Chapter 6:

The girl with hairs like fire (1)

 

Mitali saw her new sailor leap onto the white vessel. It appeared she had taken so much water that her deck was now lower than Mitali’s own deck was.

She is going to sink, is she not? 

A variety of alarms and rings resounded across the bridge; she had grown accustomed to them over the years and it had long been since they last bothered her. 

Now up close, she could witness Azukima’s remarkable size, not only was her shadow more than twice her own size in height, but she was long too, easily overtaking any ship Mitali had ever seen, with the exception of a handful of battleships. At a glance, she could tell her hull was made with love and tremendous effort, good steel delicately bent to just the right shape, immaculate drawings and carvings melted on the metal surface as fire harassed it time and again. 

Towers upon towers tried to reach into the sky amidship, some were made of solid steel, others, of smoke. Layers upon layers on them, stacked on each other, with slick and dagger-like shapes that at times resembled melee weaponry. 

She knew the functions of some towers.

‘Tis a radio tower, at the back.

Those are rangefinders.

That is a solar tower, between the bridge and the first funnel. 

Those are wave-controllers.

However, there were plenty of structures whose meaning and purpose she couldn’t understand. 

Suddenly, a number of thoughts sprung to her mind.

 

Her image reminds me of a besieged castle, but what is a castle? Have I ever seen one? 

Why was she built like so?

Will I ever see her again?

 

The alarms had grown annoying, with a wave of her hand, she silenced them all. 

Only one sound now reigned on the bridge-

-Her blood slowly dripping down to her feet.

 

———————————————————————————————————————

 

Amongst the roars of cannon and fire, Taccilas leapt from Mitali and onto the white vessel, he thought the fall would be smaller and tripped as he landed, but everyone was too busy reloading guns, preparing to fight, or taking part in damage control to notice him boarding the ship. A few eyes were drawn towards the warship Mitali, but no action was taken against her.

Immediately, he felt warmer. Fire was ravaging nearly every corner of the ship, if he was to rescue anyone, he would have to make haste. Shouts were coming from everywhere, but he figured that the important people would be closer to the bridge.

Those that would give him his reward after he aided them.

And so he ran. 

The deck cracked under him, some of it was damaged enough that it completely splintered as he walked over it. But his attention was not on the floor or in the battle surrounding him, it was on the walls. 

There were sections, not yet devoured by ash and fire, that were white as the moon and crossed by lines upon lines of jewelry and paintings.

Every single steel wall of this ship had paintings and carvings over it. They had become too burnt for Taccilas to follow, but they made up a ship-wide mural that together depicted some sort of story. Men, women, gods, animals, beasts, and things he didn’t even recognize were painted all over the ship. He knew nothing about art, but Taccilas felt like the ship he stood on had been the work of several masters of the craft working endlessly.  Gold, sapphire, ruby, and billon gems were integrated into the murals and aided in its tellings, together with less sacred gemstones, like silver and obsidian. 

He stopped for a moment, tried to pull one of the golden gems from its place in the mural, and promptly stopped after burning himself even though he was still using his jacket as a glove.

Yep, let’s just continue with the original plan.

“Hey, what do you think you’re doing?!” Shouted a man as he pressed a rifle against Taccilas’ shoulder. He wore what appeared to be a beige military uniform.

“This ship is going to sink! I’m just trying to save a part of it!” Replied Taccilas, trying to veil his motives from the man. The feeling of a gun pointed at him wasn’t unfamiliar.

“Liar! You’re looting our ship! You must be a Qazgaradian pirate! We’ve been bo-” 

“I’m not! We’re here to rescue whoever and whatever we can from this ship!”

“We?”

Taccilas pointed at Mitali’s injured form, the man’s eyes followed.

“Yes, I come with that ship, Mitali, please. The situation looks bad, let us rescue whoever we can!”

“You think I’ll buy that?! What do you take us for?!”

“It’s the truth!” 

The man grew silent, his mind in a decisive race against cannonfire and the power of the ocean. 

Steel burnt red hot to his side, the mural slowly becoming more and more unrecognizable with every passing second. 

The ink all comes together with no purpose or shape, the story slowly being lost. Only the carvings went on telling their side of the tale.

If he’s a pirate, then why would he disembark alone? Why not bring an entire boarding party with him?

He may look like a child, but it wouldn’t be the first time the Qazgaradians enlist children for their raids.

This battle is lost. If they wanted to loot Azukima or kidnap our princess, they could just do it! We’re outnumbered! There’s no need to send a child to try and deceive us, what is the point?!

What is he even after? He’s not even carrying any weapons!

Fire ravaged steel-

Smoke burned through the air- 

-And gunfire rang and rang again like the bell that announces the coming of death. 

The man observed the warship Taccilas had pointed out, he could see she was gravely damaged, but mainly around the forecastle of the ship. Whilst her fighting capabilities were impaired, her engines should be intact.

A tower, its purpose unknown to Taccilas, cracked and fell onto one of the the ships’ two funnels after taking a shell, causing a tremendous amount of steel to collapse on the opposing side of the ship. 

The wood Taccilas and the man were standing on trembled, a great crash echoed across the morning sky. 

He could see a clear path carved out, it has to have been the work of this Mitali ship. They should be able to escape through there, that boy should be able to take his princess and deliver her to safety. 

Damned be this ship and her jewelry and stories if it can’t protect one single person dear to me!

And most importantly, the ship bore a number of flags, but the most notable was a white sword upon a bronze sun. 

The Sword of the Smoking Sun

The standard Azukima bore.

The standard of the Steel Kingdom of Hanryunn.

His kingdom.

 

The man aimed his rifle away from Taccilas’ shoulder and to his heart.

“Swear to me! Swear to me that you will not bring harm to our princess!” 

“I swear!” Taccilas golden eyes pierced the man’s own. He didn’t do any fanfare with his hands like the man was accustomed to seeing, but Taccilas’ eyes transmitted all the man wished from him. 

“And you will protect her with your life!”

“I will!”

“Very well, I will take you to her. Follow me.”

The sailor broke into a run, Taccilas followed him immediately. As they went, it grew increasingly more clear that the vessel would be sinking imminently, lest nothing short of a miracle take place. Sections of the deck would sporadically be covered by ocean water and everything that didn’t get wet, was actively burning. Sailors ran to and fro to try and keep the damage at bay, but the white vessel was battered over and over again, to no end. 

The towers of smoke rose to the sky unimpeded, the others fell and tumbled. 

The murals had been erased.

Soon, it would be as if nothing had ever happened. 

Eternal corpses would be the only memories that remained.

 

Before long, the soldier and Taccilas ran into a large group of men and women all surrounding someone, and clamor surrounded them in turn. They were out on the deck, but the area around them was nearly pristine, to the point that it seemed like it existed in a world separate to that of the battle. Everyone was dressed with beige military uniforms, but unlike the soldier, they wore achievements and decorations of many colors and gems. 

The soldier spoke up amongst their voices. “Captain Makki! Captain Makki!”

“What is it, Lieutenant?” A bearded man turned to face Taccilas and the soldier. Black beard, with black eyes, but his focus was everywhere but on the two people before him. The soldier quickly bowed before him. 

“This boy claims he has come to rescue whoever he can!” 

“How? Has he come with the destroyer we saw approaching from the south?”

“It would appear so, sir!”

The captain turned to look at the golden-eyed boy.“What’s your name?”

“Taccilas, at your service.” 

“The-”

“Who is this, Makki?” 

But a young, fiery voice interrupted the captain.

“Princess! Please, wait just one moment.”

A girl pushed through the crowd and revealed herself before Taccilas. Immediately, something struck him as strange.

Her hair.

It was of a beautiful color, yet was shaped in weird, unpredictable and unnatural ways. It rose like a series of beautiful spikes and was held in place pointing behind her. Some spikes curved towards her neck and down her back, others curved towards the sky, some simply curved back onto themselves. And some spikes or bangs simply did all of those combined.

Her hair was like fire itself, a divine flame that danced to the tune of the whispers of the wind.

“Absolutely not, we have no time and we must save as many of you as we can.”

Golden and silver steel trim decorated her maroon blouse, the sleeves being detached from the blouse in question, leaving her sand-colored shoulders exposed to the whims of the winds.

“But princess, we don’t know if we can trust-”

The princess gently, but hastily grabbed the captain’s gloved hands and brought her body towards his, pressing her modest chest on him. For a moment, the captain’s cheeks flushed, but his blush subsided when he heard her words.

“Captain! Do you see any other options to save your crew?”

“I- No, princess, this is most likely the only way.” 

The captain lowered his head as he spoke.

“Does anyone else have any other ideas?!” The princess’ hair swayed with her from side to side as she directed herself to the rest of the sailors. Her skirt, colored much like her blouse and decorated just as much, accompanied the movement.

She was met with silence.

“That’s what I thought. You! You said your name was Taccilas, right?”

Taccilas was in awe of the girl who was commanding all officers, she seemed to be around the same age and height as him- 

But the impetus with which she moved-

-The gravitas with which she spoke-

-And the might with which she conducted her stunning figure.

All made Taccilas break into a deep smile- 

-Until their eyes finally met. 

Until her purple eyes, within which he saw an empty hourglass- rid of the sands of time, met him.

And thus she spoke.

“I’m Izuchi la Kaalinn, third princess of the Dukedom of Illeryna! Please, take the crew of this sinking ship with you! Save them!”