[Voidknight Ascension] Chapter 257 – Lady Luck

“The bane o’ every sailor,” Galbast told him. “Ye couldn’t ask for a more fearsome enemy to face! The Talmoori scare their children with stories o’ the lamia. Sailors would rather bare their teeth at a hurricane than squabble with a single lamia.”

“Are they workin’ together?” Komachi asked, looking between Galbast and Sam. “Or are there just that many monsters?”

Being pinned between these two groups was too much of a coincidence for Sam’s battle intuition.

Sam looked back at the ghostly ships slowly making their way through the ruined channels. “It’s only a hunch, but I’m thinking the lamia are the ones in charge here. We’ve been herded to their lair.”

Sweeping his arms wide to include the entire graveyard, he added, “More than a fair few of the ships that we passed looked much newer than the ones deeper in. My guess is this is their base of operations. I take it the lamia can swim?”

“Like a shark and twice as deadly,” the captain answered. He seemed to regain some nerve from Sam’s stalwart demeanor.

“Are lamia undead?” Komachi asked the captain, who shook his head. His cat scrunched her face up at that. Her healing magic wouldn’t unleash devastating damage on the lamia then, unlike undead and ghosts.

They were a different breed of monster then. Beastmen maybe?

“They either take the ships and crash them here without fear of losing precious cargo to the deep, or they drive the sturdier ships here to much the same end,” Sam said.

The captain opened his mouth to speak, but Sam wasn’t listening. A tingle ran up and down his spine like he was just struck by lightning.

Sam’s head snapped to the side just in time to see a bolt of shimmering pure white lightning reach out toward the sky. It was so fast he nearly thought he hallucinated it, but he could not deny the power he felt.

The power of a Lumanot.

“Son of a bitch!” Sam pushed past the captain and hurried belowdecks to his cabin.

“Wassat, wassat?!” Komachi cried, her fur standing on end.

“You feel it too, don’t you?”

“Muh fur!”

Sam kicked open his trunk where he kept his armor and began to don it once more. He truly cherished the time he spent on the Wavedancer, but he knew without a shadow of a doubt that that part of his life was now over.

He would remember it fondly for the rest of his days, but he had a duty to see through to the end.

Little wonder the ship graveyard seemed much larger than the captain had suggested it would be. The lamia were using the Lumanot to create storms, sink ships, or drive them to the rocks where they could casually slaughter the crew at their leisure.

Not this ship, Sam vowed.

By taking that Lumanot from the lamia, they would no longer be able to feed off its empowering energies that allowed them to torment and lay wastes to the seas. In this way, he could save the Wavedancer and its loyal crew.

Geared up for proper battle once again, Sam headed out onto the deck. He marched past the curious looks the crew gave him, his shoulders squared and head held high despite the weight on his heart. He knew what had to be done.

The captain looked him up and down. “This is what you’ve been lookin’ fer, I take it?”

Sam nodded, strapping [Bloodbane’s] sword belt on his hip. “I don’t know how much longer I’ll be here,” Sam told him. “But I would take it as a personal favor if you watched over Zahif. Give him that ship you promised me. Let the lad see the open world.”

Galbast frowned. “Lad, you’re talking like a man who doesn’t expect to see tomorrow’s sunrise…”

Sam forced a smile onto his face. He truly would miss the Wavedancer and her crew. “Maybe in another life, another time, I could have stayed and sailed with you to the four corners of the world. I want you to know from the depths of my soul, I would have loved nothing more. But duty cares little for a man’s wishes.”

“We’ll fight with you, lad.”

“I can’t ask that of you,” Sam told him. “You have the ghost ships to worry about. Get to high ground away from the water. My guess is they like to come up from the dark where they can more easily surround their victims.”

Sam didn’t know how he knew that. It was just a hunch, but it felt right. Like seeing the obvious solution to a puzzle. He could feel the power of War whispering into his ear from time to time.

Komachi let out a long, sad meow. “Machi will miss you grumpy cap’n!” She leapt from Sam’s shoulders and hugged the captain with her paws, then she was off like a lightning bolt to say goodbye to the rest of the crew.

Sam sighed. He hadn’t wanted to say goodbye so abruptly. There simply wasn’t time to explain anything.

Galbast grabbed his forearm and gave him a firm shake. “I don’t know what yer after, son, but know that the Wavedancer will always have a bunk in her hold fer ye and yer little cat.”

“Thank you, Galbast,” Sam said sincerely. “Keep your crew together and remember–”

“High ground, I heard ye lad!” Galbast turned and began shouting orders to the others.

Sam was about to jump to the nearest outcrop of stone when he felt a tug on his belt. He turned around to see Zahif looking at him with red-rimmed eyes.

“Is it true?” the boy asked, his voice quivering.

Sam knelt and put a hand on his shoulder. “Somebody has to deal with the lamias.”

“But Komachi said you were leaving!”

“I won’t be coming back,” Sam said with a heavy heart. “It’s not that I don’t want to…but my duty will take me down another path. One that diverges from your own. When this is all over, talk to Galbast. He will look after you.”

Zahif wailed and threw his arms around Sam’s neck and cried onto his shoulder. “I don’t want Galbast to look after me. I want you to look after me!”

Though he had come to know Zahif well during his time aboard the Wavedancer, Sam never guessed that the child would care this much about him. He tenderly wrapped his arms around the boy’s back.

“I am sorry, Zahif. Truly. I would give much just to have a few more days aboard the Wavedancer. Fate, it seems, has other plans for me.”

“Then let me go with you!” the boy wailed. “You’re strong enough to keep me safe!”

“I can’t,” Sam said, heartbroken. “You belong here. I am the one out of place. Just know that I do this for you. For the Wavedancer. The Empire. The Talmoori. And all the peoples of this Shard. My task is bigger than this one battle, but you have my promise that I will slaughter every lamia I can and make them wish they had never troubled our little slice of paradise.”

Zahif dried his tears and sat back on his heels. “I will wait for you,” he said, a strange clarity coming to his green eyes. “In the capital, where our paths converge.”

Sam gave him a tight smile and tousled his dirty blonde hair one last time. “In the capital,” Sam agreed. “But until that meeting, please do me a favor.”

“Anything!”

“See the world,” Sam told him. “See everything this Shard has to offer and more. Would you do that for me?”

“I will do you one better, Sam! I’ll write everything down so when we meet again, it’ll be like you’re right there with me. You’ll see!”

With one last tight embrace, Zahif ran away to help the crew. Sam slipped a small treasure into the boy’s pocket without him noticing and stood up to receive his last two visitors.

Salii and Yulan, both bared to the waist, looked at him sharply. “We could stop you from leaving,” Salii told him. “You have much to learn still.”

Yulan put a hand on the woman’s dark shoulder. “His path lies elsewhere. Away from the waves that have etched themselves so deeply upon his heart.”

Salii looked questioningly at Yulan.

“Let us not make his burden any heavier,” Yulan told her. She looked at Sam like a proud mother to her favored son. “You could have been the First Father and I feel you would have done our people proud. You are a good man, Samuel Hunter. I wish you well.”

Yulan extended her hand, but Sam pushed it away and gave her a tight embrace. The Talmoori had been like family to him. A family he had never known.

“Thank you, Yulan, Salii. For everything. Not just the lessons, but the companionship. I wish I could–”

Salii pushed Yulan aside. She grabbed Sam roughly and bent him down to crush her lips against his rough cheek. Before he knew what was happening, she squeezed him tightly in a final embrace.

Still reeling from the sudden display of affection, Salii took off one of her pendants and pressed it into Sam’s hand. “In remembrance of me,” she told him. “You need but show this to any Talmoori and they will offer what aid they may. Know that my heart goes with you, foolish knight, to wheresoever your road may lead.”

Before Sam could get a word in edgewise, Salii was gone.

“The First Daughter would have had your hand in marriage if she but possessed the courage to ask,” Yulan told him.

“She didn’t bother to show any interest!” Sam said. Not that it would have changed anything.

“That is not our way,” Yulan told him. “Do you think I spoke in jest when I said you would be a prize fit for the First Daughter?”

Sam didn’t know how to answer.

“Men,” Yulan said with a sigh. She reached up to her ear and unhooked an earring. “My heart is with the ocean, but my friendship you shall always have until the end of our days and beyond. Take this.”

Sam frowned. “I have nothing–”

“You have given us gifts greater than any work of art, or have you forgotten the items you crafted for us? This is a small token, nothing more. As far as any Talmoori knows, if you present these two items to them, they will treat you as a blood brother of the royal line. Now go, before you lose the nerve!”

Sam stared at the two items in his hands. He looked up at Yulan. “You’re not going to tell me you’re the First Mother or something, are you?”

Yulan laughed. “No. That would be foolish. Only the Daughters and Sons take their turns out on the salt so that they may learn its secrets and prove themselves fit for the throne. I am merely a high priestess here to watch over the deeds of the First Daughter.”

Sam shook his head. He couldn’t help but laugh. “I will remember you, Yulan Swiftborn, and Salii as well, until the end of my days.”

“You better.” She looked over her shoulder at Komachi hurrying toward them, laden with gifts from the Talmoori. “We will meet again. Perhaps in another form, but the same salt runs in all our veins, does it not?”

Yulan turned and gave Komachi an affectionate pat on the rump before joining the rest of the crew. Sam saw Zahif surrounded by Talmoori and knew that between them and the captain, the boy would be in good hands.

Jumping down from the ship, Sam and Komachi were met with the first of the lamia raiders. They slithered toward them with sword and dagger, staff and bow. Their movements were hypnotic, but Sam could see nothing but red.

They had stolen what precious peace he had managed to find. These monsters had taken his respite and pulled him back to his duty. A duty he would not—could not—shirk.

Worse, they threatened his friends that had welcomed him like family. They would pay.

Sam tucked the gifts into his inventory. He had no time to examine them now.

He could feel eyes on him from the crew aboard the Wavedancer. “Komachi, give me a song that’ll let the lamia know their end has come.”