The sea...
And I couldn't see anything past the viscous fog, the world was entirely calm, somewhat eerie.
I looked around for a moment, the deck was spotless apart from some water, I sure wasn't going to check the cabin alone and the lower compartments seemed to be under the cabin itself. 'I'll head back for now'
I started descending down the stairs while reminiscing about the good ol' days like.. Uhhh, yeah let's leave it at that
I entered the hull and was met by Archer's unpleasant face the moment I turned my head to the side, which would've scared me but I already had been scared out of my socks by unexpected spectators, nevermind I don't have socks.
"So, what's it like outside?"
How could I put it into proper words, hmm...
"We are fucked"
"Great to know, now could you be a little more specific?"
"We are in the middle of a seemingly endless sea covered by fog so thick you couldn't see past 10 meters, let alone find something in the distance. Up there it's empty, no traces of warfare nor an unexpected attack, we should look for keys in the guard's body and explore the cabins, maybe we will find something meaningful in there, seems good?"
Everyone nodded, the triplets were asleep so we decided to leave them with Rhea and Roan while I and Archer explored.
Archer tossed a strange object towards me
"Catch"
I caught it, at first it just looked like some kind of crude knife, it was made from leather of the guards tunic and one of the spikes deeply lodged in his back.
"You are a crafty one you know?"
"Yeah, I prefer to stick to books though, now hurry up"
When we climbed out of the hatch we saw Kirill curled up in a corner, losing an arm os not easy to deal with, but he should be thankful he is alive, that bastard could have killed us after all
We approached the cabin, the door was heavily reinforced and had 2 sets of locks, there was a one way window from inside but it seemed thick enough for us to not be able to break it either way
Archer signalled me to get ready and I clutched my knife
Archer kicked open the door and swiftly went inside, after taking a second to breathe I followed in.
"It's clear, for now. We still have to descend lower so don't calm your nerves"
"Mhm"
The room was pretty standard, it had 3 windows not including the door and seemed pretty sturdy, the lanterns in each corner were well designed and plated with an outer layer of bronze, the window in the back was wide and would've offered a spectacular view if it wasn't for the fog making everything vague
There wasn't any light downstairs...
I gulped, braced myself and bit my tongue. The creaking of the stairs was wrecking my nerves and the descent seemed never ending, thankfully Archer had taken a lantern from the guards body, although the lit was dim it provided some comfort
The room seemed never-ending with multiple parallel doors on each side, starting to get an idea of what this floor was
"Home sweet home" Archer licked his lips afterwards and said
"Let's call the others after we sweep each one"
At this point, I was already scared out of my wits, but I had to agree
There was a total of 4 parallel rooms and another door that supposedly lead downstairs. The rooms , thankfully , were safe and we decided to take a rest in one of them, each of them was large enough to house 3 people without problem, food was a problem but some rooms had fairly fresh bread and many costrels full of water, some even had dried meat.
'These bastards were living the dream and feeding us like dogs! Curse them! Oh wait, they must've already been cursed. Damnation!'
We came back to the cargo and informed Rhea and Roan of the situation, Rhea would stay with the triplets temporarily since they were all female, although once they learned how to live on their own she would go back with her brother. Me, Archer and Roan were together for now and we would probably keep kirill in his own room for now, he can't be easily trusted, but I'll be honest, It'd be great if he was to help us, even with one arm he is plenty useful
Before twilight we all went into our rooms, thankfully they all had secure locks so we could sleep in peace, I still was uneasy with archer around me but if it came down to it im sure I could overpower him with Roan's help, Archer also made a knife for Roan.
And so the sun fell, but my eyes were still wide open, the candle in our room was about to die out but I could still see the figure on the edge of my bed, it stared into my eyes, no deeper, maybe my soul? It was leaning on its arm and had its head resting on its shoulder.
It's gaze was suffocating and it usually never talked, it's face was obscure and its body unrecognizable from a shadow, but I could feel it's want...
Gradually the light faded and I was met by a dark roof, unable to see the phantom, oddly today it seemed a bit clearer, I could see the silhouette of its hair.
I closed my eyes and gave into respite.
And I fell asleep...
'Goodnight'
"D..."