Chapter 4 – Part 9

Thomas smirked. He had won. The Captain had attempted to renege, and now the fiend was taken out. The half-daelkyr detached himself from the Crimson Ship, but not completely. Two writhing strips of lumber stayed attached to him.

He focused, sliding and twisting more wood. Now the deck was shut off. Delegado would not get below, not quickly. It would have been better to hurl him over the side, but no matter. The ingrate swamp bully was doubtlessly congratulating himself at surviving, but at the same time the half-orc would dare not draw the blade free. The deck was quiet now, but for all Delegado knew it could erupt at any moment. The half-orc would have to hold on and whimper.

“How dare he attack me, call me names, threaten me,” muttered Thomas. “I plucked them all from oblivion. Me. Thomas.”

His daelkyr half was muttering mentally about rearranging the limbs of his friends. Another voice told him that they weren’t his friends. Another insisted that they were, and that he had damaged his mind with his mental interaction with the Crimson Ship.

He ignored this distraction. His mind was whole. He knew it because he knew. He knew that Delegado was an ingrate, that Ois was a hypocrite, and that the Captain was an enemy.

Thomas sneered, and caressed the Crimson Ship mentally. He slowly wound its magic down, letting it drift as a normal ship in the ocean. In return it seemed to caress his mind as well, or at least partly. There was a spot in his mind that he could not feel. Fatigue, that was it.

Unnoticed by him, a thin stream of blood was issuing from his nostrils, and another from his left eye.

Later, I will learn more of this ship’s secrets, he thought. He was not aware that the left side of his face was sagging, the muscles unresponsive. For now bring it gently down, then find out where and when I am. He knew they had leaped forward through time but he didn’t know by how much.

He was hungry, ravenous in fact.

He inhaled. Succor would be had. But prominence before nourishment. He meant to let everyone know. As soon as the ship was settled. He would make sure that they all knew.

The part of his brain that was filling with his own blood failed to register that his impulse control was fading.

If not gone.