Steady as we go 5- Quarantine

Wilkes found himself in a dark expanse. No stimuli, hell he couldn’t even consider what was around him as seeing. Everything hurt from what he could understand. There was just… nothing. A feeling of disappointment washed over his body. Trying to sit up, nothing happened. It was like his body was refusing to respond at all. A voice rang out in the emptiness he found himself in.

“I offered to teach you.” His father’s voice called. “You could have killed that Kraken easily if you had just obliged me.”

He tried to argue back, but nothing happened. The emptiness only gripped him tighter, a sense of cold washed through his understanding. Not his body, but his existence in general? Maybe his soul? It wasn’t like the usual dreams.

“Son, I truly do not suggest attempting to argue with me while I am denying you from passing through death’s door.” His father snarled, it was the first time his voice had sounded angry. Not annoyed, or frustrated. Truly angry. “I understand you believe me to be some malevolent force in your life, but I am hardly a force in your at all. So stop resisting and oblige me. I cannot help you if you refuse me.”

A snarl echoed in his soul. Whatever form he was in thrashed against the limits. His whole existence jolted, thrashing wildly where it was. His mind felt like it was set ablaze, as if hot coals raked across his whole body. He felt hands push his body down, something held him in place.

“WILKES, LISTEN! YOU HAVE TO STOP FIGHTING ME OR YOU’RE GOING TO DIE!” His father roared in the expanse. It slowly took shape in front of him. A colorless sky, the same shade as his eyelids, had smudges like clouds gathering through it. His eyes had been open the whole time then. His hand stretched towards the distance.

The rebellion in his soul quieted. Whatever convulsion he had just gone through ceased. The smudge in his vision turned out not to be clouds, but rather his Father’s hair. He coughed weakly, his hand brushing against his father’s face. His skin was cold. There wasn’t an ounce of warmth in the connection. Ironic.

“I’ve got you son, I’ve got you.” His father repeated, he could see now he was being cradled by the god. Thick inky black tendrils lashed against him, attempting to curl around him and reach Wilkes. Where they did, he smacked them with his free hand. Winces of pain escaped the god as they whipped against his back. “Just hold tight. Please.”

A god was begging him. The strangeness of the situation confounded him. His hand dropped from his Father’s face. He curled into the embrace. It was so cold. Was this death? Was this what awaited his mother? A cold embrace. A silence broken only by whimpers and pained cries. That’s all that there was anymore.

“Why didn’t you…” Wilkes croaked

“‘Why didn’t I’ what?” His father asked

“Why didn’t you save mama?” He forced the words out, tears began to stream. A look of pity crossed the god’s face. The golden bands restricting his cloud-like hair snapped after a tendril lashed at them. A curtain of the puffy white things formed around Wilkes. His father stared at him.

“I… I tried. Then I had to answer to the others in the pantheon. Why I had tried to meddle with the life of an unknown common woman.” He said softly. A hissing sound filled Wilkes’s ears as his father spoke. He saw steam begin to roll off the god’s body, forming into a thick mist. “I had no good answer, and that turned their focus away from you again. I made it seem like a random gesture of kindness.”

“I don’t even know your name.” Wilkes said “and you want me to believe you cared enough about mom to risk fighting other gods. Sure.”

“Son, if they found you, if they knew I had brought you into this world, nowhere would be safe. Why can’t you just-” His father began to lecture, and Wilkes just curled into himself tighter. He stopped as he saw that. Instead, the hand that had been supporting him began to stroke Wilkes’s hair. “I’m sorry. I failed you.”

“You failed me. Then you deny me seeing my mother again. You keep trying to make me want you. I keep telling you I don’t.” Wilkes said, a tendril nearly reached him before his father gripped it hard. It exploded into inky smoke and wafted away. “And you refuse to tell me your name. You have Sayila and the glowy bastard tell me I have to be patient, according to “Father’s Plan” for my life. I say to hell with your plan.”

“If I could explain everything to you, I would. I do love you son. I know my actions are confusing, but I am acting on a scale you can’t comprehend yet. One day I will explain everything. I just need a little bit of faith for now.” His father countered. “You will learn my name once you reach Osan. I can’t tell you before then.”

“Let me wake up.” Wilkes responded. His father scowled at that. Shaking his head slowly, he stopped stroking Wilkes’s hair and went back to cradling him.

“If you wake now, your body will succumb to your wounds and mana burn out. Son you performed a calamity level feat for two separate elements at once. Mortals weren’t meant to do that. You don’t even know what’s trying to grab you, what I’m actively batting away from you.” His father said calmly. “I am smacking away Entropy, the concept of emptiness and removal. You denied it what was due with what you did. My own essence is repaying your debt.”

“About time you acted like a real father.” Wilkes snarled, a deep sigh left the god.

“I knew I couldn’t fix this with a single good deed, but I hoped I could despite that.” He said bitterly. “I will make it up to you, eventually. Or at least try to. I’m not evil, nor am I aligned against you. You’ll see that one day.”

The frequency of lashing decreased over the course of what felt like days. Countless hours of hearing the god he was cradled by enduring painful blow after blow. His father still held him, but the winces grew fewer and further between. Eventually all the noise in the empty expanse faded. The shining endless sea and multiple suns warbled into his vision. He was still being rocked by his father. The crash of waves was nearly deafening compared to the near total silence. The light of the suns was blinding. The feeling of air moving in and out of his lungs was a welcome sensation.

“There. It’s done, son.” His father said, scooting away from his slowly. Wilkes clung to him all the same.

“...” Wilkes struggled to form words again, sputtering syllables into the chest of the god. He finally put two separate words together. “Thank you.”

“When you have children, you’ll understand why I endured the lashings. I do need to tell you, it has been twenty days since you fought the kraken. Your crew is safe. Now being directly escorted on a naval ship as they repair the Gracious Pearl on a small island.” His father spoke

“Which island?” Wilkes asked, slowly rolling onto his back on the sand. His father mimicked it and rolled opposite him into the sand. Water tickled their toes, and clouds rolled through the sky. The god formed golden bands from the sunlight and pulled his hair back into a more composed look. It covered the deep golden lines that glowed along his back where he had endured the lashings.

“Hazend.” He answered. “It’s more of a naval outpost than anyone’s home.”

“Gotcha. Sounds decent enough. Any chance I could mail letters out from there?” Wilkes asked

“Yes. Though it’ll take ten days for any response to reach from Thellin.” His father said

“Understood. Will you wake me when it’s safe?” Wilkes asked. Perhaps it was better to work with and question his father rather than be directly rebellious. He could collect information and slowly mount his own plan for his life. Not to mention even if his father lied about when it was safe, he could pull himself together enough if he could intentionally recreate that healing with water trick.

“Yes. If you want to sleep here you can, normally that would be straining on your mind, but well you don’t exactly have a lot of body to throw yourself out of sync with by having a sleeping soul.” His father answered. With that Wilkes closed his eyes, and breathed evenly. Dreamless sleep came to him. Distantly he could hear the voices of Rangpar, Erik, Dortas, Meryl, and Pauline. Rushing past his ears like the wind had previously when he’d been hurtling through the air far too frequently as of late.

When he opened his eyes again, everything felt heavy. His joints were all stiff and his mouth was incredibly dry. From the feeling of sheets on his skin, he could tell he was naked and in a bed. Pulling it back slowly, he found his entire midsection wrapped and packed heavily. He shifted on the bed, thankfully someone had been rotating him to avoid bedsores. On the mattress next to him laid the captain. His eyes were shut, and from what he could see there was only one leg beneath his sheets. A chill ran down his spine as he wiggled his own toes and fingers. All twenty digits responded. Flopping back on the bed, he sighed. His ribs ached as the air was pushed out of him. Wincing slightly, he shifted trying to get comfortable. The bandages were itchy, and somehow that was the worst of all of it. Pauline walked into the room, and stared at him.

“Hey feathers, yer a sight for sore eyes.” Wilkes said with a smirk, the winged woman rushed across the room and threw her arms around his neck.

“We… we…” She stammered into the nape of his neck.

“Thought I was dead? Yeah I thought I was for a bit too. Saw my dad.” Wilkes said, gently patting her between the base of her wings. She was warm. After being held by someone cold for so long, feeling genuine warmth in an embrace was intoxicating. He squeezed her tighter to his chest until his ribs ached. “I managed to pull through this time, but I’m not trying anything like that for a while. Two element calamity level magic is… rough. Saw some kind of tentacle thing trying to grab me.”

“Wait, you… with two elements? But everyone only said… then how are you? What tentacle thing?”

“I did it on two fronts. Pushed the water up from the sea, and spun the clouds with the wind. Nearly killed myself from the effort, then got a little impaled. Which I gotta admit, not a fun experience. Took a long nap, saw my dad for a bit and then popped back up just before you walked in.”

“That’s absurd, either you would have needed an incantation you’d still be speaking or to have broken the laws of entropy! That would have killed you almost immediately, even if you hadn’t been impaled.” Pauline sounded something between deeply annoyed, concerned, and confused. He had neglected to really explain what the tentacles were, and she probably assumed them to be part of his nightmares while out cold.

“Well, the long nap helped. Kinda cruel that I woke up still tired though.” Wilkes mused, rubbing the length of the redhead’s back. He could feel the alluring divot of where her spine was, somehow that was becoming one of his favorite parts on women.

“Being comatose is not a long nap! We really need to work on your vocabulary. I mean honestly-” Pauline began to rant while moving as if to shake him when Erik cleared his throat in the doorway. The redhead took a lunging step away from Wilkes’s bedside, suddenly conscious of how she had thrown herself across him. She straightened some wrinkles in her naval uniform before nodding towards Erik.

“Came to check on them. Good to see you again Pauline. It’s about time you woke up, but do keep your voice down. Captain needs his rest.” Erik said. He walked across the room and gave Wilkes his own hug. “Was worried I was going to have to write Beatrice saying “Dearest Beatrice, as your former courtship I regret to inform you but your betrothed has died and your father has been permanently maimed while at sea. See you in two months.” Mostly because I don’t think she’d take it well seeing a letter from me before you.”

“What, you weren’t going to forge one for me?” Wilkes asked drily. Excited as he was to see them, the weariness of his body was catching up to him. Everything still ached, and worse his whole body felt heavy. “We’re gonna fall behind making it to market on time aren’t we?”

“Don’t worry about that. There’s a plan in place, I’ve coordinated with the navy as acting captain.” Erik said, patting Wilkes’s leg gently. “We can still make it to Osan to sell everything off the pearl without adding too much time to our voyage.”

“Right, well if there isn’t another major emergency then could ya let me sleep? I know I was out for twenty days and we need to have a dramatic reunion, but I’m still dead tired.” Wilkes said, shutting his eyes gently. Trying to keep his breathing even, staying as still as he could. His ribs still ached. His back felt tight like it needed to be popped but couldn’t be. Like there was a small release of pressure just out of reach.

“I’ll stay with him, go write to your home.” Pauline said. Erik muttered something but walked away all the same. He felt two hands take his, a thumb gently stroking the back of it. “I know you’re tired but I need some clarity on something before you go back to sleep.”

“As long as it isn’t about how I did two calamity level spells at once. I don’t remember how I did it, I just… did.” Wilkes said, slowly opening one eye. Her blue eyes ran up and down his body, even while he was bandaged and in some kind of medical bed.

“No, no not that. It’s umm, well it’s about what you said before we left Thellin.” Pauline said, she tucked a curl behind her ear and looked anywhere except his open eye. He tried to sit up, winced, and just propped his head up better on the pillow.

“You mean the whole deal about us becoming something serious? How you gotta get along with my other women?” Wilkes asked, opening his other eye now. This conversation required serious attention, the teasing and snark could wait.

“Mhm, I want to get to know Beatrice after you reach Osan. From what I’ve heard we have more similarities than differences.And I already get along with Meryl. We spoke often for the past three weeks.” Pauline said, squeezing his hand gently. “If that’s alright with you?”

“Uh, let me write to her. I have to be honest, she’s worried about a woman from Osan sweeping me away from her. Not entirely sure how she’d react to a woman from the navy also trying to be with us.” Wilkes said, he watched the redhead deflate then snake her hands away from him. She nodded sharply, and forced a smile. He started to reach for her but she shook her head.

“Right, right. Sorry, that was a stupid question. I should just let you rest. Totally the wrong time to ask that.” Pauline said, retreating from him. Once her back was to him and the door swung open he could swear he heard sniffling. Her voice came weakly as it shut behind her. “Bye Wilkes.”

“Lad…” Jonah said weakly, a hacking cough came from the next bed over. “Yer terrible with women.”