Memorellia Submire

“Will anyone even survive?”

    The thought crosses my mind as I’m sent into free fall. The airship is already growing distant when I glance at the crystal forests beneath, at their pointy edges.

“Did they all die because of me? Could it be any different if I had said nothing?”

    But then, the image of Calico and her deadly oven passes through my mind.

“No… The end would’ve been the same.”

    Granted the wind’s strength, the loose parts of my clothes whip me joyfully.

“I wonder what will happen if everyone else here ends up dying.”

“Fwiiiiiiiiiiiiihhh!!!!”

    A familiar chirping resonates in my ears. Rushing down, Fufu hurries to reach my position, small cottony balls almost ripped from his body in the process.

“Fufu?!”

    As he comes closer, the little cloud shuts his mithril eyes. The next instant, he begins to inflate. Up, down, on every possible side. Puffy. Fluffy. The little cloud becomes large and positions himself beneath me.

    Landing on the softest cushion in all off Juweld, it takes Fufu a while before managing to stabilise his flight.

“Wuuuuhh!! Nice catch!”

    All fours on Fufu, I take a moment to bless his many talents before I glance up at the airship now slowly but surely losing altitude, its trajectory erratic.

“Fufu, I promise to share with you my every meal. But now, take me back up there!”

“Fwiih..?” He chirps, hesitant.

“It’ll be okay, Fufu.” I pat his cottony back. “I know you’re afraid and, goddamn it, you have the right to be. …But we aren’t done.”

    As I frown, eyes directed at The Devourer, Fufu complies with another chirp. I grab tightly his cloudy edges as the ascension begins, Fufu gaining speed the higher we get.

    Once we get close enough, I distinguish all the hearts’ powder accumulating now in the air, leaving an iridescent trail behind the airship.

    The deck back in view, the knot in my stomach lessens a bit. I notice that many of the gemans thrown in the air by the improvised tempest managed either to cling to the ropes or to the translucent bubble. Now pierced and losing its cursed fuel.

“Still alive?” Captain Black Star’s voice shifts my focus to him as he lets out an eroded sneer.

    He’s down there, standing on the deck, the black stars he summoned still spinning around him. Covered in blood. Despite that, the man doesn’t seem in great shape. Cuts all over his body, cuts over his valiant chest, he keeps his hand pressed to his neck. Blood makes its way between his fingers. His expression, a toothy smile.

“There’s something different about you, isn’t there?” His black-star-diopside eyes are glued on me, as if staring at my soul. “Although unbelievable, I heard multiple gemans among my crew use the exact same command spells.”

“Something different?” I can feel my heartbeat intensify. “Did he understand anything about me? About my secret?”

    Magic is personal, it’s not something one learns from others. Or, well, at least nobody can hope to cast a spell using words which aren’t his. But how far did he guess?

    Cautious, Fufu and I keep floating metres above him.

“Why? Why did you do this?” I ask instead.

“Hahh. Why? To survive. It seems that we share this same will.”

    A couple of survivors still hide on the deck, not daring to approach the captain any more.

“No, I meant why did you use all these lives, why kill all of these people to keep flying?”

    To my question, Black Star remains silent, although I notice his smile lessening a bit.

“You wouldn’t understand. But this doesn’t matter. If the reaper is a pretty woman, I’ll tell her.”

    I scoff. Reluctant, isn’t he? This said, I wouldn’t prolly answer such a question from a nobody either. …Nor from anyone else, actually.

“But if I don’t know… What if I make the wrong choice once again? Nothing will make me forget the 32 times I died today, but I still want to be a hero. If I let my instincts dictate my acts again… If I take advantage of his poor condition to eviscerate him right now and dance on top of his innards spread on the deck…”

    I shake my head, chasing the temptation away.

“Look. Why don’t we stop here?” I finish adding. “That’s been enough. Enough blood, enough wasted lives. Nobody else needs to die today.”

“If he and Calico go to jail, that’ll be enough for now.”

    A move catches my attention below. Among the figures spread on the ground, there’s one slowly standing up, leaning against the railing.

    I almost choke on air.

    A figure draped in a silver cape. His brimmed hat lying steps away, nothing hides his golden hair any more.

“I completely forgot about that militiaman…”

    He must have followed my gaze, for the captain of The Devourer turns to face the sleeping beauty.

“What in the world happened here…” The young militiaman mumbles in a soft voice, scanning his surroundings.

    Between the corpses spread all over the deck, the captain ready to attack, a pierced bubble letting its airship drift straight towards dense gem forests, and a random crew member perched on a cloud, he sure has a lot to process.

“Captain Black Star,” the militiaman soon utters, visibly having chosen his target, “you are going to follow me nicely while I escort you to jail.”

    He takes a step forward.

“An investigation will be led, but I’m pretty sure I can already indict you for abusive use of magic.” The blond boy tightens his fists with a frown. “What you’ve done is unforgivable. And you still didn’t answer my question in a satisfying way.”

“Your question?” He scoffs. “Ohh, that. I already told you, though. There is no man called Seveg on this airship.”

    I almost shorten my life by accidentally filling my lungs with saliva.

“He is after me…” My eyes tremble at the thought. “Wait… No. No, he is… was after Seveg. But Seveg is dead.”

“This is impossible. I tailed him after he left Felbalia. He’s guilty of magic overuse, and recent traces of his magic have led me to this place. I can hardly believe there’s nothing to do with all this ruckus.”

“Magic overuse? Is this… this has to be because of that night. When the mercenaries attacked the Shelter.”

    Briefly, Black Star glances at me, and I fear he’s about to tell the militiaman of the suspicious things he noted about me.

    But…

“You see, Yaël, you said this was your name, didn’t you?” He redirects his attention to the blond boy. “I hate repeating myself.”

    The black stars around him start to spin faster.

“Especially when speaking damages further this body. If you want to take me with you, you’ll have to be more convincing. For a captain has to sink with his vessel.”

    At his words, two of the stars leave their constant circling to be hurled at that Yaël boy.

“Poreï ester.” He smoothly utters.

    Before the sharp edges of the stars can do him anything, they turn into dust. Blown away by the wind.

    Without delay, the four remaining ones rotate erratically around the captain in larger circles, ellipses. Soon, it becomes impossible to discern their exact position. Ready to dice into thin slices whatever would dare to get too close. But the boy keeps moving forward without wavering.

“Raleitio.” He utters, and the deadly stars’ speed suddenly falters. Making it easy to distinguish them. “Poreï ester.” Yaël stops steps away from the exhausted captain. “Do I give you one last chance? Given your current state, it would be preferable for you to comply.”

“Put on a lovely dress and I might reconsider.”

“I am a young man! A young man!!” Yaël tightens his fists, offering us a rare display of bashfulness.

    The captain smirks.

“Then. Thullu-”

    But before the captain can end his command spell, his expression contorts. He wobbles, as if fighting an invisible force… and loses a battle with no witnesses. Falling inert to the ground with a massive thud.

“Silly man… He must have known that he reached his limits.” Yaël notes, intertwining his hands behind his back. “His heart broke.”

    While the militiaman observes the captain’s corpse, I land with Fufu metres behind me.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Exactly what I said.” Yaël turns to face me, and I notice for the first time his white and pastel blue eyes akin to crystalline waters… larimar irises. From his right ear hangs a single earring, a small garnet gem — crimson dot — embedded in the silver accessory. “Don’t tell me you don’t know? Whenever someone uses more magic than their heart can handle, it ends up cracking.”

    I briefly widen my eyes at a piece of information I was absolutely not familiar with. Was this once part of the lectures I never listened to?

“Are you the one who defeated him?” Yaël questions.

“No, the whole crew did. We defeated him together.”

“Mmm…”

“You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”

“What?”

“You knew it wouldn’t take much for him to die. You could’ve stopped him, used one of your perfidious Milita tricks and cut his tongue. But, instead, you pushed him further.”

    Yaël only raises his eyebrows at my comment about the Militia.

“You wanted him to die.” I add.

“Perfidious..? You should be more careful with your words… If you don’t follow the rules, I’ll have to arrest you too.”

“Kill, you mean?” I correct, sarcastic.

“I’d prefer avoiding that case since you’re a victim in this tragedy.”

“Ohh, I’m reassured to see you have a conscience, after all. Quite rare in the Militia these days.”

“Will you stop talking like this, please?” He tightens his fists. “The Militia makes sure everyone is safe in Juweld! I always admired them. I joined them as soon as I could. I’m seventeen, I’m with them for mere months, but I’m already proud to be part of them. If someone uses magic too strong, it puts everyone in danger! Don’t you understand how serious it is?”

    This boy irritates me even more with his looks resembling Seraffel’s. Actually, not only his looks.

    I wince.

“And killing a girl because of that, an innocent girl unable to harm anyone, it’s a good way to protect our kingdom, perhaps?”

    For the first time, Yaël seems unsettled by my words. Although he’s about to answer something, a sudden jolt silences him. The bubble above the deck just lost a greater amount of heart powder, unbalancing us.

“We don’t have time for this…” Yaël notes. “We will crash in a few minutes.”

    He approaches the little airship he docked to The Devourer, retrieving his hat on the way. But the small vessel’s bottle-shaped reservoir is cracked.

“There are still survivors here.” I take a few steps in his direction.

    A pause.

“I can do something about it.” Yaël ends up saying. Turning to me, he briefly glances at Fufu. “But you will have to help me.”

𖢻 𖢻 𖢻

    The airship’s hull losing altitude more and more quickly, it gets close, too close to the sharp edges of the gems below.

“Like this?” I ask.

“Yes.” Yaël answers. His hat back on top of his head, the thin veil covers his eyes anew. “Now, we’re close enough.”

    Both on Fufu’s back, we went beneath the level of the airship, where the young militiaman can have a better sight of the whole vessel. Morbid curiosity? Perhaps.

“Fwihh…” Fufu complains at the weight he’s forced to carry without any fee. Or so I guess.

“Ilmoi isare okeiro okeiro ol aesipea creseïa ol,” Yaël reaches his arm forward, “emeo tel luveo eo.”

    Although I cast a cautious side glance at Yaël, far from trusting a militiaman, his magic doesn’t take long before acting… literally freezing The Devourer’s hull in the air. Holding it back from crashing into the gem forest below.

“Pheeww…” I chase imaginary sweat away from my forehead.

    The trick complete, Fufu brings us back to the deck, basically the only place where we can stand in this area.

“With that, the airship shouldn’t move until the Militia arrives.”

“I feel bett- wait what did you say?”

    We get off my cottony cloud, regaining a smaller shape.

“They should be here shortly.” He retrieves a small object from a pocket of his pastel blue romper. A blouse with long sleeves tied to a short. “And I believe I have no more reason to hide from you that you’ll need to come with us.”

“What do you mean..?” I step back towards Fufu.

“If you try to escape, I’ll be forced to shorten your life…” At Yaël’s warning, I stop. “I didn’t notice before checking my magicmeter, but there’s something about your magic… something unstable. Your core shows no abnormal activity and yet, it’s like… yes, like you’re bathed in another source of magic. I don’t know how, but you did something you shouldn’t have.”

“What is he talking about? Could this be related to Pecce’s spell?”

    I don’t like this. I don’t like this at all.

“What am I supposed to do now? Think, Razzel… Find something, quick!”

“You refuse to speak?” Yaël resumes. “Then, I’ll investigate by myself.”

“Huhh?”

“I should’ve done it earlier, but I’m always reluctant to probe into someone’s memories. Sorry.” Yaël sighs. “Memorellia sub…”

“What? Wait, wait, no, don’t do that!”

“…mire.”

    Something shifts. An eery feeling. Yet… nothing particular seems to happen. Or, well, let me rephrase. Nothing to me.

    Yaël’s expression contorts in an uncanny way. He takes a step back, a tear rolling down his cheek before he falls to his knees, hands searching for the support of the ground.

“Umm…” I begin, hesitant. “Is everything oka-”

“Ahh… There’s no time left.” He raises his face to me, making me recoil. “If I do nothing now, it’ll be too late…”

    His trembling lips don’t reassure me in the slightest bit.

“What…”

“Secciate.” Yaël cuts the air with a raised index finger.

    When the ground begins to shift, rotating in ways it shouldn’t, it takes me a while to understand that my head has just been uncoupled from the rest of my body.

𖢻 𖢻 𖢻

    Knelt on the ground, I stare dumbfounded at the corpse of a beheaded man in front of me. His orange beard getting soaked in crimson.

“What the…”

    But my thoughts hardly shape. The after-effect of so many deaths in a short lapse of time ends up consuming all my remaining strength.

    With a thud, I hit the ground. Hearing but echoes of distant voices getting closer to the deck.