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"The Hanseong?" murmured the old captain. He sat along a bench on the coast of Dae shore watching the gulls along the coastline, and he turned back to me. "Aye, I remember that ship. A good ship that met a grisly end. Nary a night go by that I don't think of it. Why do you ask?" he asked me cautiously. "I used to ride it on my way to Gogoon when I was but a lad" I answered. On my return to the Kingdoms I found nothing but a rotten dock, and no sign of the Hanseong anywhere." He looked at me. Not with confusion, not with contempt - more like he was looking through me, trying to piece together what he might say next. "Alright" he said after a moment. I took a sip of water, and listened attentively. ~ <b>Some time ago? I could say the day was like any other, but it wasn't. I'd been sailing me whole life and could tell something was amiss. I've had feelings like that before so naturally I thought nothing of it. A local merchant had tasked us with moving loads of goods to Gogoon; said it was to be delivered to the mansion. I cared not where or why it was going, only that I got paid for the trip and could offload at my earliest convenience. There was a particular chest among the cargo - it was an indigo-stained wood with large brass clips to every side. Naturally I inquired on it. "Be wary" that merchant has said. "The contents of the box are for none other the lord of the mansion. It must remain closed". Of course, I said. I shook their hand whilst the crew loaded up the chests. Looking back I certainly wished that we were able to have kept that promise. That night I awoke to shouting. The seas were calm, and I gazed out the side scuttle in me cabin. No boats, I had thought to myself. No sign of attacking ships nor sea beast. But did I smell smoke? Surely not, but there was no mistaking it. I flung me coat on and ran about the deck, saw me first mate, and demanded an update. She pointed to where the fire was coming from - the cargo hold! The crew were running around in a futile attempt to pull the water up from the sea to put the fire out. As I began to delegate, I heard some laughing. Who could bloody be laughing at this point? But as I walked towards the fire, I peered in. Inside were all the merchants cargo gone ablaze. Boxes, papers, supplies. Impossible, I said. We knew not to keep anything that could spark a flame in such an area, but that was neither here nor there. I could see where the laughing was coming from as well - a lowly gunner, standing in front of the mysterious chest and holding a fiery object. What was it?To this day I couldn't tell ye. It dazzled brightly, and hurt to gaze upon. He was ablaze too, though he showed no signs of pain or reluctance to remain within the fire. I shouted at him - alas, it was in vein. The moment after is hard to remember as it happened so fast. Beams of light spiraled from that point, searing the boat and the night sky with pillars of flame. The sails split from every fiber, and masts snapped into large wooden fragments that came down on us. Crewmates were crushed, some were flung into the ocean and never seen again. Other burned alive in the hysteria. The gunner? Well I imagine he vaporized at that moment as well. I was spared from the fire and survived alone, adrift on whatever planks I could manage to hold on to until I was rescued. While adrift I kept asking myself what happened, and why anyone would dare to have opened that chest - what was even IN the chest? Why had I been spared to live with such haunting memories? Even to this day I wonder.. ~ I finished listening. We were staring at each other - not on purpose, just found ourselves speechless after such a tale. The Captain broke away first, and turned back to the ocean. He raised a glass he had been sipping from up to the ocean. "To the Hanseong and me crew, wherever they may be". Quietly I raised my water-skin in reverence, and we both sipped. We sat in silence there for what seemed a very long time. Jahova | |