Cadmium 37

“You were attacked?” Taav asked playing with his grey beard.

Joæn and Adorjan sat across the table from Taav. Admiral Ra was pacing back and forth.

Intermittent and muffled screams came from the wooden planks of the floor.

Adorjan was abject, “We have lost control of the crew. We don’t know what is going on underneath our feet.”

“Arn committed suicide?” Taav was still processing. He turned to the Admiral and asked, “Admiral, where is Commander Sorrel?” The Admiral continued to pace the room without a reply. Taav pressed him again, “Admiral Ra, where is your Commander?”

The Admiral finally stopped pacing and looked towards the table and then raised his eyes towards Taav, “how the sard should I know?” He asked in a low voice.

“He is your officer,” Taav interrupted himself, “nevermind.”

“We have to find out who attacked us and if he is alone,” Adorjan said.

Joæn’s head was still pounding and she sighed, “he is not alone.”

Taav looked at the woman in front of him, she was stout, beautiful. “How do you know, ensign?”

“Because I’ve lived on a ship for most of my life. No one is ever alone. There are factions, groups. People who hate each other and people who come together to destroy others through words and actions. They rise up in times like these and they do not rise up alone. They have their friends and those that fear them because they are there and not sitting up in some quarter that is three times bigger than their workstation.”

The screaming beneath their feet had abated.

Taav looked steadily at Joæn. “The crew has pledged their loyalty to their Commander, Admiral, and us.”

“Sard pledges,” Joæn said and coughed, “In this fog, in this forest, there is nothing but this ship. Those things, the merfolk, the crew would welcome their intervention right now. It would be a swift death at the hands of their enemy. A way to die for something. But this,” she pointed at the window, “this is starvation. There is no social order anymore Taav. There are no more Templars. The Admiral has lost his mind,” The Admiral shot her a grotesque look, “The commander is probably butchered. For them, there is nothing but the fog and the ship.”

Taav went to pick up his wine up but returned his hand to his beard. There was no more wine. Adorjan noticed the gesture and bit his lip. The Admiral started pacing the room again.

Taav grew frustrated, “can you stop that.” He spoke sternly to the Admiral. The man ignored him and continued pacing back and forth. He had been doing it for hours. “Then we must wait for the fog to clear and.”

Adorjan interrupted, “The fog is not going to clear anytime soon. We have to act now. We cannot stay up here any longer or we will loose complete control of the situation.”

The muffled sounds of discord return from under them.

The Admiral stopped and giggled, “control? You people really do not understand.”

Adorjan shouted at the Admiral, “Shut the sard up.”

Joæn placed a hand on Adorjan to restrain him and said, “Listen to what the man says. He might be losing his mind but he has lived at sea his whole life also. There is a reason he is losing his mind. In his insanity, he will speak truth.” Adorjan removed his hand from hers brusquely.

“Insanity?” the Admiral walked to the table and picked up his copy of The Gathering. He flipped the pages brutishly. He seemed to have found what he was looking for, “Insanity you say,” he giggled again, “The Writings of Seraj says, ‘insanity is a window into the divine.’” He slammed the book closed. “I see the divine. It is a comedy. It is all a comedy. We are being tested and we will likely fail.” He looked at the two Templars and smiled widely, “you two will fail. ‘What has been will prepare you for what will be.’ It is written. It is written.” Admiral Ra looked directly at Adorjan who grabbed his head and closed his eyes. The Admiral continued looking at him, “What has prepared you, Templar, for this? You have lived your life in comfort away from the people. You don’t know toil and labor. You don’t know hunger and sacrifice.”

Adorjan opened his eyes and said evenly, “don’t presume to know me.”

The Admiral laughed loudly, “But I do know you. You have not been prepared for what is to come on this ship. We are in enemy territory. We are in a siege. We have no food and cannot leave. The Gods have passed their sentence and we are going to live or die at their mercy. There is a reason for you to be here. Have you asked yourself how we reached the Sea of Trees as quickly as we did? Have you questioned what is guiding and propelling us without our intervention? Have you questioned this fog?”

The muffled screaming grew louder. Taav finally stood up and said, “we don’t have time for this.”

The Admiral shook his head and warned ominously, “go down there to your death. Let those beasts eat each other alive and wait for the Gods.”

This took Joæn by surprise. She had friends down there. She knew the crew was a superstitious lot and would not come out to the fog if they could avoid it. But she could not sit back and let them butcher each other.

“Bar the door, Templar,” The Admiral said looking grimly at Adorjan. “Choose to survive and bar the door, there is food here yet for us,” he looked at Joæn and shrugged his shoulders, “and your ensign.”

Taav and Adorjan looked at each other. The screaming had subsided again. The only noise now stemmed from the footsteps of the Admiral as he paced the room once more. Joæn stood up. The Admiral stopped all of a sudden in front of the window. “Can you hear that?”

A hissing sound started to rise from outside. It grew louder steadily. Joæn ran to the door. She had heard the stories from the southern sailors. She knew what the sound meant. She shut it and moved away slowly from the door. As hissing rose outside the screaming under them became frenzied, violent.