Book 9 Chapter 16

“Kobold?” Joan asked.

“No,” Breeze said.

“Goblin?”

“No.”

“Dryad?” Joan asked.

“No,” Breeze said.

“Zombie?”

“No.”

“Are you even listening?” Joan asked.

“No,” Breeze said.

“Breeze,” Joan snapped, turning to glare at the girl.

“No,” Breeze said before turning to her. “What?”

“What’s the point of guessing what you are if you won’t tell me if I’m right?” Joan asked.

Breeze just gave a shrug.

Joan gave an exhausted sigh before leaning against the railing of the ship. She wondered how upset Chase would be if she took his friend’s mask off and made her eat it. “Okay, fine, so you won’t tell me what you are. Can you at least tell me why you look human?”

“Most things in Seasrest are human,” Breeze said. “It’s easier if you blend in.”

“Most things?” Joan asked.

“Most living things,” Breeze said.

“Okay then,” Joan said. “Is it your power or Chase’s that makes you look this way?”

“Yes,” Breeze said.

Joan just sighed and leaned against the railing a little more. “I give up.” She glanced over and looked her up and down. “So, why all the bandages? Do you have actual clothes under that? Or is it to conserve the mind breaking reality of your true form?”

“Magic,” Breeze said before pulling out a knife.

“Wait, don’t--”

But before she could stop her, the girl cut the knife across the back of her hand. Fresh bandages formed over the cut a moment later. “Heals fast.”

“Uhhhhh… doesn’t… that hurt?” Joan asked nervously.

“Very little,” Breeze said. “It dulls the pain. Almost lost an arm once. That hurt.”

Joan stared at her for a few more moments before shaking her head. “Well, definitely not human. Homunculus?”

Breeze gave a shrug before reaching up to pull the bandages back down. The small cut was already healed. “You ask many questions.”

“Definitely,” Joan said. “I’m told sometimes I ask too many. But in my last life I didn’t ask enough, so I guess I’m trying to make up for lost time.”

“Should we worry about that?” Breeze asked before pointing ahead.

“Hmm?” Joan asked and it took her a few moments to realize what Breeze meant. All she could see in any direction was water, however the Silver Beetle was now circling above the sea, no longer flying away. She glanced up at the sky. They had maybe an hour or two until the sun set. “Huh. That was a lot faster than I expected. I wonder if the wreckage moved much while-- oh. Oh no. STOP! STOP THE SHIP! CHASE!”

“Huh?” Chase asked.

“Stop the ship, now!” Joan yelled. “Before we hit--” The ship lurched, nearly sending her toppling over into the sea below. She stared down into the watery depths.

She could see them. The jagged, underwater towers. Like little stone claws just beneath the water’s surface. Waiting to claw and destroy any vessels that came near. Countless ships having been torn apart by them, their crews remaining beneath the waves… until they joined one final crew. “We didn’t hit anything, right? That was you, Chase?”

“Yes,” Chase said, slowly walking towards the front of the vessel. She could hear the crew mumbling, not that she could blame them. The sails weren’t even fully drawn in, though they now creaked heavily against their rigging. Yet the ship had stopped, the water itself holding them in place. Such a feat would have required a dozen hydromancers. Yet he did it with barely any sign of exertion. Sometimes she almost felt humbled to know such powerful people followed her guidance. Other times she felt very annoyed that she couldn’t do those kinds of things anymore. “What’s down there?” he asked, peering over the side.

“Oh, for now? Just wreckage, lots of sharp rocks, bodies and a lot of magical stuff,” Joan said. “Oh, and a kraken.”

“The kraken you mentioned before?” Chase asked. “Is it going to attack?”

“It won’t attack the ship until the undead pirates wake up,” Joan said.

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“And that’s…”

“In a few hours,” Joan said. “Unless we break the curse. Well, actually, the kraken will probably try and stop us once we get closer, but the ship will be fine. That’s why we have you.”

“Good to know I’m so useful,” Chase said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “And you?”

“Breaking the curse,” Joan said sheepishly. “What? I’m not fighting a kraken. I’d die!”

“But undead pirates?” Chase asked.

“A lot easier than a kraken. Especially if we move fast, on account of them not being awake,” Joan said. “Also, I need you to get me there.”

“What about the ship?” Chase asked.

“I guess everyone just… waits for us to get back,” Joan said. “Unless anyone here wants to go into a great, underwater temple that once worshipped a long dead god of the sea, damning all who dare tread near it to a cursed, horrible, eternal fate?”

“Can I stay on the ship?” Breeze asked.

Joan rolled her eyes before nodding. “Yes. She’s your friend?”

“Some of my friends aren’t reckless and leaping at the nearest danger they can find,” Chase said.

“Some of your friends are boring, got it,” Joan said before looking to the Silver Beetle. She held out her hands to it and let out a low whistle. The artifact flew back to her, landing in her hands before its wings retracted and it went dormant. She slid it into her pack. “So, right. Uhhhh… kraken. Undead pirates. We have a few hours to do this. Don’t die?”

“Shouldn’t I be saying that to you?” Chase asked.

“I mean, if I die you just have to explain it to Korgron,” Joan said. “If you die I don’t think we’re making it back to land. There’s like… sooooo many monstrous things in this sea when you go out this far. There’s even a dragon somewhere around here.”

“Wait, what?” one of the crew asked.

“Don’t worry, we’ve got a Chosen,” Joan said.

“You can’t just use that as the solution for everything,” Chase said.

“I don’t,” Joan said. “Just most things. Come on, let’s go. It’ll be a lot harder once everything wakes up.” She glanced over the railing before putting both hands on it and leaping overboard.

“EveryTHING,” Chase yelled after her before following suit.

Joan hit the water and almost instantly regretted it. COLD COLD COLD COLD OH THE WATER WAS COLD! She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been in water this cold. Actually she couldn’t remember the last time she’d gone swimming. Could she even swim? Maybe. COLD! It felt like she was enveloped in ice. “C-c-c-come on, to the bottom of the s-sea!”

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Joan couldn’t help but feel happy about her armor at times like this. She didn’t need to carry a torch at all, which was useful since underwater in a place with limited air. While the temple itself seemed to have air inside, she’d never been comfortable about bringing open flame into closed off spaces like this. The light of her armor was plenty to allow her to see everything within.

Unfortunately, sometimes sight was its own penalty.

“The hell is this?” Chase asked, his eyes narrowed on all of the corpses in different states of decay. The ancient temple was filled with them, hundreds. Possibly thousands.

“Undead curse,” Joan said. “Don’t worry, most of them can just kind of hobble towards you. It’s not quite as bad the deeper in the temple you go.”

“How badly must… actually… it doesn’t smell at all,” Chase said. “Shouldn’t it?”

“I don’t know,” Joan said with a shrug. “Maybe dead gods don’t like the smell of decay? I’ll be honest, I’m just grateful there’s a big air bubble and that the dragon that makes up like two-thirds of the sea floor doesn’t wake up for a few more decades. It would make finding this a lot harder.”

“Wait, what?” Chase asked. “What dragon? When? WHAT? Joan, are you joking?”

“That time? Yes,” Joan said, unable to keep the grin off her lips. She then glanced up and saw a single massive eye staring from just outside the bubble of air surrounding the undead temple. “And so the kraken has arrived.”

“Wonderful,” Chase said, his eyes narrowed on it. “So do I need to kill it?”

“I mean, as far as I know there aren’t any consequences to it dying,” Joan said. “But I could be wrong. It’ll go away once the curse is broken, though. Sometimes we killed it, sometimes it left. This shouldn’t take more than an hour. At most. Maaaybe two.”

Chase just shook his head. “Be careful.”

“When am I ever not? Don’t answer that,” Joan said quickly. She motioned to her ring. “Even if there’s poison or anything I’ll be fine. Worse comes to worse, I’ll blind things. Go on, before it tries to follow us insi-- too late.”

A massive tentacle had slowly begun to pry in through the single hole in the magical dome surrounding them. Chase sighed before holding out his right hand and turning the water around the tentacle to ice, causing it to retract. “I’ll be back soon. If you need me, let me know.”

“I will, promise,” Joan said before she started to walk deeper into the temple. Before long she heard the splashing of water and knew she was, once again, alone.

In a few hours she wouldn’t be, though. Once all of the undead started moving she was going to have a whole lot of new problems that she didn’t want to deal with. She quickly started making her way deeper inside.

The temple itself was ancient, large chunks of it long since collapsed. Much of it was covered in dried out coral, from before the curse had taken root. She’d always wondered what caused the curse in the first place, the temple had obviously been ancient long before the curse had taken place.

Or perhaps the curse wasn’t related to the temple at all. Who knew? Maybe she was just overthinking things because walking through an ancient, partially collapsed temple of a dead god while surrounded by the decaying remains that she knew would rise with the moon was just unsettling and not something she wanted to focus on too much. Probably that one.

“Coooooome to meeeee…” an ominous, soft voice said.

Joan paused for a moment before giving a snort. “Wow. I’m surprised I’m even close enough to hear that.”

“Power… riches… I will give you everything you seek…”

“Yeah, yeah,” Joan said, rolling her eyes. “As if we didn’t hear that all the time. Don’t worry, you’re on the list.”

“Together even the gods will fear us…”

“Well, at least it’s not entirely quiet anymore,” Joan muttered before stepping over another body. “Ugh. Why do I keep ending up places like this? Oh. Right. I seek them out. I should stop doing that.”

“All you ever wanted… everything you deserve…”

“I miss having my friends around,” Joan said with a soft sigh. “Going through old temples and stuff is a lot more fun when you have your friends with you.” She wondered what Bauteut was doing. Qakog. Possibly Zorn. Even Zapper. Well, maybe not Zapper. She missed having her little team around.

She hoped where ever they were, they were at least having fun.