Promise to the Magic Heart – Chapter 35
A Mareian finds a thousand uses for a boat—and, on occasion, the same ship sees them all. – Old Mareian proverb
KURT
Kurt bit back bile as the ship heaved again. He thought river boats were bad, but this ocean-going was so much worse. How did sailors do this for months at a time? He gripped the railing as the Silk Trader rode another swell. Looking around, Kurt cursed at sailors walking with ease around him.
“Pleasant day for sailing,” Captain Marnel boomed as he walked up to Kurt. The tall, burly man was one of the hairiest humans Kurt ever laid eyes on. Thick black hair seemed to merge seamlessly with a beard that would have done a dwarf proud. Even his arms looked like they were covered with a black pelt.
“How can you say that?” Kurt grunted.
“Lisandra Bay is always so calm this time of year,” the captain said.
“This is calm?” Kurt managed to reply while keeping his guts from rebelling. Captain Marnel let out a hearty laugh. The man laughed like he wanted the God of Iron to hear.
“Don’t worry, Hero Volker, we’ll have you across the bay to whatever that is in no time,” Captain Marnel said, pointing at the rising wooden tower. The tower dominated the hills to the east of the city. Despite the tower’s crude construction, the Purists managed to get it up to fifty feet and were still building. It could be an observation tower, but the location didn’t make sense. It wouldn’t be able to see far enough into Lisandra. And why were they building four?
Sailing across Lisandra Bay was much faster than trying to sneak through the city. Smoke from fires hung over Lisandra like a miasma. The booms of cannons and muskets drifted out over the water. At least Rin was back behind the Aponte Wall. Kurt was so relieved when he felt his son’s pulses moving through the city. When Kurt looked back, the captain was gone and one of the junior officers was standing in his place. The boy looked little more than fifteen years old. From the easy gait, Kurt wondered if the boy was born on a ship.
“Hero Volker, the captain asks you join him on the quarterdeck,” the officer said. The boy looked little more than fifteen years old. From the easy gait, Kurt wondered if the boy was born on a ship.
“Where’s the quarterdeck?” Kurt asked. Sailors used too many strange terms. Kurt wondered if how they talked shouldn’t be considered another language. The look on the boy’s face clearly said he didn’t understand how anyone would not know where the quarterdeck was on a ship. He pointed at the raised section at the back of the ship. Kurt suppressed the temptation to pat the boy on the head before trudging along the deck and up the stairs.
The ship was maybe five hundred yards from the east end of Lisandra Bay. The captain was looking at something on the coast with his spyglass. Whatever it was, it made the captain lose his characteristic smile. That alone sent a chill down Kurt’s spine. Wordlessly, the captain handed his spyglass to Kurt and pointed at a pair of figures standing on the edge of the bay. Kurt brought the spyglass to his eye. Kurt recognized one as an Acolyte, but he couldn’t remember the man’s name. He was the one who was that traitorous Lord Kalen’s associate before disappearing. Amar Haltis. The other elf was dressed in the brown shirt and trousers of a Purist soldier.
“Why are they just standing like that?” the captain asked.
“I doubt it’s anything good,” Kurt answered. His combat instincts screamed something was wrong with the pair, but for the life of him, Kurt couldn’t figure out what.
“The reverend says the bones are worried,” the captain said, as if Kurt would know what that meant. The captain took the spyglass back from Kurt and looked at the Acolyte again. After a moment, he thrust the spyglass at Kurt.
“I don’t like the idea of putting you ashore near those two, Hero Volker,” Captain Marnell said. The captain shouted in rapid-fire Mareian to his crew. Kurt understood most of the words, but he had no idea how they fit together to form coherent orders. What did tacks have to do with sails? What did a heel have to do with ships? The crew clambered up the ship’s tall masts and ran about the deck. In a few minutes, the ship slowly turned away from the edge of the bay. The captain was aiming at a more southerly point to land Kurt.
“Sweet Protector!” the ship’s first mate swore. Kurt snatched another sailor’s spyglass to see what happened. The Purist soldier was laying in red-tinged sand. The Acolyte pointed a bloody dagger at the ship. A dull thump shook the ship. Hundreds of splinters rained down on Kurt and the crew. Heavier wood shards struck him like fists, but none penetrated his armor. From the screams, some of the ship’s crew weren’t as fortunate. Kurt stood up and surveyed the damage. Two of the heavy beams were on the deck. Sailors were being dragged from under the wreckage. Blood splattered the deck. Kurt looked up at the center mast and saw the highest sails missing.
Captain Marnell barked orders over the screams. Something about going to a star on board and running guns. The dark-haired first officer saluted with his uninjured arm and rushed into the bowels of the ship.
“What are you doing?” Kurt asked.
“You didn’t see that?” Captain Marnell asked, his bushy eyebrows scrunched in confusion.
“See what?” Kurt asked.
“Purple lightning from that tower! It hit the main mast” Captain Marnell answered. Kurt was sure he would remember seeing something like that. Then again, something tore the beams off the main mast.
“What are you going to do?”
“I can’t run from lightning,” Captain Marnell answered, and gave Kurt a predatory grin, “In that case, the only thing to do is fight!” Cheers rose up from the crew as the captain yelled the last part.
“Fight? At this range?” Kurt asked.
“I might have a dozen or so ten-kilo guns belowdecks,” the captain said, before quickly adding, “Strictly for defense against pirates. They range out a good thousand meters or so.” Kurt tried to do the math in his head but was quickly frustrated. Why did humans have to use such screwy measurements? Why couldn’t they use perfectly good Imperial measurements? Was a kilo the same as a pound? Kurt couldn’t remember.
The bowsprit exploded. Not as many splinters, but thick ropes lashed out in all directions. The captain gritted his teeth as more of his sailors screamed in pain or wouldn’t scream ever again. Kurt was deafened as the Silk Trader opened fire. Kurt gripped a railing as the ship shook from the thunderous roar. The entire side of the ship was encased in thick black-gray smoke. As the ship sailed away from the smoke cloud, Kurt raised the spyglass. There were several large, ragged holes in the wooden tower. Dozens of Purists lay around the tower unmoving, while more ran around with bloody wounds. If this was what a Republican merchant ship could do, what would one of their naval vessels do?
The last thing Kurt heard was a booming explosion before the deck heaved under him and threw him into the water. Kurt thrashed to get his armor off before it dragged him to the bottom of the bay. Stars exploded in his eyes as something heavy and hard hit him on the head. He looked over to see part of the mast floating next to him. There was blood smeared on the wood. Was it his? What happened to the ship? He rolled over to where he thought the ship should be. The dwarf glimpsed the Silk Trader burning furiously before the blackness consumed him.
Ward Manor Happenings – 07.16.26
Birthday Happenings – The Wife and I couldn’t celebrate our birthdays on our birthdays because of work and appointments. So, last weekend we planned to go out to this anime store up in St. Pete, then hit another one on the way back in Ellenton, and then maybe go out to dinner and ice cream. Yeah… plans kind of went sideways.
The first thing was The Wife and MIL had pedicure appointments that we forgot about. Okay, well, I can just go get my hair cut while they did that. I’ve been needing one for a while anyways. Then we get on the road to St. Pete. Travel time went from 40 minutes to 90 minutes. Um, what? Oh, there’s a really bad accident. If Pinellas traffic is going whompy, then I really don’t want to chance getting stuck in it up there. So, we’ll go to the shop in Ellenton. Yeah, we’re getting a little hungry. So, we stop in at the ramen shop first. It’s a good lunch place. The shop in Ellenton is more pop gothic (IYKYK) than anime shop, but it was interesting. By that time, we were getting a little tired. So, we ended up just getting ice cream at our favorite shop and headed home. Honestly, just being home is probably my favorite.
Lightsaber Happenings – During our last trip to Disney back in February, I picked up a Darth Vader lightsaber for my collection. My original idea for where to place it would have narrowed the entryway into part of the house where the home offices are at to just the other side of reasonable. So, The Wife suggested hanging it above the closet door where I mounted the two Luke Skywalker lightsabers. Finally got around to it. When we hung it, I didn’t consider the RGB color scheme, but it kind of turned out interesting.
Writing Happenings – Finally finished the fourth installment of the Irregulars Universe. It will be on an upcoming Monday Fiction. Now, I need to get back to the second volume of I Want To Serve. That one’s going to need a rewrite as my original plan kind of fell apart. Trying to figure out how much of the backstory and world building to put in without info dumping. And figure out how to write decent endings.
All of my series now have pages with illustrations. As well as categories to search. I’m still debating to do with my Avalon series. As well as the other half-dozen ideas in the hopper.
July Anime Recommendations
The first one is making a lot of waves on my various feeds, and there’s a good reason. It’s a sweet rom-com with some of the standard tropes, but it’s not the season-long slow burn.
Next up is another rom-com, but there’s a sci-fi twist. This is one where I would recommend the sub version because the dubbed voice actors get distracting. I will also say it gets a bit sappy sometimes, but it’s still an enjoyable watch.
This third recommendation is a rom-com with a mythical twist. It’s your typical harem rom-com for the most part. Nothing really spectacular except for the general premise.
Finally, we have a slice of life show, but with at a school for cute monster girls. What I like is watching some of the characters graduate and new ones come in. This gives it a more “realistic” feel – or at least more like how life occurs with people coming in and out.
Monday Links
First the serious.
From SCOTUSBLOG, an explainer on the last Supreme Court term. Overall, I’m satisfied with the term. Particularly the Second Amendment cases.
Speaking of the Supreme Court, they’re taking on the “assault weapons” bans. Here’s the thing. The Court does not rule on cases, they answer Questions. So, what is the Question they are answering for the lower courts with this?
ATF is proposing a rule that NFA trusts wouldn’t need to submit fingerprints and pictures from all of the trustees. Honestly, I wish silencers and SBRs would come off the NFA altogether. Until that happens, a trust is going to be the way I go if I decide to get an NFA item. It would keep The Wife from possible trouble. (h/t McThag)
Police near Vegas may have stopped a mass shooter. From the article: “After police obtained a warrant, a search of the vehicle turned up 22 firearms and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, Koren said. A second search warrant at Howlett’s Henderson home turned up 30 additional firearms, including automatic weapons, an M2 .50-caliber firearm, two Colt AR-style rifles fitted with M203 grenade launchers, seven suppressors and thousands of rounds of ammunition, according to Koren.” Kind of wondering where those weapons came from.
And now the not-so-serious…From The Brother
A site about shoelaces – including some unique ways to tie them. I have exactly one pair of shoes with laces. I try not to deal with them.
A post on Japanese mons. Yeah, this kind of satisfies my weeb side.
Mechanical Pencil. You just have to go there.
Finally, a video about the local amusement park.
Ward Manor Happenings – 07.09.26
Fourth of July Happenings – Yeah, we celebrated by not celebrating. The Wife’s recovery is going well, but it does leave her tired. And I didn’t want to do much over the long weekend. Yeah, we’re homebodies who prefer our own company. I half-expected the locals to tamp down their private shows because of the local burn-bans due to drought. Apparently not. Though, they didn’t seem to go on into the night like they have in the past.
Keyboard Happenings – So, when we relax, it’s usually MIL and The Wife crocheting while I play/work on my laptop. I kept my laptop on a large lap desk, but there were some drawbacks. The biggest was having to lift and move my, admittedly, heavy laptop. After a day of “resting,” my lower back let me know it didn’t like how often I had to do that. So, when we got this rolling, adjustable table for The Wife to work while sitting on the couch, I figured I could use it on the weekends for my laptop. And it works – sort of. The problem is that I essentially have to either stretch out my arms to use the keyboard, or sort of balance my laptop on the edge of the table. I essentially traded a sore back for sore shoulders. Then I remembered I had an old Logitech Pebble Bluetooth keyboard I used for my work laptop until I swapped it out for something lighter. Problem solved!
Duckling Happenings – Now that the first batch of ducklings are looking more like full grown ducks, we find another mama mallard bringing around another eight small ducklings. Haven’t seen any from the whistling ducks or the other birds, but it’s been a treat to see them this season. I really need to do some more Birds of Ward Manor posts.
Masterpiece Happenings – I was successfully targeted by some ads for the Masterpiece streaming service add-on for Prime. TBH, I tend to like British dramas. A recent question at work was “If you had only one show to watch for the rest of your life, what would it be?” Much to my teammates’ surprise, my answer was Downton Abbey. Anywhoo, one of the reasons I wanted to get the add-on was a new-ish series of the Count of Monte Cristo. The Wife was completely unaware of this story, and she has enjoyed it quite a bit.
Doctor Firing Happenings – I’m now looking for a new primary care doc. It’s one thing when I’m waiting a half-hour or so for the doc to come into the room. It’s a small practice, I can understand getting backed up depending on the patients’ needs. The frequency was enough that it was already pegging my “maybe-I-should-take-my-business-elsewhere” feelings. Then they left me in the waiting room for an hour and called everyone else – including people who had appointments after me. When I hit the hour mark and they called another patient, I got up and walked out. I fired my doctor. Fortunately, I don’t have any major chronic conditions that need constant monitoring, so I can take a month or so and do my research.
That Lasted A While Happenings – I’ve used these Zojirushi water boilers for years. Originally to make hot tea, then as I moved in with The Wife, we’ve found a myarid of uses. When I first got them, they recommended these little packets to do monthly cleaning. Where I live has very hard water – and I use the boiler a lot. So, I was cleaning the boilers monthly like clockwork. Except those packets were approximately a buck a piece. Then I read that it was essentially citric acid. Really? I bought a huge bag when I first moved down around eight years ago. It was maybe $25. This week I finally had to buy another bag. Lesson learned.
Bits and Bobs
Novel Covers – I’ve been playing with AI image generation to put “Book Covers” on the pages for my various fiction properties. I kinda consider those as “placeholders” until I get actual ones. Still, it’s something fun to have. For example, this was one I generated for the Irregulars universe.
Meme Generation – A couple of weeks ago, I managed to snap this picture of some whistling ducks in the backyard.
Then an idea struck me and I went to the meme generator.
Algorithm Surprises – Sometimes YouTube’s algorithms deliver interesting little finds. Hence…
Stupid Onion Ninjas – There are a few songs that will bring on tears just from me listening to them – but it has to be in certain situations. Amazing Grace played on bagpipes will do it, mostly because of the solemnity where it is usually played. Over the last few years, it’s been John Denver’s “Country Roads,” particularly when crowds chant it. There’s something about that song’s gentle powerfulness. Anywhoo, case in point.