God Does Not Sail Here

It was the start of day 5 on the Ironbell for the twins.

The ship was getting closer and closer to Port Calden, where the Seekers exam is said to start.

However, right now, the exam wasn't on their mind at all. They were both on the deck, watching the mist curl around them.

"What did you say?" Mika asked his sister. It's not that he didn't hear her the first time, but the words that came out of her mouths felt too strange to be true.

"The mist is alive." The girl repeated her words. She said them quietly, like she wasn't entirely sure she wanted the words to exist outside her own head yet.

The deck was mostly empty in the early morning grey, just the two of them at the railing and the sea stretching out flat and cold in every direction.

Mika looked at her. "W-What do you mean, alive?"

"I... I mean it has magic in it." She kept her voice low. "I can feel it. When I reach out with my healing sense, the way Soro taught me to feel for what's wrong with someone, I brush against something in the air. Something that shouldn't be there." She looked at her own hand, held out slightly in front of her, fingers spread. "It feels heavy. Stale. Like water that's been sitting somewhere dark for too long. Air isn't suppose to feel like that."

Mika was quiet for a moment. He looked out at the mist sitting against the hull below them, the way it curled along the wood and threaded upward through the lower rigging in thin tendrils. He would have never guessed magic was behind it.

And yet, even knowing that magic was behind this mist... It only made him end up with far more questions than he cared to have.

"It's not that I don't believe you, but... Are you sure?" Mika asked, feeling slight frustration for not being as gifted with magic as his sister was.

"I'm sure something is there." Maya answered. "I don't know what it means yet. I don't know why mist born out of magic is around the ship. I don't know if it's connected to the people who won't wake up, or if it's just—" She stopped. "It might be unrelated. I don't know enough to say more."

While Maya felt puzzled, she was sure of one thing: Whoever is making all this mist surely wasn't doing it for fun. Surely there had to be a reason behind it... Right?

The question on her mind now was: 'What is the reason?'

"Hmmm, but what if it was related to Bina and the others being unable to wake up? I'd rather these two mysterious things be connected than having another unknown to deal with." Mika muttered, rubbing his chin.

His fingers twitched toward the spear strapped to his back, he had brought it with him, hoping to maybe get some training done today.

"If they are connected... I could go and make sure." Maya chewed her lip, watching droplets form and slide down her palm like living things. "If I go and check Bina and the others who can't wake up again... If I sensed a familiar energy coming from them, then..." She didn't finish her sentence, but the implication lingered.

"You can do that?!" Mika spun toward her, eyes widening.

I don't know." Maya said honestly. "I've never tried to use my magic like that before. It wouldn't hurt to try though." She hesitated before adding. "But Mika... If someone is doing this intentionally, they might notice if I start poking around. Especially if they're powerful enough to cloak an entire ship in magical mist."

"So I should come with you then."

"No, no. I'm saying we should be careful. I fear we'll draw more attention if we walked around the place together. It's best if you stayed here." Maya hesitated.

Truth it, she would rather he come with her, but she also didn't want to take risks right now. She would rather a mage this powerful not know they are onto them. It's best to play stupid.

"It also shouldn't raise any alarms if the healer of the ship visited the people who can't wake up..." She thought, farther convincing herself this was the right move.

Mika didn't like what she just said. He wanted to object, to throw a fit, but the sharp pinch of Maya's fingers gripping his wrist stopped him cold.

"Fine, FINE... But just this time, okay? I'll be here training with my spear. If anything happened, call for me right away, and don't go into anyplace alone with someone you don't trust..." Mika grumbled, snatching his wrist back with a glare. "If anyone can get to the bottom of why 26 people aren't waking up, it's you."

Maya smiled. Sometimes, Mika believed in her skills more than she did herself, his stubborn faith was almost infectious. She gave him a kiss on the cheek, a habit from childhood neither had grown out of, and left him on deck while she slipped below.

Mika let out a sigh as he rubbed his cheek, watching Maya disappear below deck. He REALLY wanted to follow her, but he managed to hold himself back.

"Well, time to start training! If there is a dangerous person on this ship, I should be on the top of my game just in case!" Mika mumbled to himself, gripping his spear tighter and stretching his shoulders.

And so, the young boy's training kicked off.

He'd been putting it off for days, the restless guilt of someone whose body was built for daily work and had been denied it, and today the restlessness won. He found a clear space near the bow and went through his spear forms with focused aggression, which was the only kind of focus currently available to him.

A small audience accumulated without being invited — A few candidates who had drifted away from the arguing clusters, watching with the idle attention of people who needed something to look at that wasn't the mist or each other.

"Look at that kid!" One man pointed.

"Oh, he's not bad!" Another spoke as he nodded.

"I do love strong boys~" A woman winked.

He ignored them. The spear moved. His ribs had long since healed from the Shadow Ape encounter and he could feel it in his range of movement, the absence of that sharp catch whenever he extended too far. He drove through the forms harder than usual, working until the restlessness had somewhere to go.

Percy appeared at some point and sat on a nearby crate without announcing himself, in the way Percy did most things. He started playing his harp, fingers moving idly along the strings, weaving a melody that matched Mika's spear strokes, fast when Mika was attacking, slower when he reset.

Mika tried to ignore it at first, but at some point, he couldn't keep pretending the 15 years old boy wasn't right behind him.

"Percy, what are you doing?!" Mika snapped between breaths, spear twirling in a fluid arc that sent droplets flying.

The harpist just grinned, plucking faster as Mika's strikes grew sharper.

"Nothing, just giving your audience a show!" Percy winked, fingers dancing across the harp strings in a playful trill that made Mika's irritation spike. "I can't let you go winning the hearts of all the ladies on this ship after all."

"You are distracting me!" The younger boy couldn't help but yell, though his movements remained crisp.

"You lead with your left when you shouldn't." Percy suddenly said, after watching for a while.

Mika paused and looked at him. "How would you know?"

Percy smiled, though it was smaller than his usual smiles. "I've had good teachers."

"...Good teachers? What do you mean?" Mika asked.

Percy opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, his gold eyes noticed something.

Mika turned, only to see a certain 17 years old girl he had heard of from his sister.

It was none other than Sera. She had emerged onto the deck. The pink-haired girl moved quietly, bible tucked beneath one arm, the cross around her neck glinting faintly through the mist. She looked exactly as she always did.

Which was apparently enough. Percy slowly stood up, the harp slipping away from his lap and nearly hit the deck.

"Oh no..." Mika said immediately. He recognized that stupid look on Percy's face.

Percy straightened his shirt, then he ran a hand through his silver hair, then he adjusted his shirt again, followed by him checking his reflection in one of the ship's windows.

Mika watched all of this happen.

Sera was standing near the railing, looking out at the water. The mist curled around the hull below. She didn't seem to notice Percy approaching... Or perhaps she did and was simply hoping he'd go away if she pretend not to see him.

"Good morning!" Percy chirped, leaning against the railing beside Sera with the practiced ease of someone who'd rehearsed this moment in his head a dozen times. "What's a beautiful thing like you doing here?"

Sera looked at him. "Good morning." She said, her voice soft, yet somehow making the greeting sound like a dismissal. "...And a beautiful thing? Do you mean me?" She asked, as if no one had before called her beautiful.

For a moment Percy seemed genuinely stunned.

"Of course I meant you!" He began smoothly. "I've been meaning to introduce myself."

"You have? Why?" Sera asked, her gaze flicking over Percy with the disinterest of someone evaluating a particularly unremarkable seashell.

Percy's grin faltered for half a second before recovering with theatrical flair, flipping his silver hair back. "Because, my dear, your green eyes hold more mysteries than this accursed mist! You can call me Percy!"

Sera blinked slowly. "I know who you are. You are the harp guy who's always playing that thing around without care in the world." The words landed like a damp towel against his enthusiasm.

Percy's smile twitched. "Ah—well, yes! But I'm also—"

"Annoying." Sera finished, turning her attention back to the water.

Percy, in shock, slowly made his way back to Mika.

"Sera turned you down, huh?" Mika smirked as Percy flopped back onto the crate with an exaggerated groan.

"So her name is Sera?... Heh... Heh.... I love when they play hard to get! It only makes me want her more!" Percy muttered, rubbing his palms together with a disturbing glint in his eyes. "This must be love!"

Mika rolled his own eyes so hard he nearly saw his own brain.

What the three of them didn't know however, that during their little exchange, the number of people who can't wake up went from 26 to 30 on the lower corridor wall, written in chalk.

Meanwhile, Maya was checking person number 31. A young guy who slumped against a barrel with his head lolling forward, still breathing, still warm, just... absent.

"Do you think you can find out what's wrong with him? He was just fine yesterday night..." His pal asked, nervous.

"I'll try." Maya had already checked on Bina, plus few others who refuse to wake up.

What she was doing was harder than healing.

Healing was reaching toward something specific, a person, a wound, a wrongness with a location and a shape. This was reaching toward something which she can't see. Maya pressed her staff to the deckhand's forehead and exhaled.

She breathed slowly and pushed her awareness outward.

After a minute or two, she finally got to her answer.

"There is no mistaking it.... Everyone who I checked is... Under a spell." She whispered to herself.

It was strange. She should be happy she got an answer, and yet somehow the answer only made the situation she's in feel all the more scary.

...

Cord appeared at lunch.

The meal hall was louder than it had been the day before, which was saying something. The particular loud of people who are frightened and expressing it as argument. Three separate conversations were happening at full volume simultaneously when Cord pushed through the door with his clipboard and the expression of a man who had specifically not been paid enough for this and knew it.

He stopped in the middle of the room. Conversations dropped off unevenly.

"Right." Cord began. "You've all noticed the situation. I'm not going to pretend you haven't because I don't have the energy." He looked down at his clipboard. "There are about 35 candidates who are currently unresponsive. All stable. Breathing, pulse, color all normal. They're sleeping and they won't stop sleeping and at this point in time we don't know why."

He spoke all this with the flat delivery of someone reading a list of cargo weights.

"The ship is not turning around. Turning around takes longer than pressing on and we reach port on schedule regardless. Anyone requiring urgent medical attention—" His eyes moved briefly to Maya in a way that suggested he had done his research, "—knows where to find what limited help is available."

"That's it?" A man near the back stood up. He was broad and red faced and had the look of someone who had been working himself toward this moment since breakfast. "35 people won't wake up and that's all you've got to say?!"

"That's all I've got." Cord said, without flinching. "Questions can be directed to Captain Gaff."

"Then get Gaff down here!"

"Captain Gaff does not come down here," Cord said, in a tone that suggested this was a fact as immovable as the sea itself. "You're welcome to go up there. He won't answer your questions, but you're welcome to try." He looked back down at his clipboard. "That's all."

He turned and walked out without looking back, like a man who had delivered a message and considered his involvement concluded.

The meal hall erupted.

Percy, sitting between the twins, watched the door close behind Cord with an expression that was thoughtful in a way his face didn't usually allow.

Sera was also with them, as she didn't find anywhere else to sit. She was eating her food without any hurry. She might have been the only person eating food in that moment.

"So, Maya, what did you find?" Mika asked. The noise around them was deafening—accusations flying, chairs scraping, but his focus was entirely on his sister's pale face. In a way, all the noise made it so he could be sure no one will overhear them.

"It's as I feared... The reason so many people are unconscious?" Maya hesitated, her fingers tightening around her staff under the table. "It's not natural. It's magic. It's... The mist."

"The mist? Hmmm." Sera's fork paused halfway to her mouth. "I thought as much. I... I did feel like this mist was trying to attack me." She said it so casually, as if discussing a mild headache. "It smelled wrong, it felt wrong."

"Attack you?" Mika repeated. "Is that how... this magic, whatever it is, works?"

"Well, there has to be a logic behind why certain people are being targeted and others aren't, a logic why some fell asleep, why the other are fine." Sera mused, twirling her fork absently. "I can only imagine whoever controls the mist saw me as a threat and thought I'd be an easy target. They thought wrong."

Magic was more or less affective depending on the person. Maya knew this, as Soro had taught her so.

"So... Do you guys think the people who fell victim to the mist are people who have weak magical resistance?" Maya asked, keeping her voice low as the chaos of the meal hall swirled around them.

The idea settled uncomfortably in her stomach. This mist was the kind of spell which slowly crept into someone's lungs while they slept, curling around their dreams like smoke until they simply... Didn't wake up.

"Ugh, that's freaky if true. Just what type of magic is it anyway?" Mika asked this time around.

"Water magic. It's some form of water magic." Maya answered, her voice barely above a whisper. "But twisted. It's a twisted version of water magic which manifested in someone. Because we have the same type of magic, it helped me recognize what it is."

"And can't you remove it?" Mika felt he knew what the answer to this was, but he still had to know.

"No, sorry. Maybe if I was a better Water mage, then sure, but not with my current skills..." Maya looked down, feeling a little upset. She was used to healing injuries, but removing spells was simply something she never did.

There was a pause. No one knew what to say.

It was then Mika noticed that his 'friend' Percy has been very quiet. He hasn't said anything in a hot minute.

"Percy, what's wrong? It's unlike you to be very quiet." Mika prodded, nudging the harpist's elbow.

"Oh, I was just thinking... Did you guys notice?" Percy spoke, which made his group a little confused. They weren't sure what he meant.

"Notice what?" Sera asked, for once curious about what words are about to come out of Percy's mouth.

"Notice how beautiful you are!" Percy blurted out, gold eyes wide with sincerity. The moment stretched painfully. Sera's fork froze midair, Mika groaned into his palms, Maya's shoulders slumped in secondhand embarrassment.

"...Do you want to die?" Sera asked calmly, her fork now pointed at him.

"No! No! Sorry! I was just kidding!" Percy yelped, nearly toppling backward off the bench. He then cleared his throat, adjusting his collar with exaggerated dignity. "But also...did anyone else catch Cord's words? He said there is '35 candidates ' who aren't waking up, but what about the ship crew? I noticed none of the crew members are affected. Suspicious, no?"

The twins and Sera couldn't help but stare at Percy, shocked he picked up on something they failed to pick up on.

"It's true! None of the crew are affected!" Maya gasped. As she's been playing the role of the ship healer, she pretty much saw every person who had fainted. She knows none of them were members of the Ironbell crew.

"...Could it be just a coincidence?" Mika muttered. "I mean, there are far more of us than here is of them. It could be that they simply have stronger magical resistance than the average person?"

Sera tapped her fork against her plate, once, twice, before speaking with eerie calm. "Coincidences are God's way of staying anonymous." Her cross caught the lamplight as she leaned forward. "But God doesn't sail on ships like this."

Was it all just some big coincidence? Or was there more to it? Mika wanted to get to the bottom of it either way.

"Okay then... Let's wait until tomorrow. If no one from the ship's crew fell victim to the mist, and the mist continued to be a thing... Then let's confront Captain Gaff!" Mika suggested, his voice low enough that only his group could hear him, and yet determination rang clear in his words.

The other 3 nodded.

That evening, the chalk number on the lower corridor wall was updated yet again.

41.

Mika stood in front of it for a long moment. Then he turned around and went towards his room. He wanted to get an early good rest today, as he had no idea how tomorrow will turn out. He wanted to have all the energy he might need.

...With that said, he ended up failing to get much sleep at all, with a sleepy Percy crawling onto him.

"Sera... Sera...Don't be shy..." Percy murmured against Mika's neck. The younger boy couldn't help but roll his blue eyes.

"How am I suppose to get any sleep like this?!" He thought to himself, feeling Percy's breath against his skin. Then came the press of a firm thigh between his legs.

The harpist's warmth seeped into him through the thin fabric of their sleepwear, his manhood pressing against Mika's shorts from behind, thick and heavy against his cheeks. The boy gritted his teeth, trying to shift away, but Percy's arms tightened around his waist. "Sera...So soft..."

"Percy!!!!" He shouted, waking up everyone in the small cabin (But Percy).

The next day came all too quickly. It was now day 6 out of 10 on this journey. It had arrived before either of the twins were really ready for it.

Mika woke up with Percy still sprawled across him, drooling slightly on his shoulder, a tent in his pants, but the moment Mika shifted, the harpist stirred, blinking sleepily before realization hit and he recoiled with a dramatic gasp. "Oh gods—You're not Sera!"

"I would hope so!" Mika shoved Percy off with a groan, wiping at his neck where the older boy's saliva had left a cold patch.

Maya also woke in the grey pre-dawn to the sound of the iron bell.

It rang once, low and resonant, the way it did when the sea moved heavily enough to shift it. She lay still and listened but it didn't ring again. Just the one note, hanging in the air for a moment, and then silence.

She looked up at Bina's bunk.

Still. Still breathing. Still not waking up.

She had started counting the days Bina had been like this the way you count things you're trying not to count. This was the start of the third day of her being like that. The third day of that terrible motionless breathing, of checking her pulse in the morning and finding it steady and having absolutely nothing to do with that information.

Maya sat up.

The porthole showed a sky that was still mostly dark, the horizon barely beginning to grey. The mist was the first thing she saw when she looked out— Or rather, it had risen overnight. There was more of it now, wrapping around the ship more and more. It was thick, low, and patient.

"We need to put a stop to this mist." Maya whispered, pressing her forehead against the cold glass of the porthole. "Before it's too late."