Nocturna League (Episode 2: The Mist Hour) (8 page)

The wind blows, and she’s quickly
beset with a strange, out-of-nowhere headache. She braces in pain,
and soon after, hears a group of screams down two miles in the
distance in the forest. She knows what she must do. Starting down
the peak towards the screams, she fails to inspect The Captain’s
coat. Had she done so, she would have noticed an extra spool of
bandages in his left inside pocket.

Chapter 8: Colette does
her Finest to be an Upstanding and Capable Captain of
Merit

Colette rushes through the deep woods,
the sounds of a screaming chorus growing ever nearer as she
advances upon their position. Something’s changed in her, she’s
certain of that. She feels stronger, faster, smarter, but also,
ascended from her previous state, something that has a natural
authority over lesser humans- a captain. With every running step,
she feels the push of something more helping her along, as if The
Captain himself were inside her. Now reaching the rim of a large
clearing with an encampment and ruins within, she begins
entertaining the thought that by killing him, she has gained his
authority by right. It is time.

Rather than going straight
for The Captain’s rifle, she takes up her pistol and approaches. At
the encampment, she finds dozens of men and women of all ages
grasping at the dirt, curled in pain, and writhing in confusion.
Colette doesn’t know why they’re in such pain, but she’s not going
to waste the opportunity. She only has five bullets left, and
there’s at least twenty of them. She mulls over her options as a
distinct, powerful,
salty
voice rings in her mind:

“…
Fight them with your
hands, Miss Ketiere…”

She feels lead, she cannot say no to
the voice. She puts away her pistol and takes a deep breath. She
swings around and makes herself known. Itrim, among the pain-racked
Kalamests, spots her. He’s standing at a large stone coffin with
four gauntlets and several magical instruments lain out over the
lid.

“
Wh-what the
hell
are
you
doing here!?…” he
asks, bent over the coffin in agony.

“
It’s that bitch that took
the orders from The Captain,” says another, struggling to raise his
knife, much less his own body from the ground.

She pulls down the visor of The
Captain’s hat not in shame, but as a sailor annoyed by the sun.
“I’m The Captain now, kid. The Gauntlets are coming with
me.”

The crowd stirs, and Itrim especially
looks displeased. “N-n-…” he takes a breath as he struggles with
the pain, “not… after all we’ve done! All we’ve accomplished! We’re
so close!”

Colette steps forward to Itrim and the
coffin.

“
You… bastards… coming all
the way here just to ruin everything for us. We were so close. We
could have gotten the other pair without your help… Somebody, stop
her!” Itrim commands. One man musters the strength to take her
ankle from the ground, but with equal speed she turns and slams her
boot into his face. A couple of people get to their feet, doing
their best to ignore the infernal pain in their heads and pick a
fight with her. Their movements are too sluggish to stop Colette,
however, and she ousts them back to the dirt with alarming speed.
She reaches the coffin, and reaches for the Gauntlets.

Just as she touches it, her finger
making contact breaks with magic force. Colette cringes in the pain
as Itrim draws back in awe. “It can’t be… Is that you,
Aganoth?”

A voice emanates from the coffin. “It
is I,” the voice from the gauntlets speak: a dark, powerful
tone.

Colette attempts to take one of the
gauntlets again; this time her index finger is broken.

“
I can’t believe it! You’re
finally here!” Itrim says to the spirit of the
gauntlets.

“
How long have I been
gone?” the voice asks.

“
Hundreds upon hundreds of
years. Your son, Ganas, has turned the entire town against us! Now
his ancestors, the Ganasteres, are taking over the island! We need
your help!”

“
And just who are you?” the
voice says to Itrim amidst a Colette cringing in pain, and a crowd
that, regardless of their splitting headaches, are absolutely
fanatical.

“
Itrim Kalamest- your loyal
son’s heir of many generations.”

The voice laughs. “Excellent- are you
willing to be the vessel?”

Itrim grips the coffin. “I
am!”

“
Then wet my body and the
contract will be sealed!” Aganoth's spirit commands. Itrim piles
everything off the coffin lid, and pulls it off to reveal the
ancient corpse of Aganoth. Just as Colette feels another powerful
rush through her body, Itrim takes a dagger and slices into his
hand, running blood over the length of the corpse. Everyone and
everything except Itrim is blown away from the coffin, and Colette
is sent flying twenty meters out. “IT… IS… DONE!” cries Aganoth,
this time out from Itrim’s own mouth. Aganoth/Itrim takes to the
air with magical power as his body is consumed with mist. “NOW, I
SHALL BEGIN WITH YOU, ‘CAPTAIN’,” the warlock says with an
immaculate voice, the humidity in the air reverberating every
syllable.

Colette draws her pistol, and she
feels uncommonly… sand-like. Aganoth flies forward as an aberration
of mist and delivers a bone-crushing upper strike, which by some
miracle Colette counters perfectly by swinging around and
delivering her foot to the mist-beast’s face; she hadn’t even
practiced the move- as if The Captain has affected her
subconscious, their muscle memories combining to create a seafaring
predator. She fires a point-blank shot between every strike and
dodge, each one hitting Aganoth with blind, reflexive, perfect
accuracy. The crowd members slowly master their pain and lunge for
Colette, but as the new captain, she refuses to be caught off
guard. She exchanges each strike from the crowd with a perfect,
practiced strike that instantly puts the enemy back on the ground
with more pain than ever before coursing through them. With each
hit she takes from the unbelievably fast Aganoth, her reddening
body only seems to increase in strength and endurance- like the
insides of her body are recomposing into steel. At the same time,
Aganoth becomes slower, weaker, and easier to predict.

“
I-IMPOSSIBLE! I WON’T BE
DEFEATED BY A MERE SCUPPERING BARNACLE! YOUR BONES SHOULD HAVE BEEN
SHATTERED IN THE FIRST STRIKE!”

Colette thinks of a response, but her
voice moves for her before she can speak. “Your first mistake was
guessing that she’s the only one fighting you,” Colette says just
as everyone in the crowd, amidst moaning and struggling, start for
Aganoth, rather than Colette.

“
WHAT ARE YOU FOOLS DOING?!
WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON?!” Aganoth cries as he struggles against the
crowd.

Colette smiles a wry smirk that looks
exactly like the Captain. “They’re on mine. The moment they
breathed me in I had them in my grasp, and as much as they fight
me, they cannot truly defy what is inside of them.”

Aganoth screams out in fury. “THEN
THEY ARE ALL USELESS, JUST LIKE YOUR DEFIANCE. LET US SEE HOW WELL
YOUR VESSEL OPERATES WITHOUT A SPINE!” Aganoth exclaims as he
charges a dark, cursing spell.

“
She is my ship-hand. I
will ensure nothing happens to her unless absolutely necessary,”
'Colette' says, putting away her revolver and drawing The Captain’s
gun- that long, strange rifle that glows a sanctified gold. Colette
feels an unseen magic force attempt to break her neck, but
something on the inside resists, provideing a counter-force.
'Colette' pulls the trigger, pointed at Aganoth; the one, single
bullet contained in the rifle- costing as much as a month’s
paycheck while crewing for the Nocturna- bursts from the gun in a
blinding flash of light. Aganoth shifts his magic to those
restraining him, blowing his servants every which-way so he can
dodge the shot- but this time, Colette hits who she means to. She’s
certain that somehow The Captain is alive and within her, just as
he’s alive within the others, but he didn’t help her aim, he knew
she could do that part by herself. Everyone is temporarily deafened
by the absolute authority of destruction the rifle expels, and then
it clears up.

Aganoth, his new reign of terror cut
short, is presented and horrified with a hole the size of his head
in his chest. The hole stretches and fluctuates as some magic
presence encroaches across his body- slowly burning out his form.
“H-how?!”

'Colette' smiles. “It’s been many
years since your first death, so I’m not surprised you don’t know
of me. I’m The Captain- the greatest commander of humans in
history.”

Aganoth is silent and wide-gazed as
his spiritual presence disintegrates completely, leaving a
bleeding, unconscious Itrim with only a common bullet hole through
his stomach. All at once, all of the people sneeze, including
Colette- small black particles of sand… The Captain. The people
rear back in horror- having, beyond their will, turned against
their own master. Without a reason to fight, they flee, leaving a
bleeding Itrim, who’s just on the verge of regaining himself.
Colette looks down, and sees the wind blow, straight through the
forest. The peculiar wind picks up the little bits of The Captain,
and he blows away somewhere- she has no idea where to.

Itrim slowly opens his eyes. “Y-you
ruined… you ruined it all,” he says, grasping at his center to stop
the bleeding.

Colette looks away, as if she has more
important things to see than him, and gives her response. “You
almost ruined it for everyone, I had to. Aganoth was beyond his
time, and he was supposed to stay dead. Now that he’s been
dispersed for good, you can live the life you’ve always wanted to
do.”

Itrim scowls. “And what would that
look like, Captain Colette?”

“
Well, what do you want to
do?” She asks, looking to the sky.

He looks aside to the ground. “I don’t
know. Maybe I’ll just die- that sounds okay about now.”

“
Yeah? Then let me rephrase
the question. What do you really want the world to be
like?”

Itrim scoffs. That answer
is easy. “Better. I wish the world was a better place. I just
wasted the past twenty-four years of my life, and I’m
twenty-four
now
. I
have no idea what the hell to do.”

“
You know. A wise man once
told me that the world is a great painting, and if you never
travel, and never read, you only get to see a single stroke of the
brush,” Colette says, readjusting The Captain’s hat.

Itrim is quiet as the wind blows. A
moment passes, and Colette offers him the bandages she took from
The Captain. As the bandages are spooled around him, a smile starts
to cross his face. “I can really do anything, now. I
guess.”

She nods. “That’s right. You can go to
places that have been in books- where there are great, spiraling
towers, and terrible beasts. It’s a mysterious life, the sailor’s,
but I find myself appreciating the value of it more and
more.”

Itrim stares blankly out into the
woods, and then he looks up to the sky. “You know,” he starts,
“maybe that’s just what I need. Something new,” he says as Colette
finishes bandaging him up.

“
Well, you know- I’ve been
looking for members for my crew,” she says, delivering a superior,
but compassionate glare. Itrim is silent, sitting up and looking at
her.

Finally, he nods, and smiles. “Okay.
I’ll do it. I’ll join your crew. I thought my whole life’s purpose
was to bring back the power of the old age, but it seems as though
that’s not what I’m for- maybe if you hadn’t come, I would have
succeeded. Looking back on it, I guess it’s for the best. The
Ganasteres and all the islanders are afraid of the warlock. Maybe
life would be best for the most people if I were to just
disappear.”

Colette nods. “It would. You’re not
helping anyone here. While you can just live for yourself, you
might as well make yourself useful. I know it feels strange, but
you’ll get used to having your individuality stepped on out in the
real world.”

Itrim chuckles, slowly taking a stand
using Colette’s shoulder for support. “Yeah, alright. Let’s go to
your ship.”

As they walk through the forest,
Colette spots a wound on Itrim’s forearm- she remembers the first
fight with the assailant of mist- the one she shot in its forearm.
“So,” she says, “You were the one who started all of this? The one
who did the kidnappings, paid off the Ganastere guard?”

Itrim nods with a perplexed look on
his features. “Yeah. It was me. I just wanted my dad to be proud of
me- but he’s been dead for years now. I could’ve moved on. Really,
we couldn’t have gotten the other pair of gauntlets if you hadn’t
come around- the guard I paid couldn’t sneak around and extract the
password from the head of the Ganasteres like that. I guess it’s
best that you were here for this. Provided me with… closure, I
guess.”

Colette smiles. “Well, a new chapter
of your life will begin once we get on the Nocturna,” she says,
stepping out of the woods and into the town; people are still
partying.

Itrim smiles back. “Alright… I’d like
that. Thank you.”

“
Sure thing… Oh, and
Itrim?”