PreCursive

  It had been three days since we’d started sailing, at this point. And Grey had been right. Not long after our departure, and after Azarus had gotten done smag me around, roup had been put to work on the ship.

  I think I got off easy, though.

  As the lowest level person in our party, I’d been assighe dullest and simplest jobs that were free. In practice, that meant I’d been mostly swabbing the deck for the st three days. Bel retty stri this. She wanted her deck to be and clear at all hours of the day. Not something I would’ve expected from a pirate, but what did I actually know? She wasn’t a very typical person, anyway. Not from what I’d learned about her.

  Wet the deck, scrub the deck, rihe deck. Hour after hour of it.

  To be ho, I didn’t mind the work. The repetitiveness of it was almost meditative, after a while. I think I he mindlessness of something like this, after disc that I wasn’t quite as mentally sound as I’d thought I was.

  But the day’s work was over, and I was done as well. I wasn’t part of the night shift, so I’d handed off my mop and bucket to the uy. I think his name was Hans? We hadn’t talked much.

  I hadn’t seen much of the others since we’d gotten underway, either. Azarus and Grey were on the night shift, while Venix was on the day shift with me w the rigging. Guy seemed good at it, what with how strong he was and the fact he had four arms. Aurum had been assigo the infirmary when it was discovered he was a healer, and Syliva was w the crow’s .

  Right now, I’d been io a game of cards with three of the other crewmen. Apparently, we were pying something called Karat, which I’d learned retty simir to poker from bae. It wasn’t oo-one, but I could see the simirities.

  Guess there were only so many ways you could design an easy to uand card game.

  I’d picked it up quickly.

  Laying my cards oable with an exaggerated flourish, I smirked at the three uys at the table. “Two moons, and three stars. What did you call that? A steltion?”

  The guy across from me, Morlow, cursed and tossed his hand of cards down oable. “Shoulda aught ye this game, ndlubber.”

  The other two pyers, guys I’d met named Laryn and Curloch, revealed their cards as well with a disappointed air. None of them had a better hand than I did. I let out a shh, and took my winnings from the pot.

  “Aw, man,” Laryn said with a crestfallen air, watg me take the gold s. “That was me pay fer the st week.”

  Yeah, yeah. Calm down. I’m not an asshole. I was going to bet it all again on the hand anyway, no matter my cards. I didn’t he crew to start resenting my presen the ship if I started winning all their wages.

  That sounded like a good way to get shanked your sleep by a disgruntled pirate.

  Curloch dragged all of the loose cards his way, and began shuffling them. “So, how ye enjoyin’ sea life, d?” He asked me eically, apparently already over his losing hand. The man had an easy smile on his chubby features.

  “Not too bad, not too bad,” I said, accepting my cards from him. I wasn’t even lying. I could definitely see the appeal of living a life at sea. The widest open space possible, the salty smell of the brihe wind in your hair…

  Yeah, I liked it.

  Morlow broke out of his gl to snort at me, accepting his own cards at the same time. “Say that when ye’ve spent more than a few days out on the drink, boy. It ain’t all fair winds and smooth sailin’ like this.”

  “Gods, the Captain ran into a damn Prime st time she went out!” Laryn broke in anxiously. “A Prime! How often do ye hear o’ one o’ those formin’, ‘specially out at sea?”

  “And now we’re sailin’ right bato the beastie's murderous arms,” Curloch said, smile dimming. “And after all them people we lost to ‘em.”

  “Were you guys there? Last time the Captain ran into the aurians?” I asked the group, betting the gold I’d just won. I had shit all for a hand, though.

  “Nah, we were in port,” Laryn shook his head. “We’ve been with the Reef fer decades at this point, even before Captaiook over. It were pure lu our part this ship weren’t part of the fleet when they were all sunk. Gods rest their souls.”

  “Ain’t no gods anymore, ye doofus,” Morlow scowled at Laryn, running a hand over his bald head. “Pray to the Gyre, if yer gonna be doin’ any prayin’. At least the System has our backs, these days.”

  I took note of that. So, the Church of the Gyre had to do with the System. I’d been w exactly what it worshipped. I’d wao speak to Preceptor Eduard about whatever it was, all those weeks ago. But I’d never gotten the ce. I decided not to ask these guys about it, though. Seemed like knowledge that would be too on. Instead, I asked them a question that would hopefully not seem too suspicious.

  “So, Primes,” I said, ying my cards oable. “I never learned much about those. What they do? What should we expect?”

  Thankfully, I didn’t get any odd looks from the table. They were too busy paring hands. Curloch won this one, and dragged the winnings his way with a woop. Still ughing, he took the time to answer my question. “Primes are a pain in the ass, that’s what they are.”

  “Think of ‘em like…” Laryn broke in, grasping for the right word. He snapped his fingers, finding it. “Like Captains o’ monsters! They get born among a group of ‘em, and it’s like they almost ihat group. They gather a crew o’ their own, ao work pilgin’. They’re a right pain in the arse whenever one pops up. ‘Course, it’s not like they’re as bad as a Camity or some-”

  Laryn didn’t get the ce to finish his sentence. Morlow turo face him at speed and stood up abruptly. In a lunging motion across the table, his fist crashed straight onto Laryn’s face, cutting off his words. I jolted in surprise at the sudden assault. Laryn fell back, stunned, still sitting in his chair

  “DON’T YE SAY THAT WORD ON THIS SHIP!” He bellowed, standing over Laryn’s dazed, prone form. He reached for a knife on his belt and drew it, waving the bde wildly over Laryn’s downed form. “DON’T YE SAY THAT, YE HEAR ME?! YE’LL DOOM US ALL!”

  What? What did he say? Rewinding the versation in my mind, I tried to remember what Laryn had said to set Morlow off. Was it…Camity? I decided not to try my lud risk setting off Morlow again. I gnced over at Curloch, to see what he thought of this. He was gl down at Laryn as well from his seat at the table.

  “Ye damn fool,” Curloch spat off to the side. “Ye know better than to tempt the sea like that. Ye’ve been sailing fer decades at this point. We’ve both knotain’s that’d keelhaul ye for even saying that word on their ship.”

  Still huffing in rage, Morlow turo face me. “All ye o know about Primes,” He told me shortly. “Is that they’re bigger, smarter, and strohan normal monsters. And they make other monsters stronger and smarter too. Now get out. This game is over.” He finished, with a pointed look at the door.

  I stood up from the table slowly, with raised hands. “All right,” I said as non-threateningly as I could. “I’m going.”

  Curloch broke in, turning to face me with an apologetic look. He stood up from the table as well. “Ain’t nothin’ to do with ye, d. We just got to have a little chat with our mate here. Now run along. Got another day o’ toil tomorrow.”

  I o show I uood, and walked out of the door. As I turned around to close it behind me, my st sight of the three was Curloch bending down to crouext to Laryn. He had a hard look on his usually jovial features.

  The door shut.

  Huh. Now what?

  I was broken out of my thoughts by the sound of a shout behiurning around, I saw Bel at the wheel of the ship, with Grey standio her. The both of them were illuminated by the rising moon behind them.

  “Oi!” Bel called down to me, from my position on a lower deck. “What’s all that hen? I heard shoutin’!”

  I made my to them, jogging up the stairs to the helm. Once I reached the of them, I open and shut my mouth once, searg for the words. “I…don’t knoere just pying cards, and then Morlow went off on Laryn.”

  Bel snorted, rexing somewhat. “Eh, that’s just Morlow. Man has one of the shortest tempers I’ve ever seen.”

  “Hmm,” Grey piped in, ially puffing on his pipe as well. “What did this Laryn say?”

  “Uh, well, we were talking about Primes, and then Laryn said they weren’t as bad as a Ca-” I cut myself off, gng at Bel. “As a word that starts with d rhymes with humanity.”

  God, I hoped Language Adaptation trahat correctly, or else I’d probably just sounded like a crazy man.

  Apparently it did, because Grey started coughing on his pipe smoke, shooting me an incredulous look.

  Meanwhile, Bel’s eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets. “Oh hells, I better go make sure they don’t kill the dumbass. Whitegull, take the wheel.” Grey Bel, still coughing slightly. She didn’t see though, as she was hurrying dowairs that I had just e up. Grey and I watched her cross the de a hurry aer the door to the room with the three crewmen.

  When she vanished from sight, I shot Grey a g of the er of my eye. “So…” I trailed off, once I got his attention. “ I ask what that was about?”

  Grey snuffed his pipe and then tapped it on the wheel in front of him, causing ash to rain from it and blow away in the wind. Stowing the pipe in his robes, he gave me a ptive look. “I assume you’re referring to Camities, then?” At my startled look, he smiled at me and shook his head. “I assure you, it’s fio speak out loud about them.” He paused for a moment, before amending himself. “In general terms.”

  That wasn’t ominous at all. “Alright, what are ‘Camities’?”

  “Super-monsters,” Grey said bluntly. “Beyond even Prime’s, Camities are enormous monsters of unfathomable power. Beyond harassing a shipping ne like the Prime we hunt, a Camity hunts nations. We are quite lucky ihat there are currently no living Camities known to exist.”

  I felt a chill run up and down my spine. Nations?

  Grey tinued. “And I assure you, that isn’t an exaggeration. Many years ago, Vereden was home to another race of people,” He paused for a moment with a flicted look on his aged features. “I…ot speak to you their name. If I had a scrap of paper on me, I would tell you in that manner. As, I do not at the moment. In modern times, they’re referred to as The Lost. They were a brilliant people, really. Quite academic, quite iive. Physically, they were smaller than even our dwarven friends, but simir enough in appearao humanity. They were the sole masters of a small subti off of the northeast coast of mainnd Vereden. They are also, unfortunately, all dead.”

  My eyes widened in shock. Aire race of people? Just…gone?

  “In their endless curiosity and, frankly speaking, arrogahey sought to uand the process by which Primes and Camities were formed. They experimented on quite a few species of monster in this process. Unfortunately, they were successful iing a Camity. And it hated them,” Grey said ominously. “I also ot tell you the actual hat this quite intelligent moook for itself, for one simple reason. This beast cursed both the name of the people that created it, and its own name, with a form of taboo. It somehow knew whenever someone, anyone in the world would speak either of those names. It passed this ability onto its spawn, and unfortunately, we ’t be certain that all of them were destroyed. And it and its children hunted, endlessly, for decades. Even after it had genocided the ey of The Lost, it hunted. You see, it hated The Lost with such a passion that it not only wahem dead, but for them to be erased from history altogether.”

  Grey’s words hung heavy in the night air.

  “Finally, a coalition of Kingdom and Principality joined forces in order to hunt the creature iurn. I art of the army assembled for this purpose, ially. I wasn’t quite as strong then as I am now, but I was still quite a powerful up-and-ing Csser. It sughtered many of us when we finally ered the beast. Including my owrey went silent for a moment, before tinuing in a quieter tone. “He saw potential in me, after I had my fill of the sea. And then he died, at the talons of what we now refer to simply as the Sea Beast. Quite…ironic.”

  I…didn’t know what to say to that. I don’t think Grey was in much of a mood to speak after that as well. He fell into a moody sileer this impromptu horror lesson, staring off into the night sky at Elys on the horizon. Thankfully, Bel returned shortly after that. I noticed that she had gotten some blood on her blue coat, visible uhe moonlight. She shooed Grey away from the wheel, and me off to bed.

  As I left the helm, my st sight of Grey was him standing at the back railing of the Reef, staring off at the full moon in the distance. I left him to his ption.

  I had never fotten the way the moonlight had embraced him, when he was freed from his sve brand.

  I went to bed in my hammock that night, with visions of some unspeakable Sea Beast sughtering people by the thousands running through my mind.