Athen’s brown eyes oversaw the mountainside and the black ocean beyond it. And that was all. As much as he had been straining his eyes that week, he couldn’t see the Siopenne Mainland across the sea. But he figured. It was most likely all according to his sister’s plan, anyway. She had made it very clear to him that he wouldn’t be going anywhere as long as she was Queen.

He looked down at his daily phial of high elf blood. She would be Queen for a very long time as long as the elves were profiting off of their blood. Though expensive, the rich and the royal across the globe were buying all that they could of the precious elixir. It was a ticket to long life and flawless beauty, of course, but Athen was fully aware of the side effects. Countless cities and countries had been torn apart by the assassinations and revolts against figureheads and officials who would otherwise have their positions till their now elongated death, and at the inflation of his sister’s tyrannical rule, she’d be gone in no time. He looked up at the half moon in the sky, took his shot of blood, and threw the glass phial as far over the mountainside as he could, listening as it shattered in the sandy shoreline.

“Athen.”

It was his sister. Dreading her sight, he slowly turned around to see her approaching him.

“Anya.”

In the night, the moon turned her skin an ashy white, and when she arrived in her heavy black gowns and pale curls, he always felt as though she was foreshadowing something… undead. There was never any life in her face.

“I told you to stop coming out here. Come back to the castle.”

He avoided her sullen eyes.

“I can’t see the ocean from there.”

“It is not necessary,” she said, “to see the ocean. Go back.”

“But why not? It isn’t necessary to keep me at home all the time, is it?” he asked, clenching his fists. There was a flicker of anger in Anya’s violet eyes, but her face quickly returned to its emotionless state.

“It is. I cannot yet trust you to stay in Aiyaka. All you’ve done is made it clear to me that if I wasn’t willing to threaten you with our knights to stay put, you’d run away.” Athen shook his head.

“You’ve let all the others go. Was that necessary?”

“Koya went to an Academy, and Zarinas simply wasn’t worth keeping,” Anya replied. She stepped forward and stared into the waves. “There’s nothing for you out there, Athen. Only here.” There was a long pause, and finally, he couldn’t contain himself any longer.

“I’m going to Siopenne!” And suddenly, Anya shot him the nastiest look he had seen her with yet, though he had been expecting her anger.

“You’ll do no such thing! You… you’ve heard those stories about… him… that necromancer, haven’t you?”

“You mean our brother?”

“It’s been years, Athen, they’re all lies! He’s dead!”

It had been years. Eighteen years. He was fourteen then, and his little sister was still alive, too. His eldest brother was driven from Aiyaka once they found out about his practices of the undead, and from that point on, he had disappeared from the Luna Ridge Mainland entirely, and all thought he had died. But, only recently he had heard his name somewhere on the streets. The eldest of the Miras family was indeed still alive, and the stories said he was on Siopenne.

“He’s alive, Anya, and I’m going to find him!” His sister’s frail hand whipped through the chill air and slapped him.

“You’ll let that filthy man wither away with the foul hand of death he holds! Him and his stories, and all of their lies. He’s not coming back to this town, or anywhere near it!” Athen bared his teeth and bit his tongue.

“He’d do a better job with that crown than you would, Anya.”

The Queen was agape. She attempted words and only stuttered, and when it was apparent that Athen had gotten the last word, she turned on her heel and made her brisk leave. After the last of her frame had disappeared on the horizon, everything was quiet. So quiet, it even seemed as though the ocean were soundless and still. He resented his sister. He really did. He turned his back to the sea one last time before he would return home, and a tiny speck riding on the waves to the far east caught his eye. Of all things there could be, it was a ship. It was a medium sized ship, from what he could tell in the night, and would be checking in to the Aiyakan Seaport soon. In an hour. Maybe.

He considered this. It could be his big chance. No one ever sailed the seas anymore, so it would be the last place Anya would think to look for him if he left. It could be a real adventure, or he could find out why no one sailed the seas anymore, but he didn’t care about the chance. The ship appeared to be going west, dead on to Siopenne, so if he stowed away, he might eventually reach his destination. And unless they were okay with having a huge bounty on their heads, the crew wouldn’t dare kill him if he was discovered.

Yes or no?

It was a hard decision. The wind was steady, and the ship was making awful good time. If he hurried back home to pack, he might make it to the seaport within two or three hours. It might be too late by then, though, he thought.

Yes or no? He was wasting time standing there, thinking. But he had to get away. And he would. He made his last run home to the castle of Aiyaka.

The recently oiled hinges made no noise as Athen tiptoed into his room, the lights still on. Immediately, he headed for his traveling pack lying on the floor next to his closet, passing shortly by his mirror. His appearance, despite the time and effort he had put into it earlier, was absolutely disheveled. His short brown waves had frizzed up on him, and the sea air must’ve been the culprit for his dry and dirty skin.

“Something I’ll have to get used to…” he whispered, slinging his bag over his shoulder. As soon as he looked inside, his mind drew a blank as for what he’d put in it. Then, his hands went to his vanity drawer and around the Miras Family Card. Money. It was his royal family’s savings, and if nothing else, he’d survive on it. He didn’t care if Anya could track him when he used it. He would just keep running.

Actual currency fell beside the card, and a few pairs of clothes. Scouring around his room, he couldn’t think of anything else. Money and clothes. And then, it hit him. He looked under his vanity sink for the rest of his high elf blood phials. He’d run out at the end of the month, but he figured he had taken enough over the years. A human life was long enough as it was, anyway. Carefully, he loaded them up, eyeing his wall clock. It was almost one, and hopefully, Anya would be asleep.

By the time he was ready to leave, his bag was partly full with his elf blood, shortsword, money, clothes, a blanket, light, and a small laser pistol and charger. The clock passed one, and he pulled his cloak around him and left the castle of Aiyaka, swearing to himself he’d never call it home again. The hooves of a cinnamon stallion pounded on the cobblestone road to the Aiyakan Seaport.

“O.C.! The card’s maxed!”

Orla Ciel listened to her first mate’s call from down the dock and swore loudly. With a sigh of dread, she excused herself from the dock overseer’s conversation and approached a woman standing before a kiosk window.

“What?”

“The card’s maxed out,” the woman said, dropping it in O.C.’s hand. She was horrified.

“What? Did we even get our provisions?” The woman shook her head.

“No. We didn’t get much of anything. A bag of rice, a bag of potatoes, 200 small bags of… popcorn…”

“Popcorn?”

“Questa said you put it on the list yourself.” O.C. gave off a minute of silent, blinking confusion.

“Oh. Hm. Did we get anything else?” she asked.

“I was able to get parts to fix our fridge and freezer systems, so Shinji could probably put them in, or I could do it. I got some new soil for the garden, but these were the only seeds they had.” The first mate moved aside a lock of her red hair and held out her palm. O.C. frowned, looking down at no more than 10 seeds.

“Well, Kigiri, I guess it’ll be just fish and crab. I really thought we would’ve raised more money this time,” she said with a sigh. Kigiri put her hands on her hips.

“O.C., we can’t just keep doing this! Each season we come back, we’ll have less and less money. The last thing we need is to be stranded out in the middle of the ocean,” she said. “And we’re behind on techs, and that’s gonna hurt us in an emergency! And we’re going to continue being behind, and each year that’ll hurt us more and more!”

“I don’t give a damn about the stupid techs! There’s no one competing against us anyway, so why would we need to worry about an emergency? We have no enemies! All we need is tech enough to keep us alive, to bring back catches from the nets to sell on our stops, and to catch the USO we’ve been after!” Kigiri handed her the card.

“Here Capt’n.” O.C. folded her arms, watching as Kigiri boarded the Vesper, their mediocre and nothing more than that ship. Deeply, she sighed and tucked the card away in a back pocket of her dark trousers.

“This’ll be a long season.”