pirate king (pirate!au) ➵ ateez ✔️

knife to the heart

a/n: i'm sorry in advance y'all. alexa play uh oh by g-idle

The sea is blue.

You stand along the beach where the land meets the sea, warm water lapping over your feet as you look out over the horizon. The beach is completely empty except for you and the sound of waves crashing against the shore.

You don't know how long you spend standing there, but you watch as the sun slowly sinks behind the horizon, the sea enveloping and swallowing it whole. You watch as the sky fades from blue to to black, stars rippling over the surface of the water like jewels spread over the waters. You don't move a muscle, time hung in the balance, until there's the sound of approaching footsteps behind you.

"You're here."

Your voice is a disembodied whisper, raspy and lilting like the push and pull of the tide.

"You've not called for me for millennia." He sounds melancholy, and you turn to look at him. His bright green eyes stare back at you, luminescent in the darkness of the beach. "Yet now, you have... why?"

"Why do we not have names?"

His eyes widen slightly at your words, but he quickly schools his face back into a neutral expression. "We do not need them, since there is nothing like us in this world."

"Humans are all so strange, different from each other, and yet they have names. They call for each other with them." You murmur quietly, bending down to touch a hand to the waves. The water comes up to meet you, drawn to you, swirling and rushing out once more. Your heartbeat. "They are so insignificant, their lifespans so short, they end so easily and yet..."

He remains silent.

"And yet... today, one of them asked for my name. I was merely repeating the cycle of karma, saving his life when I had taken away others, and when he awoke... He asked for my name. He wanted to call for me."

The man pauses for a moment. "A land child could stand in your presence?" He speaks quietly, and you nod. That fact had been equally surprising to you as well, but you had no explanation for it.

"I gave him my blessings."

At that, time seems to stop. The man takes you by the hand, clutching tightly. "You, who have never looked at the humans from the dawn of man until now, blessed a human?"

You don't relent.

"I promised to tell him a name he could speak." You say, resolute. "I cannot let him die before then."

In the back of your mind, a boy with a smiling face and a bleeding eye surfaces. He'd grabbed your hand, and promised that he would find you again even if it took the rest of his life. You had given him a rope with three knots that had been left ashore with him, blessing it with your power, your side of the promise that would tie your souls together for eternity.

The man sighs and releases your hand. "Humans are beautiful and fleeting, but they have immortal souls that we do not." He raises a hand to cup your cheek with his palm. "We are as infinite as the sand along the beaches, as alive as the waters of the seas. We are the laws of nature, and the survival instinct that all of life has ingrained into their souls. We are as eternal as the heart of the mountains, and yet... when this earth fades away, so will we. That is why we do not have a soul, because we form no bonds with the things of this world."

You waver for a moment, but resolve yourself. "I will find a way. There are laws holding the fabric of this world together more ancient than humankind itself."