The Vengeful Tide-Ch. 15 Teaser

Good morning, and Merry Christmas to all my wonderful patrons. I hope you've all been having a wonderful holiday. However, even if you don't celebrate Christmas, I hope you're enjoying your time wherever in the world you are. Now, how could I let Christmas go by without giving you something to look at? Here is another teaser for all of you who have supported me!

Changes may be expected or planned.

-WttW

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I stood before my crew. I stood before them all. They all were ready to hang onto my every word. I wished I could grant them a confident expression, but I could not. I’m not exactly sure what emotion I had on my face, but it wasn’t a pleasant one. I oddly found it fitting that should we all die then the one I had spent the most joyous time with had been my mother.

I stared at Ellen for a moment, but she refused to meet my gaze. I then turned back to everyone else.

“Alright, ya fuckers, this…should be the last trial. Steel yourselves and fasten your guts. This…is where we shall either seek fame…or seek the Realm of Hades,” I said. They all swallowed, but none spoke a word.

I remember this trial well because only I and fifteen others had survived it.

I inhaled and exhaled. I spared a glance at Liara and she paid appropriate attention to me just like anyone else would. I spoke. “Whatever tales you have heard of this sea, or whatever bard has woven a song for you, then you most likely know...of the Father and the Son. What…what I be about to tell you ain’t pretty and you shall think me insane, but if you wish to live…then you will do as I say!” I exclaimed.

Everyone nodded and I scanned my memories one more time as quickly as I could. “For the next 24 hours, do not…open your eyes. Do not scream. Do not whimper. Don’t even shed a tear. If you do any of those then Hades would be preferable to what shall befall you,” I told them.

I then pointed out into the sea. “Out there, the father and son seek the mother, yet they do not know the mother’s voice nor do they know her face. I ain’t gonna lie to ya, I don’t know shit if that tale be real or not, but there is a horror out there, one that has collected and pulled countless souls into its clutches. It’s comprised of two beings, one large and the other small. Do. Not. Tremble when you hear it pass. This barrier won’t stop it, but it will stop those who it has taken,” I said.

“C-Captain, what are we in for?” someone asked.

“What’s your name?” I asked.

“Out, Sir. Out Saqual,” he answered.

I nodded. “I’ll tell ya, Out. That horror is a being older than anyone on this ship combined. It will float through the ship and then it will pick people. Should it pick you, you will know from the stench of something vile filling your nose, but…do not cover it. If ye do, then ye will be dragged into the sunken waves where the ghouls will feast on your vitality, picking it apart slowly as you fall into the abyss,” I warned.

I could tell that everyone was afraid. They had every right to be. I was concerned as well. As much as I wished otherwise, my powers could not kill what laid here, only incapacitate. I could hardly fight Spirits and Wraiths with water under normal circumstances. The type of water I would need, and I doubt that even with it I could fully succeed without casualties, would have to be divine water blessed by a celestial priestess. Allow me to say, I had not even come into contact with divine water in my previous life. Nevermind this one.

“If it picks you, slowly open your eyes. When you see it, do not scream. Do not shout. Utter no damnable word. If ya do, then not even Liara will be able to recover your soul. The horror will ask you many questions. Some from the tall one, others from the short one. You’ll be happy for the barrier because it uses those it has taken to shout and ask questions as well to disorientate you. No matter what it asks, no matter if it begs, pleads, threatens, wails, or swings at you, you must only answer this…‘Why does thou share this with me? That has nothing to do with me!’” I explained. Like babes listening to some horrific bedtime story, everyone continued to heed my words.

I caught my breath for a moment as everyone gasped from a flash of lightning and a boom of thunder. “Don’t stutter any of those words. Say them just like I did! I’m trying to save your asses here. If you wish to return home then DO AS I TELL YA, GOT IT?!” I asked.

“AYE AYE, CAPTAIN!” They roared.

I slowly nodded. “Good. When it fades away from you, close your eyes and continue to do nothing. It will move on to someone else. If it doesn’t believe you, then feel free to scream till your lungs explode. Zeus shall not deliver you,” I said as I could already see men and women praying to foreign, heathen, or official gods of whatever they believed in.

Someone else spoke. “But Captain, how shall we sail? These waves look like they’re gonna crush us even before this…thing does!” the person said.

“I will handle the voyage and the waves. All ya have to do is do as you’re told!” I said.

Everyone nodded with determination. Even if they didn’t, it wouldn’t matter if they wanted to go back. They would not survive the swim back to any sort of land anyway. I nodded in return. My gaze then turned back into the open sea. Already I could see the limbs of ghouls clawing at my ship, attempting to climb aboard my ship. Unfortunately for them, the magic barrier would not allow them to get too close. I’m sure they’d love to come and suck the vitality from our souls, but this was not to be their day.

---

Ellen did not respond immediately with the phrase that everyone else had. This worried me. No, not because I could tell the spirit was clearly tempting her to release herself from our arrangement. I already knew Ellen didn’t much like what I put her through, but I doubt she could deny that her body enjoyed it. She knew that and I knew that. Perhaps she despised herself and me because she had enjoyed herself so much under my care. Though I had yet to embrace her as a man does a woman, I still showed her just as much attention as I would my mother or Aesteal.

No, what worried me was that I could not see how she handled these honeyed words.

“Yesssss, I see it within your eyes! Why sail beneath an inferior captain? A boy, a child, and brat known better for his swift hand of a pouch than the stern hold of a ship’s wheel. Tell me and I shall allow your vessel to sail forth and gather the riches which lay beneath the tides! Cooooooooooooome to meeeeeeeee,” it said.

I waited.

And waited.

And waited more.

---

“Know the wrath of the Son of Poseidon,” I spoke and suddenly all the spirits around me screamed as blasts of lightning raced down the tail of the sea I had made. Water might not do much to these fuckers, but lightning, which holds the bare minimum of the divinity of both Zeus and Poseidon, was enough to at least drive them off. Thank you Liara, ye have saved and guided my ass once again!

The number of screams I heard made me wonder how I had not lost all my hearing. I squinted my eyes as I heard the chorus of raging lightning against the ocean around me. The rain which had seemed so inconsequential before released a firing chain of shocking blasts from one ghoul to the next. All of this was done as I stayed upon the dry ground. Naturally, I had to be a tad careful since the lightning was now strong enough to strike the dirt close to where I stood, but I would not have to fear that for very long.

I then clawed the air with my fingers. I ripped my hands to the left and then to the right. The cursed sea of souls had become undone with the swirling of a grand whirlpool by my design. Water and lightning danced all around me and the screams were dashed away as the harsh lights ruptured the angry waves and the bellowing skies.