Sea Of Sparks And Shadows

Hey everyone! This story has the last two chapters removed. To read them, please head over to Webnovel and search for this book. By doing so, you would be supporting me while also getting to know what happened to the Amaris and the crew. Thank you for reading!

If Amaris felt like the dead the day before, she felt like a rotting corpse by the late evening of her second day. She had just finished her chores and after a friendly conversation with Mirage about how Oddelerie’s factories might be rich but very unjust to their laborers and how Manticalian spices are far better than those who come from Sinsecria, along with a cup of warm tea, she was more than ready for bed, rocking waves be damned.

She opened the door to her cabin, yawning, but as soon as she saw what was waiting inside all traces of sleep flew away and her eyes widened.

“What the hell are you doing?” she froze with her hand on the door. Slygrin lay on his bed, her backpack by his side and Spirit’s spherical body in his hands.

“What is this?” he ignored the question and spun the metal ball on his finger. It spun a couple of times before falling onto his stomach. “Shit,” he cursed. “What the hell is this thing made of? It’s so damn heavy!”

Amaris lunged at him, reaching for Spirit, but he saw it coming and rolled off the bed. She fell onto the thin mattress and cursed.

“Give him back!”

“What?” he stood behind her, throwing the ball up and down, once almost dropping it.

She lunged at him again and he stepped aside making her stumble forward.

“Wow, you’re really bad at this.” He laughed. Every time he threw the metal ball, her heart beat a little louder. If something happened to Spirit, she would never forgive herself.

She charged at him once again and he snickered, jumping up to her bunk. She managed to catch him by the ankle before he was completely out of reach and pulled him down.

Just then, Ash walked in, and Slygrin wasted no time throwing Spirit’s body to him. “Ash, catch.”

He caught it effortlessly, then turned it in his hands. “What is this?”

“Give him back!” Amaris snapped as she stomped to him.

He lifted it above his head and smirked, “Him?”

“I think she had a bit too much joy syrup.” She heard Slygrin whisper as she jumped to try and reach him. She glared at him. “you don’t get it. He’s the only one I have left. He’s my only friend.” Slygrin tried to reign in his laughter and Ash just blinked at her, for a moment seeming concerned. “he’s you’re what?”

Frustrated and tired, Amaris stomped on his foot and he cursed kneeling to check the damage. “Damn. Fine. Here, take it-uh …Take him.”

“You’re unbelievable!” She snatched it from his hand, grabbed her open back pack and her pillow and stormed off. Slygrin and Ash watched her leave silently.

*****

Amaris sat on the floor of the barn, cross legged with her leather notebook on her lap. She had it open on an old invention she was planning to work on after finishing the iron feather; a tool that would wash the laundry by rubbing it against the washboard over and over. She had started it once after seeing Carmen’s, an old servant at the mansion, hands rough and red and hurting after spending all day kneeling over a washboard. It was supposed to be easy; just something to attach the piece of cloth to and that moves in circular motion over the board. But she got distracted with her new project and never got to finishing it.

Now wasn’t much better. She was too angry to function. She tapped her pen at the edge of the notebook, glaring at the design and equation. But nothing came to mind.

Perhaps it was because the lights were out, and she couldn’t find the light switch, so she was squinting at the inscriptions in the dark. Or maybe it was because she was still mad at the boys for playing with Spirit. She didn’t know. Finally, she huffed a breath of surrender and scrawled down her frustration in thick uneven lines at the bottom of the page before groaning and muttering. “Stupid prick.” She flapped the notebook shut and threw it a few feet in front of her.

“Glad to see you spend so much of your time thinking of me, princess.” Suddenly the lights turned on. A series of cackles and bleats of protest filled the small barn before the animals closed their eyes once more and went back to sleep. Amaris squinted at the brightness and looked up to see Ash leaning on the wall outside and smirking at her through the low swinging door. His hand is still on the switch that she didn’t notice while coming in.

She scowled at him. “Glad to see you admit to being a stupid prick. What do you want?” She spat out before he could answer.

“I just came to check if you and your…uh … friend were alright?”

She glared back at him then silently opened her backpack and retrieved what Ash identified as a metal ball and disc.

“What are you doing?”

The disk looked like huge iron rings inserted inside one another. The ball, which Amaris now held in her lap, was covered in irregular copper plating except for the two saucer sized, black circular holes covered in a fine black wire net. She opened a small hidden compartment in the ball. And turned the key inside for a few minutes.

“what is that?” she continued ignoring him and closed the compartment. She placed the sphere on the disc then looked up at him. Suddenly, it started making a low humming sound and the two black circles lit up. The ball spun to face Amaris then two openings appeared on the sides of the two circles. Skeletal arms came out from them. Slowly the disc started detaching into separate rings. The largest elevated to surround the sphere. The other discs continued to push against each other until they were floating above each other, the smallest piece, closest to the ground. The ball floated upward at the movement of the rings until it stabilized four feet above the ground.

Ash gaped at the sight. “holy spirits,” he muttered.

“Meet my Spirit.” She spoke at last, a proud smirk on her lips as he jumped out of his trance. He looked from Spirit, to her, then back.

“I knew Oddelerie was known for its machines, but I didn’t know that they had this sort of thing.” His eyes followed the robot as it floated towards Amaris.

“Oddelerie doesn’t have ‘this sort of thing.’ I do.”

“Wh-what?” he stammered.

“I made him.” She shrugged. “he’s the only one in the world of his kind.”

Ash blinked repeatedly. “You made it?” he repeated, as if trying to process the simple sentence.

“Yes.” She repeated slowly. “I made him.”

Ash finally collected himself enough to snort. “Yeah right. You probably payed someone to make him. Or just bought it from the market.”

Anger boiled in her guts at his accusation. “Okay listen up, asshole, first off, I am not a liar or a thief. And I am certainly not a rich noble. I do not sleep on fine feathered pillows or eat five course meals out of china bowls or drink crystal syrups.” She quoted his words, but he didn’t beat an eyelash. “so wherever you got those ideas you could take them and-”

“Obviously you’re not rich, especially not with those expensive clothes you were wearing or the money you were throwing around.”

“If you’re talking about that coat, then I borrowed it from my cousin. And if you took a closer look, you would have noticed that the clothes I had under that, though clean are well worn. I don’t exactly have an appointment with a seamstress every other month.” She remembered the outfit she wore that day; her black slacks and dark green tunic. Vanya had insisted she took her coat when she saw it was about to rain and Amaris knew that debating it with her was useless.

“I live in a small room in the servants’ quarters and the money I offered you is money I earned by working at that shop you were buying your tools from.”

She couldn’t stop talking even though she knew it wasn’t worth it. And other than Tom, she never admitted her living conditions to anyone, but she didn’t care. She was tired of letting him treat her like careless brat who had everything handed to her on a silver spoon.

“I wasn’t throwing that money around; I needed to finish that invention to apply for an apprenticeship as a Maker in a city in north Oddelerie. Not that you care, but I did finish it, no thanks to y-”

“Wait you work for Tom?” He interrupted her, his mouth wide open. “That’s impossible, he only has one fixer with him and he’s never…” Understanding dawned on him. “You?”

She nodded. “Yes.”

“But.. I thought-”

“And one last thing. I never bought my way out of the draft. I couldn’t afford to pay the emperor’s extra tax.” She looked him in the eye. “Every third month, I prayed to the heavens not to be taken as much as every other person who didn’t bathe in riches prayed.”

Ash opened his mouth a few times to interject but it seemed that his voice left him. She glared at him a beat longer before turning to face the wall and lying down. “Now that you know that you were a jerk to me for no damn reason, good night. Turn the lights off before you leave.” Her voice was muffled by the pillow. Spirit settled beside her and she caressed his cold round body before adding, “and for the record, you shouldn’t treat people like the asshole that you are just because they’re more fortunate than you. I might not be rich, but I know some people who are and most of them are far less annoying and rude than you and don’t deserve that treatment.” a picture of Vanya formed in her mind. she wondered how her sweet polite cousin would have reacted to someone as rude and judgmental as Ash.

A second later, the lights were out. Without looking back, she rearranged the hay beneath her pillow to make it higher and settled once again. Suddenly, a thump resonated behind her. She whipped her head around. “what-”

Her blanket lay folded beside her. “if you’re gonna sleep here, stack more hay.” Ash didn’t look her in the eye. “it’ll be more comfortable.” He left before she could respond.

****

Amaris stomped down the stairs to the mess hall furious, the empty bucket in her hand. The second she appeared, dripping wet, hair clinging to her forehead and the huge sweatshirt sticking to her frail body in the most uncomfortable way, the crew, who were noticeably less energetic and less talkative than they were at dinner the night before, suddenly had wide amused smiles on their faces, some even outright cackling. But none were surprised.

She made her way to Hawk, who sat in his usual chair near the serving table. He was too busy peeling an apple to notice her burning gaze or, as Amaris was sure, he simply didn’t care.

She dropped the tin bucket in front of him on the table near the biscuits and apple basket.

“Thank you for the wake up party.” She seethed.

Hawk still didn’t look up, though a small smirk did appear on his lips. “You’re welcome. Thought you might want a quick shower too. Slygrin was more than happy to help.”

“With salt water? Before dawn? On a windy deck?”

He shrugged. “You take what you can get, kid.”

She fisted her hands and huffed a frustrated breath before grabbing an apple from the table. As her hand moved to the tray of biscuits Hawk spoke pointedly; “one apple, two biscuits and a cup of milk. Not a crumb more.”

She ignored him and took one biscuit before climbing to the deck.

“Be here in thirty minutes if you’re hoping to get some lunch today.” He called after her.

When she reached the top, she heard a beautiful, lulling melody drifting through the breeze. She followed it to the bow of the ship where a dark winged silhouette stood, facing the waves and playing away on his flute.

Amaris couldn’t get herself to leave, the melody hypnotizing her. She’d heard beautiful music before. Vanya was really talented. And sometimes when her family hosted a dinner party or a ball, she could hear the music from her room. But there was something about this particular piece that made her freeze in place, enchanted by every note. The air around her seemed to twirl and dance to the song’s rhythm.

Finally, Wind Tuner paused, lowering his long, black flute.

“That was beautiful.” She said and he jumped back, only now noticing her. She could see his cheeks heat in the early morning light. He pulled his wings together and bowed his head.

“Th- thank you. Do you … play?” he lifted the flute for her to see.

Suddenly, she too was feeling shy. “Oh no, me and musical instruments don’t quite get along. But your music is by far the best piece I’ve ever heard.”

His blush deepened. “I appreciate the compliment. The wind was pushing against the sail so I just redirected it to push us in the right direction.”

Amaris blinked. “You’re a melody weaver?” suddenly, his nickname, Wind Tuner made much more sense.

He nodded. “An air weaver. Yes.”

“I knew that sky dancers are all air weavers I just didn’t know that you guys were melody weavers.”

He shook his head. “we aren’t. only I am. It’s a rare trait in our kind. What about you? What kind of weaver are you?”

Amaris’ curious demeanor changed in a heartbeat, her relaxed shoulders stiffening. “I- I’m not. My family are earth weavers but I’m…uh… I’m different.”

“maybe you’re just a late bloomer?”

“the latest recorded case was at fourteen.” She snorted. “I’m just a non-weaver. It’s not that rare. Just unusual.”

Before the pitying look that always accompanied her admission could find or settle on Wind Tuner’s face, she interrupted with a too cheerful laugh “but that’s fine! I’m not into growing trees or playing with water and fire or twirling air or light or any of those- no offence intended. I have my own talent that I worked hard to gain and am prouder of it than any given gift. I make machines and fix instruments. I find it more satisfying than weaving anyways.”

In truth, her aunt and grandmother always made her feel like she was wrong. Like she had something missing because she couldn’t manipulate plants like the rest of them. That’s partly why she had spent most of her time in their library reading book after book about whatever she could find, eventually getting sucked into the world of mechanics and robots. She tried her hand at it with old broken clocks around the house, and from then, her fascination only grew.

“have you met Mecheye? He’s our boatswain; maybe he could show you some of the ship’s mechanics, if that interests you.” His voice was soft, but strangely not condescending.

She smiled. “that sounds like a great idea. I’ll have to ask Hawk to introduce me to him later. Speaking of, I should probably get going.”

Before she could turn he reluctantly stopped her. “wait. Uh… about last night…”

She furrowed her brows at him. “what?”

“Is it … did you refuse to sleep in the cabin because of me?”

“what?” she repeated. “oh heavens no! I left because Ash and Slygrin were teasing me and I got annoyed at them. You’re the nicest person I met since I boarded this ship.” she said and meant it. Between Mirage’s threats, Ash’s insults, and Slygrin’s lack of respect to privacy, Wind Tuner was the most neutral, if not friendly of the bunch. “Why would I leave because of you?”

Relief washed over his face, as if he’s been acquitted of some horrendous crime. “I thought that maybe because of the talk about Skydancers you-”

“spirits no. I’m sorry I didn’t know better. It was stupid of me to assume that-”

“Amaris?” she turned around to find Ash standing behind her, shifting from one foot to the other, his mouth twisted as if the taste of her name on his tongue had a strange flavor he didn’t know how to feel about.

She straightened herself and schooled her features to a blank expression. “Yes?”

“Hawk wants you in the galley.” She nodded, turned to say a quick goodbye to Wind Tuner and started towards the main corridor. She was halfway across the ship when Ash grabbed her arm.

“hold on.” He said, his voice much calmer and less poisonous than she ever heard it when it was directed at her before. She pulled her arm out of his grip.

“what do you want?” she spat out.

“I’m sorry.” He pulled back, pushing aside his bangs and running a hand through his hair. “for what I said, I mean.”

She huffed an annoyed sigh. “I knew you’d bring this up.” She muttered then looked up at him. “look, I have to go. Hawk is probably already furious with me as it is.”

She jogged away before he could stop her. She hated herself for practically telling him her whole life story in a moment of anger. He didn’t deserve to know that. She should have bit down on her tongue and ignored him.

Tired and pissed were not a good combination on her, she decided. She couldn’t control her mouth when she was like that.

Hey everyone! This story has the last two chapters removed. To read them, please head over to Webnovel and search for this book. By doing so, you would be supporting me while also getting to know what happened to the Amaris and the crew. Thank you for reading!