Mythical Creatures, Part IV
In Search of Angels
Above
Log
Current Date Unknown
Captain d’Thalia is missing. I can find no clues as to her whereabouts or the reason for her disappearance. Last seen fighting a Leviathan, 26 October. Structural damage sustained by the ship seems to have been repaired. All efforts will be made to recover the captain. The company will not consider this an acceptable loss. Must get word to Lowe, he will undoubtedly aid in the search.
Conditions are clear, warm. Coordinates of start will be estimated from star charts, after sundown. Probable error caused by drift should indicate reasonable search area. Headed to nearest viable port to acquire provisions; present rations will not sustain my search and subsequent trip to Rhydin City.
She thought the words on paper would tie her scattered thoughts together, and that maybe those thoughts would lead to the answer, but the answer was beyond her understanding and perhaps even her imagination. Ayrani drifted in those thoughts, much the way Te Maru had drifted on the calm, warm seas as she slept. It wasn’t easy to keep the boat going on her own, but it was necessary, and Rani had always been able to finish what needed finishing.
The night was long, and she sailed through it. Rani would not need sleep for days, perhaps, and she may be able to make port before then, if the ocean cooperated. Through those sleepless hours, the nagging doubt and dread pulled at her thoughts. Maia could be gone, and the elf could not help but feel responsible for that loss. When you are alone with someone at sea, there is little else to be accountable for. To have it be so wholly unexplainable was even more trying.
All around the ship, still the dolphins danced. As she caught flashes of their slick flanks, she tried to piece the grey spots in her memory together. Rani pulled at the images, thinking that she had dreamed them, but she could not be entirely certain. The whole situation was too spooky to be natural, normal, or coincidental. She worried that this had something to do with Tarsolei. She worried that it would not, for then she would be left without explanation. It would be so trying to break her long silence to say, ‘Sorry, sir. I cannot fathom where she disappeared to.’
It took only twenty six hours for her to make landfall. There was very little money left aboard, so Rani engaged in a little creative bargaining to get what she needed. It wouldn’t do to have the bare necessities for one. In a perfect world, she would recover the captain, and they would both want to get home. The skies were darkening.
10 November
The storm is beginning to let up. Been stuck for two days on Fells Island due to these conditions. I’ve checked with the locals, tried to find her. None claim to have seen her. Beginning search for the captain at sea. I am not hopeful. Though it remains very mild here, by the time I get back to Rhydin, the freeze may have begun. This is a chance I must take. There will be precious little time for entries while at sea.
At each port she visited around the area marked on her map, the story was the same. Nobody had seen Maia. Everyone had the same story:
“Sorry, ma’am. Never seen her. This says she’s a sailor; well, she probably was lost at sea. People drown in storms, or they just vanish...you should go home, get some rest. Sorry, truly.”
Seven ports. Seven times the same stories, over and over again. It made her cold to think of what it probably meant. She departed, once more, from Hæli. The business she’d conducted there with Maia weeks and weeks ago had made it easy to get a line of credit. She restocked (much less creatively) and set a course north, back to the port of call. For the first time in years, Ayrani prayed. Once, They sent her an angel with a steely resolve and a ready sword. Maybe They would see fit to do it again.