The darkness that dominated the distant sky off the western side of the Silver Sun did battle with the approaching pre-dawn light. Looking to the east, the horizon blazed with a fiery aura filled with the promise of a new morning. While overhead, dawn's approaching hour caused ruddy pinks to swirl with the fading lilac-blues of the soon to be forgotten evening.
Perhaps it was the last dawn Caligos would ever see.
Jaysehn sat alone in the crow's nest of his ship. He had woken some hours ago, quietly leaving Akenna sleeping in their cabin. For only the second night that week, no refugees had required them to make the long voyage from Caligos back to the Empire. For the whole week, she had done the bulk of the piloting in the nearby storm that continued to rage around Caligos. She needed the rest.
For his part, he thought on all that had happened since the village pier's secret construction was revealed to the wider island's residents and guests. So many had come to him, and others like him, who had braved the sea passage from the West. With Akenna at the helm, the Silver Sun had been the second vessel ever to have made that voyage. Their carrack had been eclisped only by a small little sloop that had discretely slipped into the Caligos harbor ahead of them. He came with the intention of saving Omiko and maybe a few villagers who still remained with her. But that had been only the start.
The last rescue voyage of the week had occurred two nights ago, with the entire crew and its guests decidedly on edge as the crazed crone, Crondi, was staying in their mess hall. Darcena had thankfully come aboard to help deal with that woman. Somehow, the two of them had found something in common, with Darcena catching the woman's attention by showing off that long bladed glaes knife of hers with the bone hilt. Two professional flensers discussing their tools and their art. It had been a wise choice to ask Darcena aboard for that trip, as the distraction of Crondi helped ensure that the other passangers, Ulda, Big Blue, and the half-krolvin's 'wench' as he called her, were made more comfortable in his guest quarters. Several merchants of great reputation had gone with others that night, either for convenience or for a desire to avoid the crone. Either way, they had been safely conveyed to other destinations by the likes of Perigord and Missoni sloop or the massive galleon piloted by Lord Teveriel and Lady Uniana.
The night before that, it had been an emotional parting. Young Percy, thrust aboard at the insistence of his father, had come with only one other guest...Captain Wiggles. A stuffed otter. For all that the image brought an amused smile to Jaysehn's face, the parting had been difficult. He remembered Lady Avawren's tear filled eyes, having asked Jaysehn's help to get the lad off the island and Darcena guiding her and others down to the ships so that the boy could be brought aboard. The father insisted on staying behind to try to convince his wife, somehow, to break the Eel's hold on her and flee the island. Akenna had secured the boy in their own bed, making sure he had every comfort. Exhausted, the boy had slept the entire trip to River's Rest where his reunion with Omiko had brought a different sense of victory to all those gatehered to see it.
Then there had been the first of these rescues. Omiko herself. Jaysehn had rund the imagined expectation of that rescue through his mind many times that month, planning for every eventuality, presuming a dramatic rescue in the midst of flame, smoke, chaos and eel-infested waters. He had imagined himself cutting his way ashore or turning his cannon on the Eel-pretender himself. He was certain he'd have to drag her forcibly off the island.
None of that had happened. Instead, in a moment of calm waters and calmer heads, Omiko had boarded the ship with a small company of himself, Akenna, Darcena and...even Yardie. What Jaysehn had planned to be a grim and dramatic affair turned instead into the most bizarrely humurous event. Yardie, swearing that he had to locate Omiko's 'topless fishwives', and Darcena threatening to have that miserable rat he gave her....Crackers, Akenna had named it.... let loose to breed with the one mouse on board the Sun. As for Akenna, rather than hurling blazing fire and immolating eels as he was certain would have been required, instead moliffied the personalities aboard and brought her special brand of levity for which he adored her so. Even Omiko seemed joyfully playful, as though inhabiting a part of her soul that did not bear the weight of years that her mortal frame did. Their arrival in River's Rest had lacked for ceremony with hardly anyone taking notice, though he doubted he would ever forget the aged Omiko asking his permission to give him a thankful hug.
He found himself walking now among his cannon as these memories came to him. He inspected them carefully, satisfied even in the continued rain, they would fire true. A month ago, he had come to save Omiko and her villagers. That was now done. Tonight, the Storm Father would claim this place and the Eel would either fight...or flee.
Fate.
Fate had brought him to Caligos. Fate had drawn him to the water's edge. Fate had caused him to meet Omiko and Fate had helped him grow in his mastery of the Seas. Fate had place him precisely where he was supposed to be. Today, he was here. Fate.
His gaze went to the shore, and up towards the mist-shrouded peak where the great temple to the Eel stood. Olienne had plans for a great scheme to save her patron. His hand drifted to the leather band the Storm Father had gifted him for their aid last year. The zorchar inlay glowed with power as the smell of ozone floated to his nose. He would foil this scheme if he could. And if he could not, the victory he had came for had already been secured.
