The Beginning After The End: Convergence, Book 5, page 23
We made our way through the maze of partitions until we arrived at a -space in the corner that was enclosed by high dividers. When we entered through the tiny opening between them, we were met by Professor Gideon, who practically pounced on the notebooks Himes was carrying. The genius artificer and inventor looked the same as he always had, with the same lightning-struck hair, beady eyes, and brows that seemed permanently furrowed together. The wrinkles on his forehead seemed to be even deeper than before, just as the dark circles under his eyes had somehow continued to grow darker.
“It’s nice to see you too, Master,” Emily mumbled. She turned to me and Varay, giving us a shrug.
At first, I wanted to explore the facility, but Professor Gideon tore into the stack of notebooks at breakneck speed, practically ripping the pages as he flipped through them, and my curiosity drove me to stay and wait. It seemed Emily and Varay had the same thought, because they were both staring intently at Professor Gideon as well.
Finally, after going through about six notebooks, he stopped suddenly on a particular page.
“Shit!” Professor Gideon slammed his hands on his desk.
We stayed silent, not knowing how to respond. Even Emily stared wordlessly, waiting for her master to say something.
“General, can you make a trip with me?” Professor Gideon’s eyes were glued to the notebook as he spoke.
“I’m currently with the princess,” she answered simply.
“Bring her along too. Emily, you come as well,” Gideon responded as he gathered the pile of notebooks and scattered papers from his desk.
“Wait, Master. Where are we going?”
“The eastern coast, on the northern border of the Beast Glades,” he answered curtly.
“Commander Virion has prohibited Princess Tessia from venturing out. Having her come—”
“Then leave her here. I just need you or another general to come with me in case anything happens, although that’s unlikely,” he said, cutting her off as he continued gathering his things. “We just need to leave as soon as possible. Emily, bring me my usual inspection kit.”
Emily scurried out of her master’s makeshift office. Varay took a communication artifact from her dimension ring, but I quickly grasped her hand and squeezed it.
“Varay, I want to go,” I said.
She shook her head. “No, your grandfather would never allow it. It’s too dangerous.”
“But Aya is out on a mission, and Bairon is still busy training Curtis. Please—you heard Professor Gideon; he said nothing’s going to happen,” I insisted. “Besides, he’s in quite a hurry.”
“Damn right I am. Now let’s go. I need to confirm this with my own eyes. We’ll be back before the day is over,” Professor Gideon reassured us as he put on a coat.
I could see the Lance hesitating so I drove in one last nail. “Varay, you’ve seen me train for the last two years. You know how strong I’ve become,” I said, my gaze relentless.
After a moment of deliberation, Varay nodded curtly. “Then you must obey my every command while we are on this trip. If you fail to do so, this will be the last time I help you leave the castle.”
I agreed immediately, eager to explore a part of the continent I had never visited before, regardless of how short the trip would be. As soon as Emily returned, a large black bag in tow, we set out.
127
Washed Up Omen
The only stop we made was at a stable to pick out a few horses. We needed to go a bit out of the way to find horses accustomed to going through teleportation gates, which caused Professor Gideon to fidget with impatience.
The man was a nervous wreck throughout the trip. He said very little after we went through the gate, only snapping at the reins of his black steed, urging it to go faster. Soon we arrived at a narrow trail, with the Forest of Elshire to our left. A thin fog spilled over onto our trail, making the road look kind of creepy. To our right was a narrow stream that acted as a fence, marking the border between the Elshire Forest and the Beast Glades.
Emily sat behind Himes on a white stallion, and I rode with Varay on a particularly gentle brown horse. We rode in silence most of the trip; the eerie atmosphere and the urgency in Professor Gideon’s demeanor cast a pall over our troop.
Eventually the familiar, briny smell of the ocean filled the air; I could taste the salt on my tongue from the gusting breeze that whipped against my face. While the weather was cool, it was rapidly growing much more humid. My shirt began sticking to my skin, leaving me feeling uncomfortable and grimy.
“We’re almost here!” Professor Gideon yelled over the rising howl of the wind and thud of hooves. Soon, the trees that made up the dense, magical forest began thinning out and eventually ceased entirely, exposing a wide plain of wild grass and shrubs.
The ocean came into view, quickly widening from the horizon as we drew closer to the shore. The winds grew stronger and faster the closer we got to our destination, soon drowning out the sound of our trotting horses. The field of grass continually grew more rocky and treacherous until we came to a stop on the edge of a rugged cliff that overlooked the shore.
I had to shield my face with the hood of my cloak against the sharp, sand-filled winds that cut against my body. I was about to ask if we had arrived when I spotted something unnatural on the coast.
It was a humongous boat—or rather, what was left of it. The waves lapped against its metal exterior, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that I had seen it before, then it popped into my mind.
“Wait, isn’t that the Dicatheous?” I gasped, peeking out from underneath my cloak as I turned to Professor Gideon.
“No,” he said, his voice barely audible against the wind. “It’s worse.”
“Wait, it’s not the Dicatheous?” I asked, taking another glance at the familiar ship to make sure.
I hadn’t seen the departure of the monumental ship—it coincided with the start of my second year at Xyrus Academy—but I had seen it when it was being constructed. I remembered quite clearly the first time I had laid eyes on the mysterious craft that spewed black smoke like some sort of metallic dragon. To be able to carry hundreds of people and traverse the unknown dangers of the ocean—it was hard to believe it at the time.
“What do you mean, worse?” Varay asked. She surveyed our surroundings, her hand resting firmly on the pommel of the thin sword strapped to her hip.
“Leave the horses here. We’ll need to go on foot if we want to get to that wreckage site,” Professor Gideon said, ignoring us both. He swung his leg over his horse, dismounting rather clumsily. “Emily, Himes! Grab the bag!”
I opened my mouth to ask again, exasperated at how the professor constantly did things at his own pace, disregarding everyone else. But Emily gave me a consoling squeeze on the shoulder, so I just let out a sigh and we followed Professor Gideon. The old inventor was already making his way down the rocky slope to the shore, moving rather nimbly despite how wet the rocks were. Varay and Himes brought up the rear, both watchful, looking for any signs of danger as they easily hopped from one stone to another.
“I’m going to need the ship completely out of the water. Can either of you ladies do the honors?” Professor Gideon turned his head, looking from Varay to me, and back again.
My hand shot up in the air.
“Let me tr—” I volunteered excitedly before remembering Master Aldir’s constant warnings against overextending myself. “I mean, Varay should do it.”
The Lance gave me a sympathetic look before getting to work. It was an easy task for her; with a simple wave of her hand, she swept the tides back enough to reveal the whole ship, then took a moment to conjure a wall of ice around the remains of the wreckage to keep the water from spilling back in. Finally, she made an opening in the ice fortress for us to enter through.
When we emerged on the other side, I stopped to stare in awe.
I had only seen the Dicatheous during its construction, but many of the features I remembered about the ship, from its large metal frame to the multiple cylindrical pipes, clearly resembled this large contraption. Regardless, neither the Dicatheous nor this similar metallic monstrosity looked anything like the wooden sailboats I was accustomed to.
Further inspection of the large craft showed why it had been stranded here, partly sunken, in the first place. Apart from the more obvious dents that deformed the base of the ship, there were rows of puncture marks as well.
“Don’t those kind of look like… bite marks?” I marveled, walking toward the side of the ship.
“Imagine how big a monster it would be to have a mouth that could take a chomp at this,” Emily said in amazement.
I grew more and more curious the longer I studied the giant boat. If it truly was not the Dicatheous, then what was it? Who had built it? For what purpose had it come to this continent?
I observed that, while the thick metal frame had incurred fairly substantial damage, it didn’t seem old. There weren’t any signs of rust, which I knew would soon affect most metals left in a place like this.
“Well then, on we go,” Professor Gideon grunted, stepping through one of the larger puncture holes at the bottom of the ship.
“Wait.” Varay held up her arm to halt the professor. Before he could respond, she sent a large pulse of mana through the abandoned ship.
“No signs of life,” she confirmed.
“An unnecessary precaution, but thank you,” Professor Gideon grumbled, climbing into the hole at the base of the ship.
“Don’t get too far ahead, Master!” Emily ran in after him, her eyes practically twinkling with excitement.
Looking at Varay, I saw faint traces of concern on her normally expressionless face. Although she had checked for any potential dangers, there was still something worrying her.
I stepped into the ship after Himes, and my nose caught the acrid smell of rotting wood. The air was heavy and warm, and bitter to the tongue, forcing me to breathe through my nose despite the less-than-pleasant aroma of molding lumber.
The lower levels were spacious, with not much inside except the columns of iron—some broken, others bent—that had once supported the ceiling. Shattered remains of wooden crates littered the floor, but whatever had been inside had either perished or been washed away by the ocean.
The old inventor studied the remains of whatever he could find as he made his way to the metal stairs leading to the next floor, then he and Himes went up. This left me, Emily, and Varay to explore the abandoned vessel on our own—but we had no idea what it was we were searching for, or why we were here in the first place.
Finding little else of interest, we weaved through the mounds of seaweed and sand that had infiltrated the ship and climbed up after Professor Gideon and his butler to the floor above.
It was easy to see that the bottommost levels of this abandoned ship had been primarily used as storage, but the strange thing was that everything had been destroyed. Varay pointed it out, but after she did it was quite clear. Shattered remains of items lay scattered on the metal floors amid blackened marks of what looked like soot. Someone had deliberately wiped the ship clean of anything resembling a clue to its origins.
“Looks like whoever was on this ship didn’t want anyone knowing who they were,” I said, kicking some debris in hopes of finding anything of value.
Varay looked around but stayed close to Emily and me in case of danger.
“What’s weird is that even the upper floors here are soaked through. How did the water get all the way up here when the ship was only half-sunken?” Emily pointed out, running her hand along the wooden floor and bringing it back wet.
“That’s because, until a few weeks ago, this ship was fully submerged in the ocean.” We all looked over our shoulders to see Professor Gideon and Himes approaching.
“Which is why no one had seen this ship, despite its size, until recently,” Varay concluded.
The inventor simply nodded. “The journal I was reading earlier was written by a group of adventurers on their way back from a scouting mission. They had taken the same route to reach their destination, but when they returned, the tides had receded enough to reveal this.”
“I see, Master. What do you think happened to all the crewmembers that were on this ship?” Emily asked. “Do you think they all drowned?”
“No.” Professor Gideon shook his head. “There would be at least some remains left.”
Emily and I exchanged a glance, not quite catching what the old inventor was getting at.
Sighing dramatically, Professor Gideon squatted in front of the blackened mark on the floor and scratched at it with his finger. “It means you’re right, Princess. The crew definitely did not want anyone seeing this ship, let alone whatever or whoever they had inside.”
“That means—”
“Yes. Either they all escaped and are out there somewhere—or perhaps their captain killed and fed them to the beasts of the ocean rather than risk discovery.”
“I had a hunch when I first saw the ship, but does that mean…?” Varay’s question trailed off as she stared intently at Professor Gideon.
“After reading the report, I prayed to whatever divine being was watching over us that my guess was wrong, but I don’t think it is,” he sighed.
“What—what is it? What’s going on?” I interrupted, their solemn tones filling me with unease.
“I had assumed that the crew of the Dicatheous went through some troubles when we lost contact with them a few years back, so when I read the report, I thought maybe—just maybe—the crew had somehow repaired the ship and almost made it back. But the materials used to build this ship, and its design, are just slightly different. After examining it, I’m positive that this ship isn’t, and never was, the Dicatheous.”
Somberly, Professor Gideon continued, “It’s a little rough around the edges, but the technology put into the Dicatheous was top secret, known only to me and a few of the key designers.”
Emily drew in a sharp breath, her eyes wide with fear as the horrifying reality began to dawn on her. “Master, you can’t mean to say—”
“It’s exactly what I mean to say,” Professor Gideon interrupted. “Think about it! There are no corpses, no personal belongings left behind, almost no discernible traces that anyone has ever been here. Why? Because the captain of this ship didn’t want their enemy to know that they are capable of making this, and with good reason; the fact that this exists changes the fundamental dynamics of this war.”
“And by war, you mean…” My voice trailed off into silence. I locked gazes with Varay and she nodded, her eyes stern and grave. My hands trembled as I brought them up to my mouth.
Professor Gideon sprang up from the ground, handing his bag to Himes. “Yes, Princess. It means that Alacrya has, in their arsenal, the ability to build ships capable of carrying whole battalions across the ocean to Dicathen.”
128
Necessary Resolve
VIRION ERALITH
“Damn it!” Glayder cursed, slamming his fists down on the long rectangular table we were gathered around. “And you’re absolutely sure about this, Gideon?”
“As I said, Your Majesty, the part about the ship belonging to the Alacryans is merely speculation on my part. However, I am absolutely sure that the ship we have just come from is not the Dicatheous,” the old inventor answered.
It hadn’t even been an hour since Gideon, Varay, and my granddaughter had arrived at the castle. After Varay explained what they had found, everyone, including King and Queen Glayder, was summoned. With the arrival of the asura, Lord Aldir, and my son and his wife, who had been in negotiations with the dwarves, the meeting had been hastily set in motion
“What makes you so certain?” Glayder pressed, eyeing the inventor seriously.
Gideon let out a harsh sigh before replying. “Because during the construction of the Dicatheous, I had placed markers throughout the base of the ship—a sort of signature, if you will.”
“A signature?” my son Alduin echoed.
“The Dicatheous was an invention in which I took much pride. I wanted future generations to know of my work,” he confessed, scratching his nose in embarrassment. “At any rate, I scoured all the exposed frames in this ship, and none of them had the marking. In fact, the frame was constructed of entirely different materials.”
“Damn it all!” Blaine Glayder swore once more, getting up from his seat.
“Calm yourself, Blaine,” I said firmly.
“Calm myself? Did you not just hear Gideon’s words? I’m sorry, but I can’t just keep calm after finding out that our enemy is capable of sending tens—no, hundreds of thousands of soldiers and mages across the ocean. It’s bad enough that we’ve been having trouble sniffing out those bastards from inside the dungeons of the Beast Glades, but—”
“Enough,” Lord Aldir said, silencing the human king at once. “Varay, what are your thoughts on the matter?”
“While I have no extensive knowledge about the construction of the Dicatheous, I agree with the artificer. Just the lack of evidence on the ship is enough to tell us that whoever was on it didn’t want anyone finding out who they were,” the Lance confirmed, standing against the wall behind Priscilla Glayder.
“What do you suppose is the likelihood that this was a trap—or rather, a strategy on their part to get us to think they have the technology to send ships filled with soldiers to Dicathen?”
“Hmm, it’s possible. That might be the case,” Gideon answered, mulling it over.
“That’s right!” Blaine came back to the table, delighted with the idea that the worst-case-scenario might not be the only future of this war. “It makes sense. If the Alacryans made us think they had the ability to make these ships, we’d be forced to split our troops.”
“That might be so, but the location where the ship washed up makes me uncertain. If the Alacryans’ goal was to divide our forces, it would make more sense for them to leave it somewhere along the western coast—where they would want us to think they’ll attack. Also, the cove where the ship was found is much too inconspicuous of a place for them to hope that we would stumble across it. With the tide levels changing so frequently and the bedrock constantly eroding, it’s a miracle we ever found the ship in the first place,” Alduin rebutted.
