Lost Excerpts (Mianite)

Moving On (sorta Sparksize) 1.2

Nope, this isn't the last part either, but I promise next part will be lots and lots of Sparksize nostalgia. xD There are some piratey reunions and grog in this part though! And Jem, I see you there. Go write your paper.

The night was blissfully uneventful for me, and I left with the tide. Sonja shoved Tom off a cliff sometime in the night, but she didn't find my hiding place in the old spleef arena the wizards built. I turned my comm off, stowed it in my bag, and turned away from our island to look at the open sea ahead of me. The others would hardly recognize me in the tatty old outfit I wore today, even if they'd known to watch the docks for my departure. A worn and patched blazer covered a much abused shirt that might have once been called "white". Faded black trousers torn about my knees completed my shipboard outfit. This was actually the original outfit I'd worn when Tom found me washed ashore on the island.

I'd clean forgotten I still had it until I found it yesterday in the bottom of a chest. It would serve me well here; I was working my passage to Ianarea aboard a Mianitee owned galleon. Ianitee ships didn't make their way out here often, and I wasn't sure I trusted a ship captained by one of the Modesteps. This captain seemed competent and looked to keep an orderly crew and vessel when I requested a tour earlier in the week.

True my attire earned a few sneers from the oh-so-properly-uniformed greenhorns at first, but no one said anything after we hit a squall on the third day out. They didn't look so prim and proper then. The captain and more seasoned crewmates thought it was rather funny too; they had wisely saved their dress uniforms for dock days. So it was the few veterans and I who were properly dressed when the galleon pulled into the harbor at Ianarea on the eighth day.

Ianarea was a site. Last time I'd been here it was decimated by Dianite's attack and utterly lifeless. Now it was quite the opposite. The place looked almost as busy as Dagrun had been in Ruxomar. There were people everywhere, forming a bustling community. There was a windmill running on one hilltop and a lighthouse on another. Ianite's tower rose in the distance, rough and clearly unfinished. Some of the houses, businesses, and harbor had been rebuilt out of local spruce and oak wood and cobble—some of it visibly charred from Dianite's attack. Other buildings had been built entirely out of new materials—I guessed these were the more recent builds. Part of the harbor was in the process of being torn up and renovated with these newer materials, though work had stopped for the festival tonight. The harbor was packed with empty ships, and we just found an open dock at the very end. It was almost like someone knew we were coming.

To my surprise, Rupert the Grey was waiting for us at the dock when we pulled up. He still wore his signature red coat with gold shoulder stitching and looked as spry as ever. He and a few dock hands helped us secure the ship before I bid the captain farewell and disembarked. I waved at the harbor master on my way off and met Rupert with a firm handshake. I didn't expect him to pull me into a hug though. After nearly crushing the air from my lungs, he released me and looked me over with his one eye. "Yar can't have been gone eleven years, matey! You don't look to have aged more 'an a season's turning."

I chuckled. "Yeah, I've been getting that a lot. And what about you? You haven't aged a day either," I pointed out.

"Aye, but that's because I be undead, laddie," He corrected with a hearty laugh, lifting his hat to show places where his exposed skull had been chipped and cracked. Rupert had been saved from his zombie state by Ianite when he was much further gone than Tom. He didn't exactly smell, but he was a bit unsettling to be around until you got used to him.

I wonder, If Ianite had had her full powers when she tried to revive Capsize, if she would have turned out like Rupert or Tom? I discarded the thought before I could dwell on it long; envy was not an emotion I needed. Ianite had done everything she could at the time. "So how long have you been alive, anyways?" I asked as we strolled casually down the dock.