Love In A Sinking Realm ⊰BTS⊱ Steampunk

CHAPTER 4 ✑ A Long Voyage

Unsettling thoughts visited her dreams. A stifling stench of burning soil crept inside a long and dark, endless tunnel. She shuffled her weary legs on a carpet of her kingdom's fallen flags, seeking for a beacon. Shrill cries and wails of mothers mourning for their lost children, echoed through the night...Drops of serpent's venom splattered inside a golden goblet.

...Don't drink it!...

She looked up into the starlit sky. Ignited pieces of paper drizzled upon the battlefield, landing on her skin, searing it. Earth turned into sea. She sank, deep into the bottomless darkness.

The entire Realm sinking with her.

...No. No. NO!...

Selenya gasped and opened her eyes widely. She panted frenzily and stretched her arms, expecting to feel the wooden floor of the deck and soldiers marching for her defenseless position, with the sun in her eyes. Instead, her fingers wrapped around the folds of a soft fabric. Her vision started to adjust to the darker environment and saw several pendent oil lamps dangling on the wooden roof. Hurriedly hung curtains surrounded the corner-bed in which she laid, under a thick layer of blankets. Her belongings where neatly folded on a small wooden chair beside her.

Where was she?

In the midst of the soporific and continuous rumble of engines, she heard a door opening from behind the curtains. Two black silhouettes walked around, bickering in a humming whisper. Then one of them approached and lifted the curtains.

"You're awake!" exclaimed Jun breaking the silence.

The other unknown silhouette shushed him while it seemed to open and close drawers and cabinets. Jun glared behind him and then turned to Selenya.

"How're you feeling?" he whispered while kneeling beside her bed.

Selenya sat up slowly. Her hair was set loose on her shoulders and a small, bloody gauze was wrapped around her left ear. The pain from the gunshot wound was definitely alleviated but she still felt slightly baffled.

"Better. I think," she replied.

"Oh, good, good," he sighed in relief.

"Where am I, Jun? Which part of the ship is this?"

"This is the captain's cabin. Well...Yoon's cabin, I mean," he looked around, "He gave it up for you and Jinghim until you get better. We set it up like an infirmary, see?"

He pointed at the curtains, with a strangly satisfacted smirk, as if he was proud of his handiwork. Selenya presumed that Jun made sure that she was safely isolated from indiscreet eyes. Even if those eyes were of his own brothers'. She couldn't help but grin.

"How is he?" she asked referring to the prince, "And what happened to the ship?"

Before Jun could answer, the second silhouette parted the curtains and popped its head inside. A tender, square-shaped smile and a pair of affable smiling eyes, lit under a fringe of thick, sallow hair. Taehberius, another bastard brother, Physician's Apprentice, stepped in Selenya's temporary tent.

He wore a white lab vest on top of a crimson shirt, dark checkered trousers and brown leather boots. Shiny medical gear and potion vials where sticking out of the pockets of his vest. A pair of azure stone earrings hung from his prominent ears, standing out from the rest of his plain and professional outfit.

"He'll be alright," Taehberius said softly with his mellifluous deep voice, "As long as he gets a good night's rest. And don't worry, we won the battle and now we're safely sailing in open sea."

"Taeh!" Selenya smiled excitedly with a thump in her chest and a burning sensation on her cheeks, "I didn't know you where here! I haven't seen you in ages!"