Lingering Questions

There was a silence, and Amaruq ran through the many questions she still had. But before she could pick one, Hitty cleared her throat and said, “You say you’re from another world, and that your ability to learn languages was a magic gift, but one that was hard to explain. Can you just tell us? Even if it doesn’t make sense.”

His throat visibly constricted as Noah looked at the serious expression on his lover’s face. He sighed and said, “Fair enough. You deserve to know, but I can’t promise it will make sense. I was given this ability by a ship. It is a ship controlled by, well, a machine that thinks and feels. The ship is the machine, and vice versa. Imagine a clockwork device that is so complicated and powerful it can think for itself. This ship flies, not on the ocean but between planets. It gave me a very small mechanism inside my head,” he tapped his skull behind his ear, “and this machine helps me learn and remember languages. It also means I don’t get sick from diseases, more or less, or pass on strange unknown illnesses to new lands when I visit.”

Hitty frowned, clearly confused, and Noah bit his lip, “I’m really sorry, but this is mostly why I don’t tell people. Everything I try to explain just requires more explanations. If they even believe me.”

“The ship sails the heavens, and the ship is its own captain?” Hyvin said. Something about that sounded so wonderful, and yet a part of her was wondered if it was a lonely life. Like any competent navigator, she knew the planets were vast balls that spun endless circuits unfathomable distances away, around the Sun like the world did, and that the stars were other suns even more incredibly distant. She simply could not quite imagine how any ship would be able to travel so far.

“… yes, that’s a good way to think of it really,” Noah said, clearly deciding that agreeing was as easy as explaining more. “Honestly, there is a saying where I am from, that if you are exposed to something mechanical or crafted that is so far beyond what you can build that you cannot really understand it at any level then it may as well be magic. There is no meaningful difference. And the gift I was given, for languages, I would struggle to explain how it works beyond the most basic level.”

Macha nodded, the clerk being one of the better educated of the crew, and said, “I follow that. I know something of how alchemical lanterns work, but I couldn’t make one myself, and I can only explain it in broad terms.”

Based on their expressions, Amaruq could tell some of the crew simply didn’t believe what they were hearing, and some had more questions about Noah. But she still had some things to sort out before everyone started pestering him about his home.

“Noah,” she said, keeping a neutral tone, “when the river witch grabbed you, did she know you had these abilities? Whether you think of it as magic or not?”

The man shook his head, “No, I can’t see how. I think she just saw me and I spoke to her, jokingly, like she was a mermaid.”

“I see. And, when we were carrying you back to the ship, you said you had been cut by a man?”

Noah stiffened, his expression becoming guarded. Amaruq could see Hitty open her mouth to speak, then think better of it and look away instead.

“There is a hermit who lives in the Empty City. I travelled there to ask him for something, and he agreed, but he was very suspicious and cut me while asking me who I was and what I wanted.”

The captain kept his gaze, and felt he was telling the truth, but his gentle eyes were beseeching, as if asking her to believe him. To let it go.

With a sigh, Amaruq realized she was going to let the man keep some secrets after all. Perhaps she’d question him alone later, about the odd things he had told Hitty while **** and raving. Curse those pretty eyes.

“Do you know anything else about the lizardkin or the macâhcâhk?” Amaruq asked, looking pointedly at Hitty.

While Noah pondered, clearly happy to not have to discuss the hermit who somehow lived in an empty city of stone and dust, Hitty gave a start. “Oh! When the river witch had Noah, she told me she was saving his life! That he was going to die on the river if she didn’t keep him!”

Hannah let out a low whistle as the crew murmured. “She would have swum by the old watchtower many times! She would have known the lizardkin were there, maybe heard the ruckus when they ambushed a boat then sank it in the river.”

There were a few more questions, but fatigue eventually won out and the crew started shifting around and yawning. Noah was their steward, and no matter what they may have thought of the more outlandish parts of his story it was clear that they would keep his secret, and no one was going to demand he be burned as a demon.

The evening was truly over when Macha had been about to ask her tenth follow-up question about Noah’s home only to be interrupted by Ipellie, who stood up and said, “Alright alright, magic flying machines but not really 'magic' magic, who cares. Noah, you say you’re going to stick with us at least through Currielle, so are you workin’ the next few nights? What? Shut up you scurvy bitches, everyone knows being in battle gets your blood up and your womb primed, it’s the whatchacallit, the circle of life! I’m alive and need to celebrate single handedly killin’ a brace of lizardkin all on my own, so I want to get fucked hard and proper! Come on Noah, just put me down for first tumble!”

The jeers and laughter were quickly overcome by women, and one blushing man, calling out reservation requests to their steward as he shook his head and smiled.

The next evening, Noah was getting his room tidied up. Mainly because he found it rather funny, he had agreed to entertain Ipellie after nightfall, which would be soon. You have to respect the hustle.

After that was done, he wandered out to the stern rail. No less than 4 sailors would be on watch at night now, but there were only a pair on deck now as everyone else was finishing the evening meal.

He waited until Yura and Yutu were on the other side of the boat, clearly keeping half an eye on him but from a distance. The sun had just dipped beneath the horizon to his left, but he couldn’t see anything disturbing the surface of the river.

Taking a deep breath, Noah looked out at the wide expanse of the Radisson River and spoke in a low, steady voice. “Kasagea, I would have words.”

For a half a minute nothing happened, but Noah stood resolute until a small shape broke the surface of the river 10 paces off the starboard. Large dark eyes studied him, the macâhcâhk’s head only above water to the snout of her great seal form. Silent, she waited, and Noah could swear he felt her hunger and anger in that gaze.

“Kasagea, you took me against my will and used trickery and **** to take my seed. But your home burned, and I consider us even now.”

Did her eyes narrow? It was tough to tell, but Noah griped the railing, keeping his voice low but sincere. “Several hundred leagues south there is a city in the middle of this continent. It was the first place I visited, a land of small, jagged mountains. To get to the university of Khadri you travel in a caravan for 9 days across a dry wasteland. It is so hot it feels like the ground is smouldering coal beneath your feet, and nothing grows but scrub grass. In the middle of this harsh land is a dry lakebed of pure white sand that stretches out for 10 leagues.”

Still, nothing from the river witch, so he continued. “I do not know what you saw of the battle or heard. But know this, at any moment I can reach out to you and grab you, and all your cunning, your strength, and your speed would not stop me.”

Noah’s knuckles were white as he gripped the railing, his voice choked with anger as he ground out, “You took from me. Fine, keep it. But you threatened this crew. And you tried to hurt Hitty. I can't forgive that. So if I ever, ever see you again, I will skip out and grab you from the river, and I will bring you in an instant to the middle of those blazing white sands. I will leave you to wither away to nothing, a dried-out husk of bleached bones. This I promise you.

“So, you can leave right now - never again bother this boat, her crew, or any other for that matter. Or, you can die under a sun like an anvil of fire pressing down on you, hundreds of miles from a drop of water. Decide.”

The shifter blinked, then gave a single quiet, coughing bark, The head disappeared with a ripple. Noah watched the wake form as she swam at speed north, back to her home.

As the tension finally left him he heard a sword being sheathed. Surprised, he turned to see Captain Amaruq standing a few paces away, leaning against the corner of the cabin, her blade back in her scabbard. Yura and Yutu, their weapons out, stood by the mainmast but went back to pretending not to be watching over Noah at a gesture from the captain.

“You are really quiet,” Noah said, impressed.

The captain gave a small smile, pleased. “I think you convinced her Noah, well done. Now, I know Ipellie will be by very soon, and given what she was saying during dinner I suggest you brace yourself for a vigorous shift of hard labour.”

The steward laughed, rubbing his head shyly just as the Kuniq sailor in question all but leaped out of the forward hatch. Seeing Noah, she grinned and waved, her hair wet from a quick bath.

“To your duties, Mr. Noah.” The captain couldn’t keep the grin off her face. Or the tickle of longing out of her stomach.

“Aye aye, Cap’n!”