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[color=1E90FF][b]Interactions[/b]:[/color]
[color=1E90FF][b]Mentions[/b]: Kalliope [@Tae][/color]

[color=1E90FF][b]Date[/b]: Sola 23rd[/color]
[color=1E90FF][b]Time[/b]: ~0700[/color]
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[center][i]“Tsaan-teik…”

That call came as it always did: from the inky black, and in a croaking whisper on the verge of death. And yet, it echoed through the darkness and rang in Sjan-dehk’s head. Over and over again, the call repeated its plea. Always in that same whisper. Always in that same tone. Always from everything and nowhere at the same time.

Who was it? Sjan-dehk tried to focus, but his mind felt leaden. His legs moved on their own, slowly wading through dark, icy water as if it were honey. Where was he going? He didn’t know. He didn’t care. No matter how far he ventured into the darkness, the call never got any closer. Still he pushed forward.

Cold, inky black surrounded him. The humming rush of water filled his ears. 

“Tsaan-teik…”

Jafin. They had to be Jafin. Only someone of his ilk would call his name in their dialect. But he knew many Jafins. Who was this one? Why were they calling to him? He pressed forward. Collapsed wooden beams and broken planks melted out of the darkness. Water dripped from an oppressive ceiling. The droning hum grew into a gushing roar. Floorboards creaked and rolled beneath his feet.

A ship. He was on a ship. A badly damaged one, at that. But he didn’t know her name. He’d served on far too many ships to remember. Yet he felt as if he should remember this one. 

“Tsaan-teik!”

The voice was clear now. It belonged to a boy. Not just any boy, but one he knew well. One who had been  a close friend, and one whose name now escaped him. Memories surged into Sjan-dehk’s head. Sore and heavy arms passing buckets of powderbags between the decks. The shouts of men and boys. Cracks of muskets and roars of cannons. Then, the shattering of wood. Jagged splinters cutting through his clothes and his flesh. Chilling, otherworldly screams. Warm blood and cool tears tracking down his cheeks. Water surging through the new hole in the hull.

Inky black water. Dark and icy. 

Sjan-dehk blinked.

When he opened his eyes, he saw a small figure buried beneath a mountain of broken wood. His face was naught but a swirling mass of darkness, but Sjan-dehk immediately knew that he had been the one calling for him. Churning, rising waves lashed against his body. “Tsaan-teik!” His call was desperate, and the arm he stretched towards Sjan-dehk shivering like a leaf upon the summer winds. But he was just a few steps away. Just a few, short steps through inky black water. He could rescue him easily.

Sjan-dehk moved and immediately knew something was wrong. His gait was shorter than usual, and the icy water lapped against his knees rather than his ankles. He looked down at his body. Then he looked at his arms. He was a boy again. That didn’t matter. Nothing else did. He just had to rescue his friend, and so he pushed through the surging waves. His souring limbs yelled at him. He ignored them. The water rose to his chest. He ignored the tendrils of frost curling around his heart. He had to save his friend. 

His outstretched fingers almost brushed against the hand sticking out of the water. So close. 

That was when he felt a strong grip clasp onto his shoulders and wrenched him back. “Sjan-dehk! It’s too late! You can’t save him!” A new voice. Or voices. A chorus of thousands shouting at him in unison. More hands pulled at him. At his arms, his legs, wrapping around his waist and chest. But still he struggled and yelled, his own unbroken voice alien to his ears. He bit at the hands, and kicked and flailed, but every one he managed to tear off his own body was replaced by several more. “It’s too late!”

The chorus morphed into a terrible, aberrant peal of thunder. Sjan-dehk struggled. He screamed his throat hoarse as the dark, icy water consumed his friend. And soon, the inky black consumed him as well.[/i][/center]

Sjan-dehk inhaled sharply as his eyes shot open. His heart pounded like a frantic wardrum, and the sweat beading upon his forehead and matting his hair was cold. He clambered out of his hammock with the rush of a sailor called to action, almost crashing to the floor had he not found his footing in time. Chaotic eddies in his head churned every thought into a disorganised mess. He wiped a hand across his eyes repeatedly, as if he could physically remove the images he’d seen from his irises. 

Bleary-eyed, he felt his way through his cabin until he reached his desk. White-knuckled hands held onto it as he drew in a deep breath. Calm. He had to be calm. The lump forming in his throat was swallowed with great difficulty, and soon his rapid pants gave way to ragged breaths. He squeezed his eyes shut until he felt his heartbeat slow to a steady rhythm. Then, he opened them.

His cabin was as he’d left it the previous night: an utter mess. Charts both old and new, books and scrolls both well-worn and fresh, covered his desk. Navigational tools sat disused on shelves and in boxes. Only his clothes and equipment were organised with any sort of care, hung as they were from rails set into the ceiling. Still in a daze, Sjan-dehk shifted items across his desk without any real thought. 

As the shock of the nightmare wore off, embarrassment and annoyance quickly took its place. None of the images his mind had conjured were anything new. He’d had this nightmare before, among others; it should be something he was used to, by now. Or at least something he knew how to deal with. 

He breathed in deeply through his nose and pushed himself away from his desk. It’d just been a long time since he even had the time to have nightmares, he told himself. Between fighting a war, clearing the seas of pirates, and the stress of the voyage to Sorian, every night in recent years had ended with him so tired that he fell into dreamless sleep. But now? He had no pressing matters to attend to. Nothing that called for so much attention that it would distract his mind from whatever it was that haunted him, at least. 

He grunted as he threw on his clothes. Selfish as it was, he couldn’t help but miss the war. Or just combat in general. There was nothing quite like the rush of a fight to take the mind off of things. 

A blue outer tunic went over a thinner, white counterpart. Sjan-dehk deftly tied the laces on his right with a single hand. [color=1E90FF]“It’s all over,”[/color] he muttered to himself. Peace was a good thing, he knew. It pleased him to no end that his homeland was no longer torn apart by bloody conflict. Yet at the same time, he feared it. One day it would catch up to him, and then what could he do? All he’d ever known was sailing and fighting and the open sea.

And the water. [i]Dark, icy water.[/i]

Sjan-dehk hissed as he squeezed his eyes shut once more. He had to stop thinking about that. It wouldn’t do him any good. He gritted his teeth and tightened his sword belt around his waist. Routine. He just had to focus on that. Sword belt, then shoulder belts. His sabres came next, sliding neatly into their frogs on either side of his body. Then his four pistols, one into each holster. He grabbed his hat on his way out of the cabin and into the bright, morning sun warming the deck of his [i]Sada Kurau[/i].

He breathed in the crisp air and made his way to the quarterdeck. There, he found Azwan and Avek both looking out at something towards the city. [color=1E90FF]“Morning,”[/color] Sjan-dehk greeted with a nod. Whatever traces of his earlier turmoil had been wiped clean from his face and voice. Before his crew, he could be nothing but the unflappable and sometimes mischievous captain they all knew him as. 

“Good morning, Captain,” the two men greeted in turn, accompanied by salutes. Sjan-dehk joined them at the guardrail. 

“We’re just looking at the beach.” Azwan gestured to the sandy shores. Crowds of people were gathered by the waterside. Some had carts with them, others seemed to be carrying boats of some sort. Most were just enjoying themselves in the shallows or playing on the sand. “Looks like there’s something going on.”

Sjan-dehk nodded. [color=1E90FF]“Worth a look, I suppose. Not like I’ve got anything going on today.”[/color]

Avek smirked. “Don’t you have a date later?”

A flush came over Sjan-dehk’s cheeks. [color=1E90FF]“I-It’s not a date,”[/color] he stuttered, much to his dismay. He’d spent the previous day with Kalliope as she showed him around Sorian. Along the way, she managed to convince him to join her at a masquerade ball to be held later tonight. They'd even gone shopping for what they'd wear together. Sjan-dehk cleared his throat. [color=1E90FF]“She’s attending a banquet or feast of some sort later. I’ll simply be her escort. That’s only polite, after all she did for me.”[/color]

“I won’t argue with that,” Avek said, his grin still pulling on his lips. “But I thought you hated those sorts of things, Captain. Strange that you agreed.”

Sjan-dehk tugged on the collar of his shirts. Mursi wasn’t wrong; Sjan-dehk did carry a special disdain for anything formal. But he didn’t quite mind Kalliope’s company, if he had to be honest. She was pleasant to be around, and he thought they got along well enough. There was no real reason for him to turn her down, and besides, he may as well get used to how Caesonian nobles did things. He’d have to mingle with them a lot more in the near future, he imagined. Might as well take the chance while he could to attend at least one such event with someone he actually liked. 

[color=1E90FF]“It’s…A special situation,”[/color] he replied awkwardly.

“Special, is it?” Avek quipped. “She must be quite the wo–”

[color=1E90FF]“I’m sorry, Master Avek, but are you jealous that Master Mursi gets to clean the latrines?”[/color] Sjan-dehk cut in with an arched brow. [color=1E90FF]“I can have you join him, if that’s the case.”[/color]

“Understood, Captain. I’ll say no more.” Avek looked back out towards the beach. “Think we could give the people a show? Sail the [i]Sada Kurau[/i] right across their eyes while they’re having fun.”

Azwan shot him a piercing look. “What for, Master Avek? The [i]Sada Kurau[/i] is a warship, not a showboat.”

Avek shrugged. “Fun, I suppose. Besides, haven’t you noticed the worried looks people have been giving us when they walk past? Not sure if everyone’s as at ease with our visit as we may think.” He met Azwan’s gaze and continued. “I mean, think about it. We’re armed to the teeth and we don’t speak their language at all.” He glanced at Sjan-dehk. “Not most of us, at least. We should do something to let them know that we’re friendly. Peaceful, at least.”

Sjan-dehk considered his words, then rested his arms on the guardrail. [color=1E90FF]“You just want to show off, Avek. I know you too well.”[/color]

“Guilty as charged, Captain.”

Chewing on his lip, Sjan-dehk continued to mull over Avek’s suggestion. He wasn’t wrong; it would do his Sada Kurau and his crew some good to show some goodwill. Already, he’d had to punish several men for what likely stemmed from simply misunderstandings. [color=1E90FF]“Don’t think we can do it even if we want to,”[/color] he said and tilted his chin towards the shoreline. [color=1E90FF]“Look at the colour of the water. It’s too shallow. Chances are that we’ll run aground if we want to get close enough for any good.”[/color]

And if that happened, a hole would be torn in his [i]Sada Kurau[/i]’s hull, and water would flood in.

[i]Dark, icy[/i]. Sjan-dehk closed his eyes again to banish the thought, his jaw clenched. He looked down at the water. [i]Inky black. Shouts of a desperate boy. A hand sticking out of churning waves.[/i] No, he couldn’t allow himself to go down this path. He squeezed his eyes balled his hands into loose fists. He couldn't allow a mere dream to play tricks on his mind. 

“Captain?” It was Avek, the usual mirth in his voice replaced by concern.

[color=1E90FF]“I’m fine. Just didn’t sleep well,”[/color] Sjan-dehk replied quickly and opened his eyes with a long sigh. “I’ll have a look at what’s going on at the beach later.” He looked down at the water again. This time, golden shimmers rippled upon gentle, cerulean waves. It was bright. Vibrant, even, and not at all dark. With a nod to the two men, Sjan-dehk turned and walked away. All was well and all was fine. He just had to keep telling himself that.