[ The Omen was utterly unlike any structure that Annaliese had seen before in her life. She was no stranger to ships – when she was younger and more fragile, her condition had occasionally been dire enough to necessitate trips across the ocean to healers and alchemists on far-off shores who could aid in the healing of her lungs or at least ease her pain for a time. The trips had tapered off as she'd grown older and more aware of her own limits, but she still had fond memories of the warm, comfortable cabin and the bright, organized cheer of the ship.
The Omen, by contrast, was a dark and dingy thing. Even the wood that gave it shape had been stained black by countless trips across the ocean and the rigging above their heads was a jungle of criss-crossing ropes, chains and cloths. It creaked and moaned at night as though the sea pained it and no matter where she was on the ship, something was damp and musty. Curiously, though, she felt oddly reassured by the ship's condition – rather than being fresh-faced and untested it bore the scars of every battle it had waged against the tides and won. She could only ask it to tread her kindly on her own voyage, and perhaps to imbue some of that toughness on her, too.
It was a week and some days into her passage aboard the ship that something changed. She awoke one night from an unusually fitful sleep to a cacophony of noise around her – shouting and chattering amongst the crew, the wind and waves raging outside and the Omen howling and moaning from deep within like a wild beast struck a mortal wound. Though she knew it was wiser to stay below deck, alarm – and, if she was honest with herself, morbid curiosity – drove her from her room and up top, to try and see just what was causing such a commotion. The Omen had plunged through a storm like this before, but nothing that had caused them such trouble, nothing that made the hairs on the back of her neck raise quite like this. ]
Captain– [ She was barely out on deck for more than a moment before ending up soaked. Rain lashed down in a solid sheet that drenched her to the bone and had her hair plastered to her face. She had to shout to be heard above the commotion, even to herself. ] What's happening? Surely a storm like this–
"It's no storm." [ The gruff captain of the Omen wasn't quite as old as he looked – a life on the ocean had prematurely salt-and-peppered his hair and wizened his face. When he laughed or smiled, which was often, there was a disarming boyishness to him that was absent now, replaced by the cold control of a man forged at sea. ] "The ship wouldn't howl that way for a bit of wind. There's a beast out there."
[ A beast. She thought for a moment he was speaking colourfully, but when he took his eyes away from the horizon for a moment to glance at her, Annaliese understood that he meant the words entirely literally. Something was here – some manner of beast or demon – and it was tormenting the ship to whatever end. Perhaps their own.
Annaliese let out a heavy breath that came out in a cloud of white. She wracked her mind for something, anything that she could do but any spell she could pull out of herself quick enough to help was too weak and small to do anything to keep the ship steady. And even if she could, if it came down to her against something powerful enough to toss the Omen around like a child's plaything... she knew how that sort of a matchup would end.
And yet – she couldn't not try.
Unconsciously, simply seeking something to anchor herself amidst the rolling waves, Annaliese clutched the engagement ring dangling from the chain at her neck. She had no right or desire to wear it on her finger anymore but the icy metal was grounding as it bit into her palm. She had come too far and thrown away far too much to end up drowned at sea for what? The fickle whims of some cruel sea beast?
Like a harpist reaching across strings, she closed her eyes and tried to feel her way across the rolling waters, to find some loose thread that she could latch onto or pull. There had to be something – with all their lives on the line, Annaliese couldn't let herself believe there was nothing. ]
[To tell the truth, Sheyd was present at the scene almost only by coincidence. Yes, the demon actually attacking The Omen was his superior, but only just; over the last few centuries, Sheyd had steadily and surreptitiously scraped together a little store of power all his own. He'd made especially great strides once he won a foothold in the mortal plane, where the concentration of his kind was thinner and there was more wiggle room for young demons to compete and grow.
His power was enough, by his own judgment, to rival the fiend he'd been called to assist--at least, if he took her by surprise. That was one thing Sheyd had learned to relish: the power of surprise. Small wonder he'd come to manifest as wind and misfortune. What else could impress any form on his fickle, unpredictable nature? What else could represent the almost irresistible appeal he had to others, the chance he might turn like the weather and offer a friendly, breeze-like smile instead of betrayal?
So, maybe it was only natural that Sheyd was there not on orders, but by invitation, a casual offer to join in the fun. They were just two wild, more or less unfettered demons up to no good in the living realms. Sheyd twined himself in the rigging, an invisible but palpably ill-intentioned presence causing the ropes to strain and snap in the wind. That was where he had the best view of his not-quite-friend in the waves--and the best vantage from which to strike her down and steal her influence here, if the opportunity presented itself. That's where he was when he sensed the human magic user reach out below.
Hello.
He was on the ship, not beneath it. He was closer. And so Sheyd answered what was only barely a call before anything else could, leaping down to the deck like the ghostly blue fire said to warn of lightning strikes, that could be a good or bad omen on the open sea. He grazed her questing magic with his own, giving her a taste of salt, breakneck flight, and something more. Something dangerous and changeable. Power.
Then he came up behind her--really came up, taking physical form out of the wind and spray--reached up with one hand to take hold of a rope stretched above them, and secured his other arm around her middle so the massive, bucking ship couldn't fling her from its deck.
Despite the chaos all around, his voice was low in her ear. Low and still audible, rumbling with yet-unvoiced laughter.]
Well! It's not every day I see a lovely little thing like you in such a briny pickle.
[She had her own power. That's what drew him down, lightning meeting a lightning rod. If Sheyd stayed this close, his strength would hide hers from the sea demon ahead. And, oh, he wanted to. This little human might turn out one of his luckiest breaks yet.
Even the power surprise held over him delighted him, sometimes.]
Seems you're looking for something. Could I be of assistance?
[He kept the well of his magic open to her, not to take but to touch, vast and glorious and dangerous--and exactly what she needed to survive this. Power.]
[ She doesn't know what she's feeling when it comes trembling back up the threads of her magic, not at first – only that she does feel it. It tastes like the tang of an ocean breeze on her tongue and she realizes only a moment before she feels the presence at her back that her call has been answered. The floor rolls under her feet and her legs ache with the effort of staying upright. It's a relief to be anchored and held securely to the ship, even if she can't quite bring herself to trust what's holding her there just yet. ]
Yes. Or at least – I hope that you might. [ Despite the rain and the crashing waves around them, her mouth feels dry. She sees the vague shape of him out of the corner of her eye but doesn't let herself turn to see him yet, just in case what she sees makes her lose her nerve. ] If things keep up like this, the Omen will sink, won't it? [ She doesn't wait for an answer. As if she needs one, with the ship lurching and rolling like it is. ] I need to stop it. I can't do it alone, but I can't let everyone here just...
[ She can't bring herself to say it, as if putting their fates into words might seal them. Instead, she swallows and forces her voice to stay steady. ]
[The laughter nestled in his voice tumbles out. It's not unkind, but somehow, it's not exactly kind, either. One never knows if the wind that reaches the seashore is the harbinger of a storm.]
Hahaha.
[That's cute. She's cute. Is her concern really for the others sailing with her and not for herself? None of them have noticed him yet, though the form he's taken is tall and not unobtrusive.]
Sure, but you'll owe me. How much are you willing to trade to turn your luck?
[ Her skin prickles a bit. She'll owe him. Annaliese is no fool – she's well-read enough to know what that means and to know what inevitably happens to thoughtless girls who make thoughtless deals with demons. Maybe one day she'll look back at this and curse herself, imagining that a drowning at sea would be preferable to the price she'll someday pay for having avoided it.
But it's not just her luck she's turning here, is it? If she were the only on aboard this ship, then maybe she'd hesitate. But with all the crew of the Omen to consider... it really isn't a question at all, is it? ]
I don't have much in the way of payment, I'm afraid. They've been polite enough not to enquire, but I'm what you might call a "runaway". I've very little to my name, let alone anything that might interest you.
[ The boat lurches again. Her hand tightens around the ring and when the stone digs into her hand, a breath makes its way out of her lungs. A simple ring, even one given by a prince, surely isn't much to a demon as powerful as this, but... if she can trade him a story, as well as a ring– ]
... I'll give you the last thing that remains of the life I ran from. And a secret that no one else knows. Is that acceptable?
[Oh, she's interesting. Fancy that! His eyebrows rise and he laughs again, more sincerely. Even though two of the Omen's sailors rush by just then, they don't seem to notice him. Perhaps they're too busy struggling to pull soaked ropes and wood against the weight of what must feel like the whole ocean. More likely, Sheyd is only there, literally, for the girl. He grins down at the top of her head.]
That's hardly an even exchange! The token of a life you already cast aside and whatever passes for a secret among mortals?
[The ship leaps beneath their feet, but he holds her as securely to the boat as if she were lashed there properly. All the same, he tugs her a little closer, a strong, lean shadow against her back. His power waits on her decision, its promise of freedom so near, just out of reach.]
I'm not offering to save you, you know. I'm offering you the power to save yourself and anyone else you so choose. In fact, you could say I'd be giving you the power to choose--your future and theirs, from this point on.
[To clarify matters for her, he decides to share the thinnest thread of his power. With it, he outlines the monstrous shape of the other demon, the one he came to help. It's such a subtle touch, she shouldn't notice his action as he draws her in glittering gold and sea green to the human girl in the curve of his arm.
Like that, the demon's no faceless force of nature. She's a target, one that can be destroyed with enough firepower.]
A discarded past is no payment for power. Some part of your future--the future you could make with a gift like mine--would be much more fitting, don't you think? And certainly more exciting for both of us!
[ It'd been a terribly weak offer and Annaliese knows it – but his laughter isn't cruel or disdainful, and his words send her mind turning. The past isn't good enough. It's never been good enough and isn't that why she's here on this ship, doing everything she can to run as far away from it as possible? Why would anyone else want it, when she so carelessly threw it away? ]
Then, instead of the past– [ The ship jumps again and for a frightening moment, she thinks her feet might actually leave the deck. But the arm around her middle keeps her anchored, secured to the ship– and at the same time, she's trapped with no way of running from this choice that isn't really a choice. Now that she's been shown, she doesn't just see, she understands that this is something she can stop. If she has the power. ] Instead of the past, why not see that future with me? The things I want to see and the places I want to go– I could do all of that and so much more if I live, with your power!
[ Rain and sea mist stings her eyes but she forces herself to finally turn and look him in the face, as best she can. He looks so... disarmingly normal. Disarmingly human. But she knows better than to trust appearances. ]
I... I want to know what's out there. What sort of things I can see and do without being chained to the past. I want to go everywhere and know everything that I can and if you let me do that– then tell me what you want in exchange, and it's yours!
[He does look disarmingly human, if a tall and striking one, except for the eyes. The moment she turns to meet his gaze, they swirl with the colors of a coral reef, alien and alive. He straightens a bit, grin broadening, earrings swinging in the wind.]
Much better.
[Around them alone, the gale seems to stop, as though they themselves--two small bodies on the deck of the Omen--could be the eye of the storm. Sheyd tosses his head, whipping his untamed ponytail of dark hair off his shoulder.]
I want what all my kind want--everything. Power. Dominion. And-- [His eyes gleam again, an almost glowing, eager blue-green.] --the thrill of knowing the unknown. And freedom, adventure, and glory!
[He lets her go--his magic won't let her fall, not here at the height of this drama--and steps back into rain that can't touch him, into wind that barely ruffles his open-necked, billowing shirt.]
So yes! Hurl aside everything that chains you to what came before. Cast aside the land itself, if it weighs down your feet. And show me where you fly. Be my vessel--carry me whence you go, take me beyond what binds me now--and you will have my power and my protection. [After a bit of a pause, he smirks and points at the demon ahead.] And this is just a suggestion, but we could start with her.
[With one step, he returns to the column of stilled, expectant air where he left her and lifts a hand just short of touching her face.]
I, Sheyd Yam HaZahav, witnessed by sea and storm, hereby cut this covenant with you. If you accept the terms laid out, seal it with your name.
[ It almost seems too good to be true. You don't sell a demon anything you couldn't live without – and even the things you can cleanly give up could always come back to haunt you. Eyes, voice, heart, any of those would be a better offer to make than something as vague and all encompassing as her future, especially when she's just barely begun to shape it herself.
But when he says it like that, it doesn't sound like a payment. It sounds nothing at all like being chained to a contract without any hope of ever being freed from it. It sounds like being given wings.
And isn't that all she's ever wanted? ]
... yes. The terms more than suit.
[ Despite herself, she feels a smile start to take over her face and her heart feels like it's skipping alternate beats. This feeling she knows all too well, the excitement of knowing that whatever comes after this will be something new, something dangerous and– well. An adventure.
She clasps both hands around the ring at her neck, like a prayer. Now there really is no going back. ]
I seal the contract with my name. With everything else thrown away, all I have left is... Annaliese.
[For a strange, charged moment, the column of stillness seems to expand, as if suspending the whole ship outside of time.]
Annaliese.
[Sheyd repeats the name with relish, rolling each syllable over his tongue. As he does so, a light coalesces in his eyes, brightening them to a glowing, living, seaside green. They take in her smile eagerly, hungrily, and when he answers, his voice is low with pleasure.]
Yes. Let it be so.
[His thumb grazes her soft, pale cheek.
In an instant, the wind turns. It fills the Omen’s sails quickly enough for the canvas to sound a magnificent snap. The sailors shout in surprise and awe as the storm they’d just been fighting blesses them instead with a powerful tailwind, propelling them forward across death’s waves. At the same time, light like sun on gold wreathes both Sheyd and Annaliese, outlining where they now connect. Physically. Magically.
Sheyd’s right eye in particular shines brighter as he smiles and steps back.]
You’ve the devil’s own luck now, my Annaliese.
[Ursula, the demoness ahead, recoils as she realizes something’s changed without her noticing. The rain howls, sleeting almost horizontally at the ship, but the wind working against her weakens the onslaught. All the while, the ship thrusts towards her like a javelin—except that it continues to pick up speed.]
[ For a moment, all Annaliese can see is that piercing ocean green. With everything frozen and still around them, she feels as though it's that light filling her lungs rather than the air that had been tossing the ship from side to side. It lasts for just a split second, just in the pause you take between breaths, just long enough for her to wonder if any of that beautiful light might show itself in her eyes, too.
Then everything smashes back into motion with a dreamlike immediacy. The noise of the rain, the sea, the crewmen around her is almost deafening but Annaliese feels unnervingly steady. As though not a thing in the world could frighten her anymore. If a beast of the sea this powerful can be bested, then what else could possibly stand in her way?
The ship screams on ahead but Annaliese is calm as she takes in the sheer size of the obstacle in their way. After a moment to breath and steady herself she once again turns to face him. ]
Even for a beast of this size, it would be quite the odds to strike her directly in the heart, would it not? Even with the surest aim, fortune plays some role in a battle as chaotic as this.
[ Just as Sheyd had done, Annaliese lifts her hand – but then offers it, palm up, in the manner of someone requesting a partner to dance with. ]
So might I ask for your assistance in making it so?
[Isn’t she a thrill, this golden girl, all flax, honey, silk, and nicety pillowing a jewel of ruthlessness he almost missed amid its setting. Hard as diamond, that. And as brilliant.
It’s charming, her invitation to dance, in the way that dolls and miniatures are charming. She cannot conceive of how small, how powerless, how inconsequential a thing she seems to him, the very stuff of brevity, here and gone in a blink. How absurd her gesture is, as though she has any power with which to sway the wind. Yet, she does. In their compact, in the painfully fleeting, bright burn of mortal life, in her unexpected brutality, she allures him. He finds he wants more of her and does not regret the desire.
Amused, Sheyd takes what she offers, laying a solid, long-fingered hand lightly over hers. His skin feels strikingly warm despite the ocean spray. Almost searing.]
To such delightful ends? Gladly.
[Sheyd wraps his fingers around hers, eyes a kaleidoscope gleam, and then faces the prow. His free hand shoots forward. With a surge of power around and beneath them, so does the Omen. His eye burns brighter and brighter, though his grin betrays nothing but eagerness and the pure joy of freefall.
Ahead, the demoness howls in her native tongue, a language human ears were not shaped to catch, though some study it. It probably goes something to the tune of, “SHEYD, YOU MOTHERF***ING DIPSH**!!”
In response, he laughs, and responds in the same Abyssal language, in his voice like sun-warmed sand and merciless summer:]
<Bad luck, bitch!>
[Ursula and Sheyd have both committed their magic. She can no more move out of the storm than he can end it. And so the Omen plows straight into her, plunging its bowsprit deeply and improbably into her chest, causing her to dissolve into shrieks and wild, dangerous, aimless waves.
The sea no longer claws at the ship with purpose. The depths no longer seek to claim its husk for their own. Without pause, the crew adjusts to the difference and continues its work to make fast the ship, keep her afloat, keep her keel steady.
Sheyd smiles at Annaliese over her hand, then bows to kiss her knuckles. The molten-gold glow has gone from his eyes, and one he now keeps closed.]
Annaliese. [Her name in his mouth still tastes sweet.] Was the work to your liking?
[ Once more, the Omen leaps under their feet like she intends to throw her passengers from the deck. The question of whether the ship is even built to withstand speeds like this passes through her mind but the moment the thought forms, she dismisses it. It will hold – because without a ship, without a weapon, there's nothing to pierce through the heart of the storm. And that much she will do. She doesn't let herself feel any fear or hesitation, focusing instead on the warm hand enveloping her own frozen fingers. The noise is like no din she's ever heard before. It screams in her ears and batters against her but she finds that the sound filling her chest isn't the howling and screaming of the waves but the wild laugh of the man whose hand she's still holding onto.
Though it's through no sense she can name, Annaliese feels it when everything turns. The storm doesn't break, but it splinters into something less pointed, less calculating and she realizes with a dull thud that this had been her doing. Yes, with help but – she had been the one to make it so, hadn't she? For a second she feels loose and unmoored, the enormity of the moment sending her spinning off into the storm-blackened sky. She has the wild thought that the leftover winds might pick her up and sweep her away.
Then an errant wave crashes over the deck and the shocking cold of it washes over her feet. She turns to Sheyd just in time to feel the warm brush of his lips against her hand and that combined with the warmth with which he says her name makes her heart feel somehow loose and anchored in her chest all at the same time.
She opens her mouth to respond – but what comes shaking out of her instead of words is a breathless, disbelieving laugh. ]
To my liking– [ She sweeps her storm-tangled hair back from her face so she can gaze up at him. Her eyes are wild and overbright, just like the smile she's struggling to keep under control. ] Yes! It was– incredible, unbelievable, to think I could have ever–
[ Another gasping laugh interrupts her and before trying to speak again, she dips her head, offering her best approximation of a curtsey that she can manage while one-handed and so bedraggled by storm and sea. ]
[ For the first time in her life, Annaliese understands what it feels like to fly.
Her feet remain as firmly fixed to the ground as any mortals but in spirit, she's become as free as a bird. The foreign shore the Omen had deposited her on was strange and new to her, hot and humid in all the ways Astrild had been cold and dry. Though rain had poured and wind had battered her, she hadn't gotten sick and though her stamina didn't stretch as far as she suspected it should for a woman her age, she nevertheless felt stronger than she ever had before.
So this was what it felt like to have the devil's own luck.
They've travelled and seen so many new things, she and this companion of hers. She had expected this to be a solitary journey but she's finding that having someone to share all her new discoveries with has been an unexpected and wonderful delight. One of those discoveries is the town they've stumbled into – Annaliese doesn't know its name, if it has one, only that it's a charming little settlement on the main road and that as the sun had begun to sink, the buildings had lit up with torches and magic and music and festivities had filled the streets. She doesn't know if this is a nightly occurrence or if they've stumbled across some sort of celebration but either way, she's delighted. ]
Shall we stay until the morning? [ She says it with a gleam in her eye that makes it clear she already knows what the answer might be. ] Who knows when we next might come across such a lively gathering on our travels.
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The Omen, by contrast, was a dark and dingy thing. Even the wood that gave it shape had been stained black by countless trips across the ocean and the rigging above their heads was a jungle of criss-crossing ropes, chains and cloths. It creaked and moaned at night as though the sea pained it and no matter where she was on the ship, something was damp and musty. Curiously, though, she felt oddly reassured by the ship's condition – rather than being fresh-faced and untested it bore the scars of every battle it had waged against the tides and won. She could only ask it to tread her kindly on her own voyage, and perhaps to imbue some of that toughness on her, too.
It was a week and some days into her passage aboard the ship that something changed. She awoke one night from an unusually fitful sleep to a cacophony of noise around her – shouting and chattering amongst the crew, the wind and waves raging outside and the Omen howling and moaning from deep within like a wild beast struck a mortal wound. Though she knew it was wiser to stay below deck, alarm – and, if she was honest with herself, morbid curiosity – drove her from her room and up top, to try and see just what was causing such a commotion. The Omen had plunged through a storm like this before, but nothing that had caused them such trouble, nothing that made the hairs on the back of her neck raise quite like this. ]
Captain– [ She was barely out on deck for more than a moment before ending up soaked. Rain lashed down in a solid sheet that drenched her to the bone and had her hair plastered to her face. She had to shout to be heard above the commotion, even to herself. ] What's happening? Surely a storm like this–
"It's no storm." [ The gruff captain of the Omen wasn't quite as old as he looked – a life on the ocean had prematurely salt-and-peppered his hair and wizened his face. When he laughed or smiled, which was often, there was a disarming boyishness to him that was absent now, replaced by the cold control of a man forged at sea. ] "The ship wouldn't howl that way for a bit of wind. There's a beast out there."
[ A beast. She thought for a moment he was speaking colourfully, but when he took his eyes away from the horizon for a moment to glance at her, Annaliese understood that he meant the words entirely literally. Something was here – some manner of beast or demon – and it was tormenting the ship to whatever end. Perhaps their own.
Annaliese let out a heavy breath that came out in a cloud of white. She wracked her mind for something, anything that she could do but any spell she could pull out of herself quick enough to help was too weak and small to do anything to keep the ship steady. And even if she could, if it came down to her against something powerful enough to toss the Omen around like a child's plaything... she knew how that sort of a matchup would end.
And yet – she couldn't not try.
Unconsciously, simply seeking something to anchor herself amidst the rolling waves, Annaliese clutched the engagement ring dangling from the chain at her neck. She had no right or desire to wear it on her finger anymore but the icy metal was grounding as it bit into her palm. She had come too far and thrown away far too much to end up drowned at sea for what? The fickle whims of some cruel sea beast?
Like a harpist reaching across strings, she closed her eyes and tried to feel her way across the rolling waters, to find some loose thread that she could latch onto or pull. There had to be something – with all their lives on the line, Annaliese couldn't let herself believe there was nothing. ]
no subject
His power was enough, by his own judgment, to rival the fiend he'd been called to assist--at least, if he took her by surprise. That was one thing Sheyd had learned to relish: the power of surprise. Small wonder he'd come to manifest as wind and misfortune. What else could impress any form on his fickle, unpredictable nature? What else could represent the almost irresistible appeal he had to others, the chance he might turn like the weather and offer a friendly, breeze-like smile instead of betrayal?
So, maybe it was only natural that Sheyd was there not on orders, but by invitation, a casual offer to join in the fun. They were just two wild, more or less unfettered demons up to no good in the living realms. Sheyd twined himself in the rigging, an invisible but palpably ill-intentioned presence causing the ropes to strain and snap in the wind. That was where he had the best view of his not-quite-friend in the waves--and the best vantage from which to strike her down and steal her influence here, if the opportunity presented itself. That's where he was when he sensed the human magic user reach out below.
Hello.
He was on the ship, not beneath it. He was closer. And so Sheyd answered what was only barely a call before anything else could, leaping down to the deck like the ghostly blue fire said to warn of lightning strikes, that could be a good or bad omen on the open sea. He grazed her questing magic with his own, giving her a taste of salt, breakneck flight, and something more. Something dangerous and changeable. Power.
Then he came up behind her--really came up, taking physical form out of the wind and spray--reached up with one hand to take hold of a rope stretched above them, and secured his other arm around her middle so the massive, bucking ship couldn't fling her from its deck.
Despite the chaos all around, his voice was low in her ear. Low and still audible, rumbling with yet-unvoiced laughter.]
Well! It's not every day I see a lovely little thing like you in such a briny pickle.
[She had her own power. That's what drew him down, lightning meeting a lightning rod. If Sheyd stayed this close, his strength would hide hers from the sea demon ahead. And, oh, he wanted to. This little human might turn out one of his luckiest breaks yet.
Even the power surprise held over him delighted him, sometimes.]
Seems you're looking for something. Could I be of assistance?
[He kept the well of his magic open to her, not to take but to touch, vast and glorious and dangerous--and exactly what she needed to survive this. Power.]
no subject
Yes. Or at least – I hope that you might. [ Despite the rain and the crashing waves around them, her mouth feels dry. She sees the vague shape of him out of the corner of her eye but doesn't let herself turn to see him yet, just in case what she sees makes her lose her nerve. ] If things keep up like this, the Omen will sink, won't it? [ She doesn't wait for an answer. As if she needs one, with the ship lurching and rolling like it is. ] I need to stop it. I can't do it alone, but I can't let everyone here just...
[ She can't bring herself to say it, as if putting their fates into words might seal them. Instead, she swallows and forces her voice to stay steady. ]
Please. Will you help me?
no subject
Hahaha.
[That's cute. She's cute. Is her concern really for the others sailing with her and not for herself? None of them have noticed him yet, though the form he's taken is tall and not unobtrusive.]
Sure, but you'll owe me. How much are you willing to trade to turn your luck?
no subject
But it's not just her luck she's turning here, is it? If she were the only on aboard this ship, then maybe she'd hesitate. But with all the crew of the Omen to consider... it really isn't a question at all, is it? ]
I don't have much in the way of payment, I'm afraid. They've been polite enough not to enquire, but I'm what you might call a "runaway". I've very little to my name, let alone anything that might interest you.
[ The boat lurches again. Her hand tightens around the ring and when the stone digs into her hand, a breath makes its way out of her lungs. A simple ring, even one given by a prince, surely isn't much to a demon as powerful as this, but... if she can trade him a story, as well as a ring– ]
... I'll give you the last thing that remains of the life I ran from. And a secret that no one else knows. Is that acceptable?
no subject
That's hardly an even exchange! The token of a life you already cast aside and whatever passes for a secret among mortals?
[The ship leaps beneath their feet, but he holds her as securely to the boat as if she were lashed there properly. All the same, he tugs her a little closer, a strong, lean shadow against her back. His power waits on her decision, its promise of freedom so near, just out of reach.]
I'm not offering to save you, you know. I'm offering you the power to save yourself and anyone else you so choose. In fact, you could say I'd be giving you the power to choose--your future and theirs, from this point on.
[To clarify matters for her, he decides to share the thinnest thread of his power. With it, he outlines the monstrous shape of the other demon, the one he came to help. It's such a subtle touch, she shouldn't notice his action as he draws her in glittering gold and sea green to the human girl in the curve of his arm.
Like that, the demon's no faceless force of nature. She's a target, one that can be destroyed with enough firepower.]
A discarded past is no payment for power. Some part of your future--the future you could make with a gift like mine--would be much more fitting, don't you think? And certainly more exciting for both of us!
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Then, instead of the past– [ The ship jumps again and for a frightening moment, she thinks her feet might actually leave the deck. But the arm around her middle keeps her anchored, secured to the ship– and at the same time, she's trapped with no way of running from this choice that isn't really a choice. Now that she's been shown, she doesn't just see, she understands that this is something she can stop. If she has the power. ] Instead of the past, why not see that future with me? The things I want to see and the places I want to go– I could do all of that and so much more if I live, with your power!
[ Rain and sea mist stings her eyes but she forces herself to finally turn and look him in the face, as best she can. He looks so... disarmingly normal. Disarmingly human. But she knows better than to trust appearances. ]
I... I want to know what's out there. What sort of things I can see and do without being chained to the past. I want to go everywhere and know everything that I can and if you let me do that– then tell me what you want in exchange, and it's yours!
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Much better.
[Around them alone, the gale seems to stop, as though they themselves--two small bodies on the deck of the Omen--could be the eye of the storm. Sheyd tosses his head, whipping his untamed ponytail of dark hair off his shoulder.]
I want what all my kind want--everything. Power. Dominion. And-- [His eyes gleam again, an almost glowing, eager blue-green.] --the thrill of knowing the unknown. And freedom, adventure, and glory!
[He lets her go--his magic won't let her fall, not here at the height of this drama--and steps back into rain that can't touch him, into wind that barely ruffles his open-necked, billowing shirt.]
So yes! Hurl aside everything that chains you to what came before. Cast aside the land itself, if it weighs down your feet. And show me where you fly. Be my vessel--carry me whence you go, take me beyond what binds me now--and you will have my power and my protection. [After a bit of a pause, he smirks and points at the demon ahead.] And this is just a suggestion, but we could start with her.
[With one step, he returns to the column of stilled, expectant air where he left her and lifts a hand just short of touching her face.]
I, Sheyd Yam HaZahav, witnessed by sea and storm, hereby cut this covenant with you. If you accept the terms laid out, seal it with your name.
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But when he says it like that, it doesn't sound like a payment. It sounds nothing at all like being chained to a contract without any hope of ever being freed from it. It sounds like being given wings.
And isn't that all she's ever wanted? ]
... yes. The terms more than suit.
[ Despite herself, she feels a smile start to take over her face and her heart feels like it's skipping alternate beats. This feeling she knows all too well, the excitement of knowing that whatever comes after this will be something new, something dangerous and– well. An adventure.
She clasps both hands around the ring at her neck, like a prayer. Now there really is no going back. ]
I seal the contract with my name. With everything else thrown away, all I have left is... Annaliese.
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Annaliese.
[Sheyd repeats the name with relish, rolling each syllable over his tongue. As he does so, a light coalesces in his eyes, brightening them to a glowing, living, seaside green. They take in her smile eagerly, hungrily, and when he answers, his voice is low with pleasure.]
Yes. Let it be so.
[His thumb grazes her soft, pale cheek.
In an instant, the wind turns. It fills the Omen’s sails quickly enough for the canvas to sound a magnificent snap. The sailors shout in surprise and awe as the storm they’d just been fighting blesses them instead with a powerful tailwind, propelling them forward across death’s waves. At the same time, light like sun on gold wreathes both Sheyd and Annaliese, outlining where they now connect. Physically. Magically.
Sheyd’s right eye in particular shines brighter as he smiles and steps back.]
You’ve the devil’s own luck now, my Annaliese.
[Ursula, the demoness ahead, recoils as she realizes something’s changed without her noticing. The rain howls, sleeting almost horizontally at the ship, but the wind working against her weakens the onslaught. All the while, the ship thrusts towards her like a javelin—except that it continues to pick up speed.]
How would you like to use it?
[Matt Mercer voice: How do you want to do this?]
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Then everything smashes back into motion with a dreamlike immediacy. The noise of the rain, the sea, the crewmen around her is almost deafening but Annaliese feels unnervingly steady. As though not a thing in the world could frighten her anymore. If a beast of the sea this powerful can be bested, then what else could possibly stand in her way?
The ship screams on ahead but Annaliese is calm as she takes in the sheer size of the obstacle in their way. After a moment to breath and steady herself she once again turns to face him. ]
Even for a beast of this size, it would be quite the odds to strike her directly in the heart, would it not? Even with the surest aim, fortune plays some role in a battle as chaotic as this.
[ Just as Sheyd had done, Annaliese lifts her hand – but then offers it, palm up, in the manner of someone requesting a partner to dance with. ]
So might I ask for your assistance in making it so?
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It’s charming, her invitation to dance, in the way that dolls and miniatures are charming. She cannot conceive of how small, how powerless, how inconsequential a thing she seems to him, the very stuff of brevity, here and gone in a blink. How absurd her gesture is, as though she has any power with which to sway the wind. Yet, she does. In their compact, in the painfully fleeting, bright burn of mortal life, in her unexpected brutality, she allures him. He finds he wants more of her and does not regret the desire.
Amused, Sheyd takes what she offers, laying a solid, long-fingered hand lightly over hers. His skin feels strikingly warm despite the ocean spray. Almost searing.]
To such delightful ends? Gladly.
[Sheyd wraps his fingers around hers, eyes a kaleidoscope gleam, and then faces the prow. His free hand shoots forward. With a surge of power around and beneath them, so does the Omen. His eye burns brighter and brighter, though his grin betrays nothing but eagerness and the pure joy of freefall.
Ahead, the demoness howls in her native tongue, a language human ears were not shaped to catch, though some study it. It probably goes something to the tune of, “SHEYD, YOU MOTHERF***ING DIPSH**!!”
In response, he laughs, and responds in the same Abyssal language, in his voice like sun-warmed sand and merciless summer:]
<Bad luck, bitch!>
[Ursula and Sheyd have both committed their magic. She can no more move out of the storm than he can end it. And so the Omen plows straight into her, plunging its bowsprit deeply and improbably into her chest, causing her to dissolve into shrieks and wild, dangerous, aimless waves.
The sea no longer claws at the ship with purpose. The depths no longer seek to claim its husk for their own. Without pause, the crew adjusts to the difference and continues its work to make fast the ship, keep her afloat, keep her keel steady.
Sheyd smiles at Annaliese over her hand, then bows to kiss her knuckles. The molten-gold glow has gone from his eyes, and one he now keeps closed.]
Annaliese. [Her name in his mouth still tastes sweet.] Was the work to your liking?
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Though it's through no sense she can name, Annaliese feels it when everything turns. The storm doesn't break, but it splinters into something less pointed, less calculating and she realizes with a dull thud that this had been her doing. Yes, with help but – she had been the one to make it so, hadn't she? For a second she feels loose and unmoored, the enormity of the moment sending her spinning off into the storm-blackened sky. She has the wild thought that the leftover winds might pick her up and sweep her away.
Then an errant wave crashes over the deck and the shocking cold of it washes over her feet. She turns to Sheyd just in time to feel the warm brush of his lips against her hand and that combined with the warmth with which he says her name makes her heart feel somehow loose and anchored in her chest all at the same time.
She opens her mouth to respond – but what comes shaking out of her instead of words is a breathless, disbelieving laugh. ]
To my liking– [ She sweeps her storm-tangled hair back from her face so she can gaze up at him. Her eyes are wild and overbright, just like the smile she's struggling to keep under control. ] Yes! It was– incredible, unbelievable, to think I could have ever–
[ Another gasping laugh interrupts her and before trying to speak again, she dips her head, offering her best approximation of a curtsey that she can manage while one-handed and so bedraggled by storm and sea. ]
Thank you...!
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Her feet remain as firmly fixed to the ground as any mortals but in spirit, she's become as free as a bird. The foreign shore the Omen had deposited her on was strange and new to her, hot and humid in all the ways Astrild had been cold and dry. Though rain had poured and wind had battered her, she hadn't gotten sick and though her stamina didn't stretch as far as she suspected it should for a woman her age, she nevertheless felt stronger than she ever had before.
So this was what it felt like to have the devil's own luck.
They've travelled and seen so many new things, she and this companion of hers. She had expected this to be a solitary journey but she's finding that having someone to share all her new discoveries with has been an unexpected and wonderful delight. One of those discoveries is the town they've stumbled into – Annaliese doesn't know its name, if it has one, only that it's a charming little settlement on the main road and that as the sun had begun to sink, the buildings had lit up with torches and magic and music and festivities had filled the streets. She doesn't know if this is a nightly occurrence or if they've stumbled across some sort of celebration but either way, she's delighted. ]
Shall we stay until the morning? [ She says it with a gleam in her eye that makes it clear she already knows what the answer might be. ] Who knows when we next might come across such a lively gathering on our travels.