Heir of Neptune
(Puppet Lords)
Heir of Neptune
A Frigid Dreamless Wake
He fell at my feet and scattered like dust—leaving no trace of his existence. He was my brother, and the reason whyI had plunged into the world of water. He was my motivation for moving forward in life and for surviving all that I did. He gave me the strength to push forth when the sharks clamped their clamping teeth on my legs. He called to me when I sank into the sea of rot and hate. Now he is gone, and I am left with nothing but scars, unanswered questions, and a kid locked in a box.
His hands gripping the bars were frail and blue as a robin’s egg. The nails were black and chipped like stained glass windows. Even with just this small view of the boy, I knew he wasn’t human… or at least, he wasn’t anymore. When my brother stepped out of the raging portal with the box in his frostbitten hands and hollow eyes, he spoke in an aged and shattered voice, “The mourning light rends the eyes. The weeping gales rupture the skin. The Lord sunders the mind.” After all this time searching for him, burning with questions, all I could muster was a shrill “why?” He placed the box at his feet and smiled with black teeth before crumbling before me. I loved him and hated him so much. It was just like him to abandon me again with his burdens and no leads.
The Lighthouse Eye rose on the shivering sea and quelled the portal. The boy burrowed his hands further into the box and let out a murmur. Had he never seen the Lighthouse before? Now was not the time to ask such questions. I sat on the ruined steps beside the box and watched the turning of the day. I warmed my hands with my breath and fell still. What was I to do now? Who did I have to turn to? What do I do with the boy? Answers evaded me once again. My eyes naturally fell upon the box. He was something important, even if I didn’t know what yet. My brother might have set off those years ago in search of the boy… or maybe the boy was just part of another of his crazy dreams. Regardless, the boy was all I had.
I peered inside the box and saw the boy in his crumpled entirety. The rest of his observable naked body was the same blue, but thick wool covered him extensively with a softer blue-white color akin to the sky back home. Beneath all the fluff, I saw his eyes shimmer like a sea’s reflection of moonlight. I turned the box away and walked to the lip of the platform, searching for the ship that brought me here—nothing but ice sheets for as far as I could see. My mind wandered inside down the dark road that made itself clear to me. The cold crept up my legs and across my arms like a swarm of ants searching for a vulnerability to rupture. I sat on the brink and looked at the rising Lighthouse Eye for answers. In solitude, I shut my eyes and pled with my dreamer within for answers. Despite my efforts, I could not invoke a response. Defeatedly, I picked up the box again and looked for a way to open it. Peculiarly, there was no clear way to open the box. It was as if the box was constructed around the boy.
He reached his hand out through the bars and left it hanging like a tree branch. I froze momentarily, with dozens of possible outcomes rushing through my mind. If I grabbed his hand, what would happen? Would I die like my brother? Would I learn the truth? His hand inched back into the box, but I impulsively grabbed hold of it. His hand was cold, but so was mine. He brought his other hand around mine like a shell. I expected my demise, or really anything spectacular to occur. But nothing happened.
I sat with the boy in the box, thinking about my next course. I was unlikely to be discovered by any passing ships out here past the Fourth North. The only vessels passing through here would be those of runaways, lunatics, and treasure hunters. None of which I’d like to be found by. I could walk the ice sheets, which would be exceptionally dangerous and time-consuming. Not to mention, I’d have to carry the box with me the entire way in addition to my dwindling supplies. My fruitless plans pointed me toward the looming presence I’d been ignoring. The portal stood imposing before me in its stone and bone construction like a screaming maw. It was silent now, but under the right conditions, it could howl and bring forth an escape into an unfathomable world of frost and terror—Neptune, the Frigid Eye.
I prepared a quick meal with my scrappy supplies—just some strips of penguin meat and a small can of Tearflakes. I was careful not to overheat the Tearflakes so as not to burn the minimal amount of food they possessed, but I still messed up and burnt three of the twelve. Each burnt fish felt like a punch to the stomach. This was the last food I’d be having for a while unless somehow I was found by someone with food to spare for a stranger. I savored each bite for as long as possible—even taking an hour for each penguin strip. I started on the last Tearflakes when I heard the boy whimper. He had pressed his face against the bars and held out his shivering hands. I saw his pale blue face clearly now. His eyes were like large whirlpools, while his mouth was nothing more than six slits like the bars of his box cell. I saw my reflection in his pleading eyes and gave him the last of the Tearflakes and penguin meat. I had to tear apart the penguin strip for his tiny slitted mouth, but deep down, I felt it was worth it.
The Lighthouse Eye fell into the sea and brought darkness across the platform. With my fire supplies running out, I decided to sleep in the cold. I made my bag into a pillow and set it beside the boy before falling to sleep—hoping that I would activate the dreamer within me and find a way out.
I awoke in a wasteland of azure and white frost carved into terrible and impossible shapes. The mountains, like frozen waves, curved around the horizon like snakes. The ground was hollow and cracked like a shattered egg. Through the cracks in the ice, I saw all the way down millions of layers of caverns and frozen-over worlds. It was eternity, and it was frigid.
Around me, I could see the brushes of wind visible as the air itself froze into strings of ice, which flayed me with each rampant gust. I huddled tight, but the winds cut through me like harpoons, freezing me deep inside. I felt my blood harden, and I felt I could shatter with each cough. Something built up within my throat that could not get dislodged.
I fell heavy to the cold ground—caught in the snow like a spider’s web. I tried to cry, but all I could muster were fleeting gasps. With each gasp, the strain and ice lacerated my neck deeper. From the floor, I saw coming down the mountain a god crawling down by its arms. They were nothing past their jagged gold ribcage. Their arms and handles were grotesque but adorned with jewels like a mummy. Their head was split down the middle as if cleaved like a canyon. Within the divide were bridges of blood, and atop each mound were chipped horns. The god’s face was indecipherable, switching through hundreds of iterations every second. Human faces, animal faces, demon faces. Across them all, their violent sorrow was vivid and horrifying.
The god continued its crawl over to me as the piling snow consumed me. In my last moments, I saw all things blink into nothing besides myself. I was left as the only thing in all of existence for a moment, and then… I was nothing.
I sprang up rapidly—spilling the warm cup pressed against my lips onto my chest. It burned only for a moment before suddenly sheering cold with the wind. I adjusted my eyes to the waking world and saw two odd people on the platform with me. The man holding the warm cup over me looked beyond ancient and had solid gold eyes hazily reflecting my scorned face. Past him by the boy in the box was a hunched but tall man dressed like a cowboy with rusted steel skin and a mechanical squid face. He polished a glistening gun like a revolver—his fluorescent eyes locked in the reflection.
The gold-eyed man spoke up.
“Sorry about that, sir. You were in a terrible nightmare… shuddering like a condemned man approaching the gallows.”
He adjusted his coat and placed an odd white sponge on my stained shirt. Instantly, the stain was absorbed into the sponge like a vacuum. When the man adjusted his coat, I noticed the hand he kept hidden from me. It was as gold as his eyes and frozen in a clenched fist. He continued to speak.
“I’ll make you another cup of coffee, sir. You do like coffee, right?”
I nodded, now mostly awake. I felt around for my knife and planned to take the elder hostage. Right as I gripped the knife, it was blasted out of my hand with a quick and powerful shot like thunder. The ice sheets around the platform cracked, and the clouds fell away. I looked at my hand shaking violently but with only a minor cut on my pointer finger. I looked over to the robotic cowboy who was still shining his gun.
“I sure do hope you were just planning on cutting these potatoes with that knife and not stabbing my father.” The cowboy said coldly.
The blood from my cut froze, and I wrapped my free hand around it. I knew the situation I was in now, and I knew how to act. All my time on the sea taught me that I am not a hero, and when in these situations, there is nothing to do but comply. I lowered my head and waited for their demands.
“You, sir, are a very lucky man. If we hadn’t found you, you and the kid would already be dead.” The elder said.
“You have three options now. First, you could stay here and die. Second, you could try to run as far away as you can from the Challenger’s Wardens. Third, you could join us on our voyage to the Sky Haven.” The cowboy said.
“Why? What is going on?” I asked.
“Sir… you have been blessed by this here child. You have been blessed by a cosmic prince. Now I bet you don’t know what that means.” The elder said.
“You are a walking bounty, a walking treasure. People will seek you and make you into their slave. Or they will just kill you. You aren’t human anymore and won’t be treated as one anymore.” The cowboy continued.
“Sir, you’re a freak now! Just like us. Now why don’t you drink some coffee and think over our offer?”
I looked at my bleeding hand, gone cold and silent—covered in a thin layer of frost. The boy in the box stared at me, unblinking. What was I to do now? I had my roads laid out before me, but even more so now than before, I was lost on what the future had in store for me. Cosmic princes, blessings, freaks… how had I never come across this in all my years on the sea? And why now?
I sipped the coffee and felt its warmth grace my tongue. The elder stood and looked off into the rising Lighthouse Eye. The cowboy pointed his gun at me and unblinkingly spoke.
“The times of indecision have come to an end. Either you come with us, or I kill you now. Trust me, both options are preferable to the torment that awaits with the encroaching sun.”
“Mugen… he approaches.” The elder said as he scrambled to pack his supplies.
“Blessed man, I’ll ask this one last time. Do you want to live or die now?” The cowboy asked.
He stepped forward and hovered his gun just before my forehead. It hummed the song of the grave. His hands were still, but I could tell my death would be instant. He wasn’t just a robot, he was something greater.
“I don’t know what I want. I thought I did, but I have no idea anymore. What point is there to living without a goal or dream? I’m already dead.” I responded.
He grabbed me by my shirt and lifted me over the edge with a single mighty pull.
“Listen clodhopper, there is no bone orchard for your kind in the hold of the Wardens. You’ll wish you were all cashed in, but the bell never rings. Now hobble your lip and tell me. Life or death.”
I looked off to the rising light and saw galloping across the waves a large horse with legs of fire. Steering the horse with reigns of the same crackling fire was a knight of old. A man dressed fancily stood on the back of the horse, and from his hand, a light shimmered. Suddenly, the cowboy threw me over the other side of the platform. I braced for the cold embrace of the sea but fell heavily on a solid surface.
I looked to my left and saw the boy in the box smiling. I noticed this was the deck of a ship that I had not noticed previously. It was as if it only just now appeared. A man dressed in tattered grey robes sat on the box and pointed two flower-etched flintlocks at me.
“I was hoping for another woman an actual woman… or maybe just a young guy. I guess my luck is still drowning…” He said.
A vibrant red and white crab hopped on his shoulder and pinched his ear with a claw.
“August, I told ye that no woman likes having guns pointed at them even if they have flowers on them. And I am an actual woman, just not one of your outlandishly impossible preferences.” The crab squeaked.
“What… I just like em being easy to shoot.”
“That is the problem ye big twitchy.”
I stared at the two bickering while the boy in the box chuckled. The old man and the cowboy landed heavy onto the deck carrying both of our supplies. The old man was exceptionally calm while the cowboy looked around frantically—ready to light his target to pieces in a millisecond.
“Everyone to the cabin now.” The old man yelled as best he could.
I clambered into the cabin after the others and sat by the boy in the box in complete confusion. I wasn’t given any time to think before the windows shut tightly like a coffin, and the ship started to sink. The room glowed with a variety of fantastic treasures and gems lining the walls. I saw behind the desk in the back of the room a skeleton tied with dozens of chains to the desk and ship. The bones had runes deeply etched which pulsed rhythmically.
The noise died down outside as we sank into the darkness. I felt the boy in the box’s hand grab my arm.
“We are continuing our trip to the Sky Haven. We have acquired two new crewmates, and I expect that you all treat them with respect and love as if they were your own blood.” The old man said.
All at once, the others saluted before promptly sitting down around the cabin… except the cowboy. He got down on a knee before me and stared at me with his bright eyes and spoke.
“You look so much like him… the Prince of the Bloody Wake.”