Sea and the Shadow

Once upon a time there was a man named Jack. Jack was a sailor man and a privateer with a crew employed to harass certain trade vessels bringing goods to Gothica. Operating at both the edges of the law and of civilization, the privateers also made a habit of confiscating any goods that caught their eye, provided it wouldn’t be missed too dearly. Jack was afflicted with what most considered to be a curse. Though by birth he was a Goth, by this affliction he was what was called a banshee, a creature able to see by what manner a man he looked upon would die.

Jack was lying on his hammock one night, unable to sleep. This was hardly the life he had planned on living: surrounded by ruffians and fools, who had not even the wits to recognize his superior capabilities. He shouldn’t be on a hammock, stuffed into the cramped lower deck of a ship. He should be in a bed in the captain’s cabins. If he should suffer a sleepless night, it should be while enjoying a good bottle of wine, not empty handed and restless. He could take it no longer. He pulled himself from his hammock and ascended to the upper deck, intending to try and enjoy the ocean air. When he first reached the surface, as was always the case, his worries immediately began to dissipate. He nodded to some of the night crew that noticed him then approached the bow of the ship and took in a deep breath before sighing in relief. No matter how uncomfortable the lower decks may be or how far he yet was from being a captain the scent of the sea and the sound of the ocean always helped ease his mind. Yet tonight, the uneasiness could not be fully shaken. He had grown too restless with this crew, having been vital to success and survival so many times, yet being so thoroughly unappreciated for his efforts. In the months he had been on board, the captain and crew would often consult him for his powers, yet he was refused a higher rank and held at arm’s length otherwise. And then it happened, that he turned his head to the left and beheld another vessel in the darkness.

By this point in history, a race of people called the merrow had established deals with most surrounding kingdoms, and even more minor harbor towns. The merrow were an aquatic people, bearing a resemblance to the life naturally found in the oceans, and could survive beneath the sea as easily as any other man lived on the surface of the land. As they began exploring, as they were prone to do, and they came upon other civilizations they engaged in trade and aided in the construction of seaworthy vessels. Further, utilizing their innate comfort within the oceans, they developed a proposal to share with any that had ships and sought trade. The arrangement, sparing the particulars of each deal, was as follows; the merrow will take a vessel for trade, along with goods to be traded, and take it far, far away to a kingdom that would eagerly trade what they had for it. The merrow would then return the vessel with whatever goods and gold they had earned by trade, taking a percentage of sales for their trouble. Due to their nature, the merrow were able to take goods far enough away that some of what they traded went entirely unrecognized by the people they brought them to. Now the merrow were renown for this service and utilized by many great kingdoms. This meant most of the people any privateer would interact with for extended periods of time were the merrow, with the exception of any other privateers they came upon of course. Jack was accustomed to seeing merrow and could have spotted their flags flying, even in the night, recognizing it by its fishtail shape. Yet this ship flew no flag of any kind. He turned to the crew, expectantly, yet none seemed to notice it. He then turned his gaze towards the crow’s nest to see if their watchman might be about to alert the others to the vessel, but he too appeared oblivious. Jack looked back to the shadowy ship, only to see it approaching their own head on. He considered for a moment that he was dreaming and pinched himself. It hurt.

“Lads?” Jack called out to the crew with some hesitation, refusing to look away from the ship.

“We’re not your lads, mate,” was the response called back to him. Jack reconsidered. Perhaps they shouldn’t brace themselves. Against this thought, he continued speaking and pointed towards the oncoming vessel.

“Well, do any of you happen to see that?” One of the crew came to his side and took a moment to scan the sea in the indicated direction.

“I see waves,” he spoke with an almost sarcastic emphasis on the word “waves.” Jack did not reply.

“What? Have you seen a great fish or whale? It wasn’t a kraken, was it?” The sailor seemed to be taking Jack almost seriously now. Jack paused for a moment, the shadow of a ship now quite close to theirs yet still as dark as the night sky without stars.

“No,” he finally spoke. “No kraken. It’s noth-” Before he could continue his excuse, the black ship crashed into their hull, knocking the men off their feet. Expletives sounded out as the ship was knocked off course and the crew gathered themselves.

“What in oblivion!?” The sailor beside Jack exclaimed as he stood to his feet, his eyes fixed upon the ship which now was adjusting to sail alongside theirs. Ghostly ropes with three pronged hooks at their ends crashed into their ship, only fully visible once having already made contact. The ships were pulled tightly together and the strain of wood rang, followed by the subdued crash of their hulls colliding again. Jack turned to the crewman beside him and beheld only one fate; death at the hands of some manner of specter. Just as he registered this, but before he could act on it, there was the thud of boots on the deck and a sword appeared already lodged in the chest of the man beside him. Quickly after the action, the body of the attacker materialized before him. In seeing it up close, Jack first likened it to the way ones breath appears on otherwise clear glass on especially cold nights. Once visible, the apparition remained so, offering Jack the chance to fully behold it in the moonlight.

It was dressed like a sailor, though perhaps like a sailor of a time before Jack’s. As it pulled its sword from its victims ribs, it turned to Jack revealing quite a few of its own were visible through torn shirt and flesh. Its face was hideous: the face of a long decaying corpse, the only color being shades of red from its bloodshot eyes. The color of its flesh and clothing were largely obscured, as if the creature dwelt entirely in a shadow, despite the moon shining on it. Its hair - what it had of it - was slick and heavy with water, seeming to have just been dragged from the ocean. It was altogether a horrid thing and as the crew of Jack’s ship scrambled, more boots hit the deck, followed by the manifestation of more specters where each thud resounded from. Jack drew his sword as the monster before him prepared an attack. He dodged as he parried, fearing the creature’s blade may simply pass through his own. But as the specter’s black blade swung at him, his parry did indeed block its advance. He took the opportunity to riposte, slashing the abomination across its face. It seemed unbothered by his attack, despite there being a wound left by his sword, and it continued its assault.

A bell sounded into the night. One of the night crew alerting any below deck who hadn’t been awoken by the initial collision. Some of the crew were already spilling onto the deck, half dressed with swords drawn. Most met the sight before them with horror and shock, yet still most of them were able to steel their nerves and fight back against the shadowy forces assailing them. The whole deck became chaotic, man fighting monster at nearly every portion of the ship two men could fit a duel within. Jack, meanwhile, fled towards the chaos, successfully losing the phantom he had struck. He looked around at each member of his crew and beheld vision after vision of each meeting their end to a spectral sword. This was not a battle they could win. He then took his sword against one of the ropes grappling their vessel, severing it after several swings of his sword. But, as he was about to make his way to another, he noticed the rope slither back towards its severed part. His pleased expression was quickly replaced with disappointed confusion as he then looked up at the invaders’ ship, spying another wretched corpse of a man. This one though was adorned with what was once a fine coat and cape, both now ravaged by who knows how long a time being not cared for. The figured held a straight sword outwards towards Jack, which Jack at first took as some threat until he realized its true aim: the rope. Somehow, that sword had mended the rope.

Jack sheathed his sword and, without a moments hesitation, ran towards the end of the deck to climb the mast net. He climbed as high as he thought he would be able to quickly recover from, then leapt from one ship to the other, rolling as he collided with the enemy deck. The sensation of hitting the deck was dulled, as if it was only partly a real thing he had struck, so he wondered if he might have been able to climb higher. He drew his sword and made a charge for the helm stairs, but collided with an invisible form. The phantom materialized from the point of impact and turned to face Jack, its decaying face seeming quite displeased with his clumsiness. The creature had not drawn a sword, so he plunged his own through its face, forcing its head to the stairs behind it, hoping that would be the end of it. He then turned to the figure he believed to be the captain.

“You suffer cowards?” His mocking words rang strongly, successfully masking his dread. He pulled his sword from the monster and made his way up the stairs to the captain, unsure of what exactly his plan was. He only knew he had to claim its sword. He reached the top of the stairs then hesitated when he heard a gargled moan from behind him. He turned to see the corpse he had just impaled rise back to its feet. He then turned to the captain, seeing it holding its sword out straight towards the rising figure. Without thinking, Jack made a mad dash for the captain and swung his sword down at its partially decayed wrist, severing the freakish hand from its arm. The captain did not so much as recoil at the attack, but its sword clattered to the helm’s floor and as it did, the whole vessel seemed to quake. Still charging Jack tossed his own sword at the captain, hitting him awkwardly in his face, then he bent over to grab the black blade as he continued his sprint. He reached the other side of the helm, the black blade firmly in his grasp and pointed it out towards the captain. Nothing. He then swung it out over the ship, to little effect, beyond revealing an oncoming hoard of phantoms, each with a sword in hand. The captain of the vessel cackled with vocal cords that sounded as though they were held together only by the very maggots likely consuming them. Seeing no other option, with the captain’s dreadful crew now making its way up both sets of stairs, Jack climbed atop the helm’s rail and pushed himself into the ocean.

He made his way through the waves to the rear of his ship. Unbeknownst to him, when he severed the captain’s hand, each specter on his own ship had flickered for a moment. And when he had claimed the black blade and plunged himself into the ocean, they rushed back towards their ship. Jack’s crew took note of the ropes tying the two vessels together and quickly severed them. Without the captain’s sword, they remained cut and slid along the floor and over the edge of the deck. Jack’s own captain, now out from his cabin and injured from a duel he was engaged in climbed the helm to the wheel and began barking orders at his crew to get themselves in order. They were leaving while they had the chance. All sails were set and the captain pulled furiously against the wheel to better align his ship with the winds, which currently blew towards land. Meanwhile, phantoms by the dozen, sheathed their blades and dove into the ocean after Jack, their corpse of a captain barking some unintelligible orders at them. Jack was barely reaching the stern of his ship as it turned to flee the ghostly vessel. He slid his new sword between his belt and his body, as it would not fit the sheath of his last, then grabbed onto the hull of the friendly ship. With all his might he began pulling his body, now heavy with sea water, along the side of the ship, pausing only to take a breath and call for aid.

“Man overboard! Port quarter!” Some of the crew rushed to the rail above him in response to his calls. They dropped a rope over the side of the ship for him to climb and called out for men to arm themselves and prepare for another wave. As the deck began descending back into chaos, Jack pulled himself over the rail and turned to the ghost ship. He ran up to the helm of his own and drew the black blade, pointing it squarely towards the phantom vessel. He took a deep breath and shut his eyes for a moment in an attempt to drown out the panic of the crew behind him and the wails of the monsters even now climbing back up the ship.

“Full speed ahead.” His command was given with all the authority he thought was befitting for the captain of a ship that had served it for a century. His words were sure and purposeful. As he spoke, he pointed the sword slightly off course from the ship, in very nearly the exact opposite direction of the wind’s path. At his command, the sails of the spectral ship dropped in an instant and seemed to fill with wind, despite all wind blowing against them. The vessel moved along, traveling a good deal faster than any ship Jack had ever seen move in his life. The ghostly crew clinging to their own vessel vanished, as if dissolving from their hull, as the phantom ship left them behind. The deck of his own ship fell silent for a moment. A silence that was only broken when Jack, feeling suddenly ill down to his very soul, leaned over the edge of the ship and was sick.

“What are you lot standing around for!?” Jack’s captain called in an angry tone that did not fully hide the pain of his wound.

“Get us to land before sunrise! Or worse. Before that ship decides to turn about and give chase to us!”

“Aye, captain!” Was the resounding cry from all present and living crew, even Jack, though it was considerably weaker from his lips. The captain nodded to his quartermaster towards Jack, to which the man approached him and spoke softly.

“Whoa, easy there, mate. It isn’t wise to try to stand up so fast after you’re knocked off your sea legs like that.” He jerked his head in the direction of Jack’s retch. Jack slid the sword back into his belt and wiped his mouth before responding.

“I-” He could tell as soon as he decided to speak that his words would be spoken weakly and caught himself. He took a moment to breathe before trying again.

“I’m fine.” It was convincing. The quartermaster’s eyes betrayed trust in Jack’s words. As he regarded the quartermaster he noted that one potential means by which he might meet his end was at Jack’s own hands. For the brief moment he spied it, the vision seemed to show them fighting for control of the sword Jack now wore at his side. Jack reasoned quickly within himself and spoke again, before the quartermaster could.

“I saw the vessel first. I thought it a figment of some kind as none of the crew seemed to notice it. I should stay on deck tonight, lest the phantoms return for their sword.” The quartermaster hesitantly looked sideways towards the captain. The captain pondered for a moment, then only nodded as a response.

“Aye, mate. Keep a keen eye on the sea tonight. We’ll ensure you’ve a good rest when we reach land.” Jack had no doubt as to the sincerity of that final promise.

“They charged us from the side. I’ll remain at the back of the helm to maintain as good a view as I can of the port and starboard.”

“Aye, mate. Keep us safe.” The quartermaster spoke rather dismissively as he walked back towards the captain. After an exchange of whispers the two made their way down the helm and some replacements for the fallen night crew were established to navigate the ship to land. Jack did not sleep a single wink that night, staying far more wary of a potential betrayal than of any ship.