Despite having just fallen from the sky, they were celebrating.
The canoe, while quite large for a boat of its general stature, was far too small to well contain all of its occupants. Each of its passengers were all stuffed close together along the seats and sides, but they hardly were thinking about that. They were thinking about victory.
And that sense was easily present on their faces. They felt that joy and relief down into the depths of their souls. Fear held their hearts still, but its grip was loosening minute by minute as the port lights grew closer, shining like pure gold across the night-black waves. The canoe rocked its way towards those lights, on its own time.
The grizzled looking, war-scarred woman stood over everyone, placing a hand on her comrade's shoulder to not fall over the side. "A toast, everyone!" She shouted into the night air, smiling wide. She held up her hand holding an imaginary glass, "A toast to Aegeus, and his broken fucking sword!" And thrust the glass into the air, to a cheer from the folks around her. The whole crowd cheered and laughed warmly as they looked to the boy in question, to warmly shake his shoulders and lay congratulations on to him.
Aegeus, or Aggy as most people called him, was content to receive all the praise from the knights who all looked at him with a twinkle in their eyes. He had a genuine mop of dark brown hair and a genuine face just on the cusp of adulthood, with some fading acne marks still marking his cheeks. Particularly bright green eyes looked towards each soldier around him with each word of praise. As he acknowledged them one by one, he glanced at the girl next to him, who looked unbothered by all the commotion but all the same unsure if she was looking at anything at all. The girl, named Calliope, had Asian features and straight black hair that covered most of her face from Aggy's perspective, looked over to him. They had, unmistakably, the same eyes. The two regarded each other quite seriously for a moment, the silent and brief exchange replaced a conversation that might have gone like this:
"You alright, Callie?"
"Oh, great. Just overwhelmed."
"By the knights?"
"They sure aren't celebrating your intelligence."
"Harsh."
"Just show them your sword or something. Hold it away from me, please."
Aggy freed his arm from the tangle of folks and drew what was left of his sword, and each figure aboard the boat shrunk in its strangeness. The hilt and guard shone in the approaching port lights, the gold highlighting the bronze in quite a magical way.
The blade, less so. To a length of about four inches from the guard it was indistinguishable from an average blade. What was left of the rest of the blade was corroded, scorched, weakened with frost growing in the cracks. Even reduced to such a diminished form, the weapon's power was clear in the chill it left in the air, how it seemed to be eating even the light from the port into itself. Its ominous presence was felt through all of the occupants of the boat. Calliope shivered a bit as he brought the blade into view.
"To the real hero, all." He lifted the sword above his head, a tight grip held it horizontally above his head in salute. "The Banisher Blade." The boat's raucous joy faded a bit at the presence of the blade, yet all in the boat gave the salute back in respect. Aggy was gladdened to notice that many of the knights were not looking at him anymore, their eyes instead fell upon the blade. Fear squeezed the hearts of the company here, but they took shelter in the proximity of each other, the safety of the sea, and the warm lights at their backs. They stood firm, and for that, Aggy felt proud.
Aegeus glanced to the front of the boat, and noticed the one figure who was not looking at him or the blade. He faced the sea, staring. Unlike most of the people on the boat, he was not wearing armor. All he had were clothes of red cloth, rich and beautiful in the light, which was the second most interesting thing about him. The massive, feathery wings on his back took the number one spot for that. His hair was blond just like his feathers, long and graceful in the way they fell down his back. His profile outlined a soft yet somehow sharp face, young but also aged, and glowing brightly yet looking so solemn.
Aggy thought he was, in a word, beautiful.
He placed the Banisher Blade back in its scabbard, and mumbled something to the crew to get them back to their carousing. Carefully stepping across the boat over many pairs of legs, he approached the radiant figure. Somehow, it was quieter on this side of the boat.
Aggy extended a hand to his shoulder, bare skin shivering at the touch. The face looked up at him, surprised.
"For what it's worth, Ganymede, I forgive you." He said quietly, gesturing with his eyebrows. Ganymede looked back out to the sea.
"What does one do with forgiveness, Aegeus?" His voice floated to meet Aggy's ears like a gentle violin. "Carry it with you? curl it up into a ball and throw it away once you're not looking?"
"Flatten it into a stone and see how many times it skips." Aggy remarked. Silence fell between them for a moment, his attempt at a lightening remark falling noticeably flat.
"I'm sorry for lying." Ganymede said. "I've never done it before." At this, Aggy crouched down to Ganymede's level. Ganymede's eyes were not like his, but they met each other's gaze with a soft familiarity.
"Mortality's tough, huh?" Aggy asked. Ganymede nodded like a dog shaking out its fur. "Like I said, I forgive you, Gans. "
"She'll get over it." Aggy said, looking over at Callie, who was deep in a conversation with some knights, holding a drawing of an ox and gesturing emphatically. "I should probably get back to the company. We'll all sit down over a meal and talk it out tomorrow, okay?"
"Can we have those ribs again?" Ganymede asked. Aggy thought for a minute on what to say.
"We'll get something just as good, promise." He said, and walked back to his seat. For now, his armor was quiet, and the Banisher Blade weighed much less in its scabbard. As he met eyes with Calliope once more, he thought back to what the Oracle told them.
He couldn't possibly kill Ganymede, that didn't seem right. I wouldn't do that, he thought to himself. I won't.
Right?
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hello everyone my dear friend reference and i have made a plural-centered server that’s open to pretty much everyone -w- my only request is that you don’t harass anyone and that you don’t bring s/sc/urse into it :)
https://discord.gg/827j8Dcc
Check out the plural basket community on Discord - hang out with 8 other members and enjoy free voice and text chat.
