Ripples in the Sea - Hunting Safikma (Part I)

[Shinsou Vaan Osiris]

I'll edit this post later as I lost a lot of work, but please feel free to continue as the ending won't change.

Caedron, as Shinsou recalled, began as a forgotten backwater port town centuries ago. In recent years, it developed into a small but shining jewel in Scara Brae's crown. Its location had made it the gateway for trade with the distant continents, the last call before the unknown, but its distance from the rest of civilization also made it a haven for pirates and outlaws.

Now, it was nothing more than a gaping hole in the coastline of the island.

Shinsou Vaan Osiris stood atop the crest of one of Scara Brae's many rolling hills as the salty ocean wind whipped at his white coat and stung his alabaster skin, staring in silence at the carnage ahead. Actually, carnage wasn't really the correct term for what the Telgradian witnessed. There was just nothing; no fires, no people running around frantically and no sound other than the howling wind. All that remained to prove that Caedron had even existed in the first place were flecks of brown and grey bobbing up and down on the surface of the sea, resembling what Shinsou imagined to be planks of wood from what was once the harbour and a few stone bricks of what once held it all together.

“What happened here?”

The voice sliced through Shinsou's reverie, returning him to reality with a jerk of his elbow and a nod of his head. The sound of boots upon long grass rang in his ears, this time accompanied by the familiar sensation in his gut. Neither cadence served to threaten him.

“Arius, you’re late.” The Telgradian turned and squinted through the mid-morning sun.

“I had some pressing matters to attend to in Whitevale. As soon as I had heard, well....” Arius, Shinsou's hand, took a long look at the maw in the landscape, five kilometers distant. “The stories don't do it justice. There's just nothing left. What could have done this? A Thayne? A natural disaster? Something else?”

The Telgradian shrugged.

“I can't rule either out, to be honest with you, but I'm leaning towards 'something else'. A natural event would explain the scale of the destruction, but not the precision.”

Arius pushed his spectacles up his nose.

“Precision?”

“Look hard at the edge of the land,” Shinsou replied at length, pointing. “There. See how the cliff is almost cut out? The ridges in the rock are consistent and equally spaced. It's like Caedron was just scooped out by something. An earthquake couldn't have fell a town like this with such a clean break in the coastline.”

“OK, so let's say we're dealing with something else, maybe something that has attacked the town.” The shifting of leather material accompanied the question as the newcomer settled into a squat alongside his leader. "What exactly are we going to do about it? Of something of this scale?”

“I wouldn’t know,” Shinsou replied diffidently, a small smile playing about his lips. “But I'm sending a few letters. I'll need a few more capable hands."

The Telgradian smiled, his chiselled features wreathed in mirth so contagious that his companion found it difficult not to smile back. It was ironic, given the situation left them very little to smile about. They both liked to joke that events like this often resulted in someone wanting to employ the services of the Brotherhood, who, to Shinsou's annoyance, were now gathering a reputation as more of a crime fighting and detective agency than a sophisticated syndicate of mercenaries.

"Sky falling down? Thayne dragon sleeping in your mountain? Come to Whitevale!"

As Shinsou turned to walk from his place atop Karak hill, his deep golden eyes stood out starkly against the subtle green of the hill and the earthly tones of his surroundings; the shabby white of the swordsman’s garb seemed positively ashen in comparison. He would never have admitted it to Arius, but this was one job that, if offered, he wasn't too keen to take. He felt awful for the town of Caedron, and the lives that had inevitably been lost weighed on his mind heavily, but he had already been through enough with his fight against Draconus. That had been quite enough for one lifetime.

Anything that could cause this type of destruction may well have been better just leaving well alone.

Maybe.

"So, who's on the list?" Arius asked after Shinsou.

The Telgradian flashed him a knowing look from the corner of his eye.

"Good friends."