Chapter 48: Plan C, Plan G… Whatever Works

…

"The whole thing reads like a list of horrible ways to die. Falling, burning, poisoning… one of the Mystics swallowed a seed that was designed to grow a house in five minutes, and two of these guys immolated themselves in the worst possible ways thinking that their suffering would persuade The Night to leave the rest of the Sorians alone."

Irleen, with her rear end resting on Link's desk, glanced around at her audience. Link sat on the end of his bed while Leynne had taken his customary spot on Link's footlocker. Cale and Dholit stood directly in front of her, where Dholit leaned her back on the bulkhead. Gold, having to fill in for Flower as a temporary chief, rested his hip against the map table. After Irleen had finished speaking, all of them had turned a shade paler.

Leynne cleared his throat. "I… don't suppose ouh deah authoh is able to account foh all the Mystics in this group," he said.

"Well, part of the problem is that he doesn't exactly name them all with their deaths," Irleen explained. "In fact, he starts forgetting people as soon as they're gone. He's convinced that the rest of the Mystics died before him, but I don't know how much you wanna believe it."

"Because he might be insane as well?" Dholit reasoned.

"I don't think 'e was in 'is right mind when 'e decided tae box 'imself in the wall," Gold pointed out.

"Even if he did forget someone," Link said, "how are we supposed to tell which Obeetan is a Mystic? Half of them probably don't even know their own name."

"I had hoped that one of these individuals might follow an unconscious desih to retuhn to the meeting hall," Leynne said. "Should one approach the building, it might be a sign."

"Then we might question them as we had Logan," Cale concluded, one finger pointing at Leynne. "Any details of theih plan would be bettah than what we have now." He pointed at Irleen. "You remembah ouh convahsation with haah. Once we find something we can make them talk about, theih memories become cleaheh."

"But what do we ask about?" Dholit pointed out. "If they do not remembah the plan… what else?"

"I'm afraid that the role of the Gatekeepeh is resehved foh the fihst officeh," Leynne said. He turned to look at Link. "She is cohrect, though. What else do we gain by attempting this? If we cannot find moh of the plan… do we have otheh questions that might aid us?" He glanced at Irleen. "Does the scroll reveal any moh about The Night?"

"I haven't read through much of it," Irleen replied. "It makes my feathers shiver. They called it the 'nightmare'. In fact, I think the scribe even wrote down 'Nightmare Weaver'."

"Nightmare Weaver…" Gold said with a sigh. "Well, cer'inly lives up tae the name."

"Nightmah Weaveh," Leynne repeated. "Like… a nemesis to the 'Dreamweaveh'. An exact opposite."

"I guess," Irleen replied. "I've heard of Dreamweavers before; they're really rare. But a Nightmare Weaver? Sounds like some kinda insect you don't want in your ear while you sleep."

"Did you see anything about the Dreamweaver trying to stop the Nightmare Weaver?" Link asked.

Irleen shook her head. "No, but I haven't read that far back yet," she said. "So far, the Dreamweaver hasn't come up yet, but I'd be willing to bet he put up a fight, too."

"From what you described," Leynne spoke up, "in all likelihood, the Dreamweaveh might've failed befoh these events. The Dreamweaveh might have even been The Night's fihst victim."

"And that might explain how it got the Dreamweaver's device," Link concluded.

Irleen frowned at him. "What device?"

"Janni explained that The Night has been controlling the technoworks with a device that the Greys made for the Dreamweaver," Link explained. "I guess the Dreamweaver uses it to command the technoworks to make the dream world I go into every night. And The Night uses it to control the technoworks now, including the dream world."

"This is something Janni knows?" Irleen asked.

Link was confused by her tone and answered, "Yeah. Why?"

Leynne raised an eyebrow. "Ihleen, I expect that you and I might have come to the same conclusion," he said.

Gold, suddenly looking uneasy, shifted to his feet. "What conclusion?" he asked.

"When one considehs how much of ouh infohmation's come from Janni," Leynne said, "I cannot help but think that the 'Dreamweaveh' we've assumed has gone missing from the island might actually have acted to presehve hehself instead." Link's eyes widened, and he glanced at the shield sitting on the bed behind him.

"I actually wasn't gonna go that far," Irleen said. "Maybe someone who was close to the Dreamweaver."

"It can't be," Link said. He pointed at the shield and told them, "Janni told me that the Dreamweaver put her in that shield. As punishment."

"Weeee… have been communicating with someone who might not be sane haahself," Dholit said. "If it was me, I do not think that I would so easily admit that I was the one who hid myself in a shield."

"But she hates the Dreamweaver!" Link declared.

"We're talking about someone who probably ran away from her duty," Irleen said. "She's just self-loathing."

Link considered the possibility for a moment. He was not sure he believed it simply because he could not see Janni doing anything like that to herself. It seemed to him that she had made it clear that she loathed being trapped in the shield, that she was a prisoner of the shield. However, she had shown him that she held her own power over the dream world.

"Link?" Leynne asked.

Link shook his head. "Maybe you're right," he said. "I'll try saying something the next time I see her."

"Yes, well," Leynne said. "Regahdless of what we know of The Night oh 'Nightmah Weaveh', oh whateveh you wish to call it, I'm afraid we've gone on a tangent. We should have anotheh plan should we not leahn of the Mystics' plot."

"Seems tae me that we just need tae get ou'a 'ere," Gold said, crossing his arms.

"Unfohtunately, the situation has grown moh complex than that," Leynne said. "Accohding to Janni, The Night has been preying on ships foh decades at least. We cannot leave. Should we retuhn, no matteh what we do, we will likely increase the numbeh of vessels that ventuh heh."

"You can't be serious!" Cale declared, the high-pitched whine drowning out Gold's epithet.

"I'm afraid we ah," Leynne told the group of surprised expressions. "What's wohse, we stahted this befoh we left the kingdom. The company knows we came heh, so if we go back and say nothing, it will only be a matteh of time befoh someone in the company decides to investigate the island."

"Well that's great," Gold growled. "So, what's that leave us with?"

"We have to stop The Night," Link said.

"We know that theh is anotheh technowohks on that side of the island," Leynne said to Link. "Pehhaps that should be ouh priority."

"So you just ask where the last technoworks is," Irleen concluded. "And, since you'll be dealing with Sorians, there's a good chance they'll actually know what you're talking about."

…

~~Same day, 1700.

~~We've come up with a plan to help confirm if all of the Mystics are really dead. The scroll we picked up indicates that one of the Mystics on this island watched the rest of his group die before he killed himself. But, there's a chance. Gold and Cale are going to be at the Mystics' shack/meeting room/whatever tonight while the Obeetans are awake. I'll be in the dream world and over there with them because, if we can at least find someone to go in the building, I can touch them so that we can find them in the daylight. While we're doing this, Irleen is going to be looking through the scroll we brought back to see if there are any clues to the technoworks in it. I've got a good feeling about tonight. There's nothing that can go wrong.

…

~~Same day, night.

~~We're all idiots.

After jotting down that single note, Link walked to the door of his cabin and ripped it open. He immediately regretted it when a fresh bolt of pain tore into his side. This reduced the amount of steam he had built up, causing his rage to lose momentum. Instead of stomping out onto the main deck, he had to lean in the doorway and wait for his side to stop throbbing.

The door slamming into the bulkhead had not gone unnoticed. Lwamm, having sat on the port-aft capstan to relax, jolted out of her light dozing and turned to see Link standing in the doorway. Leynne, further toward the bow, glanced over his shoulder.

Lwamm stood up and took a step toward Link. "Kyabtin, waxwicikak max?" she asked in urgency.

"Inu hwicikak," Link said, one hand raised to wave her off. "Fizuban taris."

"Wabisixak max?" Lwamm asked. "Wamilikak miysohot."

Link sighed. "Language is becoming an issue around here…"

"Lwamm," Leynne said as he approached her from behind. "Fizhuban taris."

Lwamm glanced over her shoulder. Then she gave an exhausted sigh and responded, "Ay'a, Lyayn."

While she walked away, Leynne approached Link. "Ah you all right?" he asked, offering a hand out.

Link nodded. "I'm okay," he said with a tired voice.

"You've been unable to sleep?" Leynne asked as he dropped his hand. "Oh has The Night decided to attack you?"

"Neither," Link told him. "I woke up. Leynne, we… we made a seriously stupid mistake."

"We have?"

"We can't speak Sorian."

Leynne gave him a confused glare. Then he slowly began nodding his understanding. "The 'Obeetans' in that area would, obviously, be Sorians, not Hylians. Without a means of translation, only one pehson would undehstand them."

"Yeah, that's what we realized, too." Link pushed off the frame so that he could stand unassisted. "It was beyond stupid. Janni didn't say anything; she just let us find out. I woke up with her laughing stuck in my head."

"To be faih, Captain," Leynne said, "we have been on this island foh quite some time. Ouh ability to conceptualize potential issues has been lacking. And we've had the convenience of translation foh most of the time. It is hahdly a matteh wohth berating ouhselves oveh."

Link heaved a sigh. "Yeah, but I still feel pretty stupid…"

"I don't suppose Cale's knowledge of Sorian can be put to use."

"He tried. But he can't understand Sorian when they're speaking crazy Sorian. What time is it?"

Leynne pulled out his watch to check it. "Half-eleven," he answered. As he replaced the watch, he asked, "It took you neahly two and a half houhs to discoveh that the Sorian-bohn Obeetans don't speak Hylian?"

"They don't yak as much as the Hylians," Link said. "In fact, they barely do anything at all. Only a few of them walk around the streets; the rest just sort of stand around."

Leynne's face scrunched as he thought. "Interesting. Different behavioh for different species."

"Do you think it means something?"

"In ouh situation, possibly not," Leynne admitted. "Ihleen's down below, reading. Shall I retrieve heh?"

Link sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I don't know if it's worth it," he admitted. "Gold and Cale are still out there with the Conductor. If we're gonna send her along, we're gonna have to recall them."

"Ihleen can fly," Leynne pointed out.

Link shook his head. "She's not gonna fly out there alone; there's too much that can happen at this point."

Leynne sighed and scratched his scalp. "Yes, of couhse… Still, if theh is any chance, Ihleen might be able to shed some light on this."

Link sighed. "Well, we can at least recall the launch," he said. "Send up two blue flares so they can see them."

"Yes, Captain," Leynne said as he reached behind his back for his flare gun. "Ihleen is in the galley. You might at least consult heh."

"I think I will."

Link felt heavy as he crossed the deck to the port hatch. He did not look back in response to hearing the familiar hiss of a flare going off, dismayed as he still was that they had made such a stupid mistake. His steps were slow, and he felt more like he was falling down the stairs rather than walking. The gloom he could feel wafting through the ship did not help.

When he stepped down into the galley, he immediately saw Irleen sleeping face-down on top of the scroll she had unrolled on the table, her surroundings revealed by a lantern sitting near her. Link's pace picked up as he crossed the galley. He placed a hand on one shoulder and shook her gently.

Irleen stirred and sat up, giving Link a bleary-eyed look. Link saw her gem sitting nearby and moved his hand to it. "You okay?"

Irleen snorted as she took a breath. "Yeah," she replied, looking down at the scroll. "I guess I fell asleep reading. I think I've been reading this same sentence this entire time."

"Any dreams?" Link asked.

Irleen shook her head. "I don't remember." She looked up at him again, this time with confusion on her face. "You guys find something?"

Link picked up her gem so that he did not need to lean on the table. "Well, yeah, we found a new problem," he said. "We went to the building, and then we realized that all the Obeetans there speak Sorian."

"Oh, you gotta be kidding…" Irleen replied as she covered her eyes with one hand and squeezed. "Well, what about Cale? Did he get anywhere?"

"Well, you know how he stutters whenever we shout at him?" Link asked.

"Yeah…"

"It gets so bad he can't say a single word. Gold started making fun of him." He shrugged. "Not that he'd be able to understand them, either; if the way they speak is anything like the Hylians here, it's all just a bunch of gibberish."

"Damn. We should've seen this."

Link turned and sat next to her with his back against the table. "That's what I said to Leynne, but he mentioned that none of us are really thinking right."

Irleen scratched the back of her head. "Wow… somehow, being back to normal seems to make thing look worse…"

"Welcome to the crew…" Link replied in a flat tone.

"Maybe I should be out there talking to them."

Link bobbed his head back and forth, "You see, that was another problem we were running into. As it turns out, Sorian Obeetans are a lot less talkative than the Hylian Obeetans. It took us two hours before we found one to talk to."

Irleen sighed. "You know, there are fictions like this? That have all these different excuses for why things have to be so stupidly difficult? I'm beginning to feel like a character out of one of those."

Link shrugged. "I don't know what else to say. We always seem to find out something new."

"So what's the plan now?"

Link shook his head. "I-I don't know. We'll wait for Cale and Gold to get back before we figure something else out. If we're lucky, we might have just enough time to send out the Conductor again."

…

Cale and Gold were late. About half an hour later and after Link had taken a bit of time to relax and let his side rest, Link fired off two more blue flares, expecting that Cale and Gold had missed the first signal. Another half hour passed before Link decided to switch to a purple flare despite the increased level of alarm it was meant to represent. Fifteen minutes later, Link was contemplating rushing out to find them, The Night's presence and his own orders be damned.

Then Leynne spotted them approaching, although the piercing sound of the Conductor's engine gave it away two seconds before Link heard Leynne knocked on Link's door.

Link only took a moment to pull on his trousers and sling his sword onto his back before he rushed out of his cabin, not even bothering to put his boots on. Having an hour had given him time to become paranoid that the pair might have accomplished what they needed in the worst possible way: they had found The Night, and The Night had gotten to them.

He stepped out to see the Conductor, revealed by the scant light of a thin crescent moon overhead, taking a wide course around the ship so that it could align with the Island Symphony. Footsteps told Link that some of the deck crew were already on their way up to the poop deck to assist with the Conductor's docking. Link stepped toward the middle of the main deck to see Biluf and Gillam hustling up the stairs.

Link quickly ascended to the quarterdeck, where he found Leynne already standing at the double doors to the boat deck. "How were they flying?" he asked.

"Nothing seemed out of the ohdinary," Leynne replied with a casual tone. "Gold was pehhaps a little easy on the engines, but all appeahs well."

"Then why were they over an hour late?" Link pointed out.

Leynne raised an eyebrow. "I know what you'h thinking, Link," he said, "but I don't believe that is the case."

"Why not?" Link asked.

"If The Night had taken them, I don't think they would have been able to retuhn," Leynne pointed out.

However, Link shook his head. "We still don't know what happens if The Night takes someone," he said as he stepped to one door. "We need to be on-guard."

"Captain," Leynne replied. However, before he answered, he opened the door. "Theh is being on-guahd, and theh is being paranoid."

They entered just as the Conductor settled onto its supports. They had to move to one side as Biluf and Gillam, with practiced urgency (although Gillam seemed to be lagging behind), rushed in behind them and started throwing mooring ropes over the Conductor's weather deck. From where they stood, they could see both Cale and Gold assisting with the launch from the deck.

Once Gillam set the ladder in place, Link and Leynne moved closer to the stern. Gold was the first to descend and started for the door only to suddenly stop just short of colliding with Leynne.

"Mistah Gold, I hope you might come with me to speak to Captain Link," Cale was saying as he descended the ladder.

"Doesn't seem tae be a prob'm, Chief," Gold replied.

Cale, having set foot on the deck, glanced around to find him. "Oh," he said with mild surprise upon seeing Leynne and Link.

"Are you two all right?" Link asked as Cale stepped up beside Gold.

"Yes, saah," Cale answered while Gold just nodded.

"No encountehs with The Night?" Leynne asked.

"No, saah," Cale said while Gold replied, "Nope."

"Now for the big one," Link commented. "Did you see the first set of flares go up?"

"No," Gold said while Cale gave a sharp nod and a, "Yes, saah."

Leynne and Link exchanged glances at the same time Cale gave Gold a strange look. "Would you like a moment to confeh on the truth, gentlemen?" Leynne asked in a dry tone.

Gold gave Cale a helpless shrug. "Sorry, Chief," he said. "Thought we were stickin' with the 'didn't see the first two signals' thin'."

"Cale?" Link asked.

"I'm sohry, Captain," Cale replied. "My… my original premise was to feign missing the blue flaahs, and I seem to have fohgotten to amend that premise to avoid conflict."

"To what end?" Leynne asked.

"Captain, I was noticing some peculiarities with the Sorian Obeetans, so I wished to make fuhthah obsahvation," Cale continued. "I take full responsibility foh disobeying ohdahs."

Link gave a sigh. "Well, if you've got some news for us, we'd like to hear it." Then he glanced down at himself. "Maybe after I stop standing here in my undersuit."

…

"I was thinking of how ouh plan ran into trouble once we realized that the Obeetans on the westahn quahtah of the island only spoke Sorian," Cale told the rest of the room. "How… we had made a serious ehroh."

"The captain woke up and infohmed us," Leynne replied from his usual spot on Link's footlocker. "That was why we attempted to recall you."

"Yes, well…" Cale continued. "I… had hoped to salvage the situation. So… I exahcised my authority."

Leynne, Link (bottom resting against the front of his desk), Dholit (sitting on Link's bed), and Irleen (seated in Link's chair) turned to look at Gold, who was leaning against the bulkhead next to the door. Gold gave a shrug. "Seemed legi'imate enough," he replied.

"You've already made it cleah that you ah responsible, Cale," Leynne said. "We would appreciate a shohteh account of youh activities."

"Y-yes, saah," Cale replied. He took a moment to compose himself and clear his throat. "I had noticed peculiah behavioh from the Obeetans. In shoht, they appeah afraid of the Mystics' building."

"Afraid?" Leynne asked. "In what way?"

"Well, Link noticed befoah that the Obeetans had an advahse reaction to the library when we accidentally uncovahed it," Cale continued. "In fact, they screamed. I must confess to not seeing such noh did I obsahve the same behavioh from the Sorian-bohn Obeetans. Howevah, I did notice that the Obeetans in that area had theih own reaction which seemed too similah to the library to be a coincidence. Rathah than approach the building, I had noticed at least three Obeetans stop in place, tahn around, and continue in a different direction. Then, it seemed to me that those that willingly walked by the building only seemed to do so as long as they passed on the opposite side of the road."

"I take it you weh applying the Theory of Three," Leynne said.

"Yes, saah."

"The Theory of Three?" Dholit asked.

"'Once is an oddity, twice is a coincidence, three is a trend'," Leynne explained. "The basis of scientific obsehvation."

"I thought that three Obeetans tahning about and walking away was too strange to be a coincidence," Cale said. "So, I set out to test the theory. Oh… I-I tried, but…"

Gold heaved a sigh and pushed away from the bulkhead. "I picked one up and carried it tae the shack," he said, his voice showing a level of irritation.

"That elicited a scream," Cale said. "It would appeah that the Obeetans ah indeed driven away by the building."

"I think I might have a reason for that," Irleen spoke up.

"Yeah?" Link asked as he twisted to see her.

"Since they're still mainly Sorians like me," she said, standing up, "they still might be able to see life. They know something is dead in that building, but they don't really know what. They don't wanna go near it because that would be like stepping on someone's grave."

"Ah you cehtain that the Obeetan was not responding to being picked up?" Dholit asked, watching Irleen move toward Link's bed.

"Yeh carry someone fer seven paces and tell me if they like the trip," Gold replied. "Took 'bout that long 'fore it did anythin'."

"It did appeah to detest the building moah than Gold picking it up," Cale added. "Being picked up seemed moah like a… like an inconvenience."

"So, in otheh wohds," Leynne spoke up, "it is likely that no one would have approached that building, and the attempt to seahch out moh Mystics is thus useless."

Cale nodded. "Sadly, that appeahs to be the case," he said. "Aftah you fiahd the puhple flaah, I felt it wise to retahn."

"Anything you'd like to add, Mister Gold?" Link asked.

"Well, if we need tae stay up that bad," Gold said, "we'd be be'er off wanderin' 'round out there instead o' 'ere."

"A decidedly fatal mistake, Misteh Gold," Leynne said. "The Night would likely dispose of the Symphony befoh we could stop it."

"Oh, well…" Gold grunted, looking away.

"Cale, you and Gold can go below for now," Link said. "If there's anything else you can think of, let us know."

"Yes, saah," Cale replied.

Leynne waited for Cale and Gold to leave. Then he heaved a sigh and told the rest of the room, "It would appeah that we've wasted the night with ouh own shoht-sightedness."

"There's gotta be a way to find the next technoworks," Irleen said, dropping backwards onto Link's bed and causing Dholit to bounce.

"Could we use the controls in the library to find the last area?" Leynne asked.

"I've already seen it," Irleen said. "If I recall right, the technoworks we're missing is just a massive block. That doesn't help much; the entrance could be anywhere above it, and that's just assuming that there isn't a non-technoworks tunnel like the library."

"I expect it would be too much to think that anothah technowohks connects to the last," Dholit spoke up.

"If the map is correct, they don't connect," Irleen told her. "The technoworks in the library is just a straight path. I don't think the mines go all the way to the Sorians' side of the island, either. If they did, it'd be a hell of a walk."

"Even then, walking about the mines would be the pehfect oppohtunity foh The Night to simply snatch someone up," Leynne added. "I would even ventuh that the usual paih oh trio that encountehs The Night down theh won't be safe."

Link wrinkled his nose as he thought. Then, with an uneasy look on his face, he told Leynne, "I think I have an idea."

"Oh?" Leynne asked.

"Well… us blindly walking around isn't working," Link said. "I mean, we only found the Mystics' meeting room just the other day. And it might take Irleen a while to go through the scroll."

"I'm trying," Irleen told him in a mildly offended tone.

"What I'm saying is…" Link froze for a moment, his mind's switch to hearing Irleen's gripe making him lose his train of thought. "Uh… crap, what was I gonna say?"

"It sounded as if you had a betteh solution to finding the last technowohks," Leynne commented. "If not having an idea to make seahching easieh."

"No, that was it," Link said, pointing a finger at him. "What's the one thing that always seems to happen whenever Cale is looking around?"

Leynne, Dholit, and Irleen used a moment of silence to trade looks back and forth. "Iiiii… I hate to say it," Irleen said, "but we don't really have any other options right now."

"It seems to be a faith-based solution to a considerably complex problem," Leynne said. "We don't exactly have much assurance."

"Pehhaps not," Dholit said. Then she grinned. "Howevah, between relying on Cale's incredible misfohtune and discussing safah options while the crew slowly loses its mind, I find in favoh of the fohmah."

"Agreed," Irleen replied with a strong breath.

Leynne could not help sporting part of a grin as he said, "I hope you realize that he will not appreciate being used foh his penchant foh falling down."

"Janni said that we should be looking closer to the tower than the other airmen have been," Link said. Then he held up his hands in an exaggeration of a helpless shrug. "We don't need a supply clerk for now, and I would feel better if one of my chiefs were out there, especially since he's familiar with the technoworks. He doesn't necessarily need to be told that we expect him to fall again."

"Does this not seem like a 'friend of the crew' moment?" Dholit asked Leynne.

"Unfohtunately, we've lost the need to be so prudent with assigning crew," Leynne replied with a grim tone. "Besides that. Wheh do we stand telling ouh drunk engineeh to enteh a potentially hostile environment but questioning ouhselves when anotheh aihman has to find said environment? I'm afraid theh is no soht of justification."

"Well, we don't have to make it seem like we're condemning one guy to die," Irleen spoke up. "Wouldn't it be just as reasonable to send four or five people to go looking around? Why do we need to make it sound like we're trying to feed Cale to The Night?"

"As much as we try to ignoh it, that is precisely what we ah doing," Leynne said.

"Well, I think I agree with Irleen," Link said. "Tomorrow, Leynne, both you and I can watch the deck, and we'll send some of the deck crew to that area. Dholit, you'll have to be in charge."

"Why me?" Dholit asked.

"Because Biluf and Ray will be with you. And I can't think of any other member of the deck crew that they'll… ignore." Link was about to use the word "lynch", but he did not want to put any ideas into her head. To say he got away with it, though, would imply that the knowing looks both Dholit and Leynne gave him were just coincidence. Who was he trying to fool, anyway?