Bliss

by Daniel Lawley

  “You will die girl and that will be an end to it.” Extending his arm over the chasm below, Armatrine Dupree would meet a bad end.

  “I may die but death is not so bad!” She smiled. “See you there.” As he let go, she yanked the rope from around his neck, it snapped with ease. The last thing Armatrine Dupree saw of the world was a look of shock upon the face of her mortal foe as he realised he had been outsmarted by a girl he considered so far beneath him that he'd failed to see how dangerous she was to him. With satisfaction she closed her eyes for the last time and embraced the coming end.

  ~ The Fall Of The World~

  The gain in the loss,

  The balance restored

  The death from life,

  the life from death

  - The tale that will be told

  If anguish were characterised by one specific sound, one specific moment in time, then it would have been the sound Jackson made when he witnessed what she had done. When she fell, as much a corpse now as she would be when she arrived at her destination. He witnessed her final moments, looking over the side of the vessel, staring as she descended, screaming to the world, to all who would hear in protest, there was nothing that anybody could do. As she reached the bottom, there was a faint glow, as if something magical had been extinguished. Then there was nothing. The flash was so bright it stopped the battle and all turned to bear witness to the spectacle now occurring.

  “Captain, we have to catch her we have to...” he addressed Orochi. The old captain looked saddened, showing his years he simply turned away, unable to hide the look of extreme sorrow upon his face, for he had known how the boy had felt about her and he knew the bitter taste of loss was hard for many a man to swallow and now too would the boy be faced with that same loss. That same bitterness he would wish upon no man he knew. “Captain, please!” He begged, indignant. “There must be a way. There has to be a way.” He lamented. Nobody spoke, in the silence there was only despair. Too much loss and too much exhaustion hung in the air like great ghosts of the glory they were created in the image of, but there was no glory here. Only loss, only sorrow.

  Finally the boy made a move for the wheel. A hand came from nowhere, ready to strike him. It was Tyde, yet she found herself restrained by the most unlikely of men. Arlandus held her arm. “Allow me” he assured. “Jakson” he grabbed the boy and held him tightly an embrace to convey the sadness in their shared loss.

  “It's not fair Arlandus, it's not” he protested. “We had only just realised how we felt and we had only just begun, there was so much to do and so much time and now it must all be left undone.”

  Arlandus stood holding him as he wept. He had not known he was weeping, so caught in the emotion was he that it was not until he stained wet the priest’s robes, purified by the light of the gods to which he'd been speaking, that he realised. “I know, boy” replied the priest. “I raised her myself and a childless man could not have asked for a better daughter, yet the Three always had their plans for her. It's why they brought her back after the brawl in the artificery.” Jak stared at him, incredulous. “Things are what they are my boy and most of the time we are powerless to change them, sometimes very great sacrifice must be made and Armatrine understood that. She sacrificed herself for you.”

  “Look” yelled a voice neither recognised. It was the admiral he pointed to, stood upon the mast of the second great warship he remained very still. The glow of the light which had shone around when Armatrine had fallen remained upon his person, as though it clung to him, as though the light were magnetically attracted to its opposite. It turned a poisonous shade of green before it dispersed. It looked to Jak as if it were flame. That's exactly how it acted anyway. The admiral did not look afraid, he did not look anything. His appearance had changed significantly he'd gone from a tall and handsome man with considerable physical prowess to an old, bloated wreck, his skin had drawn up his fingers and past his teeth, his hair had dried and fallen out. He reminded Jak of an old corpse.

  “Brother Tenebris” murmured Arlandus.

  “You know this man?” Orochi asked, not taking his eyes from the happenings before them.

  “He was one of the Order, one of our own” he replied. “It was believed he died some time ago, he'd turned his coat and betrayed the Order and the Three long before that, his body was never recovered, it was unknown how he died” replied the old man. “There was a time when we were closer than any brothers you could have known” he sounded sad, forelorn. It struck Jak that the final shock today for the old man wasn't the loss of his apprentice but the truth of what had become of his brethren.

  The sky captain had turned a deadly shade of pale. “Allow me to enlighten you, upon overhearing your conversation in the tavern, we decided to raid the man, thinking in his cursed state he would give us the location of a certain stolen map, that was when we acted.” Jak remained thankful to Orochi for not revealing his part in it.

  If Armatrine had been here it would confirm her worst fears and theories about him. “When we got to him he was clearly suffering, it seemed a kindness to feed him to the skydrakes” he told him.

  Arlandus remained silent for along moment, perhaps in sorrow, perhaps in prayer. There was no reasonable way for Jak to know. “Alas it is so that we all played a part in his demise,” he began, “I cursed him, Jak led you to him” he turned pointedly at the boy showing that nothing could be hidden from him. “In turn Captain Orochi you murdered him and it took Armatrine to set straight what the Three of us had turned crooked in the infinite wisdom of our idiocy.” He smiled “Alas, I fear he was gone long before then, but we shall never really know.”

  A sudden cry came from the top of the mast as the flames engulfed Mitrick. They consumed his decayed flesh with ease as his corpse burned to ash, then there was nothing.

  The cyclone died and a strong headwind pulled the vessels apart, whether they liked it or not. They were one, aboard one vessel.

  “Alright, fill the flotation” ordered Orochi. The world below still churned, but he felt at peace it would settle soon. Something within him let him know everything would be alright. They ascended and he'd never felt more at ease.

  ~ Epilogue~

  All must arise anew

  - Arlandus

  The sun shone upon the grassy mound. The sky was crystal mauve and the twin suns shone in their glory. They had not been hidden for long, it was only the Bliss, like many before it. There would be more.

  Arlandus and the boy, both robed in white, now stood, watching a large vessel take flight. Before the wheel stood Captain Tyde. Strong and fierce. Her husband, Orochi, sailed with them, but he was ready to allow the reigns to somebody else and advise her. He had some years experience over her, and some years left. It was time to pass on what they had learned. Each on board had received a pardon from Prince Johan for averting disaster. They would likely become wanted fugitives again down the line, a life of piracy was hard to break, but for now they were free men and Jak found himself fantasising that they would live happy lives among the clouds. They had been his family for so long, yet now it was time to forge his own path. A path of understanding. A path of enlightenment. A path of atonement.

  He'd joined the Order of the Pearl. Not the corrupt institution sacked to naught by the lich Mitrick Tenebris, but a new version with Arlandus at its head, a man with such worthy values Jak held hope in his heart that they would never lose their way again. It was a glory to behold.

  He took a quiet moment, lost in thought. Perhaps things would turn out for the best, much had been sacrificed.

  “I see her too, you know,” began Arlandus, “in everyone, in everything, each blade of grass, the air we breathe, her voice is carried upon the wind in the song of the birds and the gentle sway of the leaves in the distant trees. Take heart for her love is with you still” he placed a reassuring hand on the young man’s shoulder.

  “I know master, yet I feel the loss all the more” he responded, with his head bowed. He spoke calm
ly. Acceptance had already settled the events in his mind.

  “Come my apprentice, you've much to learn and a lifetime before you” and with that he took himself away and began to walk the dirt path to a small village on the outskirts of Neta, he'd trod the path before, once many years ago and now once again. The coming journey would be long. His path would be hard. He'd much to teach and the new acolyte had much to learn.

  The boy followed. He knew where they were. His robes caught the breeze and he made for home.

  Acknowledgements

  Thank you to my family, your belief and encouragement drive me on. Huge thanks to my friends and the boys from Seasons Collide, let's hope this one is better than the last one.

  An enormous thank you to my partner Jenna Brown, your constant love and support every day make the murk bearable, even when we struggle.

  Lastly but by no means least, thank you to close personal friend and generally grim bastard Jack Adams, whom without, this book would not be possible. We are as hell bound as one another I'm sure.

  Twenty percent of nothing is still nothing my friend….