Chapter 15

In which Jayd has to make a hard decision

Leaving Divalte that morning was hard. Not because they would have to fight their way through dozens of guards to escape, or because they were dragging weights from their feet. No, Fareus found that leaving Divalte was hard because they were not all leaving Divalte. King Jayd was set with his course of action, release Fareus and the others and returning Aleister and Calyne to their countries, nothing could be said or done that would change that. Never the less, Fareus could not help but not want to leave. Leaving men behind was never one of his policies, and he felt like a failure now that he had no other options apart from leaving Cal and Leix behind.

Jayd had arranged for an escort for them back to Anova, clearly doubting their prowess in taking care of themselves, and they were to depart that morning, two days after being delivered to the castle. Calyne and Aleister had both been silent for the majority of that morning, both well aware of the fates that lay before them; as did the rest of their companions. A sense of morbid distress had fallen over their entire group, silencing even Hanth. Lingering around in the castle's courtyard, saying nothing to one another, they simply stood there, almost as though they were frozen in time.

When King Jayd finally walked out of the castle and moved towards them, flanked by a guard on both sides. The three men came to a stop in front of the group of pirates, the king offering a feeble smile "Should I assume that you are all ready to go?" When no answer was given, one of the guards by Jayd's side growled.

"Do you not know how to properly respond to a king?!" He snarled, "Apologize to His Majesty immediately!" The guard began to move towards them threateningly, only to be stopped by a hand stretched out in front of him.

"No, leave them be." Though he was clearly enraged, the guard stepped back, obeying the orders given to him by the king, "I understand that this must be hard for you, but my mind is set." Jayd continued, "Either you leave now, or I shall assume that you wish to accompany Calyne to Arcis. You can take your pick." His blue eyes scanned the faces of all of the pirates, surveying the different emotions present on them, "I will give you five more minutes, then you must leave." Turning on his heel, the young king strode away, his guards trailing behind him.

Calyne offered a hideously fake smile to his companions, "Travel safely, and take care of yourselves." Ivrix was the first to pull the prince into an embrace, clutching the younger man tightly. For the first time in a long time, words were unable to be formed in the shipwright's mind, so he remained silent. Once he had pulled away, Zanar's arms were around him in another comforting embrace. The pattern continued, crewman after crewman, until only Hanth and Fareus were left.

Hanth, to no one's surprise, didn't approach Calyne, rather giving him an awkward semi-smile and a nod before diverting his attention as quickly as possible. Every one moved to give Aleister the same saddening goodbye, leaving Cal and Fareus staring at each other. When the prince made no effort to move, Fareus did instead, arms gripping onto the younger tightly, so close that Calyne could feel the captain's breath on his ear. They simply stood like that, arms around one another, for awhile, before finally, Fareus pulled back. He kissed Cal softly on the forehead, making the younger's heart race before he tilted his head back and returned it, pressing their lips together chastely. "I'm sorry." Fareus mumbled under his breath, "I'm so sorry I can't do anything to save you."

"Don't be. I can die happy just knowing you will all be alright." Calyne whispered in return, forcing himself to break from the comfortable hold Fareus had on him, eyes catching sight of Jayd entering the courtyard once again.

"Take care of yourself, alright, kid?"

—

They had been waiting for nine days. With each passing rise and fall of the sun, hope dwindled in the men still aboard The Discord. No one had dared to say it, what they each started to expect more and more had happened to their captain and crew mates. And as Erius had predicted, sleep was minimal amongst them, with only five men available for the longer watch hours, and the lack of rest had started to show.

Garieth, however, was the single positive light aboard the ship. He was steadily recovering, able to sleep without waking up after rolling onto one of his injuries, and he was expected to be up and about in only a few more days. Faar, while not continuing to get worse, was not getting better either, though he had started to regain consciousness more and more often.

The five healthy men - well, relatively healthy - were seated at the long table placed outside the galley, eating their dinners together, as they always did. It was a considerably less cheery event than it usually was, given their current situation. Vhon was still attempted to keep up conversations as they ate on that ninth night, but received little to no response, the only other person that responded was Beret, and, in a manner quite true to himself, he did not say much. As they were finishing up their suppers, Vhon collecting up the dirty plates to take back into the galley, the echoing of footsteps on the ramp leading up to their ship snapped everyone's attention in that direction.

Torben, drawing his sword, moved off of his seat to sneak towards the noise, sword gripped tightly in his hand. That grip was considerably loosened when someone called out, unable to even see the sailor, "Torben, put down the sword, it's just us."

Five pairs of eyes went wide, everyone dropping what they were doing instantly in favor of darting across the deck. After a couple climatic moments, Fareus came into few, considerably more exhausted than he was the last time they had seen him. Trailing behind him were Tasva, Ivrix, Raden, Zanar and Hanth, who also seemed to be quite tired. As Erius' violet eyes ran over their faces, worry beginning to seep from his body, he could not help but notice something.

"Where are Leix and Cal?"

"On their way home," Tasva answered, the last man to step on to the deck and breathing a sigh of relief as he did. "Their real homes."

"Leix too?" Vanya asked, staring at his younger lover intently, only to receive a shake of Tasva's head.

"Aleister. The king recognized him immediately, he has been sent back to Pelavor. It certainly seems better than what Calyne shall be going through." The cartographer shook his head, "I don't know about the rest of you guys, but I would like to sleep. That alright, captain?"

Fareus nodded silently, eyes drifting to look over Anova. There was no way he was going to accept it, the loss of both Leix and Cal. While there seemed to be absolutely no way around getting Leix - that is, Aleister - back, he for one would not sit by, knowing that Calyne was on his way to his death. He wasn't going to let the prince go without a fight.

—

"I could have sworn I told you not to do that to me again." Erius muttered as he and Raden arrived back in their room, earning him a roll of his lover's eyes.

"I'm sorry we were arrested, Erius, but there was really nothing we could have done that wouldn't have made the situation even worse." Raden replied tiredly, shedding his clothes slowly before crawling under the covers, "Feel free to be mad at me, just let me sleep, alright? Sleep now, yell in the morning, okay?"

"I won't yell, Raden," the elder stated, climbing into bed beside him, "I'm far too glad that you're alive to be mad and yell. I just… I want to hold you, all right?" Raden hummed in approval, relaxing in the warm arms that wrapped around him. "I love you…"

"Love you too." Raden mumbled, already drifting into sleep.

—

Vanya was back in the infirmary, once again changing Garieth's bandages. In a few days, the younger man should be ready to leave, and could be back to his usual routine around the ship. He wished the same was true for Faar, but it most certainly was not. At least the helmsman was getting better, which was more than could be said for him earlier.

Tying off the end of the bandage, both of his patients asleep, Vanya rolled his shoulders back and stretched his arms over his head with a loud yawn. "Tired?" The apothecary turned with a jolt at the voice, releasing a sigh of relief that he had not known he was holding when his eyes caught sight of Tasva leaning against the doorway.

"What was your first clue?" Vanya muttered in reply, "None of us have been getting more than four hours of sleep a night, Faar and Garieth excluded. That combined with the knowledge that you guys could have been dead for all we knew was not conducive to good sleep." Tossing the roll of unused bandage onto the counter, the blond haired man rubbed at his eyes tiredly, making his way towards Tasva and the door. He brushed past his lover with as little contact as possible, leaving the cartographer to shut the door behind him before following the elder.

"Okay, why are you mad?" Tasva asked, a tint of annoyance in his voice as he trailed behind Vanya.

"I'm not mad." Vanya answered, climbing down the steps to get below deck without so much as turning to look at his companion.

"Then why are you avoiding?" the cartographer shot back, "I know you, Vanya, now tell me what is wrong."

That seemed to hit something in Vanya's mind, because he whirled around, face to face with the younger man, "What is wrong? You want to know what is wrong? We have been waiting here for nine days, with no idea if we would ever see any of you ever again, that's what is wrong. We had to be on our toes at all hours of the day, just in case the ship was attacked again, even though we were all well aware that we stood no chance if it was. Do you have any idea what that is like, Tasva? There was absolutely nothing we could do apart from staying here like sitting ducks, and now you all show up again as though nothing is wrong? Because things are wrong, Tasva, in case you had not noticed." The apothecary spoke with an anger that his companion could not remember hearing ever before in the seven years they had known each other.

"I'm sorry, Vanya, what would you rather have us do? Go back to Eriholt and offer ourselves up for punishment? These past few days have not been easy for us either, but now we are back. I do not exactly see the problem." Tasva replied coolly, eyes searching the other's face for traces of the anger he had heard.

"The problem is that you scared me half to death, Tas." Vanya retorted, though most of the rage had drained from his body. "You could have been dead in a dungeon for all I knew, left there to rot. Do you have any idea what I would do without you, Tasva?"

"I am sorry," the cartographer repeated, taking the necessary steps to reach Vanya and embracing him tightly, "But… Fareus has decided to continue to go after Cal. He plans on having us leave as soon as possible tomorrow morning, and go as far as we can to get back to Sybitra as soon as possible." He could feel the elder's muscles stiffen, but he did not give up on his hug, keeping Vanya pulled close to him, "I will probably go with him to Albion, and it will be dangerous. There is the possibility that I would not come back."

"Then why go?" Vanya snapped, jerking from the embrace, "Do you have a death wish or something, Tasva?"

Tasva's silver eyes drifted shut, and he took a deep breath before letting them open once again, "I owe it to Fareus. You know that if it wasn't for him, we would likely not be together. If it wasn't for him, we never would have met. Fareus has always been there for me, Vanya, and Cal is his chance to get over Talon. I have a chance to help him heal, and he deserves it. So I am sorry." Vanya stared blankly at the man, words failing him completely. So instead he turned around and walked to his room, leaving Tasva to stand alone in the hallway.

—

The infirmary was quiet. It was a good thing, really, Beret supposed, but he'd never been fond of the quiet. It reminded him of home, his real home, and he'd left Anda to get away from that. He knew he should have considered himself lucky for getting the bedroom connected to the infirmary to himself, a luxury that only Fareus and himself had, but he hated it. The quiet got to him, it hovered around him until he was suffocating in the sheer loneliness of it all.

Oftentimes, when there were men in the infirmary, he'd leave his door open, just so he could hear the breathing from the next room. It broke the silence, and it comforted him, to the point where he'd put off going to bed, just for that reassurance. Even now, though he was exhausted, he remained in the infirmary, eyes not even focused on Garieth or Faar, but still consoled by them. His green blue eyes had long since drifted shut as he sat curled up in his chair, mind heading towards slumber.

A smile subconsciously worked its way onto his face when he was suddenly encompassed by a painfully familiar warmth, hardly noticing when he was lifted from his chair. The rocking motions of being carried combined with those of the ship, and Beret leaned his head against the broad chest, sighing contentedly. Before long, the Drakoan was deposited in his bed, the blankets drawn up around his shoulders, and the warm arms retracted. Beret's fingers clutched tightly to the shirt, earning him a soft chuckle.

"Always such a child, Beret…" Even when half asleep, he could place the voice in a heartbeat, for his heart really did beat just for the man beside him. His pale fingers uncurled, arms instead stretching upward, silently pleading the elder for an embrace. Another chuckle, before the arms were back, "Go to sleep, alright? You're tired." Beret nodded, his arms falling back to his side, "Good night."

He could hear the footsteps to the door, even as he murmured his own tired "Good night." As the sounds grew quieter and quieter, he whispered, "I love you."

But the other was gone, and he was left in silence.

Oh wow, fifteen chapters and finally they kiss. Yeah, way to go guys.

Now taking guesses as to the mystery character 8D