Story: The White Ship II ~ Restless Waters (chapter 4)

Elisha paced around in her cabin, unable to sleep. What she had heard was so unbelievable that she wrestled with it. She wanted to believe that it was a lie, but many of her sisters of the White Knights had attested to the story that Thea had told her; Arietta had come aboard, and announced that she had a husband before Thea whisked her below decks to talk.

I don’t understand, Arietta. Help me understand. Why? What did he offer you that I could not? Elisha slumped onto her bed and buried her head in the pillow. Tears came to her again and she let them pour out, an endless stream of sorrow. She had been afraid that Arietta might be dead, but somehow this felt worse. It was as if someone else had stolen her skin and now walked around posing as Arietta.

Somebody tentatively knocked on the door, “Go away!” Elisha yelled, harsher than she had intended.

“Please, I just want to talk,” Pandora said, “Elisha, I’m your friend... you don’t have to face this alone!”

Elisha got up and opened the door, “Sorry,” she said, as Pandora entered. She closed the door behind her and Pandora embraced her in a hug.

“I know... everything’s confusing for you right now,” Pandora said, “I’m confused too, I mean... Arietta was our friend, I thought we knew her. Now I wonder if we ever did. Can people really change, or do they just become what they were all along? It makes me frightened... what if we don’t really know anybody? What if Luna will change as she grows older, as she experiences more? Have I changed? I feel the same...”

Elisha shook her head, “I don’t know,” she said, “Truth is, we didn’t know Arietta for that long. Before we met her, she’d lived in Garania all her life, living a pretty sheltered existence. Perhaps it makes sense that she didn’t really understand everything about herself. Yet I still find it so hard to believe... I wonder if I’ll ever be able to accept it without seeing her with my own eyes...”

“We should go back to Sanctuary,” Pandora said, “Lady Thea made the right call. I know you want to chase Arietta down, but... you’ve seen how dangerous it is down here. If we stay, we will get caught up in this war, there’s no doubt about it. I know you’re still thinking about it, so let me say this: are you willing to risk your life and the lives of everybody aboard, just to see a woman who no longer has time for you?”

Elisha seemed to deflate further, “I just wonder,” she said, “whether I’ll ever be able to move on, or whether Arietta will always be there in the back of my mind, no matter who I’m kissing, who I marry. Will every act of love become a betrayal? I can’t live like that. I can’t grieve without seeing that she’s gone, and I can’t see her without taking a huge risk. What am I supposed to do?”

“I wish she had stayed,” Pandora said, “I want to see her too. It’s so hard to understand her changes without seeing them. But I honestly believe we have to let her go.”

“At least for now,” Elisha said, “Perhaps after this war is done, we can come back, try again... It’s just not time yet.”

Pandora went to say something, but held back, “Elisha,” she eventually managed, “Try to get some sleep. We’ll be back at Sanctuary soon. Then you can start to think about what you want to do next.” Pandora smiled at her, “Everything’s going to be okay,” she said, “I know it doesn’t feel like it now, but it will be.”

~

It was dawn when Elisha finally gave up on sleep and went above deck. Thea was looking out at the dawn, her silver-white hair blowing in the wind. Somehow, she always managed to look majestic and elegant. Once, Elisha had believed she was royalty, but it turned out she was an Ancient, immortal and one of the last of her kind.

“Lady Thea,” Elisha said. Many of the residents of Sanctuary had ceased to call her “lady”, after finding out she owned no lands or real title, but Elisha, Pandora and Luna had continued to give her the style. It was a matter of respect, of love. Thea had been their friend, and it was because of her that they had found Sanctuary at all. Others might have turned from her because of her moment of weakness, but Elisha had understood. Thea had been angry at the world, hurt at the notion that people hated her for who she was and who she loved. She had lashed out, but they had stopped her in time, with the help of her dead wife’s spirit. Now, she was a calmer person, accepting of her circumstances.

“Elisha,” Thea turned as Elisha joined her, leaning on the ship and looking out at the ocean, “You can’t sleep?”

“I just can’t believe any of it,” Elisha said, “It goes round and round, but I can make no sense of how Arietta became who she is.”

“My theory is that it’s a combination of pain and experience,” Thea said, “She has scars, physical scars, and who knows what mental scars to go along with it? You told me yourself that when you originally rescued her from the prison in Garania that she was cracking up. Perhaps she has finally broken. But I also don’t believe that there is anything in Arietta that was not already there. She was too self-assured to be under somebody’s manipulation. I believe she married Ariel out of her own free will. Perhaps he offered her soldiers to fight the war, but they share common ideals, just as you and Arietta once did.”

“She’s really gone,” Elisha said. She wanted to cry, but there were no more tears in her. She was exhausted, and suddenly just wanted to be back home, curled up in her bed. Sanctuary felt like the sweetest prospect in the world, a place where she could forget about all of this for a while, and come to terms with it in her own time.

Thea put her arm around Elisha, “I didn’t want it to end like this,” she said, “I feel like the Moral Revolution owns the whole world, even Arietta. She was a shining star, a source of light and hope for everybody who had lost it. She stopped me from making a mistake I could not have taken back. Now she’s changed, and I can’t help but think; did I do this? Should I have commanded her to stay when she told you she was leaving?”

“You know she never would have listened,” Elisha said, “She was determined to go. Even I couldn’t stop her. I think I was the one who made the grave mistake. She was saying her final goodbye to me when I took her back to the world, and I was just too naive, too much in denial to see it. I’ve wasted two years of my life because I misunderstood what she was trying to say to me. I wanted our love affair to be permanent, but she did not. I feel like such a fool.”

“You’re not a fool,” Thea said, hugging her, “You just wanted to be loved, like every human being on this planet. Even the puritans who planted the seeds of the Moral Revolution want somebody to hold them at night.”

~

Day came upon them, and Thea eventually ordered the ship to halt, “Send the signal,” she said. They could not use flares with Sanctuary floating so high above the clouds, so Luna used her magic to send a ball of light. It took much concentration, and she sat on the deck, her legs crossed, her eyes closed as the ball of light rose from her hands and flew up into the sky.

Eventually the island began its descent and broke through the clouds. Luna out her hands on Pandora’s shoulders, “Good work, honey,” she said, “Finally, we can go home.”

Pandora’s eyes flashed open, “Wait!” she cried, “No!” She held her head as it filled with searing agony, “Send it back up! No, go back up!” She tried to send another ball of light, but collapsed to the deck, clutching her head.

“Pandora!” Luna cried, “Pandora, what’s wrong!”

“They’re... coming!” She pointed off the bow of the ship. Suddenly, where there had been nothing, several ships suddenly shimmered into view. They were surrounded.

“This is bad...” Elisha said. The island was still making its decent, “We have to stop it!” she cried, “Send up flares! All of them!” White Knights rushed across the deck, and flares shot out in all directions as the rockets were hastily set up and fired.

Thea stood looking out at the ships, frozen in place, “What’s that...?” she asked, seeing something mounted on two of the ships, “It looks like Ancient technology... oh no...”

“What are your orders?” Elisha asked, seeing Thea looking absently out at the ships.

“We have to get Sanctuary above the clouds! Hurry!” she cried, but it was too late. White Knights rushed to the side of the ship as the device started to pool energy. Everything seemed to move in slow motion, as if the device was taking the power of time itself to fuel its workings.

A beam shot up from the device, enveloping Sanctuary. Elisha and the others saw Sanctuary cracking and crumbling as it disintegrated before their eyes. Luna clutched Pandora as their eyes widened in horror. Thea looked like she was about to be sick. Elisha screamed, a primal wail of pure terror and pain. All were frozen in place as pieces of the island began to land in the ocean.

“This can’t... This can’t be happening!” Luna cried, “Sashiko... Lena... Tani... our friends! Our homes!”

“I’ll kill them all!” Pandora stood, her eyes glowing with power. She whisked her hand upwards and the device and the ship it was on exploded.

“You couldn’t have done that a second ago?” Elisha cried. Pandora smacked her and a wave of energy sent her flying. She landed on the deck with a loud thud, stunned.

“Pandora...!” Luna cried. Pandora screamed and lightning shot from the clouds, destroying several more ships.

“We have to get out of here!” Thea cried, finding her voice, “Full about, quickly! Cut through the space Pandora has made for us! It’s our only chance if we want to live!”

Thea’s cry broke through the shock among the crew and they rushed to battle stations, firing as they hurried to escape. Elisha sat up, stunned, “Pandora...?”

Pandora stood at the helm of the ship, her arms outstretched. A wave of pure energy shot from her and several more ships exploded. A primal cry of frustration escaped her and ships to the left and right of them capsized.

“No human can keep up that kind of power for long... I doubt even her Ancient blood is that powerful...” Elisha said, trying to get to her feet, “Luna, you have to stop her!”

Luna stood up, “Pandora, stop! Please! You’ll die!”

“I don’t care!” she cried, in a powerful, otherworldly voice, “They destroyed my home! They will all die!”

“Pandora!” Thea commanded, “That’s enough! We can escape now! Come back to us!”

“No!” Pandora said. Black wings sprouted from her back and she took off slowly, “I will end this world and its Moral Revolution forever!” As she pulled her arms apart, the very fabric of the world seemed to tear open. A black void appeared, and demonic creatures started to pour out.

“By the Gods...” Thea said, “She’s opened the Gate... We’re all going to die...”

A powerful force swept out from the Gate, a howling black wind that tore the sails from the White Ship like they were made of paper. The waves were whipped into a frenzy and the ship veered off course.

“I can’t get control!” the helmswoman cried, “The ship is breaking apart!”

It was true. Planks of wood started to tear up from the deck, and the mast went crashing into the ocean, torn away like a tree in a hurricane.

“Man overboard!” somebody cried, but Thea could barely hear. There was only the wind and the waves crashing around her, the sheer force of Pandora’s rage and the open Gate. She looked to see a creature crash into the deck and unfurl, some kind of demon with huge leathery wings. It shrieked and Thea felt sick to her stomach from the mere sound of it. She drew her sword, channeling all her rage and pain into her sword stroke. She took the demon’s head off and it landed on what remained of the deck with a sickly thud, as its body crumpled and disintegrated. She heard the hull of the ship split with a mighty crack, and her heart sank. They were done. The White Ship was going to break apart.

“Abandon ship!” she screamed into the night, not even sure if there was anybody to hear her. She tried to reach the helm, to see if she could somehow take control, but with a mighty heave the ship gave way. Thea struggled to hang onto a plank, but the last thing she remembered was the wind dragging her away before she hit her head and everything went black.

Story: The White Ship II ~ Restless Waters (chapter 4)

Chapter 4