfast. Her eyes darted towards the sky when she confirmed her assumption. The sun had rising only a short time ago in the east.

"Good morning." she greeted him, her throat raw, her hair falling into her face, stiff from the salt. Finally taking of the sword she joined him at the fire, opened her bag to see what she had left. A wodden cup, and a small bowl. A spoon, that was a little cracked, but hopefully would still serve it's purpose. Her plate had vanished, same as her eating knife and she set away what she held in her hands, to take a look at the rest. A whetstone, her underware and even half a bar of soap. Strangely her water skin was there as well, hanging from its usual place outside of the bag. With a sigh of relief she pulled out her hair brush and started to unbraid her hair, when Tion continued to speak.

He apologized, promised to be more careful in the future. For her sake, not for her own. He removed the rabbit without giving her a chance to reply, to tell him that it wasn't neccessary. Eat and then he would try to take her home. She drank a little of the water, mostly to busy herself while she ordered her thoughts, her mind not completely awake yet.

"One thing after the other." she started once she set the waterskin down. "First, thank you for making breakfast, and it it's not salted correctly I don't care as long as its food." Reaching out for the rabbit she cut it in two even halves and with a shrug balanced one part of it on her bowl, placing it into front of him and the other part on the cup.

"Two, I'm not a soldier anymore." It was the truth, and while the words hurt, they were also cleansing, relaxing. Right here and now, there was no army, she wasn't even in her own country. She was a lot of things, but without her army her was no soldier. The words left her silent for a moment brought with them the question what exactly she was, but she wasn't able to reach any conclusion.

"Three. You don't need to apologize. You misjudged a situation - that happens. We got out of it, that is what matters and we're only here because we worked together. At least I wouldn't have been able to escape without you."

She blew on a piece of rabbit to cool it down a little before taking a first bite, noticing how hungry she was. Quickly she took a second one, forced herself to chew before swallowing.

"Four. While I appreciate to go home, I think there are other matters we should focus on. You mentioned that he wasn't as bad as that, compared to the last time you saw him. That leads me to suspect, that Last word's are true. Something is going on, something is changing the gods, or influencing them, or maybe their changed are the cause for their -" she stopped unsure wether she was still making sense and made a gesture with her hand, indicating that it wasn't that important. "You know what I mean. But if whatever is going on, continues, leaving them all in the same state of mind Intensity is - it doesn't bode well for my country, for any country. Not even for yourself."

She shot him a wry smile. "So I suggest the following. We eat breakfast, and then we look for some sweet water to clean up. I don't have a lot of drinking water left and the salt is starting to itch. Once we've done that, or if you want to while we do that, we can consider how to find out more about what is going on."

Sagitta took another bite of her rabbit, realizing only now, that maybe he had suggested to take her home because there was no 'we'. Because she was nothing but a liabitlity. So be it, let him speak the words aloud then. Now that she was in Cahaya, she could find her way on her own.

Edited May 23, 2020 by Sorana

[Archer]

“Mm. I do wonder how Last is connected to all this. I’d love to have a chat with that… whatever he is.” Tion nodded at the proposal. Now that she mentioned it, his skin was starting to feel uncomfortable as the sun rose in the sky. A bath sounded good, but he didn’t much feel like making plans right now. The rest of the meal was mostly eaten in silence, not exactly the kind that comes from weariness, although that was part of it. It was a comfortable lull of two people who didn’t feel the need to make small talk, deep and contemplative. Eventually, he slapped his knees and creaked to his feet. “There’s a stream that feeds into the water about an eighth-mile that way. Watch for the snare I set up there, it should be obvious enough in the daylight. Go! I’ll clean up here. Have a nice long wash veteran, you’ve earned it.”

The god petered about for a few minutes, smothering the fire and washing up the utensils with some sea-water. Fresh water would be better for it, but he didn’t want to disturb Sagitta. He also took the opportunity to check on his flip-phone. Despite the battering his body had taken, as usual, it was in perfect condition. A blinking notification informed him he was still eight-hundred years overdue for an update, but he’d never figured out how to connect to the WiFi to do that. Nor had he ever learned what ‘WiFi’ was.

He tapped out a text to Thomas. By Intensity’s island, Cahayn shore side. Want to go to taelio. Will trade help for the sour dough starter I made last century. -Sensation. On screen, a wheel spun lazily for a second, then the message disappeared into the ether. Figuring he’d given the lady enough time, he then went to check how Sagitta was faring. And if she had any soap he could borrow. His best ideas always came to him while he was bathing.