Silence followed Mack's statement, punctuated by the drip of sea water from their clothes. The crew of their rescue ship stood, sharing a bleak expression as they held a clawed hand over their hearts. A sailor's send off, though Calponia couldn't understand how they could be so accepting of the whole situation. She was freaking out. How long had they been dealing with ship eating monsters to be that chill about it? Her shaking hands found the deck railing, knuckles pale as she gripped the wood until splinters bit into her hand.

Were Ravelock and his crew still alive? She shivered hard.

"Bloody heathen monsters," Captain Eleni spat, finally breaking the silence. "We'll bound for port, lads. We'll honor the fallen of the Mist Bane at the Harbor Master's call." The woman turned the wheel, sending the vessel in a smooth spin as Mack joined her at the helm, engaging the captain in a furious whispered exchange. To be a fly on that wheel. Calponia's curiosity stalled as she felt a strange fluttering pull in her bones. Her stomach churned. She winced, wrapping an arm around her waist. Eugene moved up beside her, leaning on the deck rail. His gaze remained on the wreckage as they pulled away.

"This is bad," he offered conversationally, wincing when he turned to her expression. "Right, a rather obvious statement wasn't it?"

She gave a helpless shrug, trying to ignore the discomfort in her stomach. Nausea made a happy appearance, causing her to bite down on her retort.

Eugene frowned at her. "Are you feeling ill, Cal? You've gone rather green."

"I-" speaking was a mistake. A horrible, horrible mistake. Saliva filled her mouth, her only warning before she leaned hard on the railing and released a stream of bile from her mouth. Her body heaved so hard her senses momentarily blanked. Since there was scant in her stomach, there was only burning yellow fluid that made her eyes water and stung her sinuses. The strange fluttering pull increased at opposite ends, from her scalp and her toes; a pull that went in alarmingly opposite directions. She felt as if her body would corkscrew apart from her stomach out.

She held onto the rail for dear life, vaguely aware there was a vampire holding her hair back like a helpful sorority sister. Calponia heard the rumble of his voice, but couldn't make out the words. Her skin tingled all over. That couldn't be a good sign. She was silently praying for the nausea to subside when the railing abruptly snapped under her hands. As her body pitched forward, she found herself wondering what took the bête noire so long. Maybe it was gun shy, what with Krakens swarming in the sea below her and all. Her head jerked back.

Right, there was a vampire still holding her hair. She thanked the realms for Eugene's speedy reflexes as his arm snaked around her waist and hauled her backward, the two of them landing in a heap on the deck.

"Keto's Tits, Macklemore, what did you bring on my damn ship?" Captain Eleni appeared above her. She was seeing an awful lot of this woman from the flat of her back. Calponia wanted to answer but between nearly plunging off the ship and vomiting her guts out, she was a bit occupied. Her stomach rolled, informing her it intended to keep up its attempt to evacuate through her throat. She choked on acidic bile, gasping for breath.

Captain Eleni gave a 'tch' sound and rolled up her sleeves. The woman pinched her's chin, holding firm as she shoved something warm and wriggling past Calponia's lips. A calloused hand slapped down, holding her mouth closed as Calponia shrieked and tried to spit out the live thing in her mouth.

"Swallow it down or you'll be vomiting blood before we hit port," Eleni snapped but her honey eyes were warm and reassuring. "You've got gravity sickness, lass. Your body needs some help adapting to the polarizing fields." She looked up, scowling as Mack knelt beside her. "Want to tell me how my railing, which I checked myself at last dock, suddenly failed?"

"My apologies, Eleni, I must have weakened its integral structure," said Mack, his gaze on Calponia as he spoke. "I seem to have misjudged quite a few things since our arrival."

Eleni pursed her lips, obviously wanting to call bull. Through their exchange Calponia struggled to swallow down the wriggling thing in her mouth, unsettled as it continued to wriggle all the way down, but once it hit her stomach a bloom of warmth chased the nausea away. Her limbs stopped feeling like they were going to detach any moment. Her body relaxed, allowing her to realize that she wasn't quite lying on the deck. She tilted her head up, catching a glimpse of Eugene's stoic face. His nostrils flared.

She owed the man a pint a blood whiskey when they got back to the tavern.

"There now," said Eleni, removing her hand and helping Calponia up off the pinned vampire. "Color's returning already."

"What did you give me?"

"Shrimp," said Eleni, "Of a sort."

Calponia's right eye twitched. "A sort of shrimp? A live sort of shrimp? Why?"

Eleni winked at her. "Old seaman's cure for the sickness. Worked didn't it?"

Calponia swallowed hard, determined not to let the little guy's sacrifice be in vain, specially with those tiger eyes watching her. She wondered why Mack wasn't keen to share the real reason the railing had failed with the Captain.

"Why don't you have a seat until we dock?" It wasn't quite an order, but Eleni's tone left no room for argument. Calponia settled down on one of the long benches on the deck, keeping her hands clasped in her lap. It didn't surprise her when Eugene hovered like a shadow nearby, leaning against one of the support masts. The crew gave him a fairly wide berth, though she caught a few of them doing an odd gesture behind his back, running a thumb along under an eye in a cross and crescent formation. 

"Warding off evil," murmured Eugene by way of explanation. Apparently, he was quite aware of the rude gestures, but appeared not to give a damn.

Calponia made a face. "To me or you?"

The vampire shrugged. "Likely both."

Ducky. Well if it didn't bother him, she wasn't going to let it bother her. She fidgeted. "Thank you for that, by the way."

He glanced at her, his expression was uncertain. "How's your head?"

"Oh, that," she waved it off. Her scalp felt a bit tender, but hey, she wasn't Kraken bait. "I've had worse. This one job I had, I got my hair caught in the copy machine. Now that was a Class A disaster. They had to cut me free. My hair was lopsided for months." She didn't do hair dressers with good reason. Last one nearly took off her ear. Eugene blinked at her.

"What an interesting life you've had," he said, a slight strain in his voice.

"It's okay," said Calponia, a hint of humor tucked at the corner of her mouth. "You can laugh."

He still spared her, politely coughing into his hand.

The moment ended as Mack sat beside her. "You okay, Cal?" He didn't look at her as he asked, slouching forward to rest his forearms on his knees. He wore distraction like a second skin, his gaze far and away from the here and now. But he was here, and she knew he was still listening to her.

Mack would always listen to her. The certainty eased a tension she didn't know she held. When had she become so certain of that?

"I'm fine," she said, playing with the damp hem of her coat. In truth, she was freezing, but her layers, though damp, protected her from the worst of the wind buffeting them. She dropped her voice to a low murmur. "Why did you take blame for the railing?"

"Because this crew is a powder keg of fear and superstition, under siege by mythical monsters. Throwing a cursed maiden into the works might tip them over. I promise I will fill in Eleni when we reach port."

Rather than settle her nerves, her fidgeting grew worse. "So, Krakens, eh? I've heard of those. Big old squid beasties, right?"

She thought of the delicate cloud squid they'd seen floating through in the sky that filled her with a sense of wonder and awe, nothing like the lurking shadowy menace beneath the water.

"Some have squid-like features. Kraken is the name for the race itself. They come in a variety of chaotic shapes. Behemoth primordial creatures, and the lot of them have no business in this realm. If our mysterious enemy opened a hole to bring them through, he's far more devious and dangerous than I assumed."

"That bad?"

"Krakens are ancient, evil, merciless bastards. They devour everything in their path, but their intelligence is far greater than a common predator. If they're left to their own devices, they'll decimate a world like Oceanus."

She stared at him. Mack tugged his beard. "Even your world is somewhat aware of their existence. The influence of the Krakens extends beyond their realm through the subconscious of mortals. Homer, Verne, Lovecraft, all heard the whispers of the Deep Ones. Luckily none of them were fool enough to listen for long or Earth would no longer exist."

That was an appalling revelation and practically spelled the fate of their missing friends. A loose thread ripped free in her fingers. "Are Ravelock and the Munch dead?"

"I don't know," admitted Mack, "though I understand why they stayed away."

She didn't like the sound of that. "We won't be leaving here until the Krakens are gone."

Mack took a deep breath. "I have a duty to the realm."

"But what if the Edgewise is attacked again?" His intent expression left her cold inside. "It can protect itself long as I'm here, right?"

He nodded. She didn't want to take it personal. It was probably good to get some distance from the tavern after the freaky dreams and episodes she'd experienced. She could gain some perspective here, as long as she managed to avoid becoming a Kraken snack. A thought occurred to her.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Calponia surged on when Mack frowned at her. She was his apprentice, dammit. "I directed it, on Arden, when the Inquisitor grabbed me. Maybe I could, I don't know, direct it at a Kraken--"

"No!" Mack and Eugene yelped in unison.

She stuck her lip out. "I can help," she insisted.

Mack reached over to grip her shoulder. "You will. You're going to help me this very evening, my young apprentice."

She raised a brow. "Okey dokey Kenobi."

"We will find them, Cal, I promise," said Mack. She believed him. A flash of color caught the corner of her vision.

Calponia turned her head and sucked in a breath.

She hadn't gotten a good look at the city below, er, above, them before, but as the Aurai's Breath sailed down to the clustered buildings, she took in the beauty of the geometric city. A massive swatch of red cloth capped every building, catching the wind like the entire city was set to sail into the sky. Large, elegant wine colored wind turbines lined the rocky shores on both sides of the isle, lazily spinning in constant motion. The center of the city was occupied by a long tiered structure that took up several city blocks of space. As they drew closer, she got a feel for its size, a space that could easily fit half a dozen Grand Central buildings, and served the same function as a hub for incoming and departing ships. The tall boxy structures around it were constructs of metal and stone, but the port had the warm brick color of rustic pottery.

Shadows dripped along the deck of the Aurai's Breath as they descended below the city skyline, until the ship touched down on the open expanse of the port's top floor.

"Welcome to Caeli," said Captain Eleni, dismissing her crew to set the ship to rights as she joined the three of them. "Please do me the honor of dining with me this eve, Way Keeper. We have much to discuss." Her amber colored eyes shifted briefly to Calponia and Eugene. "Your companions are welcome as well."

"We accept your gracious offer," said Mack. He stood and slipped his arm through the Captain's, escorting her to the gangplank that automatically slid down from the side of the ship. Calponia followed behind them, Eugene acting like her shadow as they descended from the ship. Eleni paused  at the bottom to glance over her shoulder at them.

"Be at ease," she said, "We are far from the reach of sea monsters this evening." Calponia tried not to ponder how long that freedom would last as the Captain led them out from the port into the sprawling city of Caeli. 

***Happy New Year lovelies! I am battling a fierce head cold but more chapters shall be coming once the kiddos resume school. Below is my piddly attempt to map out the world of Oceanus, (fish not to scale) a world of layered ocean and air. Here is to a productive and magical 2018!***