11.

Blood in the WɅter


In the Cobalt Coastlands, iscaN jolted awake.

His first thought was, I am a traitor. The second, I am in love.

He rolled his head just slightly to the right and saw both of these things were true. palinA of the Pearl Clan was nestled in next to him, naked beneath the covers, and with a blissful pink still glowing across her pale cheeks.

Completely in secret, at the second high tide, he had granted her permission to use his familiar name. iscaN instead of The Sukki, as women should call him. Immediately, she reciprocated. Not The Rakka, as men should say, but simply palinA. And then, calling on Sinnoh as witness, they exchanged their bodies and souls. To both the Clans of Hisui this was marriage.

We are married now, iscaN thought with alarm. For all of eternity, he was now bonded to an infidel, whose ancestors burned the forest and slaughtered his own people in the name of their false god. He would spend his life observing the flow of time like a river. His wife would waste it — drug along like a stone in the muddy riverbed! Thinking of Almighty Sinnoh not as Time, but as Space. As Vastness. And what use did vastness have? There was no real power in the size of things! Only in how long they could last!

So he had told palinA earlier that night. She'd cocked an eyebrow, and he'd been mortified, and then together they'd laughed, and the tunics came off, and someone's version of Almighty Sinnoh was watching. What did it matter then? Would the universe shatter at their love? Would Hisui cease to be?

In one muscled arm, he pulled her closer, and planted a small kiss on her forehead.

Thunder rumbled outside his humble seaside cabin.

"Strange, strange, strange," iscaN whispered. He always said his words three times. That was his duty as The Sukki, Warden to Lord Basculegion, whose body and mind were plural with tortured souls.

Carefully, iscaN lifted his heavy body out of bed, once again slipping on his deep blue tunic and tying up his boots. He slid open the doors of the cabin and looked at the sky. No clouds, save for that storm spinning slowly in the heavens over the mountain. There was a certain legend about that storm, but it was so long and distorted by Sinnoh's power that even adamaN himself could not recite it.

The tide was receding. iscaN breathed in the salty air as he marched down the grassy slope to the beach. The Cobalt Coastlands were Hisui's easternmost region, two peninsulas forming a crescent of beaches around a great blue lagoon. It was an eerie place, too. A "place between," the elders said, where strange spirits dwelled, and the very flow of time was agitated.

Nothing but the trickery of Ghost-type Pokémon, iscaN told them. He had lived on the beach for many years, and was well-accustomed to hearing whispers in the waves and thunder on cloudless nights, sometimes in tandem.

But tonight… he'd really seen a flash. That was what had woken him. A bright streak of yellow — only visible for a moment, that had lanced down and struck some dark part of the water.

iscaN squinted at the churning waves. How different this beach could become in only a few short hours. At sunset, one world had been joined to another by the pale blue evening and a scarlet glow breaking beyond the mountain. Now it was desolate. Gray sand and black water that sloshed and slumped upon the shore. And of course, the constant whispers in the night breeze that tugged at the back of his mind and begged him to reply.

at world'SsssSs beginning…

before world'sSss beginning…

forged with the sSspilling of an old god'sSSsssS blood…

the chain of blood…

the chain of blood…

an old god's blood…

returnSssS at world'Ssss end…

shall never be born…

(Ghosts were quite the gossips. Especially when it came to that "old god's blood" and rumors from before the world began.)

Now the black water was bubbling and rippling. iscaN stepped back, a shiver running down his spine. Murky laughter echoed from the promontories. Hot light snapped behind his eyelids, blinding him for a moment. He stumbled backwards and tripped over a rock, falling down and grunting. His thick fingers grabbed at moist gray sand. He squeezed it in his palms, huffing out his breath and clenching his teeth to keep his hold on reality.

A beat.

A bolt!

A huge and sinister fish broke from the surface of the waves, thrashing and flipping the sharpest of fins. Its mouth was agape. Its eyes were red and throbbing. Its scales flashed black in the starlight. A delicate smoke the color of blood streamed heavily out from its tail. And was that… real blood… shining like liquid silver on its flank? And dripping?

The fish was screaming.

With a hundred piercing, grating voices at once, it was screaming.

Then it fell with a mighty splash on its side, fanned its spines, and was gone.

"Basculegion!" iscaN cried. "Basculegion! Basculegion!"

He tore himself up from the sand and plunged his boots into the water, wading out to try and find where the fish had fallen back to haunted waters.

"My Lord? My Lord? My Lord?"

From one of the pouches slung across his chest, he produced a small white flute. iscaN brought it to his lips and played a short tremolo. The notes trailed off one after another, each one weaker than the last.

iscaN's heart pounded. He blew the tremolo again, silently praying his Lord would hear it and surface. He could smell the tang of blood now, and see a dark haze of it in the water, slowly spreading as he sloshed around up to his waist. The cold soaked through his tunic and bit at his stomach. He trilled the flute louder. The ghostly whispers only jeered.

Almighty Sinnoh, the Warden thought, have you taken the life of my Lord at the proper time? Or is this a punishment for my marriage?

As if his prayer was being answered, something glowed suddenly beneath the surface. A deep, bright gold, wavering, clinging to the roiling sand beneath the water. iscaN stared. It had the vague, round shape of a fish. Flickering. Brightening. Swelling. A gash in its side in the broken form of a fork… leaking…

The water grew warm, then boiling hot. Steam broke and misted off the surface. iscaN dropped his flute, scrambling with burning legs to swim back to the beach. The golden glow pursued him, razor-sharp scales pricking the surface like daggers and shining like the midday sun.

the sun in water…

reflected…

the old god'sSss return…

the chain of blood…

an old god's blood…

The cruel sun'sSsss reflection and an old god'Sss blood…

THE cRUEL SUN'SssS REFLeCtION AND An OLd GOD'ssSsS BLoOD

"Basculegion? Basculegion? Basculegion…?"

This time, the Lord of the Coastlands responded. Basculegion erupted from the water, his whole body gold and shining as if electrified. His muscles trembled beneath the scales, mouth gasping, fangs snapping, hungry for blood. His eyes were milky globes that bulged from the flesh. His hundred voices came out in a deafening clamor, snarling and screaming louder than before — and confusedly, as if they themselves had become possessed.

He landed on the beach and writhed through the sand toward iscaN, who was shuffling quickly, lower body still tingling and itching from the sudden heat of the waves.

He limped unsteadily up the little slope to his cabin, breathlessly throwing open the doors. palinA was awake, having heard the screaming. She was pulling on her tunic and whispering rhyming prayers under her breath.

"Weird? Wild? Worried?" she asked.

"Lord. Lord. Lord. Lightning. Lightning. Lightning. Livid. Livid. Livid."

With his hands, he signed the bolt coming down from the heavens and striking the fish in the flank, then curled his fingers like claws and flashed his teeth in a silent snarl. After that he crossed his arms and screwed his face up in worry. It was his duty to protect his Lord. No frenzy like this had ever struck the mighty Basculegion before.

palinA touched his arm. Cautiously, the two of them slid open the doors again. The blinding fish had wriggled on his belly all the way down the beach to the base of the slope, where he flopped about angrily, chomping at the grass and whipping the sand with his spines.

"Whispers," palinA said, cocking her head as if listening. "Wisps. Warnings?"

iscaN just shook his head. The Coastland ghosts made no more sense tonight than they ever had.

"Before the beginning," he repeated three times. "Chain of blood."

"Old god blood," said his wife with a grimace, knowing that same old song.

Then, strangely, the blinding fish's mouth went slack. His head twitched, as if he, too, were listening, either to the voices inside his head, or the jeering spirits. He shuddered madly, screaming at the cloudless sky, and then slid on his belly and fins back toward the water. With a final shriek, he leapt up and dove under, golden glow trailing with him out into the blackened lagoon, where it dimmed and disappeared.

"Spared," palinA whispered, wrapping her arms around her husband, who was shaking and scratching furiously at his legs. "Scared? Unprepared?"

"We must warn our Clans," iscaN repeated. "And the Galaxy folk. And anyone. This is not normal. Not normal. Not normal. I fear… I fear… I fear…"

"What?"

He furrowed his brows and threw both his hands out, exasperated.

"World's end."


~N~

I know Basculegion isn't one of the Frenzied Nobles in the game, but let's change it up and make things even more dangerous.

(Also I totally didn't realize that "size of things" joke until a good few seconds after I'd typed it, and then I left it in because it's coming from iscaN of all characters. XD)

Published by Syntax-N on FanFiction . Net July 11th, 2023. Please don't repost. Please do review!