Halfway Covenant
Scrape.
Chuff.
Scrape.
Chuff.
Cold Snap looked up from his work. He was back in the boiler room. It was hot. It was dirty. It was noisy. He felt sweat rolling down his body in streams, and he knew that he’d be finding black dust in his coat for days. Nebula looked no better.
It was the only place they could talk in relative privacy though. With as many crew as the Yellow Rose had, it was tough to find a place where they could formulate their conspiracies without others listening in.
Given that each and every one of those conspiracies involved Captain Gideon, they needed to maintain secrecy above all else. He wasn’t considering the captain an enemy, not yet. However, the captain had shown that he was after his own ends, and they probably did not have his well-being as a top priority.
As such, both he and Nebula had to take those matters into their own hooves...or hands, if he was going to stay in the Man Theme.
That was why they were in the engine room scooping coal into the fireboxes. Of all duties on the Yellow Rose, feeding the engines was the most hated one. While it had to be done, it was more often than not seen as a bit of a punishment to draw that duty.
That said, the two of them suddenly volunteering for this duty, might be seen as a little odd. Perhaps that was being excessively paranoid, but they didn’t want Captain Gideon to get wind of their plots.
Which is why Nebula and he had purposely done a sloppy job in their duties of cleaning the crew quarters. There had been a bit of a stink, both figuratively and literally, and Midshipmare Blue had come down to see the mess. She’d shaken her head in disappointment, ordered them to clean it right, and gotten incensed when Nebula had given her a bit of lip.
Now, the crew quarters were spotless, and they were in the noisy, uninterrupted boiler room. The chief engineer was nowhere to be found, and the hiss and roar of the boilers covered over anything they would say.
Cold Snap shifted closer to his friend. “Figure anything?” he whispered more out of habit than concern someone could possibly hear them.
His friend said nothing for a while. Finally, he stabbed his shovel into the pile. “Buddy, what am I supposed to figure? We’ve got a couple of crazies that are obsessed with a myth, and they’re going to drag everyone else into their obsession.”
Snap tolerated his friend’s grumbling because he really knew he was right. There lay the toughest part of this plot. Captain Gideon, and apparently this Lilith, held all the cards. All they could do was try to catch up to them. Otherwise, they would be blindsided by every turn.
“So let’s start with some basics. For the remainder of this trip, let’s assume that Man is real; that he is historical, and that he somehow was central to the founding of different aspects of world culture,” Nebula said.
“Fair enough. That’s what they seem to think. We might as well do the same. What then?”
“’What then?’ he says.” Nebula mocked.
Anger flared through Snap hot enough to ignite the coal, but he tamped it out before he lashed out at his friend. Despite his rough words, Neb was just as lost as he was.
The unicorn chewed his lip in thought. “I think what I’d like to know is what is influenced by Man and which was developed independently of them. I’d also want to know at what point they vanished?”
Cold Snap dumped more coal into the furnace. “Why does that matter?”
Nebula frowned and shrugged before going back to digging. “It may not, but there’s a number of things that bother me about Man. Captain Gideon knows more than either of us. That’s obvious. My question is how does a race as developed as Man create and do all these different things and then vanish?”
Snap didn’t know. The captain had indicated that the popular view of them was of advanced beasts. Looking on everything Captain Gideon and presumably Lilith knew, that was not accurate at all.
“That’s something else that bothers me.” Snap started.
His friend stopped shoveling to give him his undivided attention.
“It’s like they are talking about two different creatures. Lilith sees this super race, some pinnacle of existence. The captain doesn’t. It’s almost like he’s ashamed of them.”
“I don’t know him as well as you do. So, I’ll trust you on that one. We still have a problem though. We don’t know anything about Man.”
“And how do we fix that?” Snap snapped.
Nebula looked at him with his trademark look of disappointment. “Snap, we have an expert on the things on board this ship. There is no reason for us to keep theorizing until we know more.”
That put a damper on Snap’s emotions. “Wait, are you saying…”
“Yes. We break into the captain’s room and find out what he knows.”
Only the ever-present rumble of the ship dominated their silence. “Are you insane?” Snap asked.
“I think you would be the one more interested in that since you’ve got the Man-thing keeping time to your heart.”
“So what? He can throw us overboard?”
Nebula laid a hoof on his friend’s shoulder. “And that’s why you do it. Like it or not, you’re too important for them to get rid of you. Besides, it’s much easier to hide one person than two.”
“You traitor,” Snap growled.
“Nope. Just thinking ahead.”
Snap kicked at his shovel, sending the implement clattering across the deck and coal chunks flying against the bulkheads. He wanted to be angry at his friend, but he couldn’t. Nebula was right.
Man was a subject he could not afford to know little to nothing about anymore. He needed an expert’s insight, but the only experts were biased, conniving, and hardly harmless.
On one hoof, he had Captain Gideon, an enigma. He was brilliant, and no mortal could hope to control him. He saw the world as an unexplored toolbox. No one could say what he would do with it, but one thing was certain, were his ideas to become mainstream, they would forever revolutionize the world.
On the other, he had Lilith. Lilith, or whatever she had once called herself, was probably not as intellectual as the captain, but she was the far more calculating of the two. She was far more of an unknown than him in just about every way. What he suspected was that if she had her way, the world would also not be the same again, but for more disturbing reasons.
That was why he was more inclined to trust Captain Gideon. Despite his cold attitude, he had shown himself to be possessed of virtue and morals. Both of which, Snap hadn’t seen much evidence of from Lilith. None of that was to say that Captain Gideon was seeking Snap’s well-being, rather not actively going against it.
Snap gulped as he realized how right his friend was and how much he wasn’t looking forward to whatever came next. To get the two of them possibly out in one piece, he would have to go right into the eagle’s nest. He looked at his friend.
“I can get us in, but I hope I don’t get us thrown overboard.”
Nebula went back to shoveling coal. “I wouldn’t worry about that. The closest you’d come would be getting thrown in the sink.”
Snap knew his best friend well enough to see the joke, but he knew his best friend too well to be fooled by the fake confidence in his voice.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Cold Snap didn’t go on his mission that night. There were two reasons for this. The first was that he wanted to determine as much as he could directly from the captain before going behind his feathered back. At the very least, he would know better what he should be looking for.
The second reason was much more straightforward. He was exhausted. Being cursed and the Captain’s research assistant really didn’t give him any privileges. Injuries were common aboard the ship. None had been serious so far, but they could easily keep the patient out of demanding work, and the surgeon was inclined to removed the injured from duty to prevent compounding the injury. Others like him had to pick up the slack.
By now, the sun was setting, and Snap could see a misty shower trailing across the water in the distance. The crew was winding up their duties except for the night shift. The captain would be doing likewise. He would be overseeing the last duties on his ship and checking the wheelhouse before retiring to his cabin. Breaking in while lathered in black dust probably wouldn’t go over well. Celestia help him if he got coal smudges in the carpet.
So, he ate without recognizing his meal. He slept without joining the crew in their bunkroom antics. He enjoyed restless dreams of fire, trees, and the uncountable dead beneath them. He hadn’t had a single night since Captain Gideon’s island without them. He still wasn’t sure what to make about them. The details were always consistent. There were always two trees that seemed to never burn in the fire, but it seemed like each dream varied slightly in its focus.
It made no sense. He had never seen this place, and he suspected it was a place. After every night, he felt a conviction that they had to go there. For what reason? He wasn’t sure, but he thought it would become a lot more obvious when they got there.
Perhaps he had actually gone crazy a week or so back and he was only now realizing it? Having the same dream over and over again probably checked a few boxes for “loopy.” That said, even if he was crazy, then it didn’t explain why two others were so interested in the place. Lilith made some sense. This place must have been a relic of Man and his magics. Captain Gideon wasn’t as straightforward.
For once, the exhausting work on this ship wasn’t enough to claim him to oblivious slumber. Snap laid in his bunk feeling the ship rock beneath him and listening to the crew snore and mumble in their sleep.
Too many questions plagued him. Too many questions and nowhere near enough answers. Maybe he should be more like Nebula, a little more discerning and prone to question what others told him. However, that wouldn't work so well in this case. While there was a lot to question about the situation, he still had to work with the captain. Alienating himself would do no favors.
Those thoughts bounced and collided all through the night until the chains of exhaustion grabbed him. They did not hold him long. He awoke hours later.
The air held a telltale chill that told him it was early morning. If he had to guess, it was maybe thirty minutes before dawn. The rest of the crew, except for a couple slipping away to prepare meals and assume boiler duties, still clung to a little bit of sleep.
Despite his best efforts, he couldn’t do the same. Finally, Snap rolled out of his bunk and wandered out on deck. A faint glow lit the horizon, but the sea looked still and unending. Despite the warm latitudes they traveled through, the air held just enough bite to be uncomfortable.
He wandered the deck, cleaning and setting things shipshape as he passed. He passed under the wheelhouse and passed Turret Number One. Soon, he found himself leaning against the anchor capstan and looking out over the ship’s path. On one side of the ship, the world was black with stars still twinkling in the heavens. On the other, the horizon was donning a faint salmon tone with the stars standing against the sun’s advance.
“It is beautiful, is it not?”
Cold Snap jumped at the unexpected voice. He looked over. Captain Gideon sat on the deck. His blue coat spilled around him, and a steaming cup rested in his grip. The captain took a sip of the black beverage inside and looked out over the still world.
“It is peaceful. I find peace to be a beautiful thing. If only more valued food, cheer, and beauty over gold and magic, this would be a much merrier world.”
Snap thought over the captain’s proclamation. He couldn’t help but agree with it. He wouldn’t say that gold was bad, but he’d seen others torn apart by an obsession over gold. Sometimes it wasn’t gold, rather something that they held too much value in. Still, the captain made him think.
“Captain, if you value peace, then why build a warship and arm its crew like demons?”
The griffon chuckled and took a sip. “Being peaceful is a power. It comes from power. If you held the power to trample, to destroy, does that mean that you are obligated to use it?”
Snap watched the sky grow lighter and saw the first edge of the sun reach over the end of the world. He pondered the captain’s words and saw that they held good sense. “No. I suppose not.”
“And that is why being peaceful is synonymous with being strong. You have the luxury of being peaceful if you have the power to maintain it. If you have no strength, be it physical, fiscal, or political, then ‘peaceful’ is merely a euphemism for ‘compliant’ and you are subject to those who hold power over you.”
Snap had never thought in those terms before. Maybe it had come from his family’s isolation from some of the more unsavory types in other parts of the country. Maybe it stemmed from their government being rather distant from them in both the geographical and political sense. He’d never had cause to fear others exercising their will to dominate his until he’d been hauled on board this ship. The thought concerned him.
“It is why I want to make changes. I want others to be independent. Now, I hardly mean to convey that I desire to be the next Grimlock, forcing his way into power by blood and arms. My independence is more peaceful. If I give the gift of knowledge and capability to every tribe, tongue, and nation, then what do they have to fear?
“If I give them the means to build engines to drive their economies, then why should they build cities only on the same crowded river? They may move into the hinterlands closer to more opportunities. If I give them weapons unlike what they’ve seen before, then they may stand against monsters and creatures that refuse to be tamed. If I give all the opportunity to build for themselves, then why must they fear what another might deny? Peace through power.”
The captain stared into the distance, drinking and contemplating his words. In a mood like this, he might be willing to reveal some of those secrets that Snap and Nebula wanted so badly. Before Cold Snap could ask the first one, the captain spoke up.
“The Rose, she was not built to be a warship. When I first laid her keel, I had visions of a ship that could propel herself through any sea and shrug off the tropical doldrums plaguing these latitudes. If you would remember our encounter with the bunyip, her hull is rather thin. Too thin to really be more than a raiding ship. But that was not my goal. It was to be a testament to engineering, and it would plow a new path for innovation.”
“Until?”
“Until the war. Once I saw the navies of the Minotaur Kingdom and the Atoli tribes clash, and their armies move over land and sea, I knew that the Rose had a new purpose. So I rearranged what I could for ballast, and armed her. I could not arm her conventionally, with guns lining her sides. I had neither the crew nor the weight to handle such armaments. I improved. I encased several powerful guns in an iron shell and gave them the power to rotate.
“With that change, the Yellow Rose went from being a peaceful and beautiful merchant mariner to a force able to hold her own against the best, within her limitations of course.”
That caught Cold Snap unaware. All evidence so far had shown no end to the capabilities of Captain Gideon’s brainchild. “Limitations?”
“I know it sounds impossible, but she does have them,” the captain smirked.
He switched the cup to his other claw and flexed a cramp out of the other. “Her lack of armor is a challenge. Her beltline is marginal, hence much of it is below waterline. It suffices because of timber backings and using the coal bunks as sealable chambers in case of localized damage. Large cannons could still force their way through.
“A limitation like that is significant, but it can be minimized with appropriate precautions. Such cannon are uncommon and usually found in coastal batteries. They are also rather inaccurate and fall short of our own guns. The solution is to avoid such engagements unless you can control the distance.”
Nothing was said for a while. It was as if the line separating the young captain from the press-ganged crewmate had been erased. The two watched the dawn as if they were old companions.
“Snap, I must apologize.”
Cold Snap looked over at the captain. He stared into his half-empty cup as if it held some great mystery. The griffon did not immediately say anything else. Instead, he fidgeted with his cup and nearly dropped it in his agitation. Clearly, apologizing was not in his normal routine.
“When we first took you aboard, you and your friend were victims of chance. With your ship sailing away uncontrolled, we could not in good conscience leave you to drown. So you became one of us. It’s not the first time it’s happened.”
Snap tore his attention away from the waves and lightening sky. “You had others?”
He nodded. “One. Midshipmare Deep Blue. Was a young officer on her old ship. By misfortune, we rammed her ship and broke part of it away. It tangled on our rudder, and we dragged it for half an hour before someone noticed it. She had clung to that wreckage like a barnacle.”
He took a sip. “Still, it merits noting that she was not an officer for nothing. I’d swear she had some Man in her. She took to the ship like she was born to it and understood her intricacies faster than many others on the crew. That was a year ago. Now, she is a promising officer once more.”
Captain Gideon set the cup aside. “Cold Snap, my apology is dragging you into something you did not understand and is none of your concern. I expected you to hold to my obsession with Man, to wonder over his influence here and his unsung accomplishments. I know they say that when in Roam to do as the Roamani, but I fear I have jeopardized you by making you privy to the box’s puzzle.”
This was about the bauble and its definitely unnerving reaction to blood. Snap didn’t know what to feel about this. While Captain Gideon was the catalyst to his quandary, Snap was the one to make the final decision to help the captain research rather than spend his time painting or cooking.
“Neither of us knew what would happen. We don’t even know everything about it after all this time. What I can tell you is that something about that thing is magical in nature, blood magic you called it?”
The captain nodded sagely, finally breaking his stare from the rolling waves. “Indeed. The most hideous and repulsive of the magical arts second only to necromancy. It is also incredibly potent, allowing even an inexperienced user to wield great power at the cost of other’s lives rather than dedication to discipline and self-improvement.”
Cold Snap snorted. “I think we thoroughly determined that it uses blood magic, but there’s something else in there, something that belongs with the trees.”
He met Captain Gideon’s wordless stare. “I see them every night. I know without a doubt they are real, and we will find our answers there. If my gut is as accurate as it ever was, then we will find much more than that there.”
Only the sounds of the engines and the rousing crew broke the silence. Nearly a minute passed before the captain picked up his empty cup. “Well, it would appear that you have become quite the oracle. You could get a pleasant stipend in some cities when this is all done.”
When this is all done. In his own way, the captain had promised that they would see this through and he wouldn’t leave him to die. In a choice between Lilith and the peculiar captain, it was no contest.
“I don’t know that I’m that good of an oracle,” Snap chuckled.
At that, the captain adopted one of his rare smiles. “A half-blood oracle then. You’re allowed some misinterpretations then. Come. There is still much to do, and the Rose never sleeps.”
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Don’t get hung up that you were late. Take as long as you need besides, who are we to take away from your fun?
Yeah, that does kinda sum it up, doesn't it?
Really, probably the thing that's holding back Snap the most here is that both he and all other sides are too busy keeping secrets from each other, and being generally reluctant to trust each other. If he can break that trend with just one of them, though...
Got his priorities straight, I see.
Hooray, the captain's a decent sort and Lilith is a craven harlot. That's why books have covers: to judge them!