Free Nocturna League (Episode 2: The Mist Hour) by Kell Inkston Page A

to make people happy.
He promptly salutes with a massive claw. “IF YOU ARE OF THE ASKING,
I AM OF THE DOING!” With that he turns around and slams into the
kitchen like a living truck.
    Colette shakes her head, and Grancis
puts her hands together acquiescently. “So, where is The Captain?
Wasn’t he going to come back with you on the ship?”
    The wind rises, and Grancis’ dear
friend sighs. “Well, Gran. I actually sh-”
    “ Shipped off without
me?”
    Colette swings around. The Captain,
bandages, glasses officer attire and all- just missing a
hat.
    “ C-captain!?”
    The mummified commander nods. “Tis’
I.”
    As Grancis salutes with a flare of
admiration in her eyes, Colette just stares on in
disbelief.
    “ C-captain,” she says,
taking deep breaths.
    The Captain turns to her after patting
Grancis away by the shoulder. “Yes?”
    “ Can I… talk to you? Like,
just us?”
    “ Why, of course,” The
Captain says as they step a bit to the side. Grancis returns to the
kitchen after a quick wave, and Dunklestein smirks as he enters the
infirmary with Itrim. The two enter The Captain’s quarters, a place
unseen by Colette until now, and The Captain sits an absolutely
bewildered Colette down. He pours a couple of drinks, Dugal’s
scotch actually and he takes his own place, kicking one leg over
the other nonchalantly. “Now then,” he sneaks a quick sip, “What is
it I can help you with?”
    Colette takes a full shot of her
glass, the scotch is oaky- with an almost saltwater-like
aftertaste. She stands up in the dark room, takes the hat from her
head and places it back on his. His guise complete, The Captain is
about to say “thank you”, but is embraced quickly by Colette. The
Captain can feel the salty sensation of tears absorbing into his
bandages. “Did it hurt, Captain?”
    The Captain, taken a back but
unmoving, answers plainly. “It did.”
    She squeezes him tighter. “I’m… I
don’t know what to say… How are you here? I killed you.”
    The Captain pushes her away and looks
into her eyes. “I’ll tell you that one day, but I have more
important things to s-”
    “ I need to know, Captain.
How the hell did you live through that? I saw you blow away- gone-
out- off to wherever . But I heard you speaking through my head, felt you moving
through me… Is that because I inhaled part of you? The
sand?”
    The Captain is quiet a moment, but
turns his head down, as if to suggest sternness. “My banana bread,
there are some things you cannot yet bear to know.”
    “ I can handle it, Salt.
Tell me,” she says, taking her seat and placing her hands into her
lap.
    The room’s only porthole
gives the place a scant glow of natural light. They hear the sea-winds blow, the birds call, and The Captain
takes another sip. “I will answer with a question.” Colette nods,
and the Captain finishes the glass of Dugal’s. “Do you think a real
sailor has his entire life invested on the land when he goes to
shore?… Well, that would be misleading. Better yet: did you notice
how peculiar the winds were when I died?” Colette’s features, as
she looks down at the hardwood floor, widen in some sort of
realization. “Did you too notice how you heard me in your head, and
how your body was stronger, and how everyone was acting against the
warlock?” Colette slowly nods. “It would be prudent to say that the
sailors of The Nocturna must act as a team to get things done. One
day I’ll let you go below deck, and show you how it all works, but
for now, you need to be content with the answer that you- and
everyone there- breathed me in, because the wind was just very, very peculiar, for
some entirely unknown
reason . Do you understand?”
    Colette sighs and nods. “Okay,
Captain… So, why didn’t you just do it all yourself?”
    The Captain scratches his chin. “Are
you learned in theology?”
    She squints an eye. “No.”
    “ There are some religions,
monotheistic ones, which claim there is a God,