Sigil of Souls, Stream of Memories

by Piccolo Sky

Daybreak: Rhyme and Reason

“Ok, that’s two cups a day for eight days… No, no…it won’t break down even that way. That’s three half cups a day for eleven days… No, wait…we can do seven eighths of a cup for seventeen days. That’s over half a month! But wait…if we do that, then we might not have enough strength to call for help or row to a boat if one comes by… Maybe we should double up after all. But we’re uneven…”

A loud groan came from the other side of the other side of the tender boat, interrupting Twilight’s train of thought. There lay a body covered from the waist up with a thick canvas tarp to try and keep out the sun. The end of it flipped up, just revealing the upper half of Sunset sprawled on the boat floor.

“You’re rationing the food again?”

Twilight grimaced, looking down at her lap. On one of the raised planks of the tender boat for sitting, she had arranged, several times over, neat little piles of the bag of corn meal that they had somehow managed to get from the ocean in the middle of the ship sinking. “Well…it’s not like there’s anything else to do. Besides, this is important. I got to plan to get us to survive as long as possible on this. It’s all we have.”

Sunset groaned again as she let the tarp fall. “Considering the fact we don’t have any fresh water? We’re going to die of dehydration long before starvation settles in.”

Twilight grimaced even more. Sighing, she took up the bag to start scooping the meal back into it. As soon as she was done, she leaned back and covered herself with part of a similar tarp like Sunset had.

The two sat there silently momentarily, hearing nothing but the now much calmer ocean slowly rolling about them, and the water lapping against the edges of the boat. A couple minutes of silence passed.

Twilight eventually broke it. “Did you…see things last night?”

“Yeah…” Sunset sighed in response, “I saw a boat get into a huge shipwreck by having a crazy crew run itself aground that I barely survived.”

“That’s not what I meant. I meant…in those rocks. The mist above them. You saw inside it, didn’t you?”

A momentary pause, before she answered more quietly. “Yeah, I saw inside it.”

“There were things flying around in it, weren’t there?”

Another long pause. “It kind of looked like it.”

“That sound they were making… They did something to the crew. They made them crash the ship. How?”

“Don’t know—don’t care.”

“But they made everyone on that ship commit suicide.”

“You really expect me to care that much about people who wanted to sell me into slavery, at best? Good riddance. Since you’re so big-hearted, you should be happy that we were the only people they were trafficking on that ship.”

“This is serious. What if they’re doing that to other ships? Those things had to be some kind of monster, but they definitely weren’t Light Eaters or Nighttouched. They would have flown over the boat and ripped it apart if they were. So what were they?”

Sunset let out a sigh and lifted up her tarp. “Look, you’re wasting your strength talking about it. It’s over, it’s done, and it’s behind…”

Twilight noted that Sunset trailed off. Hearing that, she began to pull aside her tarp as well. “What is it?” she asked as she got her head free. “Do you see a…boat…?”

As soon as her eyes were looking back out at the ocean, Twilight trailed off as well. The waters of the sea had been clear and void of any other presence not long ago. But either a lot more time had passed than either of them realized, or the ship they were now looking at was far, far faster than it appeared.

Pulling slowly up alongside the tender boat was an archaic, crude, wooden sloop with a structure not from anywhere near Greater Everfree. Standing on the deck as still as statues, staring at them with expressionless faces, were a trio of individuals with skin far darker than their own in clothing from the southern portion of Lesser Everfree.

The two ladies stared silently back, so taken aback by them being there that they forgot to even cry out to them for help.

---

Even long after both ladies were on board, their boat was tied to the side of the ship, and the sails were fully unfurled to carry them onward again, Twilight and Sunset were greeted with nothing but stares and silence. They were on one side of the sloop now, facing off against the three men on the other. Aside from the moments when they tended the boat or adjusted the sail or steering to make sure they were still headed in the right direction, they never looked away. None of them made a move on the two of them, but the silent staring was more than enough to leave the two uneasy. As time wore on, in spite of the fact they had been plucked from the ocean, they began to wonder if they were better off there.

At length, Sunset spoke up to Twilight. “Why don’t you say something to them?”

Twilight, looking just as uneasy and not turning away, answered. “What’s wrong with you saying something?”

Sunset grimaced uncomfortably. She stared back at the three with a touch of growing unease before she finally raised a hand and gave a feeble wave. “Uh…hi.”

No response other than staring.

“Thanks for…saving us.”

No response.

A longer pause, before a touch of confusion. “Can…the three of you understand me?”

Still no answer.

“They might not be able to answer us,” Twilight finally spoke up. “From the looks of the boat and how they’re dressing, I think they’re from Zebrabwie. The native tongue there is pretty different from the main one for Greater Everfree. It’s hard to make the transition.”

At once, Sunset’s eyes narrowed as she gave Twilight a glare. “…Why didn’t you mention that before I started babbling to them like an idiot? I don’t suppose you can talk to them, can you?”

She shook her head. “I tried learning the click-tongue method a couple years ago, but I never could get it down. I think I can manage ‘cat’, ‘dog’, and ‘tree’. I’m not sure saying any of that will help us…”

“Great…so we have no idea what they even want from us. For all we know they pulled us out of the ocean to take us to shore, sell us to someone themselves, or slice us into pieces and use us for chum.”

“If it makes you feel any better, I think if they wanted to kill us, they would have done it while we were still on the boat before bringing our bodies on board.”

“It doesn’t.”

If Twilight had a response to that, she never had a chance to get it out. At that moment, a voice from the opening into the topside cabin echoed out over the deck.

“Pair of castaways from the sea…I bid you now come stand before me.”

Both Sunset and Twilight were taken aback yet again. The voice spoke clearly enough in spite of having a Zebrabwie accent, but it was also resounding and smooth. Definitely female from the tone, and it spoke melodiously like it was saying a bit of verse rather than simply calling out. It left both women surprised.

“So…there’s a fourth person here?” Sunset finally asked aloud.

“Do you think she’s, um…the captain?” Twilight ventured.

“I own this boat,” the voice responded, causing both women to nearly jump again, “that much is true. Now let me get a good look at you two.”

Sunset noticed the rhyme once again. “Well, she speaks our language, whoever she is. And she understands us too. But why is she talking like that?”

Twilight thought for a moment. “I…think I recall reading somewhere that most Zebrabwians who learn Everfreen ended up doing so through literature classes that were heavily into poetry. It led many of them to believe that’s how people from Greater Everfree prefer to be spoken to.”

“Well for me it just creeps me out. What do we do?”

Twilight shrugged and began to step forward. “Do what she says, I guess.”

“You sure that’s safe?”

“Well, they did save us, and if they want to do something to us we don’t have many options to get around it. What else are we going to do? Stand on the deck for who knows how long?”

Sunset sighed, but couldn’t argue with the logic. She frowned but began to walk after Twilight as she headed for the opening. The sloop had no doors, but there was a dark aperture ahead that was half-recessed into the deck, such that one had to step down a bit to get into it. It had no covering except for a length of cloth stretched in front of it. Twilight reached it first, took a deep breath, and stepped down and inside. Sunset hesitated even longer, taking an even deeper breath, but followed suit.

Considering the fact that they had both been out in the bright sun for most of the day, at first all the two of them could see was a mostly dark chamber. As their eyes adjusted to the window slots allowing natural sunlight in, however, both were taken aback yet again. It was like no ship’s interior that either of them had ever seen. It looked more like a folk magician’s place of “work”, so to speak. Various masks with an assortment of strange and even grotesque expressions were along the walls for decoration, along with various bottles and jars. Some were glass, but for the life of them neither woman would have known what was inside of them. A few books were mingled here and there, but most of them were old and falling apart from excessive use, and the entire chamber had a musty, odd aroma about it.

Most of the scent had to be coming from the center of the room, where, in a specially fitted iron grating in the floor, there was actually a hot coal pit keeping what looked like a cauldron in a constant boil. An especially pungent scent was arising from that. Seated behind it, looking over the odd, multicolored surface and over what seemed like leaves bobbing on it, was an older woman. She held her head high and her neck straight as she sat there, although they weren’t sure if they were just imagining how high she was holding it as she wore several golden-colored bands around it, and it served to give an optical illusion of a higher neckline. Similar bands were around one arm. Large hooped earrings hung from either ear lobe, almost enough to stretch them downward, and her hair, white and black striped, was arranged in a mohawk.

Even considering the time it took their eyes to clear, and in spite of the fact she had been the one who had called them in, the woman didn’t seem to notice them at first. She was preoccupied with her cauldron. Every so often, she would reach up with some sort of stirring tool and shift it about, in particular the leaves on the surface, but do no more. Nevertheless, the two only went in a short distance before stopping and waited there. They looked around the chamber a little as the silence lingered even after their eyes cleared.

After a time, the woman looked up at them. Her face was not particularly friendly. In fact, it seemed only slightly less cold than the men outside. She raised an eyebrow. “What odd forms an omen takes. How unassuming you be…for what may be my mistakes.”

Sunset could only stare back in confusion. “Uh…”

“Wow,” Twilight remarked, both in regards to her as well as the environment, “Pardon me for asking, but…but are you a real Zebrabwian shaman?”

Sunset turned to her. “A what?”

“A mystic from Zebrabwie. Celestia told me some of them had unusual powers even for people who went to her academy. They could do some things even beyond the scope of magic.” She turned to her in some puzzlement. “Didn’t she tell you about that in her tutorials on unusual races?”

Sunset grimaced and crossed her arms. “I was mostly worried about magic users on Greater Everfree. I didn’t want to waste time on ones half a world away. Someone like her can use magic too?”

Twilight winced a little. “Er…not exactly. Not spells like we know them. They have some special techniques that we don’t, however. Divination is a big one.”

“You know something of me?” the woman spoke up, getting the attention of the women again. “You two are quite shrewd. Yet talking of me as if I’m not here is just rude.”

Twilight and Sunset both winced a little. “Um…sorry about that. I just got carried away. It’s…it’s, well, just my first time seeing one of you in real life. To be honest, I’m a little curious about you. And, um…” she glanced about the room again, “uh…what you’re up to.”

The woman stared back unchanging for a moment.

“Zecora is my name. A shaman I be sincere. That, however, is not why I called you two here. From the ocean I bid my shipmates you two to pluck, but do not think that I came across you by luck.”

“Wait, you were coming out after us?” Sunset spoke up. “Why? You definitely don’t look the type that would be working with Trottingham or that Virgo guy.”

“On my morning rituals, I was struck with a vision,” she continued, her voice deepening and growing in volume. “One that compelled me to come to a decision. Never before felt I an aura of such force. It took me no time at all to have the ship change course. What more, the omen was quickly made true. I was shown to get two ladies, and I quickly found you.”

Sunset only looked confused at this. “Are you saying that when you were…” She glanced around the room, and made a roundabout gesture with one hands. “…doing…whatever it is you do in here all day, that you got some sort of vision about us that told you to come get us?”

“That must have been some of the Zebrabwian divination!” Twilight immediately exclaimed, only to look confused herself. “But wait… I thought that was only supposed to be general fortune telling and questions about seasons. I didn’t think it was supposed to be that specific…”

“My art is far more than mere fortune telling,” Zecora answered, “and I see more than what this year’s weather is foretelling. This vision, however, was never before seen.” Her voice lowered again. “The clarity…the vivacity…like it has never been. It was as if I was there; already acting. ‘Why?’ is the question since then I’ve been asking. Now that you stand before me, though, the answer is clear.”

She fixed them both in her gaze. Her eyes widened enough for them both to see the blue-green colors in them, yet at that moment they both seemed to shimmer like the gold she wore for just a brief second.

“Powerful and dread omens hang about you, I fear.”

Now both women looked very confused…to say nothing of a little unnerved at the way the woman said that. She did not change however. Only held for a bit before leaning back and beckoning.

“Come closer, you two. Have a peek at my brew.”

They hesitated. Sunset found herself looking to Twilight and vice versa, actually silently consulting each other to see if they should try it. At length, however, they both turned forward and, rather hesitantly, did as they were told. They walked right up to the cauldron, or, rather, as close as they dared before the smell became a bit too much for them.

Zecora reached for the side when they did. When she came up, she had a fistful of the leaves, and spread them along the top of the concoction. “A sign hangs upon one of you two.” That done, she reached up with her other hand, revealing a small vial of liquid. She immediately poured it inside. “Black is the color; very dark is the hue.”

The moment she poured the substance onto the cauldron, it reacted with what was already in there; causing it to belch forth a cloud of thick smoke. Soon it was billowing up so rapidly and dark that Zecora was obscured behind it, and the two women covered their noses and found themselves leaning back. They nearly raised their hands to wave it away, when they paused.

Although it seemed to be only a cloud of vapor at first, now that they looked into it, they began to see the clouds condense. At first, it seemed to be only an illusion or a trick of the eye, but as they stared longer it was unmistakable. The cloud was filled with shapes. All of them were somewhat oval, but bulging on the bottom. And they had indentations in the center, while the bases were irregular and jagged. Staring a bit longer, their form became clear to them.

Human skulls. The cloud was forming into a cluster of them.

Zecora’s voice sounded again…deeper this time, yet with great strain and mounting anxiety. It sounded almost breathless. Almost hollow.

“Death hangs about you, gruesome and foul. Blood and destruction; misery doth howl. Never before in all the times I did brew have I seen such an aura as dark as on you. It shakes me to my bones, my face it does pale, when I think of the tears and the cries you’ll make wail.”

The two women, struck by the gravity of her voice, were left standing silently for several moments. After a time, though, Sunset simply frowned and crossed her arms. “I don’t think I did all that much, but thank you so much for the ‘flattery’.”

Twilight turned to her. “Huh?”

She rolled her eyes. “She’s talking about me, obviously. All the stuff I did because of working with Trottingham, remember?”

“This is not the past.”

Zecora’s voice had such an edge on it that it almost seemed to stick both women. They turned back to her, just as the vapors finally cleared enough to see her face and eyes once again.

“My cauldron lacks that power. What you are seeing now will unfold yet on some future hour. Whoever you are and what you’ve done until now…it’s nothing compared to what’s coming, I vow.”

Again the two were rendered mute, and now even Sunset began to look a little uneasy. They glanced to one another again, and then back to her. By now the vapors were nearly clear, but Zecora was staring at them more intensely than ever. Her voice dropped to its lowest yet.

“Young ladies, if this was all there was about thee, rest assured…you’d have both been cast back into the sea. This portent is so dread, this sign so gray, the blood of two women is a small price to pay.”

Now both women began to look downright uncomfortable. Twilight swallowed a bit of a lump. Sunset started to regard Zecora with a touch of fear, and her body visibly began to tense up. Before she could make a move, Twilight nervously spoke up again. “I might regret asking this, but…why did you help us then?”

Zecora kept staring for a moment of silence. Her hand moved and picked up a second vial, this one with a more pinkish liquid inside it. She dumped it into the cauldron just as the previous smoke finished fading.

A second cloud billowed up in place of the first. It was as thick and opaque as before, but this one formed quite a different image. The center of it rose straight out and split and branched, while the clouds around it remained low until they were to the edge of the cauldron before curling up. These bits of vapor became covered with bumps all over them, until it looked like a great multitude of people all gathered around the center. As for the center itself, the oddly shaped bits of vapor seemed to form into a pair of individuals. One looked like they were kneeling down and almost falling, while the other looked like they were reaching out to help them up.

“A second omen, this I see. Far gentler, kinder, and tinged with mercy. In days to come, perhaps years I have wagered, you will meet with someone who’s life is endangered. By saving this one, who otherwise would have died, you’ll save many whose fates with theirs is allied.”

Both Twilight and Sunset stared again at this latest image of vapor, as it slowly faded away once again. Zecora, on her part, finally eased and leaned back. “So you see, if I had left you both out to drown, then it would be the fate of millions let down. And since my own head might be on that block, I chose to risk fate…and have this small talk.”

Twilight was open-mouthed a bit longer before blinking. “Let me see if I get this straight… You’re saying there’s a second omen on us, and this one says that one of us is going to save someone who’s going to save a bunch of other people who’ll die otherwise?” She paused, glancing to Sunset, who was still looking uneasy and growing uneasier yet, before looking back. “But…which one of us?”

“An omen only ever speaks of one.” Zecora simply answered. She crossed her arms, her eyes now beginning to go from one to another in front of her. “Which of you two is this? Quite the conundrum…”

Silence once again hung over the cabin. Zecora continued to study the two of them while Twilight looked rather uncomfortable. However, Sunset was far more so. She continued to grow more uneasy, looking between Zecora and Twilight. She nearly began to take a step back…but before she could she frowned and balled her hands into fists.

“You know what I think? Neither…because this is a bunch of smoke, mirrors, and garbage,” she spat angrily.

“Sunset-”

“Don’t start!” she practically yelled. “What would this witch doctor know about the future? Just from dumping a bunch of rotten smelling stuff into a big cauldron like she can just conjure it up? Come on, use that brain of yours you supposedly have! If she could just whip up stuff like that, everyone in the world would be crawling to her for lottery tickets and international advice!”

Zecora said nothing and showed nothing; simply kept her arms crossed and stared at Sunset. Twilight, on her part, couldn’t help but look more uneasy before she turned fully to her. She began to reach out. “Look, just…just calm down, will-”

“You stay away from me!” she snapped, taking two steps away from her. “And don’t even think about starting to call on your Anima Viri around me!”

Twilight went wide-eyed. “Sunset…don’t mention that around-”

“I don’t care about that! All I care about is you keeping your distance!” She wheeled on Zecora. “And that goes for you and your crew! Get this straight! As soon as I have my pardon, I’m going to spend the rest of my days in a country house a thousand miles away from the nearest Nighttouched. No rescuing people…no aimless death and destruction…none of that! So your little ‘prophecy’ is full of crap! This goodie two-shoes over here…” She gestured to Twilight. “Might end up saving tons of people, but that’s got nothing to do with me! I think you’re just some street fortune teller! There’s only two things I want to know about you, and that’s if you’re planning to take us to shore or not and where?”

In spite of the anger and shouting, Zecora remained calm and composed the whole time. She stared at Sunset for a few seconds before uncrossing her arms and setting them in her lap. “We’ll reach Fillydelphia in two days time. From there, your paths will diverge from mine.”

“Good! Let’s speed things up and start that right here, right now,” Sunset retorted, eyes darting between Twilight and Zecora. “From now on, no one gets within six feet of me, morning or night. I’m not going to wake up with a knife in my back because of some backwater horoscope…”

Crossing her arms, Sunset took one more step back until she was a good distance from both women, and then went silent; taking time only to glance toward the entrance searching for signs of any of the men on deck coming down trying to pin her in. Twilight looked at her a bit anxiously before turning back to Zecora.

“Well…thank you very much for saving us, and for taking us to Fillydelphia. We’ll just…uh…be headed back to the prow to hang out until we arrive.”

She turned to leave, but stopped herself after only a short distance and looked back.

“Wait, one other thing… This…this is going to sound rather awkward, but…I don’t suppose you’ve heard any recent stories about anyone, um, going for a sail and…having their ship run aground on rocks on an atoll that has mist and…uh…” She took a deep breath. “Monsters on it, do you?”

Zecora raised one eyebrow at Twilight. Again, she was quiet for several seconds.

“The ocean is no longer a safe route, my dear. Many boats have gone missing, from all nations, I fear. More gone every day,” She eyed Twilight more strongly and curiously. “Yet this is the first of ‘monsters’ I hear.”

The way she said that, and the way she was eyeing Twilight now, made it abundantly clear that she wanted to know more from what she was leading on. Yet realizing she had said too much made the woman blanch. “Oh! Oh, uh…is that so? Heh, what are the odds? We get in a shipwreck and it just so happens that shipwrecks are becoming more commonplace along this route, huh? Weird!”

Zecora continued to eye Twilight carefully. After another pause she spoke again. “To children, we tell of a very old lay. Of creatures who lived on this ocean route’s way. Who brought down many great men with their song, to deep watery graves no matter how strong.”

Twilight perked up at that. Sunset, in spite of her anxiety, turned to her as well.

“Their…song?”

Zecora hesitated again, but then simply shrugged. “But there is no need to worry yourself hoary. After all, it is nothing more than a children’s story. They were slain long ago, and cast far down below. The remains are nothing but fodder for roe.”

Twilight didn’t look entirely convinced, and honestly neither did Sunset. Yet she merely smiled and nodded. “Well, uh…that’s a relief to hear! Thank you again! I’ll just…be going now!”

With that, she turned and began to head out, and Sunset quickly pushed on ahead of her to make sure she wouldn’t get too close. In a few moments, both of them were pushing aside the cabin covering and exiting onto the deck. They left Zecora in the chamber, who still was not smiling, and who now raised a hand to her chin and held it as she stared into the leaves of the cauldron. After a few moments, she raised her stick and gave it another turn.

Author's Note:

A short chapter, namely because it's only half of what I originally had planned. More Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer in next chapter...along with maybe someone else that's still missing. Also...writing for Zecora is a pain in the rear end. I can't tell you how many lookups I did for words that rhyme...

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

9949154
As long as you're not going to do what Humanity and Whatmustido do and so many others do and make your story go on forever for no apparent reason, it'll be fine with me. Is this going to be turned into a trilogy or something?

[Piccolo Sky]

10275353
It's already on "part 2", so to speak. First one was Nightwatch. Now it's on Daybreak. And I do have an ending in mind. However, I'd be lying if I said I don't anticipate this story will end up being one of the longest on the site.