The scent of rust, seaweed, and something far older thick with blood and rotting promises hung heavy in the air. The atmosphere was thick with salt and fog, and the creaking of broken masts echoed like distant screams from the abyss. Most of the ships were little more than wreckage now, their hulls split like bones cracked under unbearable pressure. Only the strongest remained standing drawing in the cold air, waiting for their next descent into the unknown.
As Pegwalsge walked, his cloak dragged across the wet stone path, gliding through the mist like a ghost among the dead. Dockworkers stepped aside instinctively, avoiding his gaze. They didn’t know who he was how could they? No one had seen him in two hundred years. And yet, the oppressive wave of Xhu that surrounded him, twisting the very air around his presence, was more than enough to make them understand.
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He stopped at the far end of the docks. There it stood an ancient ship with black sails, half-swallowed by the fog. It bore no name, no ornate carvings only deep, claw-like runes scorched into its hull. A flicker of memory passed through him… He had seen those runes before, in another life, in another war… two hundred years ago.
The ship was called The Hollow Mist a name whispered in cursed taverns and crumbled temples. A vessel that never sailed the same sea twice.
“Still standing…” he murmured, placing his hand on the cold, damp timber. In his mind, he envisioned how the crew had died aboard it. “I can still hear their cries.”
From the shadows of the gangplank, a voice rasped forth rough and gravelly, like stone dragging across iron.
“No one boards her without bleeding,” said the captain.
Pegwalsge didn’t turn. “Every step I take is already soaked in blood.”
A figure emerged under the pale moonlight. Hefty, worn by years, draped in chainwoven garments, skin marked with faded tattoos the captain watched Pegwalsge with both fear and hunger. He could feel Pegwalsge’s thirst for blood not only through the overwhelming force of his Xhu, but through the very essence of his existence.
“You seek something, traveler. And only dead men come here with purpose.”
Pegwalsge lifted his head. “The dead make the best companions. They don’t beg. And they don’t betray.”
The captain grinned—his teeth jagged like shattered bone.
“Then welcome aboard.”
As Pegwalsge stepped onto The Hollow Gale, the ship groaned not from weight, but from recognition.
The ship remembered him.
The inside of the ship was not as quiet as it had seemed from the outside. The wooden boards groaned, and the old ropes rattled in the wind, echoing like a sinister hymn. The vessel felt like a living creature breathing, whispering to itself, its cries still haunted by the curse of its past.
As Pegwalsge stepped onto the deck, the air grew oppressively heavier. It was as if the ship was sharing its memories with him engraving the scent of spilled blood, broken vows, and long-forgotten betrayals into his skin.
The captain followed behind him.16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu6tjQDWgI2
“They’ve been waiting for you,” he said softly.16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsLpig5sVLl
Pegwalsge turned his gaze toward the faint silhouettes that lingered in the darkness. He was not alone on this ship.
Four figures stood motionless, like shadows. He didn’t even need to see their faces to recognize them...16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYZrm1ohlVo
Some had their heads bowed, others hid their faces entirely but the Xhu radiating from within them… it was ancient.16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRA7CityYTB
Echoes of deaths they had once shared. Echoes of a time when they walked side by side.
“A face even the dead couldn’t forget.”
The voice came from one of the figures in the back, a woman.16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAFiltlf5AL
Her voice was not cold. Nor angry. Just accepting.16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv9oSjb2kn6
It had been two hundred years, but Pegwalsge knew that voice belonged to Eizma.
“I never thought you’d escape Hell,” said another. This time a deep, restrained male voice. Pegwalsge recognized it too Narth.
“Neither did I,” Pegwalsge replied, his lips curling into a cruel smile.16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKDyiJy8C3B
“But some words... some wounds... won’t even let the earth hold you.”
A silence settled over the deck. Slowly, the ship began to move through the darkness. No sails were raised, no oars pulled.16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGf6wcMIRg4
The ship moved by its own will as if it were under Pegwalsge’s control.
The captain looked at him.16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGgZ9UhDcDV
“Where to?”
Pegwalsge lifted his head. His eyes turned toward the invisible shore that lay beyond the mist.16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeacDVicumH
“To the place where the last sin was committed,” he said.16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEEHT1i2vtb
“We’re going to find my brother.”
Everyone aboard froze for a moment.16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTK1CVGuOpa
The name Rouma echoed through the ship like the return of a curse they thought was buried casting an icy stillness over the air.
The captain lowered his head.16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmLWB4Dur5O
“Then the sea will no longer be just water… it will become the bearer of all that must die with you.”
Pegwalsge opened his eyes defiantly. His lips moved.
“I know.”
And The Hollow Mist vanished into the dark.
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