"Eugh!" Erik exclaimed, seeing the mess in Signore Palmer’s room.
"Quite a bit of trouble they went to just to kill him," Rufus said, shoving Erik into the room.
"What is it you needed me for?" Erik asked. "No doctor could mend this!"
"I ask not for your skills of medicine, Erik," Rufus said. "I asked you here to find out why such a thing was done, and what motive there was behind it. I do not allow my men to die without another to join them, and if that one must be you I will have no qualms about it."
"But—"
"You may mock me for being uneducated, Erik, but I noticed you were not surprised by the method, merely the mess of it all. You know something of this. I recommend you give me the information I desire or you begin to pray. Hard."
"Yes, maitre."
"I shall leave you to it, then. ‘Twould be unbecoming of any but one whose profession calls for it to have blood on their coat, and I be far above any such station." Rufus closed the door, leaving Erik in the room with the corpse.
Erik stared at the corpse. He had had enough knowledge and experience with death to know that it was the sword strike through the heart that had killed him. The murderer had taken meticulous care open the chest and reveal the heart before destroying it.
There were only three men capable of such an act, keeping the victim alive while doing so. One of them was himself, and the other had been locked away in a hollow on a nameless rock, nothing but his crew above to keep him company. The last…
Erik shook his head, fearing he’d lose it soon.
Rufus was not stupid enough to believe any of his lies, and that he had no connection to it in one fashion or another. To tell would mean his death, but to keep quiet or lie would mean the same.
There was only one option left: to leave.
…………………………………………………………………………………………….
Erik had managed to sneak out and into his own room. He had few things to pack, but much to plan and he was absorbed more in thinking and worrying than setting his belongings in his case.
Usually he would have been keen and paranoid enough to have heard the window open, but he was too far in his own thoughts tonight.
His head was jerked back by a hand on his ponytail, throwing his bifocals off his face and onto the floor.
There was a far too familiar blade at his throat.
Erik was far too smart to make any noise and his attacker knew this. They were both quite familiar with each other, somewhat to bother their dismay.
"This is not the reaction I was expecting. Has Shinra beaten the arrogance and rebellion out of you?" his captor said.
"What logic have you?" Erik said, his eyes staring unfocused at the wall. "That be a warning, I am no fool. Similarly, it be for me alone."
"Wrong. You still carry such narcissism, assuming that murder was meant to mean something for you alone. No, you be no more than the messenger. Tell them it was from me. I want them all shorebound, and I want your lips loose."
"I know little of the talismans," Erik said. "You know that. I know not the secrets of them, your mother told you them, and she forsook me."
"You knew who had the other, but it was not on her. She is another victim, though nothing compared to the man in the other room. There was nothing around her neck, no chain, and no trinket."
"She gave it away. She be a woman, and they can be petty with any bauble they find."
"Oh, I know you lie. You would not make excuses for her, she be too close kin to your beloved for you to disdain. No. No, you set me up."
"I set nothing!" Erik said, taking care to be quiet enough for no one to become curious enough to open the door.
"They are both missing now. And I have seen a terrified young lad who has no remembrance of me, yet he has shared a kiss. Tell me father."
"I know nothing. I saw the dead man and knew you would be after me. I cannot tell maitre Rufus of how I know of it for it would mean my life for him to know of my past with you! I intend to flee to Spanish territory and stay in hidden exile until Shinra and all its brethren think me dead, lest I truly be so!"
"Maitre? Why father, you are more a worm than I could have thought, or do you fancy the boy?"
"Fancy not! In Shinra one above you is near your king. He is indeed… indeed maitre… you had magic and strength to sever your ties and burn the fleet as well. I had nothing and face the two sides of the sword that gave me the freedom to study in peace and advance in my experiments and theories."
"Flee, then, father. We shall see how far you get from me. I set sail once I leave this accurs’d room. I take my own talisman and I shall burn another Shinra vessel if they dare defy me or my quest. I shall take whoever I see next, be they merchant, victim or you, and I shall do as I see fit." The sword pressed closer to his neck, and Erik could feel the tiniest of trickles slip down the blade. "If you fail to remain long enough to deliver me message, than may you find a god soon and get down on your knees from now ‘til our next meeting."
The blade left his neck, the hand abandoned his hair. By the time he had donned his glasses again, he was alone and the window was closed.
………………………………………………………………………………….
It had been two days since they had laid Aeris to rest at sea. They gently cast her into the black waters in silence, under the stars she loved so much.
The crew had been quiet. They had finally found wind, no doubt Sephiroth had stolen it before, but now no one knew where they were. Cid had been in charge of the ship not the navigation, giving a courier service to anyone who would not have sold Aeris to Shinra.
Everyone had their relative positions, either looking at the sea or the spot of broken railing they had lowered her over or at the hold or the dying woman that lay inside.
When there was nothing needed to be done on the ship they stayed in their spots, as if guarding their spaces to mourn, about to strike another who dared trespass.
Cloud sat on the remaining part of the ship near the hole the fallen mast had created, holding onto the railing as the waves tried to knock him off.
Barret had a station next to the mast, as if waiting for the repairs to break and it would topple on him again. Mostly the captain stared at his feet than the two places of mourning.
Vincent never looked at anything, feeling out of place and having his own mourning to deal with, even what he felt was the loss of himself and his own life, though he stood on the very bow of the boat, as if becoming a second figurehead.
Cid was pacing back and forth along the ship, staring at the door to the cabins, not brave enough to go down or at the railing where he himself had set Aeris’s body into the waves, not brave enough to cross to the other side of the ship near it.
Nanaki prowled the halls, unsure of the newcomer at the time and wanting to protect Shera from him or the rats upon instinct. All he caught were the rats, Vincent having given everyone their rightful space.
Tifa watched Shera as well, most of the crew were worried she’d catch Shera’s fever. She and Nanaki kept looking from Shera’s drained and sickly face to the porthole and the water beyond, thinking of the crewmate it now held.
Yuffie had kept to her crows nest and not come down.
"Scamp ain’t come down yet, Cid said, breaking the silence. Barret and Cloud looked up at the crow’s nest, wondering if Yuffie was still there or had sneaked out unnoticed. Then they turned back to the water or their feet.
Vincent had not moved, he kept watching the stars ahead.
"She be too young fer this," Cid said, and went up the rigging.
He found Yuffie playing with a familiar looking pendant, so entranced by opening, closing and wondering about it that she did not hear Cid until he yelled at her.
"Hey!" Cid yelled, and she finally turned to him. "Belial’s Bollucks! They ain’t yers!"
"Is now by right," she said, holding it to her chest, as if to protect it from him. "Aeris said I could have it if she ever met her fate. I ain’t happy ‘bout her is dead now, but it be mine now! She may not said it to you, but she said it to me!"
"Damned if she did!" Cid yelled. "Only way fer ya ta take that would be from her pockets. I’ll have ya strung by the yardarms fer sacrilege!"
"On the wheel!" Yuffie yelled, trying to wrestle him away and hold it out of his reach at the same time. "Stuck there and I is managed to grab it as I hit and wen’ o’erboard. If I ain’t got it then, I ‘ould spoke up afore!"
"Ya damned weasel!" Cid yelled. "Ya ain’t concerned none! I’ll skin ya ‘live fer this!"
"I miss her damn much! Ya take it away and ya be makin’ her weep from heaven! No!"
Cid managed to pry the pendant from her fingers, only to have it fly over both their reach and the edge of the crows nest, popping open as it disappeared from their sight, the gold chain trailing after it like the tail of a phoenix.
They both shot their heads over the crow’s nest to see Barret back away as it hit the ship and two miracles neither would ever forget happened at once.
The first was that the pendant stayed intact after it’s fall.
The second was the blackness spreading outwards all over the ship, like a bottle of ink running out across parchment eager to absorb it.
The blackness ran all over the ship, engulfing it, then spreading tiny dots the same as those in the sky over it.
The reinforcements over the mast fell away, the ropes began to flutter in the wind, which had suddenly grown stronger, all their frays and tears disappeared. Cloud stood up and backed away as the hole began to repair itself, mending the railing over itself when finished.
"This be black magic!" Vincent yelled.
"Black magic it be none!" Cid yelled. "My ship! My perfect ship is mine again! Look! She holds the wind in her sails always! She holds the stars and be invincible to all but flames!" Cid grabbed Yuffie and let out an exclamation of joy, lifting her out of the crow’s nest and then kissed her. "My ship!" he yelled racing down the rigging. He grabbed Cloud and lifted the boy off his feet and sung him around in the air, not caring as Vincent yanked the boy out of his arms before he kissed Cloud as well.
Unable to lift Barret, though the happy captain tried, he kissed him as well, then met with an angry fist as he tried for Vincent.
Cid’s spirits were not at all dampened by the strike and he grabbed the pendant and ran off, yelling in joy for Shera, Tifa and Nanaki.