Chapter 4 – Part 3

What happened? What happened? You did this! I did not, I could not!

Thomas’ mind was being ripped in two. The daelkyr side gibbered, trying to understand where the flesh was, if only it could manipulate some flesh, it could find the fix. The other half of his mind saw things that even a daelkyr would find insane. Before was after, after was before, never was now, later could never come.

Thomas howled, and the strips of wood that plugged into him danced like a great spider. The half-daelkyr barbarian grabbed reality through the Crimson Ship, grabbed with every bit of strength in his self, his sheer force of personality, grabbed, and demanded reality to stay.

It failed. He was falling, his fingers grabbing for support on a slick wall that laughed at him.

A presence came, and the wall formed a ledge. The presence was above decks, where the loss of reality was worse. It was the Captain, and he was trying to show Thomas how to calm the ship down.

The half-daelkyr laughed, feeling sweat creep painfully into his shaving cuts. A moment ago, lifetimes ago, the Captain had been fighting the half-daelkyr. Now they were working together. Pain hit the Captain, and his mind faded, then came back, insisting that Thomas push the Crimson Ship like so, to calm it down.

Thomas began to understand. Time was gone. The Crimson Ship was outside of time. It carried a little time with it, but the reality was slipping. They had maybe seconds to act, or centuries, it was hard to tell right now. They had to bring the Crimson Ship back.

You can do it without him, Thomas thought to himself, coldly. Don’t trust him, he wants to retake the ship. That was his own mind speaking, he knew that. His daelkyr side seemed to have been reduced into gibbering fear.

“Too much madness even for you, eh?” laughed Thomas. He flexed his mind, and the ship wrenched itself, its material following his commands. Mentally, he forced the Captain’s mind back, and then tried to manipulate the Crimson Ship like so, but by himself, only him.

It didn’t work. The entire ship buckled, and Thomas screamed mentally, without a sound exiting his physical mouth.