I suck at prophecy making, it doesn't even rhyme
5. Prophecy
You stop being Benedict so we may go back to the more story-like setting of the first chapters, you believe it's fitting to the type of story being told; you will now let the writer do her job
Dirk Strider was eight when he first met the ruler of the Atlantic, he was now eighteen and Robin Aresta looked about the same age as back then. To be fair, she did have a good reason to appear this time, and if Dirk Strider had learned from their first meeting was that one didn't question the Atlantic ruler, otherwise things tended to go badly
The question was now, whether he was willing to sail with such a crew, he didn't mind Aresta all that much, but she told him she was going to bring two more, and while he wasn't exactly superstitious he did have his reasons not to trust merfolk, but Robin had just as many not to trust humans so he guessed it was fair enough, he still needed to tell his crew though, maybe should start with his first mate
"I heard you met with Robs" said Roxy
"Yeah, she's caught onto our plans, and her myth making instincts drove her to lisping with me" said Dirk
"Did you lisp back?" asked Roxy
"A little bit" said Dirk
"Yuss!" said Roxy
"So, thing is she'll be hopping out of water with two of her citizens, said something about a prophecy" said Dirk
As he was saying it he realized what he had to do and smirked, Roxy smiled knowingly
"Tell John to set a course, we'll be visiting his sister" Said Dirk
"Aye Captain!" said Roxy winking
The island Jade had claimed for herself was rather large, it was also impossible to find unless you were part fish, which was why they let John drive off-course and without course, generally you would get at least an approximate drawing of the course from the various maps on the back of his quarters, but that never works with Harley's island, granted, it barely works on normal expeditions but still; John has a special talent with wind currents and somehow gets them where they need to most of the time, he's aware that this would be an always if they had an actual cartographer of any sort, or at least a navigator
The travel there will take a while, he takes a text, a weird small object that turns brown when you burn it and sinks faster than rocks, and burn it to crave a message to the Atlantic ruler, he knows a small island nearby Jade's that's a lot easier to find and that has a small cavern which's only exit beside the entrance is an underwater tunnel, he figures it will make for a good common ground
==Swim back to Atlantis
Back to the castle Robin leads Karkat to the upper part of it, Benedict trailing behind to make sure no one is following them, he behaves like a bodyguard more than an actual bane, or at least Karkat thinks so, he's not entirely sure what banes really do, Benedict is the first one he met, he can't say the guy is annoying, more like overprotective, but Robin is an important figure that not everyone agrees with so it's fair
The room they enter has a stone table and is filled with magical communication devises, a shelf stood proudly on one side filled to the brim of books in every single language there was, or at least every language that people wrote in so far, also a few on Alternian and surprisingly syren, he noticed the faint aura coming of them that indicated they were properly protected from getting wet at all, the same had been done on the papers in the table, a sharpened scale glistened from a bottle of a liquid that looked every bit like ink but didn't move at all
Robin swims to the other side of the table into a particular structure of stone that Karkat can't find a name for and has a made compartment from which she pulls out a piece of enchanted paper, a smile painting her features in a brighter tone, for a second her blush seems violet-ish before it goes into the normal reddish colour humans have, she gives Benedict a look and then you before setting bright violet eyes on the paper
The island is just as bright as always, it clashes with islands of fellow witches, which is only fitting to the owner, one Jade Harley
The cabin is huge and well lit but full with everything a witch needs, which includes a collection of spell books in many languages
After all the crew has said hello, and received hugs from Jade, Dirk explains the situation to everyone and asks for the prophecy, Jade is happy to give it out without asking much, the prophecy says
The bane will light the way, storm will howl but be tamed by a song and he who was cursed by red will find that which the travellers seek