Forgotten
"And it was looking to be such a lovely day too." Muttered a woman walking across the deck of The Banyan's Rage. And she was right, the weather was nice, it was sunny with clouds scattered about, the water was clean and clear with fish a plenty.
That was until a scream shattered that peace. And that scream has not halted since it first started. Sure it has devolved into screaming halted only by what could be assumed breathes for air. At first everyone thought it was just the Quartermaster and the Shaman finally at it. But then it kept going for five minutes, then ten, now coming on twenty and to say she was a miffed individual would be an understatement. She was in the middle of spying on a game between the deckhands and some mages regarding dice and coin. Now being the basically second only to Mrs. Täro she had to go investigate. Now she was finally up top and all she saw was bodies crowding around the captains cabin.
"Now everyone return to your posts and finish your damned tasks!" Shouted a voice over both the screaming and the muttering crowd. Apparently that voice had authority because everyone dispersed after. And after seeing a literal mountain of meat give the order she could see why. "I see you Hercules." Whispered the woman upon seeing the man.
"Quartermaster!" she shouted, waving and running up to him. "What is going on? Why is Mrs. Täro screaming? What did the Captain do? Did you finally do it and she couldn't handle it?" She asked faster than what the Quartermaster thought possible for a human.
"Ugh. I'm just going to assume you're asking about the screaming. Am I right?" He asked finally after a few seconds trying to figure out what she had said and failing miserably. He swore this woman before him was familiar but this is the first time he has ever seen her. She looked like any of the other mages on board aside from maybe a color pallet change from the white and red to blue and gold. "To answer your question we; I should say I. Have no idea." He stated before turning and making a motion for her to follow him. "I would hope you would know more seeing how you are literally the first mage to actually come and investigate." He finished opening the door to the cabin allowing the screaming to become more prevalent.
The Captains cabin was more or less the same aside from some papers scattered across the floor. Oh and the fact there was a woman on the floor screaming bloody murder with her in the fetal position. The Captain for his part was still looking at a board and writing on it with chalk only stopping to look at who entered his cabin without knocking. How he could tell they didn't knock was beyond knowing at the moment.
"Ah! Finally!" He exclaimed over the screaming. "Can you please explain why she's screaming like she's lost her hand?!" He again screamed at them. Only to see looks of confusion on their faces. "What?!" was the only response he got and even he did not hear what they said.
"Okay." Watanabe muttered to himself. Turning around and picking up the still screaming Mrs. Täro. He then proceeded over to the still opened cabinet and placed her inside. And then closed the doors. The screaming was still heard of course but now it was manageable. When he turned around he saw two differing reactions. The one on Mr. Johnson was that of disapproval and exasperation. The one on the mage was that of surprise and disbelief but also for the briefest moment of humor. "So," he said dusting his hands off of chalk, "care to explain why our head mage has finally blown a gasket?" He asked, facing the mage.
*Line Break*
"YOU WHAT!?" Shouted the woman. Marking her on the list of Banshees the Captain had encountered.
After the majority of the day trying to explain and failing what had transpired the Captain merely opened the cabinet again. The screaming had finally stopped but only because Mrs. Täro had passed out due to oxygen deprivation. She had casted Ethereal Sight trying to retrace the steps that lead to this moment and seeing the inside of the cabinet.
"I smacked my hand in the center of the backboard and then she starts screaming and thrashing around ruining some of my notes." Watanabe started looking back to the Quartermaster. "I miss anything?" He only received a shrug in response.
"No wonder I lost contact." The mage muttered under her breath looking at the letters, symbols, and hieroglyphs painted inside the cabinet. "Do either of you know what's on the inside of this thing?" She said turning around and getting a shrug from both men.
"All I know is the captain spent most of his holdings trying to attain the damned thing and then never using it." Responded Mr. Johnson as he looked down on Watanabe who responded with a single finger. "I took it to a dwarf in the west and asked if he could make me something that could make it so I could never be seen by any magic." Replied the Captain who kept his hand in the Quartermasters face.
'Note to self, look into dwarves and possible links to other pantheons' thought the mage. "Okay I have a long version and a short explanation. What do you want to hear first?" Asked the mage as she conjured a chair of light and sat down.
"Long version cause I am pissed that I can't figure out that damned problem over there." Watanabe pointed at a board hanging by the door to the cabin. "And I am in no mood to go back to that." he finished grabbing a seat at his desk. "Want a seat Mr. Johnson?" The mage asked as he looked around the room. "If you would be so kind." he said looking back to the mage and seeing a literal throne of light appear before him.
"Okay so for starters. I have no idea what has happened to Mrs. Täro." Said the mage pointing over her shoulder at the woman. "What I've seen inside that cabinet is absolutely incredible." She said in what could easily be identified as glee.
"Incredible?" Asked the captain looking back at the sleeping or rather unconscious form of the Shaman. "How?"
"Incredible as in that is ancient and lost script and seals." she said pointing at the cabinet. "From what scripts I am able to translate those seals once broken will release and cancel magic." she said looking absolutely ecstatic.
"Cancel magic?" spoke Mr. Johnson leaning forward. "But how? From what I've gathered magic is a part of someone like blood or soul."
"That's just it. I have no idea." the mage said leaning back in her chair. 'Well I do but they don't know how to read Egyptian hieroglyphs or Nordic script sooo.' "All I know is a lot of that scratch inside that thing is older than most noble families in the west have been feuding for."
That got a whistle from both men.
*Line Break*
"Okay enough about the damn cabinet." Said a very tired and obviously annoyed Captain as he looked across the room at a sleeping bear. He then grabbed an unopened ink bottle and threw it at the Quartermaster. All that happened was it bouncing off his gut and shattering along the bulkhead of his office/quarters. "And can you possibly wake him up?" He asked, rubbing his eyes.
"Of course Captain." she says standing and giving a mock salute. She then turns around to look at the man. He was out like a candle. There was nothing that could wake him up. Well except for a gallon of water appearing above his head and falling straight down.
"AAAHHH! WHY!" Shouted the Quartermaster. "Because we still need to know what happened to the damned Shaman in the closet." said Watanabe walking into his field of view. "And whoever this mage is has told us literally nothing."
"Ugh. You asked about the cabinet. I told you about the cabinet." The mage said, bringing a hand to their forehead. 'I swear humans never listen OR ask the right questions. Even when I give them the perfect set of information they still have to go on a quest of something. Fucking Aeneas.'
"And all I got was ancient scribble no one can decipher, a Shaman knocked out, a spell of some kind that Kills magic some fucking how, a broken bottle of ink, and these fucking problems that won't answer themselves." Watanabe started counting off with his fingers before gesturing to the whole room. "And then there's the fact that the Shaman screamed her lungs out for a solid three hours before she passed out from asphyxiation."
"Asphyxiation Captain?" asked Johnson as he sat up. "Just a fancy word for a lack of air Quartermaster." He answered, waving him off.
"Okay. You want to know about what happened to her?" the mage asked standing up and walking over to the cabinet that still held said Shaman. "Very much so. Because if I don't get her up and ready we are never getting to that beautiful new land those people paid me to take them too." The Captain finished.
"Well alright short version then. The cabinet has ancient script dating back to the first civilizations, the whole ensemble comes together to cancel magic somehow, which has likely destroyed our dear Shaman's soul." she said marching around the room. The whole time she was talking she had made three loops around the room. The Quartermaster and the Captain started to lose interest and return to their previous acts of sleeping and writing until one thing.
"DESTROYED HER SOUL!" Shouted the one and only Mad Shark of the East Sea, slamming his hands onto his desk and standing. "Explain right fucking now." He said in a voice so low it sounded like the rumbling of waves upon a shattered shore.
"From what research has been done into magic so far the soul is directly linked to how one casts magic." said the mage stopping and turning to face the captain. "The theory anyway. That is why someone can cast a spell that allows them to see something far away with their own eyes even though they aren't anywhere close. The soul is non-physical meaning it can traverse anywhere so long as there is no barrier and they know where they are looking." The quartermaster started looking back at the Shaman who seemed to be peacefully asleep. "If what I think is true then she is more than likely dead. Her body is still there but her soul is gone. She is essentially a cup to be filled with whatever gets in it first." She said walking back over to the Shaman.
'Dead. She's dead? No that can't be. I swore to keep her safe. I gave her an oath I would see her to the new land. And I Killed Her?" The captain was internally monologuing. On the outside he looked like he was about to snap like a raving berserker of the north. But on the inside, on the inside he was curled up like a child who had just been beat.
The Quartermaster fared no better. His face was in his hands. No noise escaped from him. It was as if he had turned to stone with how motionless he had become.
And thanks to this state of 'Grief' the mage was able to get closer to Mrs. Täro and lay a hand on her face. And with a gasp she was back. The look on her face. It showed true fear. If the mage hadn't made it so she couldn't move she would have been screaming again and more than likely casting something that used something with fire or lightning. Her eyes were the only thing that could move and they moved everywhere they could. And then they landed on the mage.
"Shhh. Calm little fire. Everything will be explained. But you can not die yet. You are necessary still." said the mage leaning into whisper in her ear. Her eyes still explored the room for the fear still coursing through her. "But after what I told those fools I can't leave you like you were. So for what is to come I apologize. But this will certainly cause some chaos." She finished before leaning in and planting a kiss upon her forehead.
And from that point a searing pain started to wash over her. Not entirely, more focused, It was as if she had been hit over the head by… what was she hit with? 'It was a mallet.'
'No, it was a fish, that's why she was all wet.'
'No, that's sweat you moron, it was obviously the quartermaster. We were with him last. But why would he hit us… we're us!'
'No it was a spell.'
"SHUT UP!" Was the first words to leave Mrs. Täro's mouth and she froze. Who was she talking to? Where was she? Why'd she smell salt water? Who is-
"Mrs. Taro?!" and she was suddenly wrapped in a massive blanket of flesh and muscle.
And like that she was screaming again. "Gods DAMN IT! PUT HER DOWN BEFORE I LOSE MY DAMN EARS AGAIN!" and like that she was dumped on the ground. Wait. This isn't soft. Dirt is supposed to feel soft. 'It's not dirt idiot. It's ice.' 'But It's not cold. Ice is cold isn't it?' and that went on and on again until she hit herself over the head with a branch that was laying on the ground. 'That's a staff.' Right, a staff. That she continued to hit herself with. Until a hand stopped her from doing it a fifth time.
"Mrs. Täro. What happened, are you okay, why in the name of the sky are you hitting yourself?" demanded a voice. 'Heh, hitting yourself.' But from where. 'Your left.' But that's just a wall. 'Your other left you fool' Oohh. That's a big man. 'That's the Quartermaster.' 'Who?' 'Mr. Joanus.' 'Who?' 'The man we want to fuck you pleb.' 'Pleb?' 'Plebeian!' and then she started hitting her head on the floor.
'The floors made out of wood.' Why won't they shut up!?
And again she was wrapped in a blanket.
*Line Break*
"MAGE! WHAT THE FUCK?!" Shouted Watanabe throwing his hands at the Shaman currently buried under Mr. Johnson. Screams surprisingly absent this time. If anything he thought he heard purring?
"I… I don't know." said the mage looking completely perturbed at the moment. "I know for a fact she was dead! Not of body but definitely of soul. You literally made the magical equivalent of Qunari powder go off in her face but with her soul as her face." said the mage backing away from the pile of flesh. "I have no clue what's going on! And what is she saying?"
The screaming had all but stopped by now as everyone quieted down try and gleam what she was saying underneath Mr. Johnson. The speech was broken, that could be heard. It sounded like a child learning a new language but… off in some way. And then suddenly Mr. Johnson erupted from the ground slamming through the roof of the quarters with a bright flash of yellow while everyone else was blown out of the room.
