章 68: Arthur XXVIII
293AC
It was good to be alive, and in full control of my body no less, well, by a certain definition.
The stumbling and falling and getting ushered back into my cabin so I could lay down a while longer was not exactly according to plan, nor was my apparent newfound bioelectricity, a parting gift from whatever god or demon monster it was that had dragged me down to its temple, along with the seeming disintegration of my Greyscale.
The magical bullshit (oh and it was so clearly bullshit.) had to wait, however, as I was drawn back down into the reality of things. That reality was that for the first time I had lost men.
A lot of men, in fact, sailors under my employ, drowned in the unforgiving waves never to return. Apparently not worth saving in the eyes of the forces that may or may not have bailed me out after my concussion.
On the Sword we were lucky, eight had gone overboard with a dozen more injured.
I had one of the mates give me a list of the names of the dead. For the Sword at least, I wouldn't be able to get a crew roster for the Virtuous Gale until I returned to Dragonstone in all likelihood. Her crew records went down with her.
Our eight lost were Rowan, Hern, Jon, Elsman, Jeko, Henric, Jon, and Edric. The name of my younger brother elicited a sigh, but I got to writing anyway. I didn't know any of them of course, but it was only right that they get a letter along with the gratuities I would be paying out, and for now, at least I hadn't had so many men die that I needed an office staff to write the letters for me.
I would eventually, I knew, regardless of whether I went through with my plans, I could sit on my island and print money forever and Westerns would still end up in a frozen hell with no handbasket.
Despite my being trapped in my cabin, Aurane was at least nice enough to keep me updated on what was happening, and we ended up dropping anchor just off the island to send marines in that would look for a place to do repairs. I nodded at that, reasonable as it was. He looked at me as if I was going to ask to accompany them or some similar stupidity, puffing himself up in preparation to argue it, but he seemed to almost deflate when I told him that he should wish the men good luck.
Adventure on an unexplored island is for people who aren't walking off a bruise and a quite possibly magical case of exhaustion. I rubbed at the smalls of my eyes as I finished the last of the letters, professional writing was always so tiring, and hardly worth anything compared to the lives of husbands and sons, but it needed to be written nonetheless.
Moving the stacks of papers to the side of my desk I began work on something of similar importance. Starting from the best oval I could draw, I began to chart out the rough shape of what I remembered from the sunken globe in the undersea temple. The shape of the continents and what major features I could remember.
It was amateur, unprofessional, and would make any modern cartographer scream in despair, but at the very least having it meant that I wouldn't be forgetting about an island the size of Australia in the near future, or how ridiculously large Sorthyos was, quite literally stretching down to the South pole like a giant wall, albeit only with one branch.
Honestly, the whole continental structure of the world was weird. Continental drift was certainly not responsible, at least visibly, as none of them seemed to fit together like the puzzle pieces that made up the earth of my previous life, yet unnamed lands seemed to form across the globe with little rhyme or reason.
'But then that's par for the course with magical bullshit' I sighed staring down at the rough map before me.
Then the door opened behind me, and the current most aggravating figure on the ship walked in.
"Your Captain said you denied my request to go ashore." The Greyjoy noblewoman said, and I immediately slammed down the mental framework I needed to deal with the woman. 'Don't let her get you off guard, knock her down instead.'
"You're here to bother me because you're bored then?" I kept my tone even as I turned to look at her. "Or do you have some other excuse?"
"Oh, am I not allowed in here now?" The woman asked, trodden her way over to the bed, which she promptly sat down on. "You strip a woman get her drunk and take her to bed and then kick her out in the morning? Are you sure you're a Greenlander?"
"Hah hah." I fake laughed, matching her gaze with my own. "What is it you want, lady Asha?"
"Well my ship back for one, but I doubt I'll get that." There was a hint of melancholy in her voice that made do a double-take.
'Ah, shit, she's got that worse than I do.'
"But no, I'm not asking you for a new boat, I couldn't afford the price for it anyhow. I'm asking you, little princeling, where your scales went. Your captain might not be willing to pry, but I am. Greyscale never goes away."
I sighed, replacing my quill-pen in the inkpot. "That's certainly true," I carefully stated, before deflecting with a question. "What do you think happened?"
"I think…" Asha said, closing her eyes, and in a rather surreal sight, kicking her feet. "I think that you had a vision, and had it cured by magic. After my Uncle's bullshit, I could believe it. Especially since you've been crackling with lightning ever since you woke up. So what happened, you meet the Storm God in your dreams."
For half a second I considered telling the woman the actual truth, but foresight won out over honesty, and I crossed my fingers dramatically instead. "I did have what might have been a vision, but I can't remember much of anything from it, just a few images." I gestured to the paper before me. "I can't speak to God's or magic though, it might have been the providence of the seven or a quirk of fate, and I have no idea why I, as you say, crackle, though I do suspect the lightning is what drove back the Greyscale.
"Is that so..?" The Woman's eyes narrowed to mine, focusing for a second, before she threw her arms back, flopping back down onto the bed. My bed. "Well whatever, not my worry anyhow." She traced a lazy circle in the air with her finger as she lay on her back. "Now, it seems like I'll be a guest on this boat of yours for some time coming, and I am indeed bored as you said." She turned her eyes to me with a villainous grin on her face and I felt the urge to ram my head into the table.
"So you better do your job as host and keep me entertained."
'Oh God help me.'
I would need his help to not shoot her.
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