Sea Of Sparks And Shadows

Hey everyone! This story has the last two chapters removed. To read them, please head over to Webnovel and search for this book. By doing so, you would be supporting me while also getting to know what happened to the Amaris and the crew. Thank you for reading!

Amaris woke the next morning to something wet nuzzling her cheek. She shooed it off over and over but it kept coming back. She gave up with a groan and opened her eyes to a goat’s snout inches from her face.

She blinked the sleep away and stared at it. It blinked back. It took her a moment to process what it was and jump away, sticking to the wall. The movement seemed to scare the animal more than it scared her. It leaped back bleating then hurried away from her.

It took Amaris another moment to remember how she ended up sleeping with a goat. She looked at the door and the sun was high and shining. She got to her feet, still yawning and made her way out of the small barn.

The deck outside was full and busy. Everyone hurrying around doing one thing or another. She didn’t get the chance to see that the day before since she spent it all below deck.

“Hey, red head.” A voice yelled. “don’t you have somewhere to go?” Amaris looked around for the voice but she didn’t know anyone around. No one was looking at her either.

“Up here.”

Suddenly she felt something hit her forehead and she cursed.

“Ow. What the hell?” she looked down and found a walnut at her feet. She picked it up before looking up and searching for the culprit who threw it. Up in the small crow’s nest, sat Slygrin, true to his name, grinning and waving at her.

“What did you do that for?”

“You didn’t see me.” He shrugged. “Now you do. You’re welcome. You have straw in your hair. I can see it from up here.”

She scowled up at him but checked her hair to be safe. Sure enough, a few straws were sticking from her untamed curls.

“What are you doing up there anyways?”

“Fishing for spiders and hiding ants. What do you think I’m doing?” She wasn’t sure he wasn’t serious until he rolled his eyes. “I’m the look out. I sit here. And look out.” He spoke slowly as if talking to a toddler. “Hawk isn’t very happy with you by the way.”

“What?”

“He’s been looking for you all morning.”

“Shit.” She cursed and rushed to the corridor door.

“Take it easy with him, will you? He’s grumpy in the mornings.”

Amaris didn’t respond and instead ran all the way down to the galley.

“Well look who finally decided to show up.” Hawk was sitting on a stool a stack of potatoes by his side and a large bowl in front of him.

“Sorry.” She panted. “I didn’t wake up and-”

“Where were you then? I looked in your cabin and the men said they didn’t see you since last night.”

“I was-”

“Did that boy bother you again?”

“It’s not him.” Though she wouldn’t mind if he did get in trouble. “I couldn’t sleep and went to the barn and I dozed off there.”

“I don’t care where you sleep as long as you get here on time. Which you didn’t.” he gave her a disapproving look. “Roll up your sleeves and get to work.”

“Yes I’ll just get a quick bite then get straight to it. She pointed her thumb in the direction of the mess hall.”

“No breakfast for you. It’s been done and over two hours ago. You’ll have to wait for lunch.”

“But-”

“These potatoes aren’t going to peel themselves and if you don’t get to it soon, you won’t be having lunch either.”

Hawk stood up and stuck the kitchen knife he was holding into a potato. “I have some work to do. When I come back I expect them to be peeled and chopped.” With that, he trudged out of the galley.

“You didn’t miss much.” Amaris jumped at the all too familiar voice. Mirage stood at the other end of the galley leaning on a counter and watching her. She cursed herself for not seeing him earlier. She was too focused on talking to Hawk and apologizing that she didn’t spot his tall lean figure until he spoke. Or was he weaving her mind into not seeing-

“We just had plain biscuits. Hawk doesn’t let us break out the Oddelerie dried fruits until we’re completely out of biscuits and oats.” He smiled and Amaris couldn’t get herself to reciprocate it.

“Strict, I know, but also smart.” He shrugged. “That way nothing is going rotten or spoiled.”

“What do you want?” she blurted out. The last time he spoke to her with that friendly smile, he threatened to screw her brain over. So she wasn’t exactly comforted by his small talk.

Mirage didn’t seem surprised at her question he just shrugged again and held up a long wooden spoon. “It’s my turn to cook.” He explained. “Don’t worry I’m a far better cook than Wind Tuner, although I do hope that you don’t have a problem with spices, that is my sweet spot, I suppose. I just can’t get enough of them.”

She watched him warily as he moved around the galley bringing out different items and putting them on the counter.

“Please,” he waved to where Hawk was sitting. “Take a seat.”

Amaris lifted an eyebrow at him, her fear slowly turning into fury.

“Take a seat? No thank you. I’d rather take a seat somewhere where there isn’t someone who threatened to kill me.”

Mirage let out a surprised laugh. “Well you’re certainly different from the shy proper girl I talked to yesterday.”

“The shy girl you saw yesterday wasn’t this pissed.” She should stop talking. Amaris knew that but she couldn’t hold herself. “You don’t go around telling people how powerful you are and threatening them to kill them unless they tell you their life story and then expect them to sit down and help you make lunch while having friendly conversations about your addiction to spices.”

Mirage laughed. “Right. I apologize for that.”

He took a step towards her and as much as Amaris’ body screamed at her to take ten steps back, she fisted her hands and forced her legs to stay in place. Mirage’s eyes gleamed with amusement at the action and she wasn’t sure whether he could sense her or that he simply interpreted her movements.

“I truly am sorry for threatening you.” He sighed. “But you must understand that you’re new here. We don’t know anything about you. And spies from other merchants are common in this trade. When you lied I thought for sure you were hiding something.”

Amaris didn’t know how to respond to that. So she didn’t and he continued.

“This ship is the hope and life of so many of us that if something happens to it, we’d all be lost.” he looked her in the eye, trying to convey the importance of this information.

She let her shoulders relax and forced her fists to come undone. “I understand that.” She said. “But now that you know that I am not a spy, I’d rather you not use your weaving on me again. I’m way out of my depth as it is. I don’t need to keep wondering if what I’m seeing and hearing are true. I’ve been manipulated enough for a lifetime.”

Mirage seemed to want to ask but shut his mouth instead. He smiled and held his index to his forehead, more specifically to the tree sign. “I swear by the willow I will not.”

She nodded warily. She didn’t know if she could really trust him but she didn’t have much of a choice. “Alright then-”

“And to prove my point, I got you something.” Amaris furrowed her eyebrows as he knelt and opened a cabinet’s last drawer. He retrieved something and threw it to her. She was caught off guard and it crashed to her shoulder before hitting the floor. Mirage winced and apologized. She picked it up. It was a small leather pouch. She looked up at him and he nodded at the pouch. “Open it.” She looked at him for a moment too long debating if it was really safe and he let out a breath as he stood up.

“Believe me,” he said, “if I wanted to hurt you I would have done it by now.”

His words weren’t exactly comforting but they were true. He wouldn’t need anything to hurt or kill her. He could do it from across the room with his arms crossed.

She looked at the pouch a moment longer before opening it and peering inside. Seeds. She blinked and poured a bit into her palm. “what are-”

“Acacias seeds.” He explained. “you can eat them or wear them if you still don’t trust me. They stop our abilities so we can’t get into your heads.”

“but don’t they hurt you?”

“no,” he laughed. “they just create a barrier between our weaving and the area they are in. for example, I can’t make you see those potatoes as apples but if the seeds are on this counter and you were on the other side of the room I can do that.”

She nodded. “thank you,”

He nodded and smiled. “of course. Though speaking of those potatoes, I would suggest you get back to them. Hawk will be here soon and he wasn’t joking about depriving you of lunch. He enjoys saving food and punishment is an effective way to do it.”

At the mention of food, her stomach made a low sound and she put her head down, hiding her flaming cheeks and sped to the table.

Mirage laughed. “don’t worry, today’s soup is my specialty.” He lifted a large bowl from the counter and tilted it to her so she could see. “wind took a team of water weavers down fishing this morning and they found this; turtle eggs.”

At her wide eyes and lack of excitement, Mirage inquired, “did you ever eat turtle eggs?”

Amaris shook her head. She lifted a potato from the sack and started peeling as she spoke. “nothing much other than vegetable soups and cold bread.” She shrugged.

This was the first time she saw mirage truly caught off guard. “i- I’m sorry. By the clothes you were wearing yesterday, I assumed you were a noble.”

“not exactly. My family are nobles but I’m not… it’s complicated. So how do you even cook a turtle egg?”

He opened his mouth to answer, glad in the change of topic, when he was called.

“Mirage, where did you put-” Ash stopped as soon as he saw her. He slipped his hand behind his back and Amaris was sure she saw something black shining there but when his hand casually came up to brush his bangs away from his forehead, she shrugged it off and returned to work.

“What is she doing here?” he whispered angrily.

“You do realize that making your voice rougher and even more damaging to the ear than it already is and NOT lowering it wouldn’t make it any harder for me to hear or understand?”

He glared at her but she ignored him, focusing instead on her work.

“I see you two get along.” Mirage’s amused chuckle reached her.

“If you call wanting to throw her off the ship in shark infested water, getting along, then yes. I guess we do.”

Mirage laughed before asking Ash. “Did you want something?”

Ash shook his head as if ridding it of a very satisfying and very tempting image and looked back at him. “Yes. Where did you put the… brush?”

“what… brush?”

Amaris looked up to see both Mirage confused and Ash even more pissed and glaring at her as if it’s her fault.

She glared right back.

“You know what? I’ll come back later. Just make sure she doesn’t poison my plate.” With that, he stormed off.

“Believe me if I had the means I would.” She shot back.

Mirage shook his head a mixture of amusement and confusion on his face as he turned back to work. Amaris imagined him wishing those seeds back only so he could check how serious her words were.

*******

If there’s one thing Amaris knew she would take from her trip, it was that she had been greatly underappreciating Lydia and the servants’ jobs. She never knew that mopping and making the beds or preparing meals was this tiring. If she ever did meet them again she would make sure to thank them for all the things that they did for her. And for handling her aunt and grandma on top of all of that. She knew that no matter how strict and grumpy hawk could be, he is nothing compared to her irrational aunt and furious grandmother when she was still healthy.

She snorted at the memory of her aunt demanding Vanya’s dress be peach colored and her grandmother demanding it be blue and the poor seamstress who was stuck in the middle.

She dropped the last bedsheet in the laundry basket and lifted it up. One more cabin to go. Her current chore seemed relatively easy compared to all the mopping and dusting she didn’t know a ship needed.

She climbed to the highest platform. She could see the whole deck from here. The workers who were rearranging some boxes on the starboard, the ones checking the cables on the ____ and the earth weavers who were weaving the few potted trees and collecting their fruits, those of them who were touch weavers patted the soil or caressed the branches while those who were far weavers simply sat down staring at the plants and concentrating on it.

Vanya was an earth weaver too. Her whole family, including her mother, were earth weavers. But they weren’t touch or even far weavers; they were melody weavers. Music was as much of their ability as soil and plants were. It’s funny how Amaris didn’t inherit the weaving abilities, or the musical talent. Or was it the other way around? Was it because of her lack of interest in music, the instrument the heavens granted her family long ago to use their powers, that made the heavens punish her by leaving her powerless? And motherless?

Amaris shook her head, hating that her mind keeps wandering into those same useless and painful questions and knocked on the only door on this level. When no one answered, she walked in. this cabin was very different from the other, much smaller, much more cramped, sleeping quarters of the crew which only contained two beds and a bolted in iron dresser.

This one had a huge, queen sized bed, a wardrobe, and dresser on one side, a large round table with chairs and shelves on the other. The shelves were bolted into place and filled with books and scrolls and more books. One shelf was different from the other’s though, it was completely full, but not with books or scrolls; it was filled with dried pink roses. She shook her head and went back to work. She undressed the bed and fixed the new sheets in place before heading out. On her way out, she found herself slowing to a complete stop near the rose shelf.

The roses were dried and old. Some petals have fallen and were kept in a stack in one corner, as if the owner of these flowers couldn’t stand the thought of throwing them away. Her hand was about to touch the closest rose, mesmerized by their beauty and their age, when she heard the door open.

Her hand dropped when she saw the captain standing at the door. His eyes widened for a moment before he spoke, the same authority and control he showed the day before oozing from his every word. “Can I help you?”

She shook her head and heat crawled its way to her cheeks for being caught snooping. “N-no, sir.” She stammered. “I was just here to change the sheets.” She gestured to the basket at her hip. “I’ll be heading out.” She started walking to the door, head still down when she noticed that he didn’t move from his position at the door.

“Your duties do not include this cabin.” He spoke and she stopped walking. “It is off limits to all the crew too, unless I personally call for them.”

She nodded her head. “of course. I- I apologize.”

“How was your stay so far?” He asked.

Amaris wasn’t expecting the question and it took her a while to gather her thoughts. “Great! My stay was great.”

He nodded. “I trust my crew didn’t bother you?”

“No.” she shook her head though her thoughts went straight to Ash.

“Good. You’ll find that it will be very different from Oddelerie.”

“Yes… there’s a lot of…uh… water here.” Amaris wanted to beat herself for that answer. Water? Really?

He nodded and tried to hide his smile under his short groomed beard. “I meant Paradelia. But yes, there’s a lot of water in the grey sea.” She nodded and her cheeks flamed even more.

“Of course. Paradelia is more about learning and vegetal healing than about mechanics and industry. But I’ll find a way.”

Suddenly the captain’s expression changed into something unreadable at her words. “Of course.” He said seriously. He stepped aside and gestured to the door. “You may leave.”

Amaris, though confused, nodded and rushed out the door. Not a second later it shut quietly behind her.

Hey everyone! This story has the last two chapters removed. To read them, please head over to Webnovel and search for this book. By doing so, you would be supporting me while also getting to know what happened to the Amaris and the crew. Thank you for reading!