𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐃

chapter eight - aboard the acheron

Lucas' head lamely rocked back and forth, but the rest of his body was bound by rough rope to another person's back. The smell of salt, musky wood, and alcohol wafted into Lucas' nose. Slowly, he fluttered his eyes open and got a look at his surroundings. In front of him was a nearly concave wooden wall. Two shipping crates with rope strewn over them were pushed up against it, and an empty liquor bottle rolled back and forth over the wooden planks. Off to the side, Lucas saw a staircase made of wood leading up to a door. The door had a small window, but it was covered in so much grey-green grime that Lucas couldn't tell what was outside, let alone what time of day or night it was.

Lucas felt a shift in the ropes binding him and on his back.

"Lu...cas. Lucas...? Lucas! Where are you?" Jalen called out.

"Calm down. I'm right here," Lucas replied.

"Oh. Thank goodness." Lucas felt Jalen trying to move around a bit. "Where are we?"

Lucas took a moment to think about his observations. "Well, the smell of salt, the shipping crates, the rocking around - I'd say we're..."

"...We're what?"

Lucas scrunched his eyebrows. "We're on a pirate ship."

Jalen jolted up a bit in his restraints, causing Lucas to move a bit. "Pirates? No! The attacked Canp one time and..."

"You're from Canp?"

"No, I'm from S'rata,  village near there."

"Never heard of it," Lucas commented.

Now that he's thought of it, Jalen coming from some small, unknown village made a lot of sense. Jorviks were usually more attracted to areas with denser populations because that was where they could find human guilty of the vice or fear that the Jorvik was born from. Once they'd find those humans, they would cut them down and consume their body and suffering. The Jorvik that stole Linkin probably had something to do with something similar to thirst, so that is why it targeted them in the Lyrin Desert. It even dropped off Link just a few feet away from a river to taunt him. Some backwater town probably never experienced attacks like the ones in the Capital and they likely didn't have much access to information either. Maybe the next time Lucas wanted to lash out at Jalen, he'd take a moment to consider why he was so clueless in the first place.

"When someone asks where I'm from, I usually just reply with Canp since no one's ever heard of S'rata," Jalen said. "I've never been there, but my sister was sent there for her studies."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. My parents were really proud of her at first, but thanks to those barbaric pirates, she's in a coma in some hospital in Canp," Jalen sighed. "She doesn't know all the money my parents saved up for her education went to me instead."

Lucas couldn't help but to feel a twinge of pity for his companion. Unsure of what to say, he asked, "What did you end up doing with all that money?"

"I decided I might as well do something good with it. So, I spent some of it on a train ride to the Capital to educate myself for her. I went to the library first and got my hands on... I want to say a Marcus Aurelius biography, but I'm not sure. It was from there that I started getting into philosophy," Jalen said. "Actually, no. I think I've always pondered the ethics and morality of things due to my Gift. My stay in the Capital simply opened my eyes to new perspectives and ideas."

"I assume your stay in the Capital is also what got you exiled in the first place?"

Lucas felt Jalen nod his head. "When the soldiers burst into my hotel room, I just assumed that was something normal in the larger city states. But then I found out they were throwing me out for being Gifted. I thought that was really strange because they didn't oppress Gifteds in S'rata. In fact, they thought that I was capable of doing great things because of my Gift."