Who Can Fathom the Soundless Depths

The Beginning of the End

It is an all around pleasant day, with nary a cloud in the sky, and the docks bustling with life. Reprisal and Laffey are sitting on a bench under the shade of the pink trees in full bloom. Laffey is nearly asleep, listening to Reprisals reading with her head on her lap.

"Accordingly there are two men out of all mankind who are now qualified to answer that question asked 6,000 years ago in the Book of Ecclesiastes: "Who can fathom the soundless depths?" Those two men are Captain Nemo and myself."

Despite the grim question, Laffey is relaxing just fine, seemingly used to her friends' strange choices in literature, if not finding them calming.

As this is happening, Javelin approaches the two ships, with Unicorn tailing behind her. "Um, excuse me?"

I look up from my book, looking at the two of them, while Laffey only acknowledges them with a "hm?"

"What's wrong?"

Unicorn holds up a drawing of a Unicorn, "Have you seen U-chan?"

I shake my head, saying "No, sorry,", before I whisper to myself, "Damn, she already got the only Unicorn on the server."

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Thank you anyways. C'mon Unicorn, let's check somewhere else."

Laffey looks up at them, seemingly bothered enough by their dilemma to wake up. "are you in trouble? Laffey will help."

_

The girls are walking up a grassy hill, after Amazon gave them directions as to where she last saw Unicorn headed.

As we reach the top, we see a ship standing along the cliff, holding U-chan in her hands.

'Huh, a stuffed animal. Laffey owes me 20$.'

Unicorn runs towards her, taking the stuffed animal from her hands. "U-chan! Thank you for finding her, Miss!"

She shakes her head, seemingly uncomfortable with the attention, "I did nothing to deserve thanks."

The woman looks uncomfortable with the confrontation, probably thinking she would be alone up here. 'I wonder why she's alone. Most ships stay with their sisters, or at least with a friend.

'With her attire, she's most certainly from the Sakura Empire, but why is she here?'

Javelin runs towards the cliff, enamored by the view. "Such a beautiful sight! You must be really good at finding spots like this, Miss!"

The unnamed woman turns her head to the ocean, seemingly only now noticing its beauty.

'I guess great views are better appreciated with company. But where do I recognise her from? I know I've seen her around before.'

"I'm Javelin, and this is Laffey, Unicorn, and Reprisal. What's your name, miss?"

Javelin walks towards her, reaching her hand out for a handshake.

'I remember now!'

She takes the handshake, and I call out to her. "Right, isn't your name-"

Something blinds my view for a moment, and when I can see again, she is gone.

'What was that? Everyone else reacted as if something almost hit them while swooping by, but... '

I look around, seeing nothing in the sky, not even a stray pigeon or eagle.

'There's nothing around. Maybe an illusion? Either way she's gone, I should tell command about this.'

As I go to descend the cliffs, I realize something, 'What would come from me sharing this? It would only escalate the tensions further. Hm... Yeah, I would rather see my friends again.'