Dragon Frost (7 page)

"Master Xirel?" a voice said from beside him.

"Yes?" Xirel replied and turned around to look at the young man.

"The captain is ready to go when you are."

"We will be right there," Xirel said and looked back at Ubi, as her eyes had grown larger with her plea to have the cloak. It didn't help that she made them glow blue, targeting his weakness. He reluctantly gave in and handed her a few coins to give to the merchant. She dashed off to pay for it, then put it on right after and came running back to him. "If the meals on the ship prove to not be free, you are going to be learning to use Thread to fish for your dinner."

Ubi laughed and followed him as they walked for the ship and across its plank. The captain was a stocky short man who had purchased the GLORIA after its former captain's death. Ubi wasn't sure if he was a human or some kind of shifter, as there was just too much going on to pinpoint all the shifts. The captain called for castoff, and immediately the ship turned into a machine of well-abled men. They started swiftly on their designated tasks without hesitation. Because of the escort to be had, the best of the best were on board to serve on this venture.

Most of the Awls who had not been killed during the Aeger had retreated into hiding or joined the Atrum's Order. Those who had sided with Kenshe were later chased out and took refuge in the established Awl Tribes. Loki's Tribe was such a place for some years now. No one had a death wish to go near the Continent of dragons. Xirel and Loki were a rare blessing of protection to the ship. This soon became evident when the crew attended to him and Ubi as if they were royalty. Xirel smiled as he watched Ubi raise her head high in her new cloak. It made him happy to see her free her mind and worries from her inner demons long enough to have some fun. He wondered how long he could hold onto the Ubi before him now.

Xirel went over to the rail and looked back at the Suzerain Continent that disappeared from sight. The fog of the estus energy that surrounded the land was as a thick, dark blanket created by the Aur. It would set soon, and the Soph Aur of Toria would rise with its bright light and cover the atmosphere with colour. A sharp stab of pain struck Xirel's heart, and he immediately looked around for the attacker. Only no one had struck him but his own sad reminiscing. There were no more Aur storms to endanger their journey. The Sylvan Aur brought balance to the Soph and Atrum's Aur. It was also why his Caelestis had to remain in the realm of death.

Sial had not brought Nafury to the Harbor yet when they had set sail. His brother had sent word by psi that he would make his way on his own to them. Xirel silently prayed that he didn't make a huge mistake by leaving Nafury alone with Alexia. He didn't want Nafury to be the first dragon he had to tear from the skies on their journey. Xirel once believed that Sybl's brother should have been executed for his crimes. Now he found that he had changed his mind. He was Ubi's only real family left here on Aster. For that reason, he convinced himself to continue to try and befriend Nafury. It wasn't like the human was completely useless anymore, at least.

'You're too hard on yourself, Xirel. It will be okay.'

He smiled as a memory of Sybl's words touched his mind and eased the pain he felt. She wasn't completely gone, and he only had to keep reminding himself of that. Fay didn't die. She would stay with Aragmoth until he was healed and Aster was once again in balance. He hoped that he would still be alive the day she chose to return, if she did at all.

"Incoming dragon! All hands on deck--wait--is that the White Death...?" the captain trailed off.

All the Threads on the ship all vibrated fear at once as the white titan flew straight towards them. Xirel found Ubi and pulled her close as he lifted his hand in the ready. He would cut the Threads of the dragon's wings should Nafury have lost his soul to Alexia. But the dragon did not attack and slowed his approach.
 

Nafury manipulated the air around himself until him could hover close enough to unshift and land his feet on deck. Such a feat would have been impossible for a dragon with no power over wind. Xirel lowered his hand and let out a breath of relief, as the entire ship remained in absolute panic.

"Nafury!" Ubi squealed and ran over to him. "You made it!"

"Of course I did. So little faith," he said as he looked at Xirel who raised an eyebrow at him, clearly unimpressed.

"Was it necessary to terrify the entire ship?" Xirel asked.

"Sorry, I was never much of a swimmer," Nafury replied with a shrug. He avoided eye contact with the crew that was now really angry. A few had soiled themselves from the fear of dying moments ago.

"Master Xirel, is he a...friend?" the captain asked, hobbling over to them.

"Indeed. Tell your men that they have nothing to fear now, as a dragoon and two Awls will be escorting them."

"Phew. I didn't know there was another white dragon on Aster," the captain replied. The stocky man wiped the sweat from his forehead with his dirty handkerchief.

"There has only ever been one white dragon on Aster," Xirel replied.

The captain's eyes darted back at Nafury, before he made a hasty retreat to his cabin. He seemed uninterested in further details.

"And to think you scold me for terrifying them," Nafury said.

"You can't blame their terror," Loki said as he jumped down from an overhead mast. "You left little to the imagination of Simera back at the Sanctus."

Nafury had yet to question Alexia of what had all transpired at the Sanctus. She was overly quiet about the topic.

'I may have overdone it a little...'
Alexia psi admitted.

"Your crazed shift even cowers at the reality of what she did," Loki said. "They are still looking for all the body parts. I don't know what Alexia's history is with Simera, yet I think we should hear it before we continue on."

Alexia?
Nafury asked, and found her near the cabin wall. She couldn't become entirely invisible to him.

She didn't answer.

Nafury became more determined with his psi barrage on her, but she gave up nothing. Loki joined Nafury's efforts with his own psi and raised the pressure, and after a few minutes she buckled and gave in. Her usually cool, collected thoughts were now disorientated, as if she had hit her head. They saw enough, and Nafury let her be as she retreated from the deck.

Nafury closed his eyes for a moment to let the sickening truth sink in. Even Loki had a look of shock on his face now.
"He had what was coming for him," Nafury said and focused on Ubi who was listening to everything next to him.

Xirel got the message that what happened to Alexia was not something for a young woman's ears when Loki looked at him. He left with the Awl to do other things.

 
Nafury focused on Ubi and brought a hasty change of subject. "I like your cloak." He straightened the hood on her head, and brushed some of her bangs out of her eyes.

"Xirel almost didn't buy it for me." Ubi pretended to pout. "He said that he would only show me how to use Thread to fish!"

Nafury laughed and shook his head. "By the caels, you found his sense of humour. There are still miracles to be found on Aster."

"You will teach me how to read the Thread so I can see the memories of my necklace, right?" Ubi asked.

"Maybe. But fishing can be fun too," Nafury teased as he leaned over the rail to get a closer view of the blue water.

Ubi kicked him in the backside almost hard enough to push him over.

"Okay okay," Nafury surrendered and sat down on the rail instead. "What did you want to learn first? Lifelines? Reading minds? Manipulating objects? Killing small animals?"

Ubi replied with a mean glare.

"Okay, we can leave out killing anything," he teased.

Ubi thought on the choices for a moment. "Reading minds. I think that trick would be handy."

"Alright, I will be your test mouse for this assignment. People and shifters usually have at least one thought in common. In a fight, it's defence and offence. In a conversation, it's often the theme of what is being talked about. Ultimately, every one has a thought that can be seen and read from their psi. When you learn the basics, you can expand beyond that and see even more of their thoughts."

"Unless they block you out, right?" Ubi asked.

"Yes. If they don't trust you, then that creates a lot of walls to jump and it makes it more tiring. Losing your mental strength jumping these barriers can leave your mind vulnerable in turn."

"I think that makes sense. So what do I do?" Ubi asked.

"Well, we have a few things in common. Try and see what I'm thinking. I won't put up any barriers, which is pointless as our Awls have already read me inside and out." Nafury sighed.

Ubi giggled and then became focused on his eyes, searching for the one thought that would link her mind to his. She was having a hard time, and it was likely because Xirel was watching her from nearby. "Why is he staring at me?"

"He must be bored. Hey, I have an idea," Nafury said as a devious smile crept up on his face. "All chimeras have a deformity of some sort. Xirel's is proving particularly difficult for me to find."

"You think that I could read his mind and find it?" Ubi asked, now wearing a devious look to match his.

"I can't get anywhere near his head. He deals headaches out rather ruthlessly. But he won't hurt you."

Ubi accepted the challenge as she went over to Xirel. The Awl was already well aware of their evil plan to uncover his secret deformity.

"Xirel," Ubi said, as if she was about to scold him for something.

"Ubi," Xirel replied. "Uncovering the thoughts of an Awl is not as easy as your uncle would have you believe."

"Well, then it won't hurt for me to practice."

Xirel nodded and smiled as he could feel her thoughts focus entirely on him with her blue eyes. Without training, her psi was random at best as it tried to seek out what she wanted from his mind. It was effortless for him to navigate her thoughts away from her intended target. He stood patiently and waited for her to admit defeat, and decided to watch her fairy pendant on her neck for a while. He could feel the long Threads of memories within its gold and wondered if she would let him look at it later. It twisted in place, and his mind came back to the present.

"Aha! Nafury! I found it!" Ubi exclaimed. She then caught Xirel's white shirt before he could refocus on her and lifted it. Xirel's pale face went completely red as her fingers carefully counted his ribs. "This is it--you don't have all your ribs! I found his weakness! He's missing ribs!"

Some of the crew had stopped what they were doing from her loud excitement. After a few moments they realized that it was a false alarm, and a few laughed it off before returning to their work.

Xirel lowered his shirt and straightened it out. Then he regained his posture that Ubi's touch had melted down. He looked at Nafury who still sat on the rail, looking completely unsatisfied with the answer Ubi had uncovered.

"That's it? Just a few ribs? What the heck, Xirel?" Nafury said.

"Would you rather I was missing some other body part?"

"Yeah," Nafury grunted in an unserious tone and jumped down to the deck. "Like...everything."

"I did it!" Ubi squealed as she ran back to Nafury.

"Not bad at all for a first try," he said and patted her head once. "Tomorrow we work on basic lifelines. Or lack thereof." He didn't need to look at Xirel to make it clear he was referring to him.

"Alright. I'm gonna catch a nap," Ubi said and headed off.

"A nap? Just how much shopping did you guys do?" Nafury asked in concern as he watched her go below deck. He had never seen her go to sleep without a fight till now.

Xirel was rubbing his shirt now, as if to remove something invisible.

"You going to be alright?" Nafury asked. "We're surrounded by cold water if you need some."

Xirel realized what he was doing and stopped. Ignoring Nafury's comment he said,"I hope you don't have any extended plans for our visit to the Torian Continent...?"

"I promised our lady Fay a castle. I intend to keep my promise."

"So certain of your strength already?" Xirel asked. "It is still several hundred dragons against one berserker."

"I never said that I wouldn't appreciate some help, particularly as she just wants to see it." Nafury ran his hand through his hair then to brush back some of the worries that had yet to catch up to his thoughts.

TWELVE

Nafury found Ubi already fast asleep on a hammock below deck. He decided to sit down next to her. He used to be able to see into the future through his own Dreams, but it was something he had lost since loosing Daath. A part of him wondered if the demon had taken that ability of his into oblivion. Now he pondered trespassing into Ubi's mind. He was curious to what she saw. Fay were supposed to be able to see both the past and future. As a dark Fay, she likely could see the future best. He made up his mind and closed his eyes, then used his psi to find where Ubi's thoughts might have wandered off to.

He wandered through several foggy scenes for a while. Eventually, he found Ubi sitting before a screen of images.