Author´s note:
I´m seriously amazed by the amounts of reviews I get fort his story. Really guys, you are the best. :-)
Tink32542:
Hey and welcome :-) Good to see you´re having fun with this and thanks for your review. Well, he will find out more about it. Pretty soon ;-)
MagicalMoonStar
Good :-) That´d be awesome. The whole first season is on veoh, only prob I have with this is that I´d like to download it all and somehow convert it into an avi format. If you know how that works I´d be sooo grateful. If not, well… what am I looking for? Basically all episodes of season one except episodes 1-5? :-D
Aw, thanks for your nice words btw. :-)
Ila88
Yeah. I wouldn´t want it to be all hopeless and since the two of them seemed to share a bond of some sort since the beginning there would be something in her heart that started it… or responded to it and that is free of her soul and still there.
Aw, hehe, but then there would be no villain and no plot development any longer. ;-)
TiaKisu
Wow, I feel flattered now. :-) These longer emotion description scenes are fun to write, but challenging too, so I´m always happy when people think they turned out nicely. :-)
Stitch
Hehe, lucky you, just read your review I must have receieved just some minutes ago and I´m about to upload a new chapter. ;-)
That´s exactly how I see Doubar, too.
Well, she doesn´t have to be too insightful actually. Anyone who saw those two around each other would be able to tell there was a strong chemistry going on and back when Maeve was still with the crew, Rumina also used to spy on Sinbad with her magic. I guess she watched him quite a bit and saw how he reacted to the crew´s teasing about it and got quite some examples of situations where he denied his feelings and Maeve denied hers.
Okay, enough with the jabbering. On you go…
Chapter 8
Leading the way
It had been one of the longest nights of his life and strangely also one of the nights that flew past with uncanny speed. Stretching because he felt isolated and helpless and fast because he could almost feel time run through his fingers like sand. All he could think of when the sun swiftly rose in the east was that it was now just six nights and seven days left. And that the Nomad was still sailing – east because they had to sail somewhere – without a destination and thus probably further from their goal than ever before.
Sinbad felt worn out and tired. He had spent the entire night on deck, partly because something inside him resisted his weariness, urging him to stay here instead to watch over Maeve. The deck was not deserted, at least the crow´s nest was always occupied, and besides Sinbad noticed that his friends were taking longer shifts, but he simply didn´t feel bad of leaving Maeve alone. She did not come back for his company, but he could have an eye on her like this to protect her from he didn´t know what himself.
What they had been talking about earlier, or rather what Maeve had said, had shaken him, even though in a way different from how her disorientation and despair had gotten to him when she had first woken up. Even though it was a foolish thing to hope for and despite Rumina´s cruel words that wanted to mark her words as something merely resulting from the lingering impression of forsaken love they had never admitted to each other, Sinbad refused to extinguish the little flame of hope that had sparkled at Maeve´s words. Something about you. And it drives me mad I don´t know what it is. More than anything else these words displayed Maeve´s confusion, the fact that those memories were indeed lost, reflected only by some lingering sadness engraved in her heart but herself being bereft of a soul she was unable to sort it in, unable to understand. Still, Sinbad caught himself wondering, trying to come up with ways to make her remember. He discarded most of them, afraid that whatever he might do, however he might approach her would wake that new, strange fear she had around him. He didn´t want to call it a fear since the thought of her seeing him that way was entirely strange, but he knew that it had been just that what he had seen in her eyes the day before. The fact that it had been a normal reaction for someone in her situation passed him by. It just hurt and felt bewildering.
When the sun rose higher and morning was there, he went down into his cabin. He was feeling tired but brushed it away, he was feeling downcast and sweaty and took off his shirt to wash, changing into a new shirt after he had done so. He splashed some water into his face from the bowl that was standing on the low table in front of them. Water was rare and prescious on board, they all had to be careful with it and not waste it. He wiped his hands across his face before he gave his blurry mirror image a long look, propped up on his hands and leaning over the porcelain bowl. The face that looked at him looked stern, serious, worried. And no wonder he thought sarcastically, also noticing how many lines had been added to his face since the day Maeve had disappeared. Would Maeve had she returned unharmed and her old self have noticed changes about his face? He couldn´t tell, maybe it was just his self perception playing tricks on him. Either way, the man who met his gaze from the water´s surface was no longer the young energetic sailor he had once been – or so it had seemed. Could a Maeve who had lost all her past memories and all the memories of their fondness even be able to like him? The man he had become? Something about you. Weird as it seemed, he again came to wonder what she had meant with that. Had she… recognized him? He stared at himself for another long moment. He didn´t know whether there were ways to help her find a way from these strange dark places where her soul was residing, but he knew he would not leave her in the dark. He knew he would have done everything to help her but decided that for now he had to go in little steps. Try obvious things. His hair had grown during the last two years, his once clean shaved face had clear stubble by now, making him look older, more mature than he had once when they had first met. Stubble and hair had to go. He cut his face once, leaving a thin trace of blood somewhere near his chin until the man who was gazing at him from the bowl looked just like the young sailor Maeve had known. Despite the fact that this face looked more serious and his eyes more stern, there was nothing that had changed about him, just as if he had just returned to a time that had passed.
He gave his new… or old if one looked at it from another perspective… mirror image another testing look before he walked over to the wooden chest near the other end of the cabin to dig out one of the linen shirts he had worn earlier. They did not pronounce his well toned muscles the way his usual outfit did, but the thought that seeing him in a more familiar way might trigger something in Maeve was too dominant to have him care for anything else.
It was then that he remembered what he had told Firouz earlier. They still had no idea where to sail and therefore the sooner they got a hint at where to turn the better. He left his cabin and crossed the deck towards Firouz´ cabin, ignoring the bewildered looks Rongar gave him when he beheld the unfamiliar looks of his captain.
Firouz was in his cabin which, as usual, looked like one big mess, the bed squeezed into a remote corner, the room dominated by a huge and massive table that was lade with strange tools and things that had uses that were far beyond him, a small narrow bench along the side of the cabin also laden with stuff of the weirdest sort and some strange sort of machine to the left hand of the cabin. Squeezing past something that looked like the mix of a windmill and a huge assembly of pumps and little sails (whatever this thing was good for) Sinbad entered the room just to find the inventor where he had expected him; sat behind the table, busy with something. Much to his appreciation it was the necklace he was examining. The greeting he gave the captain was somewhat muffled which told Sinbad that Firouz was in the middle of concentrating on something, a state that Sinbad had grown used to and that would happen whenever his friend had gotten an idea or was enthusiastic about some technical thing.
"Did you find out anything about the necklace yet?" Sinbad asked, leaning against the wall next to the door and crossing his arms in front of his chest, watching the other man.
"No…" Firouz gave back, putting down some sort of looking glass with which he had examined the jewellery and straightening up. "It seems perfectly ordinary. Nothing unusual about it. But then again I´m no specialist in that. I can´t tell you anything about spells or something of the sort because I´m no wiz…"
He broke off in the middle of the word when he looked up and met Sinbad´s gaze. Firouz stood transfixed for a moment before his gaze changed from baffled to questioning. "What…what did you do that for?" he finally asked, most obviously referring to Sinbad´s shorter hair and the fact that he was shaved.
"I´m the captain. Do I always need a reason for something?" Sinbad gave back, being rewarded with another questioning look. He sighed. Firouz either didn´t get it as a joke (and admittedly it had been a rather lame one) or he was not in the mood for jokes (which was more understandable than him talking nonsense like that in a situation like this).
"It´s because of Maeve." He said. "Maybe it´s… easier for her when things go back to how they were before she left." The addition ´Maybe that will help her remember´ was so clear to them both that it didn´t even have to be spoken aloud. "I don´t know, Sinbad…" Firouz´ voice sounded doubtful. Sinbad could vividly imagine what would have followed that remark had the other man continued but he shook his head and raised his hand in denial. He had told Firouz, Rongar and his brother about that necklace. What Rumina claimed it to be. He had also told them what she had told them about Maeve´s state. And Firouz was too much of a scientist to not see the necessity to mention he was hoping for something beyond reach there. Where the source of memories was gone there was no chance of calling them back, just as if was useless to try and kindle a new flame from a handful of cold ashes.
"Thank you. Anyways." Sinbad cut off anything else on the matter that Firouz might have wanted to add. He knew it was stubborn to interrupt him, he knew that it was just his own defences, not willing to stick up with what was very likely the truth, but a small part of him was still unwilling to accept things as they were. He took the necklace that was lying on the table, gave his friend a short nod and turned to leave the cabin.
Stepping back in deck he gave the thing another look, against all odds hoping that something about it had changed, that maybe there was a hint. Of course, there was none. He sighed inwardly. Maybe it was true what he had initially thought and the thing was just another device of Rumina´s to torture him and to add to her joy of seeing him and Maeve suffer. Maybe it would be best to cast it into the sea, maybe it was the thing that Rumina used to keep track of them and at least if they failed to find the Real of the Dead he would not have Rumina have the satisfaction of watching them go down. But even as he thought this he felt anger against himself rise inside him. How could he think something like this he wondered? How had he come so far to give up hope so quickly and to follow his pessimism more than his optimism? Yes, Sinbad had changed in the last two years and going back to his old looks did not mean that it was easy to shake off new habits. He discarded the thought of ridding himself of the bracelet. Whatever it was, even if Firouz had not found anything peculiar about it which also did not exclude the danger of there being some spell woven around it, he was pretty sure there was no instant danger coming off of it. What would be the use of a quick poison if the evil sorceress could use a slow and painful death instead. No. That was unlikely. It was much more likely that the thing was indeed what Rumina had claimed it to be: the empty case of Maeve´s soul. In which case he should better return it to her since it was rightfully hers. He decided to do that now. Also because it meant he could find an excuse to talk to her.
He found her sitting on the deck with her legs pulled towards her and her curly hair ruffled slightly by the wind. Dermott was sitting near her and gave a squeak when Sinbad stepped closer.
"This belongs to you." He said, holding the necklace to him.
Maeve looked up (it seemed to him that she had been busy with something next to her, but there was nothing so, disturbing as it seemed, she had just been drawing lines on the wood with her finger as if her mind had nothing else to do… no memories to linger on), meeting his eyes without fear and with a little glint of curiosity. Her eyes narrowed slightly. "What happened to you?" she asked bewildered. "Did you get bored and decided on a new look?"
He could barely veil his disappointment when this was all his changed appearance evoked.
"You look younger." she stated. "like some… immature boy."
He gave a wry smile. "Well, I was feeling like a change." He just said, opening his hand to place the necklace in hers. She averted her gaze from his to look down at her hand. Her brow furrowed. "What is this?" she asked. "I´ve never seen this before."
"It´s yours." Sinbad repeated, rephrasing his words from before. "You should keep it."
She gave the thing a long look. It looked small, the pendant being just about the size of a cherry pit."
"It´s beautiful…kind of." She said. And Sinbad could just keep himself from saying that of course it was and how it couldn´t be seeing what it was and what treasure it had enclosed.
"Could you help me with it?" she suddenly asked using one hand to hold up her red locks. He had not expected a question like this from her, not after the distance she had shown towards him, not after the fear he had read in her eyes, so it took him by surprise in the moment and he hesistated briefly before he nodded. He had always known how to behave around Maeve, he had gotten a feeling for her moods, but the person before him right now was unpredictable it seemed. He accepted the chain from her hand and she bent her neck a little shifting a little closer. It was an innocent gesture, implying not the slightest hint of flirt, but Sinbad could not shake off the thought of how perfect her hair looked, of how soft her skin felt when he touched the back of her neck with his fingertips, having to hold himself back not to let the touch surpass the borders of the simple action of closing the clip that held the chain. He hated himself for thinking like that. It was selfish, it was horribly selfish seeing what situation they were both in but he couldn´t help it and therefore retreated in the moment the chain was fastened. She gave him the hint of a shy smile, her hand straying to her neck to set the pendant right. "Thank you." she told him and all he could do was nod.
Her hand then left her neck, falling back to her side again and Sinbad noticed something in that instant: there was something going on with the necklace… it had started to glow. It wasn´t too evident, but it was a soft but distinguished yellowish, nearly golden, glow that seemingly came from somewhere deep inside the pendant.
"What is it?" Maeve asked seemingly noticed his bewilderment. She then followed his eye and with a frown turned the pendant in her hand. The glow did not abide. "It didn´t do that before, did it?" she asked with a curiosity that reminded him of a child. "No." he replied, his thoughts starting to swirl. "No, it didn´t."
Maeve got to her feet, still holding the pendant in her hand and looking at it. She walked a few steps towards the railing and her frown deepened a little as he could even see from the side. She then turned in the middle of a step and walked along the ship to the rear end. It seemed to make no sense to her, but neither had her finger doodling from earlier borne any significance. Then she tossed him a look over the shoulder. "It is changing." She told him, some amazement in her voice. "It is getting brighter." She did some backwards steps and then a few steps forward again "When I walk into… that direction it´s glowing more."
Sinbad had the feeling that his heart was starting to beat hard against his chest. After a few moments of baffled silence, he raised his voice, giving orders to the crew.
"Turn the sails! We´re going north!"
It all made sense to him now. Now that Maeve was connected to the soul case as its rightful owner, finally they had their guide. Maeve had become the guide. Her heart would want to connect to her soul again. When the Nomad turned around, her sails billowing in the wind, Sinbad had the feeling that those winds brought hope with them.
