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Final Fantasy VI: The Sands of Time

Book 1: The Beginning

Chapter 5 - Maidens of the Sea

Part 5.2 - An Old Friend

With the sun now blazing its way across the sky, Dune was nearing the Maiden of the Sea, a fearful look slowly creeping into his face. This may be the Captain's pride and joy, but it looked like it was ready to sink right here in the bay to Dune's eyes. It was plain to see the vessel had seen its fair share of storms from the faded sails, now rising in anticipation of departure, down to the barnacle-encrusted hull of the ship. The entire bottom of the ship was a faded, hazy green from countless years of swimming through the many seas of the world. The part of the ship above water was bleached almost white from exposure to the harsh rays of the sun. Every time Dune looked at it he thought of a piece of driftwood washed up on some ancient shore. This did not ease Dune's mind in the least, but the description was an apt one that couldn't be denied, as far as Dune was concerned.

The only part of the ship Dune could truly appreciate was the exquisite image of a woman carved into the prow of the ship. Bismark had explained to Dune that the woman was the real Maiden of the Sea, and was the patron saint of all sailors. The tale went that any ship blessed with her likeness would never sink in even the most fierce of storms. Elia the sailors had named this figure of legend. Dune couldn't help but almost believe their stories when he gazed on her perfect form jutting out from the ship with her arms outstretched and entwined, palms facing outwards in a gesture of goodwill.

The Maiden of the Sea was indeed a relic from a time when ships needed to rely on wind to move, but the Captain was no fool. The ship was cleverly outfitted with a powerful steam engine that kept it driving forward even in the calmest seas or most chaotic winds. The engine sucked sea water and converted it to steam in much the same way the much more powerful engines beneath Narsille drew power from the earth. This engine had been a gift specially designed by Alex, the ship's first mate whenever he chose to sail with Captain Bismark. Now the engine was silent and only the sails could be heard flapping in the breeze.

As Dune came within shouting distance of the rickety old ship, that look of fear in his face was quickly replaced with alarm. The ship was under attack!

A second ship had quietly coasted into the harbor, and unless Dune was gravely mistaken, was firing on the defenseless Maiden. A familiar feeling of dread flowed over Dune as he made a frantic dash to the Captain's ship. Not even out of the harbor and already things were going to hell, Dune thought miserably.

Dune had just reached the ship when the Captain's large form flew up from the deck and leaned over the railing of the ship's larboard side like some crazy sailor ready to leap headfirst into the water. A look of cold fury had etched its way into the Captain's now red and heaving face. Dune had never seen this look on the Captain before, and with his eye patch and gruff beard, he looked like a gruesome pirate captain ready to slit Dune's throat if he dared step foot on his vessel. Dune almost turned around and ran off into the rocky bluffs adjoining the beach to the rest of the land when the Captain called out to him in a voice equally enraged.

"Dune get yer ass up here NOW!" the Captain's voice bellowed down from his precarious position on the ship's railing.

More shots could be heard from the second ship, now only a few hundred feet from the Maiden. As Dune watched helplessly, the huge balls of metal all arced high into the air then fell harmlessly into the waters around the Maiden in a sort of slow motion death plunge. Each cannonball hit the water with a hard "plunk!" sending a spray of mist across the ship's sides, but doing no other damage.

The Captain's voice echoed from the deck once more, and now Dune snapped to life and ran for the docks, hoping the ship would still be there when he arrived.

More shots.

More "plunk!" noises as the shots missed their mark.

Dune raced across the simple wooden dock and up the gangway, half stepping , half leaping onto the ship's deck. He scrambled for a moment against the railing, then flopped onto the deck like a freshly caught fish. Dune recovered himself then looked around, expecting to see a flurry of activity as the captain prepared a counterattack to this new threat. Captain Bismark was just standing on the other side of the ship, along with Alex, Indra, and a few other crew members. The Captain was obviously in a fit of rage as he swore and cursed the mystery ship, but he was giving no orders and no one was preparing any sort of attack or defense that Dune could see. They were all just...watching?

Before Dune could make it to where the Captain and others stood, the attack ceased and everything was quiet again, except for the Captain's voice still roaring across the waves at the other ship.

"How dare you fire at my ship you old sea goat! Levi, I know you can hear me! Answer me or I'll ram my ship right down that ugly throat of yours!"

The Captain continued his own barrage of insults at the second ship for another minute or two, then settled down enough to turn around and see that Dune was safely onboard.

"It's about time Dune! Did you see that? Did you see what that bilge rat had the nerve to do to me? I swear I'll wring his bony neck if he takes one filthy step on my Maiden! I'll kill him! I'll..."

"Calm down, Mobius," Alex said from the Captain's side. "You know Jonah is just doing this to get a rise out of you. He's probably over there right now listening to you and laughing his head off."

The Captain began to calm down now, and after a few moments and a few more angry words fired off the starboard bow, he turned to the frightened crew and gave the order to weigh anchor and shove off. While Bismark resumed his duties as captain, Alex and Indra walked over to Dune and gave him a hearty pat on the back. At least someone was happy to see Dune safely on board.

"It's good to see you again, Dune," Indra said cheerfully. "I see you managed to survive your stay in Narsille's undercity. Good, good! Did you encounter any problems with our little mission? Please fill us in! Kumiro could only tell me so much, but it sounds like you two had quite the adventure down there."

Dune tried his best to relate what had transpired, but his memory of those events was growing more and more foggy as time wore on, like a dream that eluded him the harder he tried to grasp it. The two things he did remember quite clearly were Sade's claim that he was dead and the words of the Prophecy. His head throbbed as he relived the memory of that encounter with destiny.

Both Alex and Indra looked at Dune gravely, not sure what to make of his story. They of course knew of the Prophecy and its contents, but Sade's claim was something unexpected. Indra spoke up once more, although his tones were now subdued as he talked of matters best not talked about.

"Dead you say? I don't think so. I know you think us fools for believing in such things as 'magic' and all that, but we are still men of science, and it is plain to see that you are as alive as we are. Sade is a very mysterious and cunning man. If you have something he wants, he'll try and get it by any means at his disposal. I know I don't need to tell you this, but his words are poison. I wouldn't put it past him to try and frighten you into giving him the artifact. I'm glad you resisted him, however you managed it."

Now Alex spoke, his voice the voice of authority, "Dune, listen to me. It would be wise not to talk to Mobius about the Prophecy. I guess you could say he's not much of a believer. He doesn't believe in destiny or fate and mentioning anything about it to him is likely to get you a swift kick from his wooden leg." Dune unconsciously rubbed the back of his head at this, and had no trouble believing Alex's words. "He believes his life is his own to live, and nothing is going to change his mind at this late hour." Alex spoke as if he knew exactly how that particular conversation went from experience.

No one needed to ask why the Prophecy would be a sore spot for Bismark in particular. They all knew what it had to say on this subject.

Before the Eye of the storm that does not sleep, the Elder of the Seas will sink into the Deep.

If they were to assume Dune was the "Child of the Sands", thenthere was no doubt who the "Elder of the Seas" was. All eyes were on the Captain on this mission. If it was possible to cheat Fate, they were going to do everything in their power to do it.

While the three conversed, the second ship slowly made its way closer and closer to the Maiden. As it neared, Dune could plainly see that it was in much better shape than the Maiden of the Sea. The sides of the ship were clean and gilded with long gleaming strips of gold from prow to stern. The ship also had sails, but they were silky white and seemed to reflect the sunlight like mirrors. Unlike the Maiden of the Sea, this ship had cannons positioned along the sides. The Maiden had never been designed for combat, and had always been a purely scientific and exploratory ship. In a time when maritime combat was almost unheard of, a ship with weapons was considered an aberration.

The biggest eye catcher on the entire ship by far was the figure engraved on its prow. A bright glowing goddess made out of mythril rose from the front of the ship with statuesque grace. One arm reached out to the heavens while the other hung to the side and beckoned oncoming ships with a globe of purest gold. Such a gaudy piece of masonry would have seemed out of place on any other vessel, but this ship was covered in such glammers, producing a strong sense of awe and intimidation for any sailors daring to go up against it. This golden ship was the infamous Golden Goddess, the pride of Bismark's heated rival, Jonah Levi. And Levi had made his presence known in his usual extravagantly overt way.

"What about him?" Dune asked as he peered out at the ship slowly approaching the Maiden like a stealthy predator waiting to strike.

"That would be our partner for this mission, Jonah Levi," Alex said dishearteningly. "I had half-hoped he wouldn't really be joining us, but I guess that idea was shot out of the water, literally."

"Can we really trust a man who just fired at us?"

"We'll have to. He's here now, and I doubt we can simply ask him to leave. We'll just have to put up with him until we get this job done. Hopefully we can get through this without needing to rely on his help."

"At the very least it looks like we'll have to meet and greet his ugly mug again," Indra said. "His ship's closing in on us fast, and he'll be wanting to wish us well, I'm sure. Remember what we said before, Dune. Do not trust him, or pity him."

After what he had just seen, Dune had no trouble following Indra's advice. The ship was now so close to the Maiden that Dune could have jumped over to it had he any desire at all to step foot on its deck. The ship came to a stop just a couple feet from broadsiding the Maiden and Dune caught a glimpse of the infamous captain of the Golden Goddess for the first time.

Jonah Levi was not a handsome man. Most people who met him face to face thought he was Death himself come to claim them. The man was tall, taller than Dune or Alex, and very gaunt. He rose up over the heads of his crew like some fragile tower ready to fall over at any moment, and looked it. His spindly frame was hidden most of the time by a large peacoat the color of scummy seawater. Probably the most striking feature on the man was his gaunt, ghost-like face. It was stark white and pale as a full moon and streaked with the deep furrows of old age. Most people could only stand to look directly at him for a few moments before turning away in shamefaced disgust. Like Bismark, he only had one eye and one leg, although Levi was missing his left eye and leg, while Bismark was missing his right. Instead of an eye patch, however, Levi simply had a empty socket yawning out from his face like a crater. He occasionally had a glass eye he wore, but Levi rather enjoyed the shocked look on people's faces when he went without it, and routinely "forgot" to put it in. Levi had long greasy black hair that hung down around his face in sparse threads like strips of dead kelp. He wore a greenish rain cap the color of his coat over his head, and a big black fisherman's boot on his good leg that completed the look of some long-dead soul who had just walked up from the depths of the sea.

Levi's demeanor was almost the exact opposite of his appearance. The man looked even frailer than his formidable age suggested, but had a fire in his belly that was only matched by Bismark's. His one good eye always had a mischievous glint in it, and his wide smile filled with rotten, yellowing teeth had all the charm of the devil's own. The man had a certain negative charm about him that tended to attract ruffians and ne'er-do-wells of all sorts, and it was this caste that made up most of his crew. His impish zeal and reputation had made him one of the most reviled captains on the high seas. As Dune had seen first-hand, Levi enjoyed tormenting his adversaries and would go to any length for a good laugh. And Captain Jonah Levi liked to laugh.

The only thing that exceeded Levi's deviousness was his greed. His Golden Goddess was a testament to that greed, and he was always looking for ways to increase his already vast fortune. Levi was the type of man who would stoop to even the lowest levels of humanity for the right price. No one on the Maiden of the Sea doubted he had been paid a hefty price to sail with them into the Mordic in search of the third artifact. What they did not know was that the Committee had paid him nothing. What they gave him was even better. A promise to find what he had long considered only a myth and foolish tale thought up by delirious sailors, but had secretly searched for all his life. Levi had heard rumors since his earliest days as a captain about a sunken castle made entirely of gold at the bottom of the sea, but had dismissed it as ridiculous in his mind. The very idea of a castle of such gaudy wealth had made an impression on Levi's greedy heart, though, and he had never forgotten the tale. Sailors who came out of the Mordic alive and sane(and this was not a large number) had spoken of a city of gold glistening just under the waves, inviting them to jump to their deaths, and Levi had always listened with a lustful ear. The Committee had told Levi that this was no myth, and there really was a city of untold riches under the waves of the Mordic, waiting for a captain brave enough to tap it. It was here the Committee said he would find the most precious of all the treasures in the sea, and to bring it to them. This was all Levi needed to hear to secure his place on this mission. Bismark's presence was just icing on the cake. This was the chance of a lifetime, and Levi was not going to let anyone or anything stop him from finding his life's dream.

The captain of the Golden Goddess smiled his most malignant grin as his vessel sidled up next to the Maiden of the Sea and Captain Bismark came into view. Today was a good day for Jonah Levi.