Sea Of Sparks And Shadows

Hey everyone! This story has the last two chapters removed. To read them, please head over to Webnovel and search for this book. By doing so, you would be supporting me while also getting to know what happened to the Amaris and the crew. Thank you for reading!

The journey to the quarterdeck was almost impossible to make. Everyone on deck was clutching to a ramp or a mast or a railing. The waves around them were wild and they crashed around the ship mercilessly, rocking it in every which direction. But that was not what worried Amaris, no, what made her stomach clench and her eyes widen, was the ring of white light on the horizon. A light so strong it was almost blinding. Not only that but the whirlpool it seemed to create around it. A whirlpool that was quickly drawing their ship to its center.

“Mirage.” The captain yelled at the helmsman who was battling with the helm to turn it. “What the hell is happening?”

“There’s something pulling the ship.” Mirage cried over the roaring waves, his orange eyes glimmering with concentration, his feet apart trying to gain as much balance as he could without letting go of the helm.

“It’s the whirlpool, isn’t it?”

“No, whirlpools don’t pull from this far. It’s something stronger and if we don’t stop it this ship will be crushed like a crumpled biscuit.”

Amaris made her way to the side of the deck and looked down. The waves were hitting the ship at an abnormal speed each one stronger than the last.

Suddenly she felt something around her waist. She turned to find Ash tying a thick rope around her middle. “What are you doing?”

“Making sure you don’t fall off.” She noticed he had a similar rope around his waist too. She followed their trail to the mast where a few dozen ropes were tied too. Once he finished the complex knot, he gave her a hard look “Don’t do anything stupid” He warned before he jumped over the railing and onto the main deck.

“Amaris, get down and stay put. It’s too dangerous up here.” The captain yelled from behind the helm while Mirage secured the rope around himself, before she could answer him, he turned back to the crew and yelled, “Shark! High Tide! Do something about this. Where in the hell is Wind Tuner?! We need someone to check what’s happening there.”

“He’s already on it,” Yelled Hawk from the main deck. Behind him, Mecheye and another sailor were uncovering a small boat and untying it. Ash and Slygrin, along with a few others were lifting the sails.

Amaris was making her way down the stairs when a large blur of grey flew past then stopped and hovered over the quarter deck where the captain stood.

“Wind Tuner, report!” The captain was unfazed by the chaos around him.

“There’s… something there. Some creature.”

“What kind of creature?” Amaris climbed back up. Her interest was piqued.

“Amaris, what did I tell you? Go down. Now.” The captain gave her a stern look.

“What kind of creature?” She pressed Wind Tuner, who looked like he’d rather be back over the crashing waves than be stuck between his captain and his daughter. Eventually, he spoke giving an apologetic look to his commander. “Some kind of enormous serpent. Two of them, actually. Their scales are silver and gold and I think they’re causing this.

Amaris’ eyes widened, “Shit,” she cursed as she hurried to untie the rope from around her. “I need you to take me to it.”

“What?” the captain and Wind Tuner both cried out.

“I need to make sure that it’s what I think it is.”

“Absolutely not!” She was about to drop the rope when the captain started tying it around her again. “You’re not going out there and that’s final.”

“I am and you can’t do anything about it.” She countered, fury rising steadily.

“Wind Tuner, you are not to take her out there no matter what. Do you understand? That is a direct order!”

“If he doesn’t then I swear to the heavens that I will swim there if I have to. I’ve been taking care of myself for nineteen years and will take care of myself for many years to come. You do not get to come out of nowhere and decide to play ‘father’ to me now. You’ve passed that a decade ago. Now unless you want your ship and your crew to wind up at the bottom of that thing’s belly, you will let me go.”

“You won’t set foot off this ship.” he gritted out.

“Have it your way, then.” She said as she untied the rope once more and sprinted to the side of the ship. Before anyone could do anything, she jumped.

****

Amaris closed her eyes tightly as the water got closer. There were only two possible outcomes to this dive and she did not particularly like one of them. The spray of the waves splashed her cheeks and her heart reached her throat when something swept her away and upwards. She was in Wind Tuner’s arms.

“Are you mad?” He yelled at her. She had never seen him irritated, let alone this furious with her. “You would’ve broken every bone in your body the moment you reached the surface.”

“I know,” She panted, clutching his shoulders tightly. “I was hoping you’d catch me.” he gave her an incredulous look. “Now take me to see it.”

“Your father will have my head for this,” he said as he glided towards the blinding circle. It was the first time anyone acknowledged this in front of her. At least, out loud and she hated how natural it felt. She watched the ship getting farther and farther. She couldn’t see the captain but she didn’t have to, to know he wasn’t happy.

“I’ll take care of that later,” She assured him.

****

The light was blinding and she had to shield her eyes for a few seconds before she could make out the shapes.

Two horrific creatures with rows and rows of jagged teeth and no eyes moved in a never ending circle, each one aiming for the other’s tail. Always close, but never enough, the two creatures moved in an endless dance. Their scales, one silver, the other gold, shone with an otherworldly light.

“It’s them.” She breathed. Her stomach dropped as she watched a whale screeching trying to swim away but with no use. An invisible force dragged it back until it hit the scales of the silver serpent. Its cries for help got louder as it was thrown away leaving a bloody stain on the silver beast. Then it was dragged back, this time, fitting between the golden beast’s head and the other’s tail. The gold beast’s open mouth widened even more into a horrific resemblance of a grin before it closed its jagged teeth on the poor animal.

Amaris looked away, unable to watch anymore. It took her a few minutes and a slight shake of the shoulder to realize that Wind Tuner was speaking to her. “What is it? Do you know what those are?”

She swallowed and nodded. “They’re Blessed Beasts.” As soon as she spoke those words she felt Wind Tuner tense, and she wasn’t sure whether it was intentional or not but his wings flapped faster and they sprung up a dozen feet higher, farther from the two glimmering creatures and the deadly waves below.

“Are you sure?” She nodded again, though his sight was fixed on the serpents below. “They’re Noctis and Deis, the Water Spirits’ ‘pets’, if you will. When I read about them in the Orbis text I thought they were an exaggeration or maybe long dead, but I guess not.”

“How do you stop them?”

She did not want to answer that. “You don’t. They’re fated to chase one another for all eternity, never to catch the other and never to rest or sleep. They’re gifted with scales as hard as the mountain edges and teeth as sharp as the Oblivion Desert steel, they can’t see but they don’t need to, to destroy anything their tide attracts.” She recited as she watched the horrific nightmare that will soon be their doom.

***

The trip back was frighteningly shorter.

“What the hell were you thinking?” Ash yelled as soon as they landed.

Amaris didn’t even look at him as she stepped away from Wind Tuner and looked around the ship. Her stomach twisted at the chaos and waves that surrounded her. Many sailors huddled around Wind Tuner to hear his report. His voice was low and void of hope when he spoke. “It’s useless. The creatures. They’re-”

Amaris walked away. She had no interest in hearing her coming doom explained in detail. As she stumbled on her way, clutching to the rail of the starboard for balance, she noticed a rope stretching from the ship to the water. It ended in a dark blur in the distance. Amaris squinted, trying to see what exactly was there. It took her a while to figure it out.

She sprinted to the other end of the rope where Mecheye stood with two other men holding to the end of the rope.

“What the hell are you doing?” She screeched over the clap of the waves. “What is that boat doing there?”

Mecheye spared her a single glance before focusing again on the small black dot in the sea. “We sent the water weavers to try and control the waves.” He explained.

“Get them out!” She ordered, eyes wide in terror. “They can’t weave this water.”

“What? Why?”

“It’s already being weaved by those things.” She pointed towards the glowing haze. “You’re sending them as an easy prey for the water spirits’ lap dogs!” Before she finished talking she grabbed the rope and started pulling it was no use. She could barely move the thing a few inches. Luckily, she didn’t have to because as soon as the men understood what she told them. They started pulling the small boat to the ship.

As it came closer, Amaris recognized the two men clutching to the edges of the boat trying to keep their balance. High Tide and Shark. The two tall tough water weavers from her painting misadventure a few days ago. Two water weavers who, probably for the first time in their lives, were terrified of their own element. Their once ally was leaping at them from all sides trying to end their lives.

The boat was a few feet away when it suddenly stopped moving. “What happened?”

“The tide is too strong,” Mecheye answered “we can’t get it any closer.” Amaris cursed. The water weavers must’ve understood it too since they exchanged glances and yelled something Amaris couldn’t hear.

She watched as the two men discussed something. High Tide suddenly stood a little straighter before leaning over the boat and plunging his arm in the water. “What is he-?” Before Amaris could finish her horrified question, High Tide disappeared beyond the surface. “No!” She yelled but he was gone. Shark lunged for him too but it was too late. It only resulted in him too losing his balance and falling into the water himself. Amaris clutched the rail and desperately scanned the waters. Her heart sank as nothing came afloat. The now white reflecting water was only covered in jagged waves and a lonely empty boat. No humans in sight. She searched over and over until suddenly, Shark appeared near the hull.

Shark’s lips move in an angry curse before starting to dive back down when an arm caught him. It was only then that Amaris realized that Hawk was halfway down the ladder and Mecheye had reached the surface of the water and was now pulling Shark up despite his furious struggles and the harsh waves. After a few minutes, Shark conceded and the bunch climbed back up.

Shark slumped into the floor of the deck and panted staring blankly with wide eyes onto the cracked wood panels.

“He pushed me,” He whispered, “He used all his weaving to push me to the ship and...and… and now he’s ...” He didn’t finish his sentence. He couldn’t. And everyone on the deck unfortunately knew its end anyways.

Amaris took two steps back, hand still frozen on the rail. The voices around her mixed and blurred until only one word echoed in her mind. Dead.

Amaris looked around her at the full deck. word must have spread that the whirlpool was the work of the Blessed Beasts -Of the water Spirits themselves- Because panic and rush of movement had subsided to silence and a horrible stillness. The stillness that came with accepting defeat, with accepting death. The crew all stood shoulders slumped but heads high. Staring straight into the shining end.

“What are you doing?” She yelled as she paced the deck. “You can’t stop now! You’re wasting time!”

Some soldiers looked at her with various degrees of defeat and fear in their eyes but with equal amounts of pity. For the girl who couldn’t see that it was over. She caught a glimpse of the captain talking to Wind Tuner, but it gave her little hope. There was no rush, no command, no swiftness to her father’s gestures. She looked around some more. Mirage didn’t meet her eyes. Neither did Mecheye or Ash. “I’m sorry kid.” Hawk mumbled beside her. “That’s why we don’t take passengers.”

Panic grew inside of her but so did fury. No. This couldn’t be over. It simply couldn’t end this way- Suddenly someone started humming a familiar tune. Sly grin stepped to her side. With a rush of the water and the whipping of the wind, the tune was barely audible. But to her, it sounded clear as day. The words mixing in her head.

Old Captain Nil had a ship of steel.

When the waves attacked,

She did not kneel.

Her mind escaped to the sorrowful end of the melody.

A ship, a captain and a crew that night

Were one last time submerged from sight.

Everyone else seemed to be thinking the same thing. No. Her fury grew as she watched the serpents grow closer and closer. She’d be damned if she gave up this easily. She looked around for anything, any kind of answer that could stop this. Anything that could give them time. Or life. The wind blew at her hair pushing it this way and that which made her even more frustrated. She pushed strands away from her face and whipped around. There has to be something…

Then, she froze. This was very very stupid. It might not work and she had never experimented on anything like that before. But if it did…

Amaris spun around and caught Slygrin’s arm dragging him along as she strode across the deck. “What the-?” He started.

“I need your help,” She explained. Next, she grabbed Ash’s arm and dragged the two boys wordlessly below deck only stopping to untie the ropes around each of their waists. “Where do you keep the maintenance equipment?”

“Amaris...” Ash started.

“Just answer” She snapped rushing around the hallway opening random doors and falling onto others.

“There,” Slygrin pointed at a door at the end of the corridor. Amaris didn’t waste a single second. She stumbled around the room opening random boxes until she found what she was looking for. Thick metal pipes. She grabbed two of the longest she could find and stuck them together before turning to Ash. “Seal them together,” She ordered.

“What? why?”

“Just do it,” She handed him the metal rod then turned to Slygrin. “Do we have backup sails?” He nodded, “Get them.” Slygrin ran out of the room.

“Amaris, what the hell are you doing?”

“The water spirits obviously will not help. So we have to ask a different kind.”

“What?” Ash put down the now melted together rods. He barely had time to catch the two new ones Amaris threw his way.

“Just trust me,” She wished that she believed her words but all she could do was stumble towards the porthole and grip it with both hands so as not to tremble. She spun it open and stuck her head out. “Too low,” she tasted the salty water as she mumbled, the spray of wild waves splashed her cheeks and her hair whipped wildly, she shut the opening and turned back to Ash. “Do two more of these then bring them on deck.” She was halfway down the hallway when she stumbled into Mirage.

“Slygrin said you have a plan,” He paused and Amaris steeled herself for an argument, “How can I help?”

She let out a quick breath before answering with the scattered pieces Slygrin called a plan. “Tell everyone to throw everything overboard. The ship needs to be as light as possible. If it isn’t alive. It’s in the water.” As soon as he nodded she sprinted up the stairs.

Hey everyone! This story has the last two chapters removed. To read them, please head over to Webnovel and search for this book. By doing so, you would be supporting me while also getting to know what happened to the Amaris and the crew. Thank you for reading!