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16th Day in the 4th of Ründ’s Months, Dry Season, in the 29th Year of King Bornidin the Young’s Reign, 126th Reckoned Year
It happened that a fisherman found Saint Ründ in the form of a fish caught in his net. The fisherman cried out, “why are you in my net?” To which the Saint replied, “did you not pray for the greatest catch of your life?” The fisherman replied that indeed, he did, but he could not eat the Saint. And so the Saint broke the net and swam free and said, “If you are not grateful for what is freely given, then you will never have what is carefully held back.” Then the Saint disappeared into the depths, along with all of the fish in the fisherman’s net.
From ‘Saint Ründ and the Fisherman’s Net’ Parable, King Wonum the Wise in his 5th Year of Reign and 6 years Pre-Reckoning
Petsune tosses in the night with a strange and feverish dream. He is swimming through the air of the fish market on Thune Mass and Father Haltur is his shadow on the ground. Father Haltur is saying “Beware the Coldor, Summon Hope.” and his face changes into a sneer. Then Petsune is on the main deck of the Painful Lady, but it’s infinitely larger and Chapel stands at the helm, towering hundreds of feet tall. Chapel turns the ship wheel so hard that the whole ship rolls over into the water and Petsune is thrown off the deck and into the sea. He is drowning, sinking down into the depths, but he isn’t alone. There are hundreds of thousands of unrecognizable people sinking alongside him. Each is being drug down by a deadweight shaped like a man heaving a heavy burden.
When Petsune looks up in the dream, the Painful Lady is gone. In its place is the outline of a woman, dark against a fire that burns on the surface. The woman is made of darkness and stars, and she is reaching for Petsune - or is she pointing at him? - with her featureless outline. He feels a dense weight settle on his chest as he struggles to breathe. Then suddenly a ginder ray is under him and lifting him to the surface, but it doesn’t stop there. It flies out of the water, bursting through the flames, and Petsune is riding it like one of the flying ships from a Finger Weaver tale. He flies through an immense storm cloud, and it begins to rain heavily against his upturned face.
Petsune jolts awake to find Bungle licking his face thoroughly from the side, and Tussle is seated on his chest, sleeping inside her shell. Petsune groans and rolls away from the barrage of affection. “Ugh, not you too…” he says, pushing Tussle gently off his chest. A stubby head pokes out of the shell, snub nose wriggling and eyes closed, then retracts again. Petsune successfully extracts himself from the onslaught of licks and snorts, stretching his limbs upward and yawning quietly. He looks around the hold to see who else is still sleeping. Cheese snores away in a swinging hammock, Shushilah tosses slightly but doesn’t rise, and all the rest of the crew appear to be awake. Since accidentally boarding the Lady, Pet has found his sea legs a bit more and he easily makes his way through the hold.
There are hanging nets of personal items, and different tools secured in out-of-the-way places. Petsune snakes his way through crates and barrels until he is at last above deck. Nearly as soon as the fresh air hits his face, Petsune is struck with a chill. The air is cooler than it has been, and the skies are looking gray. The first rain always marks the beginning of Delód s months, and Petsune thinks it a bad omen to see such a gray sky this early in the month. Petsune stares out at the sky, remembering the strange dream he had in the night. Mavis walks up beside him and says what they are both thinking, “Bad omen, that is. Still fourteen days till the rainy season, by my mark.”
“I saw a Royal messenger beak,” Petsune says, “it was flying toward Misty Shoals Mass yesterday.”
“Captain mentioned it. Don’t bode well. I don’t like it…”
The gray skies seem to darken ominously at the horizon, steadily leeching higher as though the unseen world beyond the horizon is leaking a poison into the sky. Mavis walks down the steps to the hold and Petsune hears the beginning of a loud wakeup call as he walks away. He joins Chapel at the helm and sees that the darkening skies have also dampened the Captain’s spirits. Petsune follows Chapel’s steady gaze however, and finds he is not looking at the darkening sky, he isn’t looking at anything. Petsune waves a hand in front of the Captain’s face and says, “Hello? Chapel?”
“Huh? Oh sorry, Pet. I was just thinking.”
“Yes, I could see that,” Petsune tries to lighten Chapel’s mood, “from the steam coming off your head.”
Chapel chuckles. “It’s this place. General Tar hasn’t even come above decks the past day or two. Makes me think of the North War, and my father.”
Petsune watches Chapel’s face. “Why are we here then?”
“Well, it’s usually better to confront the bad outright, rather than run from it.”
Petsune responds, “And what bad are we confronting? The General’s or yours?”
“I think both…” Chapel looks at Petsune, “but I’m worried I might be running from mine.”
Petsune looks back into the aged eyes of his Captain and responds kindly. “We’ll confront it together then, all of us.”
They both look out ahead at the encroaching Mass, wondering what awaits them there. The closer they get, the more details can be made out. There are a typical number of ships docked at the Mass and a few with anchors dropped in the surrounding water.
There are mostly green sails, with some yellow and red mixed in. Chapel and Petsune only have eyes for the blue sails that are spread throughout the area. Chapel removes his fancy Saintstone eyeglass and hands it to Pet. “Those are the border galleons docked off the starboard side of the Mass. See the blue sails?”
Petsune gingerly grasps the white eyeglass, then strains his eyes and sees the blue fabric. “Yes, I see them.”
Chapel “Take a closer look, would you? See anything else on the sails?”
Petsune looks at the bigger galleons. “They’re certainly Royal Navy, they all have the blu—hang on… the one toward the back, it has a symbol on the sails, a gold symbol.”
Chapel asks in a voice without emotion, “What’s the symbol?”
“Hang on, it’s obscured…” Petsune squints, “it looks like a hand? Yes, it’s a closed hand.”
Petsune returns the eyeglass, wondering not for the first time how he came by it. Chapel says, “It’s a fist. The Royal Navy’s large war galleons are called a King’s Fist, they have 100 cannons. The smaller galleons have 40 cannons, and they’re called a King’s Hand. Normal Navy ships have 20 to 30 guns.”
“So, what does that mean? That a King’s Fist is here.”
“We’ll know soon, but probably nothing good.”
Chapel and Petsune look toward the approaching Mass,
Chapel remains at the helm as they coast closer and closer to Misty Shoals Mass, proving to be just as adept at piloting the ship as Mavis. There are a few other vessels coming in and out from the port, but things seem slower than at Ginders.
The blue sailed navy ships have each weighed anchor just outside the Mass ports, meanwhile Chapel steers the Lady into the docks. There are a normal number of ships, each color sail represented, but there is hardly any bustle. The merchants are at their stalls, and the patrons are making their purchases, but all move quietly. It’s as though the entire Mass is in a daze. Once they are docked, Mavis begins dictating what is to be offloaded and sold, and Bor is given a list to purchase from the markets.
The gangway is lowered, and Chapel calls out to the man assisting them on the other end, “Awfully quiet here.”
The man shouts back as he fastens the gangway down, “Haven’t you heard? The King is dead.” Chapel and Petsune exchange grave looks. Petsune looks to the man on the dock and asks, “How did this happen? Was the King taken ill?”
The man finishes fastening ropes and ties. “If only it was an illness. He was killed: murdered by a group of those Coldor barbarians. I heard they even butchered his body, layin’ it out in pieces, some type o’ savage ritual for their devil-god.”
The man on the dock walks away disgusted and Chapel looks at Petsune with a strange look of contemplation. Pet speaks first, “What does this mean?”
Chapel looks over toward the collection of blue sails. “It means my problems might have come to confront us.”
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