Nocturna League (Episode 2: The Mist Hour) (7 page)

Her heart skips a beat and her eyes
slowly widen. “…What?”

He nods casually as he takes a few
seconds to appreciate the music playing nearby. “Yes. You see,
there was this warlock, and a captain from across the waves killed
him and forged his soul into two pairs of gauntlets to keep the
power balance in check. Kalam, who was the first of the warlock’s
two sons, loved him and aided him in his evil plans. The second,
Ganas, helped the captain in finding him, because he knew he was
evil. So once the warlock was dead, the captain split the two pairs
between the sons, certain that if one had all the power, he would
oppress the children of the other. It’s good, then, that no one’s
ever gotten their hands on both pairs.”

Colette’s stomach clenches
as she breaks into a sweat. “W-wait, so if someone were to
get
both
pairs of
gauntlets, what would happen?”

The guard captain shrugs. “Can’t say
for sure, Miss. But I would guess that, because both pairs have a
part of the warlock’s soul, they could be re-merged and he could be
resurrected. That would be terrible! I could only imagine how bad
that would be. But of course, that’ll never happen.”

She takes a sharp, painful breath
hearing this. “So you mean to say… you mean to say that you have
two gauntlets.”

“
Yes, Miss. That’s what I
said. Were you listening?”

“…
Where are
they?”

“
Oh, in a
password-protected room in the manor. Totally impenetrable to all
but a Ganastere, considering only the head of the family knows it.
He checks on the gauntlets every evening.”

Colette nods blankly, coming to terms
with what she’s done. “Okay then… Thanks for your time,” she says,
turning away from the music and celebration.

The guard captain furrows his brow.
“Aren’t you going to enjoy the party? You saved the
day!”

“
No, I only saved the
warlock,” she says, stepping off somewhere.

The guard captain shrugs and goes to
dance in the square with the others.

Chapter 7: The Captain
and the Jobber Named Colette Have a Physical Dispute in Which the
Victor is not Clearly Decided “Or”
The
Captain Dies

The wind is high as a burdened Colette
steps along the trail to the highest point of the island. The
chills racing about her spine won’t stop, and she feels sick to her
stomach. The pain from where she shot herself in the hand is not
punishment enough for her foolishness, she feels- but she refuses
to turn over and give up. Though the fire in her eyes have burnt
its fuel, there’s a persistent spark that continues the blaze.
She’s confused. She doesn’t know who’s on whose side, or where the
lies end and the truth begins, but she is certain of some
things.

Colette is damn certain she will win
the duel with The Captain, get Grancis back and shoot whoever is
responsible for this madness. She’s been a toy in the hands of
professional players all this time and now it will end. This time,
she knows their tricks- she’s certain.

At the top of the point, The Captain,
his rifle holstered around him as if he were dressed for an
inspection, peers out over the wide forests of the island. It’s
obvious he’s already lost a good deal of sand from the knot she
tied into him- he’s drooping a bit.

“
Looking for me?” Colette
asks, pulling something from her pockets.

“
No, actually,” he says as
he continues to look out. “Just wondering where they could be
hiding now that they have all four gauntlets.”

Colette sighs. “You know about that?”
She asks over the gusting breeze.

“
I do indeed. You’ve placed
this island in quite the matter. Perhaps you’re not ready to be a
captain at all,” he says as he slowly turns from the cliff.
Instantly, he’s met with a box of crackers striking his
face.

“
Well it’s not like you
helped. I don’t even care what you think!” she says as she throws
the bar of cheese as well, which also hits The Captain square in
the face.

“
More than you know, my
oatmeal.”

“
That’s not even a
pastry.”

The Captain shrugs. “Well
perhaps
I don’t even care what you
think
,” he says, pointing thoughtfully as
he crouches to the ground.

She steels herself in frustration. “If
you knew about the plot, why didn’t you tell me?”

“
Because I had to learn
this on my own, and so do you- thinking on things creates valuable
self-reflection… Besides, I didn’t know,” he says as he reaches
down and picks up the cheese and crackers. He unwraps the packaging
and begins stuffing bits of each in between his bandages. “Oh, this
is
delicious
!”

Colette scowls. “Why are
you so cryptic all the time?! You could have been like ‘Oh, I
actually already knew the Kalamests were evil and trying to revive
this ancient warlock the whole time.’ But
noooo!
You had to
teach me a lesson
! Does it ever occur
to you that I’ll learn this stuff just by watching you do your
work? Do you really have to make me
shoot
myself in the hand
to get the point
across?”

“
Yes,” The Captain says,
his body making a very strange, inhuman grinding sound as he
devours the food. “You see, dearest Miss Ketiere, the best teacher
of the captain is often pain more than anything else. While you did
complicate this considerably, I still have this completely under my
control- and you are under my control as well.”

“
No, Captain. I’m not. I’m
myself. I make my own decisions. You can try to manipulate and
trick me all you like, but you’ll never have me do something I
didn’t intend to. I’m not a crook like you.”

The Captain laughs. “My
dearest Ketiere, manipulating people isn’t necessarily wrong.
Rulers, leaders, employers, even
captains
are manipulators of other
humans. The difference in skill is whether or not the people being
manipulated notice or
mind
that they are being controlled.”

“
Then you must be pretty
shitty at manipulating people, Salt, ‘cuz I mind a lot.”

“
The minding and noticing
parts are interchangeable, but enough of that- you’ll learn it all
in time. I’m actually quite confident that you’ll do the right
thing, simply because I’m confident in my ability to train
upstanding humans like yourself. I think it’s time for you to try
and take the reins of the Nocturna from me.”

Colette’s quiet and slowly places her
hand upon her revolver inside her coat. “What do you
mean?”

The Captain nods. “Just as I said.
Miss Ketiere. You seem ready to kill me,” The Captain says, taking
up his rifle, and then placing it on the ground. “If you kill me,
you get my ship, my gun, and of course, my beloved hat. An exciting
proposition, no?”

She squints at her
commander. “You’re joking, right? I don’t actually want to
kill
you. You might be a
major saltass, but I’m not just going to kill someone who’s
unarmed.”

The Captain laughs, a very unnerving
sound for Colette. “Yes, I imagined such, which is why I prepared a
countermeasure.” Colette squints in uncertainty, and The Captain
takes that as cue to continue. “Just two meters below us, is an
unconscious Miss Vereyrty. And I’m going to try to kill you,” he
says, placing the cheese and crackers aside on a rock.

Colette smirks with a gaze that oozes
sarcasm. “Yeah, cool. Don’t lie to me, Captain.”

“
And after I kill you, I’m
going to force myself upon your best friend- and she’ll be helpless
to resist,” The Captain says in a completely serious
way.

A distant memory flashes in the back
of Colette’s mind, before she joined The Captain’s crew, before she
knew how to fight, of that one time Grancis and herself were
cornered in an alleyway by a group of drunk men, right when The
Captain appeared. There’s a part of her that knows he’s lying, but
the rest of her is crying out for action. “That’s not even remotely
funny, Captain,” she says, hair raising to their ends as she
tightly grips the handle of her gun as if it were
Grancis.

He leans his head forward
in the most thug-like way Colette’s seen him. “Who the hell’s
joking,
ship hand
?”

“
You’re… You’re nuts. You
can’t even physically
do
that
. You’re just a bunch of
stupid damn sand
!”

The Captain draws out a
knife, and runs it across his bandaged face. “You think I was
talking about sex?
Oh no-
I just like slicing people up.”

Her entirety’s shaking now
as she draws her gun. “You… you
wouldn’t
!”

“
Why else would I take up
two useless girls on my ship like you two?”

“
T-… to make us better! To
teach us!”

The Captain laughs. “You
idiot. I
adore
seeing people crushed. I saw the sparks in your eyes, the
innocence. I just knew I had to save you both and then take it
away. To nurture it for a time, and once I saw the childhood in
your eyes being revealed to me, the trust, I’d crush it completely.
I’m going to kill you like one captain to another, but little
Grancis,
I’m going to take my time with
her
. I heard her cry out in pain once in
the kitchen when a pot fell on her foot, I could hardly keep myself
from bursting in there and vivisecting her while telling her that
everything was going to be okay. I wouldn’t have told you, and I
was going to cook her up and serve her to you, only to have you
connect the dots later that night.”

A few seconds pass as
Colette struggles to stand her ground. “You… you
bastard!
”

A grin forms under The
Captain’s bandages. “Oh,
yes. This is going
to be good!
” He says as he cracks his
knuckles. Colette feels the brain-etched fear overcome her, hearing
those black sand knuckles somehow crack, but she can’t be his pawn.
She’s not going to let him do as he pleases to Grancis. Colette
aims her gun at the approaching Captain, and shoots him square in
the head. It tugs his full wrapping of bandages as the hole spews
black sand, every grain blowing away on the high,
direction-changing wind.

“
Is that all, my little
fruit? Is that all you can do to save poor little
Grancis?”

*BANG BANG BANG BANG… BANG*

The Captain, filled with holes, grins
widely as his body quickly loses strength, the sand blowing out all
across the island. Boris’ knot plan worked, be it to stop him, or
kill him. “Well, look at that. Maybe you are worth something after
all.” He then reaches for his bandages, and finds they are not
there. He looks to Colette’s hand, and sees the bandages that are
wrapped around it. He grins as the rest of the sand blows out of
him into the air- she thinks she inhaled a little. The Captain’s
clothes collapses to the floor harmlessly, and his hat is being
pulled away by the wind. Colette takes it up and places it securely
on her head. She stands there a moment, listening to the wind and
then she hops down over the point to a lower ledge. There’s a note,
but no Grancis.

Dear Miss Colette Lancely
Ketiere,

Miss Vereyrty is safe and sound back
on the Nocturna. Did you really think I would do such a thing? For
shame- how degenerate!

I recovered her last night and made
sure that the criminal involved wouldn’t get up until you were on
the scene the next day. She’s happily cooking with Boris in their
little culinary wonderland as they usually do- so since you killed
me, you’re actually the last of the crew left on the island. Of
course, if you’re reading this, I can only assume that I’m still
super good at making you do exactly what I want you to, even when
I’m dead. Worry not, however. Over this time we’ve spent together,
you’ve shown considerable improvement and I have many a fond
thought of the time we spent together. I do want to see if you’re a
bad enough lass to finish the job. Very soon, you will hear
screaming in a certain spot in the island. Go there and defeat the
warlock that will probably be resurrected by the time you get
there. You’ve used my rifle before. You know what it does. Of
course, you can choose to run from your youthful mistake and take a
boat back to the Nocturna- you can probably see it from this
distance, that majestic metallic beauty. I know you better than
that however, and I’m sure you’re going to fix the problem,
probably for the better. I trust your decision and I know you’ll do
the right thing.

Oh, and if you brought the cheese and
crackers I asked for, thank you. It was probably a very enjoyable
meal, because I love cheese and crackers.

Love,

The Captain, now expired

(P.S. Drinking vinegar is a
disgusting, degenerate activity reserved for children and
criminals. I’m frankly completely shocked you didn’t call me out on
it.)

Colette looks up from the
letter with a completely dumbfounded expression. She sits down on a
rock, reloads her gun with her remaining bullets and begins eating
some of the cheese The Captain left on the rock where he was
standing. Staring into the distance for a full minute, The
Captain’s hat upon her head at a slant, she finally speaks.
“Captain, you
fucking
idiot.
”