Scintillation - Llidora Arc

This arc begins with our favorite first-mate of the pirate ship The Revenant, Shah, badgering his captain, the Pirate Lord Issrael to retire his sea-legs at long last. Issrael is beyond immune to these antics but he can’t help but humor his companion, and friend.

He raised a mug to peer inside, the dregs of his rum sloshing around at the bottom. Unimpressed, the pirate lord placed the mug back on the bar-top, the loud thunk signaling the barkeep to top him off.  “Am I dying?”

Shah’s blank and vaguely annoyed look only served to make Issrael chuckle darkly. 

“You aren’t dying. But you aren’t really living, either. And that my friend,” his hand snapped out to grab Issrael’s mug, sliding it of reach before the barkeep could refill it. He was in no mood to lug an incapacitated, black-out drunk pirate lord back to the ship tonight. “That is precisely why I saved your life all those years ago. So that you could live. Now please, get on with it so that I might be freed of you.”

Though Shah spoke mostly in jest, Issrael understood the apprehension that laid beneath his facetious comments and charming smiles. Long ago Shahriyar saved Issrael’s life, and in doing so bound himself to the Pirate lord. Shah, who carried the ancient and powerful blood of his Djinn ancestors, depleted his magic to grant Issrael a dying wish: to live. 

Neither was aware of the fine print that came with such a feat. Shah would be unable to grant another wish until Issrael’s wish is fulfilled. Unfortunately, simply being alive does not constitute as ‘living’. 

“If you bothered to stick around for more one night out of the year you might see there is more to enjoy on land that you ever thought possible.” Shah takes a final swig to polish off what remained in his own mug, standing from his seat as he does. Issrael, amused, breathes a quiet laugh. 

“Who am I?” 

Shah sketched a brow and regarded his friend curiously. “What a dubious question. Which you are you asking me to name?”

Issrael leveled a stare at his first-mate that made Shah swallow and clear his throat. “Fine, fine. Captain—my captain.” At seeing the smug and knowing look on Iss’s face, Shah scoffed. “Yes, I know what that means. But really…if you didn’t want my advice then why would you make me your first-mate?”

Issrael didn’t bother responding and instead opted to stare at Shah impassively as he stood and gathered his belongings. It was high time they be back on deck; the tides would be rolling out soon which would make the journey easier. Making good time on their next job meant he could get back to enjoy a fine drink sooner rather than later.

As they leave the tavern and make their way down to the docks, Issrael caught himself glancing at the northern road to where a medium-sized inn sat at the edge of the harbor town. Though he couldn’t see the on-goings of the Inn from where he stood, he could make an educated guess. Somewhere inside was a young lady who was probably, given the time, curled into a cushioned chair with a well-loved book in her lap, and almost certainly a cup of tea within reach. Briefly, he wondered what Evie might think of his and Shah’s recent and prolonged absence. There was a time when they’d regularly stopped at her Inn for a brief respite from the tavern noise. While the Inn wasn’t the largest of stays, it was as hospitable as they come. With warm hearths, soft beds, and good company, one would be hard pressed to imagine a better place to warm the bones and rest the eyes and weary soul. 

It felt like an age. How much time had passed since they’d seen one another? It was hard to keep track of with the long stretches of time that he and his crew were out at sea. Privately, he hoped she wasn’t too disappointed.

A triumphant humph beside him makes Issrael sigh. Shah, with his arms tucked into a tight fold across his chest, followed Issrael’s line of sight to the Inn. The jeer is evident in his voice, languid with a telling grin on his lips. “Well, look who is choosing to use his eyes. Now if he could learn to use his brain, and maybe his--”

Iss was walking away from the other before Shah could even turn back to face him. If he’d heard Shah, he made no indication of it—or perhaps he was simply ignoring his first mate as he grown used to doing in instances like this. In either case, Issrael took lead in heading back down to the harbor. Their next trip, he mused, would likely be a long one. Not because it needed to be...no, but because something inside him told him it would be necessary, for him, to stay away for a little while.