Miri stood with her arms crossed at the bow of the ship, staring at the treeline where Mortin had disappeared. Yun waited behind her, experience telling him that whatever she wanted to say, now would be the time. The silence stretched.
The tail of her crimson head wrap fluttered in the wind, matching Yun's own salvaged bandage. Together, they must have looked like a wandering swordswoman and her loyal attendant.
"For what it's worth… thank you. You didn't have to help."
There you go.
"Didn't have much of a choice."
Miri glanced back at him, eyebrows crunched slightly.
"You could have let us crash out of spite. Let the barrier kill everyone. But you didn't."
Yun shrugged, ignoring the flare of pain in his ribs. "Spite's less useful when you're dead."
A ghost of a smile crossed her face. "I suppose so."
Miri turned away from the bow and marched toward the captain's quarters. Yun followed. Once inside, a sweet wine scent wafted from inside the room. Miri began rummaging through a pile of books and papers that were lying on an ornate wooden desk.
The wall to the right of Yun had burst open during the battle, showing a clear view of the waterline.
There were various maps nailed to the left wall. The paper had taken on a yellowish hue, its edges crumbling and damp from seawater. On one of the maps, one island was marked among many, presumably this one, with small scribbles around it. One sentence read: "Falling Sky Island at Lost Sea?"
Yun traced his fingers along the burly wood of the wall, fixing his gaze on another map. This one gave directions to find the Falling Sky Temple, likely a copy of the one in Miri's possession.
He felt a mild familiarity when he saw its illustration on the aged parchment. That feeling didn't come from him, but this body. Another feeling arose, but this one resonated with Yun so much he almost missed it.
It was like a pit opened up in his lower abdomen, a mild longing that couldn't be soothed no matter what you fed it. Yun felt the same whenever he tried recalling his mother and sister's names, which he did constantly.
His disembodied voice mentioned something about Paths opening up in his Fate. This made Yun think about why Severin's Curse connected this body's Fate to his. About whether a Lineage Path was determined by the "Path" of your Fate and a separate "Lineage", with the Curse crystallizing a Lineage Path around that union — which would determine one's Traits and abilities. A Lineage being a loose strand of some kind of power.
What even is a Lineage? Ah, my head hurts.
Still, one thing was now confirmed for him: making it to the Temple alive was his goal, or at least one part of it.
Unbeknownst to him, Miri had come up beside Yun, staring at the map as well. She placed her hand on the worn paper, startling Yun in the process. She spoke, choosing to ignore his spooked reaction. Thankfully.
"Brother's records have been destroyed."
She held a stack of papers in her hand. The water must have destroyed them.
"Do you understand the reason for our clan's… my brother's desperation?"
"Isn't it honour and legend… or something like that?"
Miri chuckled. "Something like that."
After a beat of silence, she continued:
"The people on that ship… were the last of the Maliki clan."
Her voice was calm.
"And now, thanks to your master and that Dragon, there are only four of us left."
That almost sounded accusatory. There was little Yun could do if Miri decided to kill him here and now. Yun reached for his sleeve. He probed Miri.
"You still agreed to this voyage, right?"
"No, of course not." Despite her youth, Miri sounded bitter and tired. "I fought my brother on this decision. But might makes right for the Maliki."
Miri leaned on the captain's chair. She seemed hesitant to sit on it.
"Due to our lack of funds, this was going to be our only opportunity to find Falling Sky Island. The Lost Sea doesn't merely stay in one place. I elected to stay and use the funds to settle and build our clan up again for future generations, but Brother had grown too restless."
Yun felt that Maliki's desperation ultimately made sense. He'd jump at any opportunity to learn more of his sister's life as a Divine.
"I'm still grateful to him. I don't know where we'd be without—"
Just then, a sound caught Yun's attention.
They both turned.
A figure was emerging from the water.
Tall, broad-shouldered, moving with that same confident swagger. Maliki. The captain had returned.
Miri started forward immediately, relief breaking across her face.
But Yun caught the details that should have been right but weren't. The way Maliki's joints bent at angles that were almost correct but fractionally off. His weight distribution was also off; too heavy in the torso, too light in the legs. His silhouette seemed to shimmer at the edges, like heat haze or water displacement, except there was no heat and he'd already left the water.
"Wait," Yun said quietly.
"What? Why?"
Something's definitely up.
Miri glanced at him, then back at her brother. "What is it?"
"He's different."
"He just fought a Dragon, of course he looks different."
"No." Yun's eyes tracked Maliki's approach. Haska had noticed Maliki as well and dashed towards him, grinning like an idiot.
"He's different."
Haska reached Maliki and went to clasp his shoulder. His voice carried back to the Maiden, too distant to make out words, but the relief was obvious.
Maliki's hand shot forward.
It was fast. Impossibly fast.
Haska's entrails spilled out from his stomach before Yun could draw breath to shout.
His body stood for a heartbeat, mouth pouring red, before collapsing into the sand.
Maliki—or what wore Maliki's face—turned toward the treeline.
His eyes were hollow pits.
Weeping endless black tears.
Shit!