“Quiet,” I jabbed with a stern look at the god, so Jun continued.
“Wisdom, however, remained unclaimed. When each creature begged for it, the lion, the owl, and even mankind, the gods only saw that as vanity and shunned them. Then came the spider, small, silent, and usually overlooked. She crawled up the Tree of Luminae and spun her web beneath the stars, not to catch anything, but only to listen. She heard stories through the wind. Stories no one else was intended to hear. Of unborn kings, injustices from royals, even rivalry amongst the gods. She did not speak. She spun. One night, the gods took notice and gave her kind a blessing.” Jun cleared his throat to recite it in his most godly voice, a comical contrast from what I’d seen from him. “‘You will never walk again through the light, but you will know all that it touches. Your webs will catch not only your food, but dreams and stories untold. While others speak, you will remember.’”
Calvin broke the silence that followed suit. “So, where are we supposed to find them, then? We’ve only heard of them through storytelling. Inourstories, they crawl into the ears of naughty kids and nibble away at their brains until they—”
Zahara smacked him in the chest. “You would be foolish enough to believe that.”
Chuckles erupted from deep within me. “We have to go at night and find the Tree of Luminae, which by the conversation earlier is on the island of Plumsu,” I answered, earning a silent nod from Jun.
“At least someone was listening,” Noctis mumbled.
My eyes caught the sea, a small lilt lifting the corners of my mouth. The compliment was small and fringed in sarcasm, but my heart skipped wildly, face warming suddenly that I attempted to muster.
“When you say Tree of Luminae, does that mean this thing is going to be a glowing beacon? That sounds easy enough,” Calvin continued, drawing me from my thoughts.
Jun’s head dramatically turned to his friend. “The man that planted it was named Lumbis. It’s only named after him.”
Calvin pulled a silver coin from his front tunic pocket, meticulously flipping it around each finger from his pointer to the pinky and back again.
“Heads says Noctis will shit himself when he sees them,” he chirped and tossed the coin upward. It rotated in the air, nearly blending into the azureous sky and fell back to the deck with a slight ring that died quickly.
Heads.
Zahara huffed in enjoyment, a grin spreading maliciously across her lips, and I joined in, allowing the smile to flaunt.
“Depends on what they have to say,” Noctis replied, catching the smiles and reaching for the coin himself. “Tails says Calvin has to be the first one to speak to them.”
Calvin’s face blanched. “Is that really necessary?”
Noctis flipped the coin, plucking it from the air atop his hand and revealing it to the awaiting crew.
Heads.
“Dammit,” Noctis grumbled, and Zahara and Calvin cackled, caught between enjoyment and watching the god lose. A grin slowly spread across Noctis’s lips, so I yanked the silver coin from his hand.
“Heads says Noctis has to show us a trick with his wings.” I wanted to see him soar through the sky—wanted to be entranced in his powers, but as the coin flew through the air, his own hand caught it.
“We near the waters of the Marrowtwists,” Noctis warned as if sensing the beasts, picking himself up from the floor and looking out across the waves.
We fell silent, slowly collecting ourselves and preparing for an attack. For an hour, the realm quieted, a nice consolation to the wreaking havoc of the attack on Gringham City. We all dispersed, finding stability at the railing of the main deck and inspecting any changes in the water’s currents.
Zahara nearly reached the ship’s wheel when waves surged, violently spraying overboard. The ship rocked, nearly flattening on its side, and we flew across, crashing into the railing on the opposite end. A warm arm wrapped around my waist right before I plummeted, my hit instead softened beneath the body of another.
Noctis.What the—
Jun shattered the wooden banister, toppling over the side, his feet flailing for purchase. Calvin dove for Jun’s hands, clobbering his face into the floor with an abhorrent skid. Zahara gained her bearings and crawled frantically toward the helm to secure the wheel.
An elongated, scaled creature burst through the waves, sending me backwards again, this time into solid wood. A giant serpent the color of faded bile assessed its wanted prey. Its greenslitted eyes devoured me as I stumbled, sticking its forked tongue in and out of its thin scaly mouth.
This…thisis what I should have asked Jun to describe.
I palmed my gifted dagger, crouching for an attack, but the Marrowtwist hissed and dove back through the water, the waves sending the ship nearly on its side again.
“Stay ready!” Zahara ordered from the helm, steering us straight through to the land beyond, toward the forested island of Plumsu—toward the Threnai oracle spiders.
The creature would have to be killed since we awakened it, or else it would take out every villager across the lands of the isle. Calvin pulled Jun back aboard, the assassin hunched over holding his ribs. Noctis glided over the water, his wings motionless, but he hovered and searched for the beast in circles above the waves.
The serpent erupted from the water furthest from the god, taking chunks out of the stern of the ship. Splintered wood shards soared violently, narrowly missing me as I shuffled before the beast, aiming to strike. It fell back with a crash that sent deadly waves, and I slid across the deck, scurrying to stop myself.
